BLACK AIR RISING

Part IV: Shadows of the Mind and Soul

By David Wheatley

Amahl Farouk smiled as he watched the scenes around him, bidding his time until he unleashed himself on this desolate and ravaged world. There were none that could oppose him now. The X-Men were gone, Xavier was gone and Black Air was nothing to him, the Shadow King – the master of the astral plane.

He had been freed from the prison that was the mind of Elisabeth Braddock when she unleashed her psionic powers to link the team. Her powers had released him but before he could do anything he was sucked through the maelstrom that had become reality and it had sent his astral sense reeling and it had been many hours before he awoke. But now he was here, free at last. The woman who had held him had dropped her guard and now it would be his turn.

She had been so careful up to now, he mused, wondering why she had done this, knowing that he would be freed and a greater threat would be created. Perhaps it was the stress of what was going down – he could see in her mind that she had been part of a reality saving expedition before, and that she and the other X-Men who had been with her had failed. They had only been able to stand by helplessly as Legion tried to kill Magneto, and had been thwarted by an alternate version of the X-Man Bishop. Psylocke had later found out, that David Haller had failed in his task and killed Charles Xavier – his father – instead. This had destroyed all that was and eventually brought about the annihilation of the world.

The Shadow King marvelled at the idea that his oldest, most respected foe could have such an effect on the world, or on others. He knew he was powerful – that had been seen as part of the Onslaught creature, but to have that kind of destiny. What a staggering thought that was to him.

The Shadow King knew that without Xavier this world was now helpless before him, but he needed to bide his time. Psylocke was powerful in her own right, and so were the Destine children. Against the three of them he was not sure he could survive, and so he waited, letting Psylocke think she had used her powers and he was still trapped inside as he made his plans. He let them find out what he needed to know and planned accordingly. They told him all he needed to know and so he’d told Black Air where to find them. As they destroyed each other, he would take the survivors for his own and soon this reality would crumble before him.

Then he felt a presence, one he had felt before and he was stunned at it’s coming.

{How is this possible?} he demanded of the very presence over-powering his own.

{Because I allowed it,} returned the voice of Psylocke. {Did you really think I would forget you, Farouk?} He did not reply as the other entity within her mind spoke instead.

{He is contained,} he said. {I am sorry for the damage he has caused you. That we both have caused you.}

{You changed,} she answered. {He did not. Now we have work to do.}

{I shall contact Adam,} came the reply and though Psylocke wasn’t sure who Adam was, she sent an acknowledgement before she opened her eyes and looked at Brian.

“The Shadow King is contained,” she said and Brian smiled. It had been a risky play but one they had been forced to make. If it came down to it, they could have contained the Shadow King, but then they would have been left open to Black Air. This way was much more risky, but worth it.

He grabbed her shoulder and gave it a squeeze then looked down.

“They’re still demanding our surrender,” reported Kylun. “Marty and I are stalling them, but it’s getting old now.”

“We’re ready now,” said Betsy as she stood, the familiar butterfly effect appearing around her eyes, linking the team and scanning the people outside, better than the simple flash she had been forced to use to draw their ally in to the battle. “They’re Black Air all right. They were expecting to fight two telepaths and so have their shielding ready for Gracie and Kay, but with theirs and mine we can pierce their shields. There’s about 30 or so, armed with anti-mutant weaponry and they do have us surrounded.”

“Then the plan’s simple enough,” said Brian. “We go out there and fight and see what we can do to fix this mess.” The acknowledgement came from everyone, as they got ready.

Elsewhere, in another sphere of being known as Soul World, Adam Warlock contemplated on how things had gone so very wrong. The plan had been flawless, Thanos had defeated everyone and there were none left to oppose him and Adam saw him give up his physical being in the moment Eternity was defeated, and it was then that the moment of victory was soon upon them.

Thanos had made a mistake becoming the embodiment of all that is and Nebula made her move for the Gauntlet. She should have claimed it and made it her own, thus ensuring her inevitable defeat, but the unthinkable occurred and Thanos’s subconscious mind defeating him as it had before. Thanos seemed to realise what had happened and obliterated her, as if the Gauntlet itself had alerted him.

