Zahn smiled, gazing at a picture of the Dark Prince, hanging on the wall, as it slowly transformed into a picture of a fifty-two year old Joseph. Zahn had never known his son. He had been born a millennium after his son's death. But he stilled loved his son, which was why he had sent Jenny Martinez as an unknowingly “Guardian Angel” – a counter balance to her twin sister, and to keep the Dark Queen from destroying Joseph’s spirit and making him her Dark Liege. They had succeeded in reversing history and maybe changing present time.
... the Legacy begins...
BOOK TWO—
Mutant Killers
The year 3275, a shuttle had been drifting through space for a millennium. It plunged towards the gray, rolling atmosphere of the Elysian world. There was nothing attractive about the dark clouds that obscured the planet's surface. No indication of life. Yet, the instruments on board the shuttle indicated the presence of human inhabitants.
The shuttle came from another time, another world, another dimension. It descended to the surface of Elysian in an acute angle - touching down on a relatively smooth beach of black sand.
Joseph slowly crawled out of the ship's cockpit and was greeted by the planet's inhabitants - the Imperial Freedom Fighters. They were all individuals who had seen much war.
An unfamiliar voice called to Joseph from within the crowd of rebels, “My son!”
He looked up to find a battle-thrashed old man walking towards him. He opened his arms and embraced Joseph.
“Father?” It was all too surreal for Joseph to comprehend.
Gently pushing away from him, Zahn spoke, “Yes. I am your father. It is unfortunate that this is the only way we will ever meet. As you can see,” he waved his arm out to his side to point at the war-beaten horizon, “my world has needed me.”
“This is only a dream, my son. A dream that is taking place within your subconscious. When you awake nothing will have changed. Everything will have remain the same.”
“Father, wait! I don’t want this to end.” Joseph begged. “I want you to stay, father. I miss mother. I never knew what it was like to have two parents to love and be loved.”
“And I never knew how it felt to have a wife ... or a son. But it can never be. Your mother Susana was the only woman I ever loved. I don’t exist in your lifetime, but I know all about you. I came from the future to give you a warning.”
“What is that, father?”
“I am not supposed to interfere in the past but if the Dark Forces can, so can I. Beware of the Dark Warrior, my son.” Joseph’s dream began to fade.
“Dark Warrior? Who's this Dark Warrior?”
Joseph awoke in his Greater San Antonio apartment, bathed in the morning light. He analyzed his dream. It had seemed so real, but yet, he had dreamt of him often through the years. He had never met his father, or even seen a picture of him. He had never been to the planet Elysian.
Who was the Dark Warrior his father mentioned?
Joseph rubbed his eyes and blinked until his vision focused on a gorgeous female creature, draped over his bare chest.
“Were you dreaming about your father again?” Elissa sat up, looking concerned before kissing his sweat dampened forehead.
He nodded. “But this time he said something different. He came to warn me of a Dark Warrior.”
“Dark Warrior?” she asked, kissing him again.
“Don’t know. But I wonder if it has something to do with the Dark Queen,” he climbed out of bed, avoiding the expression on Elissa’s face.
“Joseph!” She raised her hand as a sign for him to keep quiet and listen to what she had to say. “If this warrior has anything to do with the Dark Curse, I think you should listen to your dream.”
He looked up at the ceiling as he pulled his arms through his shirt. “Listen, babe, I don’t want to argue. I was just dreaming.” He tried to reassure her. “This dream could be nothing but an aftermath from all we have survived recently.”
The inner city of Greater San Antonio was still dark, for the morning sun hadn’t pushed through the skyscrapers. Sam Ael, in the form of the beast, staunchly drifted over and around the countless superstructures of the city. He was an eight foot tall Hellhound, engulfed from head to tail in darkness. No light existed in his being. He searched for the Mutant Kill Squad office.
Upon his arrival, Sam Ael instantaneously retook the form of the Dark Warrior – a towering figure that embodied fear, misery, and pain. With the greatest swiftness, he entered the lobby of the complex, where the night watchman stood guard.
