StarDestroyer.Net BBS

This is my first fanfic. The first part is very short because I haven't worked out some of the details yet.

EDITED: 05/04/04 added spaces to make it easier to read.

Chapter 1

Kirby stared out the window at the thunderstorm outside. A waitress, in a faded blue uniform, walked up to his table.

"Quite a storm, huh?" He looked up as she said that and nodded, wearily.

"Yeah, I haven't seen something like this in a long time." He held up his menu before she could say anything else.

"I'll take two of the egg and pancake breakfasts," he said. She nodded, writing it down on her pad of paper, and took the menu.

"That'll be out in a minute," she said, turning and walking away. He turned back to the window, strangely relieved. He hated eating alone, though he'd never admit it. He heard the bell on the front door chime. He already knew what was going to happen but he kept staring out the window, secretly hoping he was wrong.

"Mr. Kenrikson?" He turned and looked up at the man in the dark suit. He wore a long rain coat and in one hand he carried an umbrella.

"Yes?"

"I've been sent to pick you up." The man said. Kirby looked up at him, comparing him to his own memories and how people looked there. Too many dimensions, he thought, and the colors were too plentiful. Sighing, he slid out of the booth, laying a few bills on the table. He waved at the waitress.

"Forget the meal," he said at her. He turned and, picking up his own coat, followed the man out into the rain. A dark red car was waiting outside, idling with another suit at the wheel. Kirby glanced around, spotting another car with suits in the parking lot.

"Must be bad," he said.

"It is, sir, they're reports that it's a Captain Cosmos." The man who had gone into the diner said, his name was Ralph, Kirby thought.

"Cosmos?" Shit, shit, shit, cursed Kirby mentally.

"That's what the duke thinks." Kirby took one glance back at the diner then slipped into the passenger side seat of the car.

"Let's go." He slid on the seatbelt, more out of habit then out of any need to feel secure.

"Lamont asked to send you specifically."

Kirby slid his pistol out of its shoulder holster and pulled out its magazine,
checking the cartridges. Type 17, satisfied he slid the magazine back into the pistol, and reholstered it. It was going to be one of those days. Hell, today was his day off. He glanced out into the raging thunderstorm.

Fuck, he thought. He tasted the word, cussing was always a novelty to him. No one ever cussed in his memories.

Not a bad start. It makes me want to continue reading to find out who this guy is and what's going on. You need to set the scene a bit more in my opinion though. Add some description of the diner maybe. Maybe it's just because the post is so short. *shrug*

And as this is your first fanfic and I seem to be the first reply, I'll give you the customary formatting rundown. It's best to put a space after every paragraph. That makes it easier for people to read.

Mark S wrote:Not a bad start. It makes me want to continue reading to find out who this guy is and what's going on. You need to set the scene a bit more in my opinion though. Add some description of the diner maybe. Maybe it's just because the post is so short. *shrug*

And as this is your first fanfic and I seem to be the first reply, I'll give you the customary formatting rundown. It's best to put a space after every paragraph. That makes it easier for people to read.

Thanks for the input. I've always, when writing, have had some trouble with description.

I'll be sure to take care of that paragraph thing too. And it is short, mostly because I've been thinking about this story for a while, but I've been having trouble puting it together.

Chapter 2

The car pulled into the parking lot of a tall building made out of concrete. It was an ugly building, little more then a shoebox set on it's side. Kirby, Ralph, and the driver all walked in through the front door. Lamont was already there, looking agitated and rumpled.

His tie hung loose around his neck and his hair, which had pulled back to the rear of his head was a ragged gray and brown mess. He walked up to Kirby, his face marked by veins pushing through the skin.

"Kenrikson, we've got a serious problem." He said, spinning around on his feet and Kirby and Ralph began following him as they entered the elevator. The elevator was ancient, with large square buttons that lit up when you pushed them. Ralph pushed the button marked UH.

"We don't have time to brief you fully, the duke will do that on your way to the location." Lamont said.

"Is it a Captain Cosmos?" Kirby asked, staring up at the counter as the elevator slid further down the shaft.

"That's what Mr. Trickster thinks and the duke agrees, only it's worse than we thought." The elevator chimed and the doors opened. They walked down the stairs into a large tunnel carved out under the building. It was a half cylinder, the roof rising up a hundred feet or so at the highest. Giant chandelier like fixtures hung from the ceiling providing light. The tunnel extended down a while both ways. The floor was tiled with off white tiles, with an occassional mosaic breaking up the conformity. The tunnel was mostly deserted except for a few Despair bots.

"I'll go see the duke," Kirby said. He turned and through a heavy fire door and down a row of narrow stairs. Through another heavy fire door and into a small room facing a massive vault like door, nearly six feet across. A single despair bot, a seven foot tall green and blue caricature of a human being, designed to mimic its builder's own armor, stood to one side. Kirby punched a button on a panel.

"Duke, it's me." A moment passed and the locks on the vault hissed and clunked loudly and the door slowly opened of its own accord. He stepped in to the airlock. Three suits hung on a hanger and before him was another door, much like doors he had seen in submarine movies, recently. He slid into the yellow rubber suit and put on the mask with a wide transparent face plate before opening the second door and stepped into the duke's rooms.

It looked like a massive three story library. Books covered every wall of the octogonally shaped room. Ladders and walkways lined the sides. In the center of the room, next to the desk, was a large grand piano. Several plush chairs were set up, and several landscape portraits hung on the walls between bookshelves. A large fireplace was set up on the wall opposite to the door. Standing by his desk was the Archduke Despair in full armor. The armor suit, one of the more recent designs Kirby noted, was close fitting and completely sealed. There were plates of dark gray armor covering most of his body, underneath that could be seen black rubber like material. The faceplate was molded in the shape of a human face, though instead of eyes there were dark reflecting lenses. Kirby knew that the material in the face plate could be molded to the duke's whims, allowing him some degree of expression. The armored man was pulling on his long black overcoat and already had, in his hands, a black top hat.

Looking at him Kirby momentarily felt a rush through his body, a vague aggressive impulsive directed at the duke. A glancing burst of righteous rage. He brushed it aside.

"Still get the old urges, eh? Well, we are creatures of habit," said the duke. It was hard to tell from the metallic way his voice came out in his suit but he sounded amused.

"Every goddamned time."

"Me too, makes me wonder about free will sometime." The duke put on his hat, and gestured towards the desk. The desk was covered with old yellowing comic books. Most were ragged and on the verge of falling apart.

"I was researching our anomaly," he said. He walked over to the fire place where there was a rack of black canes topped with dark transluscent sphere. He picked one up and contemplated it.

"What are we facing duke?" Kirby asked, trying to force down his rising frustration. The duke could never be rushed.

"A class 4 anomaly. Looks roughly modern age. The good news is, there aren't many Captain Cosmoses around."

"And the bad news?" Modern age was bad. Not the worst, but definitely bad. Class 4 meant standard package of abilities. All not good, but the duke liked to build up, Kirby knew. The duke turned and met Kirby's gaze with his own reflective dark eyes.

"He doesn't have the standard vulnerabilities. No rainbow jade or dark lasers for this one." Shit, Kirby thought. "There is a chance, though however tenuous that this might help." He held up a black box the size of Kirby's hand.

"What's that?"