Adam pondered on the event. How was it so that someone else had a hold over the Gauntlet, and how was it he had not noticed it before? It was a mystery that plagued him. Thanos had kept the Gauntlet and so doing became unbeatable, for he had a mastery over the Gauntlet that Warlock could not dispel by himself.

He and the Surfer had returned to Earth, to the Sanctum Sanctorum of Doctor Strange where the truth dawned. They had lost and all they could do now was defend the Earth from Annhilus and his forces that had breached the dimensional walls through the rifts created by the clash between Thanos and the cosmic beings. The three of them aided by Dr Doom, Drax, Hulk, Thor and Firelord pushed them back, but at the end of it only Warlock, Firelord and the Surfer remained. Then came Thanos, to clear up the loose ends. He stripped the former heralds of their power cosmic and finally turned to Warlock.

“Mephisto had me spare you once, old friend. Not a second time. However, I am not as merciless as I would have been, plus I want to you in a place I know you cannot cause me further trouble. I return you to the confines of the Soul Gem.” In a split second, Warlock was home again, and had an eternity to ponder what had gone wrong.

Thanos was not merciless, but he was still cruel.

However things were happening outside of the Soul Gem, something big. He could sense it from here, and now that the Gauntlet was linked together there were holes forming in other realms. Somehow, he had managed to link with the last telepathic force in the universe, through the mind gem. Thanos had thought he had destroyed them all, for God does not allow dissent within his domain, but he had missed this one, which made Warlock wonder if his omnipotent sight was as all seeing as it should be.

There were anomalies and such and Thanos would have difficulty seeing over reality if reality were not fully his to command and with recent revelations things were starting to make sense, and now there were another four telepaths in the world, appearing as if from nowhere. That confirmed that reality was not what it had once been and though Thanos commanded it, he did not have control. Adam smiled ruefully, thinking of the same kind of sensations he had felt when possessing the Soul Gem.

A plan was forming, but there were rogue elements that needed resolving first before steps could be taken to restore the universe to it’s former status, but for that to happen they also needed to know the extent of their enemies weaknesses.

{They are ready,} came the voice. {The Shadow King is subdued and Excalibur confront their enemies.}

{Be ready,} said Adam as he stood. {Once they have the information they will cease to have value. We must prepare for the moment, if the plan is to succeed.}

{I will tell them,} he said and departed. Adam sat down again and wondered if this time things would work out.

In another reality entirely, Pete Wisdom’s day was getting worse. First he awoken to find himself bound by the Smurfs as a sacrifice, then he’d freed himself and given them a beating. Now they’d formed some kind of single, giant super Smurf and were kicking the crap out of him. Adam Destine was faring no better, but he was invulnerable so kicking the crap out of him was pointless, so the Smurf was concentrating on Pete.

“BLOODY HELL!” he cried as the Smurf grabbed him by the legs and started swinging him round. It buggered up his aim and concentration so he couldn’t fire off any hot knives – for all the good they’d been doing so far – and his cigarettes were going everywhere too. Then it let him go and he flung back in to Adam, and they were both knocked to the floor.

“We’ve a problem,” said Adam.

“Really?” said Pete as he wiped away the blood from his nose and chin. “Getting beaten up by a Smurf is how I spend every second Thursday.”

“Is this really the time for sarcasm?” suggested Adam as the Smurf began to advance. “And your stepping on Papa Smurf probably didn’t help either.”

“Nah, he was bloody asking for it, he was,” said Pete. “What we need is some kind of dimensional portal and that way we can get the hell out of here.”

“Any idea where we could find one?” asked Adam.

“Where we came in,” suggested Pete.

“Worth a try,” said Adam, and seeing as how he was the one who was conscious when they arrived he got up, and gave Pete a hand as well. “Follow me.” They started to run, just as the super Smurf took a swing at them, missing by mere millimetres.

“If Brian or anyone else finds out I was running from a Smurf, I’m going to have to kill them,” muttered Pete as they quickly sprinted away.

Excalibur attacked the Black Air forces, as Dai Thomas watched on, thinking he had seen this all before. He remembered when Excalibur had come back to face this before, just after the madness that had surrounded them with Necrom. Excalibur had gone to Otherworld, but the death effect had come in to play and Necrom and other main players simply ceased to be. That crisis was over, but only because of a much larger crisis.

