. _ Blackbird & Countinghouse Presents: _ ( ) CONCLAVE OF SUPER-VILLAINS ( ) =-+-= An Academy of Super-Heroes Universe Comic =-+-= I copyright 2000 by Tony Pi I #17 - "Nine To Rule" Step Four of the Pyramid Scheme =========================================================================== [Embossed cover: Triton and Rebus in hieroglyph, overlooking a 9-Men's Morris board, while Labyrinthe and Caryatid stand over Triton and Rebus respectively, their hands joined above the two. An embossed crack divides the scene down the middle. A pyramid in the lower right corner is 80% red, with only the capstone in gold. PYRAMID SCHEME, STEP FOUR] =========================================================================== The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud And the quaint mazes in the wanton green For lack of tread are indistinguishable - William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream =========================================================================== LABYRINTHE One thing I've learned about traps in this business, is how fast things go wrong. Proof? Using me to catch Devlin Marx; using Lana to kill Peregryn and the STRAFEurs. Something must go wrong, and so it did with ours today: our prey had become the wolf. Seven against one, and still he's already knocked three of us out cold. He must have planned our takedowns from Day One, maybe even before. Such is his genius, and his madness. Did I expect any less? Non. After all, he was one of our own - and one of our best. * * * * ANATOMY OF A MUTINY [September 3, 2024 - Noetic Space] It was most sensible that the Conclave of Super-Villains should have secret meetings to discuss the problem of leadership, especially after the discovery of a traitor among us. Traditionally, a conclave met to elect their spiritual leader...while some of us began to campaign against Triton's leadership. The catalyst for the mutiny was clear. Rebus had Glyph betray us, using her to keep an eye on us. She alone knew Rebus had a trump card to beat Derek, namely, a hostage we all thought to have died in Doublecross's attempted takeover of the CSV. Angeline, better known to the world as Sultry, had been a "guest" in Rebus's house of mysteries since early this year. When Glyph told Triton, it was plain as day to us that Rebus had snatched away Derek's hard-won victory in finding his traitor. If there was one weapon that Monsieur Radner could not fend against, to use his heart against him. Oui, the poor man tried to hide it, but as Rebus knew, the best way to destroy a man who had loved and lost...was to rekindle a bare-thread hope. It was the morning after we caught Glyph, and after a gruelling session fighting over the disposition of the Atef Crown, Derek said he would prepare us for our inevitable clash with Rebus. He bade us to rest while he locked himself in his private lab, doing some last-minute preparations on some devices for our use. We were none of us pleased to be on the receiving end of another of Rebus's ploys. At least, not on the surface. It was the perfect time to plot betrayal, while Derek was busy preparing for a different trap, my sister decided. Claudette had intended to gather together everyone except Tiara, who was supposedly still in hiding somewhere off-continent. By everyone, she included Glyph, who had been incarcerated in Skyhaven's brig until Derek decided what to do about her. Every surface of the cell was covered with a micro-forcefield film, to prevent Glyph from etching symbols or using her body fluids to trace a sigil. Likewise, she was bound in a straitjacket to impede any attempts to cut a glyph on her own body. The conclave was held, not in any physical sense, by Claudette's summoning of the astral forms of all involved. We were drawn out of our bodies and gathered atop the zeppelin. It was the safest way to convene without Derek suspecting anything. Whereas I had a little familiarity with this experience, it was frightening to the rest. We were all in our idealized forms, except for Burnout. The girl...once the invalid Tyra Dumont...stood beaming with pride, whilst in her left hand, she manipulated a small marionette that resembled C.J. Brown. In her other hand was a spindle with thousands of red threads, thrumming to the vibrations of her invasive hum. I shuddered. It was the first time I saw the entity Mr. Strings in all of its malice, manipulating its puppets sans merci. I was only comforted by the fact that it did not seem to be capable of controlling mages such as my sister and myself. The others? My sister was a svelte giant amongst us, an aurora surrounding her head and her body armored in white marble. It was her Great and Terrible Protector aspect, and it was indeed impressive. Meanwhile, Spiral explored her fuller figure, marvelling at a body that had not starved itself to become a ballerina. She exposed her inner desire to be voluptuous and carefree of the foods she ate. Myriad was a sphere of protoplasm, perfect in shape...but within its matrix, faces and forms emerged and disappeared with startling speed. Glyph had taken the form of a divinely garbed reptilian humanoid, which reminded me of the Pranir, albeit scaled rather than feathered. What was her story, that would make that her ideal form? There was something about my fellow mage that none of us...perhaps with the exception of Strings...knew about. Eugene had taken the shape of a comely Asian male dressed in a suit of spinning rainbow paisley. It reminded me of someone. But who? As expected, Eugene made the most out of this, slip-sliding in and out of the hull of the airship in his ghostly state. "Wish I had *this* on ConflictoCAM!" That Eugene...if we'd let him have his way, he'd