The Corporal began to punch the keys on a small computer he had strapped to his left-forearm, hacking into the Celestials' mainframe and bringing up all the information for his General. The Corporal pointed in the direction that would be the first point of attack.
Turning to Assault, Magnum asked, “Officer 0563, you're welcome to join us. But only under my command, of course,” she smiled.
“Of course,” Assault nodded.
The night drew long and cold as CIMA marched their way through the corpses of the hundreds of dead Celestials that carpeted the city's streets. Nothing stood in their way. They encountered no Mutants. However, a horrifying presence crawled up and down their spine, laying a dubious feeling at the bottom of their guts
Their foe was Syn, the devil himself - the murderer of children, the destroyer of worlds. Their only advantage was their number against the two remaining Mutants.
As they approached the palace, the ominous silence was broken by the staccato echo of plasma and combat weapons fire. A concussive blast followed as a high fragmentation grenade exploded within the area. It was followed by an outburst of frenzied screaming. Assault broke away from the platoon, running down the hall toward his friends' screams.
“Assault!” Magnum exclaimed, “We had an agreement! Only to move on my orders!” Tightly gripping her rifle, the General hurriedly lead her soldiers toward the fire fight.
Camouflaged within the smoky shadows of the palace, Assault yelled back, “Shoot me if you want, General, but those are my friends screaming in there.”
In the midst of Rebel’s clumsiness, the Mutant had dropped an explosive, causing a concussive whump. The blast caused the floor of the palace to give, creating a sink hole. Nightmarish creatures came crawling out, searching for destruction. In the dark chamber, new unexpected guests visited Joseph, Martinez, Elissa, Syn and Rebel.
“What the …?” Both Mutant Killers and Headhunters shifted their weapons as they met their new adversaries.
A bright red flash from a laser sight beamed onto the center of Rebel’s chest. The Mutant looked down, puzzled at the neon shape centered on his torso. Suddenly, his chest exploded in a mist of blood and guts.
A moment of stunned, unreal shock, drifted in the air, then Syn screamed with rage at the death of the last of his gang. He fired his pistol blindly in the direction of the attack, unable to see his new enemy because of his blinding fury.
Joseph embraced Elissa as together they hit the ground. “Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yes. But what is that?”
Crashing through the chamber door, Assault ran over to assist his friends. Joseph motioned to him with a jerk of his head, and together they began to fire their rifles simultaneously, joining Syn in blasting at their newest assailants.
They all ducked as a statue of the late Emperor of Celestial exploded into a vicious white-haired phantom that rose above their heads, its arms reaching out for anything and everything.
What was this specter? Where had it come from?
The phantom glided about the room, then stopped above Elissa. It reached down to lovingly caress her, but Joseph moved his body to intercept the specter's touch.
The translucent being turned its head as the soldiers of CIMA entered the room. In all their years of battling otherworldly beings, they had never encountered such a thing.
“What the...?” the point gunner tried to speak, but found himself without words to explain what he saw and what he felt.
“Say, Spade, isn't that your momma,” a hotheaded private joked.
Ignoring them as insignificant, the phantom turned back to what it had come for - the Empress. Looking at the individual that blocked its prey, the evil spirit swatted Joseph aside and grabbed the Empress firmly in its clutches; it floated over to the chasm in the floor and disappeared with her into the depths of the abyss.
Joseph raced to the huge crack in the ground, and peered into it, but immediately fell back in horror as an evil-looking woman rose from the depths of the Celestial hell.
“I am Astasia,” the woman hissed. “I've taken your Empress and I'll soon take her world. I'm giving you three hours to evacuate. Or you'll perish a slow and agonizing death under my rule. Remember three hours and this world is mine.” The necromancer looked directly at Joseph, smiled, and then vanished into the dark gorge.
“Joseph,” Martinez spoke. “The evil presence that's been tugging at my soul... “
“Was what we just encountered?” he finished.
