Saturday Super Stories - Mythology 109 Part 4

My name is Mercedes Whitman and I'm a hero on a foreign world. I am the daughter of two heroes, and was trapped on this Earth during an Event that sealed the way back home forever. They call me Black Sapphire when I’m out patrolling, and these are my Blogs.

Sapphire’s eyes snapped open and she gasped for breath.  She looked around wildly and her hands lashed out to try and grab anything solid just to prove to herself that she had awoken in the real world.

Her fingers dug deep into the stone of a side table and it cracked under the pressure of her strength, bits crumbled to the ground and rested quietly.  Then the screaming started from somewhere outside and she forced herself to stand.  Her legs held her wait and she pulled herself out of the room, bumping into the tables, chairs and walls and eventually the door.

A man in a top hat appeared in front of her.  She blinked at him and kept walking avoiding his gaze.  “You know what you must do Mercedes Whitman, save the Hunter, the Woman in White must not break free of this prison.”

“Shut up, you aren’t real, I’m sick and you’re a hallucination.”  She fell to her knee’s and continued moving toward the screaming.

“I am the Black King and it is my job to watch the Woman in White and keep her contained within the Hollow City which itself is the Black Room and her prison.”  His image flickered and he was in front of her again and this time his chest was glowing slightly illuminating his rib cage.  “I was once a man named George and my friend Clarissa asked me to watch over the void reborn, and I agreed because I am very powerful, if I wanted, even in this place I could rip the Earth apart with little effort.”

“I guess its good you’re a hero then.”  Sapphire paused and vomited all over the cobblestones.

“I never said I was a hero.”

Mythology 109 - Part 4 “…of all Trades”

The Woman in White carved Wynn’s chest slowly and she watched as the tattoo’s reflected his future and they always ended with him dead, and this pleased her.  The skin was flayed and she watched the muscle twist and turn as Wynn struggled against his bonds.

She began to laugh and watched as the Orrery twisted into a new position overhead.  Her freedom was at hand.

*******

Mercedes turned to look at the Black King.  “Then stop her.”

“Not my place, she is your responsibility.  Mine is making sure she does not leave this place, and she will not leave for it is her duty to choose a vessel to carry her special plague into the universe, and that door is quickly approaching us.”

Sapphire wretched one more time and forced herself to stand straight up.  “Okay chuckles I can save the universe once more with feeling.”  She clenched her hands at her side and steeled herself as another wave of temporal chaos pulled at her soul.  She took a breath and released and walked towards the continued screaming and broke into a run as it started to break off and start again.

She slide around the corner and to a stop as she saw the cities center for the first time and the fountain that Wynn was tied to, blood poured from the gaping wound in his chest, the flesh had been pulled back, the muscle lay loose around the edge and the woman in white had begun to crack the ribs open and tear them loose, casually dropping them to the ground at her feet.

Sapphire growled and ran, her speed augmented with her abilities and she leapt instantly releasing the speed and pumping up her muscles and strength to deliver a blow that tore through the shoulder of the woman and smashed it like porcelain.  She screamed and spun away as the force drove her from Wynn’s side.  The knife clattered across the cobbles away from them.

“You whore!!”  The Woman screamed at Sapphire.

“Been called once,” she smirked, “But I really need to ask what your deal is.  You seem to be leaking all over the place.”

The Woman grabbed her shoulder and the white energy pouring from the wound slowed to a stop and the shoulder regenerated before Sapphires eyes.  “He is the vessel to spread my divine word, he is perfect and you brought him to me in your pathetic quest to save your false father.  You cannot purge the darkness of the seed within him.  He is Death, and his goal is to claim the universe just as mine is its obliteration.”

“I would call you mad but everyone has a purpose, just like mine is to beat your ass and leave you stuck here and make sure the mystic society back on earth knows to never come here again.  You lose bitch.”  The Orrery overhead clicked into place and the energies of the Hollow City coalesced into another portal.  In a second Sapphire was slamming back into the woman and send her hurtling through the walls and across the city away from them. 

