DISORDER

By Wesley Overhults

The Cathedral

“We suffered a heavy casualty, sir,” admitted Samuel as he stood in front of Reverend Stryker’s desk with his head hung low.  “Brother Warren, leader of our Choir, is dead.  He was slain by the leader of the Exiles.”

“What of the rest of our flock?” inquired the Reverend.

“Minister Stein killed one of the Exiles,” informed Samuel.  “He hasn’t come out of his workshop since then though I don’t believe it is due to any remorse over his actions.  He seemed especially concerned for one of the Exiles, called her by her real name in fact.”

“Molly,” said the Reverend, resting his hand on his chin and plotting The Order’s next move.  “That girl is the only reason Minister Stein remains with us.  I take it that she retreated with the rest of the Exiles.  That’s a boon to us because I need him here to finish his crucial work.  What of the rest of The Choir and Sister Rahne?”

“Sister Rahne is still shaken from the battle,” said Samuel.  “I was forced to trigger her implant and though her body recovers quickly from the transformation, her mind still needs time to heal.  As to The Choir, I cannot say.”

“I can.”

Samuel turned to see Theresa Cassidy walk into the Reverend’s office, still garbed in black from the funeral proceedings held for Warren Worthington III.  All members of The Order had attended it but only the members of The Choir still wore black.  There was much disturbance in their aerie but it had been unanimous who should go to the Reverend with the news.  All the Choir members liked Theresa and everyone knew that she was Warren’s favorite lieutenant.  It made perfect sense for her to now take his place.

“Sister Theresa, I express my sympathies again for The Choir’s loss,” said Stryker.  “Brother Warren was a good man who loved the Lord and enjoyed doing His will.”

“Aye, he’s singin’ with the real angels now,” said Theresa.  “I have been elected as The Choir’s new leader and I’ve come ta tell ye that we will no longer sit idly by and languish in our retirement.  That battle was the first for some of us in many years and for others of us it was the first time ever.  We want more, Reverend.  Put us to work.”

“When the time is right, work you shall have,” confirmed Stryker.  “For the moment, I believe The Order is best served by letting our inquisitors do their work but rest assured that you will have the opportunity to deliver God’s mighty vengeance to these Exiles and their masters.  Take this moment to begin training your flock, Sister Theresa.  I want them fully capable when the moment arises.”

“Ye can consider it done,” assured Theresa, pulling her metallic wings closer to her so she could pass through the door and exit the Reverend’s office.

Stryker watched Theresa go and noticed the way Samuel was looking at her.  Theresa was a stunning beauty to behold, that much was true, and Stryker wouldn’t fault any man for admiring that beauty.  Yet Stryker could plainly see that Samuel’s heart was more keen towards another redheaded girl and that troubled the Reverend.  Stryker knew that Samuel was his best inquisitor but ever since bringing Rahne into the fold, the boy seemed more concerned with her than he was with his job.  In a way, Stryker supposed he could relate to that.  He remembered feeling the same way the first time he saw Eterna, the woman who would later become his wife.  Things were beginning to fall into place though and he couldn’t allow anything to cloud the judgment of his best operatives.

“I’ll need to speak with Minister Stein at the earliest opportunity,” he said, his words bringing Samuel back to reality.  “I will also schedule an appointment with Brother Crow for Sister Rahne.  Please inform her of that.”

“Are you sure that’s necessary, sir?” inquired Samuel.

“My judgment comes from the Lord Almighty,” reminded Stryker.  “Do not fret, Brother Samuel.  If Sister Rahne is indeed the woman the Lord has chosen for you then He will not allow anything to harm her.  You are a righteous and good man who serves the Lord faithfully and you will be rewarded for your service.”

“My apologies, Reverend,” said Samuel.  “I’ll go tell Sister Rahne at once.”

Samuel left Stryker’s office, leaving the Reverend alone with his thoughts.  He looked at the watch which was once his Tallus, flipping open its cover and watching the seconds tick away.  It always seemed as if the clock was counting down to something but he could never figure out just what.

“Your former friends will be the death of us if we don’t step up our timetable,” he said to the blond woman that stood in the doorway that led from his office to his chambers.

“John can be most tenacious,” cautioned Eterna.  “I suspected that he was the one handling the Exiles now.  It’s a shame about Jules.  He could’ve been a good informant but he was always too ambitious.”