webcast his entire life...and ours...twenty-four hours a day. It took my sister to rain on Conflicto's parade. "Stop it, Kwan, or I will put your consciousness inside a toad." "Feh. You spoil all our fun. Learn to live, Cary!" He gave her the finger. I realized then who it was Eugene resembled: Derek Radner, if you gave merged his appearance with Conflicto's. There was a case of hero worship...or should I say villain worship! "We don't have time for this. Triton's not fit to lead, and we should replace him with someone who is. His obsession with his woman will be the death of us, if we followed his way," said Claudette. "You, Quebecoise? I don't think you've earned the post," mocked Myriad. Bad move, Myriad...my sister despised everyone who questioned her authority. I expected Claudette to chastise her, but the puppeteer beat her to the riposte. "No. She is right," said Mr. Strings. "He is driven by a need for vengeance now. Even through his facade I can taste the sweetness of it." She licked her lips. "If his anti-psi shield went down now, I could widen that breach in his willpower." Claudette nodded. "He makes mistakes when it comes to Angeline. His jealousy nearly led to your destruction at the hands of Doublecross. Are we going to follow him into yet another ambush?" "Dear sister...consider the alternative," I argued. "Do you propose we side ourselves with Rebus? The man's insane! He pretends to godhood, and betrayed us to that madman, Doublecross. At least Triton's driven by human passions, not by delusions." I could sympathize with Derek...wasn't I, too, nearly undone by my flirtations with Arc? "We should give him another chance to prove himself capable of leading us. Hasn't he won us Khadam?" She bit back. "And lost us Montreal. Reconsider your loyalty, little brother. Is it to be to our ideals or Triton's?" "I've not forgotten." On my deathbed I would fight to liberate my homeland from the North American Combine. She knew that. Did my sister now doubt my fervor? "But I'd rather achieve sovereignty by a Napoleonic conquest than praying for a miracle. That's what following Rebus would mean." "Still...I think Rebus's promise of power is honest," said Glyph. "I admit, I had my doubts at first, but he does have the real Book of Thoth with him. That alone would give us Africa without a fight." "There is one other alternative," said Mr. Strings, smiling with great wickedness. "Me." It hummed the old French national anthem. Spiral blanched, and Conflicto whined like a hurt puppy. "I don't think I can deal with the humming all the time," said Eugene, clutching his ears. "Really, can't you take a music lesson or a hundred?" Caryatid shook her head. "We'd still have to deal with Rebus, Tyra. I say we hear out Archangeli, see what he has planned. He certainly must have a grand scheme in mind, and it's up to us to capitalize on that. We should at least listen to what Lorenzo has to offer." Everyone seemed to agree with this, on principle, even I. Claudette sent us spinning back into our dormant forms, and I awakened in my bed with a sense of dread for the near future. * * * * [September 3, 2024 - Skyhaven] We were summoned to Triton's lab close to dinner time. Rebus had contacted us with a cryptic crossword, the type that was infuriatingly dependent on your knowledge of English puns and anagrams. Derek had solved it an hour ago, figuring out where Rebus wanted to rendezvous. "New toys, ladies and gentlemen," said Derek, handing out brand new equipment tailor-made for each of us, each emblazoned with the CSV ankh. "You'll find them helpful in the likely event that Rebus decides we are no longer useful." "Burnout." He showed her a pair of golden bracelets, and snapped one onto his own wrist. "Trigger this mechanism like so." He demonstrated by aiming his arm at a target on the far wall, and with a twitch, a dart flew forth and found its mark, igniting the paper. "Eight phosphorus darts in each, purely normaltech. Saw something like it in a TwenCen film once, and improved upon it." He tossed the bracelets to her. "Spiral." Derek gave her a belt with eight sets of bolas. "Pay attention. Trick bolas. From left to right, you have net bolas, smoke bolas, exploding bolas, flash bolas, tear-gas bolas, monofilament bolas, sonic bolas and forcefield bolas. All except the last two are normaltech." "You forgotcher Ebolas," muttered Eugene. "If Peregryn hadn't turned the Anchor virus harmless, damn him, I would certainly have added Ebolas," Derek answered. "Your turn, Conflicto. You'll be glad to know that I fixed your Conflicycle." Derek snapped his fingers and a panel slid open to reveal a brand new robotic bicycle. "Same design as before, only I've equipped this one with a simple AI linked to your communicator." He tapped the ankh pin on Conflicto's chest. "Voice- activated." "WOW! Conflicycle Too!" whooped Eugene. "You're the Main 'Lain, Tritey! Conflicycle, go go go!" The bicycle rolled over and stood itself next to him. "Don't call...never mind. Labyrinthe, a cape for you." He took a blue cape with a mesmerizing golden maze pattern and handed it to me. I put it on with a swirl, fastening it with the ankh pin. "Fireproof, insulated, and bulletproof. Twist the ankh's loop a quarter turn to the right, and the embroidered pattern will emit a hypnotic strobe. You can thank Doublecross for the inspiration and the technology." "Caryatid." He opened a second storage closet and took out a similar cape for Claudette, only red with female figures embroidered into the trim. "All the same amenities, only twist the ankh quarter way to the left, and the cape will become an invisibility cloak, good for ten minutes of stealth." "Myriad." Derek carefully handed the