Sapphire smiled.  “It’s always nice to be able to hit something with full force and not have to worry about it dying.”  She pulled a blade from her pack and sliced the leather straps holding Wynn to the fountain, already his wounds were healing, the bones re-growing as the muscle shifted back into place and the flesh knitted the hole closed.  “Come on chief lets go home.”  She picked him up and started to leap into the portal.

His eyes snapped open and he pulled away from her as she passed into the event horizon of the mystic opening that pulled her back into reality, she managed a glimpse back before she was gone.  Wynn was sad and reaching into the healing hole as he fell back to the cobblestones and ripping his heart from the open wound which was glowing white, Sapphire could hear the Woman roaring in anger.  Wynn managed to mouth the word Sacrifice before she was gone and the heart exploded.

She slammed into the ground of Sham’bala and the Proctors were waiting, each had a different look of sadness on their face.  “Victory always comes at a huge price young one.”  Thaddeus said as he helped her to her feet.

“You won this day and lost an ally but the universe lives on.”  Kimalia spoke from his side.

“He lives on in you now,” Annelletta whispered, “but not literally.  Go home now, you’ve earned it.”

********

She finished her story of the last few weeks and waited for Walters to comment.  He stood up from the chair and his cane clicked on the stone floor.  He paused and glanced back over his shoulder at her.  “So you did all of that and accomplished nothing in the end.”

“I found out I can’t save Alex and stopped a god from destroying all of reality, so I would say I accomplished enough to keep me from getting fired.”  Sapphire retorted.

“Who said anything about getting fired?”  He replied.

“You did on the phone last week when you called to bitch at me for not watching the city.”

“I never called you…” He was interrupted as reverb from all of the speakers in the Avenging Cave turned on at once and a voice spoke a single word.

“ONE,” Walters turned to her and started to run as the first explosions shook the foundations and were quickly followed by secondary and tertiary Sapphire screamed as the flames overtook Walters and the concussion ripped into her.

YEAR ZERO coming this November, barring any unforeseen circumstance that is…

TBC in Stand Alone 10

Saturday Super Stories - Religion 108 Part 4

My name is Mercedes Whitman and I'm a hero on a foreign world. I am the daughter of two heroes, and was trapped on this Earth during an Event that sealed the way back home forever. They call me Black Sapphire when I’m out patrolling, and these are my Blogs.

Black Sapphire stood up and set down the book she had been reading.  “Jerusalem Walker really wrote down every single thing he ever did.  This is really, really boring.”  She rolled her head back and forth and listened to the sounds of the bones popping.

“That’s really gross you know.”  Wynn’s voice filtered through the stacks.

“Bruce Lee did it, makes it automatically awesome.”

“Yeah not so much, only a couple of hours left before whatever happens, happens.  So they want us to sit through a ritual for luck for whatever journey is going to take us and we need to head down now.”  Wynn finally appeared around one of the bends.

“Okay, let’s get ready.”

Religion 108 - Part 4 “The New Testament”

‘Let there be Light, and there was Light.’

‘But with Light there must be darkness.’

There once was a man from Chicago and he was a regular man with a regular life and lived quite the normal existence.  But one day he fell into the muti-verse and was lost for quite some time.   He shared in the adventures of heroes and villains until he landed in a dark world far in its future.  This place gnawed at his soul and a shadow took root deep inside of him and as they say ‘absolute power corrupts…’.

So in this black place his rose in power and became a Dark God, an echo for the three lights that burned in the heavens, the Light Gods that watched over this world.  A plan began to form and he realized with a growing intensity that he needed to extinguish those lights and when they were gone he could truly rule.

He gathered followers, like minded individuals, and together they formed an army, and they traveled into the past to kill Those Who Came Before.

The Spider watched as one of stars burned out moments after Andreas Darkk and his men left the future and traveled into the past.  Already the future was changing and as soon as it began it stopped.  Twin Stars burned in the heavens and no further changes occurred.  He turned to his pregnant wife and laid a hand on her belly.  “They must have stopped the invasion and sealed away his evil somehow.”  She smiled at him and rested her hand over his.