“It was the work of the Lord that he came to us and was eager to join our cause,” admitted Stryker.  “Now it seems we’ll have to find another Timebroker to use in our plan.  Any thoughts on that, dear?”

“I think I might have a few but we’ll have to figure out a way to actually get inside the Axis,” explained Eterna coming over to Stryker and sitting on the edge of his desk.  “All of our potential candidates are safe inside its confines.”

“I’ll have Stein work on something strong enough to teleport inside,” decided Stryker.  “I expect you to lead once we have adequate transportation.  After all, you do know the way.”

“Of course,” promised Eterna, a smile gracing her beautiful lips.  “You know me well enough, William.  You know I have no problem doing my duty as your wife and supporting you.”

“And I thank God every day for that support,” said Stryker, getting up from his chair and kissing his wife on the cheek.  “You and I will be the king and queen of a new world, Eterna.  We will reign forever in Paradise.”

“Sounds like a perfect life,” said Eterna.  “Can we have our castle sit by the sea?  I do get homesick from time to time and miss it.”

“If my queen wants a castle by the sea then she shall have it,” agreed Stryker.  “Come to bed now.  We have more long days of work ahead of us.”

“I’ll join you in a moment,” promised Eterna, lingering next to Stryker’s desk even as he went into his chambers.  She picked up the pocket watch that was once Stryker’s Tallus and watched the seconds tick away.  Things were drawing closer and closer to the point when she would get everything she desired.  Things were drawing closer and closer to the moment of her revenge.

Rahne Sinclair sat on her bed listlessly staring at the floor beneath her feet.  Her mind was always a jumbled mess after one of her transformations.  This time, it was worse.  Rahne knew that she was a monster, knew that she had a sickness inside her that tainted her very soul.  Yet she told herself that if she used her bestial nature in the service of the Lord and the cause of The Order then she was at least doing something good with it.  Now she wasn’t so sure the cause of The Order was just.  Samuel, her mentor and her closest friend, wanted her to murder a fifteen-year-old girl.  In her brief time as an inquisitor, Rahne had never confronted someone so young.  What kind of monsters were these Timebrokers and these Exiles if they would allow someone of that age to become their soldier?  Then again, what kind of people were The Order if they would allow someone Rahne’s age to become their soldier?  She wasn’t that much older than Bruiser was yet Rahne had chosen this life, or rather God had chosen it for her.  That was how it had happened, wasn’t it?

“May I come in?”

Rahne knew the knock and the voice that accompanied it was from Samuel before the young man even spoke a single word.  She felt herself smile reflexively at the thought that he would come to check on her.  He was a kind and decent man at heart and always had been ever since Rahne had known him.

“Yes,” she answered and he opened the door.

“The Reverend wanted you to know that he has scheduled you an appointment with Brother Crow,” informed Samuel.  “He will be expecting you at your earliest convenience.”

“I do not like that man, Samuel,” said Rahne.  “I hold him in some high regard because he was the one who helped lead me to the light but if I may be honest, he scares me.  I will keep that appointment but only because it is the will of the Reverend.”

“You are a good soldier, Rahne,” noted Samuel.  “The Lord is proud of your service in our cause.  I am proud of you, especially after our recent encounter with the Exiles.”

“Thank you for your kindness, Samuel, but I wish to be left alone,” said Rahne truthfully.

“Are you having a crisis of faith?” inquired Samuel, sitting next to Rahne on her bed.

“Perhaps,” she admitted to him.  “I have questions that I don’t believe you, Brother Crow, or even the Reverend could answer to my satisfaction.”

“You know that God is always with us,” reminded Samuel.  “Perhaps you should allow Him to relieve you of your burdens.”

“Do you remember your life before you came to the service of The Order?” asked Rahne.

Samuel thought for a moment, remembering the life he had before this one.  It was a quiet, simple life much like the one she came from.  He was the eldest child of his family, a family that suffered through financially hard times with solid faith in the Lord and in one another.  He remembered the day that The Order found him.  He and his father had been digging in the coal mines and there was a cave-in.  He thought that he was dead and perhaps he had been at some point but when Samuel awoke, he found himself in the Cathedral.  He had spent so long as an inquisitor that he had almost forgotten what came before.  He missed his siblings and his parents, particularly his oldest sister Paige.  In the myriad of worlds he had visited and subsequently destroyed, Samuel never arrived home.  He had seen a thousand different versions of his sister but they were never really his sister.

