THE OTHERWORLD SAGA

Part II: We Fly So Close

By David Wheatley

“And so it goes,” said Sat-Yr-9, as she raised a glass and toasted her own health. Before her, chained to the walls of the fortress were a comatose Merlyn and a very awake Roma. Roma spat defiance at her captor.

“Such a spirited response,” laughed Sat-Yr-9 as she wiped the liquid from her. “Didn’t think you could hit me from that range. Not exactly the response of the demure young woman, either.”

“You’ll be stopped,” said Roma, her hair a tangled mess in front of her eyes, her regal clothing tattered and torn and her magics deserting her.

“By whom?” said Sat-Yr-9 as she walked towards Roma and grabbed her by the cheek, and brushed the hair away from her eyes so she could look Roma direct in the eye. “Captain U.K.? Not by herself and the champions she went after? Excalibur? Braddock is helpless without his suit, Meggan has not the control of her emotions to stop me and the rest are of no consequence. Those that were are now scattered to the winds. The sword you and your father forged is broken and dead. Now that Otherworld has fallen, the rest of the realities will fall so much easier.”

“The Adversary said much the same,” said Roma.

“Defiance will get you nowhere,” said Sat-Yr-9 releasing her jaw and bringing her other hand down on it as a clenched fist. Roma coughed, as she tasted the blood inside her mouth. “As soon as my partner arrives, you and your father will be taken from this place and hanged from the neck until you are dead, then my warriors will feast on your carcass.” Then she smiled. “Well, most of it.” Then she turned from Roma and left the room, taking her goblet of wine with her.

In the antechamber she entered were glass cabinets filled with the heads of various members of the Captain Britain Corps of the worlds so far conquered.

“Most people just make a notch on the bedpost,” came a voice from the lower end of the chamber. “The memories of passion not enough?”

“Just had to make certain they were all dead,” remarked Sat-Yr-9 as she made her way down towards the voice. “So you’ve arrived at last?”

“Yes,” he replied. “These cases are for?” He gestured towards two cases held up high above the others, suspended in the air by magic.

“Roma and Merlyn,” said Sat-Yr-9. “An army needs it’s leaders.” She and her partner laughed and toasted their victory.

Just below where the Starlight Citadel used to hang, a portal opened and seven heroes stepped through.

“BRIAN!” cried Meggan, her hands clasped to her head in pain. “Otherworld is dying.” Captain Britain looked at Captain U.K. who nodded.

“I know, love,” he said. “I feel it too.”

“This place smells of death,” said Wisdom looking around at the devastated landscape. “Whoever did a number on this place did one hell of a job.”

“The Citadel!” said Kylun, his swords drawn, as they saw the shattered ruin. Scattered around the ruin were littered the bodies of various warriors. However there were notable absentees – Saturnyne and any member of the Corps.

“Look!” said Khaos, the first to speak as the others took in the sight. “What are they?”

“The same things we’ve fought before,” said Brian.

“They’re pillaging the dead bodies,” said Mastermind, tightly. She thought she’d seen enough in her short lifetime, thanks to her father, but nothing could have prepared her for this and she made herself a promise to get revenge on Wisdom for dragging her in to this.

“Not whilst we’re about,” said Brian. “Take them out.” Linda nodded and flew off towards them. Brian and Pete exchanged a glance, both noting how silent she had been since her arrival. Kylun and Khaos were running over with their swords drawn. Pete shrugged and went after them.

“C’mon, Martinique,” he said grabbing Mastermind by the hand and dragging her towards the battle. Brian looked at Meggan, who had her eyes closed with the pain.

“Meg,” he said softly, taking her hand. “We need you to be strong. I need you. If we can defeat these brigands, then we can find Roma and she can heal this.”

“Brian, you don’t understand,” said Meggan. “I can feel the death from this place spreading like a cancer across the Multiverse. I don’t think it can be stopped.”

“I do,” said Brian. “Have faith.”

“I do,” said Meggan, managing a watery smile and she took his hand and they sped off after the others.

“It appears that we have guests,” he said to Sat-Yr-9, and turned on the lights to her quarters to reveal her naked body, laid next to a member of the Captain Britain Corps. He had a slight smile on his face and was sleeping lightly. “Very nice.”

“Don’t you knock?” she barked, getting out of bed.

“Since when have you been bothered by modesty?” he leered as she pulled on a robe from a nearby chair.

“I might have been… busy,” she said. “How dare you intrude.”

“Don’t forget how wields the power here, sweetheart,” he snapped back at her. “None of this would be possible if it were not for me.”

“Perhaps,” she said.