Behind them the Spider’s Legion roared in approval.

-------

The ritual finished as the moon reached its perfect fullness, and for a moment nothing happened, and then a portal rips open above the fountain that rested at the center of the nine points of the ley lines.

“I am so going to be fired.”  Sapphire grabbed Wynn’s hand and pulled him along as she leapt through into the unknown.  The portal snapped closed and the world was still for a moment before Thaddeus spoke up.

“I suppose that’s my fault.”

-------

Zero stood alone on a rooftop and waited for Sapphire to stumble upon the next number.  He smiled to himself as he thought over the plan and looked up as the plane from Europe flew over head as a massive power outage revealed the number two in the remaining lights.

His earpiece chirped as his informant on the plane signaled him.  “Sir she wasn’t on the plane as you expected.”  The brief burst fed through the speaker and gave him the readied message.

“Well shit, just where the hell is she?”

TBC in Last Legends of a Dying Earth

Saturday Super Stories - Religion 108 Part 2

My name is Mercedes Whitman and I'm a hero on a foreign world. I am the daughter of two heroes, and was trapped on this Earth during an Event that sealed the way back home forever. They call me Black Sapphire when I’m out patrolling, and these are my Blogs.

“Without me you wouldn't even have made it this far.”  Wynn shouted over his shoulder over the sound of the wind.

“What makes you say that?”  Sapphire responded back at him.

“You aren't magick for one, and you never would have passed the trials of the Grandwood.”  He retorted.

“Trials?! Seriously?”  Wynn nodded back at her.  “What kind of trials are we talking about?”

“Magickal ones obviously, they test your skills and resolve, and each one is more difficult than the last.”

Sapphire sighed, “How many are there?”

“Different for each individual, I had eleven when I came here; a few of my friends were in the single digits.  They say each of the Proctors had triple digits and that’s why they lead us, they have the most skill and wisdom of the whole city.”

“Alrighty then we still should have tried to transport here, Conjuressa has a pod.”

Wynn stopped and glared at her, “You really do not understand magick at all do you?  This place is unfindable by science, it exists in another phase space, touching at least one another dimension, the astral plane.  You cannot just ‘jump’ here willy nilly.”  Sapphire’s eyes were sad as she thought back on Walter’s words.

“ We've already wasted four days and we aren't even close to our goal.”  Wynn shook his head.

“The Grandwood plays with time we haven’t even lost a full day yet, and we’re here.”  He pulled a branch from the path and the Mystic City of Sham’bala lay before them.  “Hopefully you don’t manage to piss off their leaders and we can find out why we’re here.”

Religion 108 - Part 2 “Old Testament”

From Astronomy 102 Part 3

"Those who came before decided that if they were to be the Deities of this new universe that they had forged on the bones of the one before, they must purge themselves of the traits that might affect their judgment. So my brothers and sisters and I were born. Each of us an embodiment of an attribute they found to be cumbersome.

"Eons passed and eventually some of us began to war with one another, this was a dark time for us. By the time everything was said and done, there were only a few of us left. The remains of my brothers and sisters evolved in the ether, and became what humanity has come to call the Star Force."

"The Star Force is the remains of dead Gods?” Spectacular was genuinely surprised and astounded. “Fascinating.”

"They who were slain were scattered apart; and some of their essence evolved into the Star Force and the rest of their life force became the stars that burn in the heavens."

The War of Sorrows itself erupted many years after we were created by Those Who Came Before.  It was fueled by Jealousy and Avarice as they mounted a two sided assault against all of us in a bid for the power that they were able to claim for themselves after one of us fell.

We did not know at the time that we could lose our essence to another.  Cowardice was the first to fall, one day he was just gone, and then some of the other, weaker entities were attacked and then the sides and the line were drawn.  Two leaders emerged and other powerful emotions picked their sides and some tried to remain neutral as long as they possibly could.  That did not last long.

