Issue # 13

"The Coils of the Cobra"
By Dale Glaser

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PART ONE: THE PAST

Under a midnight sky obscured by dark, violent storm clouds, the War Wheel loomed over the grassy French countryside, as well as the members of Bad Blood. Between the heroes and the steamrolling fortress stood Genocide, his crimson techno-organic rifle completing its metamorphosis into a chest and shoulder harness atop the killer's silver body armor. To his side, a dirt-choked whirlwind trapped Valence in an unnatural maelstrom. What had first appeared to be a skirmish was about to erupt into a full-scale battle, as Genocide leveled his hands, glowing red, at Bad Blood and the War Wheel's fourteen gun turrets' motors began to aim the barrels at the heroes.

(Yup, that's about where we left things at the end of last issue - and if you wonder how we got there, read it here! - DG)

Pierce bellowed orders fast and furious. "We need Valence pronto - Enigma, warp him out of that twister. We're all going to have to focus on the War Wheel to have a chance in hell of slowing it down, but somebody's got to volunteer to take down Genocide first."

While Enigma focused his concentration on projecting a warp portal inside the raging dust devil, close enough to Valence to extricate him in spite of the hurricane winds tossing Valence's body in a maddening random pattern, More tapped the heel of his fist against Pierce's shoulder. "I got it, boss," the big man said simply.

With no time to argue, Pierce nodded. "All right, do whatever it takes to take him down, and ..." before he could explain further, he shouted, "SCATTER!" as his helmet's sensors detected the energy buildup of Genocide's incoming blast. Hangfire and Karnival leapt to one side, Hangfire tucking his body into a roll, Karnival gliding as a two-dimensional shade across the field. More and Pierce threw their bodies in the opposite direction, and Enigma dove into a widening red iris that opened directly in front of him.

The scarlet energy struck true, blasting the ground at what had been the central point of the cluster of heroes. The impact produced no rooster tails of upheaved soil, no rocky shrapnel or confetti of shredded grass. The energy had completely atomized the earth, leaving behind a barren hole in the ground, glazed by now-cooling liquefied matter at the edges. Bad Blood had little time to observe the evidence of Genocide's destructive power, however, as the magazines of the War Wheel's turrets began to empty, tearing swaths across the ground as the gunners attempted to pin down their targets.

Enigma exited his warp portal escape route, in the heart of the tornado holding his teammate. The two bodies swirled about in a crazed dance in all directions. "Valence!" Enigma shouted over the roaring winds, "Grab onto the metal in my body suit and bring us together!" It was nearly impossible to keep Valence in his sight long enough to see any acknowledgement, as the whirlwind swept him end over end in circles, but a moment later Enigma could feel a force pulling him against the buffeting swirl of the funnel cloud. Valence's fist connected hard with Enigma's ribs just under his arm, but despite the jolt of pain Enigma grabbed onto Valence's upper arm and summoned another warp portal directly under their feet. The howling winds and stinging debris tore at them as they fell through the shimmering red disc, but could not prevent their escape.

The War Wheel had slowed somewhat, to allow the gunners to more easily train on their targets, but still continued a slow, inexorable roll toward Paris. Pierce gave clipped commands over the subaudible channel: "Hit the Wheel with everything we've got. Anybody finds any weak spots, don't keep it a secret. First objective is the guns."

"I'm not gonna be much help against machinery, Pierce," Karnival observed.

"Then go for the gunners," Pierce instructed. "Every one of those turrets has a real live human being on the other side of the Wheel's hull."

"Oh. Splendid," Karnival rasped in a mock-ghoulish voice.

Pierce, Karnival and Hangfire made their way toward the War Wheel, dodging bullets as they ran. Behind them, More charged like an enraged animal at Genocide. An inhumanly remorseless grin split Genocide's face as More approached, and the killer allowed his scarlet energy to slowly build into crackling nimbuses around his hands. The crimson organic-technology across Genocide's shoulders pulsed and shuddered as More lumbered to within point blank range.

