Extreme Justice: The Cleansing

The Archlich's plan comes to fruition.

The Cleansing

 

Captain Atom rubbed his temple.  His encounter with Sin was a memory he wished he could erase.  It was like having every one of the demons in his mind all at once.  The nightmares of the ordeal had lasted nearly a month straight and he was experiencing hallucinations on the job on occasion still.  Caledonia of the Akkadian Knights had been working with him to heal his broken psyche for the last two weeks and it seemed to be helping.  Her healing powers were growing exponentially.

 

He was sitting at a computer panel at the Akkadian Knights’ moon base in a high backed chair.  Their own base nestled in the Blue Ridge mountain range in Virginia had been decimated during the Zig attack a few weeks ago and they were thankful that their friends had been kind enough to take them in while they looked the a replacement. The AK team, for the most part, had temporarily relocated back to their keep in Britain.  He picked up a steaming cup of sun brewed tea on the computer console in front of him and took a sip.  With his left hand he rubbed his right shoulder.  Ever since he acquired the scars from Sin, he’d had pain even through his alien exo-shell.  It was a disquieting experience. 

 

He examined the monitors in front of him intently.  The new satellites the Akkadian Knights had put into orbit after the massive space battle with the Zingonians a few weeks ago were far superior to the ones that were present previously.  The destruction of the Zig flagship had cleared away half of the satellites in orbit over the entire planet.  Apparently the satellites were ready to be used before the battle, and this gave the team a good reason to implement the deployment a few months early.

 

The current display showed a cross section of the Atlantic seaboard of the United States.  It was criss-crossed with dark blue lines running from Southwest to Northeast for the most part.  Smaller, lighter blue lines ran in-between the dark lines, forming a grid of sorts that reminded him a great deal of a spider’s web.  Frankly, it was giving him a headache, although that wasn’t a hard thing to accomplish at the moment.

 

He looked up at Jumper, standing beside him, “So… what am I looking at again?” 

 

Jumper reached up and began tracing one of the small, light blue lines on the 52’ screen in front of him.  “These are called ley lines.  They are magical lines of energy that cover the entire surface of Earth.  They connect our world to more supernatural planes of existence.  They are part of the reason why I can do what I do.”

 

His finger finally got to a larger, dark blue line, “these larger lines are major ley lines.  The smaller ones flow into them like streams to a river.  These form major intersections between worlds and dimensions.  Many times when we find new super-powered beings on Earth, they are found around these lines.”

 

He traced the thick line to a point where five thick lines touched near Myrtle Beach, Virginia.  “This point, where multiple major ley lines intersect, is called a nexus point.  If the large lines are rivers, and the small lines feed them, the nexus point would be a whirlpool they dump into.  These points form direct links between our world and others.  Our own Boom Tube utilizes one of these nexus points on the north pole to send our teams to other dimensions and alternate Earths.  The AK team went to an alternate earth a few months ago to help out the Dark Kings this way.” *

 

Cap’s brow furrowed.  “Magic…”  The word dripped off his tongue.  He had distaste for the stuff.  It had been a recurring pain in his butt over the years.  He was personally immune to it, his alien exo-shell providing an unearthly amount of protection, but the same could not be said for his team mates.  “And explain to me once more why we care about this?”

 

A deep voice behind him startled him.  “Because we need to know about it.”  Bat MAn moved up behind the two very quietly.  Jumper was always amazed at how incredibly stealthy this normal human was. 

 

“We found this energy signature in the shards of the amulet that Phoenix destroyed.  When we used our new satellites to trace it, we expected to find only a few other sources.  We were wrong.  The entire planet is ringed with this type of energy.”

 

Jumper turned to the Dark Knight, “so why haven’t we noticed it before now?”

 

Bat MAn returned the gaze, “because the tech in our satellites is Atlantean in nature.  We had not progressed technologically far enough to detect this until now.”

 

Cap leaned back in the chair to mull it over.  What could it all mean?  Why would an undead super villain be at the bottom of the ocean trying to turn people into the walking undead?  What possible purpose could it have?

 

He turned and peered out of the large windows overlooking the base.  He was currently situated in the central spire at the center of the complex.  Surrounding it were several dome shaped structures.  Each served a different purpose from food and oxygen generation to manufacturing facilities.  It was developing into a veritable city.  Beyond that were multiple docking bays designed to be a home for the Gods Knights’ fleet of battleships.  Currently there was only one, the Orion, and it was in no shape to go anywhere.  A small army of robots scurried around it working on exterior repairs.

