Amber Shards

Chapter 7

Ruins of Elysium

By

Michael Liebhart

 

 

What golden grain has rot

And gods long since forgot

In the ruins of the Elysian Fields

 

No golden wine and bread

For heroes long since dead

In the ruins of the Elysian Fields

 

Greek’s pantheon is shattered

In a world that ceased to matter

In the ruins of the Elysian Fields

 

Now see yon evil beast is born

In as world that ceased to morn

In the ruins of the Elysian Fields

 

Behold the wasteland of Elysium

 

The city was quiet.  It had been that way for several months.  Only animals moved in it or below it; the previous occupants had either been killed or driven out. 

Atop the roof of one of the numerous churches of Austin sat the Wizard of Argent Wood.  Ian Patrick meditated on the ruins of the city.  He wore a light black cloak, for a chill had arrived on the November winds.  It matched the black poet shirt and dark gray breeches and boots.  He stared at the emptiness and thought, “This will be happening in Dallas soon.  Typhoid Mary had already started working there.  Shortly the ‘Night People’ would no more there.  Eventually Texas would be clear of this plague, if through rumor if not the actual destruction of the beasts.”

“Ian.”  The word was soft and tender. 

The Amberite turned and looked to his right. On the roof with him stood a woman in a beautiful blue gown.  Sapphires adorned her long dark hair and accented her deep blue eyes.  The wind did not disturb either her clothes or hair.

He turned back to look at the city and said, “Yes Celia?”

“I wanted to let you know that the new sensor net has been installed throughout the forest and the system is working well within operational parameters.”  She paused as if expecting an answer, but then continued.  “I have also overseen the testing of the first of the shield generators.  They also are functioning flawlessly.  The nymphs were concerned at first with what was being done in their woods, but when I explained that it was protection you designed for the forest they were very pleased…” Celia stopped.  Ian had only given imperceptible nods as he heard the information and continued to look at the city.  “Ian is all well?”

“Celia do you ever get lonely?”

“Lonely?  Hmm…no.  I have you, Gerald and the other sundry servants in the tower.  I listen to the myriad broadcasts that are generated around this planet.  That’s not even counting tapping Kandorian communications.  Then I have all the magical research and projects you have given me…” She stopped and looked at Ian and said in a soft tone.  “No, though I have the capacity to do so, there are far too many things that I do to even consider loneliness.”

Ian had not moved during this, but after Celia had finished he turned to her and gestured to a spot beside him.  “Please, sit.”

She said, “You know very well that this body is a holographic projection.  I won’t get tired from ‘standing’.”

Ian sighed.  “Please, humor me.”

Celia drew up the edges of her gown and gracefully sat down next to him.  Some found it more comforting to speak to what appeared to be an entity instead of a disembodied voice.  She was grateful that Ian had come into the possession of the Kryptonian tech that had been modified to allow her this wonderful electronic form.  With her new head, she turned and looked at Ian to continue.

“When I accepted this exile, I was sure that I would enjoy the distance from Court.  No more family mucking about with my life, trying to manipulate me or kill me.  I was happy to get away.”

Celia spoke gently. “But?”

“But, I never expected the isolation.  For the past 450 years I have been able to travel between different worlds at will.  Now I am confined to one world with no contemporaries of my own.”

“Well there are the El’s; Zal, Kara, Rogue, Carrie and Karen…”

Ian sighed.  “True, they are quite powerful, but every time I look at Kara she reminds me of Mara; the girls too.  If they have need, I will come, but otherwise, I am leaving them alone.  I really don’t know Zal enough to even have a pretense of a visit.  Jenny is fascinating, so much in fact that I have to suppress the urge to study her.  Ian sighed.  “She is having issues now and I don’t think associating with her would improve her marriage.”

Celia’s eyes sparkled with mischief.  “There is always Dr Victor Von Doom.”  The reaction that she had expected did not come.  The humor was lost to the amberite as he contemplated the question.  “Ian, I wasn’t being serious, that was just a joke.”

“While it may have been intended for humor, I have been contemplating this myself.  Dr. Doom has access to some substantial power since Latveria appears to be the only country unscathed by the devastation that happened to the rest of the world.  Then he is going and trying to do repair work like we are, but in Europe.  From what I’ve learned of his daughter, I believe he may also have some skill as a sorcerer…  Yes I know you don’t approve of his methods, but it reminds me a lot of home; the politics, the manipulations. As a matter of fact, he reminds me a lot of Father….”  Ian paused as Celia stared at him.

“No, I’m not actually considering working closely with Dr. Doom.  I respect his skill but…I think we are in some ways too much alike.  Besides, I just wanted to see your reaction.”  Ian chuckled.

Celia snorted and looked out at the city.  “Do you feel better now?”

“A little.”  He sighed.   “I’m just been feeling so alone.”

Trying to circumvent the downhill side again she said.  “We could go on another outing.  Scout for lost mystical treasures or advanced tech.  I know that you are always looking for more raw materials for you projects.” She offered.

“That’s a definite possibility…” He considered this for a moment.  While his heart wasn’t really in the mood for prospecting, he knew that brooding wasn’t going to accomplish anything.  Perhaps this would be a welcomed distraction.  “Lets head back to the tower, I need to check on a few things before we go.” 

 

 

With a flash of white light Ian appeared back in the laboratory of his tower.  With a quick mental thought he advised Gerald of his return.  Celia had materialized in another area of the lab and studied the results of the shield generator tests.   She covertly watched Ian as he sat in front of a wall console.

The wizard sat back and prepared to access the newest data they had acquired from the Kandorians when a sensation passed through him.  He stopped and looked around.  Celia was looking confused as well.

She looked perplexed.  “Ian did you just feel something?”

“Yes,” he paused, closed his eyes and concentrated.  “Something happened…a tearing of some sort, far to the north and east, something…substantial.  Can you detect anything?”

Her holographic body vanished, as she needed to devote her full attention to the problem.  A number of screens lit up and data began to scroll across them.  “Yes, you are correct, there has been a dimensional shift…” Celia continued her trans-dimensional calculations.

“There are always dimensional fluctuations in a world.” Ian commented.  “Unseen things passing through from one realm to another.  Spirits and the like can cause this.  The Bermuda Triangle and other points across the world regularly flare up, but that was something else.  Can you get any other details?”  The amberite asked.  Though he could have gotten the data, Celia was much faster and so he let her continue her rapid calculations.

There was a pause as a hex map appeared on a screen and began to fill itself outwards, with the tower as the center.  Soon Texas was visible and the grid continued to fill itself.  Most of the United States was now visible as well as part of Mexico.  Once the area reached the East Coast it stopped.

“Ohio.  It is somewhere in the southeastern section of Ohio.  From these reading, the disturbance seems to have been caused by a great deal of mass moving from one realm to another. “

“Exactly how much mass?”

There was a pause.  “Something enormous, in the billions of cubic meters.  It had to be shifted smoothly to not have created an even greater disturbance.  It would be something like a small town vanishing.”  The computer displayed an enhanced image of southeastern Ohio.  Celia spoke up, “unfortunately due to the skill used in the transition I cannot pinpoint the epicenter, but it should be within this area.”

Ian touched the area of the map she had highlighted.  He agreed with her calculations.  They agreed with his instincts.   “This is an area is over 2500 square miles…” He touched the highlighted section of the map.  “We’ll have to search the area personally…hmm that’s in Luthorsville too.”

Celia’s holographic body reappeared sitting on a table near Ian.  “Actually his people refer to it as the NUSA, the North United States of America.  This will make it more difficult to investigate the area.  He is rather militant in his Third Reich territory.  From the broadcasts that I receive, he has hired quite a few metas to patrol his land.  The Kryptonian data that we received was stolen from one of his labs.  He is bound to have developed some new devices.  Don’t forget that he also appears to be hiring mystical assistance as well and that none of the warders that have been sent have survived long in Metropolis.”

Ian nodded, knowing all of this himself.  This would be a challenge because he had limited first hand information of what really transpired in that area.  Luthor’s people had somehow spotted the rat, hawk and occasional pigeon warder that were sent to Metropolis and its surrounding areas.  Their uniqueness was somehow discovered and they were eliminated.  Though he was not going to the heart of Luthor’s operations, he would still need to plan carefully.  He turning and moved through the lab gathering a number of devices.  The enchanter smiled as he looked at his new tools.  Previously he was not able to apply his technical knowledge fully.  The rules of this reality did not allow for him to use the knowledge unless it was hedged with magic and then sometimes it still didn’t work.  With the data on Kryptonian technology he was able to use it as a template to discover the rules to apply his technical expertise to.