A red disc opened overhead, depositing Valence and Enigma in midair. Valence held Enigma aloft with one arm around his waist, and reached out with his free hand toward Genocide. Irresistible waves of magnetic force exerted on Genocide's armor thrust the villain's outstretched arms straight down just as Genocide released his devastating energy attack. Two enormous craters were gouged out of the earth on either side of Genocide's feet, and a look of furious disbelief clouded Genocide's features. The expression was swiftly met by More's fist, as a haymaker with all the strength of his giant muscles behind it crashed into his opponent's face. Genocide flew backwards several feet. As soon as the silver-armored body struck the ground, a large tree trunk was ejected from a red warp portal, ripped out of the ground by Enigma's power and laid across Genocide's chest.

Hangfire pulled a hand grenade from his shoulder strap, popped the pin and rolled it directly under the crushing treads of the War Wheel. The steel leviathan rolled over the grenade, and the subsequent explosion was muffled by the enormous mass covering it. The War Wheel appeared unscathed by the grenade blast. Hangfire changed tactics, unhooking a different type of grenade from his belt, this one smooth and black rather than crosshatched drab olive. Hangfire looked up the round side surface of the War Wheel, where the huge gun turrets were mounted with scopes that retreated into the body of the Wheel through open portholes. Hangfire lobbed the grenade through one of the lower portholes, and an instant later a concussion blast echoed from the gunner's station. The attendant turret ceased its bullet-rattling activity as its operator was slammed into unconsciousness.

Hangfire broadcast into the subaudible transceiver, "This thing got a door, Pierce? Taking potshots through the windows is only gonna get us so far."

"We'll find one or we'll make one," Pierce answered resolutely.

" 'Make one'. Right," Hangfire groused. "They built this monstrosity tough, you know."

"Then we'll take it apart bolt by bolt if we have to!" Pierce snapped. On his side of the War Wheel, the erstwhile Checkmate Knight was dodging a hail of bullets while firing sonic blasts from his gauntlets at the barrels of the closest turret's guns. The shapes of the huge gun barrels were slowly but inexorably eroding and soon would be unable to fire at all. Pierce's voice sounded strained, clamped down hard on dangerously powerful emotions, and Hangfire checked himself against making further comments.

Karnival's image-form slithered up the side of the War Wheel, as he discovered that while two-dimensional he could move along any flat surface unimpeded. He ascended to the highest turret porthole, and raised his head above its lip. The soldier within caught a glimpse of the spectral skull, cracked and billowing hellish fire from within, and cried out, "Aaah! Teufel! Teufel! Nein!" Karnival's grin widened as, to the soldier's eyes at least, the confined space of the turret control seat began to collapse inward, steel surfaces snapping and forming jagged daggers along the breaks. The soldier screamed wordlessly and struggled to move, but his muscles were locked, his brain convinced that his body was pinned by the crumpling metal. In the throes of mentally induced pain, the soldier lost consciousness, and Karnival swam shark-like across the surface of the War Wheel to another porthole.

As Valence gently lowered Enigma to the ground on a column of magnetic force, Genocide bellowed with rage and in a brilliant scarlet nova vaporized the bole across his chest. On his feet a moment later, Genocide raised his hands to the sky and streams of energy like crimson lightning bolts flew from his fingertips into the clouds overhead. Flashes of light and deep rumblings boomed in the depths of the thunderheads. The temperature in the area immediately surrounding Genocide plummeted, and a lightning strike came within inches of Valence, who flew deftly out of its path. In the wake of the searing electrical bolt, a freezing rain began to fall.

More sprinted up behind Genocide and threw his arms around the armored killer, pinning Genocide's limbs to his sides in a bearhug just as Genocide had been taking aim at Valence and Enigma. Genocide immediately struggled against More's hold, but More's hands were locked together across Genocide's chest and he refused to let go, instead tightening the crushing, vise-like grip. Genocide raised one knee and drove his boot back into More's thigh. More's leg kicked back but still he retained his hold on Genocide, squeezing even harder and beginning to believe that he could feel the silvery armor buckling ever so slightly under the immense pressure.

