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PRELUDE
by Chad Imbroglio


Continued from PULSE #7 and LEGACY #5. Read them if you want to get hip on what's going on here, 'cause I'm not gonna re-write them for you.


"I don't know, Dan." Miranda was looking into the garage area, watching and scanning the three guests that had just arrived. "The kid with the cybernetic attachments is OK, but the big guy and the little guy aren't even Omegas. Are you sure it such a good idea to bring them here? We can't guarantee their safety."

Dan was nervous himself. Now that they were actually in the Colony, he was beginning to have second thoughts about inviting Covenant and his friends in. He tried to think optimistically, though. "Well, Allen Covenant has special knowledge of magic that we might really need. Apparently something big is going down that could affect all of us, so he's important. Anyway, he seems to have a way of handling people. He should be fine."

"But the big guy? He doesn't have anything."

Dan thought hard. He didn't have time to pamper to a visiting feeb. "Issac is an ex-wrestler, so he can handle himself. Allen says he needs him for a ritual too."

"If that's what you think, Dan. Either way, I don't think we can hide them in the garage for much longer. When's Jimmy going to get here?"

"I am here!" Jimmy had just rounded the corner for his timely appearance. "Mirry, girl, I think you're in need of new eyes!"

"I think they're fine," Danny said. "What took you? The big guy in there is getting hungry."

"Hey, just a little research." Jimmy pulled out a sheet of printer paper as evidence. "Ever since thet last info raid, I've been wet dreamin' about 'dis Project Threlkain. I was 'fraid I'd 'ave to build it m'self."

"Allright then," said Dan. He led Mirry and Jimmy into the garage where Allen, Issac, and Threll were waiting by their station wagon.

"Ah!" exclaimed Allen as they approached, "I see it's time for Meet the Press! After a station delay, of course."

"I'm sorry about that, Allen," said Dan. "I'd like you to meet Miranda and Jimmy. Miranda, Jimmy, this is Allen Covenant, Issac Warner and Threll."

Issac and Allen shook with Miranda and Jimmy while Threll stood back a bit. "Hey, mon, don't you shake hands?" Jimmy said to him.

Threll just smiled a bit and held out his right hand. It was caked with blood and had a bullet hole right through the palm. "Sure. Be my guest."

Jimmy looked at the mangled hunk of meat with a bit of disgust. "Hey, sorry..."

Miranda saw the hand and started with surprise. "My God! You've been going around like that?!"

"You should see under the trenchcoat," Threll said, happy about how much attention his wounds were getting.

"Now that we've got our physical disabilities out in the open, I think we've each got our own agendas to take care of. Danny, I believe we have a little sleep session due for you."

"So soon?" Danny tried to hide his gladness. He really didn't want to have to take them on a tour first.

"Yeah, I've got some serious stuff to get done," Allen replied. "We don't have much time."

"Fine by me," Danny said. "We'll head back to my sleeping quarters. Mirry, you take Threll to the Sick Room and check him out. Jimmy, show Issac around a bit and then join Mirry in the Sick Room. Got it?"

"Yesurething!" Jimmy and Miranda said together.

As the group began to break up, Allen said to Danny, "You're good at that, aren't you?"


Allen and Danny were walking down the corridor towards Danny's room. As they neared it, Danny stopped just outside and faced Allen.

"You know," he said, "you and your friend Issac may experience a little discrimination due to your lack of powers."

"Lack of powers!?" Allen asked incredulously. "I've got plenty of powers! Watch."

With that, Allen reached behind Danny's ear and pulled out a Swedish fish. He then promptly popped in into his mouth. Danny stared at Allen in amazement, not as much by the trick itself but by the fact that he had actually done it.

Seeing Danny's look, Allen remarked, "Hey, they're much tastier than silver dollars. And cheaper."

Danny just shook his head. "Allen, parlor tricks just won't hack it around here."

"Fine," Allen said huffily. "If you want to see the big stuff..."

Allen mumbled something incomprehensible for several seconds and then reached behind Danny's ear again. Danny suddenly felt a tingling sensation right below his waist. Allen removed his hand from Danny's ear and in it was Danny's underwear. "Satisfied?" Allen asked with a grin.