synthoid what looked like a black easter egg with a red ankh pattern. "Hold it inside you. In case of an emergency, break it. It will release a nerve gas that will paralyze humans and animals for a square kilometer. Again, it's only for emergencies, and if you go up against Peryton, you may well need it." "You've put a lot of thought into these," my sister said. "Of course," said Derek. "It's what I do. Skyhaven is yours for the evening." He turned to me. "Dress in your best, Labyrinthe. We've a dinner to attend." * * * * [September 3, 2024 - Alexandria, Egypt] To all appearances, Derek and I were two very well-dressed men about to attend a gala dinner. He did not wear his armor, nor did he bring the Astro Spear. I asked him why he decided against being fully armed. He shrugged. "It's difficult to eat through a faceplate. And with Rebus, if he wanted a full-fledged battle, he wouldn't have bothered with pleasantries. We'd all be dead by now, one way or another." "I don't doubt it. But why take me, Derek?" I asked. "Dear Yvan, who else might I begin to trust?" he replied. "It's because I'm your fastest way out, isn't it?" "My friend...let us not reduce each other to our abilities. You are not a tool, nor am I a heartless user. I value your company, particularly your taste in fine wines." He looked at me and winked. "Besides, you're used to the company of Anchors, and your tendency to shatter glass when nervous is a good indicator of how much Rebus is using his Anchor at any given time." "Ah. I am reduced to a barometer." "A prudent and powerful barometer." He took out his pocketwatch and shook his head. "Almost time." I smiled, and opened a gateway to the banquet hall in the Catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa in Alexandria, the largest known Roman burial site in Egypt. Here, in the hall where the grieving would have paid their respects with a funeral feast, Rebus had set his own fete. I was amazed at the details the man must have gone to, to make everything seem authentic Egyptian in so short a time. There were four places to sit, and a Nine Men's Morris board sat empty to the side. As our host was not yet present, I knelt and examined the nine white and nine black pieces. The black pieces were replicas of the CSV: Triton, Glyph, Myriad, my sister and I, Spiral, Conflicto, Peryton and Burnout. The white pieces were representations of the Egyptian gods: Isis, Osiris, Anubis and the rest. I shuddered involuntarily and cast a glance at Triton. He bent down to look, and whispered, "No Sultry. Why?" Then, I felt my power dwindle uncontrollably. Rebus had entered the chamber with Viktor, in his human form. Viktor looked tired and angry, and who could blame him? We'd let him languish in his alpine prison for months. "Chancellor Radner! What a pleasant surprise," said Rebus. Derek shrugged. "I was invading the neighborhood, thought I'd drop by and see an old friend." They sat opposite each other. I glanced at Viktor and followed his example, sitting in the seats next to our wards. "You remember Viktor?" "How can I forget?" replied Derek, all smiles. "I'd always thought we'd see each other again, my friend." The German only grunted. Rebus clapped his hands, and two nubile women entered the room, bearing food and drinks in ancient Roman dishware. "Come, let us play a game of Morris whilst we eat." Derek scrutinized the women, as did I. They were armed with khopesh swords, and doubtlessly they knew how to use them. With Rebus damping the entire room, they might prove to be dangerous. But between Derek's Academy skills, his prison experience, and my guerrilla training, they would be insignificant compared to the real threat: Lorenzo Archangeli. "Wherever did you find them?" asked Derek, his finger hovering over the black pieces. He chose Conflicto and placed him on the board at a vertex. Lorenzo laughed. "My cultists? Amazing what help you can find these days, isn't it?" He plucked a grape from the plate before him. He picked up a white piece and made his opening move. "Even if they don't know they're working for you." "Didn't know you started a cult." Derek picked up Spiral's figure and placed it adjacent to Conflicto's piece. "Interesting pieces you've chosen. Playing with my villains and gods." "The CSV and the Ennead. Did you know that Nine Men's Morris was first played in Ancient Egypt?" "And now we're playing that game here. I see the irony." It was a game of words and innuendoes that they played on top of the game before them, one that neither Peryton nor I had the right to join. I exchanged glances with Peryton, and mouthed the word 'desole'. Sorry. I had never meant to leave a team member in jail for so long, even if he was an ally by force. He simply reached over and touched my shoulder, and it was enough for the both of us. He did not hold it against me, but from the way he looked at Derek, I could tell that Rebus had set Viktor's anger towards Triton. After all, wasn't Rebus's and Viktor's capture all Triton's fault, rigging Rebus's suit with a tainted air supply during the Haven affair? "Not irony. Destiny. Gods belong here." Rebus took Isis and blocked the imminent line that Triton would form next move. "As do we." They ate as they played, taking their time for each move, venomous innuendoes beneath each comment. I picked at my crocodile steak. Derek paused. "We could play this game all night, and I'd play it simply for the pleasure of it. But the game may be more interesting if we placed some things at stake. Say, a certain Crown for a certain queen?" He twirled Caryatid's piece between his fingers. "Ah, I am tempted to say, a tiara for a Tiara, but I doubt that is the woman you are talking about." Rebus touched