“Yes,” he answered finally.

“I miss my father,” said Rahne.  “Life in my village was so peaceful even in the shadow of Dracula and those other monsters.  I was happy there.”

“But the Lord called you away from your home and lead you to us,” said Samuel.

“Yes but I want to see him again,” revealed Rahne.  “Could I do that, Samuel, even if just for a brief moment?  He must be so worried about me, about his precious only daughter.”

“You must speak with the Reverend if you wish that to happen,” said Samuel as he took her hand and tried to lead her out of her chambers.  “First though, you have an appointment to keep.”

“I will keep it on my own,” decided Rahne, walking with him out of her chambers and then letting go of his hand.  “Trust me, Samuel.  I will see Brother Crow as soon as possible.”

He watched her depart for Brother Crow’s office, feeling a gnawing in his stomach that he had never felt before.  He loved this girl, this gentle and beautiful village girl.  It was that love and affection that allowed him to bypass his better judgment and save her from her doomed reality.  It was that love that made him push to become her teacher so that he could watch over her.  Yet if she knew what had happened to her father and to everyone in her reality, she would hate him for all eternity.  He couldn’t live with that so he had to keep up the charade, keep deluding her into believing what he and the rest of The Order stood for was just and noble.

Rahne turned the corner and put herself out of Samuel’s sight before she took a different path that led her away from Brother Crow.  She didn’t want to go see him, at least not until she had looked into perhaps visiting her home reality and letting her father know that she was in good hands now.

Earth-107

No matter how many different versions of New York he found himself in, Harry Osborn always called the city his home.  For better or worse, he was a New Yorker and to him it meant that he was tougher than most.  Living in a city crawling with superheroes and super-villains who constantly made its streets their battlegrounds had to toughen you up.  It also left you jaded and weary but Harry had plenty of practice with that considering the family he grew up in.  Yet no matter how many bad things had happened to him while he dwelt within New York City, it was still his home no matter what reality he was squatting in at the present moment.

“Good to be home,” he muttered to himself as the hellfire from his teleportation died down and he looked around the dark alley.  There was a scream somewhere further down the alley and he flew towards it immediately.

The scene was too familiar to anyone in his line of work.  There was a man in a trench coat with a knife and a scared girl backed up against one of the alley’s walls.  Goblin felt the hellfire coalesce in the palms of his hands and readied to intervene.  Something didn’t take that second’s worth of hesitation and a crimson blur dropped down from a fire escape.  The man in red pounced on the mugger and punched him twice in the jaw before springing back on his hands and digging both his feet into the thug’s gut.  The mugger tried to stagger away but a piece of metal bounced off the wall to his right, ricocheting straight towards the knife in his hand and disarming him in the blink of an eye.  The projectile hit the ground, bounced off the same wall it had earlier, and this time hit the thug square in the forehead and took him down.

“Just because you don’t trigger my danger-sense doesn’t mean I don’t know you’re here,” said Daredevil as he spun and looked at Goblin.  “I could smell you coming a mile away.  Use a whole case of deodorant next time, maybe then you’ll get that rotten-ass stink off you.”

“Good to see you too,” noted Goblin with a rare grin, restraining himself from using his former teammate’s real name while in the presence of an innocent bystander.

“Call the cops and tell them to come pick this guy up,” said Daredevil to the mugger’s intended victim before hooking his grappling line on the fire escape and vaulting up into the skyline.

Goblin took to the air and followed Daredevil up to a vacant rooftop.  Once the two men had settled, Johnny shook Harry’s hand and then pulled him into a hug.  Goblin had to admit that it was good to see him.  He could tell that Johnny was lighter in spirit now, probably because he and Nico were still together.  Harry had to admit to himself that he had been worried about Johnny but it was nice to see that things had worked out in the end.

“I need to get back to work soon but I wanted to talk to you about something,” explained Goblin.  “There’s been some . . . some shakeups with the team and it turns out we have an opening on our roster.”

“And they sent you to ask me instead of Will?” wondered Daredevil aloud.

“Will had to step down,” admitted Goblin.  “I’m . . . well, I’m the one in charge now.”