Danny snatched his briefs from Allen, trying to keep his dignity. He was beginning to learn that wasn't easy around his new guest. "C'mon," he said. "Let's get going on this."

As they walked into Danny's room, Allen asked him, "Have you ever been hypnotized before?"

"No," said Danny.

"OK. Lay down on the bed. You need to be as comfortable as possible. Wanna teddy bear?"

"Cut the cracks," said Danny. "Get out your little pocket watch and work your magic."

Allen realized he had reached Danny's limit. "OK, no more cracks. They'll only be detrimental from here on out anyway. And I don't use a watch. I don't use any props, in fact. Just relax and listen to my voice."

Danny laid back in the bed and Allen pulled up a chair next to him. He began to speak in a soft tone. "Now relax. Clear your mind of everything. Ignore all other sensations. There is nothing but my voice."

This was beginning to sound a little corny to Dan, but he complied. He did his best to relax, even though he wasn't very good at it.

"Relaxed? Good. Now picture in your mind a staircase. It can any staircase...from your past or present or even your imagination. Only this staircase has fifty steps. These steps are numbered, from fifty to one starting at the top."

Danny pictured the staircase from his old house, the one he and Eric used to play on as children. Somehow, the idea of it having fifty steps wasn't stretching reality too much.

"Now picture yourself at the top of the staircase. As I count from fifty to one, picture yourself descending down that staircase, step by step. When you reach the bottom, you will be in a light state of hypnosis. Fifty.............forty nine..............forty eight......"

It went on until one and Danny pictured the entire thing. When he hit the bottom, he didn't feel any different. Obviously it wasn't working. He didn't feel hypnotized. But still, he didn't say anything...

Allen went on and took Danny through imaginary fields of soothing and to the waters of serenity. On the river, Danny floated to the island of peace. "You are now in a deep state of hypnosis," Allen said. He waited several seconds. "Danny, can you hear me?"

"Yes....." Danny said groggily. "I...don't..think....it's working........I feel...awake....."

Allen just smiled. "Danny, I want you to remember a word. The word is 'sympathy.'" He waited several seconds again. "Danny, what is the word?"

"....symp..ath...y...."

"Good. Now, I want you to remember to do something else. I want you to reach out with your mind. Let it wander and end where it will."

Danny complied. His mind reached out. He was in a dark cave. The stench of rotting flesh surrounded him.

"Stop."

The vision stopped.

"Danny, do you remember what that felt like?"

"...yes..."

"Do you know how you feel now?"

"...yes..."

"Can you tell the difference?"

"...yes..."

"Good. From now on out, when you hear or say the word 'sympathy', you will remember how you feel now and you will stay that way. You will not feel the other way. Do you understand?"

"...yes...sympathy..."

"Now wake up!" Allen clapped his hands. Danny's eyes popped open and he sat up with a start.

"That was it?" he asked. "I remember everything! How could it have worked?"

"What was the word you have to remember?"

"What word?"

Allen smiled and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote the word "SYMPATHY" on it and taped it to the wall facing Danny. He pointed to the sign and said, "Read this three times before bed and call me in the morning. Until then, good-night sweet prince."

Allen turned out the lights as he left the room. Danny, somewhat confused, laid back in bed. "Sympathy...sympathy.......sympath-"

Danny slept.


"Y'know, you look really familiar," Jimmy said as he led Issac to the Common Room #2. "Were you on TV or somethin'?"

Issac smiled. He had noticed that most of the people he passed looked under twenty. Just the right age to know who he was. Maybe this Colony wouldn't be so bad after all. "Yeah. I used to be a pro wrestler. Have you ever hear of Stingray?"

Jimmy stopped in his tracks and looked unbelievingly at Issac. "YOU are Stingray?"

"Ex-champ himself."

Jimmy began walking again, with a quicker, more excited pace. "WOW! All the kids are gonna go wack when they hear about this. Everyone here's just the right age to remember you, man. You're gonna be a star!"

