//|| //^^\\ || || .|. COHERENT COMICS UNINCORPORATED PRESENTS // || \\ || || --X--------------------------------------------- //======================= '|` ACADEMY OF SUPER-HEROES #50 // || \\ || || World on a String // || \\__// || || Copyright 2004 by Dave Van Domelen Tony Pi, Mike Escutia and Joe Singleton ___________________________________________________________________________ [cover looks like a giant snakepit seen from above, but there are no heads or tails, just endless, undulating body. Tiny against the massive serpentine form are members of ASH, EUROPA, The Righteous Flame, STRAFE, the NAC Marshals, and others.] SPECIAL! Full-Color Cover by Joe Singleton! The first file is about 250K, the second is a little smaller, 200K. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/ASH/ash50-1024.jpg http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/ASH/ash50-900.jpg ACADEMY OF SUPER-HEROES ROLL CALL CODENAME REAL NAME POWERS STATUS -------- --------- ------ ------ Solar Max Jonathan Zachary Spacetime Control ACTIVE "JakZak" Taylor Comet Sarah Grant-Taylor Superspeed, Ice Body ACTIVE Green Knight Salvatore Napier Strength, Regeneration ACTIVE Contact Aaron Zander Psi, Mind-over-Body ACTIVE Scorch Scott Handleman Pyrokinetic ACTIVE Beacon George Sylvester Living Light ACTIVE Essay Sara Ana Rodriguez Gadgeteer ACTIVE Peregryn Howard Henderson Jr. Elemental Mage ACTIVE Lightfoot Tom Dodson Velocity Control ACTIVE Breaker Christina Li Telekinesis ACTIVE Fury Arin Kelsey Concussion Blasts ACTIVE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [August 26, 2025 - Washington, Federal Sector] "Gentlemen, I don't know what Q'Nos is trying to summon up from the pits of Tartarus, but rest assured that it will be BIG," Peregryn addressed the assembly of heroes, generals and politicians. He was becoming more familiar with the Federal Sector than he really wished to, of late. "Beacon's Magellan hypothesis seems to be borne out by my research...Magellan was being guided by some mystic force to trace out a specific path around the world, called to by someone...or some THING, more likely...that desired freedom from the pocket reality of Tartarus. And Q'Nos is listening to that same call." Colonel Hendrick, present by special invitation, nodded. "And all his strange strategic moves lately make sense. He's not trying to pull off a conventional conquest, he's looking to free some sort of demonic superweapon that will win him the world in one shot." The wall display of the world had numerous islands lit up in various shades of red through yellow, and a bright green line indicating Magellan's journey superimposed over them. General Davis stood and walked over to the display. "Some of the targets don't fit the Magellan path, but as Beacon pointed out at an earlier meeting, Magellan may have deliberately gotten himself killed here," he gestured at the Phillipines, "in order to stop the ritual. The path certainly breaks away after their intended destination in the Moluccas of Indonesia, coming nowhere near the Seychelles, Zanzibar or Socotra, which we know have been compromised. And, of course, the Mediterranean was never on his path, since it would be a while before there was a canal for him to take," the general chuckled grimly. "Our official slice of the line is fairly small, all things considered. I'd like ASH to split up to deal with Tierra del Fuego, Pukapuka Island and Guam," he pointed at the three places, which obligingly gained blue halos. "Unofficially, China has jurisdiction over Singapore and the Phillipines, but their southern territories recently broke away into a polity calling itself the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization...yes, a new SEATO. SEATO is appealing to the North American Combine for help, but so far we've been deflecting their requests to the United World. It's likely that STRAFE will be tasked with defending some of SEATO territory, possibly Singapore due to their previous experience with that island state. The remainder of the path is firmly under the aegis of the EU and the Moslem Confederation, who have both stated their intent and ability to deal with this issue." Chancellor Stockwell cleared his throat. "For future reference, and this is not to leave this room, but Khadam has 'generously' offered to help deal with the situation in the Mediterranean, at least as pertains to Malta and Ibiza. They're being told to back off, but analysis suggests they won't." "Fine," General Davis nodded. "Hopefully Khadam will put stopping Q'Nos ahead of grabbing territory themselves, but that's an issue to deal with after Q'Nos has been stopped. Peregryn, how do we stop this ritual?" The young mage steepled his fingers in front of his shadowed face and sighed. "We may not be able to. Q'Nos is likely using a connection to his minions to establish a sort of sympathetic chain from island to island, then he'll rattle this chain to rip open the barriers between our world and Tartarus. If we can remove his influence from enough locations before he's ready, it *might* stop him from casting the spell. On the other hand, he may merely need to have had them on the islands at all, in which case we'd need to ritually cleanse the locations before they'd cease to be of use to him." "So, we're screwed," Chancellor Stockwell snarled, exhibiting a flash of the temper that had nearly cost him the election three years ago. "Perhaps," Peregryn admitted. "Much of it depends on what emerges from the rift, and where it emerges. I have an idea for a way to force it back through the rift after the spell is complete, turning much of the power Q'Nos is gathering back upon itself. But it will require waiting until he starts his own ritual, and if the freed beast is allowed to wander too far from the rift before I finish my counter-ritual, I will not be able to force it back through. If you cannot stop the ritual, you must contain the results until I can act. And you must impress on the other world powers the importance of this as well...contain the beast at all costs!" * * * * [Guam, Pacific State] George didn't wait for the suborbital shell to drop to a safe external temperature, he blew the emergency seals and flew out onto the airfield. The heat bothered him, but cautious testing with Scott had taught him that it took a lot of heat to actually harm him. And time was of the essence. He wished he hadn't needed the suborbital, but he