the Anubis piece. "Let's suppose that the queen is suspended above a sarcophagus of filled with asps." "Let's suppose." "Let us also suppose that if I do not give orders to release her within ten minutes, she will sealed in said sarcophagus. Would that be worth a Crown to you?" Derek seemed unperturbed. "As much as I'd like to oblige you, my friend, I do not currently have it with me." He extracted a small device. It looked like a chess clock, but it had three buttons: red, yellow and green. "This is a radio transmitter," Derek explained. "You see, at the moment it's sitting inside a missile that may or may not explode." "Be a terrible shame to lose a queen so easily." Were either of them bluffing? I could not tell. "Be a shame to lose your chance at godhood," answered Derek. Rebus laughed. "So you've deduced it. Bravo." "What's the crown for? If I have it right, you need it to decipher the real Book of Thoth, hm? Turn it into the Book of Osiris? But you needed us to find the Crown, maybe even get Glyph to use it for you." "Brilliant. Chalk up a point for yourself, Derek. The question is, do you give me the Crown and join my side? We were allies, and should be again." Derek pressed the green button. "There's my answer. The crown's launched. Question: where will it land? In the deep Pacific? STRAFE Headquarters? Do I press one button to detonate it? Or land it safely with the other?" He poised his finger over the yellow button. "You're good at puzzles. Do I press this one?" His finger drifts over the red. "Or this one?" "You think I'm bluffing about Angeline?" asked Rebus. "Come, Lorenzo. We are, in all estimations, the two most brilliant criminal minds of this century. We each know what the other is capable of. What we'd sacrifice to reach our goals. What we *have* sacrificed. Sultry is already dead to me." "You lie well. But consider this." Rebus takes up the black figurine of Triton. He looked at me when he said this: "Join me and reap the harvest of a god. Defy me and face divine wrath instead." He snapped the figurine in two. "Tell the others they need not settle for mere conquest. I offer them more than simple material possessions. What's godhood worth to *you*?" "Don't listen to him, Yvan." I gulped. Was Rebus mad, or inspired? "Three lives are at stake. What will it be?" Derek stood, taking his transmitter in hand. "You threaten our lives? Kiss your godhood goodbye." "Oh, those are not the lives I speak of." Rebus wiped the corners of his mouth delicately. "Pity you'll never get the chance to learn a son's love, or a daughter's devotion." The words sank in, biting deep. Sultry was pregnant. With twins. That was when Derek lost it, kicking over the Nine Men's Morris, leaping for Rebus's throat. "YOU BASTARD! I'LL SKIN YOU ALIVE!" I had never seen Derek in a berserk rage like this. He had dropped his controller and I caught it with a reflex thought, an antigrav disk. It was scant seconds when I realized that my success meant Rebus had dropped his Anchor field, and that Viktor was transmogrifying into the beastly Peryton. And capable of snapping Triton's spine if I didn't pry him off Rebus immediately. I shunted the two khopesh women into a corridor, sealing it shut with a spatial twist. I couldn't port us out until Derek was no longer touching Rebus, but he was so inflamed that he had been able to throw himself bodily on the Anchor. "Triton!" I shouted as I faced Peryton, erecting a stasis wall to impede his charge. "He's not worth the death of your children!" Rebus executed an aikido throw and tossed Derek off himself and into me. I felt Rebus extend his Anchor field again, and I had to take Derek with me before the whole field took hold. "Rebus! Let us go and I'll convince him to give you the Crown," I pleaded. "Please, let Sultry live!" "LET ME GO, LABYRINTHE!" screamed Derek. He was trying to electrocute me even as I held him. "He's obviously in no condition to negotiate. But you are," said Rebus. "If you get me the crown and join me, Yvan, I'll spare the weather witch." "I'll do what I can," I said through gritted teeth, trying to think past the pain and form a wormhole back to Skyhaven. "Twins, Derek. You're going to have twins." With that, we made our less-than-graceful exit. * * * * [September 3, 2024 - Giza, Egypt] I landed us on top of the Sphinx, finally let Derek go and backed away. "Derek! How do I disarm the missile?!" I shouted. The remote control was still in my possession, and I had to save the crown. "I'm not letting him get away with this," he answered, his anger in every word. "You will, if you destroy your only bargaining chip," I said. He was still resisting my pleas. "You'll lose your chance at fatherhood," I added. I hated using what he once told me in confidence to manipulate him, but I had no choice. "Remember when I brought you to London, to track down Angeline's parents to tell them she was gone? [Author's Note: an untold tale of the CSV] You told me afterwards that if you and Angeline had had the chance to be parents, you'd never be as cruel as Winston Croft was to her. Are you going to lose this second chance?" Derek tore at his hair. "I said I trusted you. You betray me instead." "No! I have your best interest at heart. Always." I watched the chess clock tick down, the red flag almost about to drop. "What will it be, Derek?" Ten seconds. Five. "Press the yellow button twice," he said. I did so, and the clock stopped. He turned away and stared at his empty hands. "This is far from over." * * * * [September 6, 2024 - Skyhaven] We had to sedate him, but it wasn't enough. Derek sneaked out of the infirmary on two separate occasions. His first attempt was to put his armor on, the second to set Skyhaven on