They entered a large cafeteria-like room. There were televisions, radios, and even a jukebox. All were makeshift, but the whole area had the look of a high tech recreation center. There were various Colonists here, mostly between the ages of 13-18. They were grouped all about center around tables, TV, and other objects of social interest.

Jimmy walked in the doorway and held as much of Issac's arm as he could fit his arm around. "All of ye peoples!" he called out. "I'd like to introduce someone verrry special, a new guest here. His name's Issac Warner, but you IDWF fanboys out there probably know him by a different name." Jimmy looked about, pausing for effect. "STINGRAY!"

A murmur of electricity shot through the room as the people in the know explained to the others who he was. Jimmy looked over to Issac and smiled, "Knock 'em dead, man. I'll be seein' you later." With that he headed off for the Sick Room.

A rush of mostly 13 and 14 year olds came his direction and Issac got his autograph signing muscles ready. When they hit him, it was business as usual with papers and pens outreached and Issac writing as fast as he could, putting on his best smile.

As the autograph rush subsided, the usual question and answer session began. Issac walked over to a nearby table and took a chair. It began with the normal questions like, "Where are you really from?" and "How do you do the Stingray X-Lock?", but then things began to get hairy.

"What do you do?"

Stingray smiled and misinterpreted the question. "I mostly do ads for commercials and a little bit of acting now."

The little boy, about ten maybe, shook his head and said, "No, I mean what's your Omega? What can you do? I bet you're real strong! Like Jarod was!"

Issac began to feel the nervousness creep up on him. He had forgotten that this wasn't the average group of little kids. "Uh, well, I'm not an Omega. I'm just a wrestler. But I'm still real strong."

"You're not an Omega?!" Waves of shock spread through his new fan club. "You're Stingray! You're too cool to be a feeb!"

"Feeb?" Issac's feeling of nervousness had changed to that of outright fear.

He could here various mumbles throughout the crowd. "Man, he's a feeb." "He sucks..." "He ain't nuttin'..." "I used to like him..."

Issac tried to use what little star power he had left to influence the young Omegas. "Just because a person doesn't have special powers doesn't make them feeble! Billions of people get by every day perfectly fine without any Omega abilities."

Issac suddenly felt a jolt of pain shoot through him, nearly shorting his entire body out. He looked up into the face of a freckled twelve year old.

"You look pretty feeble to me, man."

His one time fans then began administering a round of kicks, punches, and minor burns and shocks to Issac who lay on the ground, helpless. He felt the jolt of electricity shoot through him again.

"AAARRRRGGGHHH!!!" A few more seconds of this and the safe haven Allen had brought him to would become his deathbed.

"GET OFF OF HIM!" someone yelled. Some of the children backed off. "Get off or I'll sick Conflagration on you!"

Various protests came from the children, but they all backed off. Issac just laid on the ground and moaned. In his blurred vision, he could see a young, red haired man leaning over him. With a sad smile he said, "Welcome to the Colony, Stingray."


"OH MY GOD!" Miranda backed away from the horror she saw on the examining table.

Threll had taken off his robe and shirt and she saw the full extent of damage done to him. Most of the flesh that hadn't been replaced by metal on him had been blown away. There was nothing but patches of meat hanging from his metallic organs.

Miranda was a licensed physician. She had carved up the cadavers and everything. She had even patched together various members of the Colony. She had never seen anything like this.

Threll complied. "I told you it wasn't pretty."

"How on earth did you survive?" Miranda asked.

Threll smiled. For some reason, he had found that easier to do now that he realized exactly how inhuman he actually was. "The way Allen explained it, I don't even need flesh to live anymore. The Threlkain Project's system is so integrated that it basically replaces all my necessary organs with mechanical equivalents. The blood and guts are just there for show. In fact, they're not even real blood and guts. Take a closer look."

Miranda took a good look at the chunks of reddish substance clinging to Threll's insides. He was right, it wasn't real flesh. It resembled something more like Playdough, except it was soft and squishy. "That's amazing..." she murmured.

"So I don't really need any doctoring," said Threll. "I just need either more of this stuff or something to cover it all up."

"That be where I save the day!" announced Jimmy as he entered the Sick room.

"Hey!" Shouted Threll gleefully, "you're Jimmy, the tech guy! Danny said that you'd get me all fixed up."