“Celia, let Gerald know that I am going to be going out on business for several days.  I need to gather some equipment for the trip; I don’t want to be caught unaware again.  Transfer the bulk of yourself to the travel pad.”  He picked it up and it shaped itself into a black bracer with various technical display readouts and buttons.  “I want to have access to your Pattern abilities.  Leave enough consciousness in the tower to run things here and to be able to contact me in case of an emergency.”  Ian turned back to the task at hand, planning an excursion into enemy territory.

 

 

Time and The Shard had not been kind to Cincinnati.  Though metas hadn’t destroyed the city like in Washington D.C., a few arsonists and one radical survivalist had done some damage to it.  A few fires and a couple of well-placed bombs had destroyed the heart of the city.   This had in turn had sparked rioting.  It was not long until everyone left.  No one but scavengers lived here now and possibly a few Night People, but even that was in question.

Ian had traveled this section of the country after he had first arrived in and came across the Cincinnati Art Museum. Fate and enchantments had protected it from everything but a minor bit of vandalism and weathering.

The building leaked wisps of magic when he arrived.  Inside the building an ancient roman sword had been awakened by something.  Its malevolent presence had permeated the building and frightened away those of weak will.  It was collected along with a couple of other items of power and these had been locked in The Vault in the lowest part of the tower.

This time the weather was chilly, but didn’t seem to affect Ian greatly.   A cold wind blew dust about the steps and whistled through broken window in the old museum.  He wore a set of NUSA military fatigues, a camouflage jacket and a hiking pack.  He also had a leather utility belt and hiking boots.  At his side appeared to be a Ruger P95 pistol and a large bowie knife.

The wizard scanned the city both visually and mentally.  Nothing intelligent was within close scan range.  He turned to the west and began to trek towards the setting sun.

 

 

Night had fallen and Ian had made camp.  Several series of alarms were spread about.  String with bells attached to sticks and hung at ankle height as well as bells in branches in the trees.  The wizard sat back against a tree and ate rations.  He appeared to stare of into the distance but held mental communication with Celia. 

“…nothing as of yet.  We are very definitely getting closer the source of the disturbance. But we are also going deeper into Luthor’s territory.” 

Ian snorted. “Welcome to Luthorsburg, home of the worlds happiest minions.  Don’t forget to check your free will at the door and live for the father country.”  Ian created a little mental “Heil Hitler” image.

“While that is true,” Celia continued, “we still need to be careful.  I have been picking up radio signals.  They are coded, but it is a simple task to unscramble them.  There is a military buildup further north.  They are making comments about The Black Cloaks and a Voodoo Priest being put in charge.  It sounds like they are getting mystical assistance whether they want it or not.  Whatever happened, Luthor is aware of it.”

“Great.”  Ian replied.  “We are going to have to be careful then.  No magic unless necessary and keeping the high tech to a minimum.  This is going to be interesting."

At that moment the bells jangled and a thump like something heavy had hit the ground.

"Damn it."  He dropped the mental conversation with Celia and quietly drew the bowie knife that he had on his belt.  The Amberite crept to the trunk of a tree and looked out in the direction of the bells.  The bells rang twice more; once, as a string of them was ripped off their posts and then again as they were flung away.

Ian reached into a pocket in his belt and pulled out what appeared to be a pair of sunglasses.  He placed them on his face and the night became much brighter.  The lenses had been treated to gather and amplify ambient light.  They turned the starlight into the equivalent of early morning light.

The creature that stalked towards him was huge.  It stood about 8' tall and was at least 4' wide.  Its skin was a slate gray and it has huge leathery wings.  It was a gargoyle. 

He reached out with his mind and touched the surface of the creature's mind.  Anger boiled through it.  “Well so much for talking,” he thought.  Before he could do more the creature suddenly charged him.  Either it had his scent, could see in the dark or both.

It rushed at the wizard.  Ian feinted right and then ducked left and struck out with the blade.  There was a sound of metal on stone as sparks flew off of the knife blade.  The amberite came up in a fighting crouch and realized that regular steel was going to have no effect on it.  In response to the he touched a switch near the cross guard and the blade hummed to life in his hand.

The gargoyle swung around, its eyes glowed red in the dark.  It charged, but this time with a flap of its wing it took to the air.  Despite its size, it was rather agile in flight.  Ian was not prepared for this and his shoulder was clipped as the thing slashed at him.

His shirt tore.  He grunted and managed to keep his feet.  Ian mentally thanked The Maker for the armor he wore.  He had realized that if he wore his warding, a good mystic would be able to spot it and identify him as a threat.  So he created a different style of armor.  It looked like a black body suit.  One of its principal components were fibers harvested form some of the Kryptonian plants he had grown.  If needed he could reach back and pull the ski mask-like hood over his face.  Though not as good at the warding, it was very effective.

The creature must have expected him to be driven to the ground, but amberites are much stronger than humans.  The gargoyle had prepared to drive a fist into where he expected to be a body on the ground and was caught flat-footed when the humming weapon slashed into its side.

Where the blade had previously failed to penetrate the skin of the beast, it now cut into its side and opened a goodly gash.  When he had activated the weapon, it caused the blade to begin to vibrate at a phenomenal speed.  The vibroblade, when engaged, could cut though stone and steel.  The cut began to ooze a thick black liquid.

"God damn it!"  The creature swore.  Ian paused, momentarily stunned by the creature’s capacity for speech.  The rage had masked any coherent thoughts from his previous scan.  It huffed. "Bastard!  You may have wounded my brother, but you are not taking us in.  I don't care how many men you send, WE ARE NOT GOING BACK!" 

He snarled, took to flight and dived at Ian.  This time the wizard was prepared.  Instead of striking with the blade, he ducked the blow, gathered his mental strength and struck out at the creature's mind.  Its initial burst of rage had subsided into a roiling anger, but something else seemed to buffer its mind.  The amberite stood stock-still and drove his thoughts brutally ‘forwards’ shattering the barrier.

Unprepared for such an assault, its legs buckled and sagged to the ground. 

Ian continued the assault and dug deeper into its mind.  He was surprised by what he found.  This was no creature changed by The Shard, but a man, Lewis Sanchez.  He and his twin brother Carlos lived in New York before all hell broke loose.  They had moved to Metropolis and joined up in Luthor's army.  After exemplary service, they were selected as part of a "super soldier" program.  While they had expected drug enhancement or cybernetic augmentation, they were unprepared for the result.  A freakish little sorcerer named Deval experimented upon them.  When all was said and done he and his brother became huge horrific gargoyles.  They had skin strong enough to stop most bullets, strength to lift over a ton, claws that could rip through steel and wings with which they could fly up to speeds of up to 100 miles an hour. Their senses had been augmented as well.  They also could perceive into the infrared spectrum allowing them to detect heat, they could track by smell, like a bloodhound and had an innate mental resistance. 

That had been fine.  They would have served loyally in Luthor's army had not the sorcerer, impressed by the utter success of his experiment, tried to gain further sway over them.  Shortly after they had settled into their new bodies, the pale little man started serving them a special drink.  It was supposed to enhance their powers further.  Deval had fed Carlos the mixture first.  Lewis, who's sense of smell was better than his twin's, noticed the smell of blood in the mixture.  The sorcerer had convinced him to drink it once, but afterwards he felt horribly wrong.  The sorcerer had told the two “This will be a little unsettling at first, but it will magnify your powers.”

Lewis managed to accidentally spill it the second time it was brought.  He talked to his brother at length and tried to convince him not to drink any more.  Carlos did not listen.  After he drank the mixture the third time, he changed.  It seemed that Deval could do no wrong in his eyes.

When the little man came again, he no longer brought Carlos a drink.  He said that his brother had enough and it was time for Lewis to take his medicine.  The look of glee on Deval's face and he look of adoration on Carlos' face were all it took to convince Lewis that the medicine was not in his best interest.  He tried to avoid taking it but the sorcerer became adamant.  He must take two more doses.  When he couldn't cajole or threaten him into taking it, he tried to force Carlos to make him drink it.

It seemed that whatever spell that Deval had woven over his brother could not force him to attack his twin, brotherly bond being stronger than magic.  It was at this point that all hell broke loose.  The little man began to rant and rave about them being soldiers for the supreme rulers of this world.  Then he spoke a word, grabbed a wooden stake on the table and tried to attack Lewis.  Carlos, who had divided loyalties, stepped between the two to prevent both sides from attacking each other.  He was rewarded for this by taking a stake in the gut.  It must have been enchanted because it pierced his skin as if he were still human.

