Broccli_Head
Explorer
Finally!!
Legion Extreme Issue#11: The Star of Karnak, Part V
Anaka Ai Lee tossed and turned in his bed. Chaotic images of demons and shadows tormented him in his dreams. Always they were to far away to attack, but close enough for him to see their leering faces and hear their mocking laughter. He woke with a start. His sheets were soaked with sweat. It was still dark and he took a few moments to get his bearings shivering in the cool air. The heater was off an the moment. He was still at his room in the apothecary shop. He heard incoherent murmurs from somewhere else in the shop and remembered that Riptide...err Margie Preston...was staying in the guest room and he slipped out of bed to check on her.
He peeked in and saw that she too was tossing and turning, and whatever nightmare she was having, it was causing her to switch back and forth unconsciously between her human and water forms. It made for a very wet bed. Water dripped on the hardwood floors as well. Windchimes from the main room of the shop caught his attention. He padded quietly over there and crept to the middle of the room searching for signs of intrusion. There was no wind, but the chimes clinked again.
"Who's there?" he asked to the darkness, his heart racing.
Flee Boston, Anaka! There is only death here!
Goose-pimples crept over his flesh as the central heating kicked on again.
"Dr Lu? Is that you?"
But there was no response...
**
Beneath Boston Harbor, inside the S.U.B., Jae Sun Lee awoke to the melodic tone of his mobile phone.
"Jae Sun Lee. How may I be of service?"
He looked at the digital clock by his bed. It had just turned to 6:00 am.
"Jae Sun. Detective Fisher here. We have a situation [a pause]. At the Ritz-Carlton. It's bad. Really, really bad. You gotta get out here quick."
Jae Sun narrowed his eyes as he clicked the phone off. Slipstream buzzed into and through his doorway. He looked haggard. The detective raised an eyebrow.
"Bad dreams and all, Yoh. Didn't get much sleep. Heard the phone. Whas' up?"
Jae Sun rubbed the sleep from his face and stood. He brushed out his clothing having crashed some time in the early morning in them.
"Trouble at the Ritz-Carlton. Detective Fisher says we need to be there as soon as possible."
"I'm outta here, then."
"No. Wait."
However, Slipstream had already headed to the airlock and was cycling the doors as quickly as he could. Over his communicator, he heard Jae Sun Lee contacting the others to meet at the Ritz. He chuckled as he heard complaints from Cosmic Knight and Somnus, but Anaka was already up and he sounded wide awake. Even Darkfire chimed in surprisingly. The outer door popped open and the speedster zipped into the harbor and then onto land heading for Copley Square.
Jae Sun tapped into the mystical Dragon Lines of his ancestors and a gate formed. Soon he was about a kilometer away from his destination and walking briskly in the cold December air. Light snow had fallen the night before, and already trucks and crews were salting the roadways for the day ahead. He felt the rush of wind as Slipstream passed by him in a blur. Turning the corner he could see the lights of police cars in front of the hotel's entrance.
**
Slipstream arrived first as usual and police, looking grim and not at all happy to see him, directed him to the penthouse. Slipstream zipped up the stairs in a few seconds. Forensics teams were already there and the speedster had to weave his way to the main doors to the penthouse suite. Flashes of concern from the detectives and uniformed police meet his gaze and then would turn away. Several were pale and sick looking. Slipstream smelled blood and vomit and his usual jovial manner turned sour as he saw the first flecks and streaks of blood on the walls in the room’s entryway. A flash from a camera revealed the first dead body--a young man, clothed in the latest expensive fashions, lying face down in a pool of his own blood.
He saw the familiar face of Detective Fisher, Jae Sun’s friend.
“Looks like the pawty got out a' hand,” he said in a poor attempt at humor.
Slipstream pushed his way past some more investigators to the main room. More death. They were just kids, probably rich college kids and at least ten more lay strewn about the floor in disturbing poses with horrific expressions on their dead faces. Blood lay everywhere. Some bodies had been cut in half. Another was torn to shreds, and another had been cooked, but then Slipstream looked up at a large wall that dominated the room. On the floor, lay a blood-drained young woman. He followed the blood strokes leading from the back of her neck up the wall, and read the writing there as another camera flashed, documenting the scene.
