Redemption, Part 1

Season 2, Episode 1

written by Thomas Fritzinger

Chapter 1       

The Board is Set

 

On the Plains of Tartarous…

 

Raizo and Eron sat staring into the ebbing campfire.  The entire team, and all of the brave men and women who had followed them, huddled around similar campfires in the ruins surrounding the now destroyed portal. 

 

The situation was bleak.  Knoah was despondent and had spent most of the day staring into the distance.  Whatever was going on in his mind was probably best kept there for the time being.  The rest of the group, once they realized that nothing was coming through the gate, set about using the few supplies they had managed to bring to create a makeshift camp.  For the most part, they had been forced to scavenge wood from the only available source, the field of the crucified dead in the plains below.

 

The timbers were old and dry, which allowed them to light quickly, but they burnt out fast and gave little heat.  The hot, dry atmosphere in Tartarous gave way to bitter cold at night and many of the men and women present were huddled into groups for warmth, using rocks to break the wind.

 

Raizo turned to Eron, “What are we going to do?”  

Eron didn’t have a response.  All he could do was watch as the last licks of flame died down in his campfire and gave way to glowing embers.

 

Back On Earth…

 

Barthandalus watched as his army poured through the gateway, forming ranks at the base of the Akropolis.  In the rays of the setting sun, the entire force glinted of metal.  Athenians were busy fleeing the city and small fires could be seen in the distance.  Every roadway was packed with cars attempting to escape.  From the Parthenon, he had an unobstructed view and it pleased him.

 

In the distance he could make out helicopters, no doubt spreading the word of humankind’s impending doom to all.  He was content to let them stay where they were.  Let the fear spread.  Beyond them, out to a major highway stretching Southward, he could make out the faint shapes of the human’s machines of war.  Tanks and troop transports were rolling towards his force.

 

Turning to the portal, he watched as the first of his own armored troop transports rolled through.  It was a monstrous contraption made of wood and steel.  In its belly burned something noxious and the black smoke pouring out of it was hard to breathe… for a mortal that is. The smoke of one machine wasn’t damaging in the long run, but the 2 million troops behind it would turn the atmosphere of the planet into a thick layer of dense ash within weeks.

 

Soon, very soon, the carnage would begin.  Yes, today would be a glorious day indeed!

 

In orbit over Char…

 

“Be quiet!” Destiny leaned forward and looked out the viewports on the side of the Defender.  WyldeCard, who she had just chastised, folded his arms and slumped back into his chair. 

 

“But--” he started again only to be cut off by Destiny once more. 

 

“I don’t want to hear it, we’re getting them back.  Now just be quiet.  I don’t know how good the cloaking device on the Defender is and I really don’t want that Zingonian warship over there noticing us.”  Destiny sat in her own chair, looking anxiously out the viewport.

 

They sat in silence for a good half hour.  Finally, the warp drives on the back of the mighty vessel, and all of the other vessels in the Zingonian Sector Fleet, lit up.  One by one, they slipped into hyperspace bound in the direction of Earth.  Within seconds, the two heroes were alone.

 

Destiny flipped a switch on the console and the Defender uncloaked and powered its shields.  Floating in the debris of what was left of the Daedelus had helped the small craft avoid detection while cloaked.  It had saved their lives. “This thing have a hyperdrive?” 

 

Wyldecard got up and began rooting around.  “I know SoulSearcher left an instruction manual around here somewhere.  What are we going to do when we get back?”

 

“I don’t know Wylde.  I don’t know.”

 

In Hyperspace…

 

Commander Zixl sat in his command chair as his lieutenants discussed strategy around him.  He wasn’t really paying attention.  He held these meetings because it was expected of him.  In the long run, he trusted his own judgment.  This meeting was merely a formality.  The military officers surrounding him were all too aware of this fact.  They had learned over the years under his service to provide the information he needed with little to no analysis of the situation at hand.  To be honest, several of them were very glad.  His mind was unsurpassed in the field of military strategy and had gotten him through massive military engagements with minimal casualties.  To serve under him was a privilege.

 

Today, everyone was nervous.  They all knew what the humans had unwittingly done.  The Zingonians were instrumental in Barthandalus’ incarceration and getting him back to that bleak plane of existence would be a challenge indeed.

 

With a wave of his claw, Zixl dismissed the team surrounding him.  They all went back to their duties preparing the ship for war when the dropped from hyperspace.  He turned his attention to a series of manuscripts, paper manuscripts, arrayed before him.  They contained a complete history of the military engagements in the 100 year war that resulted in Zingon’s conquest of this sector of space and the entrapment of Barthandalus played a major role. 

