HAROLD AND THE GUARDIANS

By Shawn Gauthier

In the far northwest corner of Florida, just south of the Alabama border resides the Everwood Retirement Facility. A small portion of Florida’s vast elderly community has chosen to call Everwood home, or have had the choice decided for them. Either way they now find themselves isolated from the rest of the world and from those who still choose to enjoy life. Instead all of Everwood’s clients have decided to come here as they await their inevitable appointment with death.

It is not a cheery place.

Harold Griffen has called Everwood home for the last eight years. Since the death of his beloved wife he has chosen to withdraw from the rest of the world. He stopped eating a year ago hoping to hasten his reunion with his wife but the nurses and doctors who run this facility have instead decided to feed him intravenously. Thus he is forced to sit by himself in Everwood always isolated even from those who share in his plight.

Just like everyday since his admittance here Harold says a small prayer asking for his suffering to end. Today, however, his prayer will be answered.

“The Askani’son is coming! The Chosen One! Askani’son! Askani’son!”

The screams are from Everwood’s newest arrival. Harold knows very little about the man even though destiny has decided to play an evil trick on him by making this loud and obviously senile man his new roommate at the facility. All Harold knows is that this man will spout his gibberish for hours before finally giving into fatigue and falling asleep only to wake up a few hours latter to begin the cycle again.

“God damn senile old coot!” screams Harold. “Shut up!”

“He will save us all! He is the only one who can stop the Apocalypse!”

Realizing that it is pointless to argue with the insane, Harold decides instead to take a walk around the grounds surrounding Everwood.

“Nathan, we have traveled half-way across the county in search of the voice that you hear in your head. How could you have focused in on one tiny voice in a sea of millions, especially one you were not looking for? Are you sure that you are not mistaken?” asks Blaquesmith from his place in the pilot’s seat of his state of the art craft as it streaks across the sky.

“I was wondering the same thing, but I’m confident that I heard the voice. Maybe it’s because the techno virus that used to limit my mutant abilities no longer plagues my body. No matter what the reason is, if it helps us find the Askani Mother and put an end to this Askani War then who am I to complain?”

“But this should not be. Jarard has changed events in this timeline that could lead to the Askani Mother’s plans not coming to be. Though his intentions were good he could be inadvertently helping Apocalypse prevail in the end,” pleads Blaquesmith.

“What is… is,” adds Jarard from his place behind Cable and Blaquesmith. “Isn’t that the true Askani way? What I have done to the Askani’son has already been done. It is. Why can’t you just accept it? Plus you don’t seem to mind that what I have done is possibly helping us find the Mother.”

“How do we know that Jarard’s presence here is not a part of the Askani Mother’s original plan?” adds Cable.

“Do not preach to me of the Askani faith. Neither of you have devoted or sacrificed so much for the cause as I have,” snaps Blaquesmith. “The Askani’son’s business is the business of the Mother Askani alone. We should not be messing with her affairs like this.”

This last statement is as much for himself as it is for his colleagues. What Blaquesmith isn’t saying is that before Jarard’s arrival he was on his way to find Cable to warn him of the prophecy of the Askani’son. While searching for the missing Mother on his own he had made a startling discovery. There is an ending to the prophecy that has been left out and kept as a carefully guarded secret by the Askani. It states that the Apocalypse and the Askani’son are forever damned to have intertwining destinies. This means that one cannot survive without the other. So if Cable does succeed in stopping Apocalypse once and for all he will essentially be killing himself as well.

Letting his feelings for his pupil get the better of him, Blaquesmith abandoned his search for the Mother and tracked down Cable to warn him of the prophecy. Only after the unfaithful Jarard challenged his beliefs had he decided to hold his tongue. Surely the Mother has kept the last verse of the prophecy a secret for a reason. Who is he to challenge her decision?

“I am not just the Mother Askani’s lackey!” It is now Cable’s turn to get defensive. “I know that you were assigned as my protector when I was young but I always assumed that our relationship had grown above that.”

“Nathan I did not mean…” starts Blaquesmith but he is cut off.

“No. I will stop Apocalypse but I am doing it for me and for all he has cost me, not for the Askani. And I am going to do it my way and only on my terms. If you cannot accept that then let Jarard and I out here. We will make the rest of the trip on our own,” finishes Cable.