He choked back a scream as he recoiled in horror. The message said:
LEGION EXTREME COULD NOT SAVE US….
**
As Jae Sun arrived, he heard Slipstream yell out in frustration and sadness. He could not believe what he was seeing either as the speedster showed him the wall and he crouched to examine a few of the bodies, and the swaths of blood on the walls. They had been punked in a very, very bad way.
“Slipstream, please see what is going on. There is more than is grotesquely apparent here.”
Slipstream sped to the entryway and came upon two uniformed policemen arguing with another man. He held a microphone and behind him was a camera.
“Dang! Media’s here, Jae Son.”
Slipstream pushed his way forward.
“Move along! Nothing ta see here,” said Slipstream flexing for emphasis.
“Ron Baker from channel 13. We received an anonymous tip that something vile has happened and that Legion Extreme is involved.”
“D'ya here that, Jae Son? It’s gettin’ worse.”
Slipstream, with veiled threats and more intimidation than he usually used, got Mr. Baker to go back downstairs. Unfortunately, he had promised a press conference in about an hour.
“Dragonfist here. It’s a media circus down here. There are reporters clamoring for interviews. Where are you guys?”
Slipstream, guarding the door just in case more reporters happened to come by heard Jae Sun reply, "Anaka, try and fly to the roof and come in through the top."
On the Legion Extreme open channel he added, "The rest of you should do the same. Slipstream, perhaps you could go down and appease the masses."
The speedster really did not want to, but it was better than the alternative of staying so close to those dead, vacant eyes and horrified faces.
“Roger, will do, boss.”
And Slipstream shot down the stairs to deal with the press.
**
The rest of the gang, except Valor McCoy, who had not answered his communicator, arrived. Darkfire had to be talked to and physically restrained by Dragonfist so she would not punch through walls and tamper with evidence. Not, Jae Sun realized coldly, that the police could do anything with set of DNA and fingerprints. If the Crowns of Krim were ever caught, however….Jae Sun clenched his fists in anger.
Armando scanned for residual brain signals and sadly, found none. The tormented faces were too much, and he left the room fearing the screams of ghosts crying to him from the ether.
Cosmic Knight found something special for him in the suite’s kitchen: two dead men, both probably strangled. Between them, patterned with raven’s feathers he saw that the Black Paladin had left the message:
For you, Craven Knight, with a smile
beneath it.
Cosmic Knight brought his fist down and cracked the tile floor and the wood below bringing yells of protest from nearby forensic’s experts. He did not care. Black Paladin would pay.
Jae Sun Lee tried to summarize the possible events of the deadly party. More than likely, the Crowns in their human forms had seduced some young rich college kids from several of the score of schools in the Greater Boston Area, convincing them to come and have a grand hedonistic evening. Evidence of drugs was prevalent. At some point the Crowns had slaughtered them all in an orgy of dedication to their demon-god Krim. Jae Sun had discerned archaic patterns and hidden glyphs among the blood splatters. Dark Seraph and his servants had attempted some sort of ritual, probably with the Star of Karnak. Jae Sun felt that they had failed. The message to the heroes was just sadistic taunting. It was a screen for a more sinister purpose.
He was having his secretary do research in Millenium City on the Star. Hopefully, she would find out what the Crowns were ultimately up to. The hour had come and gone, and Jae Sun sighed. He said his thanks to the Boston PD and went to meet the reporters.
Legion Extreme stood together before the gathering and after answering basic questions in the most vague way, Jae Sun spoke to conclude the press conference.
“Know this, good people of Boston. Legion Extreme and their allies will find the perpetrators of these foul deeds and bring them to justice!”
To a chorus of cheers, the team took to the skies (or sped away in a blur) in search of the enemy. Jae Sun watched and took a deep breath moving out of sight to the Ritz-Carlton’s loading dock. At least the people still had faith. Jae Sun looked to the blue and gray winter sky.
“Today is a good day to die,” he mumbled and he let the Warwolf come….
