*HF* The Cold Snap
By Mufasa
The Cold Snap
Chapter One:
Deernight Lake, Ontario, Canada
It was a fitting end to one of the most spectacular and well-received concerts to hit this corner of Ontario. People had driven miles and waited hours to purchase their tickets. The response in sales was so great that Khalid Hunter agreed to a second day… and double the fee plus hotel, flight, and meal accommodations. Two nights of sell-out crowds in a town most would say is out in the middle of nowhere is not such a bad way to end his performances for 1999.
The audience was a mixture of ages and faces. Elderly, teenage, Black, White, married, single… You name it; they were there. More importantly, they were happy. Happy enough that they were still on their feet after three encores. To Khalid Hunter, it was music to his ears… two nights of five thousand people clapping for him, yelling for him, ecstatically. For some reason, it just made him feel whole, as if it meant he was succeeding. He wasn't sure what it was… a chance to share something with the world? With everyone? He felt good inside… better than he had in a LONG time. The life of a performer… His life… Well worth the frustration of hours of practice… and of organizing concerts… He was back.
He admitted to himself that he really did need this performance… especially after that fiasco in Bhutan. He was still pissed off about that… that they thought they were going to pay him just for showing up. He was no fool… he took the money. (The Sword of Haresh) But still… That was insulting that they assumed he was going to be at their beck and call simply because they were paying. As he reminded Huang, people call his agent almost daily requesting performances… of course, not for one million U.S. dollars and a consolation check either!
It was weird, in a way. Life seems to have a way of taking two steps forward and backward at the same time… yet is constantly moving in some direction. Was it what he had in mind? No. If he had his way, this would be the way it is all the time. No powers… no magic… no Hellfire Club… no nightmares… no reporters… Just music and performance. Nothing else… well… except for family and maybe some Tyra Banks look-alike to share it with…
These days, he was more concerned with everything else that was going on in his life… with the Hellfire Club… Put simply, he was just fucking sick of it. Yes, there are good people in it… that he was not going to deny. However, he was just sick of their games… the games that people play with other's lives, like everyone else is their personal chew toy.
The politics were always disgusting. Everyone running around like they are expecting an all-out war between the courts… It was pathetic. He had heard the Hellions and some Inner Circle members laughing over rumors that the DFC was at the BHC's throat… LAUGHING about it. That was pathetic… How the hell are they going to laugh about something like that? Sometimes, his "colleagues" really pissed him off… One thing he has learned is that the saying "What goes around comes around" is more prevalent than people give it credit for. Everyone gets theirs in the end… There are just some things that he would not wish on anyone.
It was almost as ridiculous as these people with their undying loyalty to the courts… willing to lay their lives down at the drop of a dime just because someone above them says jump. Can they think for themselves rather than live so trigger-happy? Sometimes, these people really worried him. Sorry… but if Casey Jones ordered him to plunge a photon blade through a dog because it peed on the porn tapes, he'd tell him to go to hell. Simple as pie.
In a way, he supposed that he shouldn't be criticizing anyone's state of mind… because lately his OWN mental state has been bothering him. His dreams were violent, chaotic, and sometimes downright gruesome… visions he has never seen… situations that he did not identify with… In particular, there was one with blood in it that just seemed to pound its way into his mind. He couldn't remember much about it… except for blood flying back and forth… covering him… and something happening afterward…
When the shit starts rolling, it ALL rolls at once… So it was just Khalid's luck that Mufasa would start rearing his head about now. Granted, right now it was just the occasional flare of the senses… or the powers… Or even sometimes when he got angry, he would slip into Mufasa's thought patterns only to back off when he recognizes it happening… when he feels the uncanny desire to just revel in it… like Mahler… Just file that way in the Unsolved Mysteries folder along with why you keep waking up bruised and exhausted.
In any case, Khalid pushed those thoughts out of his mind as he shook hands and made small talk with several of the fans. The first thing he learned when he began performing was that the fans are the bread and butter of the musician's life. Without them, no one comes to listen to you… no one buys your CD… no one plays your song on the radio… nothing. Granted, he could not go out and talk to each fan, but he could talk to a few. Even the connections on the most local level made all the difference in the world.
Finally making his way to the dressing room, Khalid finally allowed his muscles to sag and the energetic expression on his face to fade. Exhausted, he just dropped onto the soft vinyl couch and just focused on calming down… allowing the tension to go. He had learned a long time ago not to let his emotions get to him… especially lately. His control is not exactly at an all-time high when he gets stressed. No… he could not allow anything to jar him… to keep him from being able to think.
After forcing the nervousness and adrenaline rush to go, he sat up on the edge of the couch and finally started to eat the Italian dinner waiting for him. On long days like this with major performances, it was easy to forget to do basic things. His nerves were too shot to eat before he went out on stage, so he always put it off until afterwards… and that was when he would ALWAYS get ravenous. He was not past his first bite of spaghetti when Jack Wilson walked in.
"Good show, Mufasa… I'm glad you made it way out here. With the nearest major airport being over 100 kilometers away, we don't have many opportunities to bring performers of your caliber out here to Deernight Lake. I've been talking with some of the other fans… There are people out there who drove that distance just to see you!"
Khalid finished swallowing that first mouthful of spaghetti just before he started laughing. As he spoke, he reached behind, ripping a paper towel of the roll, being sure not to allow his brightly-decorated Kente vest to touch the plate. "I know… It is a little flattering to see that level of dedication." Khalid wiped his lips with the towel and slowly set the spaghetti down. Yep… but another part of the performance… the worst part… talking to the patron directly afterward! " To tell you the truth, I never expected such a turnout… Across the border, I'm lucky to see even two hundred people attend my concerts. This just blew my mind."
"Deernight Lake, Ontario is different from the United States, Mufasa. No offense…"
"None taken."
"There's a different attitude here… about everything. Just thought you might need to know that, especially with that wacko publicly stalking you in the states."
Jack didn't see the expression of disgust or the surprise that he expected come across the eyes. However, he did notice that Khalid set the barely-eaten plate of spaghetti on the table and leaned back against the couch. The jazz pianist had a reputation for his professionalism, talent, intelligence, and looks… but he ALSO had a reputation for his sharp tongue for anyone who crossed him. Khalid knew how to embarrass people, whether it be by yelling at the top of his lungs or by not raising his voice. Jack couldn't help but feel a tinge of embarrassment when Khalid rested his ankle on his knee and grinned.
"John Gardino," he said, shaking his head back and forth as he looked down as his knee and then across the room at the manager. "One of my favorite people… infamous for his yellow journalism. I would have never thought that any man could get such a rise out of prying into the personal lives of others… or urging the federal courts to do so." Yes… not to mention who was the source of the information… my "ally" Ryan Jensen!
"Apparently, neither did J. Jonah Jameson. Everyone laughed when Gardino got fired over that televised piece he did with Trish Tilby. I know I'm still shocked that wacko judge actually released that Harrington scum from jail (the would-be robber Khalid beat up in Only Human)… but let's put that aside." Jason Prince reached inside his pocket, withdrawing an envelope. "As promised… your check. The surrounding businesses pitched in to sponsor this concert and the proceeds were more than enough. $200,000."
Khalid held the paper check in his hand, just looking at it. Yes, nowadays, he had much more than that in the bank… but this was the first check… the first check of this size he had actually earned performing… unlike Bhutan where they just paid him for being there. (The Sword of Haresh) To him, that felt more special than anything… It was a sign… it was hope. In a few months, he was looking at the biggest concert of his life at the Lincoln Center, this time with the band rather than solo. Could this finally be an omen that everything is going to be in his favor? He tucked the check in his wallet. "Thank you… Maybe next time, we can arrange for the band to come up here. I'm sure Nicolai Guriyev would jump at a chance."
"With the support you drew up for us with your concert here, I am POSITIVE that we could make it happen. We need a little time to put it together, though. It could be months… maybe even years."
Khalid extended his hand to shake Jack's. "One thing I've learned in this business… Faith in people. I enjoyed this concert. The people here were a wonderful audience."
At that moment, the solid white door of the dressing room opened, revealing an old man with a cane. His hair, although cut short, was almost completely white. He had to be close to ninety, but his eyes showed a vitality and an energy that just lit up the room. One thing Khalid barely noticed, though, was a long, jagged scar running from his temple almost to his chin… like he had been in an accident or something. If not for the lively look in his eyes or the smile on his face, it would have just jumped out. For a moment, his very expressions somewhat reminded Khalid of his own father, but he put that out of his mind. The German accent was thick… but the man had been speaking English for years… It did not get in the way of his words. "Herr Hunter… I would like to congratulate you on an outstanding performance."
Jack walked over, placing his hand on the old man's shoulder. "Khalid, this is Wolfgang Walsh. He is the chairman of the local business patrons of the arts. He helped me to organize this concert and drum up regional support."
Khalid shook the old man's hand, a little surprised at just how firm the grip was. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Walsh. Did you like the concert?"
"None of that Mr. Stuff… Call me Wolfgang… I sure did! Why, I remember 50 years ago… My sister attended a performance of Duke Ellington… He died before your time…"
"Ah… Duke… Yes… He's my favorite."
"I can tell in the way you played, young man. I remember when I was young… I was just a little boy in Germany… My parents were strict Catholics. My father… he was killed by Kaiser before World War I… LOVED Jelly Roll Morton… He had to hide the recordings from Mutter… She was devout…"
"Well… My parents didn't nearly go that far… However, you could say Dad likes his jazz too. You should have seen his face when he learned that was what I was doing!"
Wolfgang chuckled. "I can only imagine. Must have been, as you youngsters say, bug-eyed."
"As a matter of fact…"
Jack jumped in suddenly, cutting off the conversation between them. "Wolfgang… Khalid… I hate to interrupt, but Don and Gretchen Lang are here to drive Khalid back to the airport. It is beginning to snow a little outside and the weather report says that the storm should close in by tomorrow morning. Unless he wants to stay here the rest of the week, it is probably best he goes."
Wolfgang grasped Khalid's hand tightly, giving it another firm shake. "Young man… Thank you for coming here. My wife passed away two years ago and she was one of your biggest fans… Do not give up… please."
Khalid patted him on the back as he responded. Anymore, these days, words of encouragement were always welcome. "No… I don't plan on giving up. Giving up is the last thing I intend on doing. I wish you the best of luck, Mr. Wa… um… Wolfgang… I look forward to doing a repeat performance up here."
"I… We look forward to having you."
Don Lang, poked his head through the door. "You ready, Mr. Hunter?" The thick woolen cap and the bulky glasses obscured his face, yet Khalid could swear that he looked vaguely familiar for some reason.
"Yeah… let me get my coat." His eyes briefly flashed yellow as he picked up the lightly-packed Sampsonite suitcase from the side of the couch. For a minute, an image came to mind… of Harry Tanaka. Then, just as it was about to get clearer, it dissipated. Khalid stood for a moment, shaking his head. I don't know what that was about… He pulled his thick insulated coat off the rack and slipped it on, well-versed about these Northern climates. "Thanks Jack… Thanks Wolfgang. If you guys can pull it off, I'll gladly come back."
Wolfgang leaned on his cane. The old man for a moment seemed to look heart-broken, as if there were something on his mind. In resignation, he took a deep breath before looking up and smiling again. "Have a safe trip, Herr Hunter."
Khalid waved behind him as he followed Don into the chilling cold out to the loading dock of Deernight Arena. He could tell by the wind… Yes, a nasty snowstorm was blowing in. That was for sure. He would be glad to be back at his home in New York… preparing for other performances… getting his life back in order. As he started down the stairs to the black 2000 Toyota Corolla waiting for him, his eyes flashed again, this time glaringly so. Involuntarily, Khalid's aura flared up… this time yellow, just like in Bhutan. (TSOH) Khalid dropped his suitcase as he doubled over, his senses flaring up all at once. He grabbed the sides of his head, trying to push it down… force it down, but it wasn't obeying… Oh no… Not again…
At first, Don's heart skipped a beat. Frantically, he dashed his head from left to right to make sure that no one else was in the immediate area. Then, he placed two of his fingers in his mouth and whistled toward the car. A gorgeous young woman with ebony-black hair and black eyes stepped out of the driver's side, leaving the door open and the engine running behind her. She made sure to stand a little bit behind Don. Both of them nervously looked each other in the eye. Don stepped closer to Khalid a little, glancing around him to make sure no one could see. Softly, he spoke so that his voice was barely audible over the hum of the car… "Mr. Hunter… are you feeling alright? Are you aware that you are glowing?"
Khalid slowly stood up, still trying to drive the sensations back to where they came from. His hands were still covering his ears in a futile attempt to shield them from the apparent booming of Don's voice or the roar of the car. He blinked his eyes in hopes of adjusting to this altered vision… He just wanted it to go all back down… back to wherever it started. "Shit… is anyone else around? I didn't want…"
Don walked in closer, careful to stay just away from the brightly flaring aura. He leaned to the side, checking the door to the loading dock. Good… that damn stage manager and the old geezer haven't noticed anything… "No… No… Your secret is safe with us… Right, Gretchen? Quick… you need to get in the car… before anyone…"
Without warning, Khalid's eyes flashed even brighter. His yellow photon aura shot out, this time, surrounding Don and causing his eyes to glow as well. For a brief instant, he was standing where Don was, looking at himself. He was thinking Don's thoughts… feeling Don's feelings… Then something else. Immediately, the aura retreated from Don and Khalid slowly backed away. "You're marked." With a flash of light, a photon blade formed in his hand. He had no idea what had just happened or why he said what he said, but what he DID know was that he had no intention of going anywhere with these people. There was something seriously wrong with them. "Back off…"
"Gretchen…"
The dark-haired woman flicked her wrist toward Khalid, sending her fingers to wrap around his neck like rubber. Before he could react, an electrical current surged through her fingers and ripped through his body. Khalid struggled to remain lucid past the painful muscle spasms and concentrated on prying her fingers off. As his tattoos flared to life on his arms, he slowly felt the effects of her powers beginning to taper off. That was just long enough for Don to shoot him with two tranquilizer darts. Khalid felt his muscles go weak… and his vision go black.
End Chapter One
Chapter Two:
"Khalid, you were right about it. This is ALL too perfectly timed. Again, I'm in the Pylos Realm trying to keep the Crystalline Gargoyles from destroying the city of Cumulos… As before, you are separated from the Hellfire Club… You HAVE to wake up… RIGHT NOW…"
BZZZZZZKRAAAAAT!!!
"Sorry, Old Chap… What's-his-name didn't pay his Tanaka Telepath Circuit bill. You see… you are my vehicle out of this madness… The Dark One doesn't want me, he wants you… and when you arrive, then we BOTH will be free!"
"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Khalid snapped awake as he jerked in the passenger-side seat. As quickly as possible, he formed a photon blade and placed it in front of Gretchen Lang's neck. "All right, bitch. You have two seconds to stop this car before your favorite color becomes red!"
"Don, will you please…"
Before Khalid could react, a scarf came down from behind him, wrapping itself tightly around Khalid's neck. Suddenly, his head was jerked back into the headrest, his air being cut off. Khalid forced his left hand underneath the scarf, in an attempt to provide more air, but he still struggled, fighting for his very life. He formed a photon blade in his other hand, forcing it into the space he created. Then, when he tried to cut the scarf in half, he was surprised to learn that it wasn't tearing.
Don leaned over from his place in the backseat, speaking directly into Khalid's ear. One on one, his strength would have never been a match for Khalid's. In this position, though, it had more leverage. "Fireproof cloth, Mr. Hunter… You may as well not resist. I don't know how long you can hold your breath, but when you pass out we will make sure that you stay that way, ain't that right Gretchen?"
Gretchen laughed as she steered onward. "Don't make it any harder on yourself, Mr. Hunter… Our group is really quite formidable. You see… You have something that we want… and we will stop at nothing to get it… The ascension shall be upon us soon, Mr. Hunter, and you shall play the star once more."
Khalid struggled against the scarf, but he couldn't rip or break it… Yet, he could still feel the kick of his powers against the scarf. The dumbass didn't read the label… it is flame RETARDANT! Not the same thing! Using solely the photons of his aura, he suddenly had an idea. On a molecular level, the scarf would still be weakening…
"It is all for a greater cause, Mr. Hunter… You will be apart of it… as it has been foretold. He will rise again from your blood… to cleanse the Earth with his fury and damnation to all…"
Dan's spoke softly into his ear as he struggled. "It was predicted long before your birth that you would be the vessel for his return… the avatar to receive the essence…"
Gretchen continued driving, almost singing as she echoed Dan. "The Dark One will arise out of the Purified to cleanse the world in his righteous fury…"
"After the supernatural storm in Egypt and the discovery of the Link, we knew for sure that you were the one."
"On the eve of the new dawn, the Dark One will speak through the Purified, a call to arms for his holy brethren to ready his return."
"We couldn't understand at first how one such as yourself could POSSIBLY be a vessel for the Dark One, but after a little research, we found out how."
"The Purified will be unto us and to himself as a paradox; Both man and beast; Both consonant and dissonant; Both warrior and mage; and so on…"
"We have plans for you, Mr. Hunter… BIG plans… You should be honored, Mr. Hunter… Once the ceremony is complete, you will be one with one of the most powerful entities ever... the vessel for his return. Then, the weak shall be wiped off the face of the Earth… and you shall rule all you see. Much better then being a second-rate musician, don't you think?"
With its molecular structure weakened by contact with Khalid's photon aura, the scarf gave way, ripping down the center. Khalid bent forward in his seat, quickly gasping for air… "What the FUCK…" Then, for a brief minute, he stopped, realizing what the goose-stepper had just said. Wait a minute… NO he didn't! Angrily, he threw his elbow around the seat, feeling the crack of Don's nose as it broke. " WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE CALLING SECOND-RATE??!!"
Oblivious to the broken nose or the blood gushing from his nostrils, Don placed what looked to be a crystal blade formed from his hand in front of Khalid's neck. Again, he leaned forward and spoke with an almost-religious fervor, spitting blood into Khalid's ear. "Don't fight your destiny… You are what you are… and even you can't stand up to the Il--"
"Watch me." Khalid jammed his foot on top of Gretchen's, forcing the gas pedal to the floor. With his left hand, he took hold of the steering wheel somehow managing to keep calm as the car sped along the dark, snowy road. Don fell back into his seat from the jerk of the car… With the crash of his head against the space beneath the rear window, he was out.
Gretchen fought for control of the wheel as she tried to force Khalid's foot off the gas pedal. "You fool! You'll kill us all!"
"You want to reconsider kidnapping me?"
Through the thick blanket of snow coming down in the road ahead, a dark figure appeared out of nowhere, flying straight at them. Reflexively, Khalid jerked the wheel toward him, snapping the car off the road. The car skidded along the shoulder before it crashed head-on into a tree. Khalid cried out in pain as he felt the impact of the car dig through him... and the airbag reach out to save him. His leg was broken and he had a concussion… Of that much he was sure. With the thick scent of smoke filling the car, he knew for sure that he had to get out. He tried to move, but the pain was so great that he couldn't. He was not even sure he was lucid.
Through his pain-induced haze, Khalid could swear he felt the door next to him get ripped off by the hinges. A cold hand reached inside, first checking his neck and then his upper abdomen. Next, he felt the seatbelt cut off and the pieces of the car around him ripped out. "What a situation you've got yourself into, kinder..."
Khalid cried out in pain as he was cut out of his coat and pulled out of the car. He was cold… overwhelmingly cold… The air was frigid… He could tell that he was moving, but he was not quite sure how. All he felt was unbearable pain and the overpowering cold at his skin. The last thing Khalid heard before he lost consciousness was an explosion. Strangely enough, he was thinking that it happened below him…
"Herr Hunter… In the words of your generation, you lucked out." Hovering above the burning wreckage, Patrick Walsh - known as Kraus Mahler or even more familiarly, Maul - watched the smoke float up past them into the air. As he looked at Khalid, he took back what he said. Khalid was cut badly… Maul was sure he had internal injuries and at least a concussion… If neither of those killed him, then exposure to the elements would… especially since he had to cut Khalid out of his coat to save him…
End Chapter Two
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Chapter Three
Maul knew he was in trouble… He had to get Khalid out of the cold. While his healing factor and vampire blood were barely enough to withstand the frigid elements, Khalid had little protection. Even had he crashed in the center of a bustling metropolis, Khalid would have had little chance. Out in the middle of nowhere with the biggest and probably last snowstorm of the century headed in, it was impossible. With the dropping wind chill, he dare not fly far above the ground… Khalid would not last. Maul's hand brushed Khalid's forehead… burning with a fever… Seeing a shadow below, Maul considered sliding to the nearest hospital which was 75 miles away, but he had no idea whether or not Khalid could survive the trip. Even if he did, this is too good an opportunity to pass up.
"Good news and bad news, Herr Hunter… The good news is that only your leg is broken. The bad news is that you have a concussion and internal injuries." Maul flew low to the ground as fast as he could, dodging trees and brush along the way… With the temperature and the snow falling, he had to find any kind of shelter as soon as possible… even out in the middle of nowhere. "Seems ya got a fever as well, but consider yourself lucky; it's keeping the frostbite away, mein kinder." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a hill… with a cave. It would be just the right size… "Ah here is another update Hunter… seems I have found us a shelter." Maul craned his neck up, sniffing the downwind breeze.
"One thing… seems it's already taken….by a bear…"
Maul extended the adamantium claws of his left hand, slicing through the air. The target, a tree, leaned over and fell toward the snow-covered ground with a crash. He carefully set Khalid on top of it and started toward the cave… "When this is done stripling, you shall owe me…but first I've got to have a conversation with our big friend"
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The voice that addressed him was the embodiment of evil… comparable to that of Satan himself. Just the sound of it was enough to make most mortal hearts quiver in fear. It was both piercing and soothing at the same time… carrying through him as if he were not material… as if he were not even there… as if… "Hello there… I've been expecting you."
The entity that addressed Khalid followed his greeting by igniting the very air around him in hellfire. Khalid screamed as the dark reddish flame washed over him, saturating him with its presence. It was like nothing he had ever felt… consuming him from both the outside and the inside at once. The pain was agonizing, leaving no piece of his soul unaffected. "…What the hell…"
"Precisely…" The voice spoke out again, his laughter even more biting than the flames that had bathed him, but had left him unharmed after they were snuffed out. "…about time you showed up. For a moment, I thought my cursed spawn Diablo had interfered yet again. Remind me to deal with him, won't you? He's such a Mama's boy."
Finally, the man stepped out of the darkness… if that is what you would consider this "man." Damn… this thing looks like Pan on crack! With the shiver running down his back, Khalid knew immediately that this being before him was nothing NEAR human. No man could possibly take such sheer delight in the agony of others. (Of course, by that definition, there were plenty of humans running around who weren't men… but that was beside the point.) "What ARE you?! What are you doing?! Where am I…"
"Oh… You know exactly who I am… in your heart of hearts. You see… I own you… I own you heart… and soul!" With that, the hellfire's torment began yet again… The surges of agonizing pain shooting through him was nothing compared to the insult of hearing this thing laugh with delight at his misery. Through the red haze of the localized tempest centered around him, Khalid could see the toothy sneer in this guy's mouth… and the darkness behind the eyes… Even though the eyes had a glow of their own, it was like they were empty… as if despite their luminescence, there was nothing but darkness inside… and evil.
"No! It's not possible!!! I'm not dead! I CAN'T be dead!"
HellGoat clasped the sides of the chin with his claws. Khalid could notice that while the overall temperature of the place was searing with heat, HellGoat's touch was cold… colder than anything he ever felt. HellGoat leaned his face forward barely inches from Khalid's. Strangely enough, Khalid had a comment all ready for him, but he noticed that he couldn't speak. It was as if the entire scene were following an obscure script rather than being improvised, as if it had already happened… and that no matter what he tried, he couldn't change the outcome. It was like a nightmarish déjà vu dream.
"Oh… but you most very definitely ARE dead… because of your OWN fault mind you… the need to be so pathetically heroic… You SHOULD have just let the bitch die. I never liked her anyway! Oh well… No matter. You could say that I've been waiting for this moment a long time. You may not realize this, but I've actually watched you grow up… You know, I even remember when you were a young little murderer. How old were you? Fourteen? Fifteen?"
//WHAT??!! Now I KNOW this guy is Pan on crack… and heroin too! I don't have a fucking clue what he's talking about! I was past 17 when I slew those jocks who tried to kill me. // (Starting Over)
"Burn in hell…"
"No… That's YOUR job… Newbies, these days… Do I have to teach them everything?! Here… This is how you do it!" With a flash of HellGoat's eyes, the area around Khalid once again erupted in flames. This time, Khalid gritted his teeth outright refusing to scream. As far as he was concerned, he was not entertaining this creature any further. At first HellGoat intensified the flame, but then he stopped altogether.
"You try my patience, 'Champ'! Do you think you can stand up to me?! You are nothing but a dog… and ANNOYING dog who will be bent to do my bidding whether you like it or not! Face it, 'Champ', your soul belongs to me!" Khalid struggled to break the bond of the HellGoat, but he couldn't move… he couldn't resist at all. He could do nothing but feel the HellGoat's taunts burn through him… marking his memories.
"Oh… Don't tell me you don't want to be one of my number? I'm shocked…. You hurt my feelings! Tell you what… I'll introduce you to some of your family first just to make you feel at home! I heard on the grapevine that you never got to meet them… so I made some special arrangements! I tried to get your mother and father down here to join the reunion, but Diablo and that damn Uriel intervened… Oh well… She'll learn."
FAMILY??!! "What the… you can't be serious!"