 

With no atmosphere and little sunlight, he had an unobstructed view of the heavens.  There wasn’t even a satellite to mar it.  He felt his headache start to melt away.

 

The intercom over his head crackled to life.  StrongArm’s voice came over it summoning the team to the briefing room a few floors down.  Break time was apparently over.

 

 

StrongArm stood before a very large table.  Small, recessed LED lights overhead lit up the table, leaving the rest of the barren room dark.  There were no chairs in the room.  It was a true briefing room.  The center of the table contained a rather large and complex holographic projector, but it was currently turned off.  Instead, StrongArm, Atomix and Draconaire were huddled around an ancient papyrus scroll.  It was so old and delicate that Draconaire was using his powers of telekinesis to suspend it in the air over the table.  As the team entered the room, Atomix was waving her hand over it slowly.  She bid them to come closer. 

 

As soon as they rounded the table, Scorpio, Stormageddon and PkPkay found their way in.  Dark Heart came out of a side room carrying a tablet PC and set it on the table.  Atomix started the briefing.

 

“This map was acquired from a museum of Celtic antiquities yesterday.  The curator is a good friend of my father’s and it wasn’t too hard to convince him to help us out once I explained the situation.  He was frankly overjoyed that his own belief in ley lines would finally be proven.  Uhm… in fact he’s right here.  Professor Caffey?”

 

The small door from which Dark Heart had entered the room opened again and a elderly gentleman entered the room.  He was about 5 and a half feet tall and looked like he had one too many pints at the pub.  His ponderous belly was covered by an old brown leisure coat and his bow-tie was slightly askew.  He had scraggly facial hair and coke-bottle glasses that looked to weigh more than he did.

 

He stepped up to the map and spoke.  His English was solid, although he had a decidedly Celtic accent. “You see here the ley lines around northern Eurpopa.”  As he spoke, he used a small laser pointer to identify the pencil like lines crossing the scroll.

 

“These lines are intersections of magical energy on the planet and I believe they extend far beyond our own isle.  Your computer models seem to confirm this.”  He moved in closer and pulled out a magnifying glass.  “The illuminated manuscript at the bottom of the page clearly identifies this manuscript as having been written by King Beowulf some years ago.  It also states that it was derived from documents stolen from a Viking colony in isles to the North.” 

 

The team was quiet up to this point.  Scorpio spoke up, “so, what you are saying is that we’ve known about these things for a long time now.  So why does it matter?”

 

“Ah… good question!”  The professor perked up at that.  Reaching behind him, he found a small table with a metal box on it.  Bringing it forth, he carefully opened the lid, revealing a small sliver of green glasslike material.  “This is why my friend!”

 

PkPkay chimed in, “we’ve finished a cursory analysis of the material.  It is extraterrestrial in origin and radiates the same type of energy as the ley lines.  We think it may have come from some realm beyond our own connected deeply to these things.”

 

“Oh, I can do you one better than that my friend!”  The professor brought out a small leather journal and started flipping through the pages.  After each couple of pages, he would shake his head or utter “no, that’s not it”, but after a while he finally stopped, put the book on the table and slammed a pudgy finger into it.  “Ah ha!”

 

“This is Asgardian in nature!”  In 1913, an object of similar materials was acquired in an old Viking long ship off the coast of France.  The ship was covered in a gelatin like substance that we could not identify and covered in a layer of silt at the bottom of the English Channel.  In it was a chalice of fantastic beauty.  The divers to find it reported that it glowed of its own accord in the depths of the ocean where no light touched it.”

 

“Legend has it that six days after it’s recovery a host of angelic female warriors descended upon the warehouse in which it was stored, cutting down any men that got in their way.  They flew off on winged horses into the night with the chalice, never to be seen again.”

 

StrongArm remembered the Valarie he fought early in his career.  If these were the same, then the object could truly be from one of the Asgardian planes.  “So, does it tell us how to find out for sure?”

 

“Actually,” Atomix interjected, “I found something interesting when I examined it a while ago.  Check this out!”  She lifted her hand over it and used her power of static manipulation to send sparks of electricity into the document.  The Professor’s eyes went wide and he started to object until he saw the results a second later.