"That's me," said Jimmy. "First thing, we clean all this watermelon off of you. I've been dreaming about getting my hands on the likes of you, man."

"What've you got planned?"

Jimmy smiled and walked up to Threll. He brushed aside the synthetic flesh as if it were nothing and took a hard look at Threll's cybernetic taps. "Well, right now you be Threll 1.0. When I'm done, you'll be Threll 2.0. Tell me, do ya' like heavy metal?"


He was big, had a long mane of black hair, and looked bad as all hell, just like he did on the news. Allen walked up to him and said, "Ya' know, Eric, some people don't look as impressive in real life as they do on TV. You are one definite exception. You're just a badass all over."

Eric turned around and saw a short guy in a tan Sears windbreaker with dark hair. He had never seen this guy before and didn't know who he was. Perfect time to fine tune test some of his new found powers.

Allen watched as Eric's face twisted with consternation and confusion. A moment of silence passed when Eric asked, "Uh, who are you?"

"Sorry to be so rude, but freaking out powerful telepaths has become a hobby of mine lately," said Allen. "My name's Allen Covenant, I'm a friend and guest of your brother's. I'm here to chew bubble gum and summon ancient entities... and I'm all out of bubble gum."

Eric couldn't believe his brother had actually invited this weirdo into the Colony. "Uh, yeah. I'm Eric, but I guess you already know that. Would you mind explaining why I can't read you?"

Allen was more that happy to show his talents off. "Sure! You see, you can read my mind just fine. The only problem is that you can't find it."

A number of possible jibes and insults popped into Eric's mind and he began to smile as he considered repeating select ones.

"I'm a magician, see," said Allen. "And I've got some important work to do. Did you pick up the mental bomb from that Shiva guy?"

"Yeah," Eric said, remembering now. He had almost forgotten it. "That was really weird." He remembered a bit more. "Hey! Didn't he say he was going to kill you first?"

"Yeah, this is kind personal," replied Allen, "but it'll probably effect every person on this planet. That would be bad. I could use your help, though."

Eric was kind of leary about this. This Covenant person seemed like the kind who could get him into a lot of trouble. "What kind of help would that be?" he asked.

"I understand that you can fly..."


"Yaaahooooooooo!"

Eric was actually having a little fun telekinetically swinging Allen around in the air while flying to where ever it was Allen was taking them. People in the Colony could get so serious at times, it was nice to see a guy who could enjoy himself, even in the worst of situations.

Allen was now stretched out, his hands in front of his head like he was flying of his own volition. "Daaa-dadada-daaaa...daa daa daa!" He began singing the movie theme from the Overman movies.

Another thing Eric liked was that Allen knew to trust him right away. As soon as they had left the base, Allen had taught Eric how to get past mind reading ward. It was a simple incantation and was working even now.

Eric was reading Allen's mind in order to know where Allen wanted to go, so it gave Allen the full illusion that he was flying of his own power. He could understand the scientist/magician's excitement. He had felt it himself when he first began to fly.

"That's the place down there!" Allen shouted. He and Eric both made a nose dive for the back yard of an old condemned building.

When they set down, Allen turned to Eric and said, "You know, I'd could say something really stupid about how lucky you are to have all those powers, but I won't. Instead I'll just thank you for giving a normal Joe like myself the chance to experience the power without the price. Now, where the hell is that mound?"

Allen began wandering around the back left corner of the yard. Eric took the chance to look over the house they were behind. It was a two story house that was dirty yellow on the top half and dark brown on the bottom. It looked terrible. The doors and windows were all boarded up and cobwebs abounded. He noticed a dirty doormat underneath the back door. It had the name "Cheng" on it.

"Found it!" Allen shouted from the corner of the yard. He was standing over a smallish mound of dirt near a power transformer. "C'mon over here, Eric. You get to see a one man seance!"

Eric began to approach Allen, who had begun chanting something over the patch of dirt. He then felt a presence enter his mind.

{Greetings, youthling.}

Eric wasn't sure how to react to this. {{Hello.}} he thought back.

