WALKING DEAD

Part II

By Wesley Overhults

Manhattan

Stephanie Sydney never gave death a lot of thought until recently. When her uncle died, she was forced to think about death, about the finality of it. Whenever she thought about death, it inevitably led her to thinking about life. She always felt that death would come for her when she was old and gray, and she would have the fond memories of a life lived well to keep her company until she passed away. Since becoming a member of the Secret Warriors, she felt that death was encroaching on her every day. Maybe that was why she was attracted to Sebastian Druid. He thought about death all the time and yet she knew he shared the same philosophy as she did. He told her once that everyone died and it was true but he also told her that it was how people lived that was important, that defined them in the end.

Neon looked around her as the fallen warriors of the past that Agrona had conjured crept closer and closer to her and her teammates. She wondered how each of them chose to live their lives and to ultimately give up those lives on the battlefield. What kind of families and loved ones did they leave behind? Did they fight honorably or did they serve an unjust cause? Were they comfortable laying down their lives for their countries and causes or were they secretly afraid to do so and ashamed of that fear? It seemed that the power of the sword didn’t discriminate. Any who fell in battle were subject to its power and were forced to heed the call of its wielder.

“I think we can safely deduce that our enemy has what she was searching for,” decided Finesse, brandishing her energy katanas and noting that there were plenty among the army of the dead with weapons like hers.

“You can’t hurt her but I don’t think that spell has any rules against hurting them,” said Composite, looking to their undead ally Sin-Eater. “I think it’s time to drop the act.”

Sin-Eater snapped himself free from the cuffs and rubbed his wrists, noting that the metal had chaffed his withered skin and yet not caring in the slightest about it. A gun formed in each of his hands, the black energy a display of the power given to him by the woman who was now his enemy. It didn’t matter to him though. She had deceived him by telling him that he was to resume his holy mission. In reality, Agrona just wanted him to kill innocent people and help her track down the sword. Sin-Eater didn’t enjoy being a pawn in her game, didn’t enjoy serving someone so corrupt and unholy as the insane sorceress. It didn’t matter to him that the life-giving magic that flowed through his body also prevented him from hurting her. In the end, she would receive exactly the punishment for her sins that she deserved.

“The power she has now is greater than what she used to resurrect me,” stated Sin-Eater after squeezing the triggers of his gun and unloading his evil ammunition into one of the zombie warriors. “Even my bullets won’t slow these things down.”

“They have to be solid enough to hit or else they wouldn’t be able to hurt us,” reminded Neon, setting off a pulse of light to keep the zombies at bay. “You should probably be able to tear into them pretty easily.”

“I notice you didn’t put yourself in that category with us,” noted Finesse as the shambling horde began their assault. “I’m all for settling personal grudges but we have to play smarter than this.”

“No, you can be smarter than this,” snapped Neon. “I’m going to be exactly what I am. I’m going to do something only a dumb kid like me would do.”

Neon broke away from her teammates and ran towards Agrona. She could picture Sebastian lying inside the witch’s hideout, either dying or already dead. She shoved that image to the back of her brain, using the anger it produced as fuel for her attacks. Agrona gave the youngest Warrior a wicked smile, the burst of light emanating from Stephanie’s hand not having the desired effect at all. Neon threw a punch aimed at Agrona’s face but the sorceress used a shield of magical energy to block the blow. She backhanded Stephanie, her hand landing squarely across the girl’s jaw and jarring her. Agrona could feel the new power that she commanded and it left her hungry for more. The souls of the damned were hers now and no one could stand against an army that had nothing left to lose.

“I can see by your actions that you loved him,” jeered Agrona as Neon attempted another attack. “You wouldn’t fight so hard for someone unless you loved them. Let me tell you about love, little girl. I watched as love destroyed the woman I had looked up to for years. Sebastian’s mother was the best of us. She was everything I aspired to be until Anthony Druid corrupted her. He’s the one to blame for the entire collapse of my order. We were fine until he came into our lives and ruined everything.”

“Didn’t expect you to be so much of a whiner,” retorted Neon, throwing another punch and having it blocked just like her first one. “I’m getting tired of asking this and you really don’t want to see me when I’m in a bad mood. Where is Sebastian?”

“I already told you that you’re too late,” reminded Agrona. “He’s dying even as we speak. I wouldn’t count on him making it through the night, so feel free to share your tearful goodbyes with him. I know you children enjoy such nonsensical sentimentality.”

“We need to do something,” stated Wipeout. “These water walls I made won’t hold out forever.”

“I’m trying my best to stay alive,” assured Requiem after managing to at least get to his feet and stand on his own even though he was still unsteady. “The woman in black sucked the life out of me.”