 

The ley lines on the map began to glow.  Moreover, the map itself began to change.  Where the major lines intersected, glowing orbs began to appear.  One, over London, looked much like the planet Earth.  A second, farther North in Ireland, looked much different and more resembled Mars, although there were distinct differences.  After a few moments, she let her hand down and took a deep breath. 

 

Electrical generation was in her vast repertoire of powers, but she was still developing it and it took a lot out of her.  Dark Heart was still not quite over the energy drain she inflicted on him to boost it last time.  Even now she felt uneasy around him, uncomfortable about what she had done without his consent.  He’d been a perfect gentleman about it, but she could sense the hesitation in his voice sometimes.

 

At any rate, the professor was the next voice to rise up, excitedly pointing to the map as he did.  “THAT WAS BLOODY AMAZING!”

 

PkPkay studied it for a moment.  “You know, I bet we could set the sensors in our satellite array to find the points around the globe with high concentrations of major ley lines and look more closely at their energy readouts.”

 

Cap grinned.  “Go for it.  In the meantime, I want Atomix and Dark Heart to return this map to the museum and see if there are any others.  StrongArm, you will go with Scorpio and Jumper back to the site where we freed the cruise liner and see if there are any other clues we missed.  The rest of you stay here.  Something is going down and we need to stay on top of this.”

 

As StrongArm, Scorpio and Jumper stepped into the Boom Tube PkPkay gave them each a small ring.  “Wear this.  I’ve attuned it to disrupt a specific frequency, the one used by the shard we found.  If anyone tries to use it on you again, it should stop the effects.”

 

The heroes gladly accepted the gift.  Moments later the boom tube came to light and in a bright flash of light the three were gone.  Dark Heart and Atomix were next accompanied by the professor.  The heroes, too, were given rings by PkPkay and disappeared to return the map. 

 

 

The air in the old library was musty.  It smelled like mold and paper dust.  Dark Heart couldn’t help but sneeze.  It didn’t matter all that much since there wasn’t another soul in the building, but professor Mackin turned around and shushed him anyway.  Old habit he supposed. 

 

The three walked among the stacks of manuscripts, books, tomes and parchment towards the back of the library.  Buried in the piles of documents was a stout wooden door.  The professor produced a rather large key ring with dozens of keys on it and started flipping through them one by one until he finally came on the right key.  He pushed it into the lock and turned it.  The grating of the ancient metal lock could be heard.  Turning the knob, he put his shoulder into the door and with some effort it opened into a dark chamber.

 

Pulling a flashlight from his coat, he entered the room.  He bid the two heroes to wait outside.  A few moments later, after some curses as the professor tripped over something in the dark room, and the light came on.  A single incandescent bulb, tarnished over time, lit the chamber.  The dust was thick and the air was very dry.  Atomix could see several shelves lining the walls of the room.  There were moth balls all over the room and the air stunk with them. 

 

The professor walked over to an old wooden chest and lifted the heavy lid.  Carefully pulling out an animal’s hide from inside, he carefully wrapped up the map and began oiling the outside of the leathery case.

 

When he was done and the map was safely stored back in the chest, he turned and produced a book from nearby.  It was a large tome, worn with age and sporting a thick leather binding with gilded pages.  He pulled a three legged stool out of the corner and laid the book down on top of it.  Opening it up, he began flipping through the pages one by one.

 

Atomix looked up at the shelf and saw something behind the documents, the light in the room catching it just right to let her know of its existence.  As she reached for it, the professor looked up at her, “no no no, young one.  There are some things in this room that are best left alone.”

 

She carefully withdrew her hand.

 

He continued flipping until he finally stopped on a page showing a rudimentary map of the planet, from the Eastern Seaboard of the United States to the east most tip of Asia Major.  He turned the book around so that Atomix and Dark Heart could see.

“This is one of the earliest known Viking maps.  It covers the land that the longships were able to document in their travels.  You’ll notice two things.  One is that there is no detail in Asia.”  He, of course, was right.  It was a large blank space.  “You will also notice these faint lines criss-crossing the whole thing.”

 

The two looked carefully and did indeed see the lines.  They were faint but present.  Atomix lifted up her hand carefully and hovered over the page.  Allowing the static electricity in her body well up, she poured it into the page.  As with the other document, this one began to glow.  The professor’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head.