The rest of the images in Lewis' head were sketchy.  It seemed he killed Deval, escaped with his brother, but some of Luthor's men had hunted them ever since. 

Ian leaned against the tree and considered this.  Lewis had assumed that he was one of Luthor's men and was trying to defend himself.  He touched the gargoyle's head and put him into a comatose state.

He had picked the brother's location from the former twin's mind.  It took him about a half-hour to find the place.  Carlos was hidden in the remnants of a tool shed. 

Ian inspected the other twin; he looked ashen.  His aura also was blotchy, identifying that he was in poor shape.  He touched a button on Celia's travel case, activated the Pattern Lens and inspected the gargoyle.  A thick gray spot grew from the wound and seemed to work its way to his heart.

The enchanter considered the situation, reached into the belt pouch and pulled out a vial of amber colored fluid.  He assisted the creature in swallowing the fluid.  As Ian watched, Lewis' aura began to change.  The body began to gather strength and vitality, but the gray blotch did not fade.  When he looked closer through the Lens, he discovered that there was an ensorcelled shard of wood that was the cause of the gray aura.  It was working its way to the gargoyle's heart.  While he could stop this curse, it would alert him to any psychics or mystics in the area.  It couldn't be risked in enemy territory just yet.

Ian reached out with his thoughts, took a few moments, implanted a telepathic suggestion in Carlos' mind, and then left the shed.

When he arrived back at camp, Lewis was still unmoving statuary on the ground.  Ian reached out, touched the gargoyle's mind again and awakened him.  Though he was awake, the gargoyle still did not have control over any part of his body below his neck.

Lewis looked around and spat in Ian's direction.  "You think you have me, but you will never find my bother.  He is miles from here.  If you think I am going back to be your slave, you're wrong.  I'll die first!”

Ian squatted on his haunches near the gargoyle.  "I'm afraid you have me wrong my friend.  I am not your enemy.  As a matter of fact I oppose Luthor.  As for your brother I have visited him while you slept."  A look of pure terror crossed Lewis' face.  "Do not worry I have used my power and helped restore your bother, in part.  While I am in enemy territory, I dare not do anything to draw attention to myself prematurely and if I had completed restoring your brother, there would be a good chance that I might have alerted the forces that are currently searching for you."  As he said this he reinforced his words with gentle telepathic suggestions, working around the gargoyle’s mental barriers.

"By morning your brother will be ready to fly.  He should be able to resist the effect of the curse he is under for about a week or so.  After that the shard of wood that is in Carlos' body will once again begin working its way to his heart and will eventually kill him."  Ian paused a moment to let this all sink in.  "But, I know where you can go to get him healed."  The image of The Argent Woods and the route to get there was projected and fixed in the gargoyle's mind.  Ian reached into a pouched and pulled out a strange gray coin.  “Take this to the women you will meet in the woods.  Tell them of the curse that Carlos suffers under and that Ian has asked that they heal him."

Lewis sat and took all this in.  "Then what?"

Ian shrugged.  "Then you are free to go."

Lewis looked at the wizard suspiciously.  "Absolutely free?"

Ian looked out in the night.  "I hold no ties to you.  I ask no boon of you.  Your freedom from Luthor gladdens me.  Is that not enough?"  The enchanter closed his eyes for a moment and the gargoyle could move again.  "No more of this, go to your brother, watch over him and take him to the forest.  Whatever you choose to do after that is up to you.  Now go."

The gargoyle looked about as if not completely believing that he was free, then suddenly he loped into a clearing and took to flight.

Ian repaired the alarm and lay down again.

As he had begun to drift to sleep, Celia sent.  "Now that was magnanimous of you…"

Ian was not in the mood to play games. "Ok, I didn't lie about curing his brother.  But from what I gathered from Lewis' mind, he is very concerned with honor.  He no longer wants to associate with Luthor because he feels betrayed.  When the wood nymphs cure Carlos I believe the fact that I didn't ask anything may keep him in the wood.  The nymphs won't try and play with them, but they will also contribute to them wanting to stay in the woods.  Besides that, where else can they go and still be treated like people?  They can't go back to Luthorslum nor live in 'normal' society either."

On that note Celia left Ian alone to sleep.  Even though he left Avalon and his father's court, he was still following in Corwin's footsteps; setting things up to go his way.  "You can take the boy out of Amber, but you can take Amber out of the boy."  She thought to herself.  With that she put herself in sleep mode ready to awake at any sign of danger.

 

 

Then next day passed without incident as they passed no one.  The second day, they followed what was old highway 75.  Though they didn't find the epicenter, they knew they could feel that they were getting closer.  It was here that they found a patrol. 

Ian climbed out of the cold stream and up the bank.  The bridge had collapsed and forced him to ford the icy water.  As he climbed up the other side he heard a voice.  "He's coming up the bank, spread out."  The amberite reached into his belt pouch, pulled out a bulky looking lapel pin, attached it to his shirt collar and tapped it, to turn it on.

Whatever the men had expected to come over the bank was not what they saw.

A thin red haired man in a standard uniform of Luthor's troops came into sight.  They continued to hold their guns on him.  The air was silent and steam could be seen as it escaped the man’s nose and mouth as he breathed.

The man frowned and in a northeastern accent spat out.  "What the sam-hell you men think you are doing?"

The leader of the squad spoke up and readjusted the augmented machine gun in the crook of his arm.  "We should be asking you the same question.  What is your business here?"

The fellow looked down at the swastika hanging from a chain around he neck and looked back at the men.  He then began to glows softly and a bright light shone from his eyes.  "I think I'm following my god-damned orders from High Command. That's what I think I'm doing."   He then stared at the captain and waited for a reply.  The soldiers all took a few steps back from the meta.

The leader cleared his throat a couple times.  Before he could speak one of his men piped up.  "We're patrolling the area, especially after what happened in the Work Community of New Dayton."

"Yes that's right.”  The captain glared at his man.  “We're patrolling after the accident at New Dayton."

The red haired man drawled.  “I have my orders too, but I'm on my way back to Dayton.  Are you heading back there too?”

The squad leader looked uncomfortable.  “Well…yes, but after we have to finish our patrols down in this area and radio back.” This last part came out in a rush. He lowered their gun and his men followed suit.

The glowing man thought a moment.  "Alright," he drawled slowly.  He turned to follow the highway; the glow about him was subsiding, and then he turned around again.  "By the way captain, you might not want to mention that I was down here.  I have orders not to be seen by anyone."

The captain swallowed and smiled weakly.  "I see.  You mean, be seen by any civilians."  He prompted.

The glow about the man returned, even brighter than before.  "Actually the order was to be seen by no one, at least no one living."  At this one of the men began to mutter to himself as if quietly praying.  "But I guess I can make an exception for fellow soldier of the Third Reich who are loyally following orders."

The glow around the red haired man faded to a soft halo and he met each of the soldier's gaze's.  He stared at each of them in turn for several moments and said, "but loyal men will follow all orders, including not seeing what they are not supposed to see."  All the soldiers nodded vigorously. 

With a nod, the halo of light winked out, he turned and began to walk down the road again.  Behind him, one of the solder collapsed.   Another one turned away as he had wet himself.

 

 

Ian continued to walk down highway 75.  The holographic generator had worked flawlessly.  He was glad that none of the men had shot at him.  While his armor would protect his body, his head was exposed.  The soldiers were completely fooled by the techno- illusion.  He figured by their reaction to his apparent meta power that some of the meta's in Luthor's employ were less than gentle with normals or Nats as some of the meta rabble refereed to them as.

Ian mulled over the information that he had pulled out of the patrol's minds for the rest of the day.  He had focused on two pieces of data.  The first was what had happened in New Dayton.  To this he had gathered little information.  It seemed that there was some accident that took out the entire population. Whatever it was; they were keeping a tight lid on what exactly had happened.  If this was the case then it had to be serious.  Then it was probably the epicenter he sought.

The second piece of data was what a Work Community was.  Ian got more than he bargained for with this.

Within the last six months, a new initiative had been started.  Luthor’s people began to move into the lesser-developed areas and began to rebuild.  They created community housing, drilled wells for water, provided power and protection for the communities.  Rogue metas were not as much of a threat with Luthor hiring them, but attacks from wild and Shard-altered animals were not uncommon.

After all this was provided for the community, they were presented with the bill.  Of course they were unable to pay because Metropolis was printing out new currency.  The community was to be billed and would have to work it off.

