THE AGGREGATION OF THE HORSEMEN

Part I: Deathspan

By Shawn Gauthier and Jeff Axtman

Terminal cancer ward, Empire State Hospital, Manhattan. The past.

The hospital room is dark, the shades pulled down over the windows to prevent the daylight outside from entering the room. As the teenage girl enters, the sickly-looking woman on the bed turns to look at her. She is bald, thin, and deathly pale. Wires, tubes, and machinery are all hooked up to her frail body.

“Hello, Momma,” the girl whispers, her lower lip trembling. “I just thought I’d see how you’re doing.”

“Melody.” The woman chokes the name. “Come closer to me, honey… this hospital bed’s a pain…”

Slowly, almost timidly, the girl steps forward into the dim light streaming through the shaded window. Tears run down her cheeks, her face portraying her emotions.

“Oh, Melody…” the woman sighs, wanting desperately to console her daughter. “What can I say? The doctors…”

“I know,” the girl sobs. “The cancer’s killing you, isn’t it, Mom?”

Despite her daughter’s tears of sorrow, the woman smiles weakly. “Oh, come now, Melody. We all have to go some time, don’t we? My time is just coming early, that’s all.”

“Oh, Momma!” the daughter cries as she rushes to the side of the bed, burying her face in her mother’s bosom. “The doctors… can’t they do anything for you?”

“I’m… afraid not, dear,” the woman manages. “The cancer… is too far developed… at this stage.”

No more words are shared between them as they embrace. For minutes they sit, holding each other and crying. Then, suddenly, something happens that will change the girl’s life forever.

At first it feels like a little spark ignites within her. Then that spark grows to a flickering flame, and then a raging inferno. Frightened, the girl recoils back from her mother, only to find that a strange energy is being sucked out of her. Her eyes are blank, and with frightening clarity, the girl realizes that somehow she is draining that energy from her own mother.

She screams as she literally watches the life ebb from her mother’s body. A small burst of energy explodes outward from the girl, throwing her across the room and into the far wall. She slides slowly to the floor, the sound of the steady beep of the heart-rate monitor loud in her ears.

She cowers in the corner as three nurses rush in, immediatley trying to revive her lifeless mother using C.P.R. “Get Doctor Feldman in here, stat! And for God’s sake, get that girl out of here!”

One of the nurses rushes over to the girl, who is in shock. She lifts her to her feet be her arm. “Come on, honey,” she says, her voice sugar-coated and overly sweet. “Follow me.”

As the nurse leads the girl out of the room, the doctor runs in. “What’s her status?”

“Not good. Lost the pulse suddenly, like something just… shut her off.”

“I… see. Time.”

“Five twenty-six p.m.”

“Patient’s name?”

“Jacobs, Judith K.”

The Bronx…

The night is cold. The air is crisp and almost biting, bringing the girl named Melody Jacobs back to reality. A cloud of hot breath escapes her mouth as she exhales, the painful memories subsiding now. She does not mind the cold… in fact, she welcomes it. Somehow it comforts her, calms her nerves.

Hesitantly, she crosses the street. She is aware of the odd stares she receives from other pedestrians and passers-by as she makes her way to the opposite sidewalk. Nervously, she pulls her coat collar over her face to shield her from their prying eyes. They mustn’t see the metal neuro-locks implanted on her face. They mustn’t find out that she is a mutant.

As casually as possible, she turns the corner and enters a dark alley. She knows full well the danger of doing so, but she does not care. There is only one thing on her mind…

She must feed. Soon.

Then she sees them, a group of downtrodden vagrants huddling around a fire blazing in a garbage can. The reek of death is all around them: the homeless and the hopeless, the depressed and the oppressed. Their lives have no meaning for them, and as such, the thought of suicide weighs heavily on their minds. She senses this, and makes her move.

“Excuse me,” she says quietly and as innocently as possible as she creeps from the shadows of the dark alley. “My car broke down, if you could just…”

“Well, well… what do we have here?” one of the men says as he turns to face her. His face is black with dirt and grime and he smells of cheap liquor. Perfect, she thinks.