"Voice recorder. With some modifications. In issue 134 Cosmos' nemesis used a device that mimicked his voice. Apparently Cosmos' powers are voice activated. Unfortunately," the duke opened his arms, "I don't have a recording his voice, but if you can get him to talk close enough for the recorder to get a copy it can hopefully mimic his voice well enough to use his command word to deactivate his powers temporarily." Kirby walked over to the duke and took the box, it was amazingly heavy. He slipped it into his pocket.

"Anything else?"

"Only that they're sending just the two of us and a squad of my Despair-bots. They wouldn't want to risk any human life." The duke sounded bitter.

"Come on duke," Kirby said, smiling sadly. "That's why they pay us the big bucks. Besides, you're human." His words seem particularly weak when said to that artificial face.

"Ah yes, human enough to wrestle with demigods for them."

"It's a living." Kirby replied, half to himself, and together they walked out of the duke's library and headed for the teleporter pads.

The first chapter was short and I did not like it much. The second is chapter is better.

evilcat4000 wrote:The first chapter was short and I did not like it much. The second is chapter is better.

Thanks, hopefully I can keep a steady improvement as I go along.

Chapter 3

The teleport chamber was in a large room in which most of the walls were covered with a mass of machinery, wiring, and pipes. Just above the entrance to the room was a window through which the technicians, in the control room, could look out of. Kirby and the Duke walked into the room where five despair-bots were already waiting. Kirby shrugged his shoulders and buttoned his long overcoat closed.

"I hate this part," he said, rubbing his hand across his chin. There was no stubble on his face, and there never would be. Roughly thirty years old, biologically, and unable to grow a beard. No wonder I can't get a woman, he thought.

"You don't just hate this part, you hate the whole. You're kind always had an aversion to super science." Replied the Duke, who raised up the cane and gestured at the despair-bots. The group fell to their knees, lowering their heads, and rose immediately back to their feet.

"More like my kind have problems with power hungry mad scientists." Kirby snorted.

"Ah, the good old days," the Duke sighed. Kirby reached into his pocket and pulled out a strip of laminated paper. He saw the Duke glance at him and he roughly shoved it back in his pocket.

"All set?" Lamont asked through the speaker system. Kirby turned and gave the thumbs up. The Duke tipped his top hat, making sure he kept his grip firmly on it.

The room began to hum. The humming built swiftly until it was on the verge of becomming a shriek. The entire room seemed to be vibrating, including Kirby. He clenched his teeth and tried to keep from falling over. The humming seemed to growing louder directly in front of him, and it built until it suddenly fell silent so swiftly it was disorienting. A hole opened up in front of them and air poured through, a wind so strong that Kirby covered his eyes and braced himself to avoid from being knocked over.

"Let's go," he shouted at the Duke, who nodded and gestured to the despair-bots. Together they stepped through the hole directly in front of them.

Suddenly they were outside. The hole closed behind them almost immediately. They stood in a clearing in a city. Or, more accurately, the ruins of a city.

There were sky scrapers but they were skeletal corpses, the glass torn from them. Fires were raging in the distance. The entire landscape seemed to be covered in ash and wreckage. Entire buildings were lying on their sides. Small mountains of cars were piled about.

"Shit." Kirby said dazed at the amount of destruction. "How long has he been here?"

"Just an few hours," the Duke said, sounding less disturbed. He brought his hands and began typing in the air. Kirby began walking around. Without a word the despair-bots rose up in the air silently and flew off in different directions.

"Where's the bodies?" Kirby asked.

"Pardon?"

"The bodies, Duke, there's no bodies around." Kirby said, looking in the ruined carcass of a car.

"Good question," the Duke said, momentarily pausing from his typing. "Well, for the moment, we can't worry about it. The despair-bots have located our target-" He paused. Kirby looked back at him.

"What? What is it?" Kirby said, drawing his pistol.

"He's coming Ke-"

The air howled around them and an angry red and blue streak flashed across Kirby's vision. He barely saw the fist that connected with his stomach, lifting him off of his feet, blasting the air out of his lungs, and sending him flying back into a ruined building, crashing through the walls and out of sight. The Duke watched as the Captain Cosmos stood before him, nearly seven feet tall, with massively broad shoulders, and almost grotesquely over proportioned muscles. He wore a tight fitting suit split down the middle, half red, half blue. On his chest were two glittering golden C's. His hair was deep black and greased back and he was smirking.

The Duke struck a fencing pose, his cane extended. The Captain regarded him as if studying a captured butterfly.

"Villain," he croaked and his smirk grew into a large smile. The Duke straightened and tipped his hat.

"Correct," he said, and his despair bots struck. They flew down extending their despair fields. Terrible despair engulfed the Captain, and his face face contorted as he dropped to his knees. The Duke rushed forward, bringing his cane down on the Captain's head.

It never made it. The Captain's huge hand wrapped around his and the Captain rose up, eyes cackling with blue lightning bolts.

"You ... won't ... win ... this day," gasped the Captain.

"Oh dear," muttered the Duke. The Captain howled and was surrounded in a ball of light that extended out around him, engulfing the despair-bots, hurling them away from him, and crashing into the ruins of the city. The blast blew the Duke back, he hit the ground and rolled away, completely out of control. He finally stopped when he hit a car. Looking up he saw the Captain advancing, holding his cane in one hand, smiling again.

He did not even notice Kirby landing next to him until Kirby's punch connected with his face, knocking him clean off his feet.

"How do you like it, bastard?" gasped Kirby, his face covered with dirt and his clothing torn. The Captain lay on the ground, rubbing his chin, his eyes confused. Kirby reached into his pocket and pulled out the recorder. He tossed it at the Duke. The Duke caught it and climbed to his feet slowly.

"Come on, asshole, what's the matter? Too chicken to fight someone who can fight back?" Kirby said, the Captain rose to his feet by rising up into the air and lowering himself back down to the ground. His eyes were beginning to cackle again. Kirby pulled up his pant leg and drew his back up pistol from his ankle holster. He pointed it at the Captain. The Captain smiled.

"You can't hurt me," the Captain said. Kirby fired the pistol three times, two into the chest, and the third took off most of the Captain's head. The Captain's single remaining eye was shocked as he fell to the ground.

"God, I'm glad they're always stupid." Kirby said. "And that we've got shield-piercing rounds." He went over and put his hand on the Duke's shoulder.

"You alright?" The Duke nodded.

"He got in a lucky shot. He managed to overwhelm the despair-bots."

"I always thought those despair fields were stupid weapons anyway."

"Well, I do have a certain theme I'm working with here." The Duke said, walking stiffly over to the corpse and reclaiming his cane. He regarded the corpse.

"We should let the boys back at home base know we're done here." Kirby said.

"This is the most powerful anomaly we've seen in years, Kenrikson," the Duke said. "What was he doing here?"

"You know, the standard, mindless destruction." Kirby shrugged and began searching for the pistol he had dropped with the Captain had punched him. He rubbed his chest, it was going to bruise in the morning. He winced.

"No, you know that since the treaty, the others should have prevented him from crossing over." The Duke stood up and began looking around, probably scanning with his sensors or something, Kirby thought.

"What are you saying?" Kirby said, giving up on his pistol. The Duke reached down and pulled something off the corpse, right around the collar. He tossed it at Kirby. Kirby caught it and took a look at it. It was a pin, a shield with the letters LF.

"Liberty Force," the Duke said, "this one was part of a team."

Chapter 4

Kirby sat down on the ground, putting his arms down behind him to support him. "Do you want to call in the rest of the gang?"