Legion Extreme Issue#11: The Star of Karnak, Part V
Anaka Ai Lee tossed and turned in his bed. Chaotic images of demons and shadows tormented him in his dreams. Always they were to far away to attack, but close enough for him to see their leering faces and hear their mocking laughter. He woke with a start. His sheets were soaked with sweat. It was still dark and he took a few moments to get his bearings shivering in the cool air. The heater was off an the moment. He was still at his room in the apothecary shop. He heard incoherent murmurs from somewhere else in the shop and remembered that Riptide...err Margie Preston...was staying in the guest room and he slipped out of bed to check on her.
He peeked in and saw that she too was tossing and turning, and whatever nightmare she was having, it was causing her to switch back and forth unconsciously between her human and water forms. It made for a very wet bed. Water dripped on the hardwood floors as well. Windchimes from the main room of the shop caught his attention. He padded quietly over there and crept to the middle of the room searching for signs of intrusion. There was no wind, but the chimes clinked again.
"Who's there?" he asked to the darkness, his heart racing.
Flee Boston, Anaka! There is only death here!
Goose-pimples crept over his flesh as the central heating kicked on again.
"Dr Lu? Is that you?"
But there was no response...
**
Beneath Boston Harbor, inside the S.U.B., Jae Sun Lee awoke to the melodic tone of his mobile phone.
"Jae Sun Lee. How may I be of service?"
He looked at the digital clock by his bed. It had just turned to 6:00 am.
"Jae Sun. Detective Fisher here. We have a situation [a pause]. At the Ritz-Carlton. It's bad. Really, really bad. You gotta get out here quick."
Jae Sun narrowed his eyes as he clicked the phone off. Slipstream buzzed into and through his doorway. He looked haggard. The detective raised an eyebrow.
"Bad dreams and all, Yoh. Didn't get much sleep. Heard the phone. Whas' up?"
Jae Sun rubbed the sleep from his face and stood. He brushed out his clothing having crashed some time in the early morning in them.
"Trouble at the Ritz-Carlton. Detective Fisher says we need to be there as soon as possible."
"I'm outta here, then."
"No. Wait."
However, Slipstream had already headed to the airlock and was cycling the doors as quickly as he could. Over his communicator, he heard Jae Sun Lee contacting the others to meet at the Ritz. He chuckled as he heard complaints from Cosmic Knight and Somnus, but Anaka was already up and he sounded wide awake. Even Darkfire chimed in surprisingly. The outer door popped open and the speedster zipped into the harbor and then onto land heading for Copley Square.
Jae Sun tapped into the mystical Dragon Lines of his ancestors and a gate formed. Soon he was about a kilometer away from his destination and walking briskly in the cold December air. Light snow had fallen the night before, and already trucks and crews were salting the roadways for the day ahead. He felt the rush of wind as Slipstream passed by him in a blur. Turning the corner he could see the lights of police cars in front of the hotel's entrance.
**
Slipstream arrived first as usual and police, looking grim and not at all happy to see him, directed him to the penthouse. Slipstream zipped up the stairs in a few seconds. Forensics teams were already there and the speedster had to weave his way to the main doors to the penthouse suite. Flashes of concern from the detectives and uniformed police meet his gaze and then would turn away. Several were pale and sick looking. Slipstream smelled blood and vomit and his usual jovial manner turned sour as he saw the first flecks and streaks of blood on the walls in the room’s entryway. A flash from a camera revealed the first dead body--a young man, clothed in the latest expensive fashions, lying face down in a pool of his own blood.
He saw the familiar face of Detective Fisher, Jae Sun’s friend.
“Looks like the pawty got out a' hand,” he said in a poor attempt at humor.
Slipstream pushed his way past some more investigators to the main room. More death. They were just kids, probably rich college kids and at least ten more lay strewn about the floor in disturbing poses with horrific expressions on their dead faces. Blood lay everywhere. Some bodies had been cut in half. Another was torn to shreds, and another had been cooked, but then Slipstream looked up at a large wall that dominated the room. On the floor, lay a blood-drained young woman. He followed the blood strokes leading from the back of her neck up the wall, and read the writing there as another camera flashed, documenting the scene.