With a flash of hellfire, HG and Khalid were in a different part of Hell… Whereas the place they had just been was overwhelmingly hot, this place had a mixture of both… albeit it was just as barren. Khalid could not understand how such a place he could be burning and freezing both at the same time. "Estophalum! You awake, pal? I got someone for you to see!"
In a puff of smoke, another grotesque demon appeared, this time wearing a large green-glowing talisman on his chest. Khalid saw the giant green stone at the center and how it pulsated and swirled as if it had a life of its own. Every once in a while, it would glow brighter, and then just as quickly fade. "What do you know? Raphael! I was wondering when you'd come along and visit… although I still have something to say about my imprisonment, here! I see you brought a member of my absolute FAVORITE families! Here… let me introduce you to a few of my minions…" With a flash of flame, several tormented spirits appeared around him, each with a green-linked chain extending from the stone of the talisman to their hearts. "Here… the stunning decomposing woman on your right is your great-great-grandmother Lila. She was the one who castrated a white man who thought he was going to force himself on her. To her left is your great-grandpa Phillip. He's got a GREAT sense of humor, really… he was responsible for sending quite a few monster's souls to sustain me. Then, on the right over here is your great-great-great-great-grandfather Shiway. Now, HE was a character… You could say he got here prematurely by accident… a little too much of the White Man's whiskey, eh, Shiway?"
Estophalum elbowed Shiway in the gut a couple of times. "Eh… eh…" Shiway just rolled his eyes and groaned. Almost immediately, Estophalum's temperament shifted. "I AM ESTOPHALUM!!! I AM AS THE SUN!!! POWERFUL AS… Aw, hell… There aren't any live mortals around to get all impressed and scared at that shit…" With a snap of his fingers, a green electric field surrounded Shiway and started attacking him. Shiway dropped to his knees and started screaming franticly.
Khalid shouted out at Estophalum, but the words did not seem to be his… "Stop it! Leave him alone… Or else I'll--"
Shiway held up his hand and shook his head feverishly back and forth as if asking Khalid to stop. Then, he nodded to Estophalum and said, "Yes… too… much… White… Man's… whiskey…"
"Good… Gotta keep these people in line, you know… Raph, look… I can't keep like this, just sitting up and cracking jokes for eternity while his foolish relatives go around and slay more demons to feast on. Now, you promised me that kid."
"He's not ready, yet. Poor guy… Just got put in the hospital. Seems like he got the shit beat out of him."
"Aw hell… He's not going to die, is he?"
"Nah… He's not. He's quite a bit of work, though, slaying them people like that. I still haven't figured out how I'm going to wrest him away from that damn…"
"Him?! He's still around?!"
"Yeah… He's almost as annoying as that Jesus-guy was. I can rant about him forever. He has DEFINITELY gotta go. I'm not sure, but I think the ol' fuddy-duddy is up to something."
"That's a shame… That's a damn shame. Anyway…" Estophalum reached over and grabbed Khalid roughly around the neck as if in a bear hug. Khalid struggled to push away, but the strength was unbelievable. Even more bothering was that he could hear the screams of damned on the other side of Estophalum's sticky skin. It struck him so hard that he actually found himself fighting not to cry in sympathy… Estophalum laughed some more, knowing what effect the screams were having. He spoke to Khalid, finally. "Can't let your pal in the Earthrealm bring us down. Glad that you finally made it down here! Too bad you never got to check out your family's estate in North Carolina…"
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! LET ME GO!!!"
"Relax… you're still young. Give it a few years and I'll have your grandpa Roy over here… though I intend on taking control of the Earthrealm by then. Anyway, you can come on over and visit the family any time you want… when you aren't being a lapdog of my buddy Raphael, that is."
Khalid dropped to his knees, feeling the searing of the molten ground on his legs and the cold evil touch of Estophalum against his scalp. "No… God… Please… No…"
"I hate to say it, Esto, but I might have to give him back. Dear, naïve Uriel made an offer I just CAN'T refuse. Of course, though, I still get to play with him for a year or so… OH, the fun we'll have… Then, maybe you can go back and tell the rest of your family… if you ever meet them, that is… what a fun time you had around in Hell! I'm sure your cousin Michael will be glad to hear it."
Estophalum laid his hand on Khalid's shoulder. "Oh yeah… if you run into your other cousin - he's about 17 right now - Be sure to let him know what a great time he's missing and that I'll be sure to visit him soon enough!" He turned his head toward HellGoat. "Hey! Raph… just had an idea… Darts!"
"Oh! Yeah! Haven't played that in a long time!"
With a flash of flame, Khalid found himself bound to a large searingly-hot boulder… watching as sharp obsidian daggers flew directly at him… over and over and over again… Strangely enough, the darts also seemed to turn into snowballs… Khalid just had to wonder to himself… Was he really dead or was this just a really REALLY REALLY bad nightmare?
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Maul felt the bear's paw tear into him… opening the flesh from his very chest, allowing his rich blood to spill on the white open snow that sides itself upon the entrance of the cave. It is times like this he was grateful of his damned curse, grateful of his mutant ability to heal, glad that he has an unbreakable skeleton, and glad to be alive. Of course, that did not stop it from hurting him, sending sheers of pain through the nerve system alone. Immediately the bear was upon him, pinning him down with his massive claws, Maul struggled to break free of its hold, with the bear striking for the jugular of the young appearing vampire… Concentrating through the pain enough, Maul drove his hand through the bear's hide and squeezed the heart, extending his adamantium tipped claws into it. With a wretched growl, the bear died almost instantly, its fresh corpse dropping heavily upon the mutant vampire.
Using his shadow-sliding abilities, Maul fell on top of the bear from the top of the cave. "Guess you're out of luck Herr Bear.." picking it up by the hair of its head.. "Sorry, it's strictly family business…" That said, Maul ripped the bear's head from its shoulders and began to drink the delicious warm blood flowing down the spinal cord and into his face. With a lick of his lips and a nod of approval he was finished.
"It always tastes better when the damn things are alive…"
Maul flew out of the cave, oblivious that his face and arm were still dripping with the bear's blood. The snowfall was picking up and it was already dark, the temperature quickly approaching zero degrees Fahrenheit… Carefully, he picked Khalid into his arms and rushed inside the cave. "Two is company, three is a crowd I told him."
Khalid was obviously delirious… He writhed in his stupor mumbling something… No? Was that what he was saying?
"Even near death, you argue with me." Maul set Khalid on the far inside of the cave, upon the dead carcass of the bear and dashed toward the entrance. Better for me to close that up… With a twitch of his shadow-sliding power, he transported brush from outside in front of the entrance. He had learned a long time ago from his one-time mentor to make the dwellings look as inconspicuous as possible, because you never know when someone is looking for you. With the rate of the snowfall, any tracks that he might have made should be covered up.
Good… a small ventilation hole in the roof… Making his way back to Khalid, he went to work building a fire. For over 50 years, he has had extensive experience living alone… out in the middle of nowhere, thanks to that damn Ryan Jensen (Tortured Souls). Never had he ever found himself in a position that he had to care for someone. Hell… As far as he was concerned, anyone else he would have left for dead. Khalid, he couldn't… He felt a responsibility to Khalid… Khalid was family… Khalid was like him.
"No… no… not true… no…"
Maul ran his hand against Khalid's forehead again, leaving a bloody streak on his skin. "Fever is getting hotter… and also…" His eye was drawn toward the broken leg. "It must be set before it starts to heal. Don't want a bone legged-great grandson, do I?" He placed one hand on Khalid's ankle and the other just below the knee… It had been a while since he had to do this… before World War I, he thinks… Yes, it is the larger bone. "Patient Hunter… Consider this a pleasant experience…"
Unexpectedly, Khalid's red aura flared up... In his stupor, Khalid was laughing… with that almost-demonic tinge. Then, the laughs took on a more guttural sound, more like a growl. Finally, Khalid spoke, albeit his voice sounding spaced out, as if he were not all there. "Hurry up, then, Vampire… DO it!"
Maul aligned his hands with a jerk. As soon as the two bones snapped into place, Khalid's aura flared up again. He screamed out in pain, this time actually knocking Maul away from him into surrounding wall of the cave behind him. Through the demonic timbre of Khalid's wail, Maul could hear something that was like a gargling sound. Maul laughed at the sight as he tore off part of Khalid's pants leg. For a minute, he briefly wondered if at some deep level, Khalid might actually be enjoying the pain.
As he dressed Khalid's leg, Maul noticed that Khalid's aura altered from red to yellow and extended around him. "Vas?!" At that moment, he realized… Khalid had attuned his life energy to his own… and was using his healing factor. "A survivor none the less, scrapper, there is hope for you yet in this world… our world."
End Chapter Three
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Interlude
Alice Pembleton was a professional secretary. As always, her silky red hair was pulled back into a bun, held together by a simple clasp with a pin through it. Her thick glasses, which were sliding down her nose all the time, tended to draw attention from her rich hazel eyes. Her mode of dress and even her makeup was conservative. Her hobbies away from work were to read foreign language literature, computer programming, and simple investing here and there. In other words, Alice Pembleton was a nerd.
She was a resourceful nerd, however. She chose her opportunities very carefully, however. That was how she survived in the Hellfire Club for the past few years. While other professionals let themselves get blinded by the money of a higher position or the "perks" of a fling with a member of the Inner Circle, Alice instead considered the people she would be working under.
One time, the former White Queen Jon Tolliver has asked her if she would be interested in a promotion from the White Knight's secretary to the White Queen's. Knowing the White Queen's notoriety for jealously… um… firing her secretaries, Alice knew that she had to be extremely careful in how she responded. If she accepted, she could damn well bet that she would be lying face-down in a river somewhere. If she refused, she would instead be lying with her neck slit on the desk. So, how did she approach it?
Easy. She acted so excited that she slipped right into her Eastern Kentucky drawl. "Gawlly, Ms.Tolliver… Ah do not what to say… Ah've nevah been so excited. Here ah was thinking that you were gonna pick Zachariah over there, but you came and picked little ol' me! Ah… ah… feel so privileged! Ah just…"
"Hmmmm… I'm sorry, Ms. Pembleton… I have just realized that Zachariah might suit my… needs better. I'm sorry to disappoint you; I'm sure that there will be other professional opportunities for you. Good day."
Yes… Alice is aware of the ins and outs of the Hellfire Court. It was not only her job to know, but also her way of protecting herself… and ensuring that her work is done. Alice not only watches her back, but that of everyone around her, whether it be her boss, her friends, her colleagues, etc. Within the White Court, everyone likes and respects Alice… and that gives her security from the darker dredges of the Hellfire Clubs. If Gomurr accidentally "bumps" into my ass one more time, though… SMACK!!! I don't care if he's the Proctor of the Crimson Dawn or not! Though, with my luck, he'd probably enjoy it!
Grover walked into the office, with his hand on his forehead and slightly limping. Alice also noticed the bags under his bloodshot eyes and the slight blonde stubble on his face. What?! Did he get run over by the Juggernaut or something this morning?! He's even looking a little shaggy… "Excuse me, Mr. Grover, but…um… are you feeling all right?"
The White King nodded and for a minute looked out the window. "Yes, Alice… I… didn't sleep well last night. By any chance, do you have any aspirin?"
"Yes, I do… but… um…" Alice dug around in her desk for the Excedrin… "You look a little under the weather. Maybe because of the incoming snowstorm. Might Angelo possibly be able to treat it with his powers?"
Grover shook his head and stared out the window some more, his gaze lost in the falling snow. For a moment, he ran his hand across his head, pushing some of the blonde hairs to stand straight up. "No… no… I… um… think that… it's… not that bad… I'll get over it. Um…" He slowly walked toward his office, glancing over his shoulder back to his secretary. "Alice, please leave a message with the White Rook's agent to have him contact me as soon as he returns from Deernight Lake."
"Yes sir." As soon as the door to Grover's office slid shut, Alice withdrew her cell phone. With a twitch of the wires in the back, she scrambled the signal so that no one could decipher it but the person on the other end. "Yes… Nathan… Are you sure? All right… I just don't want… Okay. I'll trust you on this." Quietly, she turned off the phone and placed it back in her purse. With that, Alice took a glass of water and the aspirin and walked into Grover's office.
End Interlude
Chapter Four
Maul sucked on the piece of bear meat in his mouth, relishing the iron taste of blood. As old as it may have been, he could still manage to taste the living cells that had made this animal walk and talk. It had been two days… Two days since those two tried to kidnap him… Two days of watching Khalid… watching him through this fever as he fought to survive. Maul ripped off another piece of the bear's thigh that lay packed in snow and waved it a foot in front of Khalid's nose, well aware that Khalid's sense of smell could detect it. He knew Khalid was still attuned to his mutant abilities. At first, Khalid didn't respond… but then it began as a murmur that eventually transformed into a growl. Satisfied, Maul finally fed it to him. " I find you somewhat an enigma, Herr Hunter… For weeks I have tried, nearly forced your true being to nature, but it is you, near death and bleeding like a schwein, who makes the extra effort and unleashes the beast. Most puzzling indeed, but a result much liked, ja? Now let's tend to these wounds…"
Pulling the bearskin back, Maul first placed his hand on Khalid's ankle. "Your leg has fully healed as have your cuts." Then, he placed his hand against Khalid's stomach and ribs, the same time listening to his heartbeat. "You are slower on repairing your internal injuries, but you should be fully healed soon. Your body will be weak for a while, but you shall live." Laying the bear's hide back on Khalid, Maul went to check the fire. "I do not understand… Why do you fight what you are?"
At that moment, Maul heard an angry growl back from the corner of the cave. Then, he saw Khalid's red photon aura flare up. "Foolish whelp! Did you truly believe I could not smell your deception?! You sought to betray ME?! The King of Kemet?! Your blood is not worthy enough to be spilt by my hand!"
Maul rushed back over to Khalid and pinned him down to the floor. He had gone through this a couple of times before. Somehow in some way, he was reliving memories. Just whose, he wasn't sure. The randomness and tone of the thoughts were so different that at times, it was like he was three different people at once. "Khalid.." Slamming his head into the ground.." You must stop this madness…you are not even 100 percent yet.."
"You dare threaten ME, peasant?! Not even Anubis could convince me to spare you…"
"Hunter, I'm growing tired of this…"
"Damn bitch ass mother fucking piece of shit… I'm going to fillet you and feed your liver to your pet pygnon!"
Vas!?… This is not like Khalid…
"You heard me, Baal… and if you EVER try to steal one of my jobs again…"
Maul held him still to the ground, momentarily oblivious to the pain of his singeing hands from the photon aura. Finally again, the aura changed from red to yellow and Khalid was using Maul's healing factor once more. Maul went back toward the fire, feeding it some more. Those first statements, he recognized… It was what Khalid constantly held back… his actual nature. The last two outbursts were something else. Baal?
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Later that night, Khalid's eyes blinked open. Weak… he felt really weak… and for some reason, his mouth tasted like he was chewing on bloody meat or something. Then, he noticed something else. He was wrapped in something… something that felt sticky against his skin. After looking down, he realized he was wrapped in some sort of animal hide… What the hell?!
What happened?! He tried to remember, but only bits and pieces came back to him. He gave a gig… Then, he was walking toward someone's car… For some reason he freaked out and backed away. They kidnapped him… At one point, he jammed his foot on the gas pedal… and the car spun… and crashed. He was hurt… BADLY. He couldn't remember anything else… A snowstorm… something about a snow storm…
Where the hell was he? A cave? Faintly, he sat up. His head still seemed to swim, but Khalid fought through it… pulled it together. After that crash, he should be in the hospital with IV's sticking everywhere and a cast on his leg. Yet, right now his leg felt perfectly fine. In fact, he really wasn't in any pain at all… Anything else, he just felt really weak. What was going on?
For a minute, Khalid just breathed deeply… tried to relax. No, he did not need to panic right now. He wasn't sure what happened, but he did know that now wasn't the time to… Beyond the smell of the hide… of the blood sticking on his skin… of the campfire… He smelled something else… someONE else in the cave… Of course… My kidnappers!
All at once, his blood seemed to boil. In a rage, Khalid jumped to his feet. Yes, he was weak… and he felt extremely clumsy, but at this point he was looking at life or death. His senses shot through him as he sprinted. In two quick steps, he had his hands fixed firmly on the head and chin and started to jerk the neck to the side and break it…
Maul's hand shot out, wrapping around Khalid's neck. He broke out of his meditation and turned his head so that it faced Khalid… the grin on his face, hidden by Khalid's shadow. "Guten Tag. I see you have wakened from your nap, Ja?"
"Hello, Maul…" Khalid's hands dropped from Maul's head as his formerly tense muscles relaxed. "Sorry… thought you were…"
"Nein… I understand."
Clumsily, Khalid's muscles gave out on him. He dropped to his hands and knees, slowly trying to bring himself to a stand. "Damn… I feel so weak… and my mouth is dry… " Out of the blue, he sniffed the air again. "I need a fucking bath… YOU need a fucking bath…"
"White Rook, this is not exactly a Hilton which you have come accustomed to…"
"What happened… I was in a car… and…"
"Ja… I saved your hide…" Maul fed the dwindling fire once more, his eyes blending in with the darkness of the cave itself. Only the blazes of the fire brought out his red pupils, fixated upon Khalid. It most cases, the look into his eyes would make most faint. Luckily, Khalid Hunter knows this man, or the sight alone could be terrifying… not that he would admit or show it…
"How long have…"
"Two days… Internal injuries, Herr Hunter… Deep cuts… concussion… broken leg… You almost died."
"The way I feel right now… I still think I have.." Suddenly, something hit Khalid like a brick wall… Internal injuries… deep cuts… concussion… broken leg… Only two days ago? He should be screaming in pain. Yet… here he was… for the most part healthy… covered in blood… and his mouth tasted like raw meat. The taste of blood in his mouth was so rich, that he nearly found himself gagging… Then there was that dream where he thought he had died… The tell-tale signs of…
Again, Khalid's rage tore through him. His red photon aura flared as Khalid rammed Maul into the wall of the cave. Immediately, he formed a photon blade in his hand and pressed it against Maul's neck, near the artery. "I ALMOST died or I DID die?! Which is it, Mahler?! Lord knows I should be sitting up in a hospital, but right now I feel just fine… God help me, if you turned me into one of the un…"
Unexpectedly, Maul sank into his own shadow. Khalid spun around, ready to attack when a hand reached down from above, picking him up into the air by the neck. "Do not insult my intentions, Dog. Had I intended on converting you, I would have done so already… In your arrogance, you forget that you used my own healing factor to mend your injuries!"
"Don't even try to feed me that! I can't…"
Before he could finish, Maul dropped him down to the ground. Then, he flew out of the shadow beneath him and wrapped his fingers in Khalid's hair. Maul turned his head so that he could see the bear hide and the meat packed in snow on the far side of the cave. "THAT is what you've been eating, Kinder!" Again, Maul jerked his head back, and this time moved his mouth so it was over Khalid's neck. "Of course, though… Should you want to become like me, all we have to do is make a little trade. I drink your blood… and you drink mine…no questions asked" and with a devilish smile Maul awaited his answer.
Khalid dropped his aura, pushing Maul's face away. He fought the urge to vomit. Yuck! I've been eating BEAR?! "All right, all right… I concede… You made your point. Where are my clothes?"
"I shadow-slid you out of them in order to dress your wounds." Activating his shadow-sliding abilities, the same which he was born with before becoming one of the undead, slid Khalid's clothes - what remained of them, anyway - falling into his hands.
Khalid's eyes widened in shock as he saw them. "WHAT?!" He dangled them in front of him. "All that remains of my clothes are my pants and part of my long johns… WHICH HAVE BEEN CUT OFF AT THE KNEES?!" He looked around. "Where are my shoes?"
Bear's blood and shredded boots… the perfect decoy… but he doesn't need to know that. "I used them as kindling to start the fire… Even being underground, I figured that you would need a fire to warm you…"
Kindling?! How the hell do you use SHOES as kindling?! He's lying. In a rush, Khalid slipped on what had been reduced to long-john boxers and cut-offs. "You cannibalized my shoes?! What were you thinking!?! … What the hell is the temperature outside anyways?"
Maul licked his finger and stuck it through a shadow. Then, he brought it back and flexed it back and forth to get the blood going again. "Thirty below zero, with a windchill of…"
"Let me get this straight… I'm trapped out in a cave in the middle of nowhere with a vampire… during the worst snowstorm to hit the area… where I've been eating raw bear meat for the past two days while using your healing factor which I STILL do not buy… I have no coat… My pants and long johns are cut off above the knees… My shoes were used to 'start a fire'… My shirt and pants legs were used to dress wounds… Oh yeah… and it's thirty below zero outside… How am I supposed to get out of here?! Damn… Can anything else go wrong?!" Glancing down at the bear once more…. "And where the hell is the head of that thing!"
With that, Maul sneered. Yes… it was mean… it was really mean to say it, especially since he could not really drink Khalid's blood anyway (Only Human). "The bear's head decided it was too good for us…but since you bring up the subject… I'm rather hungry…could you spare a pint or two?"
End Chapter Four
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Chapter Five:
Maul had been dwelling in the shadows for hours now. Like an owl stalking its prey, he had watched them step by step, breath by breath, heartbeat by heartbeat. Their body heat, except for the cold-blooded brunette named Chameleon, stood out like a sore thumb amidst the arctic-like temperature. Yet, he knew there was something else about these people. They were mutants just like him. The odds are very slim that a group of mutants would gather out in the middle of nowhere without any particular reason… especially in strike-ware. They had to have been the people who were supposed to rendezvous with Khalid's kidnappers.
Maul recognized the one with the green hair as the leader of the group the way everything was relayed through him. He was full of pride… Pride makes a man careless, something Maul could know for future reference. It seems that the guy's name was Tendrile, from what Maul could hear his troops call him right now.
They were investigating the crash site where their two people had perished. Having already found the frostbitten and burnt bodies of their own, they did not give a second glance or thought. In fact, they could care less about them. They were looking for whom they referred to as the "Purified." They were looking for Khalid, no surprise there. Maul could also tell by their facial expressions that they were both relieved and disturbed at not finding him there.
Maul checked out each member of the group, one by one… Tendrile was almost the right size, but more trouble than it was worth. The women were both too small. The pyrokinetic man did not have insulated clothes. As far as Maul was concerned, he was not ABOUT to touch the sick-looking fellow. Plague, he thought his name was, but he was not gonna take the chance on getting Khalid sicker then he already was. With all the pus and blisters popping from the man's face, who KNEW (or wanted to know) what was happening underneath his clothing.
Finally, Maul's eyes set on a blonde-haired man. Ja, this one will do. Just the right size and build. From what he could see, the man was nothing but an energy rechanneller. Piece of cake. If Maul had some kind of energy to blast out, he may be in trouble, but Maul's abilities have nothing to do with blasting energy, or anything along those lines. He's killed plenty of them in his time… To tell you the truth, he's killed too many in his time, something he himself takes pride in. Maul nodded his head. Ja, he will work fine.
Tendrile watched his green ectoplasmic spindles scour the area, hoping to pick up on some kind of activity from the past. "From the pieces of the car, I sense that Carat and Gretchen got cocky and the Purified caught onto them early on. I'm trying to figure out who saved him, but I cannot pick up anything. The Purified was injured and he did not leave here by foot; that's my educated guess."
Chameleon checked the scanner and shook her head in frustration. "This piece of junk has never been worth anything. One thing is for sure though Tend… Someone doesn't want us following… Wait a sec… I got a bleep on the radar."
"You do?!" asked Plague. "Is it him!?"
"No, the body temperature is dramatically different, It is someone else."
Her head snapped toward the direction of the Rechannler. "Steven!! Switch!" Before she could finish, two hands grabbed his ankles from beneath the snow. He didn't even have a chance to scream before he was dragged under.
Tendrile shot off an ectoplasmic spindle after him, but it was too late. "I don't understand… It's impossible! There is no space under the snow or anything. It was as if he disappeared!"
Still transparent within the shadows and midway into the ground Maul brought his lips around Switch's neck, savoring the young man's life. With a scream, the man fainted.
"I've heard that no one can hear you scream when your underground…I guess it's true!" and with that Maul dipped back into the stream of blood flowing from Switch's neck.
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Khalid paced back and forth in the cave, nervously. Maul had slid out earlier in the morning, probably to find some poor sap to eat or something. Khalid didn't know and he could not really say that he WANTED to know either. He wanted out of this place. It was like a damn cage. Yet, he couldn't leave. If he dared to bust out through that opening, he would surely freeze before he got very far. Hell, Deernight Lake was already way out in the middle of nowhere. It was a safe bet that after he got kidnapped, he was even FURTHER out in the middle of nowhere.
"Well at least I'm not dead or undead."
He tried to relax, but it wasn't happening. As usual, his mind splintered in 500 different directions. At least now, he felt he was getting some kind of strength back, not that it would do him any good. Slowly and deliberately, he tried bending his fingers back and forth getting some action back into them, but they were still clumsy. Betraying his agitation, his hands actually began to shake.
For the first time, Khalid took note of his surroundings. The cave wasn't big, but it was for damn sure dark. The brush and snow-covered opening was about six feet tall and about twenty feet away from where he stood. The inside floor was littered with bones of a dead animal, presumably the bear.
Chuckling, Khalid bent down, picking up a rib bone in his hand, and feeling the groves where Maul's teeth had gnawed on it. I should be thankful they aren't human, knowing Maul. For a moment, his hand and the bone glowed bright yellow and then he noticed a warm sensation. Suddenly, it shot through him and overtook him.