Ice was beginning to sheathe Valence's extremities as he floated in the stormy sky. Another lightning bolt slammed earthward in a sizzling arc, but clearly was not intended to strike him. It blasted the ground perilously close to More. Valence could see Enigma throw back his cloak, which was also stiffening with the buildup of ice from the unnatural storm, to ready himself for warping More to safety.

"Enigma, NO!" Valence hollered over the tumult of the rain and thunder and the ceaseless reports of the War Wheel's artillery. "More's got to finish this!"

No sooner had Valence said the words than another lightning bolt struck, barely missing More as he wrestled against Genocide's struggling. Enigma shouted back, "Do you have a better idea?"

Valence uncoiled a twenty-foot length of steel cable, bracing it magnetically into a long, straight pole. He hurled the steel shaft like a javelin down to the ground, adding magnetic acceleration to drive the cable into the earth. The steel shaft jutted skyward at a slight angle, planted near More's and Genocide's locked forms. A bolt of lightning raced down from the heavens, bearing down on More, but jumped through the air to strike Valence's improvised lightning rod.

More took the time his teammate had bought him to apply as much pressure to Genocide's body as he could muster the strength for. Cursing violently, Genocide attempted to flex his own arms outward and break the bearhug. At the same time, the crimson weapon wrapped like a symbiote around Genocide's shoulders began to radiate energy. More continued the crushing assault as the organic technology became superheated and burned against More's chest. More began to groan in pain, a guttural sound that was slowly building in volume to drown out the hiss of the crimson metal as the freezing rain struck its blazing surface. Similarly, Genocide's vocal protestations were shifting from pure anger to incorporate a physical suffering, as the bone-crushing pressure exerted by More's arms began to take a noticeable toll.

More's body trembled and teeth clenched as he focused all of his energy on constricting his arm muscles, ignoring the burning pain against his chest. Just as his screams became indistinguishable from Genocide's tormented howls, the silver-armored killer slumped forward in More's arms, and More allowed him to fall forward into a heap on the grass. More toppled backwards onto his rump, the top half of his singlet disintegrated and a blistered gash of red reaching nearly from one shoulder to the other. The freezing rain began to abate while the thunderheads broke apart.

Enigma quickly crossed the field to More's side, while Valence began to barrel through the air toward the War Wheel. Pierce had disabled a gunner's turret sufficiently to leap atop it, drop to one hand and one knee and drive the heel of his boot through the porthole opening and into the jaw of the soldier manning the guns. The knocked-out soldier tumbled out of his seat, and Pierce produced a small explosive charge and attached it to the ammunition casing of the turret he stood astride. Pierce readied himself to jump up to the nearest turret, but found it swinging down to bear on him and instead leapt to the side. The impetuous young soldier operating the second set of guns fired on the disabled turret below, hastening the explosion that shredded the guns.

The turret began to swing out again to sight on Pierce, when suddenly a huge, speeding projectile tore into the War Wheel's circular surface near its apex and erupted out the other side of the rolling fortress. The impact rocked the War Wheel slightly on its massive iron treads. The edges of the entry and exit points were melted to bright orange slag, and Pierce could just make out the fiery missile against the dark sky. The path of the object's flight was actually rising, rather than falling to the earth like a typical spent shell. The projectile was not losing any speed, either, and looped through the air to make another pass at the War Wheel. The original strike had been at the noon position on the Wheel's face; now the volcanic explosion occurred between nine and ten o'clock, and now Pierce recognized the humanoid fireball as Ember, again tearing a gaping wound in the War Wheel. Ember sped away through the air for another bombing.

"The middle. Go straight for the middle, Ember," Pierce ordered through the subaudible.

Ember slammed fists-first into the very edge of the War Wheel around the five o'clock mark, melting his way in one side and out the other in the blink of an eye.