“You don’t give in easily, do you?” He shook his head. “Excalibur are here, from Earth 616.”

“What?” Sat-Yr-9 looked at her partner. “I sent three of our warriors there to finish them off. They should have died.”

“There are seven of them, including Linda McQuillen. There are only two of them I do not recognise.”

“Who?” asked Sat-Yr-9.

“A man who throws fire from his hands and a young woman who seems to have some psionic abilities.”

“The first is a man called Peter Wisdom,” answered Sat-Yr-9. “However the woman is unknown to me.”

“No matter,” he said. “We’re ready for them.”

“Delay the execution of Roma and Merlyn until they are stopped or have fled. They won’t win. They can’t.”

“These people are good at what they do, and they’re lucky. How are you so certain.”

“They may have defeated you, but in our case it was a draw and they took more damage than I did. With both of us at the helm, they’ve no chance.” He smiled, as she drew the sword from the side of the bed and sliced the head of the sleeping Captain clean from his shoulders and it fell from the bed and rolled on to the floor, where she jabbed the sword in to the neck to pick it up. “Have someone change the sheets,” she said. “Dried blood is so uncomfortable.”

The scavengers were swiftly routed and sent on their way, as Excalibur took stock of the situation.

“Best you’ve been in ages, Braddock,” said Pete lighting up a cigarette. “Suit modifications?”

“No,” said Brian, “the energy matrix is just charging the suit up. Almost as good as new. Meggan, what can you see about here?” Meggan focused looking at the world in the perspective of the Alshra, the spirit plane. All forms of energy flowed around her in sparkling colours, but on the horizon and seeping in to the colour were the ominous traces of black.

“The matrix is being fed upon. Wild and untamed it is now being tapped.”

“Is that possible?” asked Brian of Linda.

“I suppose,” said Linda. “It feeds us with our powers so in theory we are tapping in to it as well.”

“Could you explain this to me, ’cause I’m lost,” said Pete.

“The matrix is a power source that is focused on the British Isles,” said Brian. “It’s the mystical energy source that gives the corps their powers, like the sun charges the optic blasts of Cyclops. We don’t get the powers without a price. At first I needed a focus to give me a boost for the powers, something to store the energies, then came the suit. As time went by I began to store the energy within me, and developed the powers naturally. However the suit allowed me to use the powers outside the U.K., otherwise I quickly lose the powers.”

“And when you did in the Crimson Dawn, you drained your system totally,” said Pete, and Brian nodded.

“I can sense people in pain,” said Mastermind, biting her lip as her psionics were heightened by the power of Otherworld. “There’s a lot of people hurting here.”

“Wars and invasions are never painless,” said Khaos, “but there is a familiar feel to this.”

“I sense it too,” said Kylun. “It’s like I’ve seen this before but I can’t quite place it.”

“Right,” said Brian. “We’ll divide in to too teams. Kylun, Mastermind, Pete, go with Linda to the Supreme Headquarters of the Corps. Linda will show you the way. Meg, Khaos – you’re with me.”

“Where to, Captain?” asked Kylun.

“The original fortress of Merlyn,” said Brian. “That’s where they’ll be.”

“They?” asked Pete.

“Either the Resistance or Sat-Yr-9. Let’s go.”

Linda led the way to the Supreme Headquarters of the Corps, only to find it’s domes and spires battered and ruined. There were many of the large warriors on guard around the entrances.

“What now?” asked Pete, as the four of them huddled down in a location out of sight.

“We need to get to the other members of the Corps so they can start the counter attack. There should be several thousand in there.”

“Marti?” asked Pete, hoping she could get in there and sense if they were there.

“I’m a low level psi, Wisdom. I just get in to people’s heads and let their dreams become my illusions. I can’t tell how many people are in a room by concentrating. At the moment I’m just able to screen out the thoughts of the people here, and that’s taking my concentration.”

“Typical,” said Pete. “Never a real telepath when you need one. I expect illusions are out as well?” Martinique nodded and Pete shook his head.

“If we could get close enough, I could distract them,” said Kylun.

“Slicing them up will just annoy them,” said Pete.

“I was thinking more of using my talent to replicate sounds precisely,” said Kylun. “Could get them running around all over. I got quite a few prominent voices when I was last on Otherworld.”

“Wouldn’t know,” said Pete, thinking he’d avoided the wedding to avoid Kitty. “There another way in, Linda?”

“Not that I know of,” said Linda. “I say we try Kylun’s idea.”

“As its the only idea we’ve got, why not?” said Wisdom, “Okay, furry, you’re on.” Kylun shook his head and went crept over to the place, taking care not to be seen.

“You okay,” Pete asked Linda. “You’ve been quiet.”