The War raged for centuries and many of died or were consumed by the others, only a few of us remained active in the following years.  In this age I alone remain, because I alone need to feed on the universes Chaos.  Somewhere Hope is being rekindled, she grows within herself and will be reborn when the time is right and on that day the universe will feel her and once again feel her, for that was her true power.

I fear that day will not come soon enough, forces are constantly in action against Hope, and try to keep Hope at bay, but she cannot and will not be contained or shackled, Hope springs eternal.

But some of them lost so much of themselves when they died, what they had been was lost too.  There is not a Star Force for each of the emotional states that were purged, but some of the strongest have representatives.  I must also make the mention that some of the stars themselves became Star Forces, but these rare few were not powered by the emotions but they were pure, driven excellence, and they are the most powerful.

One of them is on your Earth now, the Dawnbringer, the king of the second born Star Force.

Excerpt from a Talk with Gods by Richard Reader aka Spectacular.

TBC in Religion 108 Part 3

Team-Building 104 - Part 4L

Team-Building 104: Part 4L - "The Voyage Home: The Harvest"

7 Days Ago – The armor touched down safely on the rooftop of one of the tallest buildings in Megalopolis and immediately started to klaxon loudly. It didn’t take long for the resident superheroes to arrive on the scene to investigate.

“What are you doing here?” SuperDude asked it.

“Looking for you, actually,” It responded. “I have been sent by the government of the United States in an attempt to recruit you to be a part of a team of like-minded individuals.”

“That work at the beck and call of the bureaucrats?”

“Not entirely. I work with a business man that will be able to provide funding should we need it. But the government is starting to grow scared of the amount of heroes/vigilantes that are popping up these days and does, in a way, want to police them. That’s why they are forming the WMD, the Weapons of Mass Destruction. If I am able to gather enough people, there are plans for a small satellite group called the IED.”

“It seems like a solid idea. Let me think about it Mr…?”

“Warmonger. I am called Warmonger.”

6 Days Ago – “What in blazes?” His fingers stabbed at the keyboard and pulled up the satellite imagery. A small craft was entering the Earth’s atmosphere and heading towards North America. He started to get readings and suddenly it vanished. He growled under his breath and set another program to estimate where it was headed based of the telemetry.

Several hours passed and he had a guess. New York City. Suddenly another computer pinged as strange readings appeared in Megalopolis. The Dark Avenger stood and pulled on his cowl.  It was time to meet the man called SuperDude by the press.

5 Days Ago – The Dark Avenger watched the one called SuperDude from the shadows on top of a building nearby. The readings had led him to an alien being attacking the hero of Megalopolis. He watched as they talked; a guttural growling noise that ended in a question. He dropped down and spoke up. "Not everyone likes you."

* * *
Thomas walked through the streets of downtown Detroit searching for the local hero he had heard rumors of, a young black youth who called himself Jive. Apparently he was a sound-manipulator of some kind.

He rounded the corner as two thugs peeled away from the shadows of an alley to follow him. They were quickly joined by another two and then a fifth. He smiled and continued to walk until they totaled seven strong. He stopped in the middle of the street and turned to acknowledge them.

“Evening, gents. I don’t suppose you’re the welcoming committee?” They snickered and two pulled out knives.

“That’s funny. Rich guy like you gots to have a wad of cash on you as thick as my…” A roar ripped through the street and he was blasted right out of his shoes and into the wall next to a parked car.

“JIVE!”

“Damn right!”

4 Days Ago – SuperDude frowned at the position of leadership, but everyone seemed to listen  to him. Amazona had taken off to find her ‘god’ and they were headed to a Veterans Hospital outside of New York City on the insistence of ‘Jack Rabbit’. He secretly wished that this Dark Avenger fellow would step forward and flat out say he wanted to lead but he could feel him nudging him in the right direction. Within a day and a half they already had five people, and possibly by days end two more. How many powered people were out there in the world?

3 Days Ago – Finding the Mystic City of Sham’bala had been difficult and the recruitment of one of its most powerful sorceresses had been surprisingly easy. She had been bored and eager to escape the confines of her ‘prison’ to go out and visit the real world beyond the mountains and fogs that hid the city from the world. She had mentioned another student of the magickal arts who may be useful; a master who could use literary works to summon assistance.