 

“I knew it!”

 

As Atomix poured on more energy, the lines around the globe began to form a picture.  They pulsed upwards and she felt feedback coming back towards her.  She pulled her hand away from the page, surprised by the feeling.  The lines continued to glow.  The binding of the book, face down on the stool, began to illuminate brightly and the picture on the page jumped out of the page to form a 3d representation of a tree. 

 

 

The lines extended upwards from the map on the page to the tree above, forming a spectacular sight.  Dark Heart put his hand on Atomix’ shoulder.  “I think we found what we were looking for!”  She reached up to pat his hand on her shoulder in affirmation of their shared excitement and he withdrew it quickly. 

 

Turning around, he activated his comm. device.  “Cap, we’re coming in.  We found something useful.”  The comm. spit static back at him.

 

Atomix, looked back at him.  He turned to her, “My comm. is out.  Mind giving it a go?”

 

She touched the device on her neck and static beamed back at her.  Just then, her body went rather stiff and her eyes lit up an unearthly white.  “We’re being jammed.  Something is coming this way.”

 

The professor knew trouble when he saw it and ushered the two out of the room.  “You’re not having trouble in my vault.”

 

The ground shook once.

 

The two moved outside swiftly.  As they did, the ground continued to shake in a rhythmic pattern.  Something big was coming.  Although the sun was behind clouds, the light was still bright as they exited the front of the old library.  There weren’t any other buildings around.  The Royal Archives at which the professor worked was a small building on a rather large research campus and it was rather secluded in the Welsh countryside.  Aside from a large grove of trees to the south, there was little around them except prairie.  The two looked for the source of the noise. 

 

They didn’t have long to wait.  Cresting the rise of a nearby hill was an abomination like no other.  As high as a three story building, the humanoid beast was made out of the bodies of men and women, all of which were in a dismal state of decay.  Their rotting corpses were crushed together in a grisly display.  Instead of hands it had two ponderous claws, one on each forearm that seemed to be made of human bones.  Each claw was easily six feet long. 

 

The most horrifying aspect was the creature’s face.  The thing’s entire head was a mass of hundreds of skulls, most covered with rotting flesh. The sight was gruesome to say the least and Atomix felt an involuntary retch come to her throat.

 

The monstrosity stopped a few hundred feet away.  Given its great size, it was only a dozen steps or so from them.  It leaned over and let out a primal scream.  Rather than opening a giant maw, each of the heads that comprised the bulbous mass on top of its shoulders screamed at once.  The result was a sound that resembled hundreds of people crying out in agony all at once.

 

Dark Heart looked at Atomix.  Neither of them had quite mastered flight yet although Atomix could move herself around slowly in the air, but couldn’t carry Dark Heart for sure.  Without a means to call out or get away, they were stuck facing this thing.  There was really one way out, and it was through the demon.

 

Dark Heart charged an attack.  His hands started to shimmer as power accumulated.  “Well, looks like this thing picked a good day to go back to hell!”

 

 

StrongArm took a deep breath and plunged in.  The sea water was cold and salty.  It was a good thing he could hold his breath well because they had a long way down to go.

 

Although the submarine was long gone, the trench it left in the silt at the ocean floor was still there.  It was obvious from the sediment that it wouldn’t take long before the sea reclaimed the spot and make it nearly impossible to identify that anything had ever happened there.

 

Scorpio got there first.  He extended his palm outwards and a blue-green light shot forth, scanning the ocean floor in a grid like pattern.  A 3-d display rose from his gauntlet, showing the ocean floor with a superimposed map on top of it.  Technical readouts on soil composition, depth and water pressure started to run across the display as he did his research. 

 

Jumper was the next to reach the ocean floor.  He didn’t have the ability to hold his breath for extended periods of time like StrongArm and Scorpio.  He was wearing a miniature SCUBA apparatus as a result.  Fortunately, his powers of flight allowed him to move through the water easily without needing to swim.  He started to scan the floor visually for anything unusual.

 

Floating above them, StrongArm was the first to notice the disturbance.  Some 100 feet away he could barely make out a cloud of silt rising from the ocean floor.  Looking closer, he noticed a green light shining through the dust on occasion.   It was getting brighter as he watched and a large, dark shape moved around it.