“Actually, she's only a small part of the Darkness I've sensed.”
“You mean there are more like that bitch?”
Walking across the bullet-riddled floor towards him, the General interrupted before Martinez could answer.
“Are you Joseph Blades?”
“Yeah and who the hell are you?” Knowing the answer by looking at her uniform. He didn’t really care; all he wanted was to go after Elissa and hold her safe in his arms.
“I'm General Magnum of CIMA. I’ve a warrant for your arrest.”
“For what? On what charges? And they better be good because you're gonna have to drag my lifeless, mangled body off this planet now, sister. That’s my woman down there with that devil bitch. No one is going to keep me from going after her.”
“We have our orders, MK. We are to hold you while we assume the rescue of Celestial and its Empress. ATFIP doesn’t want you to interfere with this mission. You will be released once this operation is over.” She was by-the-book and always followed orders.
“General,” Assault jumped at the chance to help his friend, “why don't you and your posse arrest the real criminal. There’s your Mutant.” He pointed to Syn, who was staring at the gorge where the evil queen had disappeared. A look of horror and doom scarred his face.
“Your squad could do something useful. Like gathering the surviving people of this planet, and getting them safely out of here. You can arrest Blades if there is anything left of us in three hours.” He continued.
There was a short pause before she smiled, then she nodded in agreement.
“This isn’t over between you and me, Blades,” the General sternly stated.
Turning to her soldiers she ordered, “Spade. Aldo. I want you two to lead the squad in a search for survivors. We'll get everyone we can find out of here before our three hours are up. Call for backup if you have to.”
The two soldiers quickly left the chamber, leading their platoon on a Celestial hunt. As Syn walked up to Joseph, everyone in the chamber watched, not knowing what to expect from the Mutant. Assault, Martinez, and the General all gripped their rifles, ready to expect the worst.
Syn was met with a huge fist to the upper lip. It sent him slowly to the ground.
“You should have teleported your sorry ass out of here while you had a chance, Scum,” Joseph sneered.
Syn just lay there, whimpering in horror.
“This game’s over, right here.” The General walked over and placed magnetized shackles around Syn’s wrists. “I’m taking Syn into custody at once.” One of her men placed a Mutant skull cap on his head and another shackled his ankles and led him away.
Seconds later, there was a huge crash as part of the palace's ceiling rained onto the floor. Joseph and the others gazed through the fallout to find a huge metallic sphere lying in the middle of the chamber floor. They all aimed their weapons at the huge object.
A small door slid open, and Johnny Mo, along with Dr. Drexl, emerged from the dimension hopping sphere.
“I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto,” Johnny spoke to Drexl.
“Joseph!” He yelled to his old friend as he leaped from the sphere. Turning he helped the weakened old man from the D-Ball.
“I made it,” Mo smiled at Joseph as he walked towards him. Then, as he looked around at the chamber's remains, his grin slowly slipped away. “Did I miss the party?”
“We would have saved you a piece of cake, if we'd known you were coming,” Joseph smil
ed as he embraced his old friend. “What happened to you?”
“I did a lil' dimension hopping. Some fun. You should try it sometime.”
“No thanks. It's not my style,” Joseph replied.
Assault walked around the sphere and into Mo’s sight. “Victor? I didn't know you'd be here.” Mo was surprised to see his old friend’s united.
“Well, I am, Crazy Man.” The two embraced.
“Okay, okay.” He nodded his head. “Now the real party can start.”
“Joseph. Assault. I'd like you to meet Dr. Drexl.” He stepped aside so they could both greet the old man. “Without him I wouldn't have been able to escape the Chasseur Dimension.”
“So that's where you went?” Martinez asked as she walked up to the man.
“Well... who's this lovely, young gal?” Mo smiled, as he turned to look at Jenny.
“You remember Jenny Martinez. My MK partner. Uh, she’s the reason you ended up on the wrong planet.” Joseph answered as his two friends shook hands.
