|
The Coming of the Super-Mage
On 5 August 2011, the instruments of The Combine detect a reality shift out by the glowing orb of Jupiter. Waves from there are pushing its moons out of their new orbits. There's some kind of power object out there. After it moves the moons, it heads toward Earth. This gets the attention of the U.S. Government.
Naturally, they suspect the return of the Infrared Sunbreaker Choir, which is what ignited Jupiter and changed the Earth's orbit almost two years ago. (www.eilertech.com/stories/2009/trillions.htm) They've been meaning to prepare a military option in case the Sunbreakers come back. But for now, all they have is one spacefaring superhuman: Stephen Wolcott, Ellipsis.
Ellipsis hates government and all forms of servitude to others. Now he serves The Combine, which is increasingly hard to distinguish from U.S. Government. Increasingly he is in bondage. Even from West Australia he's been called back, because there is still none like him on Earth. But he's accustomed to that.
Ellipsis flies into space, then teleports. He comes upon the intruder in the asteroid belt, approaching the Earth. The intruder is in male human form, moving under its own power, and towing a giant circular metal shield, the size of a mountain. The shield and the intruder both emanate power. The shield has enough power to have moved Jupiter's moons. And the intruder's thoughts are unshielded but completely alien, even to Ellipsis who knows the six major alien species of the Galaxy. But Ellipsis is a supergenius and learns very quickly.
Ellipsis sends the thought, Stop. The intruder stops, and looks around curiously. But then it resumes.
Ellipsis sends the feeling, Sleep. The intruder stops again. Ellipsis can feel it wants sleep. But it has other obligations. It resumes.
So Ellipsis sends the command: Shutdown. The intruder stops again. Its brain shuts down. But it has crown-shaped headgear that shocks it awake!
Curse me for a fool, Ellipsis thinks. He tries to shut down the headgear. But it's not electronic! Some kind of magic. Ellipsis usually shuns magic because it follows chaotic principles his logical mind avoids. He could probably master this gear, but this is not the time.
The mage (for so he must be) awakens. He speaks (even in space) and he thinks: You Dare!?
Ellipsis responds by thought: I Dare. I Defend. You Halt.
You Do Not Command Me! The mage glows with power, and whips a spike of the power at Ellipsis.
Ellipsis notices, the power comes from suns. He absorbs it, and converts it into a cloud of water.
He thinks to himself, Presumably the intruder can withstand such power as he emits. My matter transmutation powers cannot exceed that, here beyond atmosphere. So I shall avoid escalation... this time. Instead he thinks out loud: You shall not move me from your way.
The mage says, I can not turn back. They lock gazes. Then he summons a fireball, one thousand miles wide!
Over the many years Ellipsis has learned teleportation. He slips out from within the mini-sun. But the mage has departed too! Ellipsis can see his energy trail, like a gash through space - toward the Earth!
Ellipsis casts his thoughts back to the Earth, to his wife Morningstar Julie via telepathic link. "Failure. Incoming."
Ellipsis cracks the sky over Tibet. The super-mage has brought his giant shield down to the Earth. It now hangs edge down over the Mekong river valley, between two mountains. The mage hovers near its center.
But the allies of Ellipsis have arrived! The Combine has sent its strongest battle squad: Morningstar Julie, telekinetic. Mighty Tim, flame-spouting teleporter. Senhora Valkyrie, giant-woman with the Thunder Chain of environmental control. Alien Beast, undeterrable hunter - and his two children, mighty powerhouses. Bride of Darkness and her Best Man, channelers of Ultimate Darkness. And leading them, the hulking U.S. Vice-President Crusher Joe Corrigan himself. But with all their power they are barely distracting the mage from activating his shield-shaped engine.
More power... Ellipsis is back in atmosphere, with a near-unlimited supply of matter to turn into energy. But the most readily-available matter is air. Tibet needs its air more than Ellipsis does. But there's another source of matter: the giant floating shield-engine.
Ellipsis comes down crackling with energy, to the other side of the shield from the mage. Then he sticks his hands through the center of the shield... No, he doesn't! This shield is unearthly matter, and resists his touch! But he shall master it...
The intruder says, NO! He puts his own hands upon the shield. His will against Ellipsis. And even as Ellipsis increases his will power, it only matches the mage's.
Then Morningstar Julie says mentally, "Stephen! Let go!" Ellipsis trusts his wife. As she yanks him away from the shield, a finger of Ultimate Darkness as wide as the Mekong Valley smashes down on it!
The finger of Darkness stands back up. The shield and the mage are gone, swallowed by Darkness.
Mighty Tim says, "Pam, is it safe to let him out yet?"
But the finger ripples and splatters! The Bride of the Ultimate Darkness grimaces. "It doesn't have him! He set off that device inside it, and he's gone! That actually hurt it!"
Ellipsis says, "If he has left, that was his goal. He would not swerve from that."
Crusher Joe says, "But we stopped him tearing Tibet apart doing it. Our friends in South China really appreciate that. So good riddance."
The evil mages of Earth notice splatters of magic power in their sky and on their planet. Some is Ultimate Darkness; the rest is something strong enough to splatter it. The source of that other power has disappeared, but the residual power remains. They start to gather it.
Author's Notes:
Oh, my. This is like Superhuman World 1991 all over again. The original adventures of Ellipsis, that is. I wrote his adventures from 1983 to about 1990. I eventually declared all those adventures to start in 1990 as the basis of a superhero role-playing campaign.
Around 1995, Wyatt Ferguson started taking over the stories. That is to say, I went from power drama to silliness. But in my world(s), no concept goes to waste. Ellipsis therefore showed up as a supporting character.
For this adventure I am preserving my original writing style. It's easy, it's nostalgic, and it fits Ellipsis.
In the flush of his youth, Ellipsis would have grimly escalated to overwhelm any opponent in a power duel. But this is twenty years on. He's older, sadder, and a bit wiser. He's settled down to science and power politics, as have most of the heroes he works with. But it's good to remember, there are things worth defending, and there can be a difference between defending and just fighting. Even so, it's odd to see a visiting character who makes Ellipsis look like the model of restraint.
This is August 2011 in SW10. We last saw an SW10 story in May 2011. (www.eilertech.com/stories/2011/rapture.txt) A lot of stuff has happened between May and August. For one thing, in May the Superhuman World was still cut off from other universes, unless people made a huge effort to pierce the barricade. So how is a wizard from another universe making it there, without even wanting to? There is a good reason; I just have to write it. The way I write things now for the pleasure of actual readers, that story deserves a novel, or at least a story cycle. I'm planning one, under the working title "The Summer of Discontent". (Now available at www.eilertech.com/stories/2011/discontent1.txt .) I've tried to make that stuff independent of this episode, though. I'm rushing this one into publication because it might be important to other writers, thanks to my own damn idea about crossovers... Writing is haaard. 8{C>
(signed) But the results are fun. Scott Eiler, 6 August 2011. 8{D>
The Super Wizard From Space was created by Wil Alambre and is used by permission. Super writer team-ups are fun, eh? Crusher Joe Corrigan is a character created by Joe Fucile. All other characters in this fiction are copyright 2011, Eiler Technical Enterprises.
| 