{Do not be afraid, young prince. I am Free Spirit, and I simply wished to speak with you before the Binder called me.}

{{I'm afraid I don't understand.}}

{You will once the Binder has completed his summons. For now, simply take this advice from one who has Seen: Follow the goodness of your heart, always, no matter the darkness. It will always be there for you, even when you doubt in yourself.}

{{Uh, thanks.}} Eric still wasn't sure what it meant.

A the dirt at Allen's feet began to swirl. From the earth rose a glowing sphere of white light. It slowly grew outwards and took the form of an old Indian, a shaman by the looks of his furs and sticks. It began to speak in a soft, deep voice that seemed to echo forever.

"Binder of Pacts, it has been a long time."

Allen, who had his arms outstretched, said back in a solemn voice, "Greetings, Free Spirit. I come in search of a boon of knowledge."

If he had any doubts before, Eric was now sure that Allen wasn't a fake. A real American Indian spirit summoned right here!

"You need ask no boons, Binder, for I still owe you for the spirit which you gave to me," the apparition said. "I strengthened me greatly."

"Please," said Allen, "do not place the weight of his spirit upon my head, for it hurts me much. What I did was wrong. A human life is a human life."

"His life was evil. He would have caused you and the one you love harm. It was good you took action. He owed me much, as it was. Consider my collecting of his spirit as the taking of what was rightfully mine."

"Think as you will, Free Spirit, but still do not wish to take payment for his spirit."

The spirit seemed to smile. "Very well then, Binder. I will still grant you knowledge freely, though. Of the two summoners, you were the one with the good heart. It shall be a gift."

Eric didn't understand why Allen seemed so determined about getting something free. It must be a guilt thing.

"Here is my question," said Allen. "You are a traveler of the spirit world and know and interact with the gods. Recently, my friend Issac Warner called upon the god Nergal. All the proper binding were in place, yet Nergal took him still. How could he do this?"

The spirit laughed. "Oh, Binder of Pacts, I did not expect you to come upon this so soon! What Nergal has learned is the Secret!"

A look of confusion covered Allen's face, "The Secret?"

"Yes, Binder. His master Anubis taught him his true nature. The true nature of HALF the gods. This is the secret. I suppose you wish to take complete control of Nergal so that you can battle Shiva?"

Allen seemed disapointed. "Yes, Free Spirit. How may I control Nergal?"

"I shall place the knowledge within your mind," Free Spirit said. "With it is a small piece of the puzzle that will unlock the Secret."

Allen stood motionless for several seconds. His face twisted with pain as a mental information exchange took place. "Thank you, Free Spirit."

"A pleasure, Binder! Visit me more often..." With that, the ghost sank back into the ground.

Eric walked over to Allen, worried about his condition after what had happened. "Are you OK?"

Allen looked at Eric, a mad twinkle in his eye. "C'mon Eric," he said. "We've got to get back to the Colony, quick!" He paused for a second. "Well, maybe we can buzz Wrigly Field first..."


Danny was dreaming. He stood on an open plain. Strewn all about were bodies, mostly dead. It hadn't worked. Danny was still walking into other person's nightmares in his sleep.

As he looked about, he saw someone moving, a woman. He walked towards her and noticed who the bodies belonged to. They were the corpses of his fellow Colonists.

When he reached the woman, he recognized her instantly. It was Miranda, and she was bent over the body of someone, trying to save their lives. Danny had walked into one of Mirry's nightmares!

Danny was now standing besides Miranda and he could see who she it was working on. It was Eric, and he was badly injured.

Danny quickly knelt next to him and looked over to Miranda. "Is he going to be all right?"

Miranda looked up at Danny, an expression of anger twisting her face. "No! Of course he's not going to be all right! He's not human! I can't do a thing for him. As if you really give a damn!"

"What?!" Danny couldn't believe she would actually say this to him. Was this her inner feelings coming out in her dream?

"Don't act stupid!" She shouted. "It's all because of your stupid idea that everyone died. You're dream, you're command. We were all so happy to have a place to live and belong, but you had to make us an army! You bastard!"