"I've already placed the call." The Duke, having found his top hat in one piece, put on his hat and turned to face Kirby. He turned and looked around the slowly burning corpse of the city. "The damage here is quite extensive. This Captain Cosmos took to the Conversion worse than normal."

"Yeah," Kirby said, lying back and covering his eyes with his forearms.

"Are you alright, Kenrikson?"

"Just feeling a little sick, it hit me pretty hard," Kirby said, trying to ignore the way his hands began to shake. You're not supposed to kill the good guys, he thought, but then he certainly wasn't the good guy anymore.

"Right, well the creature destroyed my despair bots, I'm going to launch a probe to survey the city, perhaps we can find the bodies." The Duke lifted one arm and a piece of his armor rose up and fell off, rising up on thin translucent wings like a large insect, and flew off further into the city. The air around them began to shiver and a moment later there was a humming.

A hole opened, slowly bending open in the space before them, large enough for a large group of people, mostly armed men and techs flooded through. The hole closed almost immediately afterwards. The Duke pointed to the body. Kirby sat up as a medic came over to check him. She wore the blue pajama suit of a medic and had long blond hair tied back in a bun.

"Were you injured?" She asked, sitting down beside him, checking his eyes with a flashlight.

"No, I just got punched once."

"Well that would have killed a normal man." She said, lifting up a pen. "Follow this with your eyes."

"Yeah, it probably would have knocked a hole in them." Kirby said. "I'm fine doc."

"Alright," she said. But then, even though he had never seen her before, she must have been briefed on him. He was tough. Really tough. She got up and walked over to the Duke who struck up a conversation with her. The techs were packing the corpse into a body bag. Autopsy would be for later back at the labs. Kirby covered his face with his hands and took some deep breaths. It finally struck him that he probably did not want to know what happened to the bodies.

"Jesus, it looks like hell here," muttered one of the guards close enough for Kirby to hear.
"... fucking monsters."

Kirby agreed with the sentiment. He stood up and walked over to the Duke.

"Find anything?" He asked the Duke.

"Yes, actually the bodies are not far from here. Apparently he cleared out a space in the city and ... well ... he stacked them neatly there. Those that he did not kill ... in a more creative fashion." In that moment Kirby envied the Duke's dark reflective eyes. He'd prefer not to look at himself while listening to that.

"Wonderful." We were too late, I was never too late, he thought reproachingly, I was always in 'the nick of time.'

"There's something else, Kenrikson, he was building something, it looks like some kind of building, using what he was tearing out from the city."

"Was he a nest builder?" Nest builders were generally anomalies that had their own version of a club house. Some anomalies attempted to rebuild it after the Conversion.

"Not that I know of. Captain Cosmos never had a nest. Though from issue 45 on of Liberty Force the Force did have their own base of operations in Light City." The Duke said.

"Did your probe pick up anyone else in the area?"

"No." Kirby tried to hide the relief he felt. Two in one day would be tough. But if it was the entire Liberty Force, whoever they were, he thought, he would be in trouble. He was familiar with teams in general, though not with the Liberty Force. He should be doing more research, he knew, but he coudl not stand reading comic books.

"We should go scout the area out." The Duke said, but Kirby could hear the excitement in his voice. I've definitely been spending too much time with him if I can read him that well, he thought. The Duke was practically salivating at the thought of more super science for him to take apart and manipulate.

"Alright, but if I get hit by any ray guns I'm going home." Kirby said, standing up. They left a word with the commander of the guards who were watching the perimeter and began walking over to the structure that the Captain had been building.

Along the way they passed the fields of the dead. Upon seeing the ocean of mangled flesh Kirby lost it and spent a few moments vomiting. The Duke said nothing, just watched patiently from a distance, ignoring the sobs of his partner. He had come from a different time.

"No one ... I ..." Kirby gasped, through the sobs.

"Yes, Kenrikson, I know."

The worst part of all was the color. Too many colors. The shading was so much more exact. The new memories so much shaper and realer than his own. He straightened up and sighed.

"Let's go," he said. I hate this place, he thought not sure if he meant the dead city or the entire world this side of the Conversion.

Chapter 5

The nest rose up before them in a circular clearing carved into the heart of the city. It stood in the center of a lake of mangled bodies. The Duke was right, Kirby noticed, the more creatively killed people were generally lifted above the masses. The Captain must have gotten impatient and just went for more efficient killing after a while. There was no path through the bodies, which was just as well since the stench was as solid as any wall. Shit and blood and death. Kirby felt his stomach flop again.

The nest was a large pyramid like structure made out of golden metal blocks. Kirby turned and looked at the Duke who regarded all of this impassively behind his metal face.

"Welcome to Hell," Kirby said.

"Did you know I actually went to Hell once?" The Duke replied.

"Was it like this?"

"Oddly enough, no. There was a lot of fire and red men with horns. Kind of silly when you think about it."

"I thought you said he only had a few ours here, that's an awfully big structure." Kirby said, closing his eyes, shutting out the sight.

"It's possible he had help. I still am not picking up any more anomalies on my scanners."

"Well," Kirby said, "I guess we better go. Get on my back, would you?" The Duke tilted his head quizzically. Kirby pointed out in the general direction of the corpses.

"I'm not walking through that, and as I recall you never modified your suit for flight."

"It kept knocking off the hat," the Duke said. He took the hat in one hand and wrapped his arms around Kirby's neck. Kirby judged the distance, it looked like roughly five hundred feet to the center where the pyramid was. No problem. He bent down at his knees and pushed off.

They rose swiftly into the air then began to fall slower than they should. Kirby did not understand how he did it. The lab boys often tried to explain things like telekinetic fields and such things, all he knew was that he could jump extremely far and slow his descent. He landed softly, without even a thump, right before the pyramid. The Duke stepped to one side and replaced his hat on his head.

Before them was a giant door. It looked like a ten foot chunk of red metal set into the pyramid. There was a single ring hanging off of the door.

"Traps?" Kirby said, but the Duke was already next to the door, running his hand along the massive hinges.

"It looks clean. No lock, either, but it must be immensely heavy."

"Not for the Captain," Kirby said, rubbing his hands together. He reached up and took the ring. It was big enough for him to get two hands on it. He braced himself and began to pull. At first nothing happened, so he pulled harder, gritting his teeth, straining hard. Veins began to pop out of his neck.

"Gaah!" He hissed, feeling his arms stretch. The door groaned loudly and began to slowly inch towards him. He pulled it out a few feet and then let it stop. He sat down, momentarily winded.

"I guess the Captain was stronger than you," the Duke remarked.

"Well he's dead now, so I think I'll win any arm wrestling matches." Kirby stood up and looked into the pyramid. Inside was a massive hallway with a tall ceiling and red carpeting over the gold metal block floor. Along the walls were objects on display. Everything from exotic body armors to giant dinosaur like creatures, possibly statues.

"Where did he get all this stuff?" Kirby asked, following the Duke into the pyramid. The Duke walked from display to display, reading the golden plaques set next to them and studying them.

"The bulk of it probably crossed over during the Conversion. We've seen that happen before." The Duke paused before a large aquarium holding a squid-like creature that was bright green and glowed faintly. Large dark eyes regarded him with what, Kirby felt, was an eerie level of intelligence.

"This is bad." Kirby turned and looked at the Duke.

"What?"

"Doesn't any of this look familiar?" The Duke's voice was as close to excited as he had ever heard.

"No. Should it?"

"You really should do more research, you know." The Duke sighed.

