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Post by David on Sept 10, 2007 20:05:33 GMT -5
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Post by David on Sept 10, 2007 20:06:31 GMT -5
DC2 Challenge
Week 19: “Prisoners and Spirits”
Written by: Jay McIntyre
Cover by: Craig Cermak
Edited by: David Charlton |
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Post by David on Sept 10, 2007 20:07:10 GMT -5
Blood and saliva mixed, and Merlyn felt a darkness swim over him, and then there was a lightness in his head, as if it were clearing for the first time in days.
Eclipso....the dark God of Vengeance had controlled him!
But there was no time to ruminate on that. Man-Bat was about to tear his throat out!
He kicked the transformed beast away, but gained little time. He was bleeding profusely from the neck and would die from his wounds soon if he did not flee or find a means of healing himself.
He lunged for his bow, and Man-Bat loomed over him once more...and suddenly they both froze.
Jason Blood was hunched over, pain ravaging his features, an unnatural light in his eyes. Meryln’s arrow still protruded from his back.
“You have no idea what you almost unleashed within me,” Blood said, painfully and with an effort. “Be thankful I used my own arts to freeze both of you. Between yourselves and Charaxes, I am strained to my limits. If I am pushed beyond them...” he grimaced and looked away for a moment, then refocused on them, and spoke through clenched teeth, “....then, as the gamblers like to say; house number, everyone loses.”
“I believe you,” Merlyn managed feebly. “But.....Man-Bat’s bite....it has somehow freed me from Eclipso.”
“Has it now?” Blood raised an eyebrow. “That is interesting. Perhaps I can help you...if you would be so kind as to remove your arrow from my back?”
Painfully, Merlyn hauled himself up as Blood released him. “Sure thing...can you uh....stop me from bleeding to death?”
“Certainly.”
Reluctantly and warily, they moved to help eachother, as Charaxes and Man-Bat struggled within their respective prisons.
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Post by David on Sept 10, 2007 20:07:43 GMT -5
Another prisoner trying to escape his bonds was the Eclipsed Orion. He could see several monitors from his frozen position, and could see the HIVE armies advancing. They were nothing in themselves, but they were providing a fine distraction for him to weaken his bonds.
He bulged his muscles, straining to be free of the Challenger’s prison.
The true consciousness of Orion struggled helplessly in the Abyss. By himself he would never be free of Eclipso’s influence. Unless someone else intervened.....
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Post by David on Sept 10, 2007 20:08:37 GMT -5
The commander of the HIVE battle force observed the action through his binoculars. The troops had already breached the Mountain itself; it was only a matter of time.
“Tank Commander 4,” he instructed into a mouthpiece, “Separate your personal tank from the main group. Find and harvest the Necrolite.”
“As you command,” his lieutenant’s voice answered.
Nodding to himself in satisfaction, the HIVE Commander activated his own personal weapon, a vicious energized quarterstaff, and headed forward to join his forces.
The HIVE would rule this day.
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Post by David on Sept 10, 2007 20:12:25 GMT -5
Morgaine Le Fay was dead.
There was no question about that.
She could see it all now; her traitor “Child” had turned on her, used her, and disposed of her. She had adopted that ungrateful brat as her foster child, and this was how he repaid her. He had first dominated her mind, then used her to trigger the transformation of Hawk into Monarch. Was Dove in fact dead? She neither knew nor cared.
All she knew was that her power was gone; she was a spirit, floating restlessly above the Earth.
But for some reason she had not been sent to the Abyss....
“No you have not, Morgaine Le Fay. I am keeping you here.”
“Eclipso,” she sneered, spectral eyes turning upwards towards the moon. “Is my death not enough for you? Leave my soul to it’s reward.”
“Is that what you truly want?” the deposed spirit of Vengeance asked. “To vanish into the Abyss and suffer? To let Klarion destroy all you have built and take it for himself? To allow his betrayal to stand?”
“I do not wish to serve you, that is certain.”
“Not even if I can grant you revenge?” Eclipso uttered that last word with sweet relish.
“And then what? Another mindless drone in your service? A wraith?”
“Not mindless,” Eclipso chuckled. “I have mindless servants enough. Elements elsewhere on Earth are proving difficult to me, and it is clear that I need someone who works with me of their own free will. What say you, Le Fay? Would you live again? Feel true power again? Will you help me prevent your “sweet son” from turning one of my own Generals against me?”
Still looking at the moon with her ghostly eyes, Le Fay considered.
Finally, she said, “I’m listening....”
“Come to me then, and let us see what we can do about giving you new flesh.”
She began to float towards the moon.
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Post by David on Sept 10, 2007 20:12:51 GMT -5
The captain of HIVE tank 4 followed the troopers into the violated sanctuary of Challenger’s Mountain, then turned left.
“Someone’s been drilling,” the tank captain said. “Follow the trail.”
“It does not lead to the Necrolite,” the gunner said.
“Not entirely, no,” the tank captain agreed. “But it does lead in that general direction. We will follow it until we need to diverge from it’s path, and then blast our way to the Necrolite. And if in the process we catch the one who is drilling, well...” he grinned in the red light of the tank’s interior.
His crew laughed.
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Post by David on Sept 10, 2007 20:13:11 GMT -5
Klarion struggled to control the mind of Monarch. It was no easy thing.
Fresh from his transformation, still full of rage and grief, he wanted to follow the orders of his Master on the Moon, and attack Klarion. What was more, Klarion even dimly sensed Eclipso speaking to the spirit of his dear departed mother.
He had to give the dark God of Vengeance credit; if he moved to stop the negotiations between his Mother and Eclipso in the spirit realm, then Monarch would destroy him. If he focused on Monarch, then Eclipso would make some sort of bargain with his mother’s shade.
But there was no choice to be made at all, really. If he did not suborn Monarch now, he wouldn’t survive to deal with the shade of his mother later.
He bent his will towards Monarch. “You will obey me,” he intoned in his mind. “You are my toy, you will obey....”
But Monarch was not so easily controlled. Mere seconds later Monarch was looming over him.
Their eyes locked.
A battle of wills, with no surrender on either side.....
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Post by David on Sept 10, 2007 20:13:33 GMT -5
To Be Continued!
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Post by mockingbird on Jul 28, 2011 13:11:16 GMT -5
To let us know what you think of this issue, please visit the letters page here!
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