"I don't think he can hear you, Pierce," Valence observed, wrenching the drilled holes left by Ember open further with a magnetic flex.

"Yeah, Genocide hit him with a lightning bolt, after all. I guess Ember can survive something like that but his radio's most likely fried," Hangfire put in.

"This calls for a little non-verbal communication, then," Karnival suggested. A giant illusion covered the side of the War Wheel now facing Ember as he circled for another attack. The circular surface was covered in a yellow and orange target, with dazzlingly white arrows pointing at the bull's-eye. Ember cruised back toward the Wheel and adjusted his course toward the center of the towering vehicle. He plowed into the heart of the War Wheel.

For a moment, the echoes of Ember's repeated drumming of the War Wheel faded into silence broken only by the alarmed cries of the soldiers manning the gun turrets. Bad Blood held their collective breath, until the middle of the War Wheel's opposite side hull began to slough and flow like lava, and Ember's fiery figure once again burst forth, red hot engine fragments raining down in his wake. The War Wheel's forward progress ceased with a gear-grinding moan. Rather than fly out for another kamikaze approach, Ember hovered nearby, and gave Pierce a thumbs-up. Pierce returned the gesture and quickly barked across the radio channel, "Stabilizer's toast - bring it DOWN!"

Karnival slid down the surface of the War Wheel as the rest of the team began the physical assault. Ember flew to the top of the Wheel and laid his fiery shoulder against it, shoving hard. Valence fired invisible magnetic pulses that dented the steel plating of the round behemoth tank. Pierce added his sonic blasts, while Hangfire took aim with a special pistol shaped vaguely like a flare gun, which fired depleted uranium rounds. Enigma warped away sections of earth from beneath the far side of the War Wheel's stilled treads, and the monstrous rolling weapon began to list to the side.

Slowly, almost gingerly, More stepped between his teammates and approached the War Wheel. The burnt slash across his chest was still an angry red, and More held his arms protectively against his torso. He reached the War Wheel, squatted and pressed his back to it, bracing his shoulders against the metal surface. Grimacing in agony, More extended his legs, pushing with tremendous force on the War Wheel, which had suffered enough abuse and began to succumb to the inevitable effects of gravity and its uneven resting surface. The War Wheel toppled. Its fall seem to last an eternity, but at last it struck the ground with the force of a hammer of the gods, shaking the earth for miles around.

"Damn, More, are you all right?" Hangfire asked.

"Mostly," More shrugged, then winced. "I'm about ready to go home."

Slowly, the remaining German soldiers who had not been knocked cold by the crash began to emerge from the mangled super-weapon's carcass. A few carried rifles and obviously intended to carry on fighting, but they were quickly dispatched. A column of metal scrap summoned up by Valence clocked one soldier, an illusion of spike-skinned zombie projected by Karnival overloaded the senses of another. Pierce tossed his bo staff, still collapsed, at yet another and the blunt end smacked between the soldier's eyes and sped him to unconsciousness. Ember swooped down, grabbed a soldier's rifle barrel and superheated it until the German released it, then used it to cudgel its owner and another soldier nearby. The only member of the War Wheel's crew that remained standing was an officer holding a service revolver, who seemed to show none of the fear or uncertainty that the soldiers under his command had evinced. He stood stolidly atop the prone hull of the War Wheel, his face partially hidden by the bill of his cap, as the members of Bad Blood gathered together and began to walk toward him.

A crystalline white light began to sparkle around the officer's free hand, and in the blink of an eye a deluge of ice emanated from his fist and covered the surface of the War Wheel, gripping the legs of the members of Bad Blood from the knees down. Ember upped the intensity of his bodyfire, but the officer was quick to wave his hand and create a small mountain of ice to completely enclose Ember.

"Headhunter!" Valence cried out.

Headhunter doffed his officer's cap. "Kapitan Walter Reinhart, at your service," he grinned coldly. He raised the revolver and toyed with his targets, aiming it at each hero in turn but never firing. "The service in question, of course, being to bring an end to your pointless struggles against Kobra."