“May I help you, sir?” Vito, the night watchman, asked.
“Yes,” Sam Ael whispered. His eyes moved slowly across the small office, scanning everything in sight. “I’m looking for the Mutant Killer Joseph Blades. I know he works here. Where can I find him?”
“I’m sorry, but Joseph along with the other MKs are on leave. They won’t resume their duties until next week. Is this an emergency?” The watchman raised an eyebrow and reached for his side arm as he waited for an answer.
“Yes,” the dark one whispered again.
“I can notify him for you,” the stocky watchman moved toward the console. “Who may I say . . . ?”
“That won’t be necessary,” Sam Ael hissed as he sent his palm across the watchman’s neck, shattering seven of his vertebrae.
The guard fell to the floor in a death spasm. Streams of blood ran from his mouth and gathered in a small puddle on the floor. And as he lay dying, Sam Ael reshaped into a giant inhuman monster. He then tugged on the watchman’s body as he took him into his mouth for his breakfast. He finished by spitting out his unappetizing clothes and weapons.
“So, what do you plan on doing with this dream?” Elissa asked concerned as she finished dressing, lacing up her suede boots.
“I don’t know. Probably nothing. Like I said, it was just a dream,” Joseph replied.
“My people believe that when spirits come to you in your sleep with a warning… it’s nothing to be taken lightly.” She looked at him.
“Stop,” he smiled. “Let’s go get breakfast in the city.”
He didn’t want to tell her that the first chance he got; he would look into any and all information on the Dark Warrior.
Before they stepped out of the apartment, his videophone flashed to life. Without hesitation, he pushed a button on the wall that activated the phone-screen. It displayed a short dumpy guardsman from the MKS Office. He stared at Joseph and Elissa with huge terrified eyes.
“What is it?” Joseph asked.
“Uh… sir, I’m sorry to bother you and the Mrs., but . . . .” The guard struggled to continue.
“What is it?” Joseph asked again.
There was a moment as the guard fought to calm down. “This morning, when I came to work, I couldn’t find the night watchman.”
“What did you find?” Joseph demanded. If action needed to be taken quickly, then time was being wasted by this bumbling guard.
“Looks like someone or something ate him.” The guard cried into the phone as he was pulled off screen by an EMT.
Joseph looked over at Elissa and said, “I need to go.”
“Your dream may be coming true.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He kissed her forehead and dashed out the door. “Lock the door.”
A sleek, jet-black, land cruiser - carrying two Mutant Killers – advanced through the city, ignoring everyone and everything it passed. Crazy Johnny Mo steered the craft; Jenny Martinez rode shotgun.
The cruiser halted at the infamous underworld Mutant Mafioso Bar and grill, known to many as TECTONIC. Inside sat the most notorious Mutant gangster of present time – EL GATO. He earned his name while serving nine life sentences. He recently escaped. Johnny and Jenny had been on his tail for four months now - and after today his nine lives would expire.
Looking at the long dress that brushed Jenny’s ankles, Johnny asked, “Why did you sport that? You have to be quick on this one. That dress is gonna
slow you down.”
Jenny didn’t say a word. When the call came through, she and Johnny had been on their way out on a date. There had been no time to change. She just loaded her piece, a thirty-millimeter fire pistol, opened her door, and gracefully stepped from the cruiser. As she closed the door, the long train from her dress hooked on the door of the cruiser. She took two steps, not realizing what happened. Suddenly she heard a loud rip. She looked down and saw that her long skirt had been torn off, midway down her thighs – showing off her long, sinewy legs.
She shrugged, turned, and strolled into the bar. Johnny smiled and watched her every move from the rearview mirror.
He heard three loud bursts of fire. Seconds later Jenny came sprinting out of the club and into the passenger seat. The mission was a success, Johnny thought. But he thought too soon. As he pressed the accelerator with his foot, three of Gato’s men came flying out of the bar on small, circular air skiffs – hovering above the street and moving towards them at a fast rate.