He could smell this being entering his domain, attempting to manipulate him… dig into his mind. He could feel his heart race in rage at the thought of this OUTLANDER trying to take what was rightfully his. Then, adrenaline surged through his body and the ferocious growl came out of his throat as he rushed this "thing" who DARED to trespass in his domain. Next, there was the sticky feel of fresh blood on his claws, as they ripped into this being, lacerating its chest, and tearing the flesh from the throat. Finally, he could feel his tremendous weight pressuring the hunter into the ground, relishing its sweet hot blood that flowed from its veins. Without warning, like a stake piercing a soulless bastard, he felt the cold metal… the cold flesh of the hunter… rip through his skin, grabbing hold of the life of all things… his HEART and felt it collapsed, purposely squeezed and popped. He can feel the cold breath of his killer upon him. In this battle of the fittest, he knows he has lost, and with that everything fades black.
The bone snapped in Khalid's hand. He doubled over as he grabbed his head, stumbling back as these images and thoughts washed through him. Again, his senses overwhelmed him and the growl escaped his lips, like a pure animal of rage. The bear spoke to him, demanding its revenge on the killer who sent him to his next life. With a surge of energy, Khalid's aura flashed dark red. His mind readily welcomed the return of that part of his nature. Khalid laughed into the air as he fed on the bear's remnant anger, embracing it. He feels the strength and predatory skills flow through him, like if he was born with them. For too long, he had been pushed back… always kept in check. It had been far too long since last he came out and "played." He was tired of being driven back into subconsciousness.
The bear had spoken to him crying vengeance, and the animal in Khalid replied. He sensed the bear, angry that the man had intruded in his domain and killed him… angry that hits head was torn from its shoulders… angry that the man had eaten his flesh and fed it to his friend. The part of Khalid he had buried so long reacted to the bear's call to action. The cries of the bear were amplified with its flesh inside of him… the skin having kept him warm… its blood dried all over his body.
Khalid crouched down to where Maul had slept, picking the cold dirt up to his nose and sniffing above it. "I have your scent, Walsh, and now the hunter has become the prey!" With a flash of light, Khalid formed a photon spear in his hand and hurled it toward the entrance of the cave, clearing the brush and packed snow from his path. With a fiery glint in his eyes, Khalid walked into the snow-covered fields of the woods in search of his target.
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Maul leaned back against the tree, lost in the sensations of feeding off of Steven's blood. He could feel the youth. He could feel his personality overcome him. He could see that this boy could have been somebody. After choosing the wrong path to follow, Steven found out that today wasn't a good day to be a bad guy. Maul could care less; he has what he was after: some suitable clothing for his companion and a meal to settle the vampire virus that courses through his body.
Slowly, he licked the top of his lips, finding soothing the taste of warm blood upon them. "Seems you were German as well, Ja? I find a good countryman's blood bittersweet." Nourished, he licked his fingers of the last of the blood, noticing something that he passed up before on the back of his prey's hand. A pyramid with an eye peeking out the top. Looks to me like some kind of cult… A cult after Khalid?
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Chameleon screamed, her voice piercing her lungs with pain. The sight was almost unbearable for her. Of everyone in the party, she was the closest when the limp body dropped from above, crashed through the branches, and smashed heavily onto the ground. Within seconds, Tendrile was by her side, almost disgusted with what Chameleon had found. From the looks of it, it was the remains Switch's naked body face-up in the snow. There appeared to be writing, scrolled - more like slashed across his empty chest, apparent against the skin which was peeling from the chest cavity, giving the impression that someone was digging into the skin with a sharp object.
Tendrile's upper lip curled as he read the obscure message. "Like I said to your friend, The 'Purified' is busy, try back another time."
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Maul chuckled to himself as he flew back toward the cave with Steven's clothes. He was satiated for a few days now, with the youth's blood flowing through his body. With Khalid back on his feet, he might finally get around to getting him to appreciate his animal nature. He COULD simply just psionically turn it on like a light switch as he has been doing for the past few weeks. Yet while it did allow Khalid's more feral side free reign, it did very little regarding his acceptance of it and his role as one of the strong. It may take weeks, or even take months, but Maul was determined that Khalid would accept it, welcoming it into his heart. In a sense, perhaps this crash was a good thing. In some ways, Khalid was already allowing his passions to get to him. Whereas earlier he outright refused to engage in an altercation with Maul (Only Human), this time he was aggressive enough to start it. Whether Khalid wanted it or not, Maul was making progress. That was all the proof Maul needed that Khalid wanted it deep down.
Something else they would have to face is that band of mutants back there. Obviously, their scanners were just as ineffective now as they were back in Indiana. In some manner, Khalid had cloaked them before. He might be able to do it again. Yet, that still belabored the point. They were either going to have to flee or they would have to kill Maul to get to their golden boy. Maul laughed with a sneering… He knew which one he preferred. He was not sure whether Khalid would slay them or not. Hmmm… even if I psionically force the 'beast' out again, he may or may not do it, though in this case I may have to. Then again, after those two made their move earlier, Khalid did not hesitate to kill them (and nearly himself) with the car. Perhaps at some unconscious level, he knows the threat is great?
Maul stopped, glancing to the sides. Someone was out here. He could hear the controlled breathing and the blood pumping in the person's body very rapidly. What?! They couldn't have followed me… could they? I would have known. He raised his head and sniffed the air. Through the down wind smell, he knew it was human… a certain human who should be indoors. "What the hell are you doing out?! Are you trying to freeze your ass off you arrog..."
With a blinding flash of light, Maul felt something strike his chin, followed on the sides of his neck and the underarm, knocking his nerve clusters for a loop. With another kick, he was knocked out of the air and on his behind.
Khalid stood before him spinning a staff made from photons. His dark red aura was already flared up around him, apparently protecting him from exposure. What struck a chord in Maul was when he recognized the bloodthirsty look in Khalid's flashing eyes and the demonic growl coming through his teeth. Under normal circumstances, Maul might have beamed with pride upon seeing his great-grandson finally approach him the way he really was made to. This time, however, Maul could tell something was wrong. His sense of smell told him that this was a little bit more than it seemed. Khalid sneered down at Maul, a thin stream of drool sliding precariously down his chin, like a wild beast of nature would before delivering its killing blow. Gruffly and eerily, Khalid addressed Maul as he kicked him in the jaw. "Guten morgen. Fine day to die… eh animal?""
End Chapter Five
Interlude II
Kemet (Southern Egypt) ca. 3047 B.C.
The finest silk from the East, hung in streams around the spacious throne room. Rich and soft, totally decorative. They hung from ivory rods, bringing color to this room of brick and marble. Spaced around the room were various artworks and masterpieces from around the area. A wooden sculpture of a laborer from the land South of the desert. Dried animal pelts from the West. A painting of King Ratiki from the North. A small figurine of Prince Mufasa carved by a Hebrew sculptor from the North. Ceremonial weapons… statues of the gods… Everything befitting a King.
King Ratiki didn't give a damn about any of it. Only one thing concerned him… his son. He supposed that he had always been like this, but never saw the warning signs. Akeem had warned him upon Mufasa's birth that the child was gifted… and could very well be the personification of light… He warned that it was vital that Mufasa's abilities were honed from the beginning… that he could channel the powers that were his birthright.
Then-Prince Ratiki had told him that no son of his would be trained to be a mystic… especially around his father Timoten. Mystics were weak. A warrior was what it took to rule the throne… and a warrior Mufasa would be. Out of Akeem's students, Jhakar was the prized one… and the one who had proven himself along King Ratiki countless times. Akeem warned him that for Mufasa's safety, both needed to be indulged. When King Ratiki refused to allow Akeem to instruct him in the magic arts, Akeem responded by removing himself from the boy's education altogether. Ratiki had let it go. He wanted his son to have a warrior's heart… fierce and ruthless tempered with humanity. That was what he wanted. In that respect, he was not disappointed.
With respect to anything, Mufasa caught on faster than any of Akeem's students. Fighting… philosophy… customs… history… language… Mufasa was bright from the getgo. At the age of twenty, Mufasa exhibited more facility over a variety of weapons than many of those twice his age. The prince's memory was astounding, learning complicated processes after observing it once. His understanding was unparalleled.
Jhakar had said that Prince Mufasa had animal senses and reflexes… and despite his lack of training regarding his light power, Prince Mufasa has found ways to use it to his advantage. Ratiki soon found out the drawback. With the senses of an animal came the tendency to so easily slip into its patterns. Mufasa considered it natural… something that had always been there. Ratiki found it quite unnatural. After all… how many of the OTHER kings had sons that refused to eat food he did not kill with his bare hands?
Then, of course, there were the maid servants. Granted, they were there for that purpose, but the way he carried on with them… the way he left them bruised and exhausted. It scared Ratiki. He had warned his son not to conceive an illegitimate heir, but Mufasa had told him not to worry… that he knew how to avoid it. (Absolute nonsense, Ratiki said, but Mufasa pointed out that there were no children yet.)
His son, put simply, was a beast… and carried on like a beast. He cared not who knew or witnessed his behavior. He let his instincts run him. Ratiki had considered it a blessing that Mufasa had placed honor above everything else… That there was at least SOME limitation to just how far he would go.
His son would be a powerful leader… of that he was sure. Would he command respect from respect or out of fear? That, he did not know… and he saw the capacity in Mufasa to go either way.
"My King, you have called for me?"
"Yes, Akeem… Please… It has come to my attention that Sarai, Jhakar's wife, was found dead this morning… On the street… burned alive."
"That is correct, My King. I investigated it personally."
Ratiki dropped his head and covered his eyes with his hand. Most anyone else he would send from the room, but he trusted Akeem. Once upon a time, Akeem was his mentor. Akeem had seen him through all stages of life, so crying before him did not affect his honor. "Anubis' Eyes… It's true… My son has become a cold-blooded killer."
"My King, the remnant corruption on her corpse is powerful. I don't think Mufasa was responsible…"
"Who else could it BE?! None have that power. He told me he was there, Akeem… He told me that he fought the guy who was responsible… some new guy named Mjimbe… who was actually Jhakar. JHAKAR! Ridiculous… Jhakar is in Egypt negotiating with Pharoah… and he does not have that kind of power."
"The corruptive magic indicates that it could NOT have been Mufasa. Yes, he has power… and yes, his gifts can be downright frightening, but he is no killer. I've watched him grow up. He has too much honor to commit such a heinous act!"
"HE'S A MONSTER!!!"
"He's your SON! I would have hoped you'd know him better by now. While, I am loathe to believe that Jhakar killed his wife, my investigation rules out Mufasa as a suspect."
"He tried to tell me Jhakar did it… and he told me what happened…"
"Perhaps we should investigate his claim…"
"You KNOW it isn't the truth!"
"My King!"
"Mufasa is a DEMON… He's a MONSTER… He's…"
"Right here." Prince Mufasa walked through the door to the throne room. By now, everyone had seen the prince with his powers activated. While his voice or his growl could still cause people to shiver in fear, he rarely gave them reason to do so. While Mufasa was indeed a formidable opponent, trained in various fighting skills, including those not native to the continent, rarely did he find himself using them. Last night's fight for life against Jhakar… who goes by Mjimbe now… was an exception… as well as the assassins sent to take him out. "You forget, father, that my ears are sensitive. Your whispers are like screams."
"Mufasa… You will answer for your actions."
"Akeem speaks the truth, My King. I did not kill Sarai! I still maintain that it was that traitorous Jhakar who did so!"
"Don't you lie to me! I am your KING!"
"Is THAT what it is, now?" Mufasa dropped his photon aura and stepped toward his father. Unconsciously, Ratiki stepped back… "So… It has come to this. My own father has become so afraid of me that he has condemned me without checking my statement?"
"There's no NEED to. Jhakar is en route back here right now… I KNOW you are lying. You slew her…"
"No… I didn't…"
"I never thought I would say this, but I'm ashamed of you. You have proven yourself to be one disappointment after another. Now, you have proven yourself a cold-blooded murderer."
"Father, I…"
"I had such high hopes for you… Do not despair. I will pass on my kingdom to another. My expectations of you are no longer your concern."
"Father?"
"You will address me as King… From this point on, you are no longer my son. You have until dusk to leave the palace."
To his credit, Mufasa didn't show it in his eyes. "Yes… 'My King.'" Sadly he just walked away, passing by the old mage Akeem as he went. As he went, he took off the tunic that identified him as the Prince of Kemet and threw it on a statue. Just before he reached the door, Mufasa turned around, meeting his father's eyes once more. Then, with a flash of light, he was gone.
-------------------------------
Grover stared out the window at the falling snow, oblivious to his distorted reflection in the glass. Yes… he had countless reports to look over. He could go train with the Hellions. He might go speak to Gomurr. There were a lot of things that he MIGHT do. Yes… the headache was gone… and so was the ache in his leg. Right now, his concentration just seemed gone. "Three days…"
Knocking quietly, Alice slipped in the door behind him. "Mr. Grover, I have those files you asked for." Carefully, she set them on the table and started back out the door. "The Forbes report should be ready for by this afternoon… and your letters of recognition should be ready for you by tomorrow. On Thursday, I'm going to run maintenance on the computer system."
"Alice, has the White Cou-- White Rook phoned in, yet?"
"No, sir… Not at all. Should I call his house and…"
"No… No… That will not be necessary."
Even after she left the office, Grover spent his time staring out the window. He was being plain ridiculous. That, he knew. Granted, Khalid had not been bred to fight and wield weapons, but he was an Inner Circle member. The guy wasn't defenseless. He was smart… he was strong… So, why all of a sudden did Grover find himself thinking about him? It was strange, in a way…
Yes, Grover knew damn near everything there was to know about Khalid. Reincarnated Egyptian King… Professional jazz pianist… beat the shit out of a thug… blinded by an old friend's daughter… went on tour two years ago… Blah blah blah… Everything else, he was there through. The stuff Khalid didn't tell anyone, he knew by other means. That doesn't substitute for actually knowing the person, though. Grover considered it part of the job to know everyone. That was what being King was about… knowing his people and everyone else's people. He knew strength, weaknesses, and personalities of everyone. It didn't take much… Just simple observation.
Khalid, he wasn't sure about. The image he put forth and the image behind closed doors were separate. He had seen him after the Hellions rejected him on his birthday. (Only Human) He pushed the anger and the frustration down deep, much like Mufasa did with King Ratiki. Unlike Mufasa, he never released it… never let it give voice. To Khalid, weakness isn't defined by brutality, skills, or material wealth, but by perseverance. However… he can adapt.
Just one little problem… Not only is Khalid unstable… but he's a bomb waiting to go off. When will it go off? Who is going to light it? How big will the explosion be? And most importantly… What will it take to save him from it?
"All right, Khalid… Don't want to be explaining to Cougar why his grandson disappeared off the face of the earth…"
End Interlude
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Chapter Six
Khalid swung his photon staff to Maul's very jugular, toying with him a bit and slapping the sides of his neck. With his aura flared to warm him, Khalid stood proudly over the vampire. If he were truly in control, he would know one thing was for certain: You don't toy with the enemy… especially an enemy who was bred to be the Kaiser's ultimate fighter… Germany's earlier attempt to beat the Americans to developing a super-soldier. Patrick Walsh has been in service of the Red King Ryan Jensen, as his personal assassin… No, Khalid would not dare play with this enemy. A bear, though… a bear bent on revenge would.
With a roar of satisfaction, Khalid struck Maul directly in the Adam's apple with the photon staff. Before Maul could get his bearings, Khalid kicked him in the nose, causing blood to temporarily leak out. Before any more could spill, however, the cut clot up, almost magically, thanks to his vampire nature and mutant ability to heal. Pressing his advantage, Khalid slapped Maul upside the head once again with the staff and this time followed it with a kick to the gut, sending Maul wrenching over holding his stomach. "You insult me, Vampire… I was hoping for a better throwdown than this!" With another blinding flash of light, Maul found himself almost pounded into the ground, coughing, with the blood spewing from his punctured lungs. The pain was almost unbearable, like open-heart surgery without the anesthesia.
At this point, he knew he was going to have to take Khalid down… and he could not be gentle about it. Khalid was using fighting techniques he learned from his time training with the Hellions… techniques that he'd normally bumble. In this case, Khalid was using them like a pro, including several Maul had not seen before. Even worse was that he was not being conservative with his powers. He was going all out, as if this was a battle to the death.
Maul was sure of it; Khalid would have to be taken down in such a way he didn't get up. The only problem was how to do it without killing or dismembering him, so he could concentrate on getting Khalid to dispel the "visitor" from his body… and he was going to have to do it quick.
Maul, still bent over huffing for air, (or at least he wanted Khalid to think he was) picked his head up and looked in Khalid's direction with just a simple smile and a taunting laugh - one that made Khalid furious. That's it, Khalid; frustration is just the key I'm looking for
"Stupid human… Can't you see I'm killing you?!" Angrily, Khalid lashed out with a photon bear's paw in Maul's direction, this time knocking him back inside the cave they had been holing up in.
"Now we shall finish this, Murderer. Now I shall have my vengeance!" Proudly and slowly, Khalid walked into the darkness, moving in for the kill, but to his surprise, Maul's body was not there.
"What??!! By what demons is thi…" and before he could finish his sentence, he felt a strong blow across the back of his head… an adamantium-reinforced blow. As Khalid turned, he found a well placed boot to his temple that sent him staggering back…
" You forget, mein freund, a vampire does not breathe air… Khalid knows this. He also knows of my mutant ability to manipulate shadows for my own purposes as well… So tell me, fodder, just who am I beating the shit out of?!"
"Arrogant human, you think yourself a match for me!?" The aura around Khalid began to change colors, almost a hue of crimson red. It was obvious that the entity inside Khalid was outraged. Its self-confidence was way too high… and for something of a pale-looking man taunting him, it was enough for to set him on an all-out bloodrage.
Maul flew at him, swiftly slicing his left leg through the dense air and tapping Khalid's lower jaw. He followed up with the right, but as quick as he is, he felt Khalid's hand catch his ankle and fling him away toward the ground, headfirst. Walsh realized at this point, with his own blood gushing from his forward down into his mouth… and his retarding healing factor… He was fighting the magic too, not just the being who possessed Khalid or just Khalid's own suppressed nature. Maul moved his head to the side, just enough for Khalid's flying photon blade to strike rip through his ear. Yep… the bear was toying with him…
Licking the blood from his lips, Maul nodded in his opposition's direction… a blatant dare for more… Was this what Patrick Walsh wanted?
" Fool, if it is more pain you want, then I shall give it to you tenfold, you pathetic whelp."
Khalid leapt at him. Forming a photon blade in his right hand, he plunged it into Maul's abdomen. Then, pinning him down with the use of his magic and weight, Khalid pounded the sides of Maul's neck in quick succession, constricting the major cerebral artery. The typical man might have died immediately from "brain attack", or in a less decisive attack, fallen over unconscious. Patrick Walsh, however, was far from being the typical man… especially in the sense that he had one of the most powerful mutant healing factors aided by a vampire disease. Although his healing factor was currently being slowed by his opponent's magic, it obviously was still intact enough to stop him from being affected. With a crazed look in his eye, Khalid sneered down at his prey, picking him up by his neck, and tossed him into the snow bank right outside the entrance of the cave. With mocking laughter, his lips move..
"For a weapon such as yourself, I thought you would have given me a better fight"
Maul's eyes flashed a violent yellow. His healing factor had finally cured him and he slowly melted into the shadows below him. He had brilliantly placed himself into an area of the fighting ground which he could become one with the night. Khalid was outraged. Maul was being toying with him, mentally… using him to get into position. What could Khalid do for a defensive move now!? He was trying to pinpoint the vampire using his magic-enhanced senses… " Now where can you be hiding.. There…yo…"
Before he could finish his sentence and plant a photon blade through the snow at his feet, Maul's hands exploded through the surface, grabbing him by the ankles. Maul blasted off into the air, assuring himself that they were far enough from the boy scouts to avoid discovery. Maul increased his altitude, his destination… "Nothing like a stroll through the clouds in the morning Ja? Will you excuse me for just one sec.." Throwing Khalid into the open skies, Maul began concentrating on his task on hand…
Careful… got to be careful how I do this…
Khalid flared his aura and kicked out to break his rotational momentum. Before he could fall all the way to the ground, Maul caught him under his arms and glared into his eyes with his hypnotic stare.
"You cannot resist me, boy you never could…"
Khalid burst out in a growling laughter as he realized exactly what the vampire was doing.
"Not today… 'HERR' WALSH!"
With that, Khalid drove a photon stake through Maul's shoulder into the main nerve that serviced the arm. Involuntarily, Maul released him and covered the wound… waiting for it to heal… Khalid quickly fell through the air, feeling it rush through his face and into his clenched teeth. For a moment, his eyes glazed yellow as he felt a tingling in his hands, as if something were bursting to get out. He let the feeling rush through as ray of light flew beneath him and struck the ground. The shockwave of the explosion canceled out his gravitational acceleration. His eyes returned to their normal color as he landed on the ground, now with a photon scythe formed in his hands.
Crazed, he started to laugh again… He could see Walsh land in the brush nearby. Now, he ran toward him. The thrill of the chase made it all the better… as he buzzed with anticipation. Soon, he would have his vengeance on the man that killed him… soon the man's blood will be on his hands… He would have a kill under his belt…
Maul simply smiled and stood still, like he couldn't be bothered. "What's wrong, Walsh… Are you no longer fit to survive?! Have you resigned to meet your fate at the hands of the demon hunter?"
Khalid raised the scythe in his hand again as he leapt, waiting for Maul to move… but again Maul did not oblige.
"Come on… Fight!"
Maul dropped into the shadow beneath him and emerged out of Khalid's. Quickly, he punched Khalid square in the back and followed it with a kick to the back of the head. Khalid began to roll and counter when Maul grabbed him tightly by the hair and spoke soothingly into his ear… "Cast out the bear, Khalid…"
Khalid elbowed him in the side of the neck and spun away. "NO!!! I cry for ven…"
Maul never let him finish. He backhanded him again, this time affixing his hands to his neck in a chokehold. Again, he spoke, "Do it, Khalid… Let him go!"
"I refuse…"
Maul released him and simply stepped back. "Here I am, then… Kill me."
Khalid formed a photon blade in his hand and brought it up to Maul's neck, ready to plunge it through… Khalid locked his eyes with Maul's, wanting to see pain… wanting to see fear… anger… or at the very least, defiance. Instead, he found nothing. Maul didn't give a damn. Khalid began to pull his arm down, when again Maul's voice bellowed.
"You heard me… KILL me!"
Again, Khalid brought the blade up to Maul's neck. This time, Maul snapped his hand around Khalid's wrist and stepped closer. Khalid's first reaction was to rip his arm out of Maul's grip, but Maul held it tight. Unexpectedly, Maul actually started laughing. "Nein… Like this…"
With that, Maul jerked Khalid's arm forward, plunging the photon blade into his neck. He pulled it across, still laughing as the blood first poured and then gushed out onto Khalid's hand.
"Good God…"
Khalid's aura flashed from red to bright yellow… Then the green orb that was the bear's spirit shot out of his chest, directly into the air where it dissipated… As his aura reverted back to its normal red color, Khalid felt his strength leave him. He crouched down, grabbing his head… and waited fruitlessly for the maddening sensations from his experience to be buried again… His senses were just driving him over the edge… splintering reality and bringing urges of different nature up… and possibly some ONE he didn't want…
"Damn it… Go away! I SAID GO AWAY!"
Maul spoke again… not moving from his place directly in front of Khalid. "Not this time, boy… It's here; embrace it."
Khalid's bloody fingers buried themselves in his hair, his voice still growling. He tried to regain his center… regain his composure… and most of all subdue what was forcing its way to the surface, but it was not happening.
"Shut the hell up."
"Make me, pup… Come on. Let it consume you whole, now; it is there for the taking..."
Khalid grabbed his head, still jerking around. His senses were still in overdrive, no matter how much he tried to quell them… Even the buzzing refused to go away… He felt he was only barely holding on by a thread, trying to reel it back in. The most agonizing feeling was that he DIDN'T want to quell it… That Maul's words were so damn inviting… In frustration, Khalid shouted again.
"Damn it… it won't die down! IT WON'T…"
Maul bent down as he laughed to himself. Again he spoke soothingly, trying to coax it out.
"Do not resist it, Hunter… Be proud of what you are… the strength it represents… Let it out. You've locked yourself away for too long, scared of how you really are… scared of your true nature. Let it sing."
Khalid's lashed out at Maul with his photon aura, pinning him into a tree.
"Damn you… leave me the HELL alone… Can't you see that you've fucking done enough?!"
"False… This was not my doing, but yours. You can taste it, Herr Hunter… the urge to hunt… the urge to become one with nature… I smell it within you. Relish it, for it will set you free. Fight it and you will continue this route of insanity."
The lion's paw formed from photons ripped into Maul some more, tearing out a piece of flesh that promptly healed. "Shut the hell up… You know NOTHING about me… Nothing about my personality… nothing about…"
"Not true again… I know you better than you know yourself. I know your heart… It is the same as mine! I smell the fear radiating off of you… I smell the animal within you."
Khalid didn't notice the vibrations… he didn't notice the growl in his voice… he didn't notice the drool sliding down the side of his mouth… All he knew for sure was that right now he wanted nothing more than to cut Maul's tongue out.
"You don't know ME at all…"
"I don't, eh? I've seen you, Khalid… I've seen you in the woods surrounding the Hellions Compound… how your energy picks up away from the stares of others… Even your house is in your environment, out in the middle of nowhere. Although you bury it, you cannot help it. It wants out so badly, I see it radiating from your pores. As I've said before, we have the same blood."
