THE REVENGE OF CHEN YU

Part II: The Hand of Weapon X

By David Wheatley

~SNIKT!~

Logan hadn’t seen these kind of odds in a long time. Then again he hadn’t fought ninja’s in a long time either. The Hand had kept quite a low profile since World War II. The beating they’d taken at the hands at of Logan and Captain America and the Russian agent Major Petrovitch.

Then they’d been three of them, armed with a sword a gun and an adamantium/vibranium shield. Now there was only him, and six adamantium claws. As well as the adamantium that coated his bones. He was code-named Weapon X by Department H, but for some reason he didn’t like that name. Something in the back of his mind was wrong with it. Now he was Wolverine.

In front of him was an energy fountain, known as the Ebon Vein, source of the Crimson Dawn – a mystical life giving elixir. His guide, Gomurr the Impetuous was aiding Tar, Proctor of the Dawn who was defending the Dawn against Kurgari and the Dragons of the Crimson Dawn.

They were also aided by a group of Ninja Warriors known as the Chaste, who were here because of their battle with the Hand on something called the Path. Logan didn’t quite understand that, but he understood a blood feud.

All those involved in the battle were connected to this by the Dawn – all except Logan. He was here at the request of James MacDonald Hudson, who owed British spy organisation MI6 a favour.

His thoughts went back to the meeting at a country houses between himself and Agent Clive Reston.

“So, bub,” said Logan, in his costume, sans mask, cigar in his hand. “What’s the deal?”

“Simple,” said Clive. “A highly valued source has gone missing, captured by a ninja cult, who are intent on sacrificing him to a life giving mystical energy source.”

“Even if I believe you, how d’ya know all this?”

“He told us his intentions live on radio. Luckily we’ve managed to convince the public it was a play, like that broadcast in America about alien invasions. As for believability, I’d suggest you look in the mirror. Adamantium skeleton, mutant healing powers, what more do you need?”

“Okay,” said Logan, still sceptical. “I’ll go along with it for now. Who’s the missing man?”

“Bloke named Destine. Adam Destine. Expert on all manner of things. We call on his expertise sometimes, though he is reluctant to share. The Hand…”

“You say the Hand?” asked Logan, now taking the problem seriously. He should have remembered their obsession with the mystical. He thought they’d faded away when they’d killed most of their forces and slain their leader. Now they had a new man in charge.

“You know them?”

“Oh yeah,” said Logan. “Before my days as Weapon X. Who’s in charge?”

“A man named Chen Yu.” The name was familiar to Logan. Had Ogun mentioned it? No matter.

“Fine, where are they? I’ll go in and get out your man, and finish the Hand once and for all.”

“The Himalayas,” said Reston. “You need a ride?”

“Nope,” said Logan. “Department H has it’s own resources.” He pulled his mask down over his face, the short ears concealing the shape of his hair and he put his cigar out. “Time to go to work.”

It was there he’d come across the Chaste and a traveller named Gomurr. They all seemed to be after the same thing, which seemed more than just a coincidence. Logan put it down to magic and they went on their way.

The Hand had tried to bar their way, but had been easily disposed of. Now things had gotten a lot more dangerous. They had entered Chen Yu’s mountain stronghold and crossed over from reality to a mystical plane, far from where they had been.

In here, the mystical side of the threat they faced had gone in to overload, the Hand numbered in the thousands, and Chen Yu was about to bring the members of the Hand who had died back to life.

His sacrifice was a blond haired man who seemed to be in his early twenties, who could only have been Adam Destine. Chen Yu cast a spell over him and using the souls of several members of the Hand was about to cast the spell to cast him in to the Ebon Vein.

Logan wasn’t about to let that happen. He hadn’t needed them until now, but now things were serious.

~SNIKT!~

The claws came out. Logan hadn’t seen these kind of odds in a long time. Then again he hadn’t fought ninja’s in a long time either. He smiled, though you’d never really know if it was a smile.

The fight of the Hand was simple, they had to delay him from getting to Chen Yu, before the spell was cast, and Adam cast in. It didn’t matter if they died, as if they succeeded they would live again.

Logan wasn’t that fortunate, and with a growl from the back of his throat he leapt in, slashing and hacking with the precision of the greatest ninja warrior. Body and mind, thought and action, were one.