 

He tapped his comm. and sent Morse Code to his companions.  Each stopped what they were doing and all three moved in the direction of the cloud.  As they got closer, the green light became more pronounced.  They entered the cloud together.

Scorpio attempted to use a microburst of concussive force to move away some of the dust, but all it did was to create a deafening noise.  He had forgotten that water is much denser than what he was used to. 

 

A dark shadow covered the team.  Something big was in the dust cloud with them.  The three heroes moved back to back on the ocean floor, each facing a different direction.  They knew danger when they saw it. 

 

Without warning, strong claws grabbed StrongArm by the back and ripped him up into the murky darkness. The other two heroes turned to follow and a large, bony object slammed into them, sending them back down into the silt at their feet and sending yet another dusty cloud into the water around them. 

 

Scorpio rose as quickly as he could and looked to Jumper, still dazed on the floor at the edge of his vision some five feet away.  Before he could react, something grabbed Jumper by the feet and dragged him swiftly off into the cloud, a look of terror on his face. 

 

Scorpio attempted to follow, but found nothing.  All trace of Jumper was gone.  A large shadow covered him and he knew that whatever they were facing was now near the source of the green light.  He could feel the pounding of his own heart as his adrenaline spiked.

 

He braced himself and flew through the water as quickly as he could towards the light.  The dust parted as he got closer to it.  He saw a strange object before him.  It resembled a large candelabrum with three candle holders.  In each one was a glowing green stone nearly identical to the one retrieved by the team the last time they were here.  The stalk of the object was made of white stone and carved with reliefs of skulls up and down it’s length.

 

StrongArm and Jumper were at the base of the object, bound in what appeared to be black energy.  Jumper was out cold, but StrongArm was aware and his eyes were wide looking over Scorpio’s shoulder.  He was no idiot and turned around, leveling his most powerful energy blast directly behind him.

 

Normally, salt water is not that conductive.  Fresh water was a different matter, but salt water disperses electricity much more efficiently and Scorpio remembered this.  What he didn’t realize was that his blast was so powerful that it actually ionized the salt particles in the water to a degree that it instantly started boiling in place.  A blast of intense steam shot back at him, knocking him to his knees.  It was painful but at least it finally drove away the silt in the water.

 

He looked up, drained by his own attack, and saw a massive skull with razor like teeth descend out of the water above him.  A sinuous band of black energy wound around his body and within seconds he found himself helpless on the ocean floor.  Large claws extended downward as the gigantic skeletal entity landed on the ocean bed on either side of him.  The undead creature’s eyes burned with an unholy light and Scorpio recognized his foe.

 

A voice rang in his head like nails on a chalkboard, “Silly little man.  You should always think in 3 dimensions when fighting in water.”

 

With that, the Hollow King’s eyes burned bright orange and the green shards behind the heroes burned with a brilliant blast of energy.   The glow extended to the Knights on the ocean floor.  Intense pain filled their bodies.

 

StrongArm let out a primal scream audible even in the water.  Anyone watching would have seen their bones light up in the darkness.  The three heroes vaporized in the Hollow King’s sight.

 

The Hollow King looked up and concentrated.  “Archlich, your plan progresses.  Your promises will be more than hollow words or I will tear you apart myself.”

 

“No worries ally.  You will receive everything you wish.” On his throne many miles to the south, the Archlich allowed a grin to cross his features.  The Hollow King was proving to be a good choice after all.

 

 

PkPkay pushed the intercom button and summoned the team.  Within moments, Cap, Phoenix, Draconaire and Stormageddon were all assembled in front of the large computer consoles in the command center of the moon base.  PkPkay was busy pulling up a map of the Earth.

 

Cap spoke first, “While PkPkay pulls that up, we seem to have lost contact with the teams we sent out just a bit ago.  Dark Heart and Atomix’ signal is being jammed at the source and the others are nowhere to be found.”

 

“Can’t we just, you know, boom tube them back?”  Stormageddon’s question was obvious, but it had an obvious answer.  PkPkay explained that the Boom Tube needed coordinates to operate, and usually they got that through radio contact or by some other means. 

 

PkPkay finally brought up the console.  It showed a complete map of the planet, criss crossed as it was with thousands of thin green lines.  “What you see here is a map containing the large ley lines around the planet.  The small ones are almost too numerous to count.”