"How can you align yourself with that madman?" Enigma demanded. "How can you profit from aiding a campaign of chaos?"

Headhunter shook his head condescendingly. "Economically? Perhaps if Kobra has his way my credit cards will stop working. It's not always about money. You have no idea what kinds of compensation Kobra is capable of offering."

Before the discussion could continue, the iceberg exploded, frozen fragments blasting in all directions. "That stunt didn't work last time, Headhunter. And I'm in a much worse mood today," Ember announced, flames surging across his skin.

Headhunter, momentarily taken aback, recovered and set his sights on Ember. Karnival, in two-dimensional form, rose up mere inches in front of Headhunter. Karnival had escaped the ice shackles by shedding a dimension and leaving an illusion of himself in his place as he skated across the ice. Now Headhunter backpedaled and fired three times into Karnival's chest. The bullets had no effect, and Karnival wagged a bony finger scoldingly. Ember began to float closer, and More stomped free of the icing as well.

Still backing away, Headhunter touched his belt buckle and a faint iridescent halo began to envelop him. "I must be going now," he called out mockingly. "See you later ... a hundred years or so later ..." Headhunter faded from sight.

"Dammit! Dammit!! Dammit!!!" Valence growled, shooting up from the War Wheel's surface with a magnetically ripped section of armor plating iced to his feet. "Does that bastard ever NOT get away?" he demanded as he shook the ice bonds off his feet.

"That remains for you to determine," a voice replied from the ground beside the War Wheel. Bad Blood rushed to the edge of the fallen hulk and peered down, to see a large coppery sphere fashioned something like a diving bell. Beside it, Ray was standing with two of the devices he had used to send the team forward through time in his hands. "You've done exceptionally well thwarting Kobra so far, however."

"No thanks to you," Pierce said darkly, leaping down nimbly from the War Wheel. Rapping his knuckles against the treads of the rolling tank, he continued, "You didn't say anything about this little surprise. We nearly got buried, literally."

"Yet you did not," Ray countered placidly, affixing one of the devices to the War Wheel.

"Not exactly," Karnival admitted, "but More got beat up pretty bad. And we thought we lost Ember when he got struck by lightning ..." At that, the rest of Bad Blood turned to look quizzically at Ember, finally realizing the severity of the attack he had seemingly shrugged off.

"Hey, guys," Ember shrugged, "it's not like I'm susceptible to burns when I'm doing my thing, you know? I felt a little loopy, like a six-foot joy-buzzer, for a bit ..."

"Must have been a novel experience," Valence commented.

"Regardless," Pierce cut in, "the point is ..."

"The point is we've stopped this prong of Kobra's attack and should focus on the one which remains," Ray finished. "All of you into the sphere, and I'll attach this tachyon anchor to the opposite side of the War Wheel since we shan't be leaving it lying around la belle France."

"I'll get it," Enigma volunteered, conveying the second device to his hand via two small warp portals. He then disappeared through a larger portal, which deposited him on the far side of the War Wheel to attach the device. A moment later, his warp irised open in front of the sphere and he emerged, the task complete.

"Excellent," Ray nodded. He fixed his gaze on Pierce and said seriously, "I have been honest with you to the best of my knowledge, and will continue to be so. I understand your reservations, but surely you understand the greater stakes at risk here. Please, return with me in the sphere and I will explain the rest that you need to know." Pierce remained as impassive as a statue for a moment longer, then turned and entered the coppery sphere. The rest of Bad Blood followed him, and Ray brought up the rear, closing the round door of the sphere behind him. Pearly white light emanated from the sphere's surface, extending in a beam as well to the closer device attached to the War Wheel. From the device it extended outward again to encircle the metal monstrosity, and soon the two objects were glowing with equal brightness. Linear time ceased to apply to the sphere and the War Wheel and they vanished from the field, and all was quiet.