"I have enough of that bullshit stuck in my head, I don't want to add to it."

"This is the Bastion of Seclusion. Overman's Bastion of Seclusion." Kirby stumbled back a step.

"But, that was Captain Cosmos we killed out there!"

"I know, which implies that at least one more anomaly has Converted. And that they were working together. We have not seen an Overman in years." The Duke turned and looked around. "Odd, there are usually Zinonese servant robots around." Kirby drew his pistol.

"Well, this is going to be a bonus for all of them back at home base." Kirby said, looking around him. "This is going to be the biggest haul, perhaps ever. We've never captured a Bastion of Seclusion intact."

"My scans seem to indicate that despite it's appearance it has not entirely Converted. Well, still, you're right," the Duke said. He walked over to the end of the hall where a large book was set a table. The pages and book itself was octogonal in shape. It was incredibly large, almost four feet across when open and two feet wide.

The Duke looked down at the pages.

"What does it say?" Kirby asked.

"It's in Zinonese, give me a minute while I run a translation." The Duke turned and looked at the plaque. "That's odd."

"What's odd?"

"I've studied some of the Bastions, there's never been a mention of a book like this. What's more this plaque is blank." He straightened. "I finished the translation."

"What does it say," Kirby asked, getting nervous. He glanced around again, to make sure no Zinonese robots were sneaking up on them.

"It's some kind of religious text, I would guess, this particular section goes as follows:

And in the time of the Conversion
The Silver Lords will be freed
And will remake the world
And the followers of them shall be blessed
With paradise forever"

The Duke paused. "I've heard of this, but I've never seen it before."

"What is it?"

"It's a Holy Text of the Imprisoned. The Silver Cult. Humans who worship the Silver Age anomalies."

"Ah crap. I always thought that was just nonsense."

"Well, if the humans on this side of the Conversion brought over these anomalies, it's possible they might be contemplating freeing the imprisoned anomalies."

"That's crazy. There's no way they could. First of all the Sword of Overman was lost decades ago. And only an Over- Oh shit."

"Exactly. An entire Liberty Force. From the Modern Age. They might have enough power to do it."

"Did you know it was my day off?" Kirby said, sitting down, putting his gun away.

"We need to talk to Mr. Trickster," the Duke said, ignoring Kirby, "he may know something."

Kirby stood up. "Alright, let's go then." He picked up the book and put it under one arm. It was not heavy, for him, but it was awkward to carry. The Duke looked around one last time.

"I hope you're wrong, Duke," Kirby said, as they walked out of the Bastion.

"Haven't you heard? I'm never wrong."

"I've read enough to know that you always lost back in the old days." Kirby said.

"Well, blame it on bad writers."

First to post ! It is a good chapter. I like how the story is developing.

evilcat4000 wrote:First to post ! It is a good chapter. I like how the story is developing.

Thanks! At the moment I have only the vaguest of ideas where the story is going.

Chapter 6

Kirby and the Duke walked through the hole in space created by the transporter room back into the bowels of headquarters. They walked out through the doors and were taken to the debriefing room. The body had already been taken down to the morgue where the autopsy and analysis was getting started. The Duke left to join them in taking apart the anomaly, leaving Kirby with Lamont and a grizzled man named Terse. Kirby recounted the story of how he shot the Captain Cosmos and his suspicions upon investigating the Bastion and then was let out.

"Good job today," Lamont said, dark bags under his eyes. He looked like he had not slept in days. In one hand he gripped a cup of coffee as if he expected it to try and escape. In the other was a cigarette, perhaps his fourth since the debriefing began. Terse sat in the corner, arms and legs crossed. He, too, was smoking, cigarette cradled between two fingers that twirled the cigarette in small circles. He rarely spoke, seeming content to just listen.

"At least you killed the anomaly," Lamont said, half to himself. "That's something. Christ, there's going to be holy hell over this for weeks to come. And an entire group of anomalies wandering around?"

"We have to get them first," Terse said, lifting his cigarette slowly to his lips and taking a gentle drag.

"Go ahead and get some rest, Kirby, I think we'll have enough work for you in the days to come," Lamont said, motioning with his hand that held the cigarette. Kirby nodded and stood up, walking out of the room. He did not remember how he got the the bathroom but he found himself there, gripping the sides of a sink and staring into a mirror.

The face that stared back at him looked haggard. Strong chin, dark hair with just a hint of a curl, and dark eyes. A once honest face. He closed his eyes and a spasm shook him slightly, a burst of firey emotion that rippled through his body. His hands clenched and the sink porcelain cracked. He took his hands away from the sink and walked back to a wall and sat down against it. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the piece of paper in the laminated plastic.

It was a shard of old comic, faded and torn, the colors were brought by little dots. On the piece of paper was a picture of a woman with long curly brown hair. She wore a smart looking pink skirt and blouse and was talking to some man at his desk, but he was mostly missing from the paper. He looked at it and rubbed his thumb across the paper.

"I'm sorry," he said, softly. He closed his eyes while he pushed it back into his pocket. She's not real. She never was real. He wanted to scream, "Neither was I!"

He stood up, washed his hands, and unlocked the door. He opened the door and walked out down to the Duke's chambers.

The Duke was already back in his chambers, probably going over the analysis of the anomaly. Kirby pushed a button on the panel next to the vault door.

"Duke," he said. "We have to go see Mr. Trickster." The door hissed and clunked its way open and the Duke stood in the airlock.

"No rest for the wicked or the righteous tonight, eh?"

"Not while theres a group of anomalies running around." Kirby said, turning to walk up the stairs, the Duke close behind him.

"Even with the general knowledge of vulnerabilities open to all nations, it would be hard to stop them." The Duke said, thoughtfully, as if talking through his thoughts. "I've done calculations, they could probably topple almost every world government if they felt like it."

"Yeah, but then you and I will be out of work." Kirby said.

"Of course, it's more likely that they'll just start killing people. They could take out the Eastern seaboard in a few hours." The Duke said as if reading out the baseball game scores to Kirby.

"Wonderful," Kirby said. They came to an elevator and stepped into it. Kirby pushed the third subbasement. Mr. Trickster, like the Duke, required special accomodations, for reasons that were probably very similar. The elevator chimed and the doors slid open. Kirby and the Duke stepped out into the hallway where there was single white door at the end of a featureless hallway. "I hate talking to him."

The Duke said nothing as they walked down the hallway and through the white door. The next room was the monitoring room. Three men sat in the room, and on the opposite wall was the two way mirror looking into a padded room where a lanky man in a straight jacket lay curled up on the floor. The three men looked up from their desks, one of them was a guard.

"We're here to see Mr. Trickster." The Duke said. One of the men got up, pulling out a key, and opened up the door leading into the room.

"Better be careful," he said as they walked into the padded room, "today he's grumpy."

The Duke and Kirby found themselves standing next to a huddled skinny man in a straight jacket. His long unkept curly hair wrapped around his head. He had a large mouth with large teeth and kept drifting towards a smile and large wild eyes, one blue, and the other so dark brown it might be black. His nose was a curved beak of a vulture.

"I see you, do you see me?" Mr. Trickster whispered.

"We can see you," the Duke said. Mr. Trickster turned his unblinking gaze to Kirby.

"Crikey! Are we teaming up to defeat him? Crossover?" Came the next whisper. He tried to crawl away from Kirby. The Duke knelt down before Mr. Trickster.