hadn't yet figured out how to exceed 300 meters per second without starting to dissipate. "Mr. Sylvester," a hispanic-looking woman in Major's insignia nodded to him as he landed at the edge of the landing area. "Or should I call you Channel?" "I've decided to go by Beacon, Major...?" "Padilla," she replied. "Wasn't Beacon the name of a TwenCen hero?" "Yes, it was, Major Padilla. I figured it was only fair turnabout to take a body from Doublecross's forces and use it to redeem the name he'd sullied thirty years ago." Padilla's eyebrow quirked at the use of the word "sullied," but she didn't comment on it. "Very good, Beacon. If you'll come this way, I'll show you where we think the Wardogs are right now..." * * * * [Tierra del Fuego, South American Protectorate] "Tierra del Fuego my rapidly freezing culo!" Essay snarled as she led the way with her scanners. Scorch flew overhead, but was keeping his flames as muted as possible so as to avoid interfering with Essay. Sal and Arin flanked her, the trio moving slowly over the hard-frozen ground. "What genius picked THAT name?" "Magellan," Sal shrugged. "Named it after all the campfires he saw while sailing past...the locals didn't think it was terribly warm either. Although," he added thoughtfully, "the ultraviolet levels around here are so high that the few people who do still live here need to wear hats and sunglasses on even a cold and dreary winter day such as this. Different kind of fire, now." "I'm getting a reading, everyone," Essay cautioned, pointing towards a small pool behind, of all things, a beaver dam. "There's something metal down there," Scorch noted over comlink. "Looks like...bronze, maybe?" As if realizing it had been discovered, the creature in the beaverpond uncoiled its body violently, sending ice, gray water and muddy snow in all directions. It was an immense clockwork dragon with numerous serpentine necks...and atop one of those necks was a living head that was a blasphemous cross between the head of a serpent and that of a human infant. "I am the immortal hydra!" the living head cackled while the mechanical jaws of its fellow heads gnashed threateningly. "I cannot be slain, I cannot be defeated!" The color of madness infused its every word. Scorch and Fury answered with bursts of energy, but their attacks were intercepted by the secondary heads and largely deflected. "Let's see how you like my haywire grenades, tick-tock!" Essay shouted, hurling a pair of small cylinders at the clockwork hydra. On impact, they burst into manic swirls of fine wire. Designed to entangle non-powered opponents, they worked as Essay had hoped...the wires were quickly sucked into the whirring gears and shafts of the mechanical monster, where they wreaked havoc. Seeing an opening, the Green Knight jumped up and grabbed the living head of the beast. Ignoring the jaws that were starting to clamp down on him from all sides, he gave the head a mighty twist, a pull, and then dropped to the ground as the head came free and its mechanical body fell limp. "I cannot be killed!" the head raved. "Even Heracles failed to slay me!" "But he did bury you under a rock, I seem to recall," Fury smirked as she approached. "Essay, you got any of that quick-hardening riot foam?" * * * * [Pukapuka Island, Pacific State] "Wow...the French weren't far off when they called this cluster the Disappointment Islands," Lightfoot commented as he set the helijet down on the beach of the small atoll. "I've seen larger college campuses than Pukapuka." "At least it'll be easier to find Q'Nos's forces and fight them," Contact observed. "No people...at least, not since 1998 or so." There was a moment of silence at that. Pukapuka had never been teeming with people, rarely exceeding 200 residents. But they'd all vanished some time between July 1998 and the next contact with the island in 2004. By that time, France had ceded all claims to the Tuamoto Archipelago and the rest of French Polynesia, and the growing North American Combine had simply gobbled the territory up. Breaker, Comet, Lightfoot and Contact exited the Helijet and scanned the 800 hectare atoll. Aside from a few flattened buildings, victims of some hurricane or other, there was no sign of human habitation. A grove of banana "trees" occupied one corner of the atoll, but the rest of Pukapuka had returned to the hardy salt-resistant scrub that tended to characterize small tropical islands. "Why, exactly, did Solar Max decide this little dot on the map needed four of us?" Breaker asked. "A hunch, more or less," Comet shrugged. "This was the first land Magellan sighted after leaving South America, it's probably just seething with mystic resonance. And since it's so isolated, Q'Nos could have inserted massive forces without anyone noticing." "I'm picking up some muted thoughts coming from the banana grove," Contact squinted through his goggles. "Animal-level. Probably birds, but..." "But what?" Comet asked. "Birds generally don't radiate quite so much *hate*," Contact answered. "Sometimes they do, I mean, but this is pretty intense." Suddenly, a flock of birds erupted from the concealment of the banana plants. They shone brightly in the morning sun, as if their feathers were forged from steel. Breaker immediately threw up a shimmering golden dome of telekinetic force, just in time to deflect a hail of feathers that the birds loosed upon them. "Stymphalian birds," she snarled. "I guess Hercules didn't get 'em all," she added in a mutter. The others nodded silent agreement. Reading up on monsters of Greek myth had become almost mandatory for the team, in light of the forces Q'Nos had been gathering in Shattered Hellas. And the Labors of Hercules were full of nasty monsters. Feathers now rained down on the Helijet, but it was sufficiently armored that the birds were only ruining the paint job. Still, they'd have to inspect the intakes very carefully before trying to take off. "Breaker, keep up the umbrella. Contact, give us some fist-sized rocks, if you will?" Comet ordered. The psi nodded and jogged over to a largish coral boulder, sizing it up for a moment before bringing his fist down with a loud KRAK! The boulder split into hundreds of pieces of various sizes. "I'll take the larger chunks," he grinned. Between the Mach-speed throwing arms of the two speedsters and Contact's immense strength, soon the skies were almost empty of the steel-feathered birds. The few that