PART TWO: THE PRESENT

The sphere realigned itself with the timestream's flow and appeared in a hangar-like room, spacious but Spartan, the floor and curving, arched walls made entirely of pale metal. Ray emerged from the copper sphere and without delay began to cross the room toward a door on the far side. Bad Blood trailed behind him, and as Ray reached the door he called over his shoulder, "Upon our arrival here and now, the clock has in fact become our enemy. You must hurry." He placed his hand on the door handle.

"Stop." Pierce's commanding voice, resonant as it broadcast from his helmet speaker, would brook no argument. Ray turned to face Bad Blood, who stood at the halfway point of the twenty yards between the sphere and the door. Pierce continued, "This goes no further until we get some answers. Who you are, how you found us, and what's really going on here."

Ray inhaled sharply and pursed his lips, evaluating the team of heroes before him with a critical eye. When he released his breath, he said, "The only name of any meaning which I have is Janissary. And I am not human, not in the sense that any of you are. Even you, Mr. Fenris, are of a relatively mundane origin as compared to me. And it would enlighten you very little to hear the details of my origin, so for the final time I will ask you to trust me when I insist upon their irrelevance. Nevertheless, while I share nothing in common with you in flesh and blood, I share your spirit, your altruism. This is what has led to my imbroglio with Kobra, which in turn led me to all of you.

"I have powers at my disposal which many others do not, time travel among them. But for every power, I have a weakness, which precludes me from direct confrontation with Kobra, a contest which he would doubtless win. I am forced to strike from the shadows, protecting myself behind a veil of near non-existence, so that I may survive to strike again. You, on the other hand, boast far fewer chinks in your collective armor. I will aid you in striking against Kobra. Alone I would surely fail in battle against the great snake. Without me, Bad Blood's chances of survival would be dim, indeed. But together ..." Janissary allowed his supplication to hang tacitly in the hangar air.

Pierce crossed his arms in resignation. "Then tell us what's going on."

Janissary nodded gratefully. "Kobra's timetable has been accelerated, his agents through the timestream by now having reported their failures back to him. He will enact the final phase of his plans, and he will do so quickly.

"Kobra has retained scientists to design a weapon, inspired by Kobra's long-standing enmity with the hero the Flash. Originally it was conceived as a counter-measure for the Flash's superspeed vibrational powers. But historical as well as scientific research permitted insight into the ability to move between dimensions via vibrational frequencies. And the primary purpose of the weapon was changed.

"The weapon is now a titanic cannon mounted on a space station orbiting the Earth. When activated, it will bathe the planet in radiation which will temporarily imbue objects with superspeed vibrational energy. The effects are somewhat random, but a worshipper of Chaos such as Kobra prefers it as such. Any object building up sufficient radiation will vibrate out of phase with our dimension. Eventually, perhaps even relatively quickly, the object will expend the energy, cease to vibrate, and return to its point of origin. But as a planetary phenomenon, even short-lived results could be devastating. Life-support systems disappearing from operating rooms. Airliners vanishing, leaving behind the occupants at thirty thousand feet. Global disaster would become inevitable, and with his hand alone on the trigger for this weapon, Kobra would easily install himself as master of the Earth." Janissary spoke solemnly, with a restrained urgency.

"So, basically, we just need to storm Kobra's satellite of love, kick his army of fanatics' butts, and destroy the Ultimate Vibrator," Karnival said with mostly sarcastic enthusiasm. He clasped his hands together, extending his forefinger and thumb to mimic a gun, and struck a profile pose, accompanied by two illusions of women with feathered hair in similar stances. "We got it, Charlie."

"Except for the whole 'getting up to the space station' part," Ember pointed out.

Janissary opened the door in the hangar wall and said, "Follow me," as he stepped through.

The adjoining room was the same size as the one in which the copper sphere had materialized. However, whereas the room Bad Blood was being led out of was cavernously empty, the room they were ushered into was dominated by a single vehicle and its support structures, stretching almost the entire distance from wall to wall. The vehicle was long, sleek and black, with grooves along the sides of its hull from just behind the rounded cockpit to the enormous thrusters in the rear. The gantries on either side of the ship held it at a steep angle aimed at the apex of the domed ceiling.

