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Post by David on Apr 6, 2007 20:06:58 GMT -5
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Post by David on Apr 6, 2007 20:10:09 GMT -5
DC2 Challenge
Week #8: “The Rising Tide”
Written by House Of Mystery
Edited by David Charlton
Cover by Craig Cermak |
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Post by David on Apr 6, 2007 20:11:34 GMT -5
A Secret Location…
He sat in the middle of the large clearing, his massive bulk perched on the stump of a long dead tree. They were alone; he had made perfectly sure of that. The only way his ‘friends’ could reach him would be by air, unless they wanted to risk the mantraps he had set up around the meeting place. Only he knew how to enter this place without the end result being death. And so it should always be, for he was the end of life itself. Or so he claimed.
He heard it first, the loud scream of helicopter blades as the craft approached, then he saw the black craft as it came over the tree line. He lowered his mask over his mouth, and stood up, cracking the flare from his belt and throwing it to his side. The helicopter descended slowly, and set down as he looked on.
The purple-robed men filed out, one by one, and then their soldiers, a battalion maybe, followed silently. He smiled beneath the black mask he wore. How could they fit so many people into a craft so small? It was like a joke.
They surrounded him. As if their numbers could make a difference against him. He was the first to speak, addressing the closest man in a purple robe. “...HIVE.”
“We are glad you came, old friend.” The man spoke quietly, with purpose, and then continued. “We have an offer to make you.”
“An offer?” Bane smiled and watched as another man removed a vial of ebony liquid from his robe, and passed it to another, and then he passed it to another, until it reached the man whom Bane was addressing.
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Post by David on Apr 6, 2007 20:14:32 GMT -5
The Moon…
“Lying…! Deceitful…! Whore…!” Shadowstorm spat through gritted teeth, anger rising inside of him. He clenched his first and began to rise from the crater created from Power Girl’s last blow. “My master makes you an offer… And this is how you react?”
“Well excuse me, ‘Stormy, but by the looks of you---and I’m not saying that black is a bad color!--- I don’t think that this whole evil shtick will work for me. No offense."
“Offense?” Shadowstorm smirked, and purple energy cracked from his hands. “This just means I get to kill you. I never did get to kill a Kryptonian before.”
Power Girl’s eyes widened. Kryptonian? Since when was she a-- “Wha--?!”
Darkness burst out of his hands and enveloped her. She could feel every cell in her body dying and her lungs being starved of air. “My master sees everything. Every dark dimension and every possibility, past, present or future. Right now…” Shadowstorm paused. “He sees your death. And I’m inclined to help that prophecy along.”
Power Girl could do nothing. She felt nothing. Saw nothing. Heard nothing. She only felt the embrace of slow… Inevitable---
“Avatar of Darkness. Away!”
Shadowstorm spun around and was hit head on by a gloved fist, and he soared across the surface of the moon, black globules of blood leaving his shadowy lips.
Power Girl looked up, the energy dissipating around her, her motor functions returning. “W-Who?”
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Post by David on Apr 6, 2007 20:16:32 GMT -5
A Secret Location…
The black liquid glistened in the night sky, and he watched as it was offered to him.
“Return to us, dear friend. Return into the open arms of HIVE.”
Bane pointed to the vial, curious but wary. “What is that?”
The man offered it to him once more, eager, excited. “Venom.”
“No Venom I have ever come in contact with, little man.”
The representative of HIVE visibly shook in his purple cloak. “We have laced it with a powerful new ingredient, something that promises to give you strength enough to rival Superman…”
“Superman?” Bane’s voice nearly cracked. No one noticed.
The liquid seemed to glow. Power. Unimaginable power. He looked away from it, and stared back into the darkness inside the purple cloak of the man holding the vial. “Why me?”
“You have had the most powerful derivative of the serum flowing through your veins. Your body has adapted to it. Your circulatory system is strengthened. Enhanced. Only you can absorb this into your bloodstream without it causing your cells to die.”
“Oh?” Bane smiled. It began to rain. “Only I?”
“What do you say?”
“What do I say, peon?” He pulled a small device from his belt. “Give it to me.”
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Post by David on Apr 6, 2007 20:18:50 GMT -5
The Moon…
“Are you well?” He put out a hand to the blonde heroine, still visibly shaken by the rigours of Shadowstorm’s attack.
“Who are you?” Power Girl took the man’s hand, his face hidden by a red and black cowl. “How are you…” Her eyes widened. “How are we breathing? How are we alive? I… I didn’t notice before but…”
The man put up a hand. “I go by many names.” The man nodded. “None pronounceable in this realm.”
Power Girl arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Right… But that doesn’t answer my question!”
“The Darkness can manipulate reality, create breathable air where there is none, make it night where it is day, and can corrupt the purest of hearts…”
“I know. That Shadowstorm creep tried…”
“Yet you resisted.” He nodded. “Very good.” He looked agitated. Power Girl’s eyes met his, but they were strange and uneven. He had a large eye next to a small one; long eyelashes flickering as he looked around. “He’s angry.”
“You’re very… Weird, you know that?”
“Yes. Weird. Of course. I am from another place. And I come with a warning.”
“A warning?”
He seemed to be shaking, unable to control himself. “The Prince of Darkness is here! Unchained from inside the aegis of Ultra-Reality! Released from the Crossroads of Entrapment!”
“What?”
He grabbed her by the shoulders, and began to shout. “You are betrayed! His Keepers are coming! They're here already! All you know is falling! All you know is ending! You must warn your pro--” He quaked and shuddered, and then his head was shorn off by a blow of unimaginable power.
Shadowstorm had returned.
And he was angry.
“Where were we, Karen?” He smiled, a thin crack of white light emanating from the side of his mouth. “Oh yes: I was going to end you.”
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Post by David on Apr 6, 2007 20:29:16 GMT -5
A Secret Location…“You wish to infect me with darkness.” Bane grimaced. “This is poison.” “W-What?” Bane spat his words. “You take me for a fool?” “No, old friend---” “You are no friend of mine!” Bane pressed the button on the device he held, and all hell broke loose. Fire exploded from the wet grass around them, engulfing the HIVE soldiers who stood there. They died instantly. And then the robed cowards were alone with the Bane of all existence. Of all humanity! “You know of my struggles with the serpent in my veins. Of the nightmares Venom gave me, of the corruption my mind suffered. Venom made me a nothing. But now…” He threw the Venom straight at the face of the lead HIVE member, and it shattered across his head, the black liquid instantly absorbed into any orifice. “You shall know the suffering. I will break you!” “You don’t know what you’ve done!” The man in front of him shuddered and shook, and he began to grow in stature, muscles doubling in size--- and then tripling. His face was a mask of pain and aggression, and his purple robes tore off his body as he became pain. BOOM! Orion, Dog of War arrived on the scene and smiled. Battle. Here was an avatar of the Darkness. And he knew what he had to do. The Astro Force was his to shape, his to control, and as the creature turned to face him, his harness came to life in a fury of fire. “ Creature! Return to your Maker!” Bane’s eyes widened. Okay. He’d made a mistake refusing the Venom. So what? He smiled. “Power…” And the new player in this game, if he remembered his recent American history correctly, was a New God of Apokolips. Of Genesis. Old Genesis? New Genesis? Who cared? He clenched his fist. He’d never battled a God before.
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Post by David on Apr 6, 2007 20:36:14 GMT -5
To Be Continued!
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Post by mockingbird on Jul 28, 2011 13:06:07 GMT -5
To let us know what you think of this issue, please visit the letters page here!
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