"A Mystery Uncovered"

Season 1, Episode 3

written by Thomas Fritzinger

Two months had passed since the strange events in the village. The Akkadian Knights had discussed the issue a few times and run some tests, but had come up with little in the way of evidence that would link the two separate instances together other than the oddity of the situations. Whatever it was, it seemed to have subsided and the team turned their focus to other matters.

In the village...

Eron was teaching classes on self defense to local high school children once a week at the town meeting hall. It was a relaxing time for him and was going a long way towards endearing him and the team to the community, not that the other things they did hurt any. The walk to the village was peaceful and he arrived at the pub where he held his classes a half hour early. The sun was just barely setting and, since the pub was situated on a small hill, he looked out over the small hamlet at the sunset. Looking in the windows of the shops nearby, he could see that the local seamstress was selling All Hallow's Eve costumes that looked strangely familiar to the garments worn by his team. It was a good feeling to be wanted.

It was then that he caught something out of the corner of his eye move swiftly across the fading sun. He slipped on a pair of polarized lenses, but whatever was there was gone now. Dismissing it as his imagination, or maybe an errant bird, he continued on to the lit hall in a block ahead of him.

His students started arriving and he turned his attention to the task at hand.

At the Keep...

Caledonia and SoulSearcher were playing a rousing game of Quake 4 on the X-Box when the proximity alarm went off. Dropping the game controllers, they made their way swiftly down to the control room where they found Quantum Elemental and Wyldecard looking over the computer banks.

"What's going on?" SoulSearcher asked, somewhat miffed to be pulled away from his game.

"Not sure just yet. The system has been reading intermittent blips on the radar for the last hour, but none of them stay long," Wyldecard responded.

Quantum Elemental, usually very quiet nowadays, looked over at them and said "I can feel a presence. I've felt it recently. I think they are back."

"But how can that be? We killed the Hive Mind and the Royal Knights hunted down the few that actually made it to Earth," SoulSearcher questioned.

Caledonia shook her head slightly, "I'm not sure. One of the Royal Knights told me that when he connected to the Hive Mind, he was unable to determine the source of their telepathy. As such, he couldn't exert control over any of the individual creatures other than those that were part of the Hive Mind."

"Is it possible some were left behind?" SoulSearcher wondered aloud.

Nobody had a response for that one.

The Akkadian Knights' hanger bay...

Cassandra and Zildoran were busy painting the side of the Defender 2 an olive green and black combination reminiscent of camouflage. The ship was much different than the old VTOL that the team used to fly. Salvaging the advanced equipment from it, they had worked closely with Gorthrop Nummond and Wayne Tech. to build a new and far superior ship. Looking more like a spaceship with wings, it had capabilities far beyond the Defender, including the ability to achieve Mach 7 in the atmosphere and a miniature version of a warp drive employed by the Zigonians. Eron, in fact, had already used the Defender 2 to travel to Nexus once to establish an alliance with another league.

Cassandra and Zildoran had grown closer in the last few weeks. Their shared experience with the bad dreams they’d had and their attempts to understand them had brought them closer. Both recalled voices, but couldn't remember what they said. Unnerving as it was, it actually brought their friendship into focus for the first time. Although they weren't romantically involved, they were becoming the best of friends.

A speaker mounted in the wall crackled to life and Caledonia's voice could be heard summoning all of the Knights at the keep to the control room. Putting down their paint brushes, and taking off their smocks, the two heroes left the makeshift hanger bay for the keep.

To preserve the historical nature of the keep as much as possible, they had decided to use an old, WWII hanger bay built just after the Great War about a quarter mile from the keep. A new hanger bay, still under construction, would be ready by year's end and would be completely hidden underground. Until then, the team had to move back and forth overland.

Arriving in the control center, they found the rest of the team surrounding a map of the area on a backlit table. Eron arrived moments later and Caledonia apprised the team of the situation.

The satellite network used by the TKR computer system had pinpointed a location about three miles south of town where a great number of the large objects had converged earlier that day. They all seemed to be going into a rather large granary that had been inactive for several years. The large silo was about 30' across and about as high and sat in an untended field which once produced row upon row of barley and wheat in the town’s heyday. If the computer was right, either the structure was packed to the brim with these things or there was something else in there that they could enter.