"Mr. Trickster we need to knowabout the Liberty Force. We think that there's one of the teams, Modern Age, this side of the Conversion." At this the Mr. Trickster's smile grew larger, until it seemed to consume its face with manic glee.

"They're coming." He said.

"The Sword of Overman," the Duke continued, "do you know where it is?"

"He's among them, he'll come for me. It's meant to be. And the rest will follow because he won't be diverted. Then they'll hack at the shackles that bind Them. They'll bring Them down on us all and then who will save time?"

"He's making some sense this time," muttered Kirby. The Duke motioned with his hand for him to shut up.

"Mr. Trickster this is important, if we are to defeat the Liberty Force we need to know where they are."

"Looking for the sword."

"Where, Mr. Trickster? Where?"

"Where else? The South Pole. You're stupid," Mr. Trickster said, looking up at the Duke with such force that the Duke moved back. Mr. Trickster slowly rose to his feet without the aid of his arms.

"You think it works like an Oracle, don't you? You think I don't know?! Do you?!" He said, walking menacingly towards Kirby, still smiling, still grinning with his large teeth.
"You don't think I know?! Do you?!"

"Alright, we're done here," the Duke said. The door opened and they stepped out as the Mr. Trickster started to scream.

"I know your secret idenities! I know them all!"

Kirby ignored him.

"He's got a point," the Duke said, "the original Silver Age Bastion of Seclusion was set at the South Pole."

"That entire area is quarantined. The chunks of the Silver Age anomalies have dug in there." Kirby said.

"Yes, well, unfortunately it's only the dregs that are there, if they're still alive. I'm sure that our anomalies will be able to get through. They're going to find the Bastion and recover the sword. If memory serves, that sword in the hands of an Overman would be extremely bad, even if he was not the Silver Age."

"Crap. What are we going to do?"

"Book a trip to the South Pole." The Duke said. Kirby stopped and sighed.

"I'll go tell Lamont, we should probably go as soon as we're ready."

"It is the bottom of the world, pack a jacket." The Duke said, and laughed softly to himself. Kirby shook his head and walked down the hallways back to Lamont's office. Just a short trip to the South Pole where dozens of creatures were waiting to kill him on top of the five or six other creatures that he had to kill. He was going to have to get another pistol to replace the one he lost.

Chapter 7


Antarctica. The refuge of those who underwent the Conversion and entered this world. Thousands of anomalies gathered there after the war, after the Silver Lords were banished to their prison out in outer space. The nations of the world, those in a position to do so, called for a quarantine since the numbers of the anomalies, and the abilities and equipment some brought over from the Conversion, were too powerful to be destroyed outright. Some smugglers visited them to trade for some fantastic item or equipment, anything could be found there, from a potion for immortality to powerful weapons that never could have existed before. There the anomalies gathered under the creature known only as the King, stripped of their old identies they began anew, erecting a wonderous city called Haven.

"And Haven was built on top of the Silver Age Overman's Bastion of Seclusion," the Duke said. Sitting down in his chair. They were in the briefing room. A map of Antarctica was displayed on the wallscreen. Haven was situated near the center, near the South Pole. Lamont leaned forward, his fingers laced and his hands set on the table.

"No one but smugglers are allowed into Haven and anomaly held territory," he said, looking through dark rimmed eyes.

"That's why only Agent Kenrikson and myself will be going on this mission," the Duke said. Kirby sat in his chair, leaning back, arms crossed. He looked up at the map.

"They might recognize you, you two have killed a lot of anomalies over the years," Terse said quietly. Another cigarette was slowly smoldering in his fingers. Kirby's hand spasmed, tensing, but he let it pass. I'm at peace with what I do, he lied to himself.

"If there are no objections Kenrikson and I are already equiped and ready to head out." The Duke said, standing up, and waiting.

"If something happens to you out there we can't do anything to help you." It was Lamont who spoke up.

"How is that different then any other time you've sent us out?" Kirby replied softly, getting out of his chair. "We'll get the job done and come back, just like we always do." Lamont nodded towards the door and the two walked out of the briefing room.

"Is that a hint of bitterness I sense?" The Duke asked.

"Good thing your entropy shield also acts to enhance your armor, Duke."

"Yes, I've always been lucky that way." They walked into the teleport chamber. Kirby had donned a thicker fur lined coat and a pair of dark large goggles.

"Disguise," he said when the Duke looked at him questioningly. The Duke had also donned a heavier coat and a fur lined cap which was bordering on ridiculous looking considering he had the cap on over his helmet that Kirby had never seen him without. They both check their large backpacks filled with supplies and equipment.

"I've got a dark laser for each of us, and you'll need one of these," the Duke said, holding up a small metal coin shaped object.

"What is it?" Kirby asked, taking it.

"Put it on your forehead, don't worry it'll stick there. It's a psi-patch. It should prevent the Solar Savior from detecting us or manipulating us telepathically." Kirby put the coin against his forehead, it was cool to the touch and stuck to his forehead. His furled his brow, it did not budge.

"Weird," he said.

"I've also taken the liberty of packing some rainbow zinonium," the Duke said, pulling out a heavy black box that he cracked open. Inside was a roughly cut rock that gave off a white glow. "It should incapacitate the version of Overman we're going up against."

"Right." Kirby turned to face the wall of the teleport chamber. He had actually done his research this time. Lady Freedom, Fear Lord, Authoriton, Hyperman, the Solar Savior, and Overman. Six of the most powerful anomalies to ever make it across the Conversion. If he managed to survive this it was going to look good on his record, he thought.

"Do you think we'll be recognized?" Kirby asked as a hum began to build up in the air. The Duke turned to him.

"I don't think it will matter."

Space and time was torn. Antarctica became no more than a step away.

They found themselves outside a forested area. The trees were enormous, rising up like the giant redwoods that Kirby had head about. The floor was covered with grass. The place was much less colder than Kirby had anticipated.

"I guess they have been remodeling since the last time people have been here," Kirby said. The Duke turned and pointed in one direction.

"I'm picking up readings that way, we should get going. They're not far, we should be in Haven within an hour." Kirby nodded and together they started weaving through the giant forest towards Haven.

Very nice. The two new chapters are well written.

evilcat4000 wrote:Very nice. The two new chapters are well written.

Thanks for the input! It's good to know that I am improving.

Chapter 8

Haven, the city, rose up in the middle of the verdant valley. Tall buildings of varied designs drove upwards from the heart of the forest some were wildly different in design in color. As the two came closer through the forest ceiling they could see distant figures flying around and through the city. Entire flocks of people flying either under their own power or using devices like jet packs or flying saucers. They found a road winding through the forest, it was a wide road, almost four lanes across, made of a light green rock like material.

"It's almost like coming home," Kirby said, looking out in awe. The Duke said nothing. They entered the city and soon found themselve almost immediately in a plaza where there was some kind of market.

The streets, though wide, were packed with stores, carts, and people. People being loosely used to describe the wide variety of creatures of size and appearance. The roar of the crowd made talking to each other, even though they were right next to each other, difficult.
The Duke tapped on Kirby's shoulder and pointed at an individual that had an extremely large head and an almost grotesquely narrow and long neck. It walked slightly hunched over. It's skin was an off shade of gray-blue. Two large bulging pitch black eyes dominated its face. The creature wore red robes complete with a massive hood that it could pull up over its head.

"That's a Ontyp." The Duke said. "There were never many in all the readings I've done and I never knew one came across the Conversion."

"That's amazing," Kirby replied sarcastically, "but let's skip the sight seeing and find the Bastion."