To the untrained observer it was as though it seemed as though he was going berserk, but that would be more savage, more feral in results. This was a surgical strike against many odds.

“How is this possible?” said one of the ninja, as he sliced through their front numbers before they had a chance to react.

“Because, genin,” said Logan, blocking a sword with an arm, hearing the clang of metal on metal as the sword hit bone, “I’m the best…” taking out somebody behind him with an elbow, and the ninja crumpled as though hit with a steel bar “…there is…” he dodged one sword swing, cutting into a ninja behind him “…at what I do!” Then he plunged his claws through the ninja.

The neat thing about the Hand was that when they died they turned to dust leaving nothing left but their weapons and shrouds. The dust of their demise seemed to flow in to the Crimson Dawn…

The gleam of adamantium, and the cries of the battle seemed impervious to Chen Yu. The madman would be overwhelmed by the forces and he would complete the spell.

“Waru warez siajnix Destine geniuus,” he muttered as Adam struggled against his bonds. The immortality granted to him by his beloved did not stop him from being bound by the spells, and for the first time in millennia he wished he were not immortal.

That was the core of the plan. Chen Yu’s spell would prepare his body for a sacrifice, even though he could not die. He would be cast in to the Dawn where his immortality would keep him in a state of living sacrifice so that the Dawn would do the bidding of Chen Yu for all time.

He’d been snatched by the Hand at the very foot of the mountain of the Chaste. The Hand were descended from the Mountain’s counterparts in Japan, known as Mercy and Wrath, between which is a mist shrouded valley from where the Hand came.

He’d been researching them for MI6, as well as a favour for the Chaste. He had found nothing, which had worried him and gone back to the Chaste to see what they knew. Then he had been captured and now here he was.

Now he may have ended the battle between the Chaste and the Hand for all time, and doomed humanity to boot. He could feel the spell taking effect. It was not doing anything to affect him, but to the Dawn, getting them in synch with each other.

He was glad he could no longer feel pain, for he guessed if he could, he would be in eternal torment.

The Chaste were taking on the Dragons. The Chaste were winning. Even thought the Dragons had the mystical powers of the Dawn on their side, the Chaste had their millennia of experience and power, and were not adverse to the mystical themselves.

Frankly, there was no real contest but they let them fight on to assess their connection with the Hand. Their battle ended with finality, and the Dragons magic turned back on them and they were sent back in to the Dawn, thanks to the powers of Gateway.

Then they turned to watch Gomurr and Tar battle Kurgari. One on one and Kurgari would have had the upper hand. He had the power – if used properly – to kill them, but he was not given chance to adapt. Gomurr’s youthful rash attacks, left him open to the more clinical assaults of Tar. Kurgari was defeated and bound by a magical combination of spells from Gomurr and Tar.

This battle was over, but the true battle was continuing elsewhere.

“I must seal these people back in the Dawn,” said Tar and closed his eyes in concentration. Gomurr looked at the Chaste. They all knew why they were here, but one man remained a mystery. Except the Chaste had seemingly expected him.

“What’s the matter?” asked Stick of Gomurr.

“Logan.”

“He is one of us,” said Stick. “After today he will walk the Path but he will not know it until he falls.”

“You see that in the future?” asked Gomurr.

“It happens to all who walk the Path. It is the final test. If they fall, they must get back on. They need help to do so, but staying on the Path afterwards is their choice.”

Gateway shook his head, both Stick and Gomurr looking to him as he did so. Gateway said nothing but begun to spin his bullroarer, warping time and space, showing that this was not the end. That Chen Yu and the Hand would rise again.

“Damn,” said Stick.

“What?” asked Gomurr. “We can shut him down again.”

“One difference. We ain’t in the picture.”

“Good point. So what can we do?”

“Plan this out. Next time this happens, it don’t happen again.”

“I can work with that,” said Gomurr. “Any ideas?”

“Depends on the situation in the future,” said Stick. “For now, let’s go watch an artist in action…”

Logan was fighting through the Hand with speed and efficiency. He was taking some major hits but his healing factor was working overtime to fix them up. The problem about such large numbers was that they weren’t that effective at fighting one man.