Although the images were blurry, the objects were easily identifiable. Someone or something was collecting the beasts they had encountered approaching Earth so many months ago. Amazingly, in all this time nobody had ever offered up a name for them. The ones dissected on Earth didn't resemble any form of life humans had ever encountered. An Italian scientist offered the name "volata completamente", or flying dead, to describe the mindless abominations that had no hearts, brains, reproductive organs, or lungs, but it hadn't stuck even with the scientific community. They were, after all, under their nearly impregnable exteriors, mindless, flying stomachs whose sole purpose seems to be eating.

Eron spoke up, "We're going to need backup if this is truly the case. SoulSearcher, contact Captain Atom. The Reverent Knights are responding to a call in Brussels and might be available to assist. Bat MAn, get as much intel on the lay of the land as you can. Cassandra, lock down the keep and meet us at the granary in half an hour. Everyone else, come with me."

With that, Eron led the remainder of the team down to the vault, situated where a servant once spent his days. Opening it up, he went to the back of the vault and opened a cabinet. Inside was a keg that was constantly cooled by a nitrogen feed. The air in the room got noticeably cooler as he popped the top. Using tongs to reach inside, he pulled out a rack of vials. Each one was made of steel and as the relatively warm air hit them they developed a thin layer of ice.

Quantum Elemental pulled a box off of a shelf nearby and the two began loading the canisters into what appeared to be guns. These guns, however, had no barrels. Instead, the front of the gun was simply the shape of a light bulb, yet made of steel.

Turning to the team, Eron handed each one a weapon. "These work on the same principle as the EMP burst Quan produced to disorient the beasts we fought. If we are truly facing them again, you will need these. They are simply too tough to beat in large numbers, but these will disorient them. Each one has one shot, so use it wisely."

Quan spoke, "It appears that they work by disrupting the connection they have with the controlling mind. Individually, they have no will, but rather draw upon the one controlling them. We need to find that person, or thing, and disable it."

The team left for the granary, three extra guns in tow for Bat MAn, SoulSearcher and Cassandra.

At the Granary...

Bat MAn activated his invisibility and crept quietly along the fence bordering the large wooden granary. There was a shed to the side of the granary, apparently housing farm equipment, including an old tractor. A set of large, iron double-doors were wide open.

When the team arrived, he was using a device to measure the levels of radiation. "The ambient level of radiation is higher inside the granary than it is outside, although I've found higher levels of radiation than normal in all of the soil samples near here."

Moving carefully, the team entered the granary, expecting trouble. To their surprise, it was quiet, and a large trap door in the base of the structure laid wide open, inviting entry.

Being the quickest on foot, Wrathius went first. He slipped down the hole and found himself in a tight set of tunnels made of earth and stone. The team followed. It looked much like an old bunker or cellar.

Moving silently down the tunnel, they came to a curve, around which lay a large chamber lit by candle light. The sound of bubbling fluids was the only noise they could hear. The team charged into the room ready to lay waste to anything they found, but only managed to scare the fleas off a rather fat tabby cat sitting on a chair at the far end of the room.

As Cassandra attempted to sooth the poor kitty, now completely terrorized, the rest of the team looked around. Whoever was here had left, and left recently at that. Some of the Bunsen burners were still warm, indicating that whatever transpired here happened recently.

Quantum Elemental stood in a corner of the chamber, behind a blood red curtain, staring into a pool of stagnant water. Eron walked over to him and looked down. Cassandra came up behind him, "Boss, there isn't anyone here. Where to now?"

Eron, looking across the room at a small stone altar, looked over his shoulder. "Fire up the Defender. We’re headed for Greece.”

No one noticed as they left, but the fresco of Cerberus actually moved as the hell hound with three heads frothed at the mouth and turned to watch the heroes depart.

Elsewhere and Else-When...

Sitting on his throne, at the heart of a fortress which was miles high and twice as wide, on a throne of gold sat a godling. There was no doubt about it, his plan was coming to fruition. His servant on Earth, that mortal realm that had caused him so much grief before his ascension, was working hard to bring about his return and was succeeding just as foreseen.

The timely arrival of the brainless Ceratin had merely accelerated the plans and provided him with a vanguard army, however small, to effectively deal with the meddlesome heroes of Earth during his return. Once he got back, he would show those mortals the true meaning of power and all of the nations of the Earth will tremble at his mirth.