remained, however, continued to dip and swirl and circle defiantly, and it was much harder to hit dispersed targets. Until, of course, Breaker dropped the protective shield and just grabbed the handful of remaining birds in cocoons of golden light. "Okay," Comet shrugged for the second time that morning. "Maybe it WAS overkill to send all of us." * * * * [Edwards Air Force Base, California Sector] "I'll try to keep up, but I might have to go into low orbit to do so," Solar Max warned. "Even in my exo-armor, my aerodynamics aren't up to high Mach in the atmosphere. Are you sure you don't want to do this up in orbit?" Peregryn shook his head as he doublechecked his flight suit, making sure he had all the necessary ingredients and objects. Things for helping with the ritual, things for helping survive after casting the spell. And, incongruously, a hastily cobbled-together pair of patchwork leather boots. "Q'Nos is girdling the world by land and sea for his ritual. I need to take the third sphere, the air, to cast my counterspell. By following the path of the Lucky Lady II, the first airplane to circumnavigate the planet without landing, I should be able to...hijack...part of his own ritual. But I must be at approximately the same altitude as that B-29. Orbit will not do. Hopefully he has not anticipated this possibility and placed defenses." "But if he did," Solar Max said as he put on his helmet and backed into the complex exoarmor unit, "I'll try to be there to shoot down anything that can be shot down. This scramjet is a recon craft, it's unarmed. Hell, it's not really meant to fly as low as a B-29 either. I might need to catch you in a gravity bubble." Pergryn nodded to his team leader, then crawled into the space that had been made for him in the T-43 Silverhawk. It was normally a one-man craft, but they'd gutted the extensive surveillance suite to make an uncomfortable, but adequate, place for Peregryn to perform his rituals. Most importantly to him, there was no way for the pilot to see into the compartment...for Peregryn would be doing things that might distract even the strongest- stomached military man.... * * * * [Guam, Pacific State] "This is taking forever," Beacon thought to himself. Sure, all it took was a full-power blast of light from him to disperse one of the dark hounds of Set, but after that first lucky hit they hadn't let him get a clean shot off. He was faster, but they were more maneuverable and generally really sneaky. And now they'd split up again, so he'd been forced to leave one to its own devices. Beacon really wished he had Squadron's ability to make more of these bodies. He also wished these damned dogs weren't so clever. He'd tried herding one into a trap, where he could get supporting fire from maser-equipped troops, but it had sensed the gambit and risked dashing right past Beacon to get out. Sweeping the jungle with brilliant green light, he once again reflected on how odd the sensation was. He didn't just see things illuminated by his beams, he *felt* them as well, as if the shafts of light were extensions of his fingers. And that gave him an idea. The sky lit up green as it gained a new star. Beacon "felt" his way outward, covering acres at a time, seeking out a blank spot where the living darkness must be. "There!" The sky-filling light suddenly focused like a hooded lantern on one spot, becoming a ravening beam of destruction. Several trees shattered in the path of the beam, but what had been two WarDogs was now one. "Too bad the last one's probably already figured a way around that trick," Beacon sighed as he called in to get a sighting on the last enemy. He hoped he could find that third hound before it was too late.... * * * * [The Ruins of Haven, Near Malta] Conflicto was getting serious deja vu. Well, except that last time the CSV went down to Haven, he wasn't wearing his own Deep Armor. And this time it was just the guys, provided you counted Myriad as half-guy. She was ahead of them, in kraken form. And, last time, he wasn't riding a rhynchocephalian crocodile with a third eye. Or alligator. He kept forgetting which it was. He had gotten the beast a while back, along with the two-headed dromedary...or bactrian (he kept forgetting that one too). Both were Magene-spliced aberrations that he liberated during that damned circus incident, and Ringo (his name for the gator-dile) was powerful enough to survive even these depths. Ringo and the fire-breathing two-headed camel were the first members of his new obsession...the Zoo of Malice. Triton was up ahead as well, plowing deeper in his Strafe armor. Conspicuously, the AstroSpear was absent, but Eugene figured Tritey hadn't found a replacement power source just yet. However, Tritey did have that first trident he owned, as well as a battalion of robocrabs at his side. He reduced the viscosity of the water around himself and his mount to speed up and catch up to Triton, then flipped open his sonar-beam com- channel. "Hey boss? Remind me why we're down here, and why we're helping ASH?" "Remember, Eugene, it's not my team anymore. I turned the reins over to Glyph officially after the wedding. It's her call, her scheme." "Oops. Force of habit, boss. I'll bug her instead. But tell me why you and Sultry even care? Shouldn't you be changing diapers somewhere?" A laugh. "For one, Haven's a historical site, in my books. I have a obligation as the heir to this armor to protect that TwenCen legacy of villainy," Triton explained. "Second, they're using blasted *tritons* down there. You know how I get..." "...when people use your trademark. I remember," said Conflicto. When Triton was in jail before the CSV formed, he had Rebus destroy all those who had vanity plates that read 'TRITON'. Now *that* was vanity! "And three, you were bored out of your shell?" "That, too. And that's on top of the whole world domination bid that really is our purview. Can't have other tyrants stealing our show, can we?" "Guess not." Conflicto switched channels, and paged Glyph. "Hey Glyphomaniac! Gotta minute?" A groan preceded Glyph's answer over the communication channel. Conflicto thought he also heard some weird music in the background. "Make it quick, Eugene. We've got sirens and harpies to contend with here in Malta, and I need to back up Sultry and Burnout before I join you. Be patient." "Sirens?! Singing nubile babes and you have us guys fighting fish with pitchforks down here?" Conflicto