“I hear that’s pretty much what women do,” cracked Wipeout before the zombie warriors tore through his barricades. “Heads up. We’ve got a lot of these dead guys coming at us.”

Frankie did his best to stick with his injured teammate but the zombies attacked as one. He used his water blasts to drive most of them back but they succeeded in separating him from Requiem. He washed them away as they tried to swarm him and then splashed towards Sebastian. A giant ogre of a man got in his way and even though he was in water form, Wipeout could still feel the impact as he collided with the zombie.

“Are you seriously going to tell me that she’s even got caveman zombies?” asked Wipeout as he noticed the apparition’s attire and demeanor. “Jesus, how far back does this stupid spell go?”

As the Viking behemoth swung his mighty axe, Wipeout turned the lower half of his body into a geyser. He erupted upward, barely missing the ogre’s attack, and hit the ghost with a mighty uppercut. The barbarian staggered backwards but Wipeout had no time to put him away. Other undead warriors began to swarm towards him but he used a blast of water from his lower body to catapult himself over their heads to reach Requiem. Frankie was about to get to him when one of the zombies tackled him out of the air and sent him to the floor. Wipeout shook his head to clear out the cobwebs from his abrupt meeting with the concrete and got back to his feet, using a blast of water to wash away most of the opposition. He continued using his blasts to create room to maneuver and was intent on marching his way straight towards Requiem. He clawed and scraped his way through the zombie horde to get to Sebastian, but the sight he beheld upon his arrival was both comical and frightening at the same time.

“It seems my rather unusual ability might be our proverbial saving grace,” realized Requiem as the zombies lifted him back to his feet and then knelt before him as if he was their king and they were his loyal knights. “I think they somehow sense that I’m their true owner, or rather the true owner of the power that commands them. I admit I’m not really used to having people treat me this way. It’s rather interesting.”

“And creepy,” noted Wipeout, scratching his head as he tried to figure out what to do now that they seemed to have more backup than they knew what to do with.

“I suggest we figure out a course of action sooner rather than later,” said Requiem, using one of his new undead minions for support. “I can feel myself dying. It’s quite a unique feeling really. I’ve read cases of near-death experiences but so far I haven’t displayed any signs of having one. I’m unclear as to whether or not that’s a good thing.”

“It just means you’re not dead yet,” said Wipeout. “C’mon, Steph’s been worried sick about you all night and we’re not in the clear yet. We still have to figure out how to take that bitch down and get you your mojo back.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what that word means,” admitted Requiem.

“It means that you are terribly out of touch with modern society but that’s not news to me,” replied Wipeout. “Now, it’s time to put our new friends to work.”

“These things just keep coming,” said Composite, his concrete skin shielding him from the weapons of the zombies but their ethereal forms taking little damage from his attacks.

“I’m sure if Sebastian was here, he could give us the statistics of how many casualties there have been in every single war in human history,” reminded Finesse, using her energy blades to hack a path towards Neon. “Right now though, we need to focus on making ourselves not more names to add to those lists.”

“The girl fights with a lot of guts,” noted Sin-Eater, gunning down the zombies with an efficiency that would normally be considered lethal. “It doesn’t really take much when you think about it. Killing is easy, so easy that even a child can do it with the proper motivation.”

“I highly doubt she’s going to turn out anything like you,” retorted Finesse, showing uncharacteristic concern for Stephanie’s mental state. “It’s not everyone who’s insane enough to raise themselves from the dead.”

“Oh that wasn’t my doing,” corrected Sin-Eater as he pointed his gun towards Agrona. “That’s going to get rectified. I do appreciate your high assessment of my abilities though.”

True to what Agrona told him, the magic that kept Sin-Eater alive also kept him from harming her. Arcs of magical energy coiled around Sin-Eater’s arm before he could squeeze the trigger and fire on his benefactor. The arcs forced Sin-Eater’s arm down to his side and didn’t subside until he pointed his weapon elsewhere. The closest he could get to taking a shot at her was to shoot one of the zombies in the head as it tried to blindside Neon. Stephanie turned her attention to Sin-Eater but it required her to take her eyes off Agrona. The witch used that to her advantage and zapped Stephanie with a blast of magical energy. Composite broke through the zombies and took a mighty swing at Agrona. She teleported away in a flash of blackness, tagging Henry in the back with another energy blast once she reappeared. Finesse flew gracefully through the air and tried to use her swords to separate Agrona’s head from her body but the sorceress caught her in the air and took her to the ground without pause.