 

Maybe there was something here that would help re-capture him before it was too late and his army was too massive to defeat with the sector forces he had been entrusted.

 

Chapter 2      

The Players are in Place

 

Back in the Garden of the Dead on Tartarus...

 

Dawn came quickly on the plain.  With little to buffer the sunlight except the morbid fruits hanging in the Garden of the Dead and the rocks in which the team was resting, the sunlight woke everyone from their fitful sleeps early.  The bitter cold of the night was quickly washed away and within a half hour of daybreak the temperature had risen to 75 degrees. 

 

Only three crates of provisions made it through the portal, which would keep everyone fed for about two days.  Breakfast consisted of cold MREs, probably packaged a decade ago.  Everyone ate quietly.

 

Time flowed more swiftly in this demi-plane.  Quantum Elemental could feel the difference even as he felt his powers being drawn away by some invisible force.  He could sense the drain, but it didn’t affect him quite as much as some of the others.  His connection to the Quantum Field was strong and this place was connected to it like all others. 

 

Glancing over at Caledonia, he felt pity.  The desperation of the situation was affecting her most of all.  Her psychic abilities were off the charts and the emotional state of the hundreds of people around her was affecting her greatly.  She could feel the despondency as if her body were being stuck by hundreds of needles at once.  It was sapping her strength and will quickly.  After one night, she was already finding it difficult to walk. 

 

Most of the normal humans were feeling drained, devoid of energy.  Several were getting lost in depression.  There was little he could do for them.

 

Knoah and the other Admirals were meeting quietly and had been for some time.  The tension was palatable.  Finally, Eron stepped forward and the other admirals, except Knoah, fell in line behind him. 

 

Eron addressed the group.  “I’m now the Grand Admiral of TKR.  Your admirals escaped from this place once before, we’ll do it again.  There’s another exit, the one leading back to Athens.  It’s a long way from here and we have limited supplies for the journey.  Pack up what you have.”

 

As the team packed, Eron pulled Raizo off to the side.  “Take your team ahead and scout the landscape.  We don’t want any nasty surprises.  Quan and Cap seem the least affected by this place, probably due to their connection to the Quantum Field, so we’ll keep Cap and you take Quan.  Also, take Zildoran.  He’s been here before.  Cassandra is still in bad shape.  We don’t have much time.”

 

“You got it.”  Raine gathered his team and started off in the direction of a distant mountain range following Zil’s lead. 

 

Turning to D, Eron put his hand on his shoulder.  “D, I need you to follow behind.  I don’t want anything sneaking up on us from the rear.  We might be losing our powers fast, but the humans are in even worse shape and we’re their only protection.”  D nodded and pulled his team aside to tell them the news.

 

“Cap,” Eron turned to his long time friend, “you keep your team nearby along with the others.  Since you seem to be affected the least by this place, I need you here.  I want your team to build stretchers out of the wood below just in case we need them down the road.”  Cap left to gather the Reverent Knights and set to work quickly.

 

Ten minutes later, the remainder of the team began trekking after Raizo.

 

Raizo and the rest of his team ran out between the hundreds upon hundreds of gruesome trees, each one more grotesque than the last.  Knoah had warned them about some of the creatures inhabiting this place and they were in no big hurry to meet them face-to-face, so they all kept to the ground.  Besides, those that could fly were already feeling the effects of this plane and its draining properties.  Conserving energy would be vital to survival.

 

Within a few minutes, they had put a mile between themselves and the rest of the team.  The terrain began sloping upwards towards the foothills of the mountains in the distance and flattened out even further.  A rumble from overhead alerted the team that a storm front was moving in, although there was no evidence of water ever having hit the ground on which they walked.  They slowed down to a swift jaunt and continued upwards.

 

Ray-El seemed uneasy as they continued.  He was a man of few words, leaning more towards his animal instincts to get his points across.  Something was bugging him.  Raizo looked his way and called the team to a halt.

 

Raizo didn’t say a word.  He knew his team inside and out.  He simply watched as Ray-El stood motionless, the hair on the back of his neck stiff.  After a few minutes, Raizo tentatively put his hand on Ray-El’s shoulder.  It elicited an immediate reaction and, had Raizo not have had invulnerability on his side it would have been fatal.  Ray-El extended his deadly claws and raked them across Raizo’s chest before realizing who he was attacking. 