“Desperate times then,” cracked Daredevil.  “Don’t get me wrong, Osborn, I do consider you guys friends and I appreciate the offer but I’m not getting separated from Nico again.”

“We do have two openings,” noted Goblin.  “Johnny, I need people on this team that I can trust to watch our backs.  We’re up against something really nasty and we’ve already lost one teammate to it.  We need help.”

“Look, I’ll see if I can get Nico to go along with this but if she says she’s out then I’m out too,” warned Daredevil.  “Come back to our place and we’ll talk it over.”

“Sure,” agreed Goblin and the two heroes took off into the night for Daredevil’s loft.

The Cathedral

Chase Stein sat in his control seat and watched the bank of video monitors in front of him.  Using the technology provided to him by The Order, Machine Man had managed to hack into video feeds from other realities.  At this point in his existence, television was his only source of entertainment.  Currently, he wasn’t watching television though.  He was watching the coordinated movements of The Order on over a dozen different realities.  As Minister of Science, Stein had to make sure that adequate transportation was available to all the inquisitors in the field and also had to assess the quality of their equipment.  To a normal human, this would have been a very taxing job but the only thing of Stein’s that it seemed to tax was his patience.  He was never very good at dealing with people.

“I’m busy,” he replied to the knock on his door, one of his screens shifting images to the video feed from the camera on the outside of the door.  “Unless you have a message from Reverend Meatbag then I’m not concerned with what you have to say.  Honestly, I probably won’t be concerned if it is from him.”

“I need to ask you for a favor,” said Rahne.  “May I come in and talk to you?”

“Lols to the max,” laughed Machine Man.  “How come I’m the one who has to take care of every girl in the universe with Daddy issues?”

“I am prepared to stand here forever until you let me in,” stated Rahne.

Machine Man watched her turn her back to the door and then sit down, leaning back against it and crossing her arms over her chest.  He would have laughed at such a juvenile display except that it reminded him of what Molly used to do when she didn’t get her way.  Machine Man felt something inside him that almost made him feel human again whenever he thought about Molly.  He would kill those Exiles for making her betray him.  Chase cursed under his nonexistent breath and then clicked a button on the control seat, opening the door for Rahne.

“Talk,” he ordered as he closed the door once she had entered.

“I wish you to let me go back to my world so I can see my father one last time,” stated Rahne.

Machine Man almost fell out of his chair as he erupted into a fit of laughter.  Rahne screwed up her face in anger as she tried to figure out what was so funny about her request.  She reasoned that it would be a simple task to complete for the Minister of Science, especially given how much stock he put in his own abilities.  So why was he laughing at her so much?

“You really don’t know what happened, do you?” asked Machine Man after realizing that Rahne wasn’t joking.  “Spoiler alert, your reality doesn’t exist anymore.”

“You’re lying,” countered Rahne, not believing the words that came out of Stein’s mouth.  “Such a thing is impossible.”

“You people don’t deal well with facts,” said Machine Man as he turned the video screens around so Rahne could see them and then called up some images.  “This is all the data your little boyfriend gathered on your home reality.  As Minister of Science, I have full access to everything in the archives so you can see all the notes and reports he made.  You can see the designation number he gave your world.  Now, when I type that number into the portal generator, it gives me an error message because that reality no longer exists.  Want more proof?  This is the serial number of the retcon bomb that was assigned to him for that particular inquisition and as you can see the serial number shows that the bomb exploded.  Exploded bomb means no reality.”

“He murdered them,” realized Rahne.

“No shit, really?” said Machine Man sarcastically.  “What, did he put you on the short bus when you rode over to the inquisition school?  You are completely stupid if you don’t realize what these people do here.”

“I know what we do,” snapped Rahne as she tried to process things.

She couldn’t believe it, refused to believe it.  Yet here was all the proof she needed staring her in the face.  It was fine when the people they killed were nameless, faceless people.  It was fine when they were heathen creatures who could never understand God’s love for them.  Yet when her own reality had been deemed unworthy, now the truth hit Rahne in the face so hard that she could never look away from it again.  She would never see her father again or any of the other survivors from her village.  They never existed and it was all because of Samuel.  It was then that something else clicked into place for her.