As Johnny threw the cruiser into its fastest gear, Jenny stood out the sunroof and began to fire her massive pistol. One of Gato’s men envisioned Jenny as the mythical Medusa, since her long auburn curls waved wildly in the wind like serpents. But she interrupted his thoughts as one of her rounds set his skiff’s power source ablaze.
Colliding with a second hitman’s skiff, the two men were sent on a permanent trip to never-never land, while Jenny ducked into the cruiser to reload. But then she folded forward. At first Johnny thought she had been hit, but as she sat up he couldn’t see any blood.
“Joseph.” She looked over at Johnny. “He’s in great danger. I feel it.”
“I’ll get us there. But first get rid of the last one,” he pointed at the rearview mirror.
Nodding, she jumped up and fired through the sunroof. The last air skiff spun out of control and crashed into the side of a parked taco truck.
In the dark alley behind his apartment, Joseph was taking out his garbage. He had just come back from the crime scene, but didn’t want to scare Elissa with any of the grisly details. They had collected all the evidence possible, and the surveillance cameras had provided them with a clear description of the beast that had killed the night watchman.
He heard movement and turned, paranoid, only to find a black alley cat. He went back to emptying out the trash, rubbing his nose with a clean hand, trying not to breathe in the wonderful aromas of the alley. Suddenly, he saw the shadow of the alley cat on the wall in front of him transform into a huge dark figure.
Joseph spun around and his eyes met the warrior’s chest.
“Joseph?” Sam Ael’s cold voice raised the hairs on the Mutant Killer’s back.
“Who wants to know?” Joseph asked, studying the alley for an escape route.
“I’m Sam Ael. The Dark Warrior.” He lifted his cloak, revealing a gun. Before Joseph could move, he fired three needlepoint darts that penetrated Joseph’s torso and threw him back off his feet. The warrior walked towards Joseph, pointing his weapon at the Mutant Killer’s chest. In the blink of an eye, Joseph kicked his leg up trying for the weapon but missed and only shattered the tiny bones in Sam Ael’s wrist. He dropped his gun and reached for Joseph with his other hand.
Furious, the Dark Warrior lifted Joseph to his feet, wrapped an arm around Joseph’s neck, and began to hammer on the MK, breaking his nose. Then to finish off the legendary Mutant Killer, the Dark Warrior slammed Joseph’s head onto the alley street. It sounded like a ripened melon dropped from a second story floor. Joseph didn’t move. The mutant beast breathed in the air and smelled death.
“Joseph!” Elissa tearfully yelled from their apartment window. She had seen what had happened. She cringed back in fear as Sam Ael spawned a mouthful of teeth, a mane full of curly dreads, and huge leathery wings with an eight-foot span. The creature laughed triumphantly as it ascended from the alley floor and towards the apartment window. Elissa fell back as the beast flew by and disappeared into the evening’s sky.
Seconds later, Elissa came running out of the complex and knelt over Joseph.
“Joseph, are you okay?”
Joseph grunted in pain. He pulled at his chest.
“I thought he killed you…” Elissa cried quietly as she tore his shirt open and revealed the hybrid chest armor.
“Naw, luckily he went for my head.”
* * *
In the 33rd century, in a land destroyed by evil and protected by the Big Nothing, Sam Ael is a knight for the Empire of Darkness under the rule of Darkness himself. A demon-like entity, dwelling in the bowels of the Elysian moon – Izon. The Father of Astasia and Sam Ael.
Atop a towering dark mountain laid the Castle of the Wicked. Designed after a medieval, Gothic structure of gloomy stone, it is surrounded by evil and horror. No one dared to enter the castle. If invited, no one leaves.
The two huge doors of the entrance slowly opened, allowing a slight illumination from the outside world. Sam Ael strolled across the glossy, dark tiles towards the ebony stone throne, where Darkness sat and observed the progress of his Dark Armies.
“My mission was successful, my lord.” Sam Ael bowed as he kissed his King’s wrinkled, clawed hand.
“The hell it was, Warrior. You failed to destroy the son of Zahn.”
“But I witnessed him perish,” Sam Ael rasped.
“But nothing!” Darkness was furious. “He lives! Now be gone, and finish him – or I’ll finish you.”