“This power was always meant to be mine,” Agrona snarled, still clutching Finesse by the throat and pinning her to the concrete. “I was the one in line behind Bridget. That cow knew it and so she did what she did just to make sure I could never have the one thing I wanted. Do you know what that’s like? Do you have any clue how maddening it is?”

“You have no idea,” agreed Finesse before kicking Agrona in the face with both her feet to cause the sorceress to break her hold.

“She’s mine,” stated Neon as a blast of light hit Agrona in the side of the head and dazed her. “There’s enough zombies for you to chop up, Jeanne.”

“I’ll overlook your usage of my real name due to your obvious stress and its effect on your judgment,” warned Finesse, flipping to dodge one of Agrona’s blasts. “If you care about Sebastian as much as you profess then you better get in there and save him.”

“Who says he needs saving?” inquired Wipeout as he and Requiem came out of the building with the zombies behind them. “We’ve got plenty of help now.”

“Wait, what the hell did you two do?” asked Composite as he realized the zombies were behaving differently while in Requiem’s presence. “Why aren’t they attacking you?”

“Because I treat them like real people whenever I talk to them,” answered Requiem simply, turning his attention to Agrona and noting that she was obviously incensed at what was occurring. “You have something that belonged to me. I’d like it back now if it’s not too much trouble.”

“They’re supposed to be mine!” shouted Agrona. “I’m the one that has the power. They’re supposed to listen to me!”

“And yet you would never have listened to them,” countered Requiem. “Just because people are dead doesn’t mean they stop being people. Everyone wants to be heard, you see. It’s a terrible thing when you don’t have a voice. I’m the only one that listens to them. There’s no magic powerful enough to override that fact.”

“You and your mother did this!” snapped Agrona before coming at Requiem. “You still take everything away from me!”

Requiem noticed that the undead warriors that had gathered around him were starting to change in demeanor. He realized that Agrona was employing more of the power she stole from him with her spell. Her control was strengthening and soon his army of soldiers turned into an angry mob out for his blood. He strained himself with mental concentration to gain control over them again. People didn’t deserve to be used as pawns whether they were alive or dead. Sebastian didn’t enjoy behaving that way but his current situation left him with no alternative. Unfortunately, he was too weak to put up much of a fight against Agrona.

“He’s not going to regain control,” realized Sin-Eater, gunning down two of the zombies and allowing the Warriors to regroup. “I can only hold off these things for so long.”

“You could be nicer to them,” noted Requiem but his sentiment was lost in the fury that erupted from Agrona.

The sorceress used her bolts of magical energy to scatter the Warriors, forcing them to take cover however they could. She pushed her way to the front of her undead army and glared hatefully at the Warriors. She hated Sebastian’s mother and hated Sebastian by extension. She should be the one with all the power and now nothing was going to stop her. Bridget wasn’t around to save her pathetic son or his moronic friends. Once she killed them, they would just join the ranks of her army and serve as her slaves for the rest of their miserable afterlives. She decided that would be a fitting punishment for Requiem and hoped that his mother would be watching the grisly murder of her son.

“Get a good look at your future, you simpering twit,” ordered Agrona as she saw Requiem try to rise. “These things aren’t people anymore. They’re just empty shells, husks that only exist because of the magic that flows from me. I give them life; I am their only reason for existence. I am their God!”

“And what an unfit one you are,” said Requiem and his eyes began to glow blue. “You forget that the magic from the sword isn’t the only source of my power. You see, it took me this whole time to realize where the magic I normally use comes from. It comes from my father.”

A bolt of energy flew from Requiem’s hand and struck Agrona full in the chest. She staggered backwards and realized that Sebastian still had plenty of energy to carry him through the fight with or without the sword’s power flowing through his veins. It wasn’t fair. She had all the power now and yet she still couldn’t win. What did he have that made him better than her? What power did he possess that she couldn’t take away and use for herself? It didn’t make any sense to her.

“Kill him!” she ordered to her minions.

“They won’t listen to you anymore,” assured Requiem as he reached out to Agrona.

The power inside Agrona that she had stolen from him called out to Sebastian. He clenched his fist and the power flowed out of Agrona violently. She screamed in pain as the green energy swirled around Requiem and seeped through every pore of his skin. It was the energy of all the lost souls that still wandered the Earth, waiting for the chance to pass into the next life. It was an energy that had been a part of him since birth and even though it had caused him so much heartache, he wouldn’t allow anyone else to possess it. Sebastian realized that his mother was right. He couldn’t let anyone use the sword’s power for their own evil purposes, even if it meant that he was damning himself to a torturous existence. For better or worse, he was the only one capable of controlling this power and it was a burden only he alone could bear.

“Stop him,” commanded Agrona, barely able to speak due to the pain.