 

He pushed some buttons on the keyboard and dozens of green dots lit up at points around the Earth.  “Here, you see spiked in the energy we detected in the green shard we collected.  These spikes just flared up in the last hour.  Although not nearly powerful enough to warrant the energy shell we saw before, they are growing in intensity.”

 

“I remember seeing the gem leeching power off of a nuclear submarine.  These must have a power source too.”  Phoenix went to a parallel console and started in with his own research.  “The problem is that I cannot find it, whatever it may be.”

 

PkPkay turned to the Knights. “There’s another problem related to these ley lines you need to be aware of.  A year ago we faced Barthandalus, the demi-god, when he attempted to bring an army through a portal at the Parthenon in Greece.  After it was over, we did some studies on the energy output the gate generated and stored them in the system.  Bat MAn has been leading an international effort to identify more gateways and permanently shut them down across the globe. 

“It turns out that four large ley lines meet at the Acropolis in Greece, explaining the gateway at the Parthenon.  In fact, every gate we’ve identified around the globe lies along major ley lines.  There are thousands of such points. 

 

“The energy readings from the shard directly match the readings from the gateway in Greece.  They are a direct match.  Whatever that thing is, it came from an otherworldly plane.”  At this he glanced at Cap as if to express his discomfort with his own theory, “we think the shard came from Tartarous or a plane connected to it.”

 

Draconaire raised his hand slightly.  “Wait a second.  Tartarous is a mythological Greek thing.  Ley lines are mythology from the more Celtic cultures.  First off, they are myth and second they aren’t connected.  What gives?”  Phoenix and Stormageddon leaned in, eager to hear the answer to this one.

 

Cap took a second to respond, making sure to choose his words carefully.  “A year ago the Knights Republic was thrust into a war.  We were trapped in an alternate plane of existence by a particularly ruthless Zingonian commander.  We returned just in time to do battle with a demi-god from that plane called Barthandalus.  We lost several Knights in that battle.”**

 

“At any rate, we managed to defeat him and close the gateway through which his armies were entering our world.  We think it was Tartarous, but whatever it was was nasty and definitely not Earthly in origin. 

 

“Aside from that, the ley lines do exist and we can prove it.  Whether they are magical in nature or something else has yet to be seen, but they are fact.  We’re not sure what the connection is yet.”

 

“Well, one thing’s for sure, we need to find our team mates.”  PkPkay was busy attempting to locate them once more on the console.  As he did, green dots of light lit up all over the globe like a Christmas tree.  One, in particular, on the Eastern seaboard of the United States, shone most of all.  Draconaire pointed at it, “Isn’t that where StrongArm went?”

 

“Yes, and it’s where their signals stopped.”  PkPkay was right.  He started to prep the Boom Tube. 

 

Cap started towards the teleporter.  “There’s no time to lose.  Lets move!”

 

 

The gigantic claw raked the ground at Dark Heart’s feet.  As the monster hit, it left a deep gash in the ground as if the soil and rock were no impediment to it at all.  Its unholy strength was amazing and its next blow tore a tree in half behind him.  Dark Heart had always been swift of foot, and this thing was making him work out for sure. 

 

As he ducked another mighty blow, he ran up close and planted an Atomic Grasp on the creature’s midsection.  As he did, the corpses woven into its body recoiled from his touch, showing human pain.  He hesitated for a moment, unsure if he was hurting the creature or people trapped in it.  It took advantage of the hesitation and with one swipe sent him flying through the air and into the professor’s large land rover.  The blow was so powerful that both Dark Heart and the vehicle went reeling off around the side of the library.

 

Turning, the creature looked for Atomix, hundreds of hollow eye-sockets scanning the surrounding landscape.  It wasn’t until it felt the attack from above that it realized she was over its heads.  Atomix hovered in the air over it and rained down atomic death from above.  Her main power was an incredible blast of thermonuclear radiation.  She rarely used it, as most of her opponents were living, but could make an exception in this case.  Her hair flew about her and arcs of electricity sparked between each follicle.  The energy blast was only visible as a distortion of the air between her and the creatures as if looking through the fumes off a hot car hood in the Texas summer heat.