Eric, his breaths short and shallow, turned his head to Danny. "Danny...don't cry for ... me. I'm not...you're both..er any....." Eric's head fell back and his breathing stopped. His skin then began to crinkle up, turning brown and short hairs began growing from his arm. Pincers formed around his mouth and his skin became chitenous. What Danny had once considered a brother was now some alien...thing.

"No...no..." Danny wasn't sure what to do or say.

"It's all you're fault!" Miranda began screaming. "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! IT'S --"

With a flash, Miranda was hit by a bolt of energy and flew backwards. She hit the ground ten feet away and stopped moving. Danny could only watch, his mouth open with a scream that wouldn't come.

"You shouldn't have fought me," a familiar voice came from behind Danny. "I gave you the chance to join me, but you refused. Now you're friends are dead."

Danny slowly turned around and saw Jarvin Tazakles there, as large as a mountain. All about his feet were the Aryan Omegas who had been duped into his service. His eyes were glowing red with power.

"Poor fool," he continued. "You could have been great. You could have been a master. But instead, you are nothing. You are nothing, and as great a murderer as I."

"NO!" shouted Danny, upon his knees and arms out stretched. "NO! I did what I had to! I had to fight you!"

"Did you have to shed their blood?" Tazakles gestured all about the plain. "This is my world, Danny Anderson, and I find you guilty. Guilty of the murder of all those who loved you and looked up to you. The sentence is eternal life."

"This can't be happening," Danny began to cry. "This can't be happening! It can't.. it can't..."

The plains faded out, and Danny returned to the waking world. He was clutching his pillow and crying into it, still repeating, "It can't...please God no, it's not true... it's not true..."

Nightmares are terrible, especially when they're your own.


Issac was resting his head on a table. He was surrounded by a group of sad looking people, mostly children. The red haired man who had rescued him was sitting across from him, watching him with a grim smile.

Issac managed to sit himself upright. He looked over at his savior and said, "Thanks for saving my life there. I've had fans go sour on me before, but none of them were ever able to kick my butt."

The young man reached across the table to shake hands and said, "No problem, it my job here. My name's Tom Galbraith."

"Pleased to meet you," said Issac. "So its your job to save feebs from getting the shit kicked out of them?"

"Actually, yes," said Tom. "You see, my wife was an Omega. We lived here for a while until she was kidnapped by Dynamax. After she was gone, I didn't seem to have a purpose here anymore. That's when I really noticed how badly the non-Omegas were treated here."

"You mean there are more non-Omegas here?" Issac hadn't expected this.

"Yes. Many of the Omegas who come to the Colony are runaways. Most of them have siblings who they care for and take with them, hoping they too will become Omegas. Unfortunately, having an Omega relative doesn't guarantee becoming an Omega yourself. That's why so many of the "feebs" here are young children. The older ones are mostly SO's and spouses."

Issac considered this for a moment. "Do they all get treated like I just did?" he asked.

"They would if there weren't people to look out for them," said Tom. "My wife was a good friend of the Omega known as Conflagation, a major power house here. In her memory, he helps to keep us from getting the crap beat out of us twenty four hours a day. It's not like we're treated nice or anything, but it could definitely be worse."

"That's terrible!" Issac stated. "How could Danny Anderson stand for this? He seems like such a nice person. Does he know?"

"He knows, allright," Tom replied, "but he's too obsessed with his personal war with Dynamax to really do anything about it."

Issac couldn't believe what he was hearing. He stood up and began to walk away.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" shouted Tom.

"To have a little talk with your esteemed leader."


Threll leapt from the top of the wall and flew through the air. He completely passed over the first set of bars and headed for the second, even though he was going to come up short.

He aimed his left mechanical arm at the bar ahead of him and extended it outwards. His claw mechinism grasped hold of the bar and he retracted his arm, pulling him in and up away from the ground.

He continued to swing up and flew straight into the air, doing a double flip. At the apex of his flight, he faced the target range and fired two blasts from his left omni-arm and one from his forehead blaster, turning the iron targets to shredded metal.

As he was about to hit the ground and land in the mud pit, he concentrated on moving himself and a TK beam emitted from his forehead and expanded beneath his feet. His decent stopped right above the pit and he gently floated across, depositing himself at the end of the course.