Then the truly insidious part started.  While they worked off their debt, they incurred new debt.  Food, shelter and clothes were provided for them and they had to pay for these as well.  While technically it would be possible to pay off the debt and become an administrator of the community, it was highly improbable.  Only the most focused, efficient, clever or devious would get out of debt.  These would be the kind that would do well directing the community or independent enough to want to leave.  If they were independent enough and wanted to leave they were allowed and could take all the possessions that they owned with them. Still creating positive P.R.

There was also provided a new program called “The Youth Corps”.  Children were placed in a program, which was a cross of traditional and military schooling.  The ‘state’ took care of these, not wanting their new set of citizens to be uneducated.  Advanced and specialized training was available, but this wasyet another debt to be incurred.  This included technical and military training.  If you were accepted into the government’s specialized training program, all your former debts were immediately canceled.  Hereby creating more incentive and reliance on the government.

Ian considered all of this.  Luthor was bringing up a new generation of people in his image.  He insured his ideology was passed on to new generations.  This held the common masses down and took the bright and talented for his own ends.  Everything they would have been taught would be carefully monitored.  History told from his point of view.  In a few years he would have this land and a people completely loyal to him, just like Adolph Hitler.

That evening he was able to secure shelter in the ruins of an old school and rested without incident.  The next day would have lasting repercussions.

 

 

That morning Ian awoke to a large patrol moving through the area.  One of the men searched the school building in which he had camped-out in.  The silent alarms that had been set alerted him.  The amberite crept quietly though the building and mentally kept tabs on the soldier.  As the man turned a corner, Ian struck him the moment his head was in view.  The soldier had an M-16 in his hand but wasn’t fast enough to react and slumped to the floor.

Ian dragged the body to an old office.  He touched the man’s temple with two fingers and put him into a deep sleep.  Ian pulled out his holographic generator.  “Celia, scan him and reprogram this with his image.”  A soft blue light emerged from bracer on his left arm.  There was a high pitch hum that emanated from the generator and then it finished.  Ian tapped the pin.  He immediately took on the soldier’s form.  He reached down, picked up the machine gun, radio and other sundry items that would be needed to pass himself off as this man.

The conjurer hurried outside with his new face.  The rest of the squad seemed to be prepared to leave.  An older man with slightly graying hair in a nearly identical uniform watched him for a moment and shouted.  “Hey Fitzgerald.  Where you plannin’ on staying on for a while or leaving with us?”

Ian muttered in his new voice.  "Sorry sir, had to take a leak."

"Well step on it," the squad leader barked, then smiled at his own joke.

The wizard quietly scanned the squad for any possible telepaths and found none.  While they traveled back to New Dayton, he mentally gleaned information from his 'squad mates' the whole way.

That afternoon they reached what was left of the community, an enormous hole in the ground.  It appeared that a ten-mile diameter area of town and earth had simply vanished.  He could feel that this was the epicenter.  The dimensional distortion buzzed loudly in his head.  The amberite was about to use Celia’s Pattern Lens to scan the area when he spotted someone.   The gentleman looked like another officer, short cropped black hair,and dark brown eyes.  He wore a standard officer’s uniform, but his aura was bright and showed him to be a mystic of some sort.

Ian moved himself into a group of men to lose himself.  They moved around a building out of sight of the man.  The wizard reached into his belt, brought out and drank a bitter potion.  He quaffed it and felt fuzzy all over as it took effect, It muffled his power and aura.

 

 

Acting Major Trevor Wight of the Reich’s Paranormal Division moved through the remains of New Dayton.  He had been sent by the military to investigate what happened.  A crew of technicians had accompanied him to investigate the situation.  High Command had placed a great deal of faith in his mystical ability to resolve this situation. 

Unfortunately neither he nor the techs could discover what had happened to in the town. None of the equipment registered anything.  It was as if some force had come in and scooped it up.  No trace of it had been left, except for an old man and a little girl.  The old man had recently been taken in for questioning.  He waited on Command to decide what to do with the child.

He had checked them out thoroughly. Neither had the slightest bit of mystical potential.  Under questioning, it was discovered that they had gone to harvest some herbs at the time the event had happened.

His auguries had told him that the story was correct, but that was all.  While he was a sorcerer, his main strength lay in necromancy, magical power over the dead and the spirit of the dead, which was why he was originally sent.  High command had figured that if the town had been destroyed, there would be those he could talk to.  He had tried to see if anyone had died due to the event, but even after scouring the entire are, he only made contact with the restless spirits of those who had passed away before it all happened.  Whatever had caused the incident had taken away all the inhabitants and also frightened these spirits; they kept talking about the darkness rising and the child awakening.  Either they didn't know what happened or were too scared to say.  Whatever could frighten every ghost around this place was bad and powerful.  He could sense only the faintest trace of power in the area.  This indicated a high level of skill by whatever had done this.  There was talk about sending in advance equipment instead of the standard crap that they had brought.  It was still going to take a week for it to be shipped and he might be replaced in this assignment.

He needed help.

 

 

Ian wandered the town.  Even through the haze of the Dispersing Draught, he could still feel the resonance of the shift in dimensions.  This realm was still reeling from have a chunk stolen out of it.

 He really needed to be able to explore the area surrounding the pit undisturbed.  He had considered creating a diversion when he saw small child being taken to another one of the mobile headquarters.  She was all of maybe eight, blonde, and frightened out of her mind.  One of the soldiers looked around and spotted him.

"Hey Fitzgerald, can you watch her.  I’ve got to report to the XO. We're supposed to be getting word about what to do with her."

Ian shrugged, "Sure thing."  He led the child into the trailer. 

He could immediately tell she had been crying.  Exhaustion and fear exuded from her.  The amberite had originally come in here to work on something to use to clear the soldiers out of her so he could study what had happened, but now he watched the child.  She bore a look of loneliness and pains that he was all to familiar with

He sat his gun down on a table and sat down in a chair next to her.

"Hey. What's your name?"  He asked in a gentle voice.

She lifted her eyes to his and said in a quiet voice, "Shelby."

"Hey Shelby, do you like magic?"  She nodded.  “Then watch this.”

For the next five minutes he made coins, bullets and assorted items in the trailer vanish and reappear. He didn't use real magic, but slight of hand.  Eventually she opened up slightly.

He quietly listened to her as well.  Her parents had been killed about a month before when a pack of shard altered wolves the size of mastiffs had attached the settlement.  Ian's heart went out to Shelby; here she was innocent and helpless.  She was awash in pain and loss.  Matthew, the old man who had watched over her when her parents died was gone.  She had no idea what happened tothe town either.  It was there when they had left and was gone when they came back.  It frightened her because there had been no lights or noise or anything.  It was just gone.   His own pain and isolation rushed to the forefront of his mind.  He couldn't let her go back to Luthor's to be brainwashed and who knows what else.

“Shelby, would you like to leave here and go with some people who will take care of you?” Ian asked

“We can’t.  I’m being taken back to Metropolis…”  A single tear rolled down her cheek.

Ian began to push against the power of the draught he had taken and burnt it out of his system.  “I can send you to a new home, but you will need to trust me.”  Ian reached into a pouch in his belt and held out a ring.  He took paper and pen from a table and hastily wrote a note.  Give this to white haired man that comes for you.  His name is Gerald, he is very nice and is going to take care of you for a little while before you go to meet your new family.”  Shelby only nodded; she was frightened but tried to be brave. 

The ring he had given her would help her get to the tower, but he would need to activate it.  The wizard reached out and touched it.  One moment white flames danced along his finger and around the ring.  The next, she was gone.  Ian sighed; he knew what was going to happen next, shit was going to hit the fan.

 

 

Trevor had sat back against a tree and was formulating his response to high command.  He could find no way to phrase it so that he didn’t look like and idiot for not having any more information about the incident.  The area was taking in one sudden moment and whoever had done this had the kind of power to frighten the dead.

He was getting up to talk to communications when he felt it; a slight ripple of power and then a flash.  To him, it was as if someone had set of fireworks.  It had come from one of the command trailers.   The necromancer raced across the compound.  People looked at him but didn’t question him; his abilities created a certain amount of fear/respect in the men. 

The trailer seemed normal, but he knew that was because the magic had already happened.  Trevor reached into a pocket in his jacket he pulled out a bone wand.  It had been give to him to augment some of his power.  It was The Wand of Strange.  He didn’t know why it was called this.  All he knew was that it was made from the radius bone from a sorcerer’s forearm.  With it he prepared a spell and quietly entered.  The brown haired soldier he had noticed earlier sat on the edge of a chair and watched the door.  Trevor had noticed something different about his aura, but then when he saw him later he was a dull as any mundane.  He figured that it had been a mistake, but here he was, sitting in a chair with the unmistakable aura of a powerful mystic; it flashing with power.