Janissary introduced the gleaming vehicle before them, "This craft is able to travel beyond Earth's atmosphere and will be sufficient to convey you to Kobra's space station. I believe its operation is similar enough to vehicles with which Mr. Chancellor has experience to allow him to pilot it. You will find most of the functions are computer-assisted, as well."

"Whoa, whoa, wait," Ember objected, "you really think it's a good idea to put seven guys with zero spaceflight training on a Vomit Comet right before we're supposed to save the world?"

Ray smiled benificently. "Due to environmental compensations made by the ship's systems, you should find the experience little different from riding in a car, Mr. McDowell. The technology on which this spacecraft is based is ... not entirely Earthly." Turning to More, he continued, "And Mr. Ample, I would direct you to the rear of the ship, and its medical bay. Make yourself comfortable there and the automated systems will detect and treat your injuries."

"What do we do with the ship when we're done?" Hangfire asked. "Assuming we come back, that is."

"It is yours," Janissary insisted. "Keep it wherever is most convenient for you, and use it as you see fit. Think of it as a mere token of my esteem, as well as my desire to continue to support you as you fight the good fight. Now, I beseech you, please make haste, as Kobra himself already does."

The rest of Bad Blood turned toward Pierce, expectantly awaiting another protest, but Pierce simply led the way to the ladder hanging from the cockpit door and began to climb. His teammates fell in behind him and ascended to the control center of the ship. Enigma brought up the rear and closed the door behind him. Janissary left the hangar as the domed ceiling split down the middle and parted while the thrusters of the spacecraft began to rumble louder and louder. Blinding light flashed as the thrusters ignited, and the ship rocketed out of the hangar.

More had found his way to the medical bay and his burn was being treated and bandaged, while the rest of Bad Blood were strapped into flight seats in the main cockpit. Hangfire pushed the craft toward escape velocity, checking the computerized flight plan which was tracking the orbit of Kobra's space station and calculating the approach the ship would make. Through the windshield, the brilliant blue sky became more translucent and indistinct, and then vanished, replaced by the deep blackness of space, dotted only by faraway stars. Hangfire, gaining increasing mastery over the controls of the ship, guided it into the computer's suggested path of approach. The route was parabolic, taking the spacecraft well beyond the orbits of the hundreds of man-made satellites streaming around the planet, and returning on a direct course toward the space station of the Cobra Cult from behind.

With only the impossibly distant stars as markers, the ship seemed almost motionless. The cockpit was silent as a tomb. Valence finally urged, "Jesus, somebody say something."

"Sorry, man," Karnival replied grimly. "Guess we're all keyed up for this. It's the biggest thing any of us have gone up against, I'd say. Kind of intimidating."

"Just keep in mind what you have to come home to," Pierce advised. "That's what you're fighting for."

"Not the pep talk I would have expected from you, Pierce," Ember commented.

"I've been thinking that that may have been Checkmate's greatest mistake," Pierce explained without rancor. "They wanted super-soldiers, men and women willing to die for them with no emotional ties that could be exploited or used against them. I think the only chance of winning against Kobra is to be completely unwilling to die, and make use of those emotional ties."

Silence again descended upon the cockpit, but now it was contemplative, almost amazed at Pierce's words, rather than desperate and tense. After a few seconds, Hangfire asked, with only a slight amount of cynicism, "What are you going to be coming home to, Pierce?"

Pierce allowed the question to hang in the air several seconds before making his reply. "I'm just here for Kobra," he said darkly. Except for Enigma exhaling heavily, there was no response that could be made to Pierce's proclamation.

A minute and a half later, Hangfire announced, "We're coming up on the space station. There's an airlock on the underside we can get into, and I'm setting up a jamming frequency broadcast so the space station's systems won't even be aware that we're using it."