"So ready to leave 'home' are we?"

"I take it back, this isn't like home at all." Kirby said, adjusting his goggles. So far no one had given them a second glance, but then it would be hard to stand out in this crowd. They pressed themselves to the side as a fifty foot tall silver looking statue of a man walked by.

"Oh but it is," the Duke replied, "just concentrated." The Duke extended his hand, palm up an opened wide. "There is a lot of intereference from the city. Perhaps we should just ask for directions?"

Kirby glanced around. "Be my guest." The Duke nodded and wandered over to where there stood a deathly pale creature standing with his arms crossed, so still that Kirby thought he had been a statue. The crowd moved around it, ignoring it for the most part. But no one brushed up against it, as if taking special care to avoid touching it. It was human looking enough. Its hair, silver-white, was pulled back into a bun on the back of its head. Its face was extremely angluar and its features were sharp and lean. He wore brightly colored armor seemingly made out of fabric, silk Kirby guessed. It shone in the sunlight and the colors shifted from red all the way through the spectrum to blue.

The Duke stood in front of it and waited. Kirby walked up beside him. "Are you sure it's a good idea asking it for directions?" He said softly.

"It's a Misshaper. Looks like it's warrior-poet caste. They only appeared a few times in the Accution series." The Duke's voice conveyed awe. Before letting Kirby reply he stepped forward, hands raised.

"I bring you greetings," the Duke said, crossing his arms across his chest and bowing. The Misshaper's eyes opened. They were a deep green, pools of green paint forever swirling in his eye sockets. It raised it's hands and began slowly, almost painfully slowly, moving them in a kind of sluggish dance not unlike some tai-chi that Kirby had seen a man do once.
"What's he doing?" He asked, leaning over to the Duke and speaking out of the side of his mouth. The Duke brushed aside his question. He planted his cane and rested his two hands on the cane and seemed content to wait for the slow dance to finish.

The creature stopped moving after a minute or two and then seemed to draw up, standing straighter. It smiled, albiet a half smile, and bowed half way to them, never taking its strange green eyes from them.

"Greetings," it said. "I am Anavr, of the Misshapers. It took me a moment to adjust to your ... place."

"Ah yes, greetings Anavr. I am Hans von Clauswitz, and this is my traveling companion Kirby Kenrikson." The Duke said, gesturing with a hand back towards Kirby. The Misshaper considered them both with its alien eyes. Its movements were jerky especially when compared to the slow smoothness of its motions but a moment before. "We are looking to make a pilgrimage to the Bastion of Seclusion. Do you know where it is?"

"Ah, are you newly across from the Conversion?"

"No, we have been wandering the world for years now," the Duke replied. The Misshaper regarded him carefully.

"You have done amazingly well with the corrupting influence of the Conversion, most of those of us who cannot make it to Haven are generally quite ... monstrous."

"Yes, well, Kenrikson and I are of a sterner breed," the Duke said. The Misshaper shrugged.
"We are all monsters here, perhaps." The Misshaper said. Kirby could not find it in himself to argue.

"So the directions, good Anavr," the Duke prompted.

"Ah, yes, I will direct you there," the Misshaper said. And then the crowd was gone. Kirby fell to his knees, the dramatic shift throwing him off. They were no longer in the plaza there were someplace else entirely. But there was no visible shift, just a sharp discordant change so fast he barely noticed. They were ina walled area of the city, surrounding a pyramid not unlike the one they had been in before. The Misshaper pointed at it.

"There is the place you seek." And then just as suddenly he was gone as if never there at all. A fevered dream that lasted for just a moment.

"What the hell just happened?" Kirby demaned of the Duke.

"Misshapers possess the ability to teleport. Though I'd never imagined it would be like that. Well, the good news is that we've found the Bastion."

"What's the bad news?" Kirby asked, standing back up.

"Oh, I think the Liberty Force is already here."

*Edited 5-10-04: Added some spaces to break it up a little more so it would be easier to read.

Chapter 9

Kirby looked up at the figures hovering over the pyramid structure. They hung in the air as if fixed in place, only the cloaks of some of them billowed languidly in the wind.

Kirby's right hand shot his coat, reaching for the cooly reassuring metal of his pistol. His fingers closed around the handle and he began pulling it from the holster as fast as he could. As he was drawing his pistol the Duke took a step forward, raising up both of his hands, fingers spread.

A loud buzzing began to emit from his armor and his jacket, to Kirby's eyes, began to slowly shred apart, large chucks just being thrown from his body. His ridiculous hat blew from his head. A faint golden glowing aura of light began to extend around his armor. Then things happened.

He was there, heralded by an explosion of air around them, only a few feet away, eyes dark pits with a single bright blue star in each socket. He rose up over both the Duke and Kirby, seemingly constructed out of bulging muscles.

He wore a blue and red suit, with gold studs forming a ring around his collar. His black, slightly curly, hair seemed to shine like metal, and his large protruding chin only seemed to make his manic smile larger. He drew back his fist and then it moved forward like a bullet, invisible and deadly.

It slammed into the golden aura around the Duke. Golden light flare bright burning white and the Duke flew back as the forces lifted him bodily and threw him past Kirby's sight. The backlash from the light momentarily stunned the Overman, who stumbled back a step. Kirby already had his pistol up and was firing, once, twice, three times.

Three blossoms of swirling red erupted from the Overman's chest, his burning blue eyes twisted in pain and confusion, and then, with another explosion of air that nearly ripped Kirby from his feet, he was gone.

Kirby dropped to his knees as the glass shattering scream ripped through his body and the rest of the Liberty Force descended on him. Lady Freedom was in the lead, it was her scream that was jarring Kirby to his bones. She descended at the head of the horde, long black hair streaming behind her. She wore a tight fitting suit covered with blue and white stars and an armor skirt.

On each hand she wore heavy metal gauntlets. She flew straight at him, the air ripping around her. Kirby, sluggishly it seemed, brought his pistol to bear, and he squeezed the trigger. A firey red burst at his shoulder and then she hit him. Gauntlets that were forged by gods hit him with force enough to annhilate a human being. Instead he was driven down into the ground, the stone work beneath him shattered, and smoke flooded the area around them.

Kirby's eyes opened to see her standing over him, terrible and beautiful in a maddeningly terrifying kind of way. He tried to bring up his pistol but her foot slammed down on his forearm. She raised up her fist and the air shriekd and Kirby felt a rushing by that tore at him, the world shook, and Lady Freedom's head was gone. The bloody stump and the rest of her body fell on top of him. Kirby rolled over to see the Duke standing again, hands extended, golden aura now glaringly bright, even through Kirby's goggles. Kirby struggled to his feet, pushing the bleeding corpse off of himself.

He felt, more than saw, the approach of Hyperman. He threw a punch as hard as he could to the empty space to his right, feeling his fist reach out through the air and connecting solidly with something that was not there a moment ago.

A man wrapped from head to toe in a red and gold suit. The man fell back and tumbled away just as the grenades landed next to Kirby. Klink! Klink! Kirby looked down long enough to recognized the threat and managed to get his arms up just as they explode, knocking him away, and shredding his clothing.

The Duke ran to the side, picking up his cane and spun it around in his hand, carrying it like a javelin. He threw it at the Solar Savior, a tall human like creature covered with metallic gold feathers and had six bird like wings erupting from its shoulders. The Savior turned to see it approaching, raising a hand to knock it aside as twin red beams connected its eyes to the chest of the Duke. The Duke's shield flared white again forcing him back a step.