groaned. Maybe sirens would make him forget Anya, sweet Anya...he hadn't seen her since that damned circus incident. "We don't need more hypnotized men to complicate the picture. But keep an eye out for mermaids while you're down there." "Really? Mermaids? Bonus!" Triton cut in on their conversation. "Look alive, Eugene. Here come the hippocampi!" "Are hippocampi dangerous?" His eyes lit up. "Damn, I hope so. Can I get one for my Zoo of Malice?" Indeed, coming towards them from the glass shell of Haven was a school of hippocampi, bearing triton riders armed with tridents. Myriad was first to engage them, trapping the fishtails within its tentacles. Triton directed his robocrabs to disable the hippocampi, while he fired bolts of underwater lightning at the tritons. Conflicto had no idea how the lightning worked underwater (Tritey tried to explain it to him once, but he wasn't paying attention). Eugene looked behind him, and saw Kaliban catching up from behind. He hollered into the team channel. "Hey Bananarama! What are you doing back there? Hurry or you'll miss the fight!" Anyway, his job was to make the sea into "salt-water taffy" to trip up the fishtails. He did so now: reaching out with his power, he ramped up the viscosity around the hippocampi, and started looking for one he really liked. Then, he saw The One, and smiled. "Yee haw!" he shouted. "I've always wanted a palomino!" * * * * [Over the Sahara Desert] Peregryn would have presented an odd sight if there was anyone who could see him. Squatting in a hollowed out and windowless surveillance bay, stripped naked, and with a glowing sphere around his head. The sphere was his window on the world, a sort of mystical Heads Up Display, allowing him to keep track of his environs as well as his path around the world. He was already bleeding sluggishly from a number of shallow cuts to his arms and chest, using his own blood to help fuel the spells he was casting. A year ago, he could have simply drawn on favors owed him by the spirits of the air and sea and stone, but he had cashed in his credit to remove the Viaus from the battle against Rebus. There had not been enough time to regain his status in the spirit world, so he paid the price the hard way. Still, this was merely preparation. The true costs would be paid after Q'Nos began his own ritual, the one that Peregryn planned to steal from. "Radar shows unusual turbulence coming up," the pilot called back over an improvised intercom. Peregryn put his blade back in its sheath and cast his senses outward, feeling at the disturbances in the air that the pilot's instruments had detected. Yes, this was it. Not mere weather nor the whim of Angeline Croft-Radner, this was the air's reaction to the turning of a key. A key to a door that holds back chaos and the night. He waited out the brief seconds of erratic bumping and shaking. It was time to begin his own counterspell in earnest. He drew a sea urchin spine from its leather pouch and started speaking the sacred words of the Mayan kings, words to call upon the power of the Sun itself, then slowly drove the spine through his flesh at the prescribed location. The pain...was not enough to stop him. It could not be. For if the others could not stop the ritual Q'Nos was performing, it would be up to Peregryn to reverse its effects. No matter the pain, no matter the cost. * * * * [Socotra, Somalia] This island has changed hands between Somalia and Yemen so often that it was easy to lose track, Mujahid reflected as the life slowly bled out of him. At the moment, "independent" Somalia claimed it, but they were quick enough to ask the Moslem Confederation for help in driving the abomination from their territory. Perhaps this would help tip the Somalis into becoming full members of the Confederation? Still, such matters were no longer Mujahid's concern. His troops had acquitted themselves well, redeeming themselves after the disaster of Greece and destroying an army of centaurs. But a centaur's arrow, fired in spite as the beast fell to automatic weapon fire, had found Mujahid's heart. He could hear the medics working frantically, but the world had already gone black around him. He was but a man, and he would die. But he had died fighting in the name of Allah, destroying the abominations and protecting those who had no other defense. The only regret he had was that his successor would likely not be as open-minded a man as he, and he would never get the chance to help mend fences with the other nations of the world. Still, Paradise awaited Mujahid now...the world would tend to itself, as it always did. * * * * [August 27, 2025 - Knossos, Crete] Q'Nos lowered his blood-dripping arms and exhaled. It was done. The three sacrifices lay sprawled about the rough stone altar, the flickering light of torches revealing serene expressions that were proof that they died willingly for their lord. "Arise, she who is called Leviathan, who is called Typhon, who is named Jormungandr. World Serpent, who in days no longer recorded I called mother. They humbled me, but you they feared so much that they had to fragment your legend, turn you into many lesser forms, reduce you to a mere bio-weapon created in mystic labs. "The pit of Tartarus is open, o she who birthed me! Come out of the depths and to my right hand...together we shall conquer this mortal world!" The water seemed to boil, bubbles surging up in a line stretching away from shore in two directions. Then it churned, waves spreading out and crashing against the shore in breakers as tall as a man. Like a finger from the depths, the Leviathan's mighty tail thrust out of the water first, its sea green scales glittering in the spray for a moment before slashing back down into the water to create a wall of spray that reached for the heavens. But this was mere prelude to the true emergence. The head of the Leviathan rose from the center of a whirlpool, stately and monstrous all at once. Teeth the length of a man's arm dripped foul venom in a maw large enough to swallow a horse. Baleful eyes of fire flickered from red to green. Bony spines lined the jawline and brow, one or two actually broken by some ancient struggle. The serpentine body that supported it may have only been as wide across as two men are tall, but it stretched around the entire world. Stripped of the power of speech by its godly enemies, the Leviathan could only roar its satisfaction. Q'Nos added his own