“Well look who woke up and smelt the coffee,” said Machine Man as he saw the activity in Rahne’s brain.  “I told you that Brother Crow did something bad to your head.”

“That’s why Samuel and the Reverend keep insisting I see him,” realized Rahne.  “What did he do?”

“The same thing he does with everyone else, Pinky,” retorted Machine Man.  “Heads up, bad wolf.  It’s the end of your world.”

Rahne didn’t have time to decipher Stein’s strange warning.  A needle jabbed her in the neck and her entire body felt numb and rubbery.  Her legs buckled under her as she sank to the ground, someone cradling her and helping her fall.  Samuel Guthrie looked up from Rahne’s unconscious form and glared at Machine Man.

“This never happened,” he warned Stein.  “Do not speak of it ever.”

“You check into this place but you don’t check out,” said Machine Man.  “Nobody escapes the bubble.”

Daredevil’s Loft, Earth-107

“Nice place,” commented Goblin with sincerity as he looked around Daredevil’s loft.  “I take it Nico moved in with you.”

“Nowhere else to go since there’s no version of me in this reality,” said Sister Grimm as she came down the stairs.  “Johnny, I told you not to bring strays home.”

“Last time I did, you got a new cat out of it so you don’t have room to complain,” quipped Daredevil, peeling back his cowl and kissing Nico on the cheek before vaulting up to the apartment’s upper floor.  “Let me change and I’ll be back down.”

“You want some tea?” inquired Sister Grimm as she looked at her guest.

“No, I’m alright,” assured Goblin.  “It’s good to see you again, Nico, but I’m afraid this isn’t really a social call.”

“I didn’t figure it was,” she admitted.  “Am I unhinged from this reality too?”

“No but I’d like you and Johnny to be on the team again,” explained Goblin.  “We have a couple open spots and I wanted you guys to fill them.  He said he wouldn’t do it if you didn’t agree to it too.”

“No pressure there then,” said Nico as she sat on the couch and motioned for Harry to take a seat in one of the chairs next to it.  “Jinx, come see your Uncle Harry.”

A black cat hopped up onto Nico’s lap and rubbed against her while she affectionately scratched its head.  There was a thud as Johnny flipped down from upstairs, wearing a t-shirt and a battered pair of jeans.  He came over to sit with Nico on the couch and Jinx retreated from Nico’s lap, instead preferring to jump into Goblin’s and curl up there.

“Yeah, I know,” said Daredevil before Goblin could even voice the question of why the cat wasn’t afraid of his appearance.  “That cat doesn’t even bat an eye when Nico uses her magic around the house.  It’s immune to weirdness or something so it’s pretty much made for us.”

“Seems that way,” agreed the green-skinned Exile as he attempted to pet the cat.  “I really hate to harp on this but you’ve never given me an answer to my offer.  Are you in or out?”

“It’s a big adjustment,” admitted Nico after looking at Johnny and sighing.  “Look, I don’t want this to be a regular thing.  Yeah, I’m unhinged from my own reality and that sucks but I like thinking that this is my new home.  I have roots here, we both do, and I don’t think either of us wants to leave all that behind to be Exiles again.  We have enough wrongs to right in this reality.”

“Oh yeah, definitely,” agreed Daredevil.

“So you’re out?” inquired Goblin.

“No, I don’t think we are,” admitted Sister Grimm.  “We owe you and the others, Harry, and we consider all of you friends.  So if you’re in trouble than we will help you under one condition.  When this is over and the big bad is gone, we’re coming right back here and you’re never asking us to do this again.  That sound good to you, Johnny?”

“Hey, you’re the boss,” said Daredevil with a shrug.  “Seriously, I feel the same way.  You guys are like family and we’ll help out but there’s enough work in this city alone that should keep us busy for the rest of our lives.”

“That’s more than fair,” agreed Goblin.

“Good,” said Sister Grimm.  “I’ll call Matt and tell him to mind the shop for a while and especially to feed Jinx.  He’ll probably just pawn her off on Strange or something.”

“I’ll get my gear and be ready to go in a few minutes,” promised Daredevil.  “At least this time you won’t have to leave wearing your pajamas, Nic.”

“Yay for that then,” said Nico as both of them headed upstairs and left Goblin alone with their cat.