One man who had been hard to kill before. Now he was unstoppable. By the time he was finished there was none of the Hand left. His costume was damaged quite severely, but the blood dripping from the tips of his adamantium claws was not his.

“CHEN YU!” he called. Chen Yu looked up and smiled.

“You’re too late, little man.” He only had one incantation left, and there was no way Logan could get to him in time to stop him. He wasn’t close enough, and by the time he reached him the spell would be cast and this would have been for nothing.

Images appeared in the air, made of neon warriors from the heart of the Ebon Vein. Words Adam knew to be a derivation of ‘kneo phey pau ‘ or ‘the end of the world is nigh’. However in this version it said the end of this world was nigh.

“KNEO!” chanted Chen Yu, his voice echoing. Logan flicked his foot up, catching a sai and threw it towards Chen Yu who was concentrating, retracting his claws as he caught the weapon.

“PHAI PA…” the sai caught the sorcerer in the throat before the spell was completed. His concentration shifted from the sacrifice to simply using his powers to stay alive. It would take a lot of his magic to stay alive and he could no longer hold Adam with his spells.

“Gateway!” called Adam, knowing that the longer they stayed in this mystical fortress the faster Chen Yu would recover.

Gateway had been waiting for the signal from Adam, and he created a portal back to the Himalayan fortress of Chen Yu. Back at the fortress, Adam, Logan and Chen Yu were alone. There was no sign of Gomurr, Tar or the Chaste.

“Fellas!” called a voice. “Let’s go!”

“Reston?” said Logan and Adam at the same time. Chen Yu just gurgled on his own blood as he tried to use his magics to heal himself.

“The mountain’s wired to blow! MI6 decided you guys needed back up. We got five minutes!”

“Clive,” said Adam as they ran towards the exit, “I quit.”

“Fair enough,” said Clive. “The powers that be won’t disagree after this one.”

“So what if they did?” said Logan, and Adam smiled.

“Thanks for the save, my friend,” he said.

“Call me Logan,” came the reply. “All my friends do. You too, Reston. Not had this much fun in ages.”

Adam nodded as did Reston. The door was just ahead of them, then it closed. Logan sniffed the air.

“Chen Yu!” he said.

“You’ll pay for your interference, little animal,” said Chen Yu, healed and though he didn’t have much left, he had enough to bury these three alive. In Adam’s case forever. He fired a bolt of eldritch energy at the walls to destroy them and bury them all, but Adam dived in front of it, and it had no effect.

“Not today,” said Adam, and Chen Yu powered up again.

“Guys, we’re running out of time,” said Reston.

~SNIKT!~

The claws cam out and sliced the hinges of the door and it fell to the floor with a crash.

“Get him outta here,” said Logan to Adam. “Chen Yu’s mine!” Adam didn’t get chance to argue as Logan leapt at the sorcerer, the claws flashing in the light. Adam and Reston ran out, as Chen Yu fired his blast at Wolverine.

Logan hit the floor with a thud, his remaining clothes shredded by the blast, all that remained in tact was his mask. However Logan just got back up and kept coming at Chen Yu.

“How is this possible?” cried the sorcerer, with not enough energy to stop the mutant from lifting him in the air, ready to skewer him with his claws. However before Logan could answer the bombs went off and the mountain collapsed around them.

Outside, Clive and Adam looked at each other.

“Do you think he survived?” asked Adam.

“I don’t know,” said Clive. “I’d better contact Department H. They’ll be able to help us get him out. Dead or alive.”

“Clive,” said Adam. “I’m going to disappear for a while. Spend time with my family, you know. Could you…”

“Say you died in the explosions or something?” Adam nodded. “Sure. You’d quit anyway. Though the paperwork on this one will be a bitch.”

“Thanks,” said Adam. “I hope they find Logan.”

“So do I,” said Clive. The paperwork on Adam’s death would be nothing compared to the paperwork on the loss of Canada’s foremost special agent…

NEXT ISSUE: Things heat up, as we rejoin Wolverine and Elektra in their quest to find what they are looking for, as well as find out how Logan and Chen Yu survived being buried alive! Also, discover what the plan is, and see how Adam Destine, the Chaste, and Gomurr are involved in a conspiracy that goes back a very long time!