 

The creature’s body started to bubble and bleed.  She could hear the snapping of bones.  She could also smell the burning of human flesh.  Once again she had to fight the need to retch.  As if this thing didn’t stink enough, now it was a burning stench.  It was so distracting that she lost focus for a moment.  Her assault weakened just long enough for the beast to strike back.  With one swift stroke, it sent dozens of sharp bone shards up at her from its outstretched claw. 

 

She dodged all but one, which slammed into her arm and sent her spinning back.  She lost focus and, not being the strongest flyer, fell to the ground below.  She landed hard in front of the front doors to the library as the creature bounded up.  It raised its massive frame upwards and poised both claws for the killing stroke.  As it came down, a fast moving shape flew through the air and a large, 2 ton humvee slammed into the monster’s head.  Skulls and body parts flew off of it as it fell on its side.  Dark Heart ran up and positioned himself between Atomix and the creature.  She was barely conscious and unable to defend herself. 

 

The monster quickly rose back up and swiped at Dark Heart.  He met the claw head on and although his feet dug trenches in the concrete below him, he stopped it.  Pushing back hard, he forced the demon’s arm up into the air.  It was quicker than he supposed though and the other arm hit Dark Heart from behind.  He hit the ground hard, cracking the concrete next to Atomix as he landed. 

 

The ground shook behind him.  He could sense the demon rising up once again for a final blow.  This time he couldn’t even roll over to see it coming.  Then the door to the library opened up and the professor waddled out.  Dark Heart tried to issue a weak warning to him but instead coughed.  Blood poured out of his mouth.  The blow was harder than he initially thought.

 

A bright white light erupted somewhere over his head.  He felt a surge of warmth run through his body.  He could hear the professor yelling something in a foreign tongue and cold hear the screams of hundreds of voices above him.  He struggled to roll over and look up. 

 

The light was blinding and it was coming from something the professor was holding.  Dark Heart had to cover his eyes.  Staggering to his feet, he felt his wounds fading away.  He felt his strength returning.  He reached over and pulled Atomix to her feet.  She, too, was feeling much better.  Looking up, the demon was nowhere to be seen.  The light was fading and the professor lowered his arm. 

 

Atomix looked around, “Where did it go?”  They both looked at the little old man before them.

 

“It was a creature from the Underworld.  Such a beast was recorded in some of my ancestors’ manuscripts, but I never believed I’d see one.  I took a chance and exorcised it.”

 

“How?”  Atomix was looking at the object in his hand.

 

“This is a special candle.  It brings light to the darkness.  It has the power to drive away evil.”  He handed the tiny white wax candle to her.  The candle was only a stub with a tiny wick.  It was nothing, yet it seemed to have such power.

 

“Be careful, it’s only got a few uses left.  Now, where’s my humvee?”  He walked off looking around the side of the building.  Dark Heart simply rubbed the back of his head and gave Atomix an expression that clearly said “oops”. 

 

Atomix shook her head and touched her communicator.  “Sorry Professor Mackin, we may owe you one.  PkPkay, Boom Tube for two please.”

 

Moments later, the two were back on the moon base.

 

 

Captain Atom hovered over the ocean.  The heroes with him were all capable of flight and were beside him.  “Draconaire, do you sense them?” 

 

Draconaire was using a little toy Jumper had given him that expanded his mental capacities greatly.  It was a thin copper ring that he had placed over his head.  It enabled him to project his mental powers much farther than normal and gave him much more control over his own internal demons. He wore it frequently as a result.

 

Below him, he could sense nothing.  He didn’t feel one fish, he didn’t feel one living bacteria.  He certainly didn’t sense his team mates.  “Sorry.  I don’t pick up anything… wait.”  Just then, he sensed something different.  It was a strong psychic presence and it was getting closer.  “Something’s coming up to us!”

 

The team lifted higher in the air as the water at the surface of the ocean began to bubble.  A large bubble of steam rose up out of the water, washing the team in hot gas.  Quickly, Cap extended a shield around the group to protect them from the hot air.  No sooner had he done it than something hit the shield hard from below.  In the cloud of vapor, it was hard to see it well.  The blow sent the team flying through the air out of the cloud of vapor.  Recovering, they turned around to see a massive skeletal form move out of the column of smoke slowly, slithering through the air like a snake.  They all immediately recognized the Hollow King.