joyous bellow, and it seemed that the ground and sea shuddered in fear. * * * * [Guam] Beacon almost had the final shadow hound cornered, when something caught his eye and told him it was way too late now. Without even a parting shot, he flew out to sea as fast as he could. The sea was churning in a line from horizon to horizon, clearly visible in the late morning light. Something was coming up...something big. And Peregryn had said to contain anything that came through. Beacon hoped he could. With a quickness that belied its size, a blue-green ropelike shape jumped out of the water like a plucked laundry line, surging towards shore! Beacon poured all his light into the massive body, but it had no visible effect save to knock a few discs from it. Scales. Those were scales. But they were easily half a meter in diameter. This was one damn big snake. Water surged up from where the serpent smashed down just short of shore, sending a breaker dozens of meters inland. "Good thing everyone's in protective shelters already," Beacon muttered, trying a more focused blast at a segment that was above the water. There was a small shudder that ran up and down the serpent's body, but that was it. And now it was humping up for another go at the island. Thrash! The serpent's body was only maybe four or five meters thick, but it was long enough to go around the whole world...this must be the World Serpent of Norse myth, he realized. Under the thrashing coils, buildings were being crushed, roadways cracked, trees splintered. And the monster was shedding more scales, which were starting to wobble of their own accord. In a matter of seconds, the scales had grown into tall warriors in ancient armor, with the original scales becoming irregularly shaped shields. The warriors started rushing inland, towards the shelters. "Oh, hell," Beacon almost buzzed. "Well, I can't seem to even slow Jormungandr here down, might as well blow up some minions before they get to any people...." * * * * [The Ruins of Haven] Glyph watched the World Serpent writhe, shedding scales and turning them into deep sea serpents, sending them towards the Conclavers atop the dome of Haven. Unlike the others, Glyph was not in Deep Armor, but protected herself with a mystical henna tattoo that lent her protection and air. Just in case, however, she could summon a suit with a tap on another tattoo, like the one she had designed for Triton before. But it was the scintillating tattoo in her right palm that was permanent, a rainbow cobra ready to strike. She had her own reasons for this deep sea expedition. For years, some serpentine power had called to her in her dreams, and she had gained her thirst for mystical knowledge because of it. Could it have been the World Serpent's dreams calling to her? And would Q'Nos steal the power of Jormungandr that was rightfully hers? "Should we attack?" asked Triton, nervously eying the great serpent's thrashing body. "If only I still had power in the AstroSpear...." The rest of the Conclavers were likewise cowed. But not Glyph. She had known from her dreams that the scales would shed, and prepared for this moment. "They're mine," she laughed, and floated towards the serpent swarm. She held out her hand, palm towards the scale-creatures, and pronounced the final phrase of her spell. "Creatures born of fallen scales, come and sheathe this one in power!" The tattoo in the palm of her hand struck lightning-fast, a stream of rainbow glyphs reared like a cobras and plunged into the morass of serpents. The creatures reshaped themselves back into scales, but now they were rainbow-colored and tiny, and rushed back through the gullet of the rainbow cobra. When they reached Glyph's hand, they began to coat Glyph's skin with scales of many colors. A gasp came across the comlink. "I remember that!" shouted Eugene. "That was what she looked like in astral form, that time we were plotting against Derek! All scaly-like!" "What? When?!" exclaimed Triton. "I *knew* you guys had been talking behind my back!" "Er, um, ask Glyffy," evaded Conflicto. "I gotta go check on my seahorse." Glyph ignored them, and reveled in the touch of power that was now wrapping around her. She would attain perfection soon.... * * * * [Pukapuka Island] A faceless dragon, stretching from one horizon to the other, it sent out mindless minions from its body to crush all opposition, all dissent. Breaker had hoped that, even if they failed to stop the ritual, whatever came through the rift would do so in Crete. And...it probably had, she realized. This was the serpent that circles the world, the Jormungandr spoken of in Norse myth. How a Mediterranean like Q'Nos could know how to free it didn't matter right now. Only containing it mattered. Peregryn had said he could re-imprison whatever came out, as long as it was held near the doorway, so hold it she would. If only it weren't so...so much like China. Tina bit back a hysterical giggle at the realization. An imperial dragon, shedding scales that turned into soldiers of the proletariat. No beginning or end in sight, no face, just miles and miles of body. The coils she held fast in her golden aura were the coils of the State she had been taken from as a child, coils her parents had spent years fleeing from across the face of the world. The State had been a god...an angry, vengeful god...to her parents, and to her. She had grown up in the Combine, but for years woke up screaming that the State was coming to take her away, give her a number instead of a name, pound her into shape until she was just another cog. Just another scale on the body of the serpent. A shield-bearing warrior got past the others and tried to impale her on its spear, but she smashed it away with a savage burst of power. It was all so clear now...yes, she feared the godlings, who wouldn't? But the white-knuckled terror, the unreasoning panic that had gripped her all too often in the past year? *That* was the old fears of childhood refusing to be quietly forgotten, latching onto a new threat so they could express themselves. Rebus, Q'Nos...they had been surrogates for the State. For China. Now, if only she could survive *this* serpent, she knew what she had to do to put the nightmares to rest forever.... * * * * [Mactan, the Phillipines] The coils of the serpent rose and fell, thrashing against the water and creating waves that rushed out in two directions, not just towards the island. Nearly