As the Savior's arm connected with the Duke's cane it exploded in a black sphere of purple black light that engulfed the Savior, who shrieked in a voice that sent a shockwave erupting through the area like an explosion and then it was gone, as if consumed and burned away by the dark light.

And just like that, they were gone. Kirby rose painfully to his feet. His face was numb. He holstered his pistol. Something wet ran down his face. He raised up his hand to touch his face and the fingers came back covered with red fluid. His ears and nose were bleeding. He coughed once. Correction, he thought, his ears, nose, and mouth were bleeding. He limped over to where the Duke was kneeling on one leg.

"You alright?" He shouted. He was having trouble hearing. There was an annoying buzzing in his ears. The Duke turned to look at him. His armor was mangled and bent. One of his dark lens eyes were shattered.

"I'll be alright," he said, weakly. Then he slumped over, Kirby managed to catch him before hit the ground.

"Duke! Come on Hans," he said, for a moment terrified.

"There is no fighting allowed in Haven." Said someone behind him. Kirby spun around enough to bring his pistol to bear. Standing before him was Anavr. Kirby did not lower the pistol. The Misshaper raised his hands.

"Your friend needs help. The corrupted ones have left, you can relax now," the Misshaper said, waving his hand. Kirby looked up. Other figures were gathering around the walled courtyard of the Bastion. They were a variety of figures in bright costumes.

"We ... they came for the sword," Kirby said. His pistol was gone, his fingers closed together into a fist. He looked up to see Anavr holding his pistol, observing it with cool curiousity.

Figures walked forward, some flew, and they took the Duke's body from him. Anavr motioned for him.

"Come along, we'll take you to the hospital."

"But the sword," Kirby said, feeling a crushing weariness blending with a small but rapidly growing pain that raced through his body.

"We'll post guards, in case the corrupted ones return." Kirby allowed himself to be helped to his feet and led away.

Chapter 10

Kirby woke up in a bed. He was in a large empty room. A large door to his left opened out onto a deck. The room was made out of a pale silver metal. The floor was tiled with off white square tiles.

He sat up in the bed, rubbing his face. His wounds were, if not gone, at least healed enough that he could not feel them. He looked down and saw that his clothing had been replaced. He was wearing a set of cotton clothing of the same drab yellow, the shirt was so long it extended to his knees, the pants were made of the same material and equally unremarkable. He looked around and saw a neatly folded pile of his clothing and other belongings, including his backpack full of equipment, placed against the wall next to the bed. He slowly put his feet on the ground and stood up, unsteadily.

He walked over to the pile of his belongings and began changing his clothing. His clothing, nearly shredded by the battle, were cleaned and repaired. He dressed quickly. His weaponry had been confiscated, including both pistols, his shotgun, and his other nasty tricks that the boys in the lab had mixed up for him. He did not expect the inhabitants of Haven to allow him to keep them anyway. He reached into his pack and pulled out a device the size of a CD case, on it was set a very thin screen. There was no door in the room which meant only one way out. He pulled on his backpack and walked out onto the deck. He lifted up the device and activated it. Supposedly it should home in on the tracking devices that he and the Duke each had on their person.

Nothing happened. The Duke had spoken earlier about interference from the city. Sighing, he slipped the device into his pack. He glanced over the edge of the deck and saw that the building descended down twenty or thirty floors. He turned around and walked back into his room. They don't want me dead, yet, he thought, and so perhaps I should wait. He set his pack down and sat down against the wall.

He pulled out some more of his equipment and began checking it. Some of his devices still worked, though most did not. He ate some of his rations and drank some water from his canteen. What felt like an hour or so later Anavr appeared in his room. There was no explosive burst of air or sound at all. One moment he was not there and the next he was.

Kirby looked up at him from where he sat against the wall. The Misshaper's brightly colored armor seemed to swirl before his eyes. He regarded Kirby with his pools of green eyes.

"You fight well, outsider," he said in a monotone voice. "You and your comrade slew at least two of the rogues."

"Where is my comrade?" Kirby asked, ignoring the comment of the Misshaper.

"He is being tended to, he is not as resilient as you are."

"So what now?" Kirby said as he stood up.

"Well, the King of Haven has been notified of the situation. The Bastion of Seclusion, artifact of the Silver Age, has been placed under guard. The creatures will not be allowed to gain entrance to the Bastion and claim the sword." Anavr said, folding his legs till he was sitting cross-legged. Three feet off of the floor. He hovered there, still as a mountain.

"Why are you helping us?" Kirby asked. The Misshaper smiled slightly with his thin lips.

"We don't want the competition, perhaps? The Liberty Force has sworn no alliegance to the King and are as much a threat to us as they are to you. But then a question that plagues me, is why are you helping <i>them</i>?"

"I'm not the only one to side with the humans. There were many of us."

"Yes, there had to be, otherwise the Ones of the Silver Age would have emerged whole and ... corrected things. But you, we saw what you were and are." Kirby said nothing. He walked out onto the deck and stared out at the city. The sky scrapers surrounded his building. Each one was different though. He saw one covered in plants. Another had floating space ship looking things docked to it.

"We are planning on leaving this world," the Misshaper said. Kirby turned, surprised.

"What? Why?"

"There is no place for us and our kind here. Perhaps somewhere else, like Mars, we can build for us a home to replace the one we lost."

"Why not try to-"

"We can't. At least we have not found a way yet. Crossing to this side is relatively easy with the aid of the humans, going back the other way ... is harder."

Kirby heard the sound of longing in the Misshaper's voice. The Misshaper closed his liquid filled eyes. "My people are on the other side. It is a lonely place, this world."

"Yeah," Kirby said. The Misshaper recovered and placed its feet back on the ground.

"We should leave this place, I'll take you to see your friend."

"That would be good." Anavr froze in place, he placed a hand to his ear.

"By the Lords of Reorder," he whispered. Kirby turned.

"What is it?" He had not finished speaking when he was in a completely different room. It was an armory of some kind. Hundreds of armored creatures, some more human looking than others, were swarming around, arming themselves with weapons off of racks and donning armor.

"We underestimated the madness of those who summoned the rogues." Anavr said softly.

"What's going on?"

"An army is descending on the city. The outlying sensor posts just picked this up." Anavr gestured to a wall where a screen appeared. It showed waves of figures of all shapes and sizes. All of them were wearing a red and blue suit that Kirby knew all too well.

"They brought over ..." He said, gasping.

"It looks like almost every surviving incarnation of Overman. Including support characters. And there," Anavr pointed in the background where a floating cruiser followed behind the horde of blue and red figures.

"There's the cultists. Come to see their work."

"But no one's ever brought through that many, how did they manage to do this?"

"We shall have to worry about that later, assuming we survive, of course," the Misshaper said, and Kirby thought he heard an edge of excitement in the alien's voice.

"Your weapons," the Misshaper said, and on the table before them appeared his weaponry and ammo. "We also have some armor that will probably fit you."

"No need," Kirby said, holstering his pistols. He reached back into his pack and pulled out the rainbow zinonium and handed that to Anavr.

"That should be of some help. Perhaps you can reproduce it. It's rainbow zinonium. It should weaken or kill a lot of those anomalies." Anavr blinked out of existence for a second and then was back, like an editing mistake in a movie.