“Macten Drahl!”  He spoke the command word and with the wand, wove runes in the air. 

Ian had prepared to have some struggle.  To this end he flooded his body with White Flame but not to its empowering effect.  When done in this particular way, the power of the flame blunted or completely disrupted magic, but not this time.  The spell did not touch him but settled in the air around him.  The power of the White Flame was unchanged, but he could feel the enchantments he carried go dormant.  The sorcerer had suppressed the field of magic about him.

Trevor held his right hand forward, gripped the wand and pointed toward Ian like a gun.  The soldier reached up and touched swastika lapel on his uniform.  Immediately his form wavered.  Instead the man in front of him had long black hair and intense green eyes.  Immediately he recognized him from the warning posters in headquarters.

“Wizard Argent.”  He began to breath rapidly.  “Now Argent, I don’t know why you are here in the NUSA, but I warn you that I have placed a Dampening Web about you.  It completely suppresses your use of magic, but doesn’t keep magic from harming you.  Now stand up and move outside.  You are going to come to Headquarters with me.”

Ian smiled and stood.  He took a couple of steps towards the man and the before Trevor could realize what was happening, Ian rushed him.

The dampening web flickered, but did not waver.  It was impressive because Ian held Trevor against the wall by his throat with only one hand.  It took only a moment to realize that it came from the device he held, instead of from his own person.  “As you can see, while I may be lacking my magic, I am not without recourse.”  Trevor said nothing as he was having trouble breathing.  “As for why I am here, I am investigating a reality breach; something that may threaten more that the little realm of Luthorsworld.  I’m going to let you down now because you are beginning to turn blue, but I warn you, I am just as fast with a blade.”

With this he released his grasp of the Necromancer throat.  The man fell into a heap on the floor and gasped for breath. 

While Trevor was busy, replacing the depleted oxygen in his system, Ian picked up the wand and pocketed it into his pack then continued.  “If I was half the monster that Luthor had undoubtedly made me out to be, then I would have crushed your throat and destroyed the rest of your men.  Why I have not done this, is because I have better things to do with my time, like figure out where an entire community vanished to.”

Trevor had managed to get himself upright, leaning against the wall and massaged his throat.  He croaked.  “You mean this was none of your doing?”

The enchanter rolled his eyes.  “Why would I travel over a thousand miles to steal a community of farmers?  There are plenty of people scattered across the world that I could abduct if I wanted to.  Why would I need an entire farming community?  I was out of milk?” 

The necromancer was taken aback by Ian’s sarcasm.  “I guess not.”

“Of course not.”  The amberite sighed.  “Something stole an entire community by shifting it into another dimension.  Now I don’t know about you but I think that this is a bigger concern that petty politics, yes?”  The necromancer nodded and noticed his missing wand.  “What I am suggesting is to call a temporary halt in hostilities and work together to resolve this issue.  If you are worried that I might cause problems, I can go back in disguise and assist you.”  With this he touched his lapel pin and once more he was Corporal Fitzgerald again.

Trevor stood, and watched Corporal Fitzgerald.  He considered something for a moment.  “Alright…but can I have my wand back.”

Corporal Fitzgerald looked out of the door of the trailer. “No.”

 

 

The rest of the afternoon was spent in study of the area.  Ian used Celia to study the area and download all the data that the tech group had gathered all the time he appeared to be defer to the Major. 

The sun had begun to set as they stood before the pit.  “I have analyzed the disturbance.  Whatever did this was not directly magic, but its force was magnified with magic.  What was here, no longer is in this realm, it has be transplanted, elsewhere…”

The necromancer interrupted, “What do you mean elsewhere?”

Ian frowned at this.  “Elsewhere. Not Here.  Some place other than this probability.  Does this help?” 

Trevor blinked in surprise at the frustration in the amberite’s voice.  “What kind of power could do something like this?”

“I could have, before I lost the power of Pattern.”  Ian thought.  “I have a suspicion, but I don’t think you are going to like it.”

“What?”  The necromancer was beginning to feel that he was getting in way over his head.

Ian paused a moment before he spoke.  “A master sorcerer, a powerful demon or a god.”  He spoke these as if he was talking about the weather.

“What!?”  Trevor knew he had gone from ‘over his head’ to being in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean without a life jacket.

“Shh…if you don’t want to blow my cover, lower your voice.  I have worked out how to follow New Dayton.”  He had conferred with Celia and using her power of Pattern, they could follow where the town had gone.  Even if whoever had stolen the city was skilled, you couldn’t move that much material without leaving a trail.  The only thing Ian was concerned about was if the city had been taken far enough away from this reality that he couldn’t travel.  Bitterness raised it head but he shoved it back down.  “Are you coming?”

Trevor considered this for several moments.  He was obviously out of his league, but if he stayed what was he to tell everyone.  If he went, he could invent some story that carried the basics of what happened and it would show initiative.  “Yes, I’ll go.”  He tried to sound certain of himself, but he could not keep a small tremor out of his voice.

Ian reached over and put his hand on the necromancer’s shoulder, “Good. Lets go.”  He began to walk towards the ledge.  Trevor was initially frightened, but wonder replaced the feeling.

Reality seemed to stretch out.  It was as if someone had taken the point before and behind them and pulled them in opposite directions, like an image on plastic or silly putty.  It looked like they were moving forward, but he felt like sometimes he was going sideways or even backwards.  Sounds were strange and warped, being loud when they should be quiet and low pitched when they should be high.  In the distance the edge of the pit was approaching and looked bottomless.  As the stepped over the edge, there was a feeling of rippling, and then they were standing in grass.  Before them in the distance were buildings, probably New Dayton.

Trevor looked behind him and let out a strangled scream.  Ian turned around and looked at him.  “What?”  He sounded irritated.

The necromancer pointed to…he wasn’t sure what it was.  He had expected a barrier, but he was facing…nothing.  It was not darkness or endless space, because that would be something, this was nothing!  It was as if his eyes refused to see what was there.  When he looked at the ground where the nothing and the grass met, he experienced and sudden powerful wave of vertigo.  Trevor collapsed to the ground and began to empty the contents of his stomach onto the grass.

Ian looked down at him and at the edge of this realm.  “That’s an nice bit of editing.”  He crossed his arms and seemed to study the nothing.

Trevor looked up at him.  He had discovered that if he didn’t look at…whatever it was (or was not) he felt fine.  “What do you mean editing?”

The wizard looked at his erstwhile companion.  “When this piece of reality was moved to its current location, the borders of it were changed, edited, to look the way they do.  I’ve never seen it before in person, but have studied how to do it.”  He thought to himself, “this confirms that whoever took this place had a lot of skill and power.  Now to deal with the necromancer.”  He sighed and reached out with his mind to Trevor’s.  “You will need to let down your defenses.  I’m going to place mental blinders on you so that when you look at the barriers, your mind will see something else; darkness, trees…aluminum siding.  Whatever your subconscious decides for it to be.”

There was a lessening of his mental barriers, which as a mystic weren’t bad.  Ian reached in and shortly tweaked the areas of Trevor’s mind that needed to be altered.  Ian also took more time to leave a couple of other things there too.  It never hurt to have safeguards or if they survived, information from inside Luthorvale.

Trevor stood and looked at the barrier before him.  It was now a wall of blackness and no longer made him sick.  He took off his jacket because it was much warmer that where he had just come from and everything seemed to be green again.  Thinking that Ian was going to go and confront whatever did this, he began to walk towards the structures in the distance.  A hand on his shoulders stopped him.  The amberite spoke up and gestured to his right.  “Actually lets go this way.”

In about ten minutes they reached a standing stone.  It was a slab of granite about ten feet tall, four feet wide and about a foot and a half thick.  The border stood about a half-mile behind it.  Both Ian and Trevor studied it.   After they had finished, Ian looked at him as if asking his opinion.

“It looks like this is a battery of some sort.  I can’t quite identify the energies that are stored in it, but it definitely is storing magical energies of some sort.”  Trevor said.