as tall as the taller buildings near the shore, the waves crashed on...and past...the shore, moving anything that wasn't bolted down. And some things that were. Normally, this would include people, but one group of people, most of them locals who hadn't gotten to the shelters fast enough...seemed to be unaffected, surrounded by a faintly-visible dome. Still, this didn't stop them from huddling in fear around a trio of people clad in the uniforms of NAC Marshals. "That was close," one of the Marshals said as water splashed against the dome. "Good job, Tyler." "Thanks," one of the other said. He was standing in the center of the dome, a look of concentration creasing his face. "Uh-oh." "Uh-oh what?" "That," said the third Marshal, pointing to scales that had fallen off of the serpent and turned into warriors in ancient armor. He shifted his grip on the quarterstaff in his hand. "We should get these people to safety, Wes." "And make sure those things don't try to go after them," Tyler added. He braced himself as another wave crashed against the dome. "Now would be a good time." "Right. Get ready to drop the barrier," Wes said, then turned to the group of people they were protecting. "Okay, everybody...when I say 'run', you need to go straight to the shelter as quickly as possible. Understood?" They all nodded, murmuring in agreement. "Good." He looked back at the approaching warriors, then at the third Marshal. "Try to leave some of them for us, Ben." He looked at Tyler, nodded, turned back to the civilians, and shouted, "RUN!" Ben watched the crowd run towards the shelters, guided by Wes and Tyler, then turned his attention back to the armed mass that was now only twenty feet away, and let his quarterstaff drop into his hands. Under his breath, he muttered, "The things we do in the name of international cooperation." He nodded to his opponent, and the battle was joined. * * * * [The Moluccas, Indonesia] Hitting things was no longer helping the Base of the Pillar feel any better. This was because it was no longer seeming to have any real effect. Oh, each of her mighty blows rocked the twisting body that had crawled up onto land, and she was slowly forcing it back towards the sea from which it had arisen. But each blow also sent scales flying, and each scale became a warrior in ancient Greek armor with a spear and shield. The spears couldn't hurt her, of course, but the rapidly growing swarm of warriors was turning on all the other targets on the shoreline, soldier and civilian alike. She was making things worse, with no apparent benefit. White flames licked along a nearby section of the mighty serpentine body as Hands of Fire shouted, "DIE, DEMON SPAWN!" The serpent seemed to twitch a little at this full-force attack, but that was all. Its scales now had a glassy, molten look where Hands of Fire had attacked...perhaps those scales would not become warriors? Base lumbered over to the section her leader had attacked and smashed both stony fists into it as hard as she could. She heard the scream of pain in her mind as the coils lashed about furiously. She had about a second to feel satisfaction before a loop of the body settled around her and crushed her into a pile of rubble. * * * * [August 27, 2025 - Over the Mediterranean, near Crete] Peregryn prepared to leave the T-34. The hatch could not be opened while in flight without fatally destabilizing the plane, but Johnny Angel's ring of teleportation would handle that. The plane's stall speed was nearly a hundred meters per second, but the Amulet of the Winds would let him cope with that, as well as lowering him gently. And the footwear he struggled to put on, made from pieces of army boots from several museums in the Federal Sector, as well as some old Roman sandals and pieces of damaged footwear owned by his teammates...that had its own purpose. They were not Tyr's mighty boot, but hopefully the mystic resonance would help his cause. After all, it did not look like he anything he could do today would be considered overkill. The preparations done, Peregryn twisted the ring and was instantly fifty meters from the T-34, bouncing about in its wake but rapidly slowing to a speed where he could breathe. Below him, the Leviathan thrashed about in the shallow coastal waters, twisting in the grip of Solar Max's gravity powers. Q'Nos was too far away to be visible, but Peregryn could feel his baleful presence, and almost hear his triumphant laughter. "Solar Max, begin contingency plan alpha," Peregryn calmly spoke into his comlink. "Roger," came the reply, and the heavily armored red and gold form broke off and shot skyward at top speed. Contingency plan alpha involved Solar Max flying to a piece of orbital debris that had been picked out from the maps made during Doublecross's plot, and then dropping it on Crete, hoping to kill the head of the Leviathan. It wasn't given a high chance of success, but... well, something is better than nothing. The Leviathan suddenly realized it was free, and started looking about with more purpose. Peregryn needed to fix its attention on himself as he drifted down like an autumn leaf. No need for arcane solutions, however. The early evening sky lit up as Peregryn activated a dazzle flare Essay had made for him. All eyes were now on this new falling star. It was a faint glow by the time Peregryn floated mere meters from the snout of the great beast. It...she, he could feel that now...eyed him suspiciously. She was canny enough to be suspicious of mages who just floated there. The dire vapors of her toxic breath washed over him as she snorted her challenge, but the Amulet of the Winds protected him from the poison. "Is she not lovely?" a voice boomed from shore, mystically amplified and directed to his ears by Q'Nos. "If you swear allegiance to me, I'm sure I can convince my mother not to devour you." His mother. This was both surprising and...not. Of course his mother would have been reduced to some sort of monster in the time wars. And of course Q'Nos would have sought her freedom over all others. She was the icon of monstrous maternality, Grendel's dragon dam. "Open your mouth," Peregryn said simply, before kicking the monster in the snout with all his might and the borrowed might of all those who had worn the footwear from which his boots were fashioned. The head snapped back with a crack, the maw opening to bellow in pain, but Peregryn knew that his strike had been no