autodestruct. Luckily Myriad and Burnout stopped him from these foolish acts, and we tied him to his bed and increased his dosage. We mutineers met again, this time on the War Bridge to discuss the war and Rebus's offer. As per usual, the banquet table was brimming with food, so that Burnout could gorge herself to maintain her power. She seemed to be hungrier than usual. Conflicto played with the consistency of the foie gras and the caviar. "Wow. I love these Khadamite food replicators, but they don't exactly aim for taste, do they?" "No, but as long as it keeps me fed, I won't complain." Burnout bit into her anchovy pizza and began her briefing. Alloy continued to deploy troops in Egypt despite Derek's temporary incapacitation. Egypt still refused to allow any help from outside the Moslem Confederation, despite saber-rattling from both the Combine and the Eurasian Union. But no one seemed to want to talk about the progress of the war, only Triton's fitness for leadership. I filled them in on Rebus's mad plan. "Almighty Rebus," sputtered Eugene. "How's he going to pull it off?" Glyph smiled. "Something to do with the Book of Osiris. I'd stake my life on it. I knew I picked the right side." "While we've been thinking small," concurred Claudette. Myriad fumed, growing tusks in a display of anger. "You're all falling for a stupid personality cult. That Florentine will never achieve godhood." "He might if he does pull off his intended genocide," argued my sister. "He's been obsessed about slaying all Anchors. To what purpose besides revenge? Why, it might just fracture the Pillars enough to turn him into a god!" "He'd never pull it off," I countered. "He's already tried and failed." "But he can if he had our help," said Glyph. "That's why we must join him! He needs an Ennead, nine of us to help his ascension. We give it to him, and we will share in his power!" "You *too* can be a demi-god," said Eugene in a deep mocking voice, pointing his finger at Spiral. Anya pushed the hand away with a telekinetic twist. "I don't care much for pagan gods. They're gone from our world, so let us rejoice in that." She was Orthodox Russian, which meant that her faith, like mine, remained unshaken by the events of the Godmarket in the nineties. I nodded in agreement, as did Myriad. "I have no use for your deities." Burnout laughed. "It would only be an extension of our right to rule. As Triton said, we would be as gods. Only Rebus promises we *will* be gods. I say we take him back into our fold." "It is agreed, then," said my sister. "Five against three. Radner loses." Conflicto counted the votes on his fingers. "Uh...Labby, Spingirl and Goopy vote no, and Cary, Burnsy, Glyphomaniac and me vote yes. That's seven. I didn't fail math that badly!" "On the contrary," hummed Burnout/Mr. Strings. "I count as two. Count again. All in favor of reinstating Rebus as leader of the CSV, raise your hand." Everyone except me raised their hands, even Myriad and Spiral. I could hear them humming against their will. Mon Dieu, Mr. Strings had bluntly seized their minds, turning them against Triton. Only I was spared from her mind-control, thanks to my reputation as a wild mage. I was outnumbered. "Yvan." Claudette always said my name in a condescending tone whenever I disagreed with her on an important decision like this. "Don't spoil the party." I wanted Triton to stay in charge. But solidarity had always been the Viau way. If I did not join the rest, even though my true feelings were other, the group becomes less than the individual. I was a firm believer in cooperation within the group, and perhaps I could make them see their error instead of abandoning them altogether. Reluctantly, I raised my hand. "All right. Devil in the deep blue sea or the one-eyed devil, either way we're damned." "Call him on your black-cel, Yvan." I placed the call, using the secret number hidden in an encrypted math problem he'd sent us the day before. I turned up the volume on my black-cel so that everyone could hear. "Labyrinthe. Do you have it?" "Is she safe?" "Au naturellement. I do not kill for sport, contrary to popular belief. There was no need, given that the negotiations stalled. But what say you? Will you and your companions join me?" "I dislike betrayals, Lorenzo," I said. "But I did what I had to, to save his unborn. I just want you to know that." "Lucky for him, your heart was in the right place at the right time." "You'll get your crown soon." Suddenly, my black-cel was plucked out of my hand by an unseen force. "Et tu, Yvan?" said Triton, who then dropped his invisibility generator. Somehow he had freed himself and put on his armor. Derek put the black-cel to one of the sensory horns on his helmet. "So sorry, Rebus," he said. "I'm back in control now. You'll be dealing with me directly." "Derek, give me back the phone. You're not well. We can't jeopardize Angeline's safety." "I'm perfectly fine, and well aware what I can or cannot do, Yvan. The exchange will go down, but under *my* terms. We'll call you back." Triton crushed my black-cel with his gauntlet, setting off the autodestruct charge in it. The explosion was followed by dead silence. "No more talk of mutiny." He punched in new coordinates on the wheel- shaped navigation panel. "I am Chancellor Derek Radner, and I will be obeyed." God help me, I wanted to believe him. But I had seen and heard his ravings, and I still doubted he was back to his old self. And so I betrayed him again, sending Rebus the chess clock transmitter through a secret warp gate. I couldn't even trust myself now. * * * * [September 9, 2024 - Skyhaven, Khadam] "In case you had any ideas about simply teleporting the Crown out of there, think again," Derek