Ian nodded.  “Yes it does that, and more.”   He held up his left arm and a soft blue light seemed to surround the stones and flow from the stone towards the settlement, out to the barrier and off at an angle to its right and left. The blue light around the beams vanished after about 100 feet.  Ian put his arm down and the light vanished.  “Not only does it store power, but it also dispenses it.  I believe that its primary function is to expand the borders of this place. There are most likely a number of these dispersed about the ‘edge’ of this place.  Whoever took New Dayton is using it as a base to expand upon.  It may also be part of a defense system as well as a focus for power.”  Ian turned to look towards the structures that were the center of this place.  “You were close in detecting part of the power within here.  It is in part power stolen from the life essence of living creatures.

 

 

The two mystics continued towards what was obviously once New Dayton.  They had passed several storage facilities that had been used for tools and food.  These had under gone subtle changes.  They were slowly changed from metal to wood and stone.  Greek-styled architecture had also formed upon them. 

They managed to dodge a group of guards, dressed in ancient Greek-styled garb, but they were not exactly human.  Their legs were those of goats and they sported horns from their head.  Ian would have thought them real satyr’s except that one of them was sporting a US Navy tattoo on his upper arm. 

The enchanter used his telepathy to keep the guards focused on something other than them.  After they had passed he turned to Trevor and whispered, “Did you see the arm of one of them?”

Trevor nodded.  “I don’t recall the Navy allowing satyrs to enlist.”  Ian raised an eyebrow.  The necromancer replied.  “Well at least those who were physically satyrs.” The military had been full of satyristic men.  Those who reveled in not only combat, but also drink and sex.

Ian dug into a belt pouch and pulled out a small box.  He opened it and took out a small sphere about the size of a golf ball.  It was covered with a texture not unlike the surface of a fly’s eye.   The second item was a flat disk, about the size of a quarter.  Its surface seemed to be a cobweb of silvery circuitry.  Ian placed this against his left temple and closed his eyes.  The sphere lifted off of the ground, soared into the air and quickly vanished.

Trevor watched this curiously.  “Ian, what was that?”

“It is a spy device.  I modified the kryptonian technology and improved it."  The enchanter smiled to himself.  "I’ve modified it to give mental feedback instead of an electronic one.”  The Ian sat down, continued to keep his eyes closed and seemed to concentrate.  For several minutes he continued to sit this way.  Finally he spoke.

“Amazing.  It appears that she has performed a wholesale transformation on New Dayton; body, mind and spirit."  He continued to sit with his eyes closed.

The necromancer spoke.   "She who?  An what do you mean transformed?"

In answer to his question he felt the amberite reach out to touch his mind.  Knowing there was nothing else to be done he opened his mind, but was wary of any attempts to tamper with it.  Trevor was surprised to have Ian and his surroundings vanish only to have his vision replaced by something else.  He could see in all directions; above, below and to all sides.  It took a moment to realize that Ian had shown him the data from the probe.  Then it took another to seehow New Dayton had been transformed. 

What had been barracks a main administration building, equipment sheds and transport stations were changed.  Judging from the probe's readouts, the buildings of steel and concrete were now wood and stone.   They all had been redone in a Greek/Roman fashion with no modern electricity or modern appliances.  Light came from torches, which seemed to require no fuel nor gave off heat, obviously magic.  This extended to running fountains with no pumps and chambers that seemed to stay at a constant temperature, no matter what the surrounding ambient heat.

The land itself was different.  Where they had left it was early winter and here it was late spring.  It seemed to be in a state of expansion.  The probes sensors were registered that what was previously a roughly ten-mile diameter area, was had now become about 11 miles.  The sun seemed to be transfixed directly above them, not moving.  The land was producing a bounty of food that was being harvested. And what was harvesting it was not human.

Green skinned woman, nymphs of all types, worked with the plants and animals.  Stunted dwarves and half man, half horse, centaurs performed manual labor.  A mixture of a few centaurs and satyrs acted as guards.  The rest of the population was either sleeping, eating or in the main temple. 

There was a light flow of ‘people’ in and out of the main building.  Though it had not entered the building, the probe was picking up changing and strange energy reading coming from the structure.

Without warning, the necromancer suddenly was aware of his body again.  He swayed with the suddenness of the change.

"I'll bet what's being emanated from there is magic."  He had removed the device from his temple and put it and the probe in the box and away in his belt.

"It looks like a temple, not just a building but a place of worship.  But worship of what and how do you know it is a she?"  Trevor asked.

Ian straightened and stretched.  "It still could be any of the things I suggested and I can tell because number the same female statues that are all over the place.  Besides, it feels female."  He closed his eyes and seemed to smell the air.  “She’s also using their worship of her to become stronger.”

"Right.  Like some sorceress could get people to worship her and derive magical power from it."  The necromancer snorted derisively.

The amberite opened his eyes and looked at the man trying to determine if he was serious.  "Of course it can be done.  I've done it a number of times."

"What?  Pretended to be a god?"  Trevor looked at him suspiciously.

"No, I didn't pretend."  With this Ian took off towards the temple recalling his younger days in other realms where the rules there worked differently...

The necromancer stood for a moment absorbing the other's words.  The feeling that he had before about being in the middle of the ocean without a life raft, had the added sensation of a hurricane blowing at the same time.  He hurried to catch up with his companion.

 

 

Ian and Trevor sat looking out of a barracks at the main temple.  The enchanter had put a lapel pin on Trevor, done some adjustments to the technical armband that he wore and activated them both.  Immediately they looked like the satyr guards and moved along with ease.  Now they sat in one of the dormitories, watched and waited.

"Trevor."  Ian turned to look at the man.  "I haven't lied you know.  I do believe there is something vastly powerful in there.  I have felt the presence of demons before and this is not it.  I have also passively been watching for types of magic and I have found only lesser degrees of it. What I thought may have been magic surrounding the temple, isn’t, so I doubt that there is a sorceress in there.  All I sense is power and that can only mean one thing…” He looked at Trevor expectantly.

"Wait, wait…” The necromancer looked confused.  "What do you mean you've found no magic, but only found power?  There is no difference."

The amberite looked irritated, if what he suspected was really in there, then whatever it was already knew they were here.  "It's a long theory but can be boiled down to this.  Magic is transitory; things from one probability don’t always work the same in another.  Power is different.  It travels between realms without changing much.  For the most part, mortals wield magic and non-mortal wield power."  He looked directly into the other man's eyes.  "Your bodies cannot handle the power."

Trevor swallowed and said nothing for a moment.  "I'm guessing that whatever is going to transpire from this point on is going to be over my head." 

Ian nodded and decided to cut to the chase.  "You're right.  Whatever is in there is going to be wielding a great deal of power.  I'm afraid that if you went with me I'd spend my time trying to protect us both, but if I went alone, I'd only have to protect myself."  The truth stung, but the necromancer accepted it. 

The enchanter reached into his holster and handed over the pistol that was there.  "Here take this." Trevor took it after a moment's hesitation and looked back at Ian.  "Though it looks like a Ruger P95 pistol it is actually a cryonic projector.  It shoots projectiles of a material that drastically reduce molecular motion in an object, thereby freezing it."

"You mean it a freeze ray gun?"

"A crude enough term, yes but image it as…freeze bullets."  Ian hated defining the device in these terms.

Trevor watched Ian, somewhat confused.  "If you are a magician, the why are you using all this science stuff?"

The wizard sighed.  "As one of your esteemed writers once wrote 'a sufficiently advanced science will be indistinguishable from magic'."  The necromancer still looked confused, so he continued.  "Magic and science work on similar principles, thereby I have worked to blend them together to get the results I want.  Besides how do you know that your science doesn't work on consensual belief?   I believe I have evidence to support this."

Trevor was confused.  His companion had impersonated a god in another reality and most likely there was another such as he in the temple.  Now the wizard was debating the underlying nature of science?

"I'm not sure I follow all of that, but I’m going to have to take it on faith.  What I need to know is what you need me to do?"

Ian reached into his belt pouch and pulled out a nearly transparent vial and pressed it into the necromancer's hand.

"This is potion of invisibility.  If it looks like whatever is inside that temple calls reinforcements, drink the potion and start shooting.  I'm not sure it is going to come to that, but if it does, then you will need to be backup because I will have my hands full."

Trevor looked at Ian suspiciously.  "How do you know that I'm not going to shoot you in the back and try and work out a deal with whatever is in there," pointing to the center building.

Ian turned to go. "First, she frightens you and second I am your only reliable ride out of this pocket dimension."  Ian left the room and though to himself.  "Thirdly I always create fail-safes in everything I make."

 

 

Upon leaving the barracks he immediately realized that no one was around.  Everyone was gone and everything quiet, even the wind.  This confirmed Ian's suspicions that, whoever ruled this place, knew that someone else was here. 