“It’s just things are taking their toll on me,” she said. “I’m tired. I’m grieving over the loss of my husband. I lost him once, and that was bad enough. To lose him again, I don’t know if I can take that.”

“It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,” quoted Mastermind.

“Try it,” said Pete and Linda in unison, each with the same harshness in their voice.

“Sorry,” said Martinique, “just trying to help.”

“One of these days, I’ll find a time traveller, go back and slap Shakespeare stupid for that one,” said Pete.

“Tennyson,” said Linda.

“Huh?” asked Pete.

“It was Tennyson, not Shakespeare,” said Martinique.

“Fine, I’ll have ’em both,” said Pete, being reminded of Kitty twice now, had put him in a bad mood. Last time he’d seen her, he’d lied about how he felt, but at least it was good between them now. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. “Kylun’s on,” he said and they watched as he shouted, using several voices.

“Roma,” said Linda as the voices came. “Saturnyne. Merlyn. Necrom. That last one has them confused. More than the others did.” The guards looked uncertain as to what to do.

“Necrom?” said Pete. “The Anti-Phoenix? He’s dead isn’t he?”

“Could be trouble,” said Linda, as the guards began to advance to where the voices had been coming from. Kylun had been moving about as he spoke, a silent and deadly warrior. “Let’s go.”

“You know where we’re going,” said Pete, following her lead, and firing a hot knife towards the building, creating an explosion. It served as a diversion to let Kylun know they were moving out and to get the guards away from him.

Linda and Kylun had been in there before for the wedding, so he was able to join them without difficulty and they made their way inside and were surprised to see that there were no guards inside.

“Love it when they’re overconfident,” said Pete, with a grin. “How you doin’ Marti?”

“Getting a focus. Never had to exercise this much control. I’m getting a headache but I’m able to work easier. We’ll be able to get out without problems.”

“Good,” said Linda. “It’s just through here and…” She stopped as she entered the main room and gasped.

“Bloody hell,” said Pete, his jaw dropping open. Kylun turned his head, and Martinique, buried her face in Pete’s coat. The bodies of the corps were scattered across the room. Thousands of headless corpses lay stacked in a pile, on top of stock of wood.

“A funeral pyre,” said Kylun. “To disguise what the sacrilege. How dare they treat the dead with such disrespect.

“We’re not leaving silently,” said Pete. “Let’s make some noise. All of a sudden I feel a need to break something.”

The other members of the team flew towards Merlyn’s old citadel, watching for trouble. It was quiet. Too quiet. As they landed, Brian looked about for any sign of activity. Meggan shook her head, feeling no traces of activity with her empathy. Khaos sheathed his wings and drew his swords, momentarily touching Ibic, the tecknomagical icon, that allowed him to channel the ambient energies in the air, as well as being a source of massive mystical knowledge.

“There is great magic here,” he said. “But it is a magic of a darkness I can scarcely believe.”

“Powerful enough to take down Merlyn and incapacitate Roma,” said Brian. “Could be Necrom.”

“Surely not,” said Meggan. “His atoms were blown to infinity and beyond. Rachel finished him off.”

“And without the power of the Phoenix force, there’s no way we could stop him,” said Brian.

“This Necrom is a sorcerer?” asked Khaos as they made their way, cautiously through the citadel. It’s old stone walls were dark and blackened with moss and shadows were everywhere.

“This world’s sorcerer supreme,” said Brian and told him of the fight with the anti-Phoenix, the dispersion of the energy matrix and the compression of the omniverse.

“That is potent magic,” agreed Khaos. “But he cannot be alive. When we last met, Ibic tasted the Phoenix force and it is not present.”

“Then who could it be?” asked Meggan.

“Well, well, well,” said a voice in front of them as Sat-Yr-9 stepped in to the light. “If it isn’t Captain Britain and his shape shifting wench.”

“You’re mine,” said Brian, his vow to avenge Courtney Ross coming to the forefront of his mind, and flew towards her, only to be met with a magical blast of energy.

“BRIAN!” shouted Meggan and flew to catch him.

“You couldn’t before and you’re not half the man you were,” sneered Sat-Yr-9.

“Try me,” said Khaos, the swords drawn and Ibic glowing with power.

“You must be Khaos,” said Sat-Yr-9. “I’ve been told so much about you.”

“Who by?” said Khaos taking a step back. This was unexpected.

“You left it too late, old friend,” said a voice from behind Sat-Yr-9. “Irth has fallen.”

“Ghath?” gasped Khaos as his mortal enemy stepped in to the light. “How? You’ve never had this power.”