“You know that you mean more to me than that. You are like a son to me,” pleads Blaquesmith. “You are asking me to choose, in essence, between my family and my faith.”

“The question seems simple to me,” taunts Jarard. “What we need to know before we face what is ahead is what side are you on? Can we trust you?”

“You both don’t understand. What we do here does not effect just us but everything that has been, is and will be,” stalls Blaquesmith.

“What side?” repeats Jarard.

“I will never turn my back on Nathan in a time of need so I will continue to assist you on this endeavor but I will not choose one allegiance over the other. I am your friend but I am also an Askani. I take both roles seriously and I am unable to turn my back on either. Thus I refuse to answer your question.”

“What? What kind of answer is that?” presses Jarard.

{Enough!} screams Cable’s voice in Jarard and Blaquesmith’s heads. {We’re here.}

Seconds before Cable’s arrival at Everwood, all hell breaks loose.

Despite his best efforts to put out a contradictory front, Harold Griffen is a good person inside. It is this aspect of his personality that attracted his beloved wife to him. So when coming back from his walk Harold notices a bright flash of light coming from his room’s window and rushes into the building to make sure his new roommate is okay. Unfortunately Harold’s roommate is far from okay.

The first thing he notices when he enters the building is the blood. Blood covers every wall, floor, and ceiling as well as every piece of furniture he can see. The second thing he notices are the bodies of his fellow inhabitants in the facility. Since Harold has hardly ever left Everwood he looks around and sees everybody he ever met over the last eight years dead. He never realized how much they meant to him until know.

“You can’t stop the Askani’son! He will save us all!”

Harold knows right away that it’s his roommate. He’s still alive. At a speed that defies his age Harold climbs the stairs and runs down the hall to his bedroom. He arrives just in time to see a large humanoid shape leaning over his roommate’s bed. Despite its shape it is evident that the creature is more mechanical than flesh and bone.

Without hesitation Harold throws himself at the machine man. Despite his best efforts it fails to acknowledge his presence as its hands reach for his roommate. Knowing that he’s too weak to stop it, Harold instead grabs the sheets of the bed and pulls his roommate on top of him on the floor. The robot’s hands close like a vice where his roommate’s head had been only seconds before.

“Guardian number 37156 is authorized to use lethal force to eliminate temporal abnormality and all beings who have come into contact with the temporal abnormality,” buzzes the robot in a mechanical voice.

It isn’t hard for Harold to deduce that the temporal abnormality must be his roommate and that the term ‘lethal force’ does not bode well for them. Seeking the only cover available Harold pulls his roommate close to him and rolls under the bed just as the robot’s massive hands smash through the floor where they had just been.

Harold continues to roll until he emerges from the far side of the bed. He then rises to his knees in time to see the robot standing next to the hole it just smashed in the floor turn towards him to continue its pursuit. Acting on instinct Harold pushes the bed at the robot catching it off balance and knocking it through the hole in the floor.

“#$%&ing technology!” mumbles Harold to himself. “I knew as soon as I tried to operate my VCR that it was going to be the end of me.”

Blaquesmith barely has time to react as the robot comes crashing through the ceiling. To everybody’s surprise it is Jarard who comes to Blaquesmith’s rescue, diving to pull them both out of the path of the falling debris. As a result Cable finds himself facing the robot alone at first.

Cable immediately recognizes the robot’s technology as being similar to that of the futuristic Sentinel, Nimrod. He knows right away that this is bad.

“Acquiring new information on new targets… acquiring… acquiring… subject identification is designated Askani’son. Immediate extermination authorized,” buzzes the robot.

Luckily for Cable, this robot like most others he has faced spends too much time processing information and speaking then it does performing tasks. So by the time the robot is initiating its attack Cable is already tossing several magnetic explosive grenades at the robot.

The grenades perform adequately as their explosions severely cripple the robot. Almost immediately the air around the robot begins to crackle as if alive. Cable recognizes this sound as being the same he heard when Jarard suddenly appeared. As the robot vanishes Cable has only time to wonder if it has time traveling capabilities before he hears the same sound behind him now.

‘Another is behind me,’ thinks Cable as he dives to one side to evade a laser beam from behind. Landing, Cable rolls to face his new adversary. It is the robot. Cable can tell it’s the same robot from the charring on its body from the magnetic grenades. Somehow somebody has managed to fix it in seconds and teleport it behind him for a cheap shot.