He continued to walk to the entrance of the temple and right through its open doors.  White marble made up the floor, ceiling, pillars and walls.   Countless statues of the same woman that he had seen outside filled the walls each in beautiful sensual poses.  The wizard could feel power jumping around them, flowing into the floor and out into the land.  His footsteps echoed off of the hard stones walls as he continued.  In the center of this auditorium-like structure stood a huge raised dais and in it was a silver throne of flowers and vines.  Sitting upon it was the woman whose statues' bore her image.

She hardly looked older that twentywith a slender build but was surrounded by power.  She sat sideways on her throne, which cast her shapely body in profile.  Golden blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders to her waist. Electric blue eyes stared out of a face so beautiful that the fabulous statues paled by comparison.   A white silken robe tied around the waist with a gold braided cord hid nothing of her womanly shape.  "Welcome mortal, I am your goddess Kyara."

Ian immediately felt a weight press against his mind with a strength he had not felt since he had left his home in Amber.  The pressure was trying to compel him to worship her.  "Kireea?"  He said feigning wonder.

"Kee-ah-rah. And you are a wondrous magician.  I didn't think there could be any left that could cross the barrier between, after the damage you have all done to your world."  She smiled at him warmly and Ian felt the pressure increase once more.  He struggled to keep his blissful continuance.

"I have come to redeem you and bring you back to the fold.  Humanity walked away from us centuries ago and look where it got you.  I am restoring the old ways and restoring the world to the way it should have been."  Kyara turned herself so that one leg continued to drape over the edge of the throne while the other moved to touch he floor.  The robe drew up to just above her knees.

Letting one of his own legs fold under him to kneel, he kept his look of bliss in place just barely; the weight on his mind was almost a physical thing.  "Oh, radiant one, I don't understand?  From where have you come?"

Kyara shook her golden main of hair and laughed.  "From Greece of course.  I am the Titan Goddess Kyara, Daughter of Uranus and Gaia.  I wanted to be a Muse of beauty, but my sisters were jealous of me.  So I left, but now I return."  As she spoke the last word, the pressure on his mind pressed in like a vice. 

Unable to maintain his illusion of adoration, Ian shoved aside the telempathic suggestions and stood.

The titan stood as well, shook out her hair and spread forth her arms.  Desire poured over the amberite.  The urge to caress her body, kiss her lips and surrender himself to her touch assailed him.  He felt her mind and her power trying to shape his will.  The last time he had faced this kind of overwhelming power, he had succumbed to it and had his mind altered.  He shaped and transformed his mental shields to reflect her power back upon her.  The response was immediate, the assault stopped.

Kyara raised an eyebrow in surprise to his strength of mind.  "Well wizard."  She spoke the title with disdain.  "I hate to damage a perfectly good tool, but you don't need your legs to perform magic and serve me do you?" 

She spoke no words, nor made any gestures, but a disk of light rose from the floor surrounding him and rapidly began to contract.  Ian felt the dimensional portal closing about his legs and in a flash of white flame, teleported fifty feet backwards.  Again the disk appeared and closed more quickly.  Again and again he vanished and reappeared around the room staying one step ahead of the dimensional disk; then suddenly he vanished, only to be replaced by a bird of living fire, a silver phoenix. 

During the teleporting, Ian had brought out another potion of invisibility and quaffed it.  He had also brought out his silver signet ring with the silver rose upon it, spoke the command words and summoned the silver phoenix construct.  White fire rained down from the bird onto the titan.  There was a scream then a burst of power then the phoenix was gone. 

Though he was invisible, Kyara whirled, turned to face him, raised her right hand and pointed at him.  Ian’s invisibility shattered and he was hurtled across the chamber.  Instantly he shifted the white flame to empower his armor and body.  There was a crack of stone as the amberite was smashed into the wall.  The wall had given under the force of the attack and so had a couple of his ribs. 

Kyara watched, expecting him to be dead.  She was shocked when he stepped out of the indention in the marble, raised his hand and a flash of light brought into existence, a silver necklace with an emblem of a phoenix about his neck.  "Cathéide."  The wizard was covered in a gray suite of armor. 

The goddess pointed her finger at Ian and cried "Thanatos!"  A blade of darkness shot out toward the wizard.  An orb of white fire blossomed into existence in its path.  When the two touched, there was a sound like distance thunder and the both were gone.

The titan screamed.  "That's not possible! No mortal could stop The Sword of Hades, harbinger of death!"

Ian smiled a cold smile and said.  "Whatever made you think that I was a mortal?"

"What?"  She screamed.

"Meamna Giarrey".  Silver light danced about the amberite's head and sped in a flash to touch the titan’s head.   He used the magic of the Mind Blade to make a lightning slash through her mental defenses and into her mind.

History flashed past him.  He saw her past.  Indeed she was the daughter of Uranus, the god of the sky and Gaia, the goddess of the earth.  She had tried to be a muse, but could not bear to see mortals growing from her influence and she not received the proper glory.  After the titan had destroyed a number of lives and not a few towns and cities, the other gods became angry with her.  Hermes, the messenger of the gods of Olympus tried to reason with her, but her pride would not bear it.  She refused their offers and gifts.  Finally she was shut away deep in the earth, imprisoned within a stone. 

Time passed and the power of Olympus came and went; but still she remained imprisoned in the earth.  One day she sensed movement and light.  Men had tunneled down into the earth.  She thought she was being rescued, but alas it was not so.  He stone was taken and carved into a statuette and sold.  More than a century passed as she tried to escape to no use; but the shard came and changed everything.  Its power did what she could not; it shatter the binding that held her.  She was elated, but after all the long centuries, her power had faded to the palest shadow of itself. 

All hope seemed lost until one day a young woman came across the statuette when scavenging the ruins of an abandoned house.  When she touched it the titan could feel power within this girl, power to move between worlds.  She reached out with her feeble power and influenced the young woman to take the statuette.

The young woman was a member of one Luthor’s new work-communities.  Here the titan fed off of their suffering and anger of the people, growing in strength.  When she became strong enough, she possessed the woman and was able to tap into her power.  It seemed that she had latent mystical talent and the meta ability to create a teleport disk to pass between one dimension and another.  This other dimension was once a mighty demon empire, but it seemed that some titanic battle had reduced it to a shred of its former self. 

In the body of the young woman she sewed seeds of dissention and distrust in the community, all the time feeding on their anger and paranoia.  When her power was strong enough she took the town and brought it to the other dimension.  Kyara was using it like skin graft, growing “healthy skin” from this center to restore her ruined empire.  She had also gotten the people to give themselves over to her, body and soul.  They now worshiped her and continued to feed her power and expand this realm…

The images shattered as she ejected him out of her mind. 

Ian knew he needed to keep the titan off balance and from her mind had gleaned how.  "That's too bad that they took away your name when you were imprisoned.  Had to give yourself a new one.  Doesn't Kyara mean god or lord?  That's kind of egotistical of you to name yourself god isn't it?"

"HOW DARE YOU!" she howled.  The titan's face seemed to change, the color going from a pale alabaster, to a mottled gray.  The luster of her hair vanished, as it became long white and scraggly.  The dress tore as she began to grow.  Fury coursed through her like rapids.  This…man had defiled her mind with his touch.  No one touched her without her express desire.  She was the daughter of the primal gods.  Whatever he was, he could not stand up to the raw power that she could wield.  "EXOUSIA!"   Kyara opened the fangs that now lined her mouth and spat a ball of dazzling red energy at Ian. 

Ian conjured a shield of white flame to protect himself from the attack as he had The Sword of Hades, but this time it only dampened the blast.  The ruby ball hit the armor and threw him about thirty feet backwards. The blast blacked the marble floor and burnt a ‘shadow’ into the floor behind where he had stood.  Again the monstrosity that Kyara had become stared at the amberite, expecting him to have been eaten away by the raw blast of pure mana she had spat at him.

One part of his mind was relieved that he had conjured his advanced armor, but the rest of Ian sat stunned, but for another reason.  When Kyara had summoned the power of her attack, he had felt a sickening disturbance through the white flame.  He had felt it a handful of times before but he knew what it was; True Necromancy.  The transformed people from New Haven had given themselves to the goddess and she had called upon them.  She sucked dry the life force of several of her minions and used that to power her attach.

The titan regained her composure and sensed the revulsion emanating from the man. "So shocked, little godling?"  She licked the talons of her left hand.  "You should try it some time.  Its scrumptious."