more effective than a rolled up newspaper to the snout of a dog. It was merely the opening gambit. He didn't trust the monster to simply lash out in anger, so dove into her throat. The surprised gasp of Q'Nos was cut off when the tremendous jaws clamped shut. Now! He was inside the serpent, inside the defenses that might have blocked his spell! "I call upon the serpent that eats its own tail. I call upon the wind that surrounds this world, on the fire that warms it. I invoke the power of Q'Nos himself, drawn into me by sacrifice and pain. In penance for what I did unknowning, and to save all who live from the twilight of man...." He paused, sinking his fingers into the flesh of the Leviathan's tongue, which was starting to lash back and forth in an attempt to either swallow him or spit him out. "Banish this behemoth from the Earth that imprisoned it, the Earth that it encircled, the Earth that it threatens...FOREVER!" Solar Max called up the spysat image of Crete as he broke from the upper atmosphere, looking back to see how Peregryn was doing. The serpent had vanished. Which meant that Peregryn was gone too.... * * * * [August 28, 2025 - The Moluccas, Indonesia] A roughly humanoid pile of rubble lay on the shore. A few candles had been left around it, a strip or two of scripture laid across it. A more formal funeral was to be held in the morning...for now, the body was its own tomb. The tomb shifted. Unnoticed by sleeping soldiers and exhausted sentries, a slender form slowly shifted aside the larger chunks of rock and levered itself up. Its crystalline body glinted in the candle light, revealing it to be very clearly female. She stood, looking at her hands, then the rest of her body, and an expression of horror flitted across her features. The masquerade was over, the Base of the Pillar could no longer pretend to be sexless stone. Then she noticed the candles and the scripture. "They think I am dead," she whispered to herself, a hopeful note to her voice. "Let them continue to think so," she added, stepping from the pile and rearranging the remains of her "cocoon" to look as undisturbed as possible. None saw her flee into the night. * * * * [August 28, 2025 - Guam, Pacific State] It all seemed to be over, and Beacon settled down to the shore to check in with the disaster relief operations that the NAC Navy was running. There had been a lot of flooding, and buildings smashed by the serpent. "What's the good word, Ensign?" he asked as he landed. "Very good, sir," the young officer saluted. ASH members had official military ranks, but were generally out on their own chain of command. If the ensign did what George asked of him, it was out of respect, not because he had to. "A few injuries here and there, but no fatalities. The creature didn't reach any of the shelters, and we'd managed to get almost everyone evacuated from the shadow dogs earlier. Just National Guard stuff now." There hadn't been a separate National Guard in over a decade, but Beacon nodded, understanding the sentiment. "Any word from other sites? My comlink got smashed by a spear." The ensign nodded. "The damn thing's vanished. The monsters are all running away, no sign of that last dog anywhere on Guam. Word is that the Righteous Flame and EUROPA both got hammered pretty hard, but they're staying mum about *how* hard. And they're saying that the EU's conventional forces took back Sicily." George unclenched, just then realizing that he *had* been clenched up. Q'Nos had shot his wad. Aimed for the stars, and thankfully missed. Had his arm nudged and his aim thrown off. And other metaphors to that effect. "Any of our people hurt bad?" The young man shook his head. "Nothing definite yet. Some of the groups got cut off...can't reach the Pukapuka group at all. STRAFE seems to have come out of their fight with the merlions of Singapore in one piece, though, same with the Marshals we loaned to Singapore. Sir...? We could really use you over on the north shore, there's a half-crushed building that might have people in it." Beacon nodded. Time enough to check up on his friends later. "I'm on it, just give me a radio headset...." * * * * [Mactan, the Phillipines] The three Marshals had spent most of the time since the serpent's sudden disappearance helping with cleanup and rescue operations. The serpent had managed to knock over several buildings, including one of the shelters, and the Marshals had proven to be helpful in clearing away debris. Tyler used his force fields to prop up a collapsed wall while Ben led a family out from under it. Twenty feet away, a hand attached to a tentacle- like arm pulled a stuffed lion out from under a bit of debris. The arm, a glowing, blue energy construct attached to Wes's body, lifted the toy up to eye level just as one of the children squealed with excitement. Wes grabbed the stuffed animal with his real hands, letting the tentacle dissipate, and walked over to return the toy to its owner. "Here you go." Medics guided the family away from the debris, even as the parents thanked the Marshals for rescuing them. They passed a local official who was making a beeline for the three Marshals, a smile on his face. "Friends, I can't thank you enough for your help here," he said in almost unaccented English. "I want you all to know that I'll be including positive recommendations in my report to the NAC." He looked at Tyler. "Particularly for you, Mr. Cochrane." Tyler turned beet red, causing Wes to break into laughter and Ben to start snickering. "But..." Tyler began, "*Wes* is the leader, not me!" Wes cut in. "Actually, Mayor Ordoveza, none of us were officially assigned as leader here," he explained. "But we know each other well, so we're pretty good at working together." Ordoveza nodded. "Understood. I'll leave that thought out of my report, then," he said to Tyler's relief. "I need to go tour the damaged areas now, but I'm sure I'll see you before you head back to the Combine. Take care, friends." "You too," Wes replied as the mayor left. He took advantage of the subsequent lull to look around and survey the damage in the area they were in. "We did good here, guys," he said. "Real good." * * * * [August 27, 2025 - Pukapuka Island] Midnight was fast approaching. Breaker lay on her back on the sandy shore and stared up at the stars. Nearby, the helijet lay like a smashed eggshell, flattened by the serpent's coils. Tina had lost control of it for just a