He choked back a scream as he recoiled in horror. The message said:
LEGION EXTREME COULD NOT SAVE US….
**
As Jae Sun arrived, he heard Slipstream yell out in frustration and sadness. He could not believe what he was seeing either as the speedster showed him the wall and he crouched to examine a few of the bodies, and the swaths of blood on the walls. They had been punked in a very, very bad way.
“Slipstream, please see what is going on. There is more than is grotesquely apparent here.”
Slipstream sped to the entryway and came upon two uniformed policemen arguing with another man. He held a microphone and behind him was a camera.
“Dang! Media’s here, Jae Son.”
Slipstream pushed his way forward.
“Move along! Nothing ta see here,” said Slipstream flexing for emphasis.
“Ron Baker from channel 13. We received an anonymous tip that something vile has happened and that Legion Extreme is involved.”
“D'ya here that, Jae Son? It’s gettin’ worse.”
Slipstream, with veiled threats and more intimidation than he usually used, got Mr. Baker to go back downstairs. Unfortunately, he had promised a press conference in about an hour.
“Dragonfist here. It’s a media circus down here. There are reporters clamoring for interviews. Where are you guys?”
Slipstream, guarding the door just in case more reporters happened to come by heard Jae Sun reply, "Anaka, try and fly to the roof and come in through the top."
On the Legion Extreme open channel he added, "The rest of you should do the same. Slipstream, perhaps you could go down and appease the masses."
The speedster really did not want to, but it was better than the alternative of staying so close to those dead, vacant eyes and horrified faces.
“Roger, will do, boss.”
And Slipstream shot down the stairs to deal with the press.
**
The rest of the gang, except Valor McCoy, who had not answered his communicator, arrived. Darkfire had to be talked to and physically restrained by Dragonfist so she would not punch through walls and tamper with evidence. Not, Jae Sun realized coldly, that the police could do anything with set of DNA and fingerprints. If the Crowns of Krim were ever caught, however….Jae Sun clenched his fists in anger.
Armando scanned for residual brain signals and sadly, found none. The tormented faces were too much, and he left the room fearing the screams of ghosts crying to him from the ether.
Cosmic Knight found something special for him in the suite’s kitchen: two dead men, both probably strangled. Between them, patterned with raven’s feathers he saw that the Black Paladin had left the message:
For you, Craven Knight, with a smile
beneath it. Cosmic Knight brought his fist down and cracked the tile floor and the wood below bringing yells of protest from nearby forensic’s experts. He did not care. Black Paladin would pay.
Jae Sun Lee tried to summarize the possible events of the deadly party. More than likely, the Crowns in their human forms had seduced some young rich college kids from several of the score of schools in the Greater Boston Area, convincing them to come and have a grand hedonistic evening. Evidence of drugs was prevalent. At some point the Crowns had slaughtered them all in an orgy of dedication to their demon-god Krim. Jae Sun had discerned archaic patterns and hidden glyphs among the blood splatters. Dark Seraph and his servants had attempted some sort of ritual, probably with the Star of Karnak. Jae Sun felt that they had failed. The message to the heroes was just sadistic taunting. It was a screen for a more sinister purpose.
He was having his secretary do research in Millenium City on the Star. Hopefully, she would find out what the Crowns were ultimately up to. The hour had come and gone, and Jae Sun sighed. He said his thanks to the Boston PD and went to meet the reporters.
Legion Extreme stood together before the gathering and after answering basic questions in the most vague way, Jae Sun spoke to conclude the press conference.
“Know this, good people of Boston. Legion Extreme and their allies will find the perpetrators of these foul deeds and bring them to justice!”
To a chorus of cheers, the team took to the skies (or sped away in a blur) in search of the enemy. Jae Sun watched and took a deep breath moving out of sight to the Ritz-Carlton’s loading dock. At least the people still had faith. Jae Sun looked to the blue and gray winter sky.
“Today is a good day to die,” he mumbled and he let the Warwolf come….