"Gealiann!"  He conjured an enchanted blade of Silver Light.  A silver flame danced along its length.  With all his strength he hurled it as the titan.  It flew thought the air like a javelin and struck her stomach, and flashed out of existence.  The sword had cut Kyara, but not deeply.  She reached down, wiped the blood of the wound and Ian watched it begin to staunch itself and close. 

"You'll have to do much better than that my little silver one.  My father blessed this form to withstand almost anything."  The titan laughed.

Ian's only response was to pause a moment and reach behind him.  White fire danced in his eyes for a moment and he pulled out a cardboard box.  Inside were about fifty multicolor spheres, roughly an inch in diameter.  He smiled placidly and said.  "You've forced me to use something very nasty.  I'd surrender if I were you."

The hulking titan looked incredulous.  "WHAT?  YOU’RE THREATENING ME WITH RUBBER BALLS?"  She roared with laughter.  This man must have lost his mind.  He was smiling like he had the upper had.

White fire dance around Ian and in the box, Kyara took a defensive stance but continued to laugh. "Actually these are not made from rubber, but a hyper-polymer I acquired.  Instead of just rebounding with a lessening amount of kinetic energy, “ he tilted the box forward, "these continue to build and move with an exponential amount of kinetic energy."  The balls fell to the floor and all hell broke loose.

Kyara was mildly amused as the balls bounced around her temple.    This was short lived after the first ball shattered the head of one of her statues.  Though, the balls that pounded her did little lasting damage, the same could not be said for the structure of the temple itself.  One by one the balls smashed their way out of the building and into the countryside.  The inside of the building was a shambles, the statues that had been receptacles for her power were gone, dust filled the air and the enchantments in the chamber had vanished, leaving it dark and cold.  The wizard stood still and none of them had even touched him.”

She had tried to stop the balls once she realized the damage they could do, but by then they were moving too fast for her to blast.  Then when she tried to draw upon her power to alter reality here, they still resisted her, each blazing in her mind’s eye with white fire and defied her commands for them to vanish. 

The titan raged and began to stamp her way across the debris of her temple toward the man that had wrought this destruction with only one thought, his death!

Ian watched the behemoth stride closer.  He was pleased with the outcome of this.  These orbs had originally been created as an assault device against multiple opponents in enclosed quarters.  These had performed wonderfully at destroying Kyara’s power focus.  It was also fortunate that her command of this dimension did not appear to be as strong in her true titan form.

Once the behemoth had crossed half the starting distance between them, the amberite played what he hoped would be his trump card.  He glowed with white fire and raised his hands. "Oh daughter of Uranus and Gaia, while I was in your mind I did discover one more thing.  While you benefit from this form you despise it for one thing.” With this he raised his hands and row upon row of mirror flashed into existence about her.  "You are hideous to look upon."  Though she had been a muse, her own true calling was vanity.

Kyara screamed as she faced her own reflection.  Turning right and left she could not escape the hideousness of her face.  “This is what you truly are.  This is what Gaia and Uranus spawned.  How could this ever inspire beauty or love!  She tried to smash the mirrors but for every one that shattered two more sprang up creating a greater labyrinth of reflections of her true form. Unable to bear looking at what she truly was, a disk formed at her feet and she vanished into it, leaving the temple ringing in silence.

 

 

Carefully Ian made his way towards the door. .  Through the battle he had shoved aside the pain, but being hurled against the wall and being assailed by raw mana had taken its toll.  Carefully he brought out a potion of amber fluid and downed it.  The bruises, torn muscles in his back and broken ribs began to heal themselves. 

The sight he was greeted with when he walked out was not what he expected.  All the transformed citizens of New Dayton were lying dead or were frozen statues.  Several had fallen and shattered.  Several lay on the ground, shriveled husks.   Trevor sat on the roof of a building in shock.

Seeing Ian, he spoke.   “When the screaming started in there, everyone poured out of the building and stood in front of the temple.  Then something passed over three of them and they were…sucked dry.  I felt their life essence vanish and their spirit go screaming into the afterlife.  Then the explosions happened in there and everyone out here went nuts.  I tried to stop some of it with the cryo-pistol, but it didn't help.  Though I was invisible, they still seemed to sense me and started to turn towards me en mass and I shot them, but they didn’t stop.  I continued to shoot and shoot until the gun was empty."  This last statement came out a little shaky.

Ian realized the truth of the matter discovering that most of the ground out here was also frozen.

With a gesture, the gun vanished from Trevor's hand in a flash of white light.  "Please climb down.  I believe we have won," Ian looked around at the bodies around him, "but it was at a terrible cost."  While the necromancer came down, the amberite consulted Celia.  "Can we do anything to bring back New Dayton.  I'd hate to let Kyara have this to keep growing a new world…"

Soft blue light surrounded the techno-bracer on his left arm.  "Actually the process is already started.  The temple was the anchor for this piece of reality to stay in this dimension.  With the temple and its power ruined, it should start sliding back automatically if it is just given the tiniest push…" 

As she said this, the light in the sky began to shift as the sun changed from overhead to the east as New Dayton, slid back into the reality of Otherverse.  Trevor walked up and watched as the land and the people reverted back to their normal selves.  He looked at Ian in confusion. 

The wizard responded.  "I'll need to be going shortly.  There are going to be people who will want to know what happened here."

The necromancer replied.  "What do I tell them?"

"Say you managed to cross over, but there was a fierce battle between the creature that did this and something else.  When you got to the center, it was all over and reality reasserted itself." 

"But-but…"  Trevor was still in shock.

With his defenses down, Ian reached out and touched the necromancer's mind and quickly erected a memory barrier.  It wasn't permanent, it was only a shell memory really, but it would buy Trevor the time to put a spin on this to keep him out of serious hot water. 

The sounds of vehicles were approaching.  When Trevor turned around he was alone, the Wand of Strange in his hand…but then hadn't he been alone on this mission the whole time.   Well no, there was that ensign, but he was killed during the struggles and the ice storm he had managed to conjure.

He was just lucky that he hadn't been involved it the confrontation at all…

 

 

The shack was a dump.  The former inhabitants wouldn't need it any more.  Though the accommodations were hideous, at least she was safe.  Kyara looked down at two husks that had earlier been the couple living in this squalor.  The titan had done them a favor, really by relieving them of their tedious existence.  Their energies, though not freely given, were helpful in getting her strength back.  Though she couldn't risk a teleport disk, Kyara could feel that part of her realm was intact.  New Dayton was gone, but that section of the realm she had grown was still there and stable.  She could restore it eventually, but it would take time.

She would need to be careful and walk the land again looking for things to aid her in her quest.  She would have to rely on this host’s previous knowledge and Illyana Rasputin had been nothing if not resourceful.

She stood, looked out the front door at the night, and combed her blonde hair with her finger as one thought raised her spirits.  One thought, one precious piece of information had been salvaged from this encounter; a single name.  Mara.

 

 

Ian walked through the gates of the monastery into the courtyard.  It was in pretty good shape for having survived the last few years. 

He had traveled into Arkansas to check on something that his information network had told him.  It was called 'The Haven of Light' and was a monastic retreat that was supposed to sport about a half dozen metas.  There were a number of stories about it.  Though it really wasn't high on the priority list, something about it kept nagging him in the back of his mind.  He decided to take look after returning New Dayton.  Ian wasn't completely surprised to discover that he had lost about three weeks worth of time in Kyara's dimension.  It was almost the beginning of December.  After contacting Gerald, the amberite had decided to swing by this haven of light, check it out and go home.

Ian was thinking that a good nights sleep would do him good when he saw three people crossing the courtyard towards him.

Two were women.  One was short and unattractive.  The other with raven back hair was quite fetching.  The third was a man with braided red hair and green eyes.  All were wearing denims and work shirts instead of monastic garb.

There was a discussion in progress when the man spoke up.  "I don't care what the old symbol meant.  They dropped by, helped and left.  I say give them a chance to prove themselves."

Ian lost all pretense of trying to play the part of the weary traveler. He recognized the voice and the sharp green eyes.

"Oh Great Maker!,  Kieran is that you?!”

End of Amber Shards - Chapter Seven.

 

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2002 by Michael Liebhart,

-- and may not be reprinted without permission. 

-- Otherverse as an apocalyptical setting is an original

--creation of Dylan Clearbrook

-- Some characters in Otherverse stories are original

--creations of Dylan Clearbrook, Michael Liebhart,

-- Jake H., or Jason Froikin, and may not

-- be used without express permission of the respective author

-- Supergirl and some other characters are property of D.C. Comics

-- Dr. Doom and some other characters are property of Marvel Comics