second before it had vanished entirely, but a second had been enough to strand them. Lightfoot padded over and sat down next to her. "Aaron finally got through to a Sensitive in Tahiti, we should have transport out of here in a couple of hours." "You were right, Tom." "About Tahiti? Of cou..." "No," she sat up. "About this all being about running from China. It just clicked while we were fighting Jormungandr. You're right. I thought I'd gotten over those childhood nightmares, but I guess I just put them away in the closet, and they came bursting back out once I started facing things that were big and scary." Tom nodded. "So...are you okay now? No more freaking out and running from church to temple to synagogue?" She shook her head. "Not really. I mean, I know what the real problem is now, but that doesn't mean it's resolved. I need to face my true fear, deal with that." "You don't mean...?" "Yes. I need to go back to China." * * * * [August 27, 2025 - Tierra del Fuego, South American Protectorate] Essay slumped back in her seat in the helijet, exhausted from search and rescue work. The coils of the serpent had smashed up part of a small village near the shore of the Strait, and it had taken a few hours to dig out all the survivors...and make sure that those *were* all the survivors. Digging out the dead could be left for morning. She finally opened her eyes and linked her visor up to the companel, downloading her messages to a half-mask display that let her see the world outside the visor dimly. There were a few official communications, detailing how the other squads had done, confirming that the serpent had been banished, and so forth. Then a flashing icon indicated that a personal message had just been delivered. Hm, time-delayed, from Howie. That didn't bode well. She scanned all the official messages again first, trying to find word of Howie's fate, and she found it. Report by JakZak. Her heart sank, and the cold of the winter outside seemed to penetrate the sealed cabin. Dread making her breath catch in her throat, she opened the message. "Sara, by the time you read this message, I will most likely be missing and presumed dead." "Madre de Dios..." she hissed, then read on. "I may be dead, but I don't plan to be. To banish this...Titan, let us call it...I will most likely have to accompany it into the pits of Tartarus. My plan is to try to ride the Titan along the wave of the banishment spell and seek out wherever Montreal has gone, for I am now convinced that it still exists. Somewhere, in exile. "I may be dooming myself and Montreal with this plan, but I hope not. I believe that the Titan is tied to the Earth, and should not survive the trip. As for myself, I should have enough power in myself and my artifacts to survive wherever I arrive. "I WILL find my way back to you, Sara. You are my anchor to humanity, the glowing beacon that will guide my way. And, more than that, there is a piece of me in you. I am not being merely metaphorical... "How should I say this? I've known something for several weeks that I have not told you, and it scares me more than the thought of diving down the maw of the Titan, yet also fills me with hope for the future. Sara, if I have to defy the gods themselves, I will return before our daughter is born." ============================================================================ Next Issue: Peregryn's gone, and he's not the only one who will be leaving the team, as next issue sees two more heroes go! But, perhaps, there will be new heroes to take their places? Be here for #51, as we transition between The Q'Nos Chronicles and the next uber-arc, The Romance Of Three Republics! ============================================================================ Author's Notes: The CSV scenes were written by Tony Pi. The NAC Marshals scene(s) were written by Mike Escutia, in his ASH debut. Joe Singleton didn't write anything, but he did draw the cover and create a new logo for the title. :) Keeping track of happenings in a world-spanning story with so much of the action being near the International Date Line can be tricky, apologies if I mixed up any dates or times of day. Yes, there are beavers in Tierra del Fuego. SUCH beavers there are! Beavers are to Tierra del Fuego as jackrabbits are to Australia: an import brought in by an entrepeneur who then found that without natural predators the damn things would be everywhere within a few years. There are two Pukapuka Islands in the Pacific: the one in this story, and the one also called Wale Island of the Danger Islands. Wale has three villages and a tourist industry. Pukapuka in the Isles of Disappointment doesn't even list as having population in some atlases. In one version of the tale of Ragnarok, Tyr faces off with the Midgard Serpent. He has no sword, having traded it away for the woman he loved, but he is equipped with a mighty boot made from bits of leather given to him by men all over the world. This boot breaks the serpent's jaw and slays it, but Jormungandr's final poisonous breath kills Tyr in turn. Ragnarok was all about "he dies, she dies, EVERYBODY dies." Oh, and I was very tempted to make a Shaft reference just before Peregryn tells the Leviathan to open her mouth. She's one baaaaad mother, after all. But I (rightly) decided that it would go against the mood, and shifted it here to the endnotes, which are already silly thanks to the beavers line. While this issue is being posted slightly before the actual 10th Anniversary of ASH, it *is* being posted on my (Dave's) 34th birthday. :) Note from Tony: In case anyone's wondering what that *damned* circus incident refers to, it's an unwritten Annual about the Conclave of Super- Villains, the Circus of Crime, and the Zoo of Malice. It *may* involve noodles and invisible tigers. Hopefully, one day the story will be told.... Note from Mike: Ben isn't sure that his name IS Ben (in fact, it was Andrew at first draft). So if he has a different name in a future appearance, assume this one is in error. Finally, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/ASH/ash50key.JPG will help you identify all the characters on the cover! The Leviathan isn't keyed, but I think you can figure out which one it is.... ============================================================================ 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/ ! ============================================================================