“I told you that they won’t listen to you,” repeated Requiem.

“But I have to.”

A magical bullet almost hit Requiem in the forehead but one of the undead warriors moved to shield his master. Requiem saw past the zombie and watched Sin-Eater squeeze the trigger again. Kenton couldn’t disobey his mistress, couldn’t turn his back on the one who had raised him from the grave. Sebastian looked to the undead creatures he now found himself in control of and saw that they felt a kinship towards Sin-Eater, as if he was somehow their lost brother. They moved to strike him but Sebastian waved them off.

“You don’t have to do this,” he reminded Sin-Eater, approaching him without intent to harm him.

“The only way you’ll stop me is to kill me,” said Sin-Eater. “Since I’m already dead, you can see how that’s going to be a problem.”

“I don’t think that’s really going to be necessary,” decided Requiem. “You see, I’ve read your history, Justin. You did die in battle if I remember correctly.”

Sin-Eater felt something explode in his body. He could feel the energy from Requiem invading him, trying to push out the magic that Agrona had used to resurrect him. He felt like he was dying all over again and in a way he was pleased with that. Agrona had corrupted everything he ever believed in. He may have been a monster in life but Justin Kenton lived by a certain code of honor, twisted though it was. Agrona had made him betray that code and the only thing that kept him from taking revenge was her magic.

“I can feel it now,” he said to Sebastian. “You have no idea what you’re capable of. You have no idea of the power you control. Death is a mighty thing, Sebastian Druid. Commanding it is no easy task.”

“You won’t take away what’s mine!”

A blast of energy hit Requiem in the head and knocked him backwards. Agrona stood over him in mere seconds and was ready to take his head off with another blast. He could see the rage in her eyes as they pulsed with black energy and in that moment he honestly thought he was going to die. In the next second, something very unexpected happened. Agrona’s eyes rolled into the back of her head before her pupils disappeared. Her body fell to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut. It was a fitting analogy since it was her former puppet that had put an end to her.

“You have paid the ultimate price for your sins,” stated Sin-Eater, trails of energy still coming out of the barrel of his gun like wisps of smoke. “Don’t worry about her anymore, Sebastian. What was left of her soul now resides in me along with all my other victims.”

“And that just leaves the question of what to do with you,” wondered Requiem aloud, the rest of the Warriors gathering around him to make sure Sin-Eater didn’t attack him. “Agrona’s magic was the thing that sustained you but now she’s gone.”

“Which leaves just your magic keeping me alive,” said Sin-Eater, a rare grin appearing on his face. “Have I paid for my transgressions enough, Sebastian? Am I released from my wretched existence once more?”

“All of you are free,” stated Requiem. “I will not keep you in my service any longer.”

All of the undead warriors nodded in agreement and began to fade from sight. Sin-Eater nodded as well before his eyes glowed green behind his mask and his dead body crumpled to the ground. The souls of the dead flowed back into Requiem, the green energy setting his body on fire with its power for a brief moment before he returned to normal. Neon looked at him in wonder and it was as if she saw him in a new light. Being Sebastian Druid was hard. You woke up every day hearing voices in your head, and you stumbled through life trying not to get yourself killed for fear of winding up as just a voice in someone else’s head. Every once in awhile though, you found someone who you could share your life with. You found someone like her who could help you shoulder the incredible burden you had to bear from the time you were born. Maybe that was why Stephanie loved him so much, because he was strong enough to carry all that crushing weight without faltering in his task.

“You look as if you’ve seen a ghost,” said Requiem, grinning at her and she could swear it was the first time she actually saw him smile. “I don’t think our first date went so horribly.”

“You are amazing,” said Neon after enveloping him in the tightest hug her weary body could muster. “Simply amazing.”

“His ego is large enough without you needing to stroke it,” noted Finesse. “No, Frankie, you can’t make a stupid joke about what I just said so don’t even bother.”

“Wasn’t going to actually,” admitted Wipeout.

“You were thinking it,” said Finesse. “I assume we’re done with the usual strangeness for the evening. I hear the familiar noise of sirens in the distance which means it’s time to make ourselves scarce. I trust we’ve all had a delightful night out.”

“I’m touched that all of you came to my rescue,” said Requiem. “It’s a wonderfully strange thing to have real friends. I think I’m starting to like it.”

With those parting words, the Warriors said nothing as they vanished into the night, courtesy of Requiem’s teleportation. He couldn’t be sure but he could swear that somewhere out there his mother was watching him and she was smiling at him.