Cable takes all of this in as the robot is zeroing in for its second attack. Cable once again dives to avoid the attack. Using his years of training as a soldier Cable should easily be able to avoid the attack, but his body is weak, still recovering from the strain put upon it as Jarard removed the techno virus from it. Cable is barely able to avoid the attack that throws him into a nearby wall.

Cable knows he will be unable to avoid another attack so he does the only thing he can. He uses his mutant telekinesis powers to hold the machine in place. He is amazed at how easily he is able to maintain a hold on it. Clearly his powers are much stronger now that he is without the techno virus.

Jarard arrives at his side shortly after and helps Cable to stand upright.

“What is that thing?” asks Cable.

“It is a Guardian,” answers Jarard. Seeing the confusion on Cable’s face Jarard goes on to explain. “Little is known of them except that they think themselves as the guardians of the timelines. It has been speculated that they hail from sometime in the future and are based on technology there.”

“I recognized some of the technology as matching that of the Sentinel Nimrod. But if that’s so, how come my grenades were able to disable it so easily? Nimrod’s defenses were much stronger. I damaged it so much that it teleported away only to return a second later.” Cable is now holding the robot in place without even looking at it as he addresses Jarard.

“Why bother protecting what can simply be fixed? It is true that you can damage a Guardian easily but they can teleport to whenever it is they come from where they are repaired and sent back to our time where only a second has passed. Eventually it will wear its target out. Even if you do manage to destroy one they simply send a new Guardian to take its place, which is why we must hurry. Soon it will signal for reinforcements. We will need to be a long way from here by then if we are to escape them.”

“Where’s Blaquesmith?” asks Cable. “We are not leaving without him.”

“I left him back where we landed. He is okay but still unconscious. He will only slow us down and cost us time that we don’t have to spare.”

Then as if to prove his point the air begins to crackle to their side, as another Guardian is teleported to the scene. With a simply nod of his head a newly confident Cable uses his powers to hold this Guardian as well.

“I will give you all the time you need. Go find Blaquesmith.” Jarard stands there in shock, not moving. “Now!” barks Cable. Startled, Jarard leaves to look for their missing comrade.

Jarard was wrong about Blaquesmith. He is not unconscious back where they landed. Instead Blaquesmith finds himself moving down the main hallway on the second floor. On both sides of him are doors leading into the private quarters of many of the elderly whose bodies now lay strewn across the main floor, but Blaquesmith does not bother to open any of the doors. Instead he follows the instructions from the voice in his head.

‘Hurry my friend,’ urges the voice. ‘My time here is limited and this shell I now inhabit grows weaker with every passing second.’

Blaquesmith makes his way to the room at the end of the hall. Passing through the door he notices two elderly men in the middle of the floor. One man is cradling the other in his arms while the other looks as if he is at death’s door.

“Is it really you?” asks Blaquesmith as he startles Harold Griffen, who turns to see Blaquesmith’s alien form in his doorway.

“Am I really who?” asks Harold in a shaky voice.

“I think he is talking to me, my friend,” says Harold’s new roommate from his place in Harold’s arms. Harold is startled for the second time as he realizes that his roommate is speaking something other than gibberish for the first time. He watches as his roommate turns to address the alien in the doorway.

“Yes, it is I,” answers Harold’s weakened roommate. “I am the Askani Mother. I am using this man’s latent mutant abilities to communicate to you from my prison in the future.”

“Your prison? Who is holding you prisoner?” asks Blaquesmith as he approaches the two men on the floor.

“That is unimportant now. What is important is that you undo what has happened to the Askani’son. If the techno virus is not returned to his body he will become a greater threat than Apocalypse himself. He will lose his humanity to the awesome aspects of his powers and threaten everything. Our savior will become the end of us all.”

“I am surprised that you even care after what I have just recently learned about the legend of the Askani’son.” Blaquesmith is amazed to find that he even dares to address the Mother in such a manner. Maybe it’s because she is not physically in the room that he is able to do so.

“I assume that you speak of the last verse of the prophecy,” comments the Askani Mother through Harold’s roommate. “You mustn’t worry yourself about that now. We have greater concerns now. I will explain more later after I have fully returned.”

Blaquesmith’s face does not change.