said to me. "There's a sensor that detects distortions in the space-time curvature in there, and it must remain within a range I designated. Right now, my bomb's generating one such delicate field. If anyone anchors it, or tries to use spatial magics, say goodbye to the crown. Only I know how to disarm it safely." We were back in our little corner of paradise in Khadam, where Skyhaven hovered over the new lake. The crown was down there, and we were waiting for Rebus and his hostage to arrive. "We're on our home turf now. If Rebus decides to backstab us, our first priority is Sultry, not the crown. Understood?" A few nods. "When he arrives in an hour's time, Conflicto and Labyrinthe will take Sultry to a safe haven. Caryatid, Spiral and Myriad will help me take out Peryton and Rebus." "I don't think so," said an image of Rebus that sprang into existence on the bridge. "You're not the only one with hologram technology, thanks to my beloved Gimble. Give up, Triton. You've lost, and the Conclave is mine. Seize him. If he resists, kill him, but bring me the Astro Spear." "It's over, Triton," said Claudette. "Your reign is over." "I will detonate it if any of you make a move on me," warned Derek. "Your little trap is easy to solve," said Rebus. "I can think of three solutions already, and two solutions don't even involve Labyrinthe's power." "Yeah, well, can you do it with a toothpick and duct tape?" said Eugene, trying to make light of the situation. He seemed very nervous, but who could blame him? "It's over, Derek. Labyrinthe teleported the remote control you had to me earlier, and I must say it was ingenious...though your cryptography protocols were flawed. I'm afraid you can't detonate it by remote, now. I've shut it down." Triton laughed. "You want your crown, you'll have to catch me first." Myriad, under the control of Mr. Strings, surged forth and wrapped herself around Triton. "Surrender," she hummed. Triton turned his head towards Burnout, who seemed to be suffering from the strain of maintaining control. "Ah, Strings...it's a pity your body is so reliant upon the ingestion of nutrients. Pity that I rigged the food replicator three days ago to produce only levulose. Your stomach may feel full, but in truth, your energy levels are at a bare minimum." He was calm in his speech. "Furthermore," he continued, watching Burnout wince and grab her wrists, "hidden needles in your wristguards just injected insulin into your system. You are in no shape to control anything right now." Burnout collapsed to the ground, unconscious. "This one I call 'Hunger Strike'." Myriad also screamed and became liquefied, splashing about the floor of the bridge. The egg that Triton gave her earlier seemed to be spraying forth chemicals. "Ah, and Myriad. I have the files on your unique physical composition, and wouldn't you know it? There are some substances that you don't know about that can disable or destroy you. Methanaphth-4, for example, will incapacitate you for hours. I like to call this 'Magene Pool'." "He's rigged our devices!" Caryatid shouted. "Yvan, remove them at once!" I complied as quickly as I could, teleporting my sister's cloak and mine outside of Skyhaven. "Help!" shouted Eugene as the Conflicycle he was riding suddenly transformed into a suit of armor, sealing him inside. "Hrmphtt!" Conflicto tried to say. The forcefield bolas on Spiral's belt detonated, trapping her inside a bubble of force. A second later, her gas grenades exploded, filling the bubble with sleeping gas. She dropped like a fly. "'Faberge Surprise'." I pulled Eugene out of his suit, and crushed the Conflicycle into a ball of metal. "Not again!" Eugene whimpered. "Kill him!" shouted Rebus. Claudette fired bolts of mystical energy at Triton, which engulfed him. Yet they simply surrounded him in a blaze of light, doing him no harm. "How?!" exclaimed Claudette. Triton jabbed at Claudette with the Astro Spear, but she dodged it. Rebus's image stroked its chin in thought. "You're a hologram too," it concluded. "Oneupsmanship, Rebus. You may have holograms but I have hard light. Too bad all of you are trapped aboard a hard light generator. I'm not even on board, for your information. Catch me if you can." The hard light hologram tripled and advanced on us with Astro Spears raised. "Let's play the shell game." "Ghyah!" Eugene tried to make the floor slippery for the three Tritons, but they ignored the lack of friction. "I can't affect them!" Caryatid waved her hands and the steel floor curved up to manifest as a makeshift golem, but it was useless against the three figures, since they just shifted from hard to soft light and walked right through the obstacle. But the instant they were through, the tridents were very solid, and I took a gash to my right arm from one of them. The other Tritons were advancing on Glyph and Eugene. They didn't stand a chance, if I didn't act now. "Allons-y!" Let us go! I grabbed Glyph, Claudette, and Eugene, and teleported us onto the island in the middle of the lake. There was no way we could have beat Triton's hard holos while onboard his ship; Skyhaven would have turned into a deathtrap had we stayed. Our glorious, paranoid leader must have planned our takedowns long ago. * * * * [September 9, 2024 - Outside Khadam] We took a few moments to get our bearings. "Tabernac!" swore my sister. "Hunt him down. He must be going after the crown. It's his only insurance for Sultry's life. Where's that damn thing?" I closed my eyes and felt the lay of the land. Where was Triton? I tried to focus on the unique signature of the Astro Spear, and found it. "He's underwater, trying to get the Crown out of the missile!" "Do we stop him?" asked Eugene. "I mean, why