"What the hell is THAT supposed to mean?!"
Khalid wasn't sure if it was out of shock at Maul's statements or loss of strength, but he released Maul, dropping again to his knees. Even now, his senses still overran him, not obeying his attempts to shut them off. What bothered him most about the situation was that he knew why, but was not ready to admit… ready to admit that he wanted more of it. He wanted to remain angry with Maul, but he couldn't… He saw the truth of Maul's words.
"Just leave me alone… I don't want any of it…"
"No… You lie… not only to me, but yourself... You fear boy … and fear makes you weak!"
Without another word, the two of them sank into the shadows, en route back toward the cave.
End Chapter Six
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Chapter Seven:
Khalid knew that he didn't want to talk to Maul. Every time he talked to him, he just ended up getting irritated… even pissed. Khalid could not figure out for the life of him what Maul's agenda was. He was doing everything in his power to push Khalid toward the type of man Mufasa was… to get Khalid to practically renounce his humanity. Why did he do it? Why was it so important to him that the "beast" come out? More importantly… why was it getting harder and harder to reign it in?
As much as Khalid was pissed at Maul, he had to admit… Although Maul seemed lately to live for nothing else but to get on Khalid's nerves, Khalid could not deny that Maul had saved his life. Yeah, he still didn't buy the healing factor thing, but he did know that Maul cut him out of the car. Of that much, he was sure. He also knew that Maul was what he saw dropping out of the sky while he was fighting for control of the wheel with Gretchen Lang. Presumably, that meant Maul was on his way to save him even then.
He just didn't understand was why Maul was up here in the first place… How did the guy know he was in trouble and find him so fast? Why did he wait until a couple of hours after he was kidnapped to make his move? Something was off here… Something was SERIOUSLY off… Well… That and there was the matter that the two of them could have been back to some sort of civilization by now…
Did Maul organize this entire scenario just so he could get Khalid out in the middle of nowhere by himself… FORCE him to relinquish any self-control and delve into that part of himself he dared not go? It was certainly possible. Yet, Khalid could not help but think… He almost died. Maul said before that he did not want to convert Khalid into one of the undead… Well… That and considering that Khalid had freaked out BEFORE he was kidnapped, it was highly unlikely that Maul even had anything to do with it.
Then, of course, there could be the possibility that Maul is simply just following him everywhere… on that damn Ryan Jensen's orders! For some reason, he would not be at all surprised to learn that was the truth… Jensen had done worse; of that much he was sure. Despite Maul's apparent loyalties, he did not seem the type to run at someone's beck and call. What gave?
Finally finished setting the brush at the front of the cave to close off the entrance, Khalid started toward the campfire in the back of the cave. After resetting the stones and arranging the kindling, he lightly twitched his photon powers on his hand. A small orb shot from his fingers immediately igniting the kindling when it reached its destination. Yes, it was cheating, but at this point Khalid didn't give a damn… especially after what he just went through.
Pacing back and forth to keep his blood flowing, Khalid was thankful that Maul had brought him the clothes… They were warm and well insulated which he desperately needed. There were only a few things that concerned him… From the look and feel of the clothes, it most definitely looked something more along the lines of some kind of strike outfit… Although the layers of clothes all had different thicknesses and textures, Khalid recognized the fabric the second he put them on. They were unstable molecules. There is practically no reason for anyone but a superpowered human to wear unstable molecules.
There was also the matter of the blood stain on the collar… That told Khalid two things. The previous owner of these clothes was now dearly departed… and he was a mutant/superpowered person of some sort. Now… Provided that Maul's shadow-sliding radius is short-range, that means that this guy must have been relatively close. If Khalid were a guessing man, then more than likely this guy was within miles of here.
Let's see… a lone mutant in strikewear out in the middle of nowhere? Nope. This guy was part of a group. Khalid looked through the wallet that was in the pocket. Same ol', same ol'… an expired condom and about $60.00. Strangely enough, the man didn't have a single business card, credit card, or anything. Fortunately, he did run across something. A driver's license… a GERMAN driver's license. Steven Reichhardt. Nope… Neither the name nor the face rang a bell. So this guy was neither Hellion, Upstart, Marauder, nor Dark Rider. He should know… Khalid's familiar with the Hellions… and he taught damn near everyone else while in the BHC. Nope… this guy was DEFINITELY not in the Hellfire Club.
So, he was a member of a different strike team. Hmmmmm… a strike team other than the Hellions and their BHC/DFC counterparts out in the middle of nowhere. Close-by. For some reason, Khalid doubted that they had come out to save him from his kidnappers. No… More than likely, they had come out to MEET his kidnappers. It made sense… Gretchen Lang had the stretcho-electro-fingers… and Don made crystal in his hands. It made perfect sense.
So… why was this strike team after him? Were they planning on holding him for ransom? No… For some reason he didn't believe it. They wanted something from him, but he couldn't remember what it was. He had to admit that he really was not paying much attention to them while they were trying to choke him. Nah… Don had said something just before he mentioned Khalid being second-rate… What was it?
Also, that still didn't explain why it was that Khalid freaked out in the loading dock. The last time his powers acted up like that was in Bhutan when Darkwolf was possessed. (The Sword of Haresh) He had to admit right now that he didn't have any more of an understanding now than he did before.
Having thought over the facts, Khalid was sure that whatever was going on, Maul was not part of it. He had probably used Khalid's boots as a decoy or something along those lines. Khalid felt somewhat embarrassed and angry with himself that he had automatically assumed that Maul was behind this. No… As Maul said, if he were up to something, he would have done it already. During this entire affair, except for maybe outside after the bear's spirit left his body, Maul had been acting in Khalid's best interest. As much as he wanted to, Khalid could not remain angry with him.
With a yellow flash of the eyes, Khalid turned around to see Maul flying out of a shadow on the opposite side of the cave. For a brief instant, both of them locked eyes. Khalid actually managed to hide his shame fairly well. As usual, almost no one could read his face but a trained telepath or someone who really knew him well. Part of it was from being a public entertainer and part of it was from the way he was raised. Unless Khalid wanted someone to know how he felt, he kept the generic stonewall expression on his face. (Of course, in extreme circumstances, it was harder to reign it in than others… especially when he gets furious.) Even the eyes didn't tell.
The generic expression didn't work on Maul, though. For more than a century, he has had experience with people. Although he considered his great-grandson harder to read than others, even he could not hide everything from him. With the change in emotions, there also came a change in body chemistry and basic functions. People give off his or her individual scent, but there are variations within that scent that more often than not betray them. It was how Maul detected Khalid's underlying feralness and the desire for it to be free. Khalid might be able to sense these things if he wasn't so damn stubborn to be "civilized" to the point of being false… if he would just accept what he is…
With an eerie smile, Maul broke the stare and craned his head toward the entrance of the cave. Nodding his head in approval, he activated his shadow-sliding power and covered the brush-covered entrance with another layer of snow. Then, he looked toward the ceiling and made sure that the ventilation hole for the fire was still clear.
Finally warmed by the fire, Khalid sat down Indian-style on the bear skin rug and stared into the flames. He remembered thinking earlier that he could not stand this cave. It was a cage… a prison. He never understood it, but he just hated the feeling of entrapment. It was one of the most incapacitating emotions ever, because you get the feeling that you have no options… you have no choices… that your fate lies uncontrollably in someone else's hands. Free will and the option of making his own decisions was something Khalid really prized. Here, he felt imprisoned… confined… There was something that Khalid could not figure out, though. Was he feeling trapped because he truly felt that Maul, the snowstorm, or that mystery strike team was keeping him against his will? Or was it because there were no distractions… and staring Khalid in the face was the most obvious reminder that as he lives, it is at the cost of locking something up… something he DARE not fail in suppressing. Briefly, Khalid could feel the beginning of the buzzing… the buzzing in his body that signaled to him that it was trying to happen again. Khalid hurriedly started a conversation in hopes that it would take his mind off of the buzzing… and subsequently stop it. "All right, Maul… What do you know about the strike team?"
"Strike team? Was?"
"I'm assuming that is where you found the… um… clothes…"
"Ja… yes… They were searching… for their missing friends. You could say that Steven found them."
And I would rather not have to think about your breakfast, Maul! "Did you hear anything about what they were after? About why they had tried to kidnap me in the first place?"
Maul looked away for a minute. For some reason, he was sure that it would not be in his best interest to tell Khalid what he saw on the back of the man's hand. He wanted to research that symbol… and by telling Khalid what was going on, he was removing the best bait he had. No… there was something going on… They wanted Khalid for some reason… enough to call him "Purified." No… He did not need to tell Khalid that something was up. "Nein, mein freunde… I was so overcome with hunger that I neglected to eavesdrop. They were mercenaries, Khalid. I'd assume they were planning on ransoming you."
Khalid jumped back to his feet and began to pace back and forth again, making shallow impressions in the dusty ground with the thermal insulated boots. Despite the faint light provided by the fire, the darkness of the cave was all encompassing… overwhelming. He supposed that it did not make it any better that both he and Maul at this point were dressed completely in black. Most people might be upset at being alone in the dark with a vampire who can shadow-slide, but not Khalid. Nope… Maul didn't bother him at all. For some strange reason, he felt as if Maul was the very least of his worries.
DAMN, I feel trapped in this cave… Finally, he stopped. He looked Maul in the eye again, momentarily forgetting that this was a vampire that survived on human blood. He remembered hearing once upon a time that vampires had no souls… that inside them was nothing but darkness. If he had ever believed in vampires before he joined the Hellfire Club, he might have believed it. After all… What being with a soul could possibly live with himself knowing that he could only feed on the life of others human beings? He knew the answer, now. Only a person with a tormented soul. Maul didn't choose what he became. No matter how much Khalid tried, he just could not equate him with evil. Asshole, yes; evil, no.
"Maul, why are we still out here? Are you telling me that you cannot shadowslide us back to a town or anything? I mean… How come we are still inside this cave?"
"I could ask the same of you, Khalid… Seeing as how your teleportation is more long-range than mine… Surely, had you wanted you could have transported us back to New York by now!"
Khalid's felt the hair on the back of his scalp rise. As far as he knew, absolutely no one outside of the White Inner Circle and Angelo Torres had a clue that he had teleported to Cairo. (Not quite voluntary, either. Lethal Legacy… before he got captured by poachers and possessed by Estophalum…) As a result, his photon powers were also knocked off-line for damn near a day, not to mention that he felt wasted. How the hell did Maul know about THAT??!! "Don't evade the question. You know that it is fucking dangerous! I can't handle it!"
"Now, who is evading the question…" Maul slowly smiled, baring his glistening white teeth. Had the fire been brighter, Khalid might have seen Maul's canines, but they still remained swallowed by the darkness of the cave. I am well aware of your abilities, Khalid… though you may not be!
Khalid stood for a moment and shook his head in disgust. Maul was not good for a damn thing except pissing people off! Sitting down on top of the dried-out bearskin next to the fire, Khalid stared into the sizzling flames. At this point, he tried not to get lost in the hopelessness of the situation. While he was more than capable of taking care of himself in the wild, he couldn't help but feel that he might be over his head out in the middle of nowhere with the worst snowstorm of the century. If what Maul said had a grain of truth, then it probably would not be best for him to be alone. Yeah, he had confidence in himself, by he also needed to be practical. Maul was probably his only fri - er - ally out here… and clearly the one between the two that would have a better chance of surviving. "Mahler… I need to know… Why do you do it?"
Maul never thought that anything could take him by surprise. Yet, the sudden change in Khalid's attitude… in his temperament… "I do not understand."
"Put up with Ryan's shit… I know you don't like him. I can see that in your eyes whenever anyone mentions his name. He treats you like a third class citizen… like you are beneath everyone else… Granted, he treats everyone like they were born only to do his bidding, but he treats YOU like you aren't even worthy of that. Then, of course, I shouldn't mention that he mocks you in front of everybody. Why do you do it? You told me on Thanksgiving Day that at one point Ryan both ruined your life and saved it… Sounds like an even trade to me. Why don't you cut him loose and go on with your life?"
Nein, Khalid… It will never be even until he is repaid… properly… "Perhaps another time, Kinder… There is a time for stories and there isn't. This is one I just do not feel like telling. It is for your protection that I do not… and I would be…" Maul craned his neck toward the bearskin and saw that Khalid had already fallen asleep. Well… you were possessed by a bear today…
Maul had to have respect for the man Khalid was. To him, it was strange calling this kid a man. After all, Maul was a century older than Khalid. Surely, one didn't become man until he passed 70. He supposed he shouldn't complain, because at this point he could pass for being the same age as Khalid or just barely older, both a function of his healing factor was well as the vampirism. Right now as he saw Khalid's abdomen rise and fall with his breaths, it was almost impossible for Maul to believe that Khalid buried inside him such a savage and brutal animal. An animal that was just screaming to be released…
For weeks Maul had been psionically forcing Khalid's animal personality to awaken, each time making sure Khalid was asleep when it happened. (This was to make sure he never discovered what was happening.) Earlier today, Khalid's contact with the bear's spirit had awakened it while he was conscious. Maul wanted to see just how far gone Khalid was… just how close Khalid was to embracing his true nature…This one, he would not approach with the psionic suggestion he planted the day before Thanksgiving. (Relativity) That one was his ace in the hole… The one that circumvented damn near everything, because those fools at the White Court had not thought to train him against psionic "attacks."
Khalid was DEFINITELY going to get wise to this one. Maul knew that it would be pointless to do the hypnotic stare again. With the darkness of the cave, it would take longer before it sprung on Khalid. Well… and just a few hours ago, it didn't affect him at all, no doubt due to a combination of magic and adaptation. Luckily, Maul had learned one trick that involved neither vampire hypnosis nor telepathy… even more powerful while Khalid was asleep…
Maul sank into his shadow and emerged out of the shadowy wall directly behind Khalid. Hovering, he crossed his legs Indian style and slowly settled down behind Khalid's head, being mindful to make as little noise as possible. He slowly brought his hands so they hovered to the sides of Khalid's head and counted silently to himself. 3… 2… 1… Quickly, he jerked fingers down to Khalid's temples. Khalid's eyes angrily snapped open and his muscles tensed as he actually started to lash out and defend himself. Maul applied more pressure to Khalid's temples and began to massage them, all the while speaking soothingly, as if to an infant who had awakened during the night. "Ssssh… Sssssh… Sleep, Khalid… return to sleep…"
Maul saw Khalid's eyes roll back and close before continuing their REM route. Then, Khalid's muscles slowly relaxed, almost like rubber, as he fell completely under the vampire's spell. Maul sneered as he continued to massage Khalid's temples in a circular motion. He spoke calmly and quietly, making sure to enunciate his words as clearly as possible. He wanted to make sure that Khalid understood every word. With a crooked gleam in his eye, the vampire began his plan… "Herr Hunter… I think it is time you experienced first-hand just the type of man you really are…"
End Chapter Seven
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Interlude III
3044 B.C. Kemet
Akeem was considered the preeminent mystic in Kemet. No one had an inkling just how old he really was. All that anyone knows is that Akeem, who had formerly been imprisoned in the dungeon of the royal palace, has served King Ratiki ever since the death of his father King Timoten.
The day twenty years ago when the change took place had definitely caused a stir. One day, King Timoten was preparing and army to sweep through Lower Kemet (Egypt) and Nubia and the next day Ratiki announced that no such thing would be happening… and that both the King as well as Ratiki's wife Nefir had fallen ill and died. Some of the leading advisors did not buy it… especially with rumors flying around that the god Ra had visited the royal palace. It was made all the more suspicious seeing that the tomb that had originally been built for King Timoten was actually housing the late Princess Nefir… King Timoten was never interred…
No one really knew what happened to King Timoten. Rumor is that he was descended from the gods and that Ra himself came to Kemet to take King Timoten to the sky. Some say that because of his strategic victories, Ra chose him as his host and they flew in a chariot to the stars. Others maintain that the tyrannical King Timoten angered the gods with his ambition to put the known world under his thumb, and Ra struck him down. The old ones whisper that only King Ratiki knows the truth, but no one has dared to ask him for fear of bringing on them either his wrath nor the wrath of the gods.
It would be thousands of years before Akeem would be reborn as Gomurr and wrest the proctorship of the Crimson Dawn from Tar. With each passing life, he learned something else in his quest; this one was no different. Despite the rumors, he was only 90 years old. He still had QUITE a few hundred years yet to go in this life. Then, he would start again, in another role, doing something else. In this one, he was the mage/schoolmaster. In the last one, he was the… Dang… He forgot just that quickly. Well… at his age, he's entitled to forget.
One thing he will never forget is Ratiki's depression. It had been three years since he sent his only son away from the palace for a crime he found out later was committed by his son's mentor. At the time, Ratiki had figured that he would conceive another heir illegitimately or at least find someone in this kingdom that he approved of. In retrospect, when he told Mufasa that he would easily find a different successor to the throne, he lied. None were worthy of his trust or strong enough to rule for the better of Kemet. He had already decided that if he were to fall ill and die, he would force it on Akeem before anyone else.
"Am I worthy of my own throne?" Ratiki said, plaintively. He looked out at the center of his kingdom, with a sad expression on his face. He was not sure that he would not be long for this world. Although at his present age, he was the paragon of health, he was too heartbroken to continue for long. More and more of the affairs of the state lay in the hands of Akeem, now. He could not even bring himself to continue. Before long, he would be in entombment with his ancestors. He was sure of it. "Akeem… am I worthy?"
"I do not know the answer to that, My King. You are the only one who does."
In anger, King Ratiki spun around, shattering a vase that had been brought over from the Far East. "Damn it… I was wrong… I should be forever damned for what I've done. In my own fear and ignorance, I drove my son away… the ONLY person who can understand how to make Kemet thrive. When I am no longer of this world, who will stand in my place?"
"As I said before, you are the only one who can make that decision… I can't do that for you."
"I SENT HIM AWAY… I called him a cold-blooded murderer… I accused him of lying. I insulted his honor and threw him out of his home. He was telling the truth, Akeem. He was WARNING me of a viper in my own den… and I let my own prejudices… my own fears blind me. I have brought on the wrath of the gods for what I have done…" He rubbed his hand where it had struck the vase. The impact of the vase struck a tendon in his hand and spread through it. He was surprised to find that tear drops fell into his hand… not from the pain, but his frustration. "What is Nefir's immortal spirit thinking right now… about what I've done… about what I've allowed our only son to become. I'm no better than my father…"
"RATIKI!" Akeem angrily bellowed with shock. "Pull yourself together! You are NOT anything like your father. Do you remember what your father did to further his own quest for power? Do you remember what your father did to Nefir? What he did to your SON??!!"
"Akeem… I don't think he remembers…"
"You know better than that, Ratiki. You remember the nightmares he had for years afterward… the nightmares YOU had for years afterward… the nightmares you still have!"
"That is NOT the issue!"
"It is very MUCH the issue and you know it. You're his family… and believe it or not, one of the few people who can understand him… even if you choose NOT to! I've lived and seen many things during my life. As much as you blame yourself, you are not your father… and HE is not his father. You can hardly compare your actions to those of your father. You saw the man Timoten had become at the end… and perhaps rather than worry about YOU, you should be worrying about your son. It is not too late."
King Ratiki turned to look out the window again, watching the various homes that were built around the castle, and the children dashing out and about on their way to classes. The merchants had already prepared their wares and were eating a meal before shouting at the tops of their lungs for customers. Even the pickpockets were out and about… up to no good, no doubt.
Shortly after they were married, he and Nefir would walk to this window in the mornings and watch Kemet open up shop for the day. Then was a different time, under Timoten's reign… a much more dangerous time. He had no fear of the gods… and treated his kingdom like that. Simple artisans were ground under his heel and forced to pay a protection tax. Every tax Timoten could imagine was used not to supplement the grain houses, but to fund the army and build more weapons. Timoten wanted it all… and was prepared to do anything to get it. Weakly, Ratiki looked out the window. It was thriving again… everything. Twenty years had made a world of difference in Kemet, but it hasn't done so in its king. Without Mufasa around, that was everything Ratiki was left with. "How can it NOT be too late, Akeem? I've driven whatever humanity was left out of him. If he was not an animal before, surely he is one by now. I don't even know where he is… or what I would say if I found him."
"Tell him exactly what you told me."
"I don't know how I… I can't show weakness in front of…"
"He is your son… not your subject. You'll show weakness by NOT seeking him out. Remember, he left out of deference to your wishes."
King Ratiki bobbed his head up and down in agreement. For a moment, he looked at the jeweled rings on his hands… One Nefir had given to him on their wedding day. Another represented his monarchy over Kemet. The one on his index finger represented his only son. "You're right, Akeem. I beg of you… Please find my son and bring him home."
"Yes, My King." Respectfully, Akeem walked out of the throne room. It was not until he was out that he allowed the smile to cross his face. Why does it always take these kings so long to learn?
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No one understood who exactly that man was… or if he was a man at all. He lived alone on the wilds. As far as they knew, he had been there for years… maybe even grown up there, not knowing how to speak or raised by wild animals. No one had a clue. In a way, he was his own legend, surviving by his skill alone… with no weapons, no home, and no protection from the elements. One person who has run into him said that his growl is fiercer than an animal's and his shout is enough to make his enemies drop dead. Another has said that the man must be one of the gods, because he can disappear in a flash of light. Someone else has said that he was a demon. Only demons could possibly emit such a red glow from his eyes. A wise one has said that he was death's messenger, for only death could create blades from light. No one knew exactly who this man was or where he came from. He spoke to no one… bought nothing… said nothing. His senses were like an animal's. He lived like an animal. He sounded like an animal. So, they referred to him as the Lion Man… and avoided him.
The Lion Man crouched on the ground, still. He had been there for two hours, waiting… stalking. He saw his prospective meal before him. The antelope… He had been careful to pick out just the right one. He left the female ones alone at this time of year, because they were more than likely carrying. The kind he had in mind was an older male… One with a lower position within the herd… One that was unattached to a mate. The Lion Man had found him… he was old enough to serve his purposes, but not old enough to be sick. He waited until the male was in the right position…
Then, he was off. As he ran along the field, he could feel his heart thumping in his chest, and the air rushing past his ears. The Lion Man actually began to laugh, allowing the light to pass through him and take form around him. It was like he was saturated… intoxicated, yet not compromised. He was the predator and the antelope was his prey… and nothing was better than the thrill of the chase… the taste of impending victory. The Lion Man began to growl again as he neared his prey… He leapt now, his arms reaching out to grab the antelope around the neck as he has done so many times…
Just before he connected, some loud invisible bird flew directly above him, blasting localized air around him in its wake. The wind was so strong and so hot that it actually spun him around while he was in mid-air. When he landed, his back slammed into the ground hard, knocking the wind out of him. His head struck a rock, and he saw spots fly in front of his eyes… and dinner get away…
The Lion Man lay on his back with his eyes closed and simply waited and relished the pain. It was almost blissful the varying degrees of pain. There were the minor aches and blisters, maybe just enough to be a nuisance to most. Then, there was the distracting pain where there may be blood or muscle tearing of some sort. Then, there was agonizing, incapacitating pain. This was more like the second example. The Lion Man did not care; he had learned a long time ago to savor pain. Pain was a natural part of living. Although he did not seek to find more of it or inflict it on others, he still saw the value of it. The pain reminded him that he was alive. He lived from day to day knowing that the pain he felt outside could never match the pain he felt inside. This current bout of pain was a minor annoyance at best.
No… tonight he would have to use the light blades to kill dinner. Slowly but surely, he felt his senses returning to him. Then, he felt the vibrations through the brittle dry grass on the ground… and talking… Someone was walking toward him from the direction of the invisible bird… speaking a language that seemed vaguely familiar, but different somehow.
"Sabat, look at this filthy Terran… The words of those villagers were true. He lives like an animal… and runs around clod in little but animal skin."
"If even those inferior Terran villagers consider him a savage, he must be so. Just look at him… He clearly does not even know how to address his betters."
Finally, the owner of the first voice addressed the Lion Man as he nudged him in the side with his foot. The language was clearer, now… more understandable… and condescending. "Lion-Dog… Arise… Bow to your betters!"
The Lion Man opened his eyes to see what man DARED touch or talk to him in his manner. With a glance, he knew immediately that they were not from this area. Their language and syntax were similar, as if it may have been a different dialect of the same language, but the Lion Man could not place the region. Their shiny, colorful tunics identified them as possible members of a royal family, but the Lion Man was familiar with all such families in the area. If these two WERE royals, they were recent royals who had overthrown someone. Seeing as this was well inside Kemet, they were obviously a long way from home. It was an even greater insult for them to come to HIS home and treat him this way… and not worth his sweat.
Strangers, they were… He heard the stout and pudgy one call the tall one with the whiny voice Sabat. He did not hear the short one's name, but he DID hear his mouth.
"Did you not HEAR me, Dog?! I said BOW to your…" The short fat one kicked him again. This time, the Lion Man caught his foot and attacked the shin with his elbow. Normally, when he did that, his opponent would fall on his back and get the wind knocked out of him just before the pain from the broken shin hit him.
Unknown to the Lion Man, this was not the typical opponent. The fat one somehow jumped into the air and flipped, spinning his foot out the Lion Man's grasp. By the time the Lion Man had risen to a stand, the fat one landed on his feet and already positioned his sword in front of the Lion Man's powerful chest. Angrily the short one spat into the Lion Man's eye. "Filthy dog… You dare touch me?! You dare touch the great Abdol?!"