“Listen to me, old friend,” begs Harold’s roommate. “My time is fading fast. I know that you have grown to love the Askani’son as if he was your own son. I know how hard it will be for you to do as I ask.” Suddenly the man begins to gasp for breath and his body convulses. The life of Harold’s roommate is nearing an end. “You must still place your belief in me and our way or else all will be lost.”

Blaquesmith watches as the shell of the man in front of him struggles to draw air from his lungs to talk. Ignoring the sadness he feels for the man he leans forward to try to hear the man’s whispers.

“You must… also get him… start… gathering… the Twelve… he is coming…”

The body in Harold’s arms becomes limp as its life ends. Speechless, Harold and Blaquesmith stand facing each other for a long moment before Jarard bursts into the room.

“Here you are!” yells Jarard as he enters the room. “We have to go now! The Guardians have found us!”

“The Guardians,” says Blaquesmith out loud to himself as Jarard races out of the room. He knows all too well who the Guardians are. They have haunted the Askani and their efforts for a long time. “They must be the ones who are holding the Mother captive. But how can I betray and weaken the Askani’son with the techno virus if he is my only hope of saving her and drawing the Twelve together?”

“What is going on here? What is all this talk about the Askani’son and the Twelve?” Harold’s voice startles Blaquesmith as he realizes he is speaking out loud and that this man now holds the same knowledge he does about the Askani’son.

“Do you want to live?” Blaquesmith asks Harold.

Harold is surprised to find himself nodding after he has wasted so much time here waiting for death.

“Then come with me,” says Blaquesmith, pulling them both to their feet and rushing out of the room.

Jarard is the first to reach the main floor where he left Cable only a few moments before. Blaquesmith and Harold join him at the foot of the stairs shortly after where they all stands in awe at what they see. A small army of Guardians stand motionless in almost every room that is visible to them and more are appearing as if out of nowhere in groups of three and four. In the middle of them all stands Cable with his eyes closed as if in meditation. He is using his powers to hold all of the Guardians in place, stopping them from harming any of them. Blaquesmith stands amazed at his former charge’s powers.

“Everybody out of the building!” orders Cable. It is then that the small group at the bottom of the stairs notices the small pile of explosives at Cable’s feet. He is intending to blow up the entire complex.

“I cannot allow you to sacrifice your life!” screams Jarard finally realizing what is happening. “Your life is too valuable.”

“Look around you,” answers Blaquesmith pushing him to the door. “If he can do all this then he can protect himself from the blast. Everybody hurry back to the ship.”

The trio runs out of the Everwood Facility and out onto its front yard where Blaquesmith’s ship is parked. Blaquesmith is even more astonished when he realizes that there are even more Guardians frozen outside of the complex but he doesn’t have time to dwell on the issue as he corrals the others into his ship and preps for take-off.

He only gets the ship lifted off above the trees when the explosion rocks the vessel. Luckily he is able to keep the ship from crashing back to the ground. As Blaquesmith turns the ship around to make a pass over the center of the explosion he sees a sight that freezes his heart.

At the center of the explosion stands Cable, unharmed. Fire burns everything that is around him but never encroaches upon him. It is as if Cable himself is able to control the devastating blaze. The light from the fire creates an enormous, exaggerated shadow of Cable that seems to stretch forward to darken everything in its path.

It is then that Blaquesmith realizes that the Mother spoke the truth and that he will have to betray the man he considers his closest friend even if it means sacrificing his only hope of ever saving the Askani Mother herself.

“Where are all the Guardians?” asks Jarard. “Why aren’t they teleporting back? Surely they haven’t just given up?”

“They have already accomplished what they had come here to do,” answers Blaquesmith, still staring at the form of Cable below.

“And what was that?” asks Jarard again.

“Killing my roommate,” finally comes the answer from an unlikely source, Harold.

Blaquesmith nods in agreement knowing that the Guardians came only to stop the Askani Mother from using Harold’s roommate to try and call for help. She instead used the chance to give Blaquesmith a warning about the future, dooming herself in the process.

NEXT ISSUE: The gathering of the Twelve begins as the identity of the first is revealed. Who will attain the honor and awesome responsibility that comes with being the “One Of Twelve?” Plus how will Blaquesmith manage to get the techno virus back in Cable now that he is stronger than ever?