"We will begin working on constructing weaponry at once, we thank you." Kirby checked his dark laser. It would probably be of no use here, so it set it aside. He hefted his shotgun and began loading it.

"They'll head straight for the Bastion," he said. "That's where I want to be. Perhaps we can contain them there."

Anavr nodded and blinked away. Kirby reached into his pocket and found the laminated piece of paper. He looked down at it once and then let it slip through his fingers on to the floor.

Chapter 11

Night had fallen. Kirby stood on the walls surrounding the courtyard. Above him spread out, like diamonds scattered on a purple blanket, the stars. They twinkled softly and peacefully, deceptively so since he knew that they were forever consuming themselves to death. He looked around. All around the Bastion were creatures and humans working with desperate energy. A majority of the cities population had been evacuated so quickly that Kirby suspected some aid from the Misshaper.

Weaponry was being positioned all around the Bastion. The space fleet had left to engage the oncoming horde of Overmen. Kirby strained to the West, through the buildings, where he saw faint bursts of red, yellow, and green light. His stomach began to curl inside his abdomen. He reached up to his communicator fitted into his ear.

"This is Kenrikson, any word on the Archduke Despair?" He asked, suspecting he may not have a chance later. A moment passed with the hiss of static. Then the response came.

"He has been evacuated from the city." Said the operator. Kirby sighed and switched to the combat channels. He had been assigned to a grouping of militia on the western face of the Bastion. Korak, a heavy browed heavy set man, stood to his right, his brutish features clashing with the sleek black power armor he wore, along with the rail gun he held in his hands. He saw Kirby looking and smiled, revealing extremely large and crooked teeth.

"Exciting, ain't it?" He said. Kirby half-smiled back and nodded. A-rone, the human looking fellow with a raven head, stood next to to Korak. He wore similar armor and carried the same kind of weapon, the long barrelled rifle of the rail gun. His deep black eyes revealed no emotion but his feathers ruffled.

"I hate waiting," cawed A-rone.

Zulei and T-56, the gray skinned big eyed little man, and the giant steel robot stood furth down the wall, T-56's frame now sported new deadly weaponry. Zulei carried a modified weapon for his small frame, Kirby did not know what it was, but it was no bigger than his pistol.

"Okay people, the fleet is withdrawing, they could not hold them at the boundaries." Said the commander, the King himself, Kirby suspected. He had an authoritive and calm voice. Kirby raised up his shotgun, he knew that the horde would be in close very soon.

It began as a rumble in the distance. Then the horde hit the outer defenses of the city. Shield flares strobed the night into moments frozen in time. The entire boundary exploded with weaponry fire. Kirby swallowed and braced himself. The buildings between the Bastion and the border of the city exploded as hundreds of brightly colored figures plunged straight through them, barrelling at the Bastion at supersonic speeds. The multiple sonic booms shattered glass all around the Bastion.

"Fire, fire!" Cried Zulei in his monotone voice. Kirby barely managed to have a chance to try and aim when something slammed into him, carrying him up into the air. He got a glimpse of a back of a man in a blue suit before they curved in air and slammed, with Kirby first, right into the stone ground of the walled plaza of the Bastion. They pierced right through the wall and landed in a tunnel filled to Kirby's ankle with water. It was nearly twenty feet wide and cylindrical. It was made out of a dull green metal. Kirby looked up to see the Overman from before, the Modern Age one. It still had the distant blue lights in dark sockets, only know the face was contorted with rage. He did not know how he could tell the difference, but he could, and he managed to get a hand on his pistol before the first punch came. Crack!

His head slammed back, into the water, smashing into the floor of the tunnel. More punches followed too fast to be seen, each one driving his head further back into the ground, until his head had broken through the metal itself, and the metal it self was beginning to heat up from the sheer speed and force of the impacts. His flesh seemed to contort, his bones shifted, and he felt himself falling into a swirling darkness. Overman reached down and gripped Kirby's shirt, lifting his limp body up easily and levitated, swiftly as if falling up, through the hole. Back up through the hole he drove through the floor of the plaza. He tossed Kirby's body aside. Kirby fought against the slow death of consciousness. He tried to move but found that his limbs were unresponsive, dead to his every effort to move.

Squinting up through the one eye he managed to open he saw Anavr appear, in full swirling silk armor, above Overman. Anavr's gaunt arm swung about and a large fountain of blood burst like a firecrack out of Overman's chest. He screamed and fell to his knees, but Anavr could not see the speeding blur of Overboy which approached from behind him, and Overboy burst through his chest, emerging from the otherside like the grotesque birth of a murderer. Overman stood up, and then was gone. Kirby tried to move. Anavr was still alive, although almost completely torn in two. His two green eyes turned to Kirby and Kirby watched him slowly stop breathing.

Kirby felt the Bastion defenders fall, more than saw it. He managed to see a few Overmen fall. Within moments it was over. He heard them cheering, he saw several of the Overmen collecting and piling the bodies, igniting them with their intense Overstare. He closed his eyes and screamed on the inside.

"Move! Move! Move!" He cried out in the hollow blackness of his mind. His right hand would move! It would move! With glacial slowness his right hand crept painfully and slowly towards his belt. Inside one of his pouches he dug out a small heavy box not unlike the kind rings were carried in. He brought it up and opened it. Inside was a small chunk of white looking stone the size of gumball. Taking a deep breath he swallowed the chunk. Not a heartbeat later he felt his body lifted up and he was tossed onto one of the flaming piles of corpses. The heat and stench of the dead, the dying, the burning, swarmed around him and he felt his heavy frame sinking in.

Overman, the Modern Age one, emerged from the Bastion. His wounds were completely healed. In his hand he carried a long straight sword, the blade glowing bright white. An aura light swirled around him. The hundreds of thousands of Overmen landed and knelt as one. He raised the sword high and crowed, rising up above them, flying to the center of the courtyard. Passing just past the burning corpse piles. He landed in the center of the courtyard and knelt down himself, holding the sword up by the glowing blade as if offering it to the empty air before him.

"At last the prison shall be broken," he said in a voice that could carry for miles. The world began to shake and the aura around the Overman seemed to concentrate in front of him as a hand made of the golden light seem to form before him, slowly, painfully reaching for the sword. Just then one of the piles of burning corpses exploded and a burning figure streaked up into the air, snatching the sword out of Overman's hands and carrying it away from the golden hand.

As Kirby touched the sword he felt a rush through him, as if he had closed a circuit, and the current flooded through him. The ash and the clothing he wore blew away and he stood in the air, clad in the blue and red costume, with the golden studs running around his collar. Not just any costume, though, his costume.

The Modern Age Overman paused, stunned.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"Kirby Kenrikson," Kirby said, "the Overman." He looked out at the hordes of Overmen, who hung on a thread, waiting to pounce on him and wrest the Sword of Overman from him. "Don't recognize me? I got a haircut."

He swung the Sword, and they died. All of them, as if the universe itself contorted to crush them, which, concerning that it was with the Sword of Overman that the Silver Age Overman cleaved time in two, might have just been what happened.

WHO ARE YOU? Boomed a voice in his head. Kirby squinted and looked to see a golden Overman made of light.

GIVE ME MY SWORD, IMPOSTER, it demanded, and so great was its will that Kirby fell to one knee, feeling his thoughts scattered. But he gritted his teeth and fought back, bringing about the Sword.

"You're the second rate copy here," he choked out, "I'm the original." Swinging the sword through the image. As it touched the Overman of light the world exploded in light and then plunged into cold darkness.