The Lion Man wiped Abdol's spit from his eye with the back of his hand. He kneed Abdol in the wrist, which caused him to thrust the sword up and away from him. Then, while Abdol fought for balance, he backhanded the man across the cheek with the same hand he wiped the spit off with… The Lion Man started to attack again when somehow Abdol kicked him in the chest and knocked him on his back.
The Lion Man was about to get to his feet when this time Abdol's sword was leveled at his neck. That was when he remembered the very first thing he was taught as a warrior-in-training… Know your enemy… and then use everything you know against him. He could tell by their scent that despite their appearance, they were not human. He had not seen them coming, so more than likely they were riding the invisible bird.
Without making it obvious, the Lion Man scanned around for the bird while pretending to give Abdol's words credence. He finally saw it on the extreme edge of the field behind them… big as a home. Most people would never notice the oddly-shaped transparent bird unless they crashed right into it, but the Lion Man could see how light bent around it and the knee-high grass crushed under its weight.
Something in the distance caught his eye. No, it was some ONE in the distance… The stranger watched from his position at the top of the hill, almost blending in the tall grass. The Lion Man could see this stranger leaning on a staff as he observed… such a staff that only a king would wield. For some reason, he had the feeling that these two were not aware of the stranger's presence…
Annoyed at not holding the Lion Man's attention, Abdol kicked him in the chin. Again, Abdol berated him before slapping him with the broadside of the sword. "You IGNORE me, Dog??!! Do you understand that you are not WORTHY to…"
The Lion Man's patience finally wore out as he rolled to his feet. Who was this insignificant peon to come to HIS land and address him like he was a mere slave?! Who was THIS man to threaten him?! How DARE this man deem HIM unworthy?! Abdol was not worthy of him! Angrily, the Lion Man spun around forming a blade of light in his hand. He swung before him, but Abdol dodged, blocking with his sword. Somehow the fat man flipped into the air above him and kicked him in the chin again before he landed. The Lion Man was really getting sick of that… "Peasant… Your attack was futile… useless against a Pharaohan warrior."
The Lion Man rubbed his chin and again took a moment to savor the pain. With a sneer on his face, his eyes locked onto Abdol's. For the first time sound actually escaped the Lion Man's lips. The growl, which was every bit as abnormal as the villagers reported, soon turned into a demented, strident laugh… a taunting laugh. Abdol swung his sword again, but found to his dismay that the blade had been severed from the hilt… from the Lion Man's attack. "Pharaohan" warriors, indeed… BAH… He has been to Cairo. Ramses did not train his men with those tricks… though, they were dumb enough to be accepted into his army…
"You will die for that insult!" Abdol jumped into the air again, spinning as he went. The Lion Man could not foresee what he was doing, but the man made two complete revolutions, kicking him in the temple twice with each foot. After he landed, Abdol punched him in the stomach and the underside of the chin. He was about to finish him with a strike to the neck when Sabat intervened.
"Abdol… You had your turn. Don't be greedy. It is my turn to teach this weak mongrel a lesson in proper etiquette." Sabat grabbed the Lion Man roughly by the underside of the neck, picking him into the air. "Cur… Do you not understand that you shouldn't growl when addressing your superiors? It is considered rude!" The Lion Man kicked out at him, but found himself thrown to the ground. Before he could get up, Sabat held him roughly by the hair and pounded the palm of his hand hard into the Lion Man's shoulder. Then, the other one. As the Lion man finally jumped to a stand, he suddenly realized that somehow the life was being taken from his arms… His arms would not respond to him at all. They just hung limp at his sides, like weights that had been attached to his torso.
"What's wrong, animal? Discovered that you cannot move your arms?" Sabat backhanded him to the ground before kicking him in the ribs. "That's because your blood can no longer get to them… not that a simpleton Terran animal like yourself could ever understand how anatomy works." He grabbed the Lion Man roughly by the hair, this time, and laughed into his ear. "And without your arms, you have no defense against me… or anyone else. So, you have a choice… You can roll over onto your stomach, bow to us, and kiss our feet… and maybe CONVINCE me to restore the use of your arms… or you can spend the rest of your life here, slowly starving to death in the wild. Without your arms, you will surely die even if you are not killed by a predator, first."
The Lion Man paused a moment to consider… just how badly he was going to hurt them that is… Just as quickly, he growled and bit Sabat as hard as he could in the wrist, actually ripping off a piece of skin and the tissue underneath. Sabats' foot come up, kicking him under the chin again. He took his free hand and covered the wound with a brightly colored cloth hanging at his side. "You made your choice, dog!"
Sabat and Abdol walked away, laughing about the weak, pathetic mongrel in their native tongue… the lesson they had taught him. The unseen stranger standing in the distance watched as the Lion Man rose to his feet. Unseen by Sabat and Abdol, the Lion Man hurled himself at a tree again and again, each time ramming it in the side. Then, when the flow of blood finally returned to his arm, he slapped his shoulder with his free hand repeatedly until the flow of blood returned to the other one. The stranger's eyebrows raised as he saw the Lion Man wipe the blood off his lip with a sneer and growl. Good, the stranger thought as he fought the urge to smile. It saves me the trouble of doing it myself.
Still, Sabat and Abdol continued on their way back toward their ship. They ignored the Lion Man, now, satisfied that they had succeeded in putting yet another one of those Terrans in his place. They did not see the outline of solid red light form around the Lion Man or the image of a lion form around him. They did not see him raise his hands to his sides and jerk them forward, emitting two bursts of solid light from them. They did not see the bursts fly away from the Lion Man at the speed of light…
However, Sabat and Abdol DID feel the light bursts arrive at their final destination… as well as the sudden thrust off their feet and the fall facefirst… and of course the resulting draft coming from the rear as the fresh spring air cooled off the second-degree burns on their newly-exposed buttocks.
Furiously, the Pharaohans were on their feet and running back toward him. Sabat drew his sword as he shouted into the air. "Insolent cur… You will di…"
Before they got far, they were blinded from the flashing light of the Lion Man's teleportation in front of them. The Lion Man jumped into the air and made three revolutions in the air as he kicked both Abdol and Sabat in the temples. (During this time he also chopped off Abdol's hair with a photon blade just to add further insult to injury.) When the Lion Man landed, he uppercut Abdol full in the jaw with the web of his hand, feeling it actually break from his strike. Then, the Lion Man thrust his elbow behind him into Sabat's eye and kicked him in between the legs. Before Sabat could focus, the Lion Man kicked him in the back of the knees so that he was forced to kneel. Quickly, the Lion Man and pounded the sides of his neck several times, until Sabat fell forward unconscious. He briefly considered whether or not to let the arrogant Pharaohan die from a lack of blood through the cerebral artery, but he decided against it. With a sigh, the Lion Man massaged the side of Sabat's neck, allowing the blood to regain its route.
Satisfied, the Lion Man crouched down and jerked Abdol painfully by the ear. Abdol tried to speak though his broken jaw, but the Lion Man cut him off by grabbing it by the sides and shaking it back and forth. Abdol screamed from the pain's assault on his senses, but soon enough the Lion Man stopped, jerking his ear even more. For the first time in three years, the Lion Man spoke. Although the tone of his words sounded very much human, the timbre of his voice was inhuman… almost as if possessed. As he spoke, he adjusted his speech patterns and accents to match those of the two Pharaohan strangers. "You are not WORTHY to die by my hand, pig!" Finished, he slammed Abdol's face into the ground and walked away… his point made.
Ten feet into his new route, the Lion Man stopped again; this time his eyes locked onto the witness. The stranger was MUCH closer, now… only a hundred steps away from him, his face just as solid as the Lion Man's. This near, the Lion Man could tell more readily that the two he had just dealt with were this man's underlings. The clothes on this man were more regal, colorful, expensive… more elaborate. The staff he wielded was forged from a metal the Lion Man had never seen the likes of… that he was not even sure was of this Earth. Running down it was writing whose symbols were similar to Kemetic characters, but different in some manner. With time he could figure out the syntax, but for now they were gibberish. Easily, the Lion Man might have guessed him to be some sort of King, but why would he be in this area? The customary practice is to send a messenger and wait for an escort… and the Lion Man knew better than to think those two imbeciles were the stranger's messengers…
For a moment, the sun reflected off the stranger's staff in to the Lion Man's eyes, temporarily blinding him. When he blinked his eyes, the stranger had disappeared… gone. He turned around to glance back at Abdol and Sabat to see if they were still down as well, but instead found the stranger standing directly behind him. The man grabbed him by the neck in a vise hold, this time pulling him closer. The Lion Man struggled to break free, attacking with his hands and his powers, but nothing he did would even faze this stranger. The Lion Man even tried to teleport out of the stranger's grip when he noticed that something was wrong. For some reason, the light was not responding to his attempts to open the channel… or to close it… How… why…
That was when he noticed it… the flashing mark across the stranger's right eye… The Lion Man slowly stopped struggling as he realized just exactly what it was. The loop around the eye and the lines swirling slightly to its sides were unmistakable… THE EYE OF RA??!! Has this man come to strike him down just as he did his grandfather? If so… he was not going down a coward! He fought anew to survive… to break this god's iron grip…
Awakened by the colorful flash of light from the Lion Man's futile struggle, Sabat's eyes blinked open as he remembered what had happened. The Lion Man had embarrassed them… and used their own moves against them. He was hustling them from the beginning. Not only did he use Sabat's own technique without NEAR the amount of training… but he used it in a way Sabat had not thought to… and only after seeing it once.
He squinted his eyes as he started to stand up… and that was when he realized that the Lion Man was being detained by… KAILON-RA??!! HERE??!! Wasting no time, Sabat rushed to his feet and shook Abdol awake. Abdol winced in pain as his jaw was jarred again, but quickly forgot it as soon as he saw what scared Sabat. He hurried to his feet and nodded toward Sabat, who would have to speak for them. "My liege… We are glad you arrived. This Terran dog had viciously assaulted myself and Abdol and would have slain us had you not…"
Kailon-Ra craned his head toward his advisors without loosening his grip on the Lion Man. The flashing mark across his eye contrasted sharply against the relatively dark hue of his skin. Both Abdol and Sabat understood that Kailon-Ra's display right now was drastically misleading. They've seen his might first-hand… with both speech and sheer power. There was a reason all of Kemet worshipped him as a god. For all intents and purposes, he WAS one. The timbre of his voice reflected it, enough to scare anyone should he desire. Even in this remote area where Kailon-Ra practically whispered, everything in the area vibrated to his voice. His advisors quivered in fear at the sound of his voice, as they became aware that they had been caught. Their boss was not happy with their performance… "Once again, Sabat… Just to make sure. So… this 'Terran Dog' has bested my advisors… two of the top alumni of the most elite Pharaohan military academy… using their own fighting tactics… without provocation??!!"
"My liege, the villagers told us about this threat and we came to neutralize him… He has been preying on…"
"And NOW I understand exactly why my predecessors had no advisors… For your information, Sabat, I have been watching you all day! Do you take me for a fool?! Hold that thought…"
Kailon-Ra turned his head back toward the Lion Man, who had again stopped writhing and struggling in his grip. The Lion Man had given up attacking with his powers or trying to teleport away because it was pointless. At this point, he was checking the nerve clusters in the hand, attempting to use them… attempting to find some kind of weakness in the grip. Well… the guy doesn't give up… Kailon-Ra had to give him that… "Calmed down, yet?"
The Lion Man nodded… Yes, in actuality he was just biding his time waiting for Kailon-Ra to slip up and get distracted enough so he could bust free, but he had to admit… He was enjoying the show. These two sniveling idiots were in serious trouble. He did want to see how it played out… even if he was probably going to die at Ra's hands…
Kailon-Ra turned his attention back to Sabat and Abdol. "I would have assumed that by now you two would know not to draw undue attention to yourself in the native population… ESPECIALLY here in the most advanced civilization of this world!"
"We were just trying to…"
Ignoring the excuses of his advisors, Kailon-Ra again turned toward the Lion Man in his grip, as if to inspect him. He could feel the pulse of the Lion Man's power. Although the Lion Man could wield it decisively, he had not been trained to master it… and if not careful, it could very well consume him. Despite his appearance, the Lion Man seemingly had a keen intelligence. He had to in order to learn those moves and top them after one observation. "Interesting… Your skill is superior as you have bested my advisors and learned advanced moves, yet you do not look or act like a Pharaohan." Kailon-Ra took in the Lion Man's scent in an attempt to detect the source of the photon power… and discovered something else altogether. "You are of royal blood?! Out here in the wilds?!" The man glared at his two advisors. "Incompetent fools! Did you not think to even smell his blood before you attacked him?!"
Sabat paused for a moment, stopping his continuous line of excuses. He and Abdol both snapped their heads toward each other each cringing. Things had just gone from bad to worse for them… "My liege… I assure you… We did not know… This man's scent is so PUTRID that we could not…"
"You are WEAK, Sabat… both of you." Not releasing the Lion Man from his grip, Kalion-Ra's other hand began to glow white as he pointed it at his two advisors. With a sneer on his face, Kalion-Ra's voice grew louder… and more biting as he spoke. He was angry… and Abdol and Sabat knew it. "Weak advisors give weak advice… Consider your positions forever terminated!" With that, the air around Kalion-Ra's hand erupted in sparks and crackling… and shot out of his hand toward his two advisors. The targets screamed as the stream of white plasma moved toward them…
Just before the burst of plasma could reach them, it stopped… and shot out to the side. At first, Sabat and Abdol sighed in relief at their king's change in heart, but then they realized where the burst was moving toward. "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Abdol practically shrieked. "MY LIEGE!!! WE'LL BE…"
The moment the plasma burst hit the invisible bird, the cloaking deactivated, revealing that it was made from metal. The Lion Man could see more closely the detail… and that it was a damn ugly bird. What person in their right mind would ride a bird like that? And how exactly did they ride that bird? There was no place to sit on top! Why didn't the bird eat them? Then again… that bird looked more like an ugly statue than a breathing living animal… it did have those symbols on it… much like the ones on Kalion-Ra's staff…
"Thank you for your mercy… Abdol and I both swear… This will be the LAST time this ever happens! We will NEVER bother the inferior native population ever again."
"Correct." Kalion-Ra turned his head toward the metal bird… and this time lightning shot out of his eyes. Abdol and Sabat screamed again, but this time their pleas went on deaf ears. The bird grew white hot and exploded outward. A wall of lightning surrounded the four of them to protect them from the flying shrapnel and fire.
The Lion Man's heart raced in fear as he realized what had just happened… and the sheer power at this man's command. Without any effort, the man had easily reduced the bird to nothing… Although he did not show it on his face, the Lion Man was scared. His senses were screaming to him that this was the genuine article. The raw energy coming from Kalion-Ra was saturating… The Lion Man could feel it, smell it, hear it, and even taste it in the air. Although he didn't show it, the Lion Man was both in awe and in fear of this man…
"As punishment for your actions, you will live the rest of your lives on this planet… Now leave my sight!"
"My liege, you can't…"
"NOW!!" With a flash of lightning at their feet, Sabat and Abdol took off running through the field. For the first time, Kalion-Ra noticed the holes burned through the back of their richly woven tunics…and the second degree burns on their exposed buttocks. He fought the urge to laugh…
"Such is the price of treachery. Now… as for YOU. On this Terran world, it is rare to find a young one whose mystical power manifests naturally such as yourself… even more so, among the royal families of Kemet. Without intending to do so, you have proven yourself worthy."
The Lion Man tried again to drop his aura… to stop channeling the light, but he still found it impossible. It was as if just being in close proximity to a man of this power was causing… "Have you come to strike me down as you did my grandfather?"
Kailon-Ra smiled, this time… a very unsettling sight… because he just confirmed the identity of this mystery royal. Behind his smile, Kailon-Ra felt a tinge of guilt. The prince had been little more than a toddler the last time he saw him… a toddler who was scarred forever by an event he had not foreseen… an event he should have been able to stop. "Fortunately for you, no. I have something ELSE in mind. Bid farewell to your world, Prince… "
The Lion Man's eyes opened wide as he felt the warm glow pass into him through Kailon-Ra's hand. He was not sure how, but the light filled him… far past his capacity to withstand it. Kailon-Ra actually laughed as he saw the Lion Man try to resist. That was when the Lion Man realized that Kailon-Ra was activating his power against his will… With a flash of light, Kailon-Ra and the Lion Man were both gone.
End Interlude III
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Chapter Eight
Khalid could not remember the last time he felt so alive… Truly in tune with himself. With his heart pounding in his chest, he marveled at how he could hear everything... smell the faintest scent borne in the air… feel the subtlest of shifts in the air current… Right now, he felt like he could see and sense everything alive around him… like he could feel the life pulsating in the area… washing over him… saturating him… and filling him.
This was almost like being on stage. He felt at home on the environment, observing… watching… Even the cold wind nipping at his ears or the sharp pains from the fight with Maul could not dull the feeling of utter power running through him at this moment. Very little had ever made him feel this free or this focused…
He sat twenty feet up in the tree, observing the deer from downwind. When he came out to hunt this morning, the deer's scent called to him, immediately kicking in his senses. Once he narrowed down the general area, it had been nothing for him to find the fresh deer tracks. As experienced a tracker as he was, very little could hide from him. Even then, he would eventually lock onto the scent or some type of sound. To Khalid, stalking this deer reminded him of a childhood learning the ins and outs of tracking. He had remembered that his grandfather was at first surprised at just how easily and quickly he took to it. The old fool never realized I was just doing what came naturally!
Put simply, he was the predator stalking his food… and the deer was his prey. He was only mere seconds from the thrill of the chase… the feeling of victory as he would claim his prize. Let everyone else use knives and rifles… he didn't need them, because he was the hunter… and a real hunter knew how to catch his food…
The smile spreading across his lips, Khalid sneered down at the doe beneath him. Out of the corner of his mouth, a thin stream of drool fell to his chin. It was only then that he allowed the growl to come out of his chest through his bared teeth. He jumped out of his position in the tree, landing on both of his feet on the now tightly packed snow. The deer's eyes locked onto his, momentarily spellbound by the predatorial gaze as he approached. She snapped of it and started to dash away, pleading for mercy.
Khalid was off too, carried away with the moment. Nothing ever felt so sharp to be in the thrill of the chase… to taste the prey's fear as they desperately ran, facing their own mortality. The entire hunt felt so natural to him, almost something that had been burning inside, but denied. Unconsciously, his red photon aura flashed around him in response to the increased endorphins running through his system just as reliably as if he had purposely called on it.
The doe dodged left and right through trees attempting to escape her pursuer, but it was no avail. He was just as fast, if not faster. His feet were so deft and dexterous that he never slipped… even the brush that slapped at him did not slow him down. Again, she begged for mercy, but he did not listen.
Unsettling was not only the low-pitched growl from his chest, also his laugh. It was so dark… so savage that it would raise the hackles on back of many a person. This remote, though, people were hardly a concern. He took two steps, leaping through the air. He came down on top of the doe, wrapping his arm around her neck. The two of them struggled on the ground, throwing up a cloud of powdery white snow. The doe put up a good fight, but it was ultimately pointless. Her strength may have been considerable, but Khalid's had better placement. His hand finally made its way to her neck and crushed her windpipe. As the life drained out of her, he roared into the air in triumph. He caught his prey.
The animal is not as distant as you would like for everyone to believe. When all else fails, the hunger speaks… and it grows inside of you. Maul thought as he watched the scene from the top of the tree. He had tasted his true nature… given in totally to his instincts… allowed himself to be carried away with them… There was no internal conflict or resistance this time. The animal sung, following the dictates of his instincts. Was Khalid ever so concentrated, so focused, so wild? He had applied himself. Maul nodded his head up and down and looked on. Ja… I have a lot to teach you, Herr Hunter… more than you know… about yourself… about…Was?!
Khalid knew something was wrong. The instant the deer had finished dying, he felt it… the warm yellow surge right up his arm to his head. At that moment, he lived the last moments of her life, feeling her fear… her pain… her hopes… all taken away from her. Then, he heard her dying scream…
The tattoos flared to life as Khalid grabbed his head. His entire body vibrated with the sound of her death scream. He did not notice his own screams as he tried to screen out hers. That soul-shaking scream was enough to snap him out of his daze… and he realized exactly what he had done. Why had he ever had the urge to hunt in the first place, unless… Maul. I remember… Last night… he planted a post-hypnotic suggestion… a suggestion that would stop me from… that made me want to…
In that split instant, his sense of despair was replaced by anger. The warm buzzing grew to a high fervor as he allowed the gravity of the situation to sink in. He remembered it, now. He had waken up to Maul's hands at his temples and started to fight him when Maul forced him to fall asleep… and… Furiously, he shot a photon blade up into the tree behind him, snapping the branch Maul was standing on. Unprepared for this relapse, Maul dropped to the ground, luckily managing to land on his feet.
"You son of a bitch!" Khalid cried as he tackled Maul. Off-balance, the two of them fell to the ground and started tumbling down the hill, with Khalid's hands angrily affixed to Maul's jacket. "You goddamn son of a bitch!"
The reaction as they rolled down the hill was not what Khalid was expecting. Maul burst out in a fit of laughter, almost as if he were feeding off Khalid's anger. At the bottom of the hill, Khalid's back crashed against the ground, knocking the wind out of him. Maul sneered as he pinned Khalid to the ground by his shoulders, the drool slipping down his chin. With the snow as thick as it was and Maul's weight increased by the adamantium, Khalid's strength had no leverage to be effective… Maul's laughter further mocked his resistance. "What's wrong, Khalid? I thought you did pretty well."
Khalid's photon aura flared up, this time so angry to toss Maul off of him into the air. Allowing his rage to get the better of him, he attacked Maul with his fists… angered even more by Maul's taunts and laughs. In his rage at Maul for having forced the "animal" out, it never occurred to him that even after Maul's suggestion wore off after the doe died, Khalid had kept it flowing. Maul, however, noticed the irony of the entire situation… That for weeks he had been trying to drive out Khalid's feral side… and that when it REALLY came out, Khalid did it himself. "That's right, Pup… Feel it run through you… let it HOWL…"
Khalid's attack was blocked again. If he were thinking clearly, he would have been using his photon powers and attacking the major nerve clusters, but he was carried away by his anger... and even more the strange desire to keep it flowing. His heart was not so much in trying to harm Maul as it was in relishing that he would normally try so hard to suppress. His physical attacks, nonetheless, were no match for a man of Maul's skill. "Shut the hell up!"
Maul laughed some more as he saw what Khalid was unwittingly doing to himself… how he let his anger control him. Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh… Something else to teach Khalid about… "What is wrong, Herr Hunter? Only now realizing your true self?"
"I can't believe you… I oughtta… You fucking hypn…"
"Nein, Kinder… If I stare at you, you can't resist. If I plant a post-hypnotic suggestion merely with speech, you can't do anything you didn't want to do!"
Khalid finally landed a fist on Maul's jaw, although it did no good. "Shut the hell up! I didn't want to…"
"Oh but you did… I'm no telepath. You wanted to from the very beginning. Even now you let it sing, because you want it to. You push it now because you don't want to let go of it. It is the fire; you are the fuel; let it consume you…" Well… no telepath as far as anyone knows!
"Fuck off!" Khalid's fist tagged Maul in the mouth, actually drawing blood this time.
Before Khalid could strike him again, Maul backhanded him across the temple. Nearly doing a somersault in the air from the impact, Khalid landed on his back unconscious. "Lesson number one, Stripling… Anger is a tool… not the boss." He picked Khalid up by the loop of the pants and slung him over his shoulder. As he passed by, he grabbed the doe with his other hand and walked into the shadows.
End Chapter Eight
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Chapter Nine
Khalid jerked awake with a snap the instant he felt the snow crash on top of him. He was about to kick out when he realized where he was… His eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light provided by the fire. What happened was all crystal-clear in his mind. He grabbed his head, massaging his temples. Maul had forced him to face something that he was not ready to... something that was natural to Prince Mufasa and apparently to Maul himself. Maul was right. Khalid had wanted to just let go… give in… but he had always buried it out of fear of what he might do… that he might do something like this…
"I see you've finally awakened for the celebration, Herr Hunter. It is time for the beast to take the spoils. I have even cooked it for you."
Khalid's mouth watered as the aroma of the roasted venison pounded into his nose. It was exactly what his stomach was craving for this morning when he left the cave. It had been days since he had a decent meal. He had been mad with hunger earlier when he… "No thanks. I'm not hungry."
Maul crouched down next to the fire, his eyes trained directly on Khalid. With this being the fourth day since the Langs kidnapped Khalid, it had been at least that long and an extra day since Khalid had eaten an actual meal. Yes, Maul had fed him some meat from the bear while he was healing, but it was barely enough to sustain… and Khalid had not eaten at all since he woke up. Maul remembered from the days prior to becoming a vampire that his healing factor had required him to consume more in order to keep up with his accelerated metabolism. Khalid may not realize it, but his metabolism is still on the high side from using Maul's healing factor to repair his injuries. Then, there was the matter of the physical exertion from being possessed by the bear, fighting Maul, and hunting the deer. The strain was beginning to catch up with him. Maul could sense it… "Eat, Pup… You are wasting away and you'll need your strength…"
Khalid never looked toward his direction. Most of the time, it took very little effort to hide what was going on in his mind, but right now it was impossible. There was a strong combination of sadness, self-disgust, and outright anger at what he did. Probably the worst part about it was that he was angrier with himself than Maul… though Maul still had a fair share of his ire reserved for him. Then, to be asked to eat what he had just… "No… I'm not hungry, I told you. Just… just… enjoy your dinner."