doesn't he just trigger it and blow us all to Kingdom Come?" Claudette grumbled. "The essence of Radner is self-preservation. He may be power-hungry, driven by obsession, and unwilling to lose at all costs...except one. He won't commit suicide." Glyph nodded. "And he won't let us take it from him. I suppose he'll grab it and run. We'll have to catch him after he's taken it from the missile. He will try to use it to negotiate again, but why waste more time? Kill him now and take it." Claudette took command. "His first attempt will be to fly out using his armor. We need to corner him, then take him down. Yvan, can you trap him?" "I don't want him to run into a spatial distortion and accidentally trigger the explosives." "I can delay him a bit, but I can't shut him off entirely. Time constraint." Glyph began to trace a pattern in the earth. "The Minos Imprimature spliced with the Antaeus Brand will work here; the correspondences fit." She began to chant: "I cast Labyrinthe as Daedalus, master of the maze. I seize Triton, monster of the horns, and make him Minotaur. Make him Antaeus, trapped to earth's power. Let him be trapped to his fate in yonder Labyrinth." I felt her magic work to bind us to myth. The hedgemaze that surrounded our base became a magical trap, tapping into my power but not making spatial distortions as I usually did. What Glyph had done was cast Triton in the role of Antaeus, the strongman who was only powerful if he was in contact with the earth, and the role of the Minotaur, trapped in the Labyrinth in Crete. The effect was to make his armor work only while in the bounds of the Conclave's garden while he was touching the ground; he couldn't fly out using the Strafe armor. "You are of some use as a mage, after all," said Caryatid. We waited for Radner to finish disarming the missile below. My mass sense detected him moving along the lake bottom towards the east. "Time to slay a Minotaur," said Claudette with a smile. * * * * Triton was heading out of the lake, so Conflicto solidified the surface with his powers...so that he and Glyph could run across, and to impede Derek's progress. Claudette and I followed by air. "What are we going to do when we find him?" asked Eugene. "Get the crown. Doesn't matter if he's dead or alive," answered Glyph. We saw the hardened surface of the lake yield to a plasma blast, and gelatinous lakewater rained down on us. Triton stomped his way into the hedgemaze. "Yvan, head him off. Glyph, see if you can hide a few rune traps at some intersections. Conflicto and I will herd him into them." Claudette shot some mystic bolts into the hedge and the ground, calling up makeshift wood and earth golems. They shambled into the maze, while Glyph ran off into the maze that she doubtlessly had traced over and over again in her mind, given her preoccupation with patterns. Eugene veered off in another direction, speeding down the dirt paths like a hockey puck on Emp. I floated upward and saw our prey heading towards Conflicto. I couldn't warn Eugene over the CSV communicator, for fear that Triton might take note. My fears were compounded when I realized that Triton must have some way to monitor the whole maze, whether from the spysats, Skyhaven sensors, his armor's sensors, or hidden security cameras in the maze itself. Who knew if he had booby-trapped the entire maze as well? "Who's hunting whom?" I shouted into the communicator, both as a warning to my colleagues and a curse to Triton. Conflicto hurried down the path which would bring him into direct confrontation with Triton. As though he knew this, and planned for it, spikes suddenly extruded from the earth at the junction, and Conflicto saw them too late. "WHOA!" He did a backflip and landed on his bottom, just shy of the dangerous points. "Hey Tritey, let's not get deadly just yet, hunh?" shouted Eugene. Triton continued to the junction. "You use what you have." He turned away from Conflicto and stomped down the passage. "Then I'm gonna hafta trip you, boss," said Eugene. He gestured, and Triton slipped into the ground face-first. "YEE-HAH!" "That's it, laugh it up, Eugene." Hidden sprinklers in the hedges began to spray a fine mist into the length of the corridor Eugene sat in. Had Triton triggered some sort of poison? Conflicto's costume began to dissolve, and the kid started twitching like he was afflicted by St. Vitus's Dance, scratching everywhere that his yellow, red and blue costume coated. He was laughing uproariously to the chemical reaction with his skin. "STOP IT!!! BWAHHAHAHAHAHAH! PUH-PUHLEASE! AW GAWD, EVERYTHING TICKLES!" Triton's voice came across the CSV channel: "A catalyst in the mist I released triggered a chemical reaction with his costume, made of a fabric I designed. Get too close and we'll find out if you're boxers, briefs, or going commando like Eugene there, Yvan. 'Spandex of Nessus', I call it. Don't worry, the contact 'poison' wears off in a few hours." Eugene was going to be useless for the next while, then. Not a big change from usual. Triton pulled himself up, right on cue for a surprise assault by my sister's golems. An earthen fist sent him flying through two hedges before he slammed into the ground. The steel box containing the crown fell from his grasp. "My turn," said Claudette. "And I'm not pulling any punches, Triton!" She commanded the wood golems to grapple Derek while the earthen ones advanced on the box. Derek kicked backwards at the wooden beasts and ignited them with his boot rockets, and threw his Astro Spear at the golem with the box. It smashed into the thing and caused it to burst into thousands of fragments, and I could sense a high-energy antigravity bubble as the cause for its disintegration. He stomped