* * *

She was called the Wolf and she was tracking poachers through the wilds of Africa. They had been killing elephants and harvesting their ivory for weeks.  She had begun to track them down and eliminate them one by one.

Night had slowly crept in and she was nearing the final camp deep in wilds. She had lost the scent hours ago but she knew deep in her soul that she was close. Suddenly the night was lit up by a flare and she turned in the direction of it, moving slowly.

Sounds of fighting came in with the wind. She moved faster and witnessed a heavily armored warrior fighting against the remaining poachers. Their guns fired uselessly against the metal hide and she thought she could hear it laughing at their attempt.

She paused and pulled the hood around her and shifted into her wolfen form, growing in size and strength. Calling on the gifts of her ancestors filled her with awe and calm, knowing that she was carrying on the heritage of her people.

Leaping into the fray against the poachers caused immediate panic among them, and gave the armored warrior pause for a moment.

“Wolf?” It asked in a male metallic voice. She growled in response and began her attack. “Oh, she’s gonna be a complicated one…”

2 Days Ago – They watched from the shadows as William Tell ran around his city using whatever technique he could to go from place to place quickly. His accuracy was deadly when needed but also passive. In a matter of several hours he had caught several looters, robbers and he was tracking a rapist.

“He is going to kill that man.” SuperDude spoke up from the long quiet.
The Dark Avengers eye’s narrowed. “You’re right. We have to step in.”

1 Day Ago – “I know of a ship that can get us to the depths where we think this city is.” Jack said when they were flying towards England.

“Really?” The Dark Avenger said over his shoulder.

“I wasn’t always a hero. For a while I was a pretty damn good explorer of the unknown. That’s how I stumbled on to Amazona and her people. We have a ship that I modeled after the Nautilus from that book.” Jack seemed proud as he reflected.

“That’s better than the submarine I would have stolen, I suppose.” The Dark Avenger smirked.

* * *

Warmonger had recruited his last two heroes in Brazil and Antartica; a plasma-wielder protecting his village from slavers and the Columbian Mob attempting to find a beachhead to move their businesses forward. The other was a creature made of energy, hiding in the icy wastes to avoid killing anyone because of its nature.

Thomas had convinced them easily to come to America and attempt a new life there. So he had picked up the others from one of his bases and started to track the attacks on the other heroes, some of which had hit the news. ALIENS ATTACK EARTH, the headlines blared.

Now…

::MANY OF OUR BROTHERS HAVE BEEN KILLED BY THIS WORLD!!::
::THOUGH WHEN WE CAME HERE WE WERE ONLY THIRTY FIVE HIGH-BLOOD STRONG, WE NOW HAVE A HUNDRED LOW-BLOODS!::
::WE SIT UPON THE PRECIPICE OF AN ANCIENT STAR FORCE THAT POWERS THE HIVE MACHINE AND BOLSTERS OUR NUMBERS!!::
::THE PRIME ARRIVES SOON, AND WITH HIM WE CAN TAKE THIS WORLD... AND THEN THE UNIVERSE!!::

The Harvesters roared in agreement.

********

SuperDude spoke to the Harvesters as they exited their ship. “We do not wish to fight you. Get back in your ship and leave the Earth and we will allow you to do so as long as you promise to never return to this place.”

“Do you really think that will work, buffoon?” Amazona called up to him. SuperDude shrugged.

::YOU WILL FEED US FOR CENTURIES ALONE, FLYING ONE!! WE WILL TAKE THE PRIME AND ALL OF THE OTHER SUB-FORCES AROUND US. THEN WE WILL DIG AND TAKE FROM THE SOIL!!::

Conjuressa gasps quietly.

SuperDude looks down at her. “You understood that?”

She nodded.

“We all understood that.” The Dark Avenger said. “She magicked us, I think.”

She nodded again. “Understand, but not speak it. Our throats won’t make those sounds. I have no idea how SuperDude is able to,” she frowned.