He approaches her slowly, a toothless grin smeared across his stubbly face. He reaches out to grab her, but she grabs him instead. Immediately, the man begins to twist and convulse violently, his life energy draining from his body. Plasma surges from the man and enters the girl’s neuro-locks, powering her and illuminating her body in an aura of pink energy.

Limply, the homeless man falls to the ground. The girl stands over his body for a moment, daring the others to attack her. Instead they run the other direction, disappearing in the blackness of the night. Their shouts echo off the buildings’ concrete and brick facades.

“She’s a freakin’ mutie!”

“She just zapped McCormick! Killed ‘im!”

“Let’s get outta ‘ere!”

“C’mon! Go! Go!”

Newly revitalized with a fresh death-charge, the girl turns to go, her hunger satiated. Yet she hesitates a moment to look back at the man’s lifeless body.

“Forgive me,” she whispers as a single tear rolls down her face.

Hours later, a dark form walks purposefully through the now-abandoned alleyway. The figure approaches the homeless man’s dead body, and kneels down to inspect it.

‘Just as I have suspected,’ thinks the ageless being known as Apocalypse. He stands once more to his full height, the light from the street lamp nearby glinting off his blue armor. ‘The girl has been here. She is feeding, no doubt. Increasing her power with each life she takes.’

He ponders this for a moment. He has always believed in the survival of the fittest, and this girl is no different. She has the will, and the power, to survive.

“Yes, Threnody, my dear,” he says aloud, sending several rats and and other vermin scurrying for cover at the sound. “You shall be a perfect Horseman of the Apocalypse.”

With that, Apocalypse disappears in a brilliant flash of light, leaving the rodents to resume their scavenging.

Saint Raymond’s Cemetery, several blocks away from the alley…

The graveyard is deserted except for the solitary figure standing over a lonely tombstone. This is probably the closest thing the girl has to a home. Ever since the mutant Nate Grey abandoned her here, left her to fend for herself after she was attacked by Madelyne Pryor, the girl named Threndoy has adopted this cemetery as her own place. A place where she can escape from the stares and the whispers of the normal folk. A place to rest… in peace.

Energy flares around her as she stares blankly at the tombstone. She reads and re-reads the inscription, her mind a swirling pool of emotions…

Judith Jacobs
Beloved Mother

“I’m so sorry, Mom,” she sobs, her tears falling on the soil that buries her mother’s corpse. “I never told you… how sorry I am… for what I did to you…”

Suddenly, she senses someone behind her. She whirls around to see nothing but an empty graveyard, but still she feels like she is not alone.

“Who’s there?!” she shouts into the blackness that surrounds her, energy pouring from the neuro-locks on her face. “Show yourself, or so help me I’ll…!”

“Forgive me, child,” comes a haunting voice from directly behind her. “Normally I am not one to hide in the shadows… but I was interested in your conversation with your deceased mother. After all, what do you say to a loved one you killed yourself?”

“What?! Who the hell do you think you are?!” screams the girl as her body seemingly explodes with an eruption of death-charged energy.

“My names are many, but you may know me as Apocalypse, your High Lord,” he replies, shielding her attack effortlessly by activating a force field around his body. “And you would do well to listen and obey me, girl.”

Her lips peel back into a snarl. “What do you know of me, monster?” she hisses.

“I know everything about you, Melody Jacobs. I know about the first manifestation of your mutant powers… how you killed your own mother by draining her life energies as she lay ill upon her deathbed. I know of the deal you struck with Sinister soon after… and your escape from him later. I know of your involvement with the boy Nate Grey, a mutant that has intrigued me for some time. But most of all, I know of the power that you possess, power that will soon be mine.”

“NEVER!” she yells, as she releases wave after wave of pent-up energy at the mysterious mutant before her. “My mother’s death was an accident! I had no control over my powers!”

“Perhaps,” Apocalypse says while shielding himself from her blasts with his force field. “Perhaps it was a mistake, Threnody… but every time you took a life to appease your hunger for the energies released in death, each time you killed, you brought yourself closer and closer to me.”

“NOOO!” she cries as she directs her blasts to the ground, causing the earth between her and Apocalypse to explode with violent fury. Giant cracks in the earth began to form, plasmic energy erupting up from the depths. Apocalypse is thrown from his feet as the ground crumbles beneath him.