 

He immediately retracted the claws and looked around at the rest of the team, a single bead of sweat dripping down his brow.  Raizo dusted his armor off and patted his friend on the back.  “No harm no foul.  I don’t know what’s got you spooked, but if you sense it again, at least say something.”  Ray-El nodded.

 

The team continued on as the storm rolled in. 

 

Somewhere else…

 

Darius looked through the pool of water at his feet at the rag-tag team led by Raizo.  Eron had chosen well to send a strong team ahead of the rest and set another behind the main force, but of course it wouldn’t be enough.  Even now, Hanzo was headed towards them with his army.  Before he had left, it was swollen with 1.5 million demonic ninjas.

 

Darius smiled.  This would be over quickly.  This would please his master indeed.  Darius began donning his battle armor.  You don’t mess with the god of war and his army…

 

Chapter 3

Opening Moves

Darius charged down the hillside on the back of Cerberus.  His lord and master had prohibited him from using the chariot a second time but this beast was doing nicely.  The first show of force was merely that anyway.  Most of it was illusion.  Although powerful, he was not gifted with that kind of raw might.  It made no matter.  The army given to him was more than enough and with the heroes’ powers diminishing, he should have no trouble dispatching them and planting a new orchard in his master’s garden.

 

He liked it better this way anyway.  Cerberus was a powerful beast.  Its back muscles heaved under the saddle crafted for the occasion.  Darius could easily fly there much more quickly, yet the intimidation of riding in on the legend below him would be a delight.

 

In the foothills…

 

An explosion of atomic energy tore through the first rank of ninjas as they descended the hill towards Raizo.  Ray-El was shooting off bolt after bolt into the oncoming horde.  Normally ninjas were hard to hit, yet with so many arrayed before him he couldn’t miss.  If it wasn’t for the reality of their situation, he would actually be having fun.

 

In return, a deadly rain of arrows and throwing stars blotted out the pale red sun overhead as soon as the army got in range.  It was all Ray-El could do to erect a kinetic barrier over the team to keep them from becoming living pincushions.  

 

The team had heard them coming.  It was hard to miss over a million foes descending upon them.  Barthandalus’ army didn’t even try to be quiet about it.  The ground was shaking ten minutes before they even saw the red kimonos.  The line stretched from horizon to horizon.

 

Quan had the most energy of the heroes and had erected a wall of quantum fire in each direction for miles out, forming a funnel that was forcing the army into a 50’ square area where the knights waited.  The plain was, however, draining him even as the Quantum Field replenished his strength.  Maintaining the wall was all he could do, but it was doing the job.  The entire force was descending upon the heart of Raizo’s team.

 

The Imperial Knights were not unused to difficult odds.  They knew that they were the first line of defense and that the humans they defended had no chance against the foes before them.  These odds were impossible.  It didn’t matter.  They had to hold the line somehow.

 

The first wave hit the heroes and the ground was soaked with blood.

 

Behind the main TKR lines…

 

D quietly sat in wait.  Lilith Frostnight had cloaked the entire team from sight, but it was straining him to do so.  This place was draining his powers quickly.  The Royal Knights team watched as rank after rank of ninjas crept up upon the TKR force a mile ahead of them.  There were easily a hundred thousand or more of them and they were more than a match for the humans and heroes struggling at the base of the foothills.

 

At D’s command, the entire team dropped out of the dimensional pocket in which they were waiting.  The trap had been sprung and the first startled ninjas were laid waste in mere seconds.  Vickous and John tore a swathe in their ranks and headed towards what appeared to be their leader.  D and the remainder of the team followed.  Yourlasthope and Huntress tore into the ninjas with glee.

 

As they got closer, D’s eyes shot open in surprise.  Before him riding a black mare was Fuma Hanzo himself.  Indeed, the Royal Knights had found the leader of this army.  He couldn’t wait to see Raizo’s expression when he told him that he had defeated Hanzo!

 

He prepared to assault Hanzo directly when Ray-El cried out in agony.  Turning quickly, he saw that Ray-El was sporting a large gash across his right arm and blood was flowing freely.  The offending ninja lay dead at his feet, but the damage had been done.  Ray-El had lost his invulnerability.

 

The elite guard around Hanzo turned their full attention on the Knights and began forcing them back towards the TKR main force.

 

This battle was turning out to be harder than he expected.

 

Chapter 3       

Check

 

In orbit over Char…

 

Although nearly a day had passed for the rest of the TKR, mere minutes had passed on the mortal plane.  Wylde was busy pouring over the manual he found under the captain’s chair in an e-reader while Destiny was flipping switches.  Seconds later, the Defender jumped to warp speed and darted off towards Earth. 