::SILENCE!! YOU ALL STAND IN THE WAY OF THE HARVEST, AND WILL DIE OR BE CONSUMED!!::

The Harvesters all leapt forward and began the attack on the WMD and the IED.

* * *

A pair of Harvesters circled below SuperDude as he hovered above them. They glowered up at him and punched a few buttons on their harnesses and twisted a dial. He felt energy drain from him. He glared back at them and plasma lanced from eyes and slammed into them, superheating the metal and burning their skin.

“They still seem to want to eat me.”

“No shit?” Conjuressa said. Fire blasted from her hands and froze three smaller Harvesters in place. “HAH HAH FUCKERS!! Didn’t see that coming did ya, bitches?!”

* * *

The Dark Avenger took two quick steps forward and drew a large knife from the small of his back. Spinning around as he drove the blade into the elbow joint of one of the Harvesters he sliced clean through the bone and muscle dropping the limb to the ground. It roared in defiance. “I think I noticed something.” He spoke into his headpiece. “Each one this guys has an insignia on their harness at the left shoulder. Like a rising sun only the rays are between two and seven in number. The five, six, and sevens all drop pretty easy.  Whoever is number one is the leader.”

“I have eyes on number one, he’s coming out of the ship and he looks... human.” SuperDude spoke and he flew overhead providing support where it was needed.

* * *

Warmonger spoke up finally, “I’m inside the ship.”

SuperDude glanced to the armor fighting three of Harvesters by itself. “I can see you fighting --” he started, before being interrupted.

“Yeah, I multitask really well. Anyways, they have some crazy readings in here, and if I’m reading this correctly their main objective is SuperDude and secondary targets are Conjuressa, Amazona, King Hrolf, King Carp and Jack Rabbit. Plus they are mining some kind of power source from Central Park and I think they have one chained in their ship.”

“We need to crack the ship open then, and release it, and that will stop the harvest of the Central Park source.” SuperDude said.

“Can you upload the ships specs to me?” The Dark Avenger asked.

“It’s uploading now.”

“Enough talking,” Amazona ripped the insides from one of the aliens and swung them into the oncoming horde of weaker ones attempting to overwhelm her. Hrolf dropped down and sliced through three of them in a single swing.

“I agree.” He said before spinning around and bringing another two down.

“Keep them busy and I’ll figure out the weak spot on the ship and have SuperDude crack it open like an egg.”

“We also need to figure out what the leader is planning. He’s just standing there, and I think he has some kind of shield protecting him.,” Jack Rabbit responded.

“Why do you say that?”

“I keep getting bounced or shuffled away from him when I get close. A few feet for sure are no man’s land.”

“Damn.” The Dark Avenger started reviewing the schematics and knelt down as his brain worked through the information.

* * *

Jive spoke up, “I got this one.” He opened up his mouth as wide as it would go and began to scream. It was a slow build, and low, until it started to build towards its crescendo which erupted in a cone outward from him. Waves of soil were pushed away as the sound headed for the ship. The ship rang like a bell when the sound wave first struck it, and then it began to vibrate.

The heroes defended Jive from the waves of Harvesters looking to protect their home, ship, and food supply from the attack. Finally the ship cracked along the seam that the Dark Avenger had spotted and the roof slid open. The ground started to rumble along with the ship as light spilled forth from the opening.

One massive shudder ran the entire length of Central Park, knocking everyone to the ground. The ship hopped into the air, the landing struts ripping free of the soil beneath them. Trees toppled and a wave of water crashed against the far bank of the lake.

The Harvesters seemed to panic with these developments, some fumbling with their harnesses which seemed powerless now. The weaker of the Harvesters collapsed as if drained or they just had their strings cut by an invisible puppet master. The remaining High Blood dropped their weapons and placed themselves on the ground in a passive position, surrendering.

“Well I would have loved to say that was easy…” Rabbit popped in.

“It’s not done yet.” The Dark Avenger said. “The leader is still standing.”