Excalibur had returned to their lighthouse, the convergence of the Omniverse over, only to be ambushed by Black Air on their return. Alistaire had died in the death effect and Excalibur had been taken by surprise on their return. They had fought well and valiantly but they hadn’t known their enemy or their capability. It had been over quickly and Dai’s heart was saddened at the memory. The thing was he could see it happening again.

Meggan was still inside the lighthouse, her body slowly dying with the stresses that had been placed on it. This cosmic stuff was out of his league and he didn’t really understand it, but he did know it was killing her and her only companion at this time was Martinique, who was using her powers to try and keep her comfortable. Dai’s instincts said that Martinique wasn’t really trustworthy, but she was doing what she felt was right and that was enough for him and he turned his attention to the fight.

Outside, he could see Brian and the other fellow who’d become a big blue monster, smashing in to the Black Air forces. Psylocke, Gracie and Kay were keeping them hidden from their foes, working past the psionic blockers and the blonde woman and Kylun hacked through them with the swords. They were fighting for their lives here but they were only maintaining a stalemate.

Brian was pulling his punches and the monster was trying to keep himself under control, while Kylun’s blades were not harming the men and his companion was trying not to kill. From what Dai could tell, she hadn’t been in many fights.
They weren’t trying to kill, and Black Air weren’t holding back. He could see the past playing out all over again, then he saw it begin.

Kylun was nailed by a stray blast from one of his opponents and he spiralled to the floor, in a mess of hair, blood and sweat. His friend was shocked at seeing him fall and was distracted, allowing one of them to give her a blow to the back of the neck and she went down hard. The telepaths were undefended and Betsy told them to get back as she manifested her psionic blade and went on the attack. Her skills as a Hand trained ninja came in handy as her offensive began to push them back as Gracie and Kay pulled the injured out of the way. However the enemy had reinforcements on the way and lights came up as more troops came in.

The monster began to lose control and began tossing the enemy about like leaves as Brian looked around to see what he could do and he flew up in to the air, then he saw a man, wearing a black suit, with a white v-shaped neck rim, and he shouted a name.

“THREADGOLD!” and sped towards him like a bullet, but his target didn’t move and just as Brian came in to the attack, Threadgold slammed him in the head and Brian’s direction of flight changed. The surprise on Brian’s face was evident as he crashed in to the lighthouse.

“Brian,” said Martinque, going over to him.

“He has a suit,” said Brian. “Like mine but not mine.”

“But how?” she asked.

“Vixen,” he said. It was the only way he could figure it. When he’d been captured all those years ago, the crimelord Vixen had captured him and created a suit and given it to his old enemy Slaymaster. Brian hadn’t known and had quit being Captain Britain so Betsy faced him and she’d been blinded as a result. Brian’s mind raced with the possibilities of Vixen giving the schematics to Black Air, unless she didn’t need to. He said nothing as he went on the attack again.

Outside Besty was taking on Threadgold, netiher of them able to land a decent shot as the monster attacked the rest of them.

“BETSY! DOWN!” shouted Brian as he got in close, but Psylocke had sensed him coming and knew that this was just a distraction for Threadgold, but it didn’t work the way they’d intended. She ducked and Captain Britain and Threadgold slammed into each other. Brian hit the floor and didn’t get up and Threadgold smiled, watching over him. Psylocke took her advantage and thrust her psionic knife in to his head but then cried out, her psionic scream taking out Kay, Gracie and Martinique. She fell to the floor and now there was just the monster left standing and Dai closed his eyes. Threadgold flew towards the man’s family and called his name, demanding his surrender or his family died. The monster sighed and powered down becoming a normal man, who was struck from behind and he fell to the floor to join the others.

He stood their helplessly as they came and took away Meggan and Martinqiue and Threadgold approached him.

“They were the last, best hope,” he said to him and then walked away. Soon he Dai was alone and the last shred of hope he had was gone and Threadgold’s words rang in his ears. He reached in to his overcoat pocket and pulled out his old service revolver and made a decision.

He didn’t want to live in this world anymore.

In the former residence of the Queen, once known as Buckingham Palace, now known as Black Air Command, Excalibur and ClanDestine came to, finding themselves chained up in a way that if one of them escaped they’d kill or maim the others.