 

Destiny turned her chair around and faced the science panel.  Tapping a few keys on the board, she pulled up all of the TKR files related to Char.  As she poured over them, Wylde put down the book and joined her.  Diverting his attention, he began fiddling with the communicator on the Defender.

 

“What are you doing?”  Destiny stopped her research for a moment.  “My guess is that there are legends about this planet and what we just released.  I bet someone on Nexus has the answers and I met some Atlanteans there during the last League Wars that might know.”

 

The two went back to their respective tasks, unaware that they were headed straight into a nightmare.

 

In Hyperspace…

 

The Zingonian battleships were much slower in hyperspace than the Defender.  Although they had detected the smaller craft zipping by them, they could do nothing about it.  General Zixl  was surprised that there were any survivors, but admired them none the less.  To survive one of his assaults was a feat unto itself.

 

He turned from the control panel surrounding his command chair and flipped a switch.  His seat dropped into the floor and descended to the deck below.  It lowered him into his war room, currently unoccupied.  As he stood up, sensors detected his presence and lit up the chamber.  Maps of the surrounding star systems surrounded him on the walls.  A large holographic display of his fleet and the surrounding space sprung to life in front of him.

 

Reaching up, he made some motions with his claws and the scene re-wound.  Moving quickly in reverse, it showed what had transpired minutes before when the small vessel had shot past them.  Stopping it at the right moment, he was able to see the shape of the vessel.  It was a small craft bearing some resemblance to a Zingonian troop transport, but heavily modified.  It bore the distinct likeness of a human vessel. 

 

The humans were more technologically advanced than he was told if they could adapt to Zingonian technology.  Given the nature of the space vessels he had dispatched over Char, they had a ways to go, but they were certainly on the right track.  Within years they would be an interstellar race.  With the heroes on their world, they would undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with indeed.

 

He flipped his claw and the hologram disappeared.  Replacing it was a menu.  Selecting a series of alien characters, he pulled up a written history of Char.  Although he had been briefed about the legends surrounding Char, and his mission was made crystal clear by the Zingon leadership, he hadn’t taken the time to study it until the Humans appeared on the scene.  They had unwittingly released a monster.

 

The question before him now was this:  let the humans die and let the monster take their world or defeat it now while he had the chance.  It was a certainty that it had already started to gather its army.  Without the Zingonians, the humans didn’t stand a chance.  Not only that, but it wouldn’t stop at one world.  It nearly decimated fifteen star systems the last time it was released before the Zingonians defeated it.  On the other claw, he couldn’t be seen helping them, not with the political climate on Zingon regarding the mammals. 

 

He stood and thought for a while.  His antenna twitched and he touched his holographic keyboard once more and pulled up the human troop carrier once more that had bypassed them.  Maybe there was a way to defeat this terror after all and appear to be disinterested at the same time…

 

Chapter 4       

Checkmate

 

10 minutes later in the foothills…

 

Darius crested the rise and looked down the foothill to see his army completely surrounding the small force at its center.  Both the forward and rear forces deployed by Aaron had been forced inwards towards the main group, which had “circled the wagons”.  A hail of gunfire and energy bolts rang out from the heroes, but the sheer numbers of Barthandalus’ army were wearing them down and depleting their resources.

 

Back in the circle, Caledonia had been using her powers broadly to disorient any ninja unlucky enough to come within forty feet of the circle.  Her power at full level would have affected most of the army, but she wasn’t able to do that right now.  It made it possible for the rest of the team to hold them off for the time being.  When Darius crested the hill, she instantly knew.  His aura of arrogance and hatred pierced the veil created by the emotional states of everyone else present.  Catching sight of him, she turned around and grabbed the closest hero, Captain Atom.  She pointed at him and Cap smiled at her.  They both knew what had to be done. 

 

He bolted up into the air like a comet, changed directions and blasted towards Darius at top speed.  Caledonia used her psychic power to mask herself from the oncoming horde and charged out into the midst of them.  Although she couldn’t become invisible, she could affect the minds of those around her such that they did not notice her presence.  It worked and she ran through their ranks as fast as she could.

 

A bolt of concentrated energy shot from Darius at Cap but he deftly moved out of the way.  Counter-attacking, he hit Darius dead in the chest, dismounting him from Cerberus.  A second bolt of quantum energy sent Cerberus reeling back down the other side of the hill.  Darius returned in kind and shot multiple arcs of energy from his outstretched hand, one of which connected with Cap.  The senior Knight deflected the bolt with an energy barrier and the battle between the two continued for several minutes.