 

The undead Hollow King opened his mouth and issued forth demons of all kinds.  Although most were the size of small children, several were man sized and larger.  They attacked the heroes en-masse and battle was joined.

 

Ever the strategist, Cap was caught off guard and each hero was caught fending for themselves.  Stormageddon would have it no other way and relished the opportunity to unleash his full array of powers on a foe that could take it.  He shot straight for the Hollow King, blasting through the swarm of minor demons in his way.  Draconaire and Phoenix started tearing into the little winged creatures, blasting them to bits with each shot.  Cap attempted to swing around them to find a way to the center of the swarm to attack Hollow King, only to find that they had intensified in number and blocked his every move.

 

For every demon that was felled, another two took its place.  Draconaire and Phoenix were proving their worth ten times over as they worked their way slowly into the swarm.  Phoenix would blast Energy Rain into the swarm as Draconair chose the direct approach and took them on hand-to-hand.  Cap watched in amazement between his own Relic Storms.  They worked their way together and worked in tandem as a team to begin dismantling the swarm around them systematically.

 

At the center of the storm of demons, Stormageddon was having a difficult time with Hollow King.  He seemed to be drawing energy from something and his bones were as hard as metal.  His attacks had power like never before and his psychic abilities were making it hard for Stormageddon to think straight.  The battle between the two was epic and going on longer than Stormageddon had initially thought.

 

As the teams battled, Stormageddon struck a lucky blow on the Hollow King and he reared back in pain.  Several of the demons vaporized in an instant, apparently only able to exist on this plane with his mighty concentration.  Stormageddon pressed the attack and sent the Hollow King on the defensive.  More demons disappeared and the rest of the team instantly joined in on the attack.  Before long, the Hollow King was wearing down and his minions had all but disappeared.  He hovered in the air over the water and the four heroes circled him.  Stormageddon spoke up, “it’s over.  Now tell us where our friends are!”

 

The undead only laughed.  “They are 9 days down as the anvil falls.” 

 

Cap knew the reference.  In Norse mythology, Asgard was as far above Midgard, or the Earth, as the Underworld was below it.  It would take an anvil 9 days to fall from Asgard to Earth and anther 9 to fall the rest of the way to the Underworld.

 

Below them, the sea lit up a brilliant green in all directions.  A flash of power issued up from the water and pushed past the heroes.  Cap could feel the tingle of magic on his body.  The small amulet provided to them by PkPkay began to glow brightly.  His comm. came to life.

 

“Cap!”  It was PkPkay and he sounded excited, “Cap, the sensors are going crazy.  There are spikes of energy all over the planet.  What’s going on down there?”

 

The Hollow King’s eyes came to life and burned bright orange.  Stormageddon felt the surge of energy first and shot straight up into the air.  He knew a forced teleportation when he felt one.  The other three heroes were not as lucky.  They each screamed as pain rushed through their bodies.  A second later, the Hollow King floated in the air alone.

 

Below him, a dome of green energy erupted from the water and began expanding outwards at an incredible rate.  It passed over the undead monster some 500 feet in the air and he started laughing uncontrollably.

 

From his vantage, Stormageddon had seen his team disappear and saw the dome advancing.  He had no desire to get caught in that dome and really didn’t want to test the effectiveness of the amulet he had been given.  Touched the comm. on his neck, “PkPkay, boom tube me out of here.”

 

He disappeared in a flash of light as the green dome passed where he was just moments before.

 

 

Across the globe, in hundreds of different points, green shells of energy expanded from identical objects encrusted with green shards of the throne of Hades.  They grew over cities and country sides.  They covered populated and unpopulated areas alike.  The domes grew and began connecting all across the globe, covering every living thing in their unholy light.

 

The Archlich sat on his throne and smiled as he guided his ship into New York harbor.  Even though it floated well above the waves on clouds of mist, he still preferred to follow sea routes to get where he was going. 

 

He stepped out of his vessel onto the docks and looked over the masses of shambling undead that populated his new world.  Not a single living thing was spared the power of the energy emitted from the throne shards. 

 

Pulling out a helm encrusted with multiple pieces of the throne shards, he put it on and extended his hand.  The random, chaotic undead that were just moments before citizens of New York stopped as one, turned and bowed to their new master.

 

The Archlich once again started laughing. This time it was the joy of a conqueror and had there been a living being left on the planet, it would have trembled…