“He didn’t fall when all of you did, either.” SuperDude said.  He turned in the air to face the leader. “We’ve beaten you. Surrender now and perhaps we can confine you to a lower security prison and not the SPIRaL.”

The leader began to laugh. “That’s funny. I cannot be contained. I am the last survivor of a dead universe. I have lived countless eons alone. That is until I found the Harvesters, parasites eating at the edge of existence. They need the Star Force to live and I needed pawns to break free of my tether in the dead universe I was lost in. So we struck an accord. I fed them one of the greatest Star Forces ever created and brought them here as soon as I could sense another like myself out in the void. A few weeks ago I sensed one.” He paced back and forth on the ground in front of the ship as the soil continued to churn.

“Are you seriously doing a monologue? Wait does this make him our arch-enemy or something?” Jack Rabbit asked.

“That does seem to be the case.” SuperDude responded. “Do you have a name, fella?”

“Yes I do, but unfortunately I tire of this game. We shall soon meet again.” The leader vanished in a pop.

“So.. we won?”

TBC in Team-Building: The Epilogue

Team-Building 104 - Part 3G

Team-Building 104: Part 3G "Galaxy Quest: Insurrection"

"KIMBO BLASTAR YEVETTE!!" She shouted at the Harvestor stalking towards her. Bright bursts of chaotic light raced from her fingertips and struck the key points along the alien's life lines. It screamed in terror and took a step away from her. The harness on its chest started to blink and whine and it managed another step towards her.

"RAMBUDONE!!" Pink chains leapt from her chest and wrapped around its limbs. She took a step backwards and the creature followed suit. She smiled.

"ALLAVETTE TRIGGODONE YAYYOOE!!" The chains started to spin as she released the tether that bound the magic between them from her chest. Then like a chainsaw it ripped through the aliens flesh and tore the limbs from its body, the head and torso smacking into the cobblestones like discarded meat at a slaughterhouse.

She snapped the fingers on her right hand and spoke, "KEEYOE SIMMALARE!!" The pieces of the alien smashed back together and ground into one another, taking up less space with each pulse of the aliens heart, until it was gone.

"So what the fuck did you guys want?"

**********

Before the Earth had cooled two souls were bound in its stone. Powerful beings that had died in a war of jealousy and rage. One was of anger and hate and the blackest evil, the other inherently good and strong in spirit. The Earth was balanced by these two and over the eons fed the world.

Magick.

Few among humanity are gifted with the ability to harness the power latent in the souls of the Earth. Those that are able are soon called to one of two places nestled deep in the hidden recesses of the planet. Two cities. The Mystic City of Sham'bala or the Dark City of Carcass. The Mystic City is deep in the mountains of Europe, hidden in the climbs and valleys. The Dark City is rotting in the jungles of South America. There are satellite cities at junction points around the world. They are small and spread out from a small temple directly over two of the lei lines.

The Mystic and Dark Cities sit on a major site for the lei lines, eight cardinal points join and align with the Grand Line which is one of the paths of the universe. In the Mystic City a fountain was built on this spot and its waters have amazing properties. In the Dark City the fountain is one of legend, searched for by many and those who found it were destroyed by the darkness instead of given youth as the legends promised.

The history of the Dark City will come soon but for now we focus on the Mystic City. Two paths spiral down from the lip, a perfect helix. The whole of the city was designed by the First People, and crafted to utilize the Good into energy and power to aid in the formation of the civilized world around them. There are seven levels which hold houses and businesses and schools and dojo's. Each level is significant in its power, and the closer to level one, or the bottom, the more powerful the abilities of the people of that level.

In the current era three Proctors rule over the Mystic City, Anneletta the High Priestess, Thaddeus the Master of Arms, and Kimalia the Judge. Together they are the law. The city is a well-oiled machine with one exception: Wendy Zatanikoff, teenage girl with more raw magickal talent than half of the city.

"She's a trouble-maker that one." Thaddeus said.

"Just like her mother, Ancient Ones bless her soul." Kimalia replied.

In this Age of Powers, Magick is making itself known, and loudly.

TBC in Team-Building 104: Part 3H