The following day at the Mutant Kill Squad office, Jenny, Johnny Mo, and MK Lieutenant Tina Morales sat around a table in the MK War Room, along with other new recruits – Donny Cristo, Eddie Zero, and Karen Vicious
“Joseph is going to be all right,” Johnny began the meeting. “Elissa is with him.”
“From what she tells us, this new Mutant is stronger than anything we have ever encountered. It shape shifted from a small alley cat into a superhuman then into some sort of satanic beast.” He looked around the table as they studied the computer screens embedded into the tables in front of them. He studied their expressions as they studied the surveillance footage of the Beast devouring the night watchman. He let that settle before proceeding.
“Luckily Joseph had another dream. It warned him about this Mutant, so he was already on the alert before it attacked and ate Vito. Joseph says this ugly bastard calls himself The Dark Warrior.”
“Dark Warrior?” Tina Morales asked. “Any relation to the Dark Queen?”
“My guess is yes. We need to find it and stop it before it tries to kill Joseph again. We doubt it has come here for any other reason. It only left because he thought he had succeeded. Of course, Joseph’s main concern is that it might go after Elissa as well. We tried to talk him into sending the Empress back to Celestial World with some MK escorts, but she won’t have it.”
“Everyone knows that she is his Achilles heel. They get to her, they get to him.” Jenny added.
The pier at night was not at all an exciting place to be. The water from the San Antonio River slapped angrily against the boats in the bay as three men in suits strolled down the fiberglass pier and onto a grand yacht. An illegal drug deal was about to go down.
A shadow detached itself from a tourist boat and floated onto the pier, taking up position alongside the yacht, and using a sharp boot-knife, slit the neck of the one left outside to stand guard.
The shadow slowly moved below deck, where it was ambushed by the remaining two businessmen and the infamous Intergalactic Mutant drug trafficker named Captain XTC.
The shadow sent a big, leather boot into XTC’s chest. His fist sliced through the air and smashed the nose of the smaller businessman, pushing it up into his skull. He then spun around, sending an elbow into the bigger businessman’s chest, making him pucker his lips as he released a huge rush of hot air.
The shadow turned to find XTC gripping a small pistol. “Freeze!” he yelled at the shadow. “You’re history!”
“No, you’re history,” th
e shadow hissed, mimicking XTC, while walking towards the trafficker, grabbing his head and twisting it until it hung by a single jugular.
“You should have used that pop gun when you had a chance.” The shadow smiled cynically before it disappeared into the darkness of the night.
Donny Cristo awoke in a soiled, wet bed from a spilled bottle of Vodka. The bottle had been his only compassion since he and his estranged wife, MK Lieutenant Tina Morales, separated.
Lately, he had been waking up every morning with a nuclear warhead exploding over and over in his head. His eyes filled with soot, and his mouth tasted of old, sweaty gym socks.
He fell out of bed and struggled to his feet, just so he could stumble into the bathroom, where he had an interesting discussion with his toilet. Then, five aspirins and a cold shower helped get his brain cells moving.
He was hurting, and it wasn’t just from the cheap booze. Tina had left him because she was getting tired of seeing him at home and at the office. She may not miss him, but he sure did miss her. On top of everything, there was little money left in his account. The final notice on his electric bill had come in, and his rent was overdue. The glamorous life of a Mutant Killer.
Cristo sat in his favorite lounge chair with a bowl of Kappy Krunch, when he heard someone struggling with the lock on his door. He stealthily laid down his bowl of cereal, leaped over the chair, and released his Sonic-Gun III from his shoulder holster. As he heard the door glide open, he jumped up, aiming his gun at the intruder.
“Cristo?” a tall, muscular MK poked his head into the dark, stinky apartment.
“Zero, man. I could’ve killed you,” Cristo said as he holstered his weapon.
Eddie Zero and Donny Cristo had been best of friends since joining the MKS Academy. They had joined the Squad with one other good friend, Karen Vicious.
“What are you doing here?” Cristo went back to eating his bowl of cereal.
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