“My, you’ve grown up some in the last few years.” Crazy Mo winked at her.
“She's not your type, Crazy,” Assault replied wryly.
“And why not?” He asked, his eyes never leaving Martinez' body.
“Remember, she's a Mutant,” Assault told him, expecting his old friend to pull his weapon on her like he would have when they were soldiers. Johnny Mo was known to walk up to Mutants in broad daylight and smoke them . . . thinking they were the Devil's children. A few years in a penal colony incarcerated with Mutants had helped to change his mind about neosapiens.
“She was teleporting you here to help us when she took a bullet and lost you in the process.” Joseph stepped between Jenny and Crazy.
“Hey, all’s forgiven. No harm done.” He winked and smiled at Martinez. He thumped his chest and flexed his biceps.
Martinez just blinked and looked at Joseph.
“Listen, Romeo, let’s catch you up on the real reason you’re here,” Joseph intervened and led him away from Jenny.
Elissa was being frisked and handled by the disgusting, little creatures that inhabited the underworld. She couldn’t wait for Joseph to save her; she was going to have to save herself from the clutches of evil. Her people were once mighty warriors, and she was their Empress. Inner power and adrenaline fiercely flowed through her extremities. The elegant, pampered Empress had not forgotten all she had been trained to do. She seethed with a savage, barbaric rage. She hit, kicked, and clawed as she began to rid herself of the little creatures one-by-one, but the many creatures outnumbered and overpowered the Empress of Celestial, pinning her to the ground. But for a brief moment, Elissa had savored the excitement of putting up a fight.
Even now as she lay struggling on the ground, she kicked at the hideous little beings, wanting to crush their small, bony skulls with her bare fists. If she only had three hours to save her planet, she had to do something. She had to fight back!
On the surface, Joseph and the others had gone over the many possibilities on how to enter the Celestial Underworld. They had settled for the obvious, scaling down the edge of the crack in the chamber and into the abyss. But that would take too long. It might be miles down to the level where the creature held Elissa. Then Joseph came up with the obvious.
“Jenny, can you transport us all down there with your powers?”
“I could try. If I have total concentration and no disturbance. I would have to send you to a nearby dimension for just a few seconds, and then send you into the abyss.”
“Great! Then do it!” he replied.
“I don't know, Joseph,” Johnny spoke up. “She tried that with me and look where I ended up.” He didn’t relish visiting Chasseur any time soon. At least not until the hunter beast had starved itself to death.
“There is another way,” Jenny started. “If all four of us combine our concentration, together we can teleport down there without having to bounce off another dimension first. Together I know we can defeat that evil creature down there.”
“You can do that? Hook our brains to yours and get us down there?”
“What I am saying is we can combine our neosapien abilities and help each other.” She tentatively looked at each one.
“What are you saying?” Assault frowned. Crazy looked around the room, searching for the neosapiens to whom she was referring.
“The reason all of you have been so successful all these years against the Mutant resistance is because all three of you – Johnny, Assault, and Joseph – are one of us. You three are neosapiens.” She carefully didn’t use the word Mutant.
“That’s bullshit.” Assault snarled. The other two stood in silent disbelief.
“It’s a long story and we don’t have the time, literally, for me to explain it, but the three of you are part of a legion of good neosapiens, supernatural neosapiens that were nurtured from birth to help the humans against the stronger evil… Mutants, as you call them.”
Joseph was the first to accept that what she said made sense. It was something he suspected from the start. He knew that his ability to communicate telepathically with Jenny all these years was not only because of her ability. He knew he had been born with super human strength. It wasn’t all due to his diet and exercise regimen. He knew he had keen senses. He could “feel” others without them making a sound. He had often seen little difference between what he could do and what Jenny could do.
“Crazy,” Johnny shook his head. Was this why mechanics came so easy to him? He could put together complex machinery with little more than a few bolts and wires.
“But our birth records list us as humans,” said Assault.