“Irth fell in to endless war whilst you were gone, and I recreated myself gradually, picked up the pieces and took the world for my own. It was whilst I was in a state of limbo, that I learnt of the powers of the being called Necrom, of the Omniverse and all that there was. His form was scattered across reality, and I stole his knowledge and power, siphoning it in to myself. Now I am taking the energy matrix that binds reality and soon I shall control it all.”

“You’ll never get away with this,” said Brian, getting to his feet with Meggan’s help.

“Au contraire, my dear Captain, I already have. With Sat-Yr-9’s knowledge at my disposal, we make a very good team, and just think – none of this would have been possible without the help of Excalibur of Earth 616. You may as well have just handed me the keys to reality.”

“You’re dead!” said Khaos advancing, only to be met by a one of the guards.

“This is a little something I cooked up on Irth,” said Ghath. “With the enhancements of the Corps suits, they make very effective warriors.”

“I don’t think so,” said Meggan, growing in stature and planting a punch on the warrior before it could attack Khaos.

“Beware of her,” warned Sat-Yr-9. “She is powerful indeed.”

“Yes, but she is just one, and she cannot defend against an army of our warriors.” They were being surrounded on all sides and Meggan knew she couldn’t take them all.

“Brian?” she asked.

“Run,” answered the Captain.

“I will stay and fight,” said Khaos.

“Revenge means nothing if you’re dead,” said Brian, picking him up as he flew out, Meggan behind him, the sounds of their enemies laughter following them. “We’ll regroup with the others.”

“Die, you ugly mother,” shouted Wisdom, the rest of the curse lost in the sounds of battle. Some warriors were fighting themselves thanks to Mastermind, others were being cut to ribbons by Pete’s hot knives and others were being sliced by Kylun’s mystic blades. Captain U.K. was holding her won against them but there were too many for her to be 100% effective, and she was tired anyway.

“Uhh,” she said as one of them drove it’s fist in to the chest, felling her with a mighty blow.

“Oi, leave her alone,” said Pete and fired a hot knife at him, but the creature dodged, picking Linda up and making a run for it with her slung over his shoulder. Wisdom tried to fire hot knives to stop him, but the other warriors got in his way, and soon she was out of sight.

“I fear for her,” said Kylun, as he and Pete got back to back.

“No kidding,” said Pete. “Marti…”

“On it,” she said and made it look like they’d been swallowed by the ground. The warriors looked around as they went after Linda, only to be met with a door. Kylun hit the door with the swords, but to no effect. Pete clasped his hands together and generated a single massive hot knife and ploughed it in to the door, but it only made a small burn mark.

“Bugger,” he said, knowing it would take more than he had to burn through. “How do we explain to Brian we lost his friend?”

“What?” said Brian as he landed next to them. “Where’s Linda?”

“Through there,” said Pete, and Brian started towards him but was interrupted by Meggan’s approach.

“They’re coming,” said Meggan as she landed next to him, with Khaos not far behind, firing energy blasts from Ibic. Brian began to hammer at the door but had nothing to show for it.

“Great, now we’re trapped,” said Pete, “this is not the way I expected to die.”

“We’ll take as many as we can with us,” said Khaos, and both he and Kylun had their swords drawn.

“Damned right,” said Pete, charging his hot knives, knowing he’d done a lot trying to burn through the door and didn’t have too much left without resting, then the miracle came. Widget opened arrived in a burst of light and created a portal for them.

“Let’s get out of here,” said Mastermind.

“Better than dying here,” said Pete and made after her.

“We’re not leaving Linda,” said Brian.

“If we die then she’s definately dead,” said Pete, grabbing his arm. “Whilst we live she still has a fighting chance.”

“Revenge is worth nothing if you’re dead,” said Meggan, and Brian closed his eyes.

“Forgive me, Linda,” he said and he made his way to the portal, the others in succession and then they fled Otherworld.

Sat-Yr-9 and Ghath laughed when they heard the reports. Excalibur, Otherworld’s great hope had fled. They had done some damage but not enough.

“The Multiverse is ours,” said Ghath.

“Not until Roma and Merlyn are dead,” reminded Sat-Yr-9. “I think we should hang them at dawn.”

“How old fashioned,” said Ghath. “I like it. The arrangements shall be made.”

“Good,” she said. “And have Captain U.K. taken to my quarters. Her turn has come.” She chuckled cruelly and made her exit.

Linda McQuillen would spend the next few hours in delicious torment, then slowly die in great pain.

NEXT ISSUE: Where have Excalibur ended up, and can they get it together in time to save the captives on Otherworld? The first test of Brian’s leadership seems to have ended in disaster, but will the reluctant hero bounce back?