Just as soon as it began, the chaos ends. Threnody falls to the ground, her powers drained and her body tired. A few yards away, Apocalypse rises to his feet.

“An interesting use of your powers, girl,” he says with approval. “I had not considered that a cemetery is a constant source of energy for you. Slowly but surely, you are gaining more control over your abilities. Excellent.”

He strides across the smoldering upheaval that used to be the graveyard to the girl’s fallen body. Reaching down, he grabs her by the hair and lifts her off the ground so that her bloodied face is in line with his. She grimaces, struggling to free her hair from his tightly clenched fist.

“Do not attempt to escape me, Threnody,” he says as he pulls his lips close to her ears. “It is not a wise course of action.”

“You… bastard…” she sputters, blood dripping from her mouth. “Sinister couldn’t control me… neither will you…”

“Sinister is a fool!” Apocalypse shouts, causing her head to throb, ears ringing. “His meddling affairs are of no concern to me! You, my dear child, are the one that I have come for. Now that I have you, we shall make our leave of this place.”

Activating a small device on his arm, the two are enveloped in a halo of light, and with a tremendous flash, they are gone.

Mere nanoseconds later, in a mysterious underground fortress beneath the Libyan Desert in Egypt.

The light fades, and Apocalypse once again sets foot inside his secret base. He holds the unconscious girl’s body draped over his arms, his demeanor cold and calculating as he scans over the many computer consoles and instrument panels surrounding him in the chamber. Finally, he locates what he is looking for and makes his way over to a large egg-shaped structure.

Gracing a few buttons and controls on the sides, he activates the pod’s start-up sequence, a series of whirs and clicks indicating that it is up and running. Another button pushed, and slowly the pod door opens, revealing inside a tangled mass of wires and circuits attached to a large, translucent sarcophagus. Carefully, Apocalypse lays Threnody inside the sarcophagus, which immediately closes around her once inside.

He steps back a few feet, and the pod door closes, sealing itself with a hiss of compressed air. Once again Apocalypse taps the control panel on the side of the module, this time activating the pod’s transformation program.

“Rest now, my Horseman,” he says, his words sounding hollow and empty. “May you find in this embryonic sleep the peace that eluded you so in your life. For when you awake, no longer will you be Melody Jacobs, a mutant hiding from those you fear. Rather, you will be Death, the epitome of power, and the end of all that is.”

Suddenly, Apocalypse is interrupted by an incessant beep from one of his many computers. He realizes it is someone trying to contact him on the communications link. He opens the channel, and turns on the video feed. The wavering screen shows the likeness of the leader of his Dark Riders, the mutant called Moonstar.

“What is it?” Apocalypse demands. “I have much to attend to this night.”

“My apologies, m’lord,” she replies, “but you told me to inform you if I located any possible candidates for your Horsemen using Sinister’s files.”

“Indeed,” Apocalypse answers, intrigued. “Go on.”

“The process took some time, but we’ve narrowed the candidates down to a select few based on your personal requirements.”

“Excellent,” he grins. “Forward the profiles to me now, then.”

“Transmitting now, sir,” Moonstar complies. Immediately she is replaced on the video screen by an extensive mutant profile with a picture in the upper corner. Apocalypse stares at the picture with obvious recognition.

REAL NAME: Creed, Victor
CODE NAME: Sabretooth
MUTANT POWERS: Hyper-keen animal senses of smell, sight, and hearing; Super-fast healing factor that can mend almost any wound; Razor-sharp claws and teeth
CURRENT WHEREABOUTS: Canadian Wilderness

“Sabretooth,” he hisses between clenched teeth. “An appropriate, yet altogether unexpected choice. Another of Sinister’s former lackeys, it seems.”

“But no matter,” he continues, glancing menacingly at the sealed transformation module containing Threnody. “I’m sure Creed will make an excellent addition to my growing band of Horsemen… and a devastating War!”

NEXT ISSUE: The Aggregation Of The Horsemen Part 2! Apocalypse and the Dark Riders track down the latest potential recruit… but will Sabretooth take kindly to the invitation and become the Horseman known as War, or will he give Apocalypse a dose of his own medicine?! Also: What does Post want with Apocalypse?