Maul stood up, his voice becoming more guttural as he pushed through his vampire transformation. This is not the time for your shit, Khalid… Never taking his eyes off Khalid, he reached into the mass of sizzling meat over the campfire and ripped out a handful of piping hot venison. "Nein… you will eat, Khalid… You have killed your prey, and now you must eat her… It is the law of…"
"Shut the hell up, Maul." Khalid snapped. "I eat when I'm fucking hungry… and I'm not fucking hungry. Even then, why should I fatten myself up just so you can have more blood to suck?"
Maul had always been somewhat sensitive about his vampirism. It was not his choice to become what he was. It was after freshly emerging in a drastically different world that he had learned that he needed to use every means at his disposal in order to be strong… to rise to the top. The strong had to be rough, hard, and absolutely ruthless. He had heard more than his share of potshots at his vampirism, especially from his own great-grandson.
What Maul could not tolerate is anyone insulting his intentions. He had gone to great lengths in his dealings with Khalid, doing everything he could to get Khalid to realize his place as one of the strong and to ensure his survival, even if Khalid did not appreciate it. This was not about stuffing the food for slaughter as much as it was of continuing a legacy… and leaving a lasting impression on the world. Maul would never seek a means which to convert Khalid into a vampire, however he would ensure that Khalid accepted what he truly was… by any means necessary. It wasn't even that, this time… Khalid was malnourished and was endangering himself by not eating.
Maul's upper lip curled upward, revealing his protruding ivory canines. His adamantium claws popped out of the ends of his fingers as he crouched, glaring at Khalid all the way. With a yellow flash of the eyes, a savage growl erupted out of the back of his throat. That was usually enough to silence most people, who would at least take that display as a warning to get themselves in line.
Most people would have seen it as a warning, which was exactly what it was intended to be. (Not that Khalid would have heeded it from Maul anyway…) The moment Khalid heard him, though, it became something completely different. Khalid responded before he even realized it, growling furiously himself. Unconsciously, Khalid's photon aura flared up, lighting the room much more brightly. Maul had challenged him and Khalid had responded on his level instinctively. Under normal circumstances, Maul might have appreciated the irony of Khalid's defiance, but he was too awash in his own anger to notice. The two of them snarled at each other like two rabid dogs, each voice growing with volume and stridence.
Angrily, Maul sank through the darkness below him. Then, he emerged upward through Khalid's shadow, slamming Khalid in the chin with the palm of his hand. Not giving him an opportunity to recover from the adamantium-reinforced blow, Maul slapped his hand against Khalid's neck and picked him into the air. With his free hand, Maul pushed his handful of piping hot venison hard against Khalid's mouth and forced it past Khalid's teeth. Still growling, he pressed his hand forcefully up and down against Khalid's mouth until the vast majority was past his teeth. "Chew, Pup."
With a roar, Khalid lashed out with his photon aura, hurling Maul toward the opposite side of the cave. With a flash, two photon blades shot from his hands, aiming for Maul's shoulders. Maul barely sank in the shadows in time and dropped down behind him. Khalid swung around with a photon blade in his hand, but Maul dodged it easily and hit him in the jaw again with the heel of his hand. With a snarl, Maul pressed his advantage and grabbed Khalid by the back of the shirt. "When will you learn? You cannot defy me!"
Khalid lashed out with his aura again and prepared to attack Maul again when his senses overtook him. Although he was fully awake, his thoughts were furious… savage. At that single moment, he was aware that he had already lost it. He was also aware that his metabolism was higher, almost to the point of breaking down his body. He was starving… and there was perfectly good meat assaulting his senses… meat that he had killed with his own hands. Abruptly, he acted as if he forgot Maul were even in the room and tore into the sizzling meat… and started eating.
Maul burst into a fit of laughter as he watched this display… The hunger consumes from within… "I though you weren't hungry, Khalid!"
Khalid savagely laughed at him as he finished stripping meat off a bone… and threw it directly between Maul eyes. Then, he had some more venison.
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Khalid sat up on the bearskin that night, looking into the fire, just thinking. He was worried, now… Particularly about this recent episode. It was not hypnotism… it was not anger… All it amounted to was his hunger… and that it controlled him… affected his thoughts completely… changed him into something different. As he ate, it had slowly worn off and equilibrium was restored.
That didn't matter to Khalid, though. All that he cared about was that it had happened in the first place. He had lost control… and could not help himself. Again, he had slipped into Mufasa's thought patterns and actions… which was obviously happening more and more ESPECIALLY since his recent exposure to Maul. Was it really true? Was he a case of a leopard who had used paint to cover his spots… and the paint was washing off in the rain?
Yes, there were times that his self-control was not as strong as he would like. Giving in to anger rarely served well. If anything else, it just got him into more trouble. So, he throws the putdown and goes on with his life. Turn it back on everyone else and make THEM the ones who can't focus, then he's the one who has the upper hand. Forgiving is the hardest part, though… but he forced himself to do it. He didn't forget, though. Forgetting is an invitation for others to run over him…
Anger was his worst enemy, especially since his connection with his powers started growing. He had learned a few mental tricks on dealing with anger, usually by letting it go… letting it just fly by. If he buried his anger, he wouldn't lose control. Anything intense, he had to bury. He has to think straight… He ALWAYS has to think straight… or he might get a repeat of today. Yeah… you say that to yourself… but it sure felt like you were thinking straight by stalking that deer!
Today was the worst… the absolute worst since Estophalum possessed him. (Lethal Legacy) What made this one feel particularly upsetting was that he didn't have a demon from hell to blame. Hell… He really didn't even have a blood-sucking hypnotizing vampire to blame… completely, anyway. That was him… all him… It was there the whole time, but Walsh had finally succeeding in driving it out.
Was he truly becoming different? Or was he just becoming the type of person he was meant to be? He didn't know… and he didn't know what he could do to stop it. Worse… he didn't know if he WANTED to stop it.
Khalid knew what he wanted out of life. More than anything else, he wanted his career… his own life… and a chance to live it. The only problem was what Maul pointed out… He was born to be something else…
He could definitely feel it growing inside of him… feel it happening. His grandfather had warned him that Mufasa was not gone… that he had only been subdued. (Dark Light) Before Thanksgiving, Khalid had suspected… but as the days passed, he knew it to be true. Mufasa was not only returning… but taking over. Khalid could not control him, but he could bury him… Well… at least BEFORE he always managed to bury him or at least his influence. Now, it seemed like he was not as successful… that even consciously, Mufasa was steadily consuming him. Ever since that day Maul forced Khalid to release "the beast" in the locker room (Only Human), Khalid had been fighting back these thoughts… these urges… sometimes downright hating himself because he wanted to indulge them.
The most frightening thing was that in some strange way, he welcomed it. It was as if while at the same time it scared him, it appealed to him… like he was just tired of holding it back. As much as he wanted to, he still could not hold Maul completely accountable. Maul's "personal interest" in him and his attempts to drive it out were accelerating the process; of that much he was sure. The only thing that saved Maul was something he said… If I plant a post-hypnotic suggestion merely with speech, you can't do anything you didn't want to do!
As much as he would like to worry about that, something else tickled the corner of his mind. He was not sure how, but he knew something was going on. That, he knew in his gut… and the threat was real. That was not just a simple case of absolute strangers seeking to kidnap him for ransom. They wanted him for something else… He was sure of it… That might even explain his nightmares.
Khalid stared into the fire, watching the smoke float away from its flickering flame through a hole that presumably led outside somewhere. He just let himself get lost in the yellow flame, watching it burn… inhaling the scent of the wood as it combusted… and listened. For some reason, he started to imagine that he was the wood… and the fire was everything else… The more he watched the flame, the more he listened. First, it was the crackling of the wood, then it was the thumping of his heart, and Maul's heart, and the wind outside the cave… and the water flowing underneath the river of ice… His hearing just kept expanding, but by that time, Khalid didn't care, because his mind was already somewhere else…
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Chameleon paced back and forth in front of the campfire. Out of everyone, her cold blood made her the most susceptible to the weather. Out here, it caused her great strain to use her powers to blend in to her surroundings… and she didn't even WANT to try zipping her tongue out in this cold weather. Again, she adjusted her thick woolen cap over her head, tucking her thick brown hair inside. She wrapped the scarf around her neck to keep her warm and continued pacing back and forth. "I tell you, it was that vampire! He did it! That explains why Steve's body has no blood!"
"We must find the Purified and make sure he is prepared for the ceremony. The Necromancer is not going to be forgiving much longer…" Scorch passively flicked his hand toward the fire, sending another fireball to refuel it. Out of everyone on this away mission, he perhaps had the least trouble adjusting. His pyrokinetic powers surrounded him with a fiery field whenever he activated them, much like Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four. Standing on the ground, he could bring it back a little so that rather than constantly be surrounded in fire, he would just be hot to the touch. In order to fly, though, he had to have it full force. "Besides… Bliss has been giving me the eye. The last thing I want to be is his next gourmet dish!"
"Who the HELL even built this scanner?!" Chameleon fumed in frustration. Taking her hand, she slapped the side of the scanner several times, hoping to jar it. She had checked the settings numerous times, adjusting it as necessary. Her intellect was considered by far her most dangerous attribute, but even she could not figure a way to improve the scanner so it would do the job it had been assigned. "The Purified does not even emit a mutant signature… and right now not even esoteric energy! How are we supposed to lo…"
Her outburst was interrupted by a supernaturally cold blast of air. Everyone in the party turned toward the clearing in time to see the green glow of their leader, Tendrile, emerging from the woods. Out of everyone, he perhaps had the "creep-out" powers. Unlike the rest of this group, he is not a mutant. The nature of his powers are mystical. No one except him understands how they work. His body is somehow a storage cell for ectoplasm. On his command, up to fifty or so ectoplasmic tendrils erupt from his body, capable of performing virtually any task he wishes. They are particularly dangerous because ectoplasm is intangible, unable to be affected by physical means. The tendrils have been used to rip enemies apart, take control of their minds, act similarly like a telekinetic tentacle and pick up objects, read the recent past of anything they run over. Out of all of the team, Tendrile is the most dangerous man. Some wonder if he is all man at all… if in some manner, he is like a ghost… "Five miles to the east… The Purified slew a deer and fought the vampire. I've used my ectoplasmic tendrils to search for the exact place where Steve died… and came across the vampire's signature. A little bit further, I've discovered a covered cave. My tendrils could not breach it, so I'm certain that the Purified is inside. Get ready… We're moving out."
----------------------------
Maul broke from his meditation to see Khalid staring at fire. Under normal circumstances, he would not have noticed, but what got him was the span of time Khalid spent looking at it… it had dwindled down to just a few barely-glowing coals and he had not fed or restarted it. When he got closer, he noticed that Khalid's eyes were glowing yellow… "Was?! A trance?!" He walked over, grabbing Khalid by the hair and tilted his head up to look at him. "Herr Hunter… what the hell are you…"
Khalid's yellow aura flared up even more brightly, overwhelming Maul with a hot current of energy. Maul couldn't understand how, but he felt the strength sucked out of him… his muscles being shut off. Maul started to punch at Khalid to stop him, but it was too late. His sight turned to black before he landed on the ground with a thud.
Already, Khalid had risen to his feet. Abruptly, the campfire started again, quickly chasing the chill from the cave. Khalid did not notice it, however. With a flash of light, he disappeared from the cave.
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"I don't understand… Why is he just standing around like that? In STEVE's clothes, nonetheless…" Tendrile observed him from his position at the edge of the field taking time to tie his green hair back with a band. For years, he had been a loyal member of the Illuminati, working his entire life to further their goals… working toward the day where they can bring about the return of the Dark One and claim their rightful places as the rulers of the world. Recently, he found himself questioning his role. He dare not tell anyone else… There were people waiting on the sides to replace him. Obsydian had reminded him of that. Despite his formidable power, he could be overwhelmed.
He tried to figure out just what it was that was happening below him. The one they were after… the one whose blood would bring about the rebirth… just stood there in the middle of the opening staring out into nowhere. The look on his face was blank… as if nothing bothered him. He didn't react to the bitter cold wind… or the increased snowfall… or even the birds flying above. The Purified just stood there, staring out into empty space. A strand of hair loosened itself from the weak braid he put it in… and pulled free, flapping in the wind.
From this vantagepoint, it was hard to believe that this man could ever be the future host for the Dark One. Despite his large frame, he seemed harmless… a pushover… completely unintimidating. Even his public persona contrasted sharply with what was expected of the Dark One. He came across as a warm and sociable person… who went to extremes to keep his private life separate from his public. When they had made their first attempt to take him, (Relativity) it had been a surprise to see him fight back decisively… and to see the side that no doubt appealed to the Dark One… the side the Purified hid from all.
Tendrile also made out that he was glowing yellow. The trademark red glow was indicative of his photon powers. The file they obtained from the International Hellfire Club mentioned little about the yellow glow other than that they did not understand it. As far as Tendrile could tell, the Purified seemed to be spaced out, unfocused, as if he were merely observing from some place miles away. He was in a trance. That much, Tendrile could tell. The man standing before them seemed vastly different than either Khalid Hunter the performer or the savage Mufasa. Tendrile studied some more, looking for some tactical advantage they could use against him when the Purified's head snapped in his direction… and looked directly at him.
With a green flash, Tendril shot his ectoplasmic spindles toward Khalid, not only to bind him, but also as a signal for the attack to begin. Before they could reach their destination, Khalid shot several yellow photon blades out of his hands. As they flew, each one pierced a group of spindles and pinned them to the surrounding trees. Tendril screamed in agony as he fought to retract them. With horror, he realized that they were penetrated. They're ectoplasm… they should be intangible… He was pinned. "GO!"
Spaz and Scorch attacked in unison, each one entering the snowy clearing from opposite directions. They knew that their instructions were not to hurt him, but they could not be too gentle… just hard enough to take him out. Spaz centered her reality perception power on Khalid, intent on altering his sense of equilibrium and making him feel sick. Because her powers were psionically based, she had to be order to psionically sense the target. Yet, it was as if the Purified were psionically invisible. There was nothing physical for her to latch onto. "What?!"
Dumb blonde… must I do everything for you?! Scorch flew up from behind like a missile, about to knock Khalid off his feet when Khalid blindly shot his hand behind him through the fiery aura. He took hold of the mutant around the neck and stopped his momentum cold. Scorch realized that somehow, Khalid had rendered himself immune to Scorch's powers, as if the fire had not touched him at all. "Watch out, guys! He's…"
Khalid never allowed him the chance to finish. Instead, he threw Scorch at Plague who was rushing in from the side. Without turning around, he blindly elbowed Spaz, breaking her nose. To his left, Khalid caught the caustic substance Phlegm spewed at him and used his photon powers to roll it into a ball, which he spun toward his right to slap in Chameleon's face. (Being in her camouflage form, she had come closest to actually tagging Khalid. Unfortunately, it didn't work on him.) At the same time, Khalid spun his leg behind him, striking Phlegm full in the neck before he could refill his supplies of mucus. His windpipe misaligned, Phlegm staggered away from him.
By this time, Rash and Scorch both resumed their attack on Khalid. With a flash of light, two blades of light shot from Khalid's fingers, piercing each of them through their chests. His heel snapped behind him, slapping into the base of Spaz's skull. (Poor girl… She was just getting up.) Before the newly-unconscious Spaz hit the ground, Khalid grabbed Chameleon by her hair and held another photon blade directly under her chin. For the first time in nearly six years, Khalid spoke while in a trance, his voice still as distant as the look on his face. "Have I made my point?"
The photon blades in Tendril's spindles dissipated as he met Khalid's stare. He took a moment to look at his group. Rash and Scorch's dead bodies were still pinned to trees by the photon blades that had pierced their hearts. Phlegm pounded his fist against the ground frantically as he tried to call out for air. With his windpipe snapped, he finally dropped to the ground dead of asphyxiation. Spaz, who had a broken nose and a concussion, lied on the ground unconscious from Khalid's blow. With the photon blade held precariously under Chamelon's chin, she was not going to attack. Tendril nodded. The Purified had slain half his group and the attack had not lasted three minutes. Tendril knew that he had lost this one.
Khalid spoke again, this time casting Chameleon aside like a piece of trash. "Now, leave." With a flash of light, Khalid teleported them - both alive and dead - out of his sight.
End Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Patrick Walsh floated into the air. For a brief moment, he brought his hands to his face, freeing the musty dirt of the cave from his skin. He blinked his shadowy eyes with the red pupils, trying to wake up. He took in a deep breath taking care to slowly massage his face. Then, he scratched his scalp through his shortly-trimmed brown hair and then he scratched his abdomen an inch or so just below his waistline. Finished with this ritual he set his feet on the ground and stretched out his back, yawning all the way. With a jerk, he snapped out of the daze. Yawning?! What the hell… He was a vampire. Vampires don't need to breathe. He just acted like he was… Asleep?! He had been asleep?!
His heart pounding inside him, Maul rose back into the air in panic. It made no sense to him. Even before he became a vampire, he had slept very little. His healing factor rejuvenated him so quickly that it was never necessary, unless he had strenuously overexerted himself. Those few times he did lie down to sleep, it was very lightly… just enough for his imagination to run free. Not enough to shut him down completely. NEVER sound. The way he was just out, he would not have heard a freight train passing over his head.
What had happened? Why… Maul sniffed the air inside the cave. He could smell the dried out bear skin… the bones from the venison… the scent of the fire… but no Khalid. Khalid wasn't in the cave? He glanced toward the entrance of the cave. No… Khalid didn't leave that way. Now I remember… Khalid knocked me out! With a growl, Maul extended his claws and sank through the floor of the cave.
Maul emerged from the shadow of the hillside and flew into the windy night air. Using his infrared vision, his eyes scanned the hillside of the cave looking for some sign of tracks or any clue to indicate where Khalid might have gone. This time of night, any living animal stupid enough to be roaming outside should stick out against the cold landscape for miles. If Khalid was out here, Maul sure as hell didn't see him. With it being as densely forested as it was, he thought to himself that maybe he might not see him… or that somehow Khalid was messing with his infrared vision much like he did with the scanners. Maul was not one to give up, though. He lifted his nose to the air to pick up his scent along the wind, shivering as the hairs inside froze stiff. Finally, he got what he was looking for… as well as the scent of something else. The cult?! Here?!
Again, Maul dove into the darkness of the night. He emerged upward out of the Khalid's long shadow. Keeping his anger in check, he slowly sneaked up on Khalid from behind. A foot behind him, Maul stopped. He would wait until Khalid turned around. The fright was more effective that way.
It didn't work out. Khalid gave no warning. He didn't rush to finish relieving his bladder. He didn't jump in place or glance behind him. He gave absolutely no clue beforehand that he knew he was no longer alone. As if no more than annoyed, Khalid called into the air, still in the process of relieving himself. "Do you mind, Maul? I'm trying to mark my territory."
Maul set himself on the ground, not moving from his position. Maul remembered 50 years ago when he had encountered Khalid's grandfather Robert Cougar (Tortured Souls). The man had affected his life energy somehow, accelerating his healing factor and filtering his vampirism. Maul knew that he had failed because of the intervention of Ryan Jensen. Those were during his weak days as a neophyte. Although he had already been a human weapon for about 35 years at the time, he was still weak in the mind… fighting the way nature had made him, much like Khalid is doing now. Maul was familiar with the scent of magic at work… and Khalid radiated it even more than his grandfather. He did not appreciate what Khalid did… and he planned to let him know that. "I respect only my territory, Boy." You have my blood… that makes you mine!
"For some reason, I knew you'd say that… racist epithet and all…" With that, Khalid zipped up his pants and brushed the snow off a nearby fir tree to wash his hands. Then, he wiped them on the sleeves of the strike outfit he was wearing and turned to face Maul… who was just a bit too close. "Had a good nap, Herr Mahler?"
"Vas… How did you know I was even here Khalid…"
Finished drying his hands off, Khalid slipped them back inside the gloves. He had no idea what the hell he was thinking by coming out at this time of night… Oh yeah… He had to go to bathroom; that was what he was thinking. Khalid had no idea why Maul was pissed, but he did know that he had more than enough of his shit. "Beats me… Personally, I think I'm more than ready to be making it back to civilization, now. You've had your fun… I've killed my deer… I've been forced to eat it… and I've also had my fill of twenty some degrees below zero. You know there's another snowstorm moving in… and I have no intention of being stuck in an underground cave with you on Christmas Eve! So, you can quit fooling around and take me back to the city."
Maul rammed into him, jerking him up into the air by the collar. With the snow reflecting the light, Khalid could see the crazed look in Maul's reddish eyes and to some extent could feel the frustration fuming off of him. As Maul spoke, his voice took on the hard edge that betrayed his emotions… that showed that he had more than enough. "Nein, … We do not leave until I say. I thought that you had the heart of a survivor, but you have the heart of a spoiled rotten child. You are weak beyond my original thoughts…. The boy who stands before me is just a shell of the man he could have been!"
With a grunt, Khalid plunged two photon blades through Maul's wrists, forcing him to release. As he landed on the ground, Maul was already well on the way to repairing his injuries. Khalid backed slightly away, though he knew that it was pointless. Should the vampire like, he could close the distance between them in less than a second. Khalid had to keep the upper hand… he could not afford to lose his temper here. However… he still had to make his point. "All right… Let's get this straight. This little following me around everywhere? It stops. You saw what you wanted… and you brought out what you wanted. It isn't something I care to revisit. In a nutshell… Leave it alone!"
Maul backhanded him this time, knocking him to the ground. As Khalid's eyes came to focus, he could now see the yellow flash beginning in Maul's eyes. "Nein, Kinder… Not until you drop this weak civilized disguise... It's really not you; you know it and I know it."
As Khalid rose to his feet, he gently rubbed his cheek… trying his best to keep his anger in check. He wasn't sure, but he felt somehow that he might be picking up on Maul's rage. No, he couldn't afford for that to happen. Maul wanted him to snap. "This is another thing that stops… I'm not your bitch, so you don't slap me!"
Maul grabbed him by the chin, this time aware that it was his own anger he was having trouble subduing. To him, this was a step back to everything he had managed to accomplish in the past three days. He could not help but feel betrayed at this newfound second-wind. "Wrong, mein 'bitch'! You owe me a huge debt… One for giving spawn to such a childish whelp such as yourself… Two for saving your worthless hide from the wreckage… and lastly, keeping you alive now and your ticket out of here!"
What the hell does he mean by spawning me?! Khalid backhanded his arm off of him and stepped back. He fought the urge to cringe from the pain shooting up his arm… the sting of adamantium bones… "It ends, Maul… Right here… Right now! Over… Fini! From here on out, you leave me be…"
Maul shoved him back toward the ground again, then kicked him in the lip. As Khalid's head slapped into the snow below, he could taste the blood from his lip run across his tongue. As his head began to buzz, he never noticed Maul grab him by the shirt and pick him up to the air shaking him. "No Khalid, it is time that you talk to me, not this coward before me, the real Khalid!"
With a blinding flash of light, Maul found himself thrown against a tree. After he made contact with it, he smelled that there was blood on it… fresh blood… fresh HUMAN blood… Momentarily shocked, he brought his hand to his mouth and tasted it, dwelling as the euphoria overwhelmed his body… It's not Khalid's blood! Whose is it?!
"You wanted to talk to ME, Walsh??!!" With another flash of light, the photon staff slapped Maul's neck under his ear. Before Maul could move, Khalid kicked him in the stomach, before finally going at him again. Just as he was about to plunge a blade through Maul's shoulder, Khalid snapped out of it and dropped his aura. He grabbed his head, staggering back… awash in how crisp his senses were… that even now he could hear the singing… that buzzing that seemed to overtake him. No… this WASN'T what he wanted to happen. Shit… it is happening already… Gotta push it back…
Maul was already on his feet and laughing. "Come on, Herr Hunter… it's already happening, just let it out, let it sing you to Never-Never Land…"
Khalid backed away with his hands still at the sides of his head. It was singing, all right… and vibrating at a speed he could not tolerate. "No… No… We're through. This has gone on long enough. Just… Just leave me alone."
Khalid started to walk away when Maul jerked him by the collar and threw him toward the ground.
"Nein, Khalid… Not until you grow some balls and accept your true nature!"
In anger, Khalid lashed out with his aura. Getting to his feet, he tried to bring it back down, but found it getting harder… found it getting harder to resist the temptation to just cave in. It was futile to hide how his voice bordered on being a growl… or how he wanted to just kick Maul's ass… "Just what IS my true nature, 'Herr Mahler'?! You speak to me of releasing the animal… letting it 'sing'… Is that what you want?! For me to resort to acting like YOU?! Like a fucking beast who doesn't want to be a man?! You make me SICK!"
Maul rose into the air, showing how he was beginning to lose his patience as well. "Truthfully… you make yourself sick with your pathetic desire to deny who you are… deny your strength… and deny yourself! Whether or not you continue to use this pathetic disguise or play 'pretend', I know who you truly are… I've lived your life… I've bled your blood!"
"Is THAT it?!" Khalid stepped in closer, a savage sneer spreading across his face. Maul could tell that he was barely suppressing it. "You want me to be just like you… forcing me to hunt… forcing me to eat what I killed… driving it out… What? Am I supposed to be a fucking vampire?! Like you?! Flying around, drinking people's blood?!"
This time it was Maul whose voice started growling. "Do not mock…"
Khalid's aura grew brighter and threatened to flare out as his voice started growling in response. "Oh… and then later on, you would have me 'celebrate' my first cold-blooded murder! Tell me… Did you celebrate yours?!"
Maul spun around in the air furiously kicking Khalid in the base of the skull. Before the already-unconscious Khalid could land on the ground, Maul caught him by the neck and brought it to his mouth. He nearly bit in, prepared to siphon off his blood, when he suddenly remembered that Khalid's blood was poisonous to him (Only Human). He pulled his mouth away. No… He was sure he did not want to do that, anyway.