 

Back at the huddled group of heroes, the ninjas were breaking through the lines.  Many of the men and women present were starting hand to hand combat, having run out of ammo. The ninjas were, of course, trained for such combat and were readily winning that fight.  Seeing that there was little that could be done, Quan positioned himself over the assembled Knights and began spinning.  A vortex of green quantum fire erupted from the ground around the team and extended into the clouds above as if a stationary tornado of fire had landed on them.  The few unfortunate ninjas in the circle were cut down by Eron, StrongArm and The Great Angelia quickly while those outside the circle halted their advance.

 

It was draining Quan severely and the fires began dimming almost as quickly as they had appeared.

 

Cap and Darius continued their attack on one another.  While Cap weakened from the expenditure of energy, Darius gained strength.  Cap realized at that point that the force draining everyone wasn’t the plane of existence, it was this creature!  He was gaining the combined powers of all of the Knights as the rest of them slowly died off.  It was then that he knew what to do.

 

Darius raised his hands to the sky.  Dozens of lightning bolts rained down on Captain Atom, two of which connected.  The energy was massive and although he channeled much of it to the Quantum Field, the strain was too much and he fell to the ground smoldering.

 

Cap rose to his feet before the dust from his impact had settled but Darius was faster.  Darius moved swiftly and grabbed Cap by the throat.  Picking him up into the air, he began squeezing.  “Did you really think you had the power to challenge the favored of Barthandalus?”

 

Just then, from out of nowhere, Caledonia materialized behind Darius.  A three-foot- long psychic dagger protruded from her forearm and she shoved it as hard as she could into the base of Darius’ skull.  He let out a primal scream and released his grip on Cap as the dagger cut through his psyche and sent jolts of excruciating pain through his flesh.

 

Cap rose and looked him in the eye.  “Of course not, but in a second all of my friends will!”  With that, his eyes and hands lit to life and he put both on Darius’ chest.  Darius screamed in pain as the energy flowing through his body was drained away.  Cap was using his own power of transmutation to suck Darius’ energy out and funnel it back to the rest of the Knights!

 

Behind the TKR force…

 

Black lightning arched across the sky as the clouds began to swirl.  The rest of the Knights felt a massive rush of energy as all of their power returned in one fell swoop.  From a distance, Fuma Hanzo watched the proceeding and recognized at once what had happened. 

 

He turned to depart and was confronted by Raizo, surrounded on the ground by a dozen dead ninja.  “So, Hanzo, we find each other once again.”

 

“Out of my way mortal.”

 

“Over my undead body.”

 

“We’ll see about that!”  Hanzo charged his one time rival.

 

Quan, re-energized from the surge of energy, re-intensified his shield and expanded it over the ninja army.  The first rows were vaporized.  As he let it expire, the rest of the TKR heroes burst forth and began laying waste to the wretched warriors.  With their powers restored, not even Hanzo’s demonic horde stood a chance.  Tens of thousands fled the field of battle as Barthandalus’ army suffered its first defeat.

 

As the dust settled.  The Great Angelia found the site where Hanzo and Raizo had clashed.  Both were lying on the ground, Raizo’s katana broken at the hilt beside him.  The only difference was that Raizo was still breathing.  He grinned from ear to ear.  She smiled back and they both started laughing. 

 

Up on the hill…

 

Darius slumped to the ground, completely drained.  His heartbeat was erratic and his complexion was pale.  With a wild eyed look, he tried to mouth words but there was no strength left in his body to breathe.  His eyes, once teeming with raw power, now looked a dull grey.  They rolled back in his head and he expired.

 

Caledonia and Cap looked down on him.  “I didn’t mean to kill him,” Cap said quietly.

 

Caledonia turned to Cap, “You didn’t.  He was already dead.  I could feel it when I hit him.  His power was the only thing sustaining him.”

 

Minutes later, Eron crested the rise.  Putting his hand on Cap’s back, he looked further over the hill at the mountain range only a few miles away.

 

“Tonight we rest.  Tomorrow, we go home.  The worst of it still lies ahead of us.”

 

To be continued…

Author's Note

The story follows a group of superheroes and is a direct followup to the first season of stories. Each set of heroes is based on leagues in the Superhero City game, and collectively multiple leagues form The Knights' Republic.

This story finds the entire TKR team trapped in an otherworldly dimension after a large scale battle with alien forces forced them through a portal, which was subsequently destroyed, trapping them.

For more information, refer back to the first season.