SHIELD Safehouse 23

The power flux that he had experienced earlier was starting to subside by the time the Warriors returned home. Somehow, Sebastian knew that things wouldn’t ever be exactly as they were, at least where his abilities were concerned. The voices in his head were a little louder now, a little more persistent. It didn’t matter to him though. Things were unbelievably good in his opinion. For starters, he wasn’t dead. He always counted that as a huge success, especially given the fact that he always took into consideration how easy it was to die while going through one’s daily routine. Secondly, none of his friends were dead as well. Thirdly, he finally got to meet his mother after wondering for years who exactly she was.

“So I was thinking that since our date got interrupted we could maybe just crash on the couch and watch some TV,” suggested Neon.

“I think I’d like that,” agreed Requiem as all five of the Warriors came into the common room.

Their collective mood soon soured when they realized that Quake was standing there waiting for them. She didn’t have her tablet computer with her so they assumed right away that she wasn’t there to give them another mission. They all fell silent as she opened her mouth to deliver whatever news she had to give them.

“I didn’t want to tell you this while you were on the mission,” she explained slowly. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad that all of you made it back in one piece. I want you to know that I really mean that because after what I tell you, I’m probably going to look like a huge bitch.”

“If it’s another job then it’ll have to wait until morning,” said Composite. “I think we’ve earned our keep for the night.”

“It’s not another job,” confirmed Quake, looking to Wipeout. “We got a call from the hospital in Hope Springs, Frankie. Your mother passed away tonight.”

Wipeout didn’t say anything. He simply went to his room and closed the door behind him. The rest of the Warriors looked stunned, not even realizing the problems that Frankie had with his mother’s cancer because he never brought it up even once. Requiem especially looked somber because he understood death better than the rest of them.

“You wanna kill the rest of our night or are you done?” inquired Composite.

“SHIELD has cleared the time off for him to attend the funeral but I’m not sure the rest of you will be able to go with him,” said Quake. “I’m pushing for it if you want to but I don’t know if Fury will be okay with it.”

“What did she die of?” asked Requiem, ever one to concern himself with causes of death.

“She had lung cancer,” explained Quake. “It had spread too much for the doctors to do anything. He obviously never told you this but a couple of years ago, probably around the time she was first diagnosed, there was a court hearing. Frankie’s a legally emancipated minor. After the legal stuff was settled, he had his mother admitted to a private treatment clinic. It’s a good place, probably the best one that town has, but it’s also pretty expensive.”

“I think we’re intelligent enough to understand things from there,” said Finesse. “I doubt there’s anything else you’re needed for tonight, Agent Johnson. You know where the door is.”

Finesse wasn’t good with people. She dispensed with them emotionally the same way she dispensed with them physically. Yet there were a select few people that she regarded as friends or perhaps they were merely those she chose to respect instead of scorn. For better and most often for worse, Wipeout was on that list.

“You picked the lock on my room?” inquired Wipeout as the door clicked and then opened without his consent.

“I assumed you wouldn’t have let me in if I had just knocked,” she replied, not entering the room but merely standing in the open doorway. “May I come in?”

“Whatever,” he answered, turning his back on her.

She stepped into the room, unsure of what exactly to do. She could tell him about the night that her parents were murdered. She could tell him about how she saw into her father’s eyes as he died, how she was helpless to do anything but run away from the killer. She knew what it was like to grow up without parents, what it was like to lose them. She now wondered whether or not the universe had been kind to her. Watching your mother die was horrifying, but watching her wither away and decay before your eyes was a nightmare she wouldn’t wish on anyone.

“Daisy told us,” she said quietly. “You were stealing things to take care of her, weren’t you?”

“I dunno, maybe,” he responded. “That hospital wasn’t cheap, that’s for damn sure. It was stupid I guess, getting that one and all. I just . . . I was tired of us always having cheap shit. I was tired of us scraping the bottom of the barrel and . . . she deserved better. I deserved better.”

“Stealing starts out as a means of survival,” explained Finesse. “You steal because you’re hungry or you need some basic necessity that you can’t pay for. For people like us though, it’s about something else.”

“It’s about getting what we want,” said Wipeout as he finally turned and faced her. “Why are you here, Finesse?”

“Because you helped me after that fight with Riot and I feel like I owe it to you to be here now,” she answered with the brutal honesty he had come to expect from her.

“Just go,” ordered Wipeout. “I’m not in the mood for any games tonight.”

“You’ll have to make me,” she dared him, moving forward and giving him a hug.

He sighed heavily and was about to push her away. Instead, he just let his arms wrap around her and they stayed that way for a few minutes. When they separated, she wordlessly departed and left him alone in his room. He stood there in silence as the weight of death’s finality crushed him.

Next Issue: Wipeout returns home for his mother’s funeral but the rest of the Warriors aren’t far behind.