Even if his healing factor had miraculously managed to withstand Khalid's blood, he did not want to risk it. He thought back to almost a century ago when he had been Khalid's age… where he had suppressed his own animal tendencies to conform to social expectations. He would have reacted the same way and this was even BEFORE being bonded with adamantium or converted into this vampiric form. No… and unlike him, Khalid would die completely, even if Maul managed to survive long enough for Khalid to feed off his blood. He did not want to kill the only descendent even remotely like him… the only one that fundamentally understands him.
However, he WOULD teach him a lesson in humility. Maul snapped his fingers next to Khalid's ear.
Khalid's eyes flew open at once. Slowly but surely, he stood up. Maul would never have understood the irony of the situation, because he never talked with Khalid… discussed with Khalid his concerns… his fears that slowly but surely, he could feel his self-control leaving him. Khalid might not have understood either. Had he been conscious when Maul implanted the psionic suggestion, he might have realized… In any case, it didn't matter. Maul spoke to Khalid, somewhat relieved, but frustrated that he had to resort to his backup plan.
To Maul's credit, he had honestly believed that the person who awoke when he implemented the psionic suggestion was simply a manifestation of Khalid as he secretly wanted to be… the way he was meant to be… fully immersed in his powers and his bestial nature. This version of Khalid learned things quickly… and was a person who most closely understands Maul's outlook on life.
Maul was only halfway correct, though. This man knew little of Khalid's experiences and could care less. To him, Khalid was weak… an obstacle to be overcome. For too long, he had been banished to the inner depths of this Khalid's mind. He wanted to be free… and this vampire was not only a kindred spirit, but the way he was regaining his foothold. His momentary subordination was but a means to an end. This time, there would be no 79-year-old grandfather to stop him. No… he was coming back… for good.
King Mufasa sneered after he stood up, momentarily accustoming himself to these ridiculous clothes. He allowed the vampire inside his mind and understood the exact location of where the vampire wanted to go. With a flash of light, they disappeared.
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Khalid sat up with a start. Looking from left to right, he realized that he was in his bed… in his home… in his boxers… Slowly, he rubbed the back of his head and brushed the knot that had swelled… from where Maul had kicked him. That was when he noticed the date on the electronic calendar… Two days?! He had been unconscious two days?! What the hell did he do those two days?! Unless…
Hurriedly, he jumped out of his bed and ran toward the mirror. Good… he had a reflection… but then again, so did Maul! He ran his fingers along his neck, looking for bite marks. Nope… no scar… nothing… Franticly, he opened the shades and stuck his hand into the sunlight. Nope… He was still alive. That was for sure.
Then, he noticed something sitting on the polished cherry wood dresser… an envelope with his name on it. Opening it, he saw his check from Deernight Arena… in one piece. Also in the envelope was a note… "Welcome to the pack, K. I don't think it will hurt too much." Scratching his head, he couldn't even grasp to understand. What the hell is that psycho talking about?
That was when he saw it in the reflection of the mirror… On the left side of his stomach, from his waist to just under his chest was a long jagged cut… a DEEP cut that might occur from some kind of object gouging at his flesh, not only splitting skin open, but tearing it from the tissue beneath. The stitches were put in recently. Judging from the look of the cut, it had been allowed to sit for a couple of hours before it was sewn shut. Khalid's fingers grazed the top of it and immediately jerked away as his muscles cringed. Shit… No anesthetic…
Maul gave him a scar?! Maul gave him a SCAR??!! His eye glanced back toward the note. "Oh… and I ensured that the needle was sterilized first. I didn't want your back to get infected!" WHAT THE??!! Khalid spun around to look at his back in the mirror. He saw it in the small of the back, right above his beltline. A tattoo. It was a cross with spikes at the end, wrapped with razor wire, and plunged into a bleeding heart. Written in bright red across it was a word in German… "Löwe"… which if Khalid remembered correctly literally meant "Lion."
Khalid's anger exploded through him with a flash as he slammed his fist into the mirror, watching it shatter. He stood still for a moment, thinking about he did. Slowly, he pulled back his fist, broken shards of glass, and closely examined the cuts on the back of his fingers. They were shallow skin-deep cuts and had barely even bled. He looked down at the blood as if lost in thought… briefly thinking about dreams he has been having and the blood imagery…
He was shocked out of his thoughts by a flash of his eyes and an awareness that he was no longer alone in the room. Furiously, Khalid spun away from the dresser toward the dark corner of the room beyond the closet seeing a pair of eyes locked onto his. Finally, there came the strident, guttural laughter. Khalid could see only the red of Maul's eyes from inside the shadows, but he knew he was there. "Rude awakening, Ja?"
Angrily, Khalid hurled a photon spear at him, but it only met the wall, bursting through it through the side of the house. Maul was gone. Khalid sat on his bed, grabbing his head. Yes, he had a nasty headache from Maul's boot… Yes, the cut across his stomach and the tattoo hurt like a bitch… Yes, he is bothered that he doesn't remember anything that happened the two days between Maul kicking him and right now… Neither of those compare, though, to the pain he felt on the inside… the internal pain as he acknowledged what he could feel happening every day. Mufasa was growing inside of him… affecting him more and more… consuming him… and there wasn't a damn thing Khalid could do to stop him.
The worst part was that Khalid did not know if he even wanted to…
End Chapter Ten
Epilogue Part I
Black Hellfire Court: Office of the Headmaster
8:00 A.M.
Gomurr Shang Chek. At first glance he'd appear to be an unassuming Asian gentleman of well under average height, but to those who knew him, he was the personification of wisdom and master of the mystic arts. Having lived several millennia now and several different lives, the man had gone by an assortment of names and titles - Merlin, Akeem, Gomurr, the Black Headmaster, Proctor of the Crimson Dawn, Ancient One, etc. He has dedicated lifetimes... literally to attaining his goals...and that in itself says something of his dedication to finding the Ascended One. His goal was to make sure that the one "perfect" being born each millenium would be raised and take on the aspects of light and peace. Each time he had come close...painfully close at times, only to discover he had somehow failed in his quest. His only consolation was that darkness had not claimed the Ascended One either. He had lived his life this way for eons, dying only to be reborn and set upon the same path again. As he had learned throughout the years, his failure could and must be used as a learning experience. Otherwise the sometimes hopelessness of his situation would overwhelm him. Trial and error was a part of learning...and learning was one thing that Gomurr did better than almost anyone.
The power of knowledge was one of the things that Gomurr found paramount in teaching his students, both young and old. Everything can't be grasped and understood all at once, but the process was as important as the end result. (A one-time student of Gomurr's by the name of Malici had more trouble realizing this than others.) Even Gomurr himself had erred from time to time, bringing down near catastrophic consequences on those he held dear. Just a few months ago, Gomurr had discovered that he had made one such error in bonding his foster son, Grover to the Gauntlets of Excalibur. (Phantom Nails) Because of that small miscalculation in his attempt, Grover nearly died and some say he wished he had even after he began to recover from the process. Another such reminder of Gomurr's fallibility was the jagged scar that ran across his pupil Rahsas' neck. The scar resisted healing by any mystical or natural means, and Gomurr viewed it as an object lesson of his own pride and ignorance....but still it was a 'lesson' and not a failure. Gomurr was nothing if not an eternal optimist.
This particular day Gomurr watched Khalid Hunter pace back and forth across the brightly colored rug in the center of his office. He wondered if the boy realized he was nonchalantly treading on a priceless relic of a civilization that had been wiped out by a cataclysm well over 1000 years ago. Then, Gomurr thought to himself maybe young Khalid did know. After all nearly 5000 years ago, the boy or at least one of his ancestors that he had some strange connection with, had appeared in a battle that Gomurr, then known as Akeem, could do nothing to prevent. It was a time of great turmoil and strife in Kemet. The once beautiful civilization was being destroyed on two fronts by the forces of En Sabah Nur and Mjimbe. Gomurr's student, King Ratiki, depressed by the ten-year absence of his only son, had given up and waited patiently for the death of his nation as the two power houses squeezed against his country's fragile borders. Then an incredible thing happened. Now thirty year old, Prince Mufasa returned only a week before the two forces were to converge on the royal city and take complete control of the King and his royal armies... and somehow the man known as Mufasa had found a way to turn back the tide of battle.
When Mufasa became king, the royal city and the entire nation began to change. The brash young warlord exploited his reputation for violence and destruction for all it was worth in order to protect his country from its hostile neighbors. Due to this pretense, his people that once heralded him as their savior, became awestruck and often fearful of his wrath. In public, his demeanor would change from sullen silence to snarling rage in a matter of moments. Some adopted the moniker of "The Beast" to name this young lordling, and he reveled in all its connotations. Throughout most of the northern part of the continent of Africa, Mufasa was believed to have been insane. The people of Kemet and the surrounding nations feared him and used stories of his rages to scare children into behaving. A folklore even began developing around this young ruler and all the stories began the same way. There was once a lion in the palace....and he sat upon a throne......
Gomurr, or at that time Akeem, had been one of the few people who knew that despite Mufasa's feral personality, he wasn't a beast, but simply a man. A man that despite his faults did care about his people and his nation. Although vain and oftentimes arrogant, Mufasa always did what he believed best for his people. If this often times included increasing his own power and wealth, then it was simply a bonus. The man walked the razor's edge of barbarism and humanism, but Gomurr had always tried to keep him grounded and sane.
Mufasa knew his people did not love him as they had his father, but if the whispers of his insanity and rages kept his borders safe, then he could deal with the fear he saw in their eyes. The young lord even took to wearing a lion skin robe with the head and jaws perched upon his furrowed brow. Mufasa, almost in direct opposition to his more feral side, was also a fan of the arts, and he set aside funds for education and the cultivation of art and music in his people. This was never credited to him, however, because it was difficult to imagine the man who strode about in the skin of a beast ever caring for anything so trivial. Overall, King Mufasa's reign was not one of great peace with his neighboring countries, but it was one of relative safety for the people of Kemet and that was what he cared about.
Mufasa had two chief weaknesses that were only known to a trusted few. For one, his father had refused to allow him to cultivate his mystical powers, even at Akeem's insistence. "No son of mine will be a mage!" said King Ratiki, who insisted his son receive a warrior's training. (To Akeem's dismay, Mufasa refused instruction only after becoming an adult.) Without control over the mystic forces that were his birthright, his emotional outbursts became more and more severe. He was at his most dangerous when anger or lust took hold of him. Without control of the mystic energy coursing through his system, there were occasions in which he simply ceased trying to reign himself in and allowed his carnal nature to take over. Some said that it was fortunate that he had never raped or murdered the innocent in one of these states.....Others said he had and simply hidden the facts from others. Gomurr never knew for sure.
His other weakness was an almost-blind trust in those he called his family. As a boy, Mufasa had never been particularly close to his father. The duties of the office of King had often kept Ratiki from showing Mufasa the love of a father. This, in part, was why Mufasa left the palace to wonder the country side many times in his youth, especially in his turbulent teen years. The lack of a father figure was perhaps what prompted King Mufasa to overcompensate with his own adopted son, Imhotep. And it was this overindulgence of his son that ultimately cost Mufasa everything he treasured. Mufasa spoiled the child shamelessly from the moment the child was left in the throneroom of the palace after his marriage to Rahid. Imhotep had but to ask and it was his, yet the ungrateful child resented his father more with each passing year. When Mufasa found the seven year old boy abusing the palace servants in a frighteningly adult manner, he covered it up and let Imhotep off with a stern warning. It wasn't until the ruthless child, now 13, actually killed a minor member of visiting nobility by cheating in a duel of honor that Mufasa was forced to take drastic action. In a very public trial, Imhotep was made to answer for his crimes. Since he was of a royal family, his death could not be asked for, so young Imhotep was sentenced to serve penance as a palace servant for the period of ten years... and his title as Crown Prince was revoked. After the ten years, Mufasa promised his son that all would be forgiven, but reminded him that he would never be eligible to succeed to the throne after such a heinous act. It was in this boy's tenure as a servant that he came into contact with the evil wizard Mjimbe, and later it was to this mage that Imhotep would betray his father. Because of his actions, Mufasa suffered the most tragic loss of his life... and he would never be the same after it.
Gomurr rolled all these events through his mind as he watched Khalid closely. The ancient mage pondered if the boy yet knew how much he shared in common with that long ago ruler. Khalid was FAR more personable and social, and young Mr. Hunter's will and self-control was much stronger, almost unwavering. Where Mufasa had been brash and often acted on impulse, Khalid hid his emotions behind a screen, only occasionally allowing people inside to show what he was really feeling.
Mufasa had been notoriously antisocial, refusing to speak to anyone other than his family or close inner circle, regardless of qualification. It was known that someone (or that someone's wife) had to prove themselves worthy of his attention before the angry young King would deem them suitable. Khalid, on the other hand, assumed good intent on anyone he met at first, and then allowed them to prove otherwise if they chose to betray his trust. Both men however, were unforgiving of those who broke their trust, though Mufasa's reaction tended to be more direct to say the least. Gomurr's sharp eyes could always see the Mufasa persona bubbling just beneath the surface, straining to get out. The ancient wizard also noted that recently the wall between Khalid and Mufasa seemed to be weakening.
"That is the whole story?"
Khalid held his hands behind his back as he paced. He wasn't sure if it was because of the time in the cave or not, but he began to notice that just being in a sealed room got to him... especially small sealed rooms with no windows outside. Perhaps it was just everything in the past few months catching up with him. "Yes... Yes, Gomurr. That's it. End of story. So, now I have a question for you. Who is Raphael?"
Gomurr was taken aback but never let it show. He sometimes became so used to the duplicity of many in the Black Court that Khalid's openness in his questioning was a bit odd to say the least. He was unsure exactly what to tell Khalid in this matter. Normally when his students come to him with disturbing dreams, he took them with a grain of salt writing most of it off to the hormonal changes they were going through or the dangerous lives they led. With mystics - in particular, untrained mystics - he had to be more discriminating. I should have known. It all makes sense now. Every last scrap of it. "I really think that it is nothing to worry about. The name Raphael was no doubt just something your mind came up with, though I must admit... the vividness of your dream is most disturbing. You've had other dreams about persons with demonic abilities....Estophalum for one?"
Khalid felt his stomach churn at the question. Truth to tell, that dream was the first one he had where he actually SAW Estophalum. In the rest, he was just getting possessed by him... and he had to admit that in this dream Estophalum had acted much differently than before. Cracking jokes? No. The demon known as Estophalum had never been a comedian. Raphael, on the other hand, had a twisted, sadistic sense of humor.
Many of this demon's taunts seemed misdirected, however, as if he were citing events out of a life that Khalid knew nothing about. Mufasa had died because his own powers had overloaded his fragile unprepared body when he finally faced Mjimbe, NOT because he was struck down in a sacrifice to save some unknown woman... Then, there was when Raphael "remembered" when Khalid had murdered someone at 14 or 15. Nope... Not even close. Never happened. Hell... he was well past 17 when Mufasa had taken over and he had killed those jocks who nearly beat him to death in the cornfield. (Starting Over) He certainly didn't kill anyone in Lehigh before then... and neither did Mufasa... he hoped... and what did he mean by "never" getting to check out the family estate in North Carolina? He was there for the entire summer his parents rebuilt the house after the fire!
Then, Estophalum kept whining about some 17-year-old male cousin that was in the hospital or something. No... Dad was an only child... and the only cousins he had was Mom's cousin Jim by her uncle Joe and his daughters... all of whom are younger than seven. No... whoever this Raphael guy was, he obviously didn't do his homework...
The entire dream was strange... and even Khalid himself had acted differently... as if the words were not really his. "Gomurr, don't bullshit me. I want to know who Raphael is NOW! I know he's real and I know he's dangerous....To me AND my family."
"Khalid, I'm telling you. Raphael is nothing but a fi---"
Khalid was barely withholding his anger. He had been through too much in the past few days to listen to anyone evade his questions... especially about something so important. "ANSWER me, Gomurr. It involves my family and I want to HEAR it! You KNOW something you aren't telling me!"
"Khalid. Calm down. Nothing is gained by losing your temper.....OR in angering me!"
"My ANCESTORS were down there!!! EVERY SINGLE DEMON HUNTER THERE WAS... trapped inside of Estophalum. TORTURED souls... screaming and moaning to get out. He said my GRANDFATHER would soon be down there... and you are telling me to calm down??!!"
"That's exactly what I'm telling you. It was a DREAM! A DREAM! Nothing more than a."
"A DREAM??!! No, it WASN'T a fucking dream! I've HAD dreams. THIS ISN'T ONE OF THEM!!!" Khalid stopped as he realized what he just said. Why had he said that? He reigned in his aura as the weight of his words sank in. If it wasn't a dream, then what exactly was it?! A premonition??!!
Gomurr's voice cracked as he spoke softly... barely audibly. "It was a dream... a bad dream... a nightmare." Yes... a nightmare... Grover's nightmare... Grover's horrible nightmare...
"Not about my family, Gomurr. Lila. Phillip. Shiway. Those are all names I've heard Grandpop mention in passing at one time or another. In this dream, I saw FACES. Faces of people in agony. This is something I don't think Grandpop knows about and I don't plan on telling him! However, you DO know something. Who is Raphael?!"
"Let it go, Khalid."
"No I WON'T! I've had more than ENOUGH of these little family secrets popping up all over the place. Secrets kept by Grandpop... by Dad... and as I recently found out, by YOU! I've been pretty good about it before... and even dropped the entire Cairo thing (in Lethal Legacy) altogether. I'm putting my foot down, right now."
"Cougar doesn't know as much as he thinks and what little he does know he interprets wrong!"
Khalid snapped toward Gomurr, his red photon aura flaring as brightly as his temper. "For your information, 'Ancient One', Grandpop didn't tell me a damn thing! Did you REALLY think that I wouldn't find out?! Tell me, Gomurr, was I that gullible in my past life, too?! How dumb do you think I am?!"
The old man's hand shot out quickly reaching up and grabbing Khalid's chin, painfully squeezing it between his surprisingly strong fingers and dragging his face toward his. The ancient man's eyes clearly spoke of anger, yet underneath that, there were tears of frustration...and could it be fear welling up? "Don't take that tone with me boy. NOW... you tell me. Does Grover know of this foolishness you insist on speaking about? DOES HE? Have you opened your mouth before finding out all the facts once again?"
On seeing Gomurr's reaction, Khalid felt a pang of guilt slam into him. No, he didn't know the whole story on what happened to Grover... or how or why Gomurr managed to rescue Grover from the gruesome wreckage that claimed Kyle and Carolyn Breslin. (Ascension and Relativity) Gomurr and Cougar no doubt fought over the raising of Grover years ago, which is the reason he suspects they were at each others' throats in Cairo and almost every other time they met (Lethal Legacy). Hell... he still didn't know the story about how Mjimbe's Bracelets were combined with the hilt of Excalibur to form Gauntlets that were bonded to Grover (Phantom Nails), other than Grover and Gomurr had just gotten over that. He wasn't even sure exactly how Gomurr used that sliver of the Gauntlets to line that tattoo on his arm. (Lethal Legacy) Grover was the closest thing Gomurr had to a son, and Khalid knew Gomurr would lay his life down for him. And he had just threatened the old man with their relationship. "No, he doesn't know. It's not my place to tell him. As far as I'm concerned, it's up to you and Grandpop. The two of you made the decision, so the two of you do whatever you feel is necessary. Grover needs to know, though... and ONE of you needs to tell him."
"You know at first you made my life easier when you refused to allow Dr. Zhang to take a DNA sample. I had been prepared to tamper with the results to hide certain items from you, but you saved me that decision. I remember thinking that as long as I could keep you and Grover apart that things would be all right... that I would never have to worry over this again. Then, when Cougar showed up, everything started falling apart. You started remembering things. Things like the Gauntlets and why they seemed so familiar to you. Then, Grover started asking himself the same types of questions, and as if that wasn't enough THEN the Gauntlets started taking on some sort of life of their own. Then, you left. (Whisper of a Memory, Phantom Nails, Dark Light. Did I forget anything?) We get over it... and then Cairo. (Lethal Legacy) Ahh Cairo. The events seemed to fall in place like dominos leaving me no other option. If there had been any other way to activate your tattoos, then I would have done it, but those weren't the most optimal circumstances to say the least. Tell me what you know, and how you found out, and I'll try to fill in the pieces the best that I can."
"Are you sure you want to know? The cat's out of the bag, true, but are you sure you want to get scratched? I'm already stretched to the breaking point.....emotionally, spiritually...hell even financially. Maybe we should just let what I know stay what I know."
The old man smiled despite himself at the course the conversation had taken. First the young man in front of him asked for answers....then demands...then threatens...and now didn't want to know. Ahhh the folly that is youth. Gomurr grinned at Khalid and made an offhanded comment to try and lighten the mood. "Wait a minute. Didn't you just get paid $1.6 million for performing in Bhutan?! (The Sword of Haresh)"
"Damn it. I knew I should have never shown the check to Justin... makes me wonder what ELSE he's told you!"
"He mentioned something about you acting up at a rest area in Ohio."
"Yeah... and the kid has things mixed up SORELY as usual. (Relativity) anyway. Do you really want to know?"
"Yes. Of course. Once a tomb is opened it's best to inspect the contents no matter how unsavory."
"Fine. Grover came over for Thanksgiving and we wanted to see whose was longer, so we..."
"I could have told you that. I raised Grover from a pup you see and you ... well... Who HASN'T seen you naked?"
Khalid laughed suddenly. His attempt at freaking out the old man had backfired. The little guy was full of surprises. "True, but not while I was... Hold on, I better cut it off right there before it goes somewhere it shouldn't!"
"Wise move, Khalid... Though, I had the best response prepared. These verbal sparring matches are always fun."
"Geesh... For real... I um... saw the... um... ghostofmyauntandunclebehindhimatthedinnertable."
"What?!"
"I knew you'd think I was crazy, but I swear to you that is the truth. My aunt even said hello to me and waved."
"No... no... I don't think you're crazy. It's not nearly as rare as you think to glimpse spirits for one attuned to them......but to actually communicate. That's very different." Gomurr finally stood up stretching a bit. "Khalid, I guess it's time we laid our.......cards on the table. You are right. Raphael is real. Sit down this could be a long tale." Khalid complied as Gomurr walked over to his right side. "Can you roll up your sleeve?" Khalid slowly rolled up his sleeve, revealing the tattoo that served as a protection spell, in effect binding Estophalum from ever regaining a hold on his body. It was not activated until Gomurr lined it with a sliver of the Gauntlet's of Excalibur mixed with Grover's blood. "This might feel a little funny, but I need you to hold on... and try to keep relaxed. All right?"
"I've talked to Delia Fisher you know, and for some strange reason, I bet that's not the first time you've said that," Khalid joked trying not to show his unease.
At first, Khalid didn't understand what Gomurr was trying to do. Since gaining the silver lines in his tattoo, many people had slapped him on the arm, thrown him, or something else along those lines. He had already had skin to skin contact with others and nothing happened.. Prolonged exposure with the old man produced some startling results, however. As Gomurr began to mumble to himself and slide his fingers along the lines of the tattoo, a blue spark erupted between them and Khalid jerked his arm back with a start. "Hold On! What was that?!"
Gomurr took a deep breath and took Khalid's arm in his hand again. He began to chant again and his fingers slid sinuously along the curving swirls of the tatoo. This time, Khalid's photon aura flared up full force, only it showed with an eerie yellow glow. Khalid felt himself being surrounded inside and out with the pulsing power. The intensity was an insane mix of pure ecstasy and pain. Khalid's back arched reflexively and his muscles contracted and released in spasm. It was almost too much to bear. Khalid fought the urge to cry out. He knew it would only come out in a hoarse groan anyway. He tried to pull away again, but Gomurr held him again in his surprisingly firm grip "Relax, Khalid."
"I can't..." he forced out... Hell... he couldn't even think a coherent thought...
"Yes you can. Just do as I say....Relax. Don't fight me."
"What... are you... I... I." Without any warning, Gomurr released him. Khalid's aura dissipated from around him as his muscles gave out. He stood shakily and began rubbing at his arms as if chilled. For a moment after that he just stood taking deep hoarse breaths. "What the hell was that?! Some kind of psycho-orgasm spell?!"
"Like I'd share how to work that particular spell with anyone!!! Really, though... Raphael's the trickster, Khalid. I just had to be sure."
"Sure of what......What are you talking about?"
"I'm sure that you're going to be okay...if you listen closely and for once take my advice without question. Raphael is a major demon in the Shadow Heirarchy. He serves as a broker often times with other demons who don't have the power to touch the mortal realm and humans in this plane of existence. This is what I believed happened....."
Khalid listened closely to the old man's tale, stopping him a few times to have him clarify something. As he listened he became more and more amazed at what Gomurr was telling him. Finally, the old man stopped and Khalid realized that he had taken a seat and that the old man stood beside him patting his hand as if he were a small child.
Khalid slowly stood back up and processed what Gomurr had just told him. Raphael... the trickster... He had been the one that brokered the original deal that sold his demon hunting clan into damnation. Now that he had this information, he was going to...going to...going to what? "Shit. I can't do a damn thing at all. I mean. I. Well Grandpop is the mystic....Maybe if he..."
"Khalid, with that attitude, you'll lose before you start. Just listen to me. You look exhausted. Get some rest. We can discuss your options later. Just rest easy."
I might... if I could just remember what I did for the past two days. I know I'm tired enough to sleep for days...if only I could figure this whole thing out. "I suppose you are right. Thank you, Gomurr. I'm sorry it's come to this. I didn't mean to threaten you."