“So do mine,” commented Jenny. “Every time they test me, I test human. What gives me away are my ‘powers’.”
“Listen, we can stand here all day and argue about our pedigrees, or we can get down there and save Elissa. Clue us in, Jen.” Joseph just wanted to save Elissa.
“Why am I here?” Elissa asked her captor.
The evil underworld queen sneered at the Empress. Elissa's eyes were bloodshot. Her hair a mess. Her clothes torn. Her actions and movements frantic with power and hysteria. She had evolved into a warrior in the truest sense.
“For many reasons,” the devil’s consort hissed. “You are here to lure The Mutant Killer to me. While you live he will try to rescue you. He will find a way to get down here to you and prove his worthiness to be my partner. You are here because I want to rule the galaxy and it will be much easier once I’ve taken your world and made The Mutant Killer the warlord of my armies. With him on our side, the Dark Forces will be unconquerable. He can choose to be immortal or he can choose to die.”
“He won't join you,” Elissa growled.
“Then he will die,” Astasia kept her cool, as her hostage grew more and more angered. “But you underestimate my power to seduce him. First he must reach the center of the Underworld and prove his worthiness,” the temptress laughed. “Then I have the pleasure to convince him to accept his heritage and his destiny.”
“Who are you?” If Elissa knew more about her adversary, she might be able to find a way to fight her. “Have you always lived down here in the center of my peaceful world?”
“No, why would I live in such an insignificant planet? I've come through the Great Vortex. Where I come from there are no limits to time and space.” She smiled. “I am here to take over your dimension and in the process to make Susana Crow's son my own.”
“Susana Crow? Joseph's mother?” Joseph had told her stories about his legendary mother, the strong fighter that she was and how he loved and admired her. General Susana Crow led the United Militaries to victory during Armageddon. Little was known about his father, but his mother was a great historical figure. Her death had saved millions of lives, including Joseph’s.
Astasia knelt, as if praying, over a stone manifestation of rotting flesh and skulls of old Celestials. Smoke from a small fire and a horrid stench from a wild concoction, brewed
above her and filtered through the darkness of the Underworld.
As she hummed an otherworldly devil's hymn, she sliced her left-palm with the razor thin fingernail of her right-forefinger. Four drops of her wickedly evil blood dripped into a stone cauldron.
She lifted her head as she poured the brewing concoction into the cauldron, and hissed. “Spirits of the Dark... I call upon you to do my bidding. Bring me the soul of the autistic one. My twin-sister.” As her voice faded, a screaming dark shadow erupted from the flaming cauldron. Then it floated off into the dark to do its undertaking.
Astasia lifted a crystal eye, gazing into the beautiful prism as it focused onto Jenny.
“Sister… my twin,” she spoke aloud, surprising the toughened Elissa, “we'll soon be together as one.”
In the main chamber of the palace, Martinez sat in a secluded corner, preparing herself for the great battle that awaited her and her fellow Mutant Killers in the underbelly of the planet.
While meditating in an attempt to prepare herself, her eyes suddenly flew open. She screamed, a deep and horrendous cry, and fell to her side. Joseph ran to her assistance and knelt beside her.
“What is it, Jenny?”
“I knew I should have left when I had a chance. But the Spirits... the spirits are calling for me again. But this time they're coming for me,” she cried.
Joseph saw the fear in her eyes.
“Don't worry. We'll protect you, Jenny.” Though he sounded confident, he did not know if any of them stood a chance against the spirits of the underworld. Up to now they had only warred against flesh and blood Mutants.
Then, as Joseph and the others watched horrified and helpless, a screaming shadow suddenly appeared before her. Martinez' body fought at first as the shadow engulfed her, but soon she disappeared before their very eyes.
With Martinez gone, Joseph and the Mutant Killers would have to enter the underworld on their own. They would have to acknowledge and embrace their Mutant powers. They no longer had any other choice.
Joseph and the Mutant Killers Page 5