"Oh, MAN! You're really getting that hang of your setup!" shouted Jimmy with joy. "The use of the TK beam was bee-ute-ee-full!"

Threll stood facing Jimmy, his arms outstretched in a victorious manner. They had opted to remove all of the synthetic flesh and replace it with a special allow Jimmy had created that was light but VERY durable. Using his enhanced TK beam, Threll had shaped the metal shell into the replica of a human body and Jimmy painted the whole thing in flesh tones. Threll was almost all machine now, save for the mind and encapsuled systems. He at least resembled human at first glance though.

"Jimmy," Threll said, "you've given me a new lease on life. I'll learning new things about what I can do for years now."

"Yeah, mon," said Jimmy. "You're as awesome a fightn' machine as there is humanly possible!"

Threll's grin subsided a bit, but only briefly. "You've only got one thing wrong, Jimmy. I'm not humanly possible. I'm a machine now."


Danny walked into the control room. Warren was there, as usual, only he was slumped in a chair and holding his nose. Blood was leaking from between his fingers.

Towering over him was the formidable frame of Issac. He looked battered, as if he had been ganged up on by a group of thugs. The look of rage on his face gave even a powerful Omega like Danny the chills. It began to dawn on Danny what it all meant. After the nightmare last night, he didn't need to start the day like this.

Warren managed to say in a nasal voice, "I twied to shtop 'm bt' 'ee smesh'd 'm n'se!"

Danny tried to take control before Issac got to the point he knew was coming. "What the HELL do you think you're doing, barging in here and breaking my security officer's nose?"

A calm fire was in Issac's eyes. "I'm here to talk about your selective oversights, Danny." He took a step forward. "Do you see what has been done to me?"

Danny simply nodded.

"This was done by group of little kids. Do you know why they did it? I bet you do, don't you?"

Danny looked Issac straight in the eyes. He couldn't afford to bend.

"From what I understand of the Colony's purpose, you want a better world for both Omegas and 'feebs.' Don't mind if I call myself a 'feeb', do you? It might seem kind of self insultory, calling myself a 'feeb.'"

This was exactly what Danny had hoped wouldn't happen. From the building fury he saw in Issac, he realized that it had happened to the wrong person also.

"Well, what I don't understand is how you intend to deal with the rest of the 'feeb' world when you can't even treat your own 'feebs' with respect and dignity!" Issac was now beginning to shout. "Don't you know how wrong it is?"

Danny tried to give a strong reply, but his voice failed him and the words squeaked out. "You're blowing the whole situation out of proportion. We're under a lot of stress here and it goes both -"

"Will you do something about it?"

Danny didn't reply.

"WILL YOU DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?!"

Danny nodded his head yes.

"Good!" Issac turned around swiftly and strode out the door. Warren simply stared at his leader who had just been lectured to like a 17 year old high school student.

Issac paused just outside the doorway. He knew he was too hard on Danny. He was a good kid...no... a good man and didn't deserve that kind of treatment. Issac was just taking his accumulated frustrations out on someone smaller than himself. He knew that he shoud turn right around and apologize.

"Jesus, I'm a bastard," he muttered to himself as he continued down the hallway, past Allen who was approaching the Control Room.

Just as Danny had sat down to consider what had just happened, he heard someone from outside his door say, "Hi, Issac! Jesus you look like shit.........Have a nice day yourself, geez!"

Allen swept into the room. He was nearly shuddering with excitement. "Danny," he said, "we need to call a gathering of all your telepaths."

Danny didn't really want to deal with this now. He asked, "Why?" in an exhasperated voice.

"We're going to brain wash a god," Allen said excitedly. "Let's see, I'll also need some paint for the large pentagram, a room to hold the ritual in, some goat skulls, some red candles..."

Danny set his head down into his hands and moaned.


Next Issue:
RIG VEDA begins in PULSE #8!
Follow the action in all of your favorite OMEGA™ titles!
Obey my COMMANDS! You are my SLAVES!
Go FALCONS! Beat NAVY!
Really... Next Issue, RIG VEDA begins to wind up and Allen prepares for a new quest for knowledge.

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