"The gazelle does not threaten the lion, my friend. Be at ease. All is well."
Khalid grinned at the pure moxy the old wizard had. "Gomurr.... thank you for something else. Thank you for pulling Grover......my cousin.... out of that car."
"That Khalid, was and continues to be my greatest decision and my greatest joy. You are more than welcome."
Khalid walked out the door still smiling. After Khalid left, Gomurr hopped back in his chair and thought about the events that had just unfolded. He had not told Khalid that he knew beforehand how Raphael fit into the scheme, but he had explained all that Khalid had required. Knowledge such as he held, was dangerous to all who knew it and he refused to endanger young Khalid anymore than he already was. He cursed to himself. Raphael was named as the Trickster demon in the Hieroglyphics tattoo describing the original deal on Khalid's arm... the very tattoo that now prevented Estophalum from possessing him again. That bond between Khalid and Grover due to the Excalibur remnants lining Khalid's arm had enabled Khalid to relive Grover's memories of his visit to the after life.... and learn the name of the HellGoat. The web of evil kept growing and growing. How long before it ensnared him or those he held dear?
The probing of the tattoo had been about something else, however. A lot of his own suspicions had been confirmed this day. He had first taken interest when DarkWolf returned from Bhutan with the Sword of Haresh, without a trace of corruption on either of himself or Khalid. He had his answer to that puzzle the moment he touched Khalid's tattoo.
Normally, Khalid's aura would not have reacted that way as he touched the boy with a mystic probe. Gomurr had tried something risky, however, on his second pass. He had actually tried to slip a droplet of the Crimson Dawn inside Khalid's body, which Khalid had summarily expelled with little conscious effort. Without knowing it, Khalid had cast it out and tried to purge it out of Gomurr as well. The only problem was that Gomurr was its proctor - and most powerful wielder thus making that impossible. Not to mention that Gomurr's own mystical aura was on a more advanced resonance level and he was millennia older than Khalid.
That explained completely what had happened to DarkWolf. Somehow Khalid had removed....even exorcised Xynn from DarkWolf's body, purifying both DarkWolf and the Sword of Haresh without even meaning to.
This was a blessing beyond knowing for young Justin Mills, but now an even more disturbing picture was forming in the ancient mage's mind...
End Epilogue Part I
---------------------------------
Epilogue Part II
Office of the White Queen, Reception Desk:
11:15 A.M.
"Excuse me, Ms. Stokes," said Leonard Bray into the speakerphone. "Mr. Strong is here for your 11:15... appointment."
Sharon's voice giggled out of the speaker. "Thank you, Leonard... please send him in."
Gabriel Strong grumbled as he walked through the door to the White Queen's office. He never could stand Leonard Bray. The guy was officious to the point of being annoying. Gabe couldn't understand at all why Sharon kept him around. Granted, Bray wasn't obnoxious, but he did tend to push his limits a bit too much. Daemon sighed as the door shut behind him. Maybe he was just being jumpy for all the wrong reasons. As Sharon told him, just because Leonard was gay was no reason to automatically assume he was lusting after him. Besides... EVERYONE knew that Leonard REALLY lusted after the White Rook. The way he leered at him, It was obvious. Gabe snickered to himself as he went to meet Sharon... He told himself it was humorous, but for some reason in part of him, it didn't seem very funny at all... and he could not place his finger on the exact reason.
---------------------------------
The moment the door shut, Leonard rose from the chair. Calmly, he walked toward the door to the office and pulled it shut. It was nothing new. Everyone knew that he shut down the White Queen's office every day at 11:15, officially to eat his lunch in the reception area. The rumor around the compound was that he was actually allowing the White Queen and the Dark Executioner to have their....... meetings in peace. It didn't matter to him. As far as he was concerned, no one had a clue what the real reason was... and that would soon be their destruction.
With a purple flash of his eyes, Leonard sealed off the room with a psionic and mystical barrier that gave off a false reading to psions and mages. The cameras at this point began to record an illusion of Leonard eating his lunch. In actuality, that was far from the truth. Leonard was making his daily reports to his mistress...
"My lady, the files are being sent as we speak. Account information on the various business ventures of everyone associated or previously associated with the White Court and the Hellions are included. I trust our operative at the corresponding Red Court is fulfilling his side of the bargain?"
"But of course, my dear Ebon. You have done well. The files you sent before have been most useful for our records. With the rebirth of the Dark One, you will be handsomely rewarded... maybe even promoted to a lower ranking member of the Court of Wands."
"Yes, My Lady... As you know from the past, I have always been eager to... please..."
-----------------------------
IHFC Infirmary
11:17 A.M.
"I've taken a look at it, Khalid... and I detect no infection at all." Dr. Angelo Torres said as he checked over the recent scar down the side of Khalid's stomach. "Just as a preventative measure, I'm spraying the area with antiseptic. This is quite a... um... nasty scratch. Certainly fairly painful. The tattoo itself is elaborate... like your other ones. Might I ask how you received them?"
Khalid grunted as he slipped his thick blue sweatshirt back on. "No."
Angelo cringed as he saw Khalid's reaction. Most people might not be able to tell, but Angelo could smell that Khalid's soreness was more internal than external. Good thing Khalid had a good pokerface... "Ugh... Okay... As my mother used to say, 'Angelo... Cállate."
"Good advice." Khalid stood up, about to go out the door when he saw Angelo lean over with a headache. For a moment, Angelo dropped to his knees at the cot, burying his hands in his thick black hair. A growl erupted out the back of his throat as he tried to compose himself. Khalid shook his head. Been there myself, Angelo... With a flash of his eyes, he knew that something was off. Glancing at the calendar, he saw it... "Hold on, Angelo... You got a couple of days before your ......umm time of month."
Angelo growled as he stood up, still leaning over the cot. He was on the borderline of transforming into a werewolf, his teeth already having grown. Khalid saw the hair on his hands and the shaking. Finally, Angelo responded... his voice still gruff. "I... know... It's been happening a lot lately. Everyday around this time. I don't... Know..." He fell to the ground, with his hands wrapped around his sides.
Khalid reached down, picking him up off the floor. "Come on... better get you to your... um... quarters..." The moment he made contact, Angelo stopped shaking.
"What the fuck..." Angelo said. "Excuse me, Khalid, I..." He stood up to his feet, a little weakly at first. "I don't get it... It's been lasting for 15 minutes at a time."
When Khalid let him go, the transformation started happening again. Quickly, he grabbed him again by the shoulder. "I don't have the faintest clue what is going on. I'm not going to sit here and hold on to you forever, though. If Dr. Zhang came in she'd think I was poaching on her territory. Come on... I'm putting you in your cage. This is something I need to talk to Casey or Grover about."
"No problem... I..."
Khalid watched him go inside the electronic force-field that prevented him from roaming about. The moment Khalid released him, Angelo went into his fit again. "Hold on... We'll get to the bottom of this."
With that, he started down the hall, heading toward the White Bishop's office.
-------------------------------
Office of the White Queen, Reception Desk
11:21 A.M.
"So... Shiro Turiyaki has been placed in charge of the strike team?"
"Yeah... Tendrile was demoted after his most recent attempt at acquiring the Purified failed miserably while also losing four of his squad members."
"To tell you the truth, I questioned his loyalty...his leadership... his passion. Although he is powerful, Shiro is a much better tactician. I am positive he will acquire the Purified with ease."
"There has been a change in plan. His target will no longer be the Purified but someone else... someone else he has a personal vendetta against. With you in position, it should make the job all the much easier."
"Should I make plans to take him myself?"
"That will not be necessary, you see... Courtesy of your previous files, we have insurance..."
----------------------------
The Hallway Outside the White Bishop's Office
11:22 A.M.
"Casey... Something's wrong with Torres. I don't know what it is, but something is setting off his lycanthropy. We aren't talking about big transformation, but it is enough....to get things hairy."
"Hold on, Mr. Hunter... How is that possible? The full moon isn't until Christmas Eve. We still have a few days left. You aren't..."
"No... I don't think so. He says it's been happening for a couple of months, every day around the same time. Needless to say, I haven't been around for that length of time. Too many gigs."
"Hmmmm... We might have to call in Gomurr on this one." At that moment, Cyclops suddenly stopped. "Wait a minute... the eye... my eye..." He took it off. "It's not working for some reason."
Khalid was taken aback as he saw Cyclops actually remove the Odinseye from beneath the eye-patch. Wincing, he glanced around the hall. "Um... Casey... Tell me you don't do that at parties!"
"I can't help but think that it must be related somehow... but I don't understand how... Perhaps what is going on is some sort of mystical interference..." Cyclops noticed that Khalid's eyes were trained on the White Queen's door... and he started sniffing, as if he smelled something... He noticed that there was faint miasmia in the air......something unclean.....crisp winter air bespoiled by a hint of the grave...
"Khalid... You aren't being affected now, are you? Khalid?" For a moment, his yellow aura flared up... and Khalid acted as if he were waiting for something... listening... "What ELSE could go wrong?! Wake up Khalid. This is no time to space out." Cyclops said as he waited for any sign of reaction from the White Rook.
Khalid turned his head to the side and then to the other side, looking almost like a curious cat trying to get the feel of a new situation. Then he seemed to stiffen and a whispery and faintly familiar voice filled his head. Leonard's voice... carrying through the allegedly soundproof door...
//"Excellent, My Lady... Cougar will perform the blood ceremony to counteract the tattoos... and the young one will be sacrificed to...//
At that moment, Khalid's aura changed from bright yellow to blood red... and a ferocious growl erupted out of the back of his throat. Cyclops jerked up in surprise when he heard it. That was the first time he ever heard that... especially that loud... "Computer! Get me the White King and the White Knight right now... and tell them that the White Rook has snapped!"
------------------------------
Office of the White Queen, behind closed doors...
11:22:30 A.M.
Sharon Stokes moaned as Gabriel Strong's hands roamed her flesh pushing her back onto her desk. His hand slipped beneath her short skirt and he smiled to himself.
"My little 'commando'", he laughed throatily.
Sharon moaned again and arched her back responsively to his intimate probings. "Gabe... Gabe... No... We shouldn't..."
"Why not? You never objected to it before?"
"Well... I am now..." said Sharon "These papers on my desk are KILLING me"
"Well if you don't want to, I understand," began Gabe.
Sharon Stokes slid off the desk allowing her skirt to roll up to her waist. As she moved her hands reached out and deftly undid the buttons on Gabriel's pants.
"I didn't mean that, silly," she cooed "Just that the floor would be more comfortable.....OH MY... GOODNESS!! Looks like somebody else decided to go commando too."
Gabriel sneered as he pulled her down atop him on the floor. "I'm always armed!" he said and as she gasped loudly. "Better?"
"Much," she whistled through her teeth. "So SO much."
At that moment, there was a loud thud from the reception area. Then, the door to the room blew off its hinges, flew over the desk and crashed through the window. Shocked, Gabe rolled over on top of Sharon covering her from the blast and managing to plant himself more firmly within her. "What the fuck?!" he cursed
Sharon panted and cried out "You know EXACTLY what that was, and might I add I actually felt the room shake.......HEY...wait a minute...what happened to my window?!?!?!"
---------------------------------
IHFC Courtyard
11:22:35 A.M.
Patrick Walsh finally caught his prey after tracking it for 10 minutes. He sank his fangs into the rabbit's neck draining quickly of its life force. Wiping his mouth savagely he stared down at the cold corpse of his kill.
"Do not worry my furry friend...I'm sure I send you to a far better place." As he wiped more delicately at the remaining blood on his lips, glass shattered from above around him and two solid doors come sailing down from the second floor. With a flick of his wrist, Patrick manipulated the shadows beneath him to form an opening allowing the doors to sail into total darkness of somewhere he wasn't quite sure of. Laughing about the situation, he licked his bloody finger before sticking it into the air for a moment. Sharon Stokes Office? 11:15? That little girl and her beaux sure have some wild action going on up there, but then again foreplay to me is HEAVY necking. Wondering to himself, if this was just another two body festival in Ms Stokes Office, he reared his nose into the sky and sniffed the air. His chin lowered with a wide grin on his face.
"My my...Khalid...it's the real you."
---------------------------------
Office of the White Queen, Reception Desk
11:23 A.M.
"LEONARD BRAY!!" Khalid roared as he ran toward the somewhat foppish secretary of the White Queen. "I'm coming for you." As Khalid's body pierced the illusion that Leonard had cast, Leonard stood revealed with a tiny palm top computer in his hand rather than the sandwich he had given the illusion of. The secretary looked up with a start and tried to dodge away, but Khalid had him in a death grip around the throat.
Casey Jones arrived in the room just in time to see Leonard Bray fly across the room into the bookshelf. Almost immediately, Khalid rammed into him and kicked him on the underside of the chin. Furiously, he grabbed him by the sides of the shirt and picked him up, snarling. "WHERE IS HE?!"
"I don't know what you are talking about! I swear!"
Not satisfied, Khalid threw Leonard across the room again, this time into the side of the reception desk. Casey ran in behind him, pinning his arms behind the back. Quickly, he pushed Khalid into the wall. "Khalid! Stand down! Leave him alone!"
"BACK OFF!" In anger, Khalid's aura flared, tossing Cyclops to the floor.
By this time, Daemon had come in from the adjoining room, where he had hurriedly buttoned his pants and cleaned up the best he could. (He had the foresight to use his superspeed to dress the two of them before he came to see what was going on.) Leonard ran behind the Terran-raised alien, clinging onto him as his nose gushed blood. "AHHHH! Get this freak off me! Someone Help! SAVE ME!"
Daemon started to access his extradimensional sword when he noticed that for some reason, it wasn't appearing into his waiting hand. Angrily, he formed a ball of electricity between his palms and shot it at Khalid, who intercepted it with a photon bolt. "Stand down, K...You can't even hope to beat me..."
"Who says he has to?" a voice in the corner of the room said as Daemon fell through his own shadow much to his own surprise.
"MAUL??!!" Sharon screamed at him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! He'll KILL Leonard. He's gone nuts again!"
" I'm doing what I always do Fraulein.....whatever I want..." and with twitch of his eye brow he used his vampire powers, specifically his telepathic use of them, and gazed into her eyes. Calmly and smiling devilishly from cheek to cheek, he simply snapped his fingers rendering the queen asleep peacefully on top of her desk.....and showing an ample expanse of thigh as she snored.
"What the fuck do you think your doing?!" said Casey Jones as he recovered from Khalid's blow. "Stand down, Maul; you're making this situation a lot worse!"
Maul simply tilted his head to the side and sneered at the White Bishop as he watched his "student" manhandle Leonard. Casey cursed to himself as he leaped back into the fray Rotten time for the Odinseye to act up... I have to take Maul out of the fray before he allows Khalid to kill that poor guy. Nerve cluster at the base of the skull... Thinking quickly, Cyclops hit Maul in the base of the skull with a chair, the nearest blunt object.
Unfazed by the chair, partially because of his adamantium skeleton and the healing factor, Maul spun around to backhand him. Cyclops ducked just barely as the hand flew over his head. With the Odinseye nullified, he had no powers whatsoever. He was relying on pure combat skill to stall Maul long enough for someone else to end this fight. Um... Feonix... Marvel Girl... anyone "listening"? I could really use your help, here! He punched Maul twice in the stomach before Maul's hand crashed into his chest, throwing him on top of the fern sitting in the corner. The delicate plant stand collapsed as Cyclops fell to the floor, his head trickling blood slowly and matting his hair.
"I'm afraid no one can hear you Casey Jones..."
Cyclops leapt out of the corner, with a kick aimed at Maul's head... but Maul caught him by the foot and dropped him to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. "You're telepathic?" he weakly said as he looked at the ceiling.
"Not really..." said the German vampire... as he kicked Cyclops in the side of the head as the patch slipped up and the useless Odins Eye rolled forward onto the floor. Walsh simply looked down on the Bishop in disgust. "It seems it was the entire White Court who needed training with the Hellions... not just Khalid." With that, Maul plucked up the Odinseye and placed it in Cyclops' hand. "Now see if you can keep yourself together until I get back. "Things are starting to get interesting now..."
In the hallway, Khalid threw Leonard into the wall, taking a strange satisfaction as he saw him grunt. Grabbing him by the hair, Khalid slapped his head into the table before holding a newly-formed photon blade to his neck. "WHERE IS HE?!"
Before Khalid could get his answer, he was picked up into the air and thrown onto his back. Then, as he spun to his feet, he was hit again in the face with a burst of telekinetic energy. Finally, it wrapped around him, completely restraining him. "It was only a matter of time. Leave him enough rope and he hangs himself!" Darque Feonix said as he came out of his office.
Khalid's glare shot daggers at him as Leonard took off down the hall to escape. "Stay out of this!"
"I knew you were unstable... that you'd snap one day, but they wouldn't listen. Face it, Khalid; you were NEVER worthy to be in this court!"
Khalid snarled at him, straining against the telekinetic attack. "Mind your own fucking business, Kane! You don't know shit and you never have!"
"Oh... Stopping an attempted murder by a FORMER Inner Circle member IS my business... especially one who assaulted his superior and endangered the life of the.....ARGH!"
Darque Feonix was about to continue when he found himself speared in the back by a hurtling German Vampire. The fell onto a bust of the Red King shattering it into several large pieces. Kane's spinal cord slammed against the now-broken edges of the bust. He cried out in pain as he tried to figure out how Maul approached him without his knowing. Momentarily, a telepathic backlash erupted between the two of them, frying their minds. More importantly, Darque Feonix lost his train of thought and could no longer concentrate enough to maintain the telekenetic field.
With a flash of light, Khalid disappeared.
"Finish your fight, Löwe... Finish the fight..." said Maul as he stumbled back to his feet, still dazed from the backlash. Before he could concentrate, he felt the concrete texture of what was Ryan Jensen's head against the back of his skull. With his mutant healing factor nearly depleted, he fell face down unaware of the identity of his attacker.
Sharon Stokes dropped what was left of the crumbling bust to the ground and approached her teammate..."Feonix... are you okay?"
"Bout time...I had you telepathically blocked long enough..."
Darque Feonix sat up with his hand supporting his head. The fucking vampire was a psion... a lower-level psion, but still a psion. That's how Maul snuck up on him. More importantly, though, Darque Feonix knew something else.
So Khalid's the vampire's great-grandson, eh?
----------------------------
Leonard knew he had to get out of there. His cover was blown... and he had to leave while he had the advantage. Almost to the door to the stairwell, he crashed into what felt like an invisible brick wall.
Daemon sneered down at the secretary as he turned off his invisibility. "Going somewhere, Leonard?"
"You've got to help me! You saw him! He's trying to kill me!" Leonard pleaded as he crawled backwards blood still dripping from his nose.
"I might believe that... but I noticed outside that my sword..." Daemon pulled it out from behind his back. "... As much as I'd love to blame Khalid, I don't think he did it."
Leonard lashed out with his mystical Ebon energy, dropping Daemon to the ground. He was on his feet and moving when a photon bolt crashed into his face. He felt the staff made out of solid photons strike his chin and his back crash into the wall. When his eyes opened, Khalid held the staff pushing his neck, growling almost into his face. "WHERE IS HE?!"
"I don't know what you are talking about!" Leonard's eyes began to charge with Ebon energy when Khalid pressed the burning staff harder into his windpipe.
"Oh no you don't... I'll bet you $10 that light is faster than fire... Now WHERE IS HE?!"
Blackfire came struggling down the hall holding her head awkwardly, followed closely by a bruised and battered Cyclops and Darque Feonix. Put simply, the three of them looked like they had been put through the wringer.
"Gabe! Have you lost your mind?! Are you with Maul and Khalid too?!"
Daemon rose back to his feet, wiping his extradimensional sword against his shirt sleeve. "Trust me, Sharon... More is here than meets the eye. Looks like there is something funnier about Bray over here than sugar in the blood!"
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! THEY'VE GONE CRAZY!! STOP THEM!" Leonard started to attack Khalid with his ebon energy when a photon blade plunged through his ear! "GAAAAH!!!!"
This time, Khalid's hand snapped around Leonard's neck, his thumb and middle finger squeezing the sides tightly. The photon staff was reformed into a photon blade... and hovering dangerously close. "I warned you before, 'Leonard'. Now you tell me where my grandfather is before I disembowel you!"
"You wouldn't dare!"
Khalid's growl reverberated through the hall as he tightened his grip on Leonard's throat. "Feel like losing your other ear?"
Grover's voice boomed directly behind Khalid. "Gee, Leonard... That doesn't sound like something an innocent man would say. Looks to me that you might want to tell him what he wants to know. Khalid already has a reputation for not being all there... No offense, Khalid."
"None taken."
This time Leonard laughed raucously. "I did nothing! He's crazy! Can't you see that?! He's lost his marbles! I have been nothing but loyal to..."
"Not true, Leonard." Everyone's attention was broken by the click-clack of high-heeled shoes across the linoleum. Pushing her thick glasses up the bridge of her nose, Alice Pembleton made her way through the assembled group, holding a folder in her hand. "Because I did not feel like staying here over the holidays and running maintenance on the computers, I did that today. And you wouldn't BELIEVE what I ran across..."
"You didn't find anything!"
"Au contraire, Monsieur Bray... Or as we like to say in the hills of Eastern Kentucky, there's a polecat in the barn."
Gabe leaned over, whispering into Sharon's ear. "What on earth's a polecat?"
"A polecat, Mr. Strong, is what we call a skunk. See THIS, Leonard?" said Alice as she slapped the file folder into Leonard's stomach. "Records of every transaction you had with that remote computer in Switzerland. I looked back a few weeks ago and noticed that you had sent two files pertaining to Mr. Hunter. One reported exact locations where his upcoming performances would be and the other was the address... of a Robert Leroy Cougar in Lyon's Hill, North Carolina."
"You're too late, bitch... My employers already have the informa..."
"They DO, do they?" Alice pulled a disc out of her vest pocket. "No, Leonard... See, I happened to see that you were sending files today... and added a little something I whipped up just this morning. About now, your bosses should be discovering that everything on their computers has been deleted. They are going to have to rely solely on information which they have in storage, which unfortunately for you does not refer to files that they received today."
"YOU BITCH!" Leonard's eyes glowed with his Ebon Energy, which promptly surrounded Alice's legs. She screamed in agony as the energy started creeping up. Khalid shoved a photon blade directly into his shoulder. Momentarily shocked with pain, Leonard stopped his attack on Alice.
Khalid ripped Leonard's sleeve off, revealing a brand... of a pyramid with an eye peeking out the top of it. Grover immediately recognized it as the drawing Harry Tanaka sketched on his notepad. "What the fuck?! You better start speaking, Leonard! NOW!"
Daemon's eyes caught the symbol... Instantly, he recognized it. Illuminati?! My God...
Leonard started glowing again with the Ebon energy, completely around him. "At least I have the Purified..."
Darque Feonix's eyes flashed as he realized what Leonard was up to. He reached out, telekinetically ripping Khalid off of Leonard. With a purple flash of light, Leonard disappeared... leaving only the ashes of his suit.
Khalid's aura faded away. For a moment, he stood transfixed... and slowly dropped to the ground. Grover caught him by the arm. His voice cracked at first, then his muscles gave out. "They... have... Grandpop..."
Grover helped him back up to his feet. "We'll find him. You know we will." With that, he threw a quick glance at Casey, who caught on and decided to clear the hallway.
"If they so much as harm a hair on his head... I'll fucking kill them."
Grover stopped the minute he heard that come out of his mouth. "Khalid... Don't say that."
Shaking, Khalid looked him in the eye. "I did... and I meant it."
"Once you take a life, everything changes... It's never the..."
As he spoke, Khalid's voice shook. "No one... messes... with my family... I will KILL... over family...remember that." His voice choked up as he started to walk away... He needed to be alone for a moment. Before he could get far, Alice gripped him firmly by the shoulder. For a brief moment, his eyes flashed yellow and his head slowly craned toward her. For a moment, he staggered and his eyes blinked before he finally addressed her. "Yes... Alice..." he said somewhat absently... as if in a daze.
"Khalid... can you wait right here?"
"Yeah... Sure, Alice..." said Khalid as he sat down or more accurately crumpled to the floor. For a moment, he buried his face in his hands trying to think of what to do next... what he COULD do... or in the very least what the hell was going on. With a flash of his eyes, he turned away to his side to see two red pupils looking at him from the shadow of the doorway. He could see Maul's face smiling... and slowly fading away. Asshole.
Not noticing the exchange, Grover looked away for a moment, just feeling bad. Perhaps it was because of Excalibur's influence, but he could understand Khalid's feelings right now. For a moment, he wondered if perhaps this wasn't a case of Khalid being influenced by his anger... by his response to a parallel situation... that day he learned the truth about what happened to the family he should have had. Grover knew that Khalid meant what he said. I know, Khalid... I know better than anyone else. "Alice... are you okay?"
Alice nodded... with a sad expression across her face. She pulled him aside... "Grover... There's one more file that Leonard sent the same day he sent those files on Khalid..." She pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to him.
"No... No..." Grover's face turned pale when he read the paper... and this time it was his voice that started to crack... but it turned into something else altogether... rage. "Khalid... you're with me." He crumpled the paper in his hand and handed it back to Alice. "I want the guest quarters readied within half an hour... and an emergency Inner Circle meeting in two hours. Call Simitis and tell him I want to meet with him and his wife in ten minutes in front of Willowshade Elementary School... and not to ask any questions on the phone."
With a blue blur, the two of them were gone... and Alice rushed back to her office.
The End