The Cathedral

Rahne Sinclair mumbled something and blearily opened her eyes.  She dragged her mind up from the depths of sleep and found herself back in her room.  She blinked and groggily sat up, shaking her head to clear the cobwebs.  Rahne’s mind tried to recall the events that occurred before she woke up.  She had been distraught over their recent battle with the Exiles and Samuel mentioned something about an appointment with Brother Crow.  Just thinking of the man made Rahne’s skin crawl but she had kept that appointment.  Seeing Brother Crow always tired her out but she was having trouble remembering exactly what she was thinking about before going to see him.  It had something to do with her father, didn’t it?

“May I enter?” inquired Samuel after knocking on her door.  “I wanted to see how you were doing after your appointment.”

“You may and I am well enough,” answered Rahne, going into her bathroom and turning on the water even as Samuel entered her quarters.  “I confess that I’m still . . . uneasy but I believe it shall pass.”

“Yes, Brother Crow can have that effect on people,” noted Samuel.

Rahne splashed some water on her face to wake herself up and then looked at her reflection in the mirror.  She felt a pain in her head as she tried to remember what she was thinking about earlier.  It did have something to do with her father.  She wanted to see him because she missed him so.  She tried to gain access to her home reality but . . . she couldn’t for some reason.  That didn’t make sense.  Nothing made sense and her head hurt when she tried to process it.

‘Heads up, bad wolf.  It’s the end of your world.’

Minister Stein said that to her just before . . . before what?  Rahne pressed her hand against the mirror and the pounding in her head began to increase.  She felt her adrenaline spike and then something else surged up from the pit of her soul.  She was . . . she was transforming again.  That wasn’t possible.  There was no full moon anywhere in sight so why was she turning into a werewolf?

“Rahne!”

Rahne Sinclair, the simple girl from a Transian village, looked at herself in the mirror, her claws digging into the glass, and watched herself transform.  The last rational thought she had in her head was that it felt good.  It felt so right to be a monster, as if she was just letting her outward appearance match what was inside.  She turned and saw Samuel raise his gun with a trembling hand.  Her bestial mind worked in tandem with the shred of humanity left in her and both of them agreed that Samuel was a threat.  She leapt towards him, knocking the gun away before he could fire even a single shot.  She was strong enough in this form that she picked him up with one hand, her claws clutched around his throat with a strength that could easily break his neck with one squeeze.  Samuel rasped something, perhaps a plea for mercy or a curse of damnation.  Rahne didn’t register the words.  She threw him aside and burst into the halls of the Cathedral.  The off-duty inquisitors and other Order personnel tried to detain her but she knocked them aside without a second thought.  She needed an escape and with her speed and strength it was easy to make it to a window before anyone could catch her.  Rahne Sinclair leapt through the window, shattering the stained glass and feeling the cool air of the world outside the Cathedral on her skin.  For the first time in perhaps forever, she felt a sense of peace and clarity that she had never known before.  Perhaps this was how she was meant to live.

“What happened?” asked Reverend Stryker as he came into the hallway just as Samuel exited Rahne’s quarters.

“I did not trigger her but still she transformed,” informed Samuel.  “She’s loose in the city.”

“Then you will go find her and bring her back,” commanded Stryker.  “Pray to God, Samuel, that I am filled with His mercy when you return with her.”

A howl echoed through the air and everyone in the vicinity heard it long and loud.  Rahne Sinclair was no longer a dog to be kept on a leash.  Now she was free and no one was going to cage her again until she could remember the truth about what had happened to her home and the loved ones who inhabited it.  She tore through the city that the Cathedral was a part of, the city that those of The Order called Zion.  With her enhanced speed, it took her only minutes to reach the outskirts of Zion and nothing but wilderness lay beyond.  The woods comforted her as she fled into them, reminding her of home.  She was miles away from the city by the time she stopped running.  Rahne sniffed the air and growled as she smelled something foul.

“I’m sorry that I’m not hospitable,” apologized Magik as she hefted her Soulsword and let the flames that wreathed its blade illuminate the night.  “I don’t get many visitors out here.”

EDITOR’S NOTE

It’s our sad duty to inform you that Wesley Overhults passed away on January 30th, 2017. From the time he joined Marvel Omega in 2009, Wesley was one of our most devoted writers, consistently turning out high quality work and being an active participant in the community. He will be missed.