forward and reclaimed the box and spear, then raced around the corner. Right into one of Glyph's sigil traps! When he touched ground at the intersection, a hidden pentagram revealed itself, cutting him off with mystical force. He tried to find a break in the pattern, to no avail. Firing his plasma bolts did no harm to pentagram. Glyph stepped out of the shadows. "It's useless, Derek. As long as the pentagram remains unbroken from the outside, you cannot move out." "Do you think I don't know that, the simplest of your tricks?" said Triton. "There's a limit to how much you can do given a small period of time, and I've a database that tells me what you're capable of. This one's easier to break than your more detailed works." He raised his right gauntlet and pointed his index finger at Glyph. "Bang." I saw nothing, but out of the ground everywhere came little mechanical hermit crabs that broke the earth, disrupting the pentagram and swarming over Glyph. She screamed but was overwhelmed, and their collective weight pinned her to the earth. "I laced the paths with dormant minibots, as a backup plan. Try more inventive canvasses for your art, next time, hm?" He strode out of the broken pentagram and past Glyph, unable to extract herself or use her body to sketch another ideogram, and disappeared. He had engaged an invisibility device, but it was easy to track him despite that; he left footprints as he walked. He was heading towards a corner of the maze where a fountain with the figure of a triton spewed water. I searched underneath it with earthsense, and found a hidden bunker with a suborbital craft launcher. "Tabernac. Claudette, to your left. Go!" Claudette flew towards the square. "Water, rise and destroy!" she commanded. A water elemental rose as summoned, and slammed into Triton. Triton turned off his cloaking shield and aimed his trident at the growing figures. He initiated a wormhole and struck at the water elementals, depriving them of their substance. "Alas, Caryatid, I am master of all things of the waves," he gloated. "All kinds of waves, including radio." With that, Claudette's black-cel triggered its taser function while in its holster, its power somehow magnified beyond what I'd seen it do before. "Oh, I took the liberty of boosting its efficiency a month ago," he explained as she fell crashing into the dirt. Damn. It was just me against Triton, and I don't know how he planned to take me out. * * * * He disappeared down a secret trapdoor in the fountain, but I had anticipated that, cutting him off before he could reach the suborbital craft. "It's over, Derek. You may have taken out the others, but you don't stand a chance against me." "Yvan, my friend. I know you were the only one to defend me. Thus, I don't plan to use any of my traps against you. Ever." He pushed me aside gently and entered the vehicle. "You know I can bring you to a halt. That vehicle isn't going anywhere. Don't make me force that crown from you." I could have snatched it out of his hands, but it still had some device attached to it. I could kill us both if I triggered it accidentally. "I know." He strapped himself in despite that warning. "If Rebus becomes a god, we're all as good as dead. But I know your loyalties are with me." "Don't bet on it. I side with my sister, as always." "Do you?" he taunted. "Remember the Ankh Killer? Haven't you figured out her identity yet? It was your sister." I was speechless. Claudette was the Ankh Killer? Sensing that I was struck dumb by this revelation, he filled in the blanks for me. "She faked her own capture by the CSV, when she and Rebus manipulated you to work for us. Oh no, she didn't care to inform you of her association with Rebus. She didn't trust you enough. She, Strings and Rebus had this entire scheme planned from the very beginning, using you like a pawn. That's who your sister is, Yvan." "Changes nothing," I said, even though I saw the truth of it: Claudette had lied to me. My own sister lied to me. "I'm sorry, Derek, I still can't let you take the crown." I waved my hand and twisted space. Where Triton once was, only a hole in reality remained. The Atef Crown and the Astro Spear appeared in front of me, symbols of my betrayal. After all, at the heart of the spear was the light being Doublecross. Even as my act triggered the explosive attached to the Atef Crown, I slowed the timeflow to a virtual standstill around it. It would take a while to separate out the crown, but for now I had it insulated against damage. Not so for this underground bunker. I set about the task of setting off its autodestruct, so that I could fake Derek's death. Rebus would have his chance at godhood, but Derek would live to see his children and perhaps even stop the madman. It was the only compromise I could live with. In the aftermath of the explosion, I went to gather my fallen teammates. They will live, and I will take them to Rebus, our new leader. But to them, Triton was dead. Vivre Triton. =========================================================================== NEXT: Read "Pyramid Scheme: Capstone" for the ultimate clash between Rebus and those who would deny him godhood, then return here to pick up the pieces! =========================================================================== Author's Note: Whew! We're almost at the end of the mega-arc. Everything started in CSV #0 is about to blow up in a world-shattering way, and I'm grateful for all the help from my fellow writers. But it ain't over yet, as we'll be working overtime to bring together all the blocks for the grand finale. What's next? Probably a crossover with Warden again, but when? I'm not sure, but when I have time to get to it, I promise it will be a scorcher.