“Ah,” said Threadgold from his seat on the throne. “So finally you’re awake.”

“Where’s Scicluna?” demanded Brian.

“Close by,” he answered. “However we wanted you here to see this personally. You and your ruined a very good plan, but no matter. We have this reality now, and that will do for the start.”

“What are we supposed to see?” asked Gracie.

“Ah, Miss Gamble,” he said. “You are here to witness history. Behold!”

The viewer came on and across the reaches of space they could see Thanos, supreme being of the universe. He turned to look directly at them, his cosmic senses telling him he was being watched, and his mastery over time telling him what was going to happen and shock echoed over his face as he clicked his fingers but it was no use. The Gauntlet raised itself up from off his hand and as it did so Meggan screamed.

“Reality has betrayed him,” said Threadgold and the Gauntle pointed at Thanos and reduced him to his composite atoms. “You see,” he explained, “once, before all recorded time, the Infinity Gems were once a single sentient being, a creature of limitless power, and the only thing to exist within any and all realities. But it was alone and it destroyed itself in order to escape. This created the universe as it is now, but the power remained and came to life once more, reborn within the Infinity Gems. United they recreated the power they once had been, but with no true sentience to guide them, until we used the ritual.”

“You bonded Scicluna to Reality,” said Meggan, uttering her first words.

“More than that, we gave the power sentience and waited for you to arrive, as we knew you would. Once you were ours we could finish what we began,” claimed Threadgold, as an image of Scicluna appeared before them.

“Now we have ultimate power, it just took us a little longer. Now, Excalibur, your time is at an end.” She pointed at them as Psylocke closed her eyes and they were surrounded by an energy blast and then they slumped to the floor.

“At last, they are dead,” she said. “Dump their bodies in the street,” she commanded her servants and turned to Threadgold. “Now we will remake the world in the image it deserves.”

He nodded and the two of them vanished.

“There it is,” said Adam as he and Pete reached where they needed to be.

“How do you know?” asked Pete, who couldn’t see anything other than the advancing shadow of the Super Smurf.

“Trust me,” said Adam, mysteriously. “I know.”

“Terrific,” said Pete. “Any idea how we open it?”

“No,” he admitted. “What do you know?”

“Well, it took a lot of eldritch energy before to open the bleedin’ thing,” he said and he looked back at the Smurf. “And there’s an eldritch power coming towards us. Let’s double team it.”

“How?” asked Adam.

“You distract it and I’ll give it everything I’ve got left,” said Pete.

“Distract it?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Headbutt it’s knees, I don’t know…” muttered Pete as he closed his eyes and concentrated. In th back of his mind he could hear the voice of Sat-Yr-Nine taunting him. He’d been ignoring it until now, but this kind of stuff was more her type of caper than his. “Get… out… of… my… mind…” he chanted like a mantra.

Adam rushed at the Smurf and did the only thing he could think of – rugby tackled it. He pushed himself forward in to one of it’s legs and knocked it off balance. There was a snap as something broke in its leg and it fell forward, landing just before Pete, who felt the breeze as the creature went passed him, heard the thud as it hit the floor, and struggled to keep his feet as the shockwave passed under him.

He opened his eyes and looked right at it’s big, blue, bald head, it’s hat having fallen off. He clasped his hands together and fired, urging every ounce of energy he had stored out of his hands in one giant blast. Maybe it was the power of that single shot or maybe there was some mystic residue still on him from earlier, he couldn’t say, but it pierced the creature’s skull and instead of blood as he expected, there was a flash of light as it exploded, releasing dead Smurfs across the landscape.

The eldritch energy that had combined it escaped, and mixed with the residual traces of the portal and it opened, but rapidly started to reduce in size..

“Come on,” said Adam to the exhausted Pete and he grabbed him and they jumped through it. Pete could barely keep his eyes open, but before he lost consciousness, he remembered feeling someone grab him to keep him upright. Maybe it was his vision, but all he could see was a red S on a yellow background.

“Welcome to Metropolis,” said a powerful, yet comforting voice and Pete surrendered to the darkness.

NEXT ISSUE: Wanna take three guesses as to where Pete and Adam are? And are Excalibur really dead, and how can anyone possibly stop Black Air now?