The rest of the team indicated their understanding as the ship glided through the vacuum alongside Kobra's space station. Magnetic grapples attached ship to station and a column of material raised itself around the cockpit door and formed a seal around the space station airlock. Hangfire keyed several commands into the ship's computer, and frowned at the results.

"Can't get the station to open the airlock door," Hangfire informed the others.

"All right, pop our door," Valence suggested. "I'll take care of the other side."

Hangfire released the lock on the cockpit door and Valence, already out of his seat, swung it open. He reached out magnetically to the space station door and forced its mechanisms to release. The heavy portal hissed inward slightly, and Valence flew through the connecting space and pushed the door open. Pierce followed, with Karnival, Ember and Enigma close behind.

More came out of the medical bay with gauze wound around his chest in an X shape, under his arms and over his shoulders, the tatters of his singlet rolled down into the waistband. Hangfire rose from the pilot's seat and appraised the strongman. "You all right, buddy?" More nodded, and gave Hangfire a half smile. Hangfire nodded back and the two made their way into the space station.

The airlock connected to a maintenance room, filled with a variety of tools. "Oh, yeah, come to daddy," Valence grinned, magnetically levitating a heavy toolbelt and an array of spanners, screwdrivers and other implements toward himself. He also found a large hammer and lowered it through a loop against his hip as he strapped on the toolbelt.

Enigma pointed to a large sheet of blue paper affixed to the maintenance room wall, showing a schematic of the entire space station. "This should help us determine the best course from here," he indicated.

"Not a bad insertion point," Hangfire mused. "Easy access, maps included, tools are a bonus. Janissary had this already programmed in before we took off. Pretty smart."

"We'll see," Pierce retorted, analyzing the schematic. He tapped a finger against the depiction of the maintenance room on the blue paper. "From here we should split up, deal with the super-weapon and Kobra on two fronts. Ember, Valence, Hangfire, you guys make your way to the weapons bay," he traced the route on the map with his fingertip, "and take it out of commission. Karnival, Enigma and More, you're with me. We go to the staging arena," he traced another route in the opposite direction, "because if Janissary's right about Kobra being poised for attack, that's where the action will be."

"We'll meet up with you there when we're done," Valence offered.

"Yeah, shouldn't take long," Ember boasted.

Pierce nodded, and the team left the room, heading in opposite directions down the corridor.

Hangfire led the way through the corridors to the weapons bay, which was a mercifully short distance from the maintenance room. The doorway was at the end of the corridor, and according to the schematic the door opened on a spiral staircase which descended into the actual bay beneath their feet. Also according to the schematic, the bay was flanked by large storage lockers on either side.

Valence magnetically separated a metal panel from the flooring, allowing Hangfire, Ember and himself to slip between the levels of the space station. The threesome crawled perpendicular to the path of the corridor, positioning themselves above a storage locker in the weapons bay, and Valence detached another section of metal, this one so small that none of them could pass through it. Instead, Hangfire lowered his head through the hole, and was able to peer into the weapons bay through slats in the locker doors.

"There's some technicians working on a big device in the middle of the room," Hangfire reported to his teammates in a forceful whisper. "I'd guess that's our Vibrator of Doom. I count four techs, but there could be more on the far side. Also eight standard troopers, like the ones in Baton Rouge, two in each corner."

"So even if we assume the techies can't fight at all, we're still outnumbered two, almost three, to one," Valence whispered back.

"Roger that," Hangfire agreed.

"Guess we'd better get started then," Ember concluded.

"Whenever you boys are ready," Hangfire acquiesced.

Valence and Ember looked at one another and nodded. A bolt of magnetic force blew off one of the locker doors as Ember's superheated form crashed through another, eliciting cries of alarm from all of the technicians and a few of the Cobra Cult troopers. As Valence glided down, Hangfire somersaulted out of the storage area, landing on his feet with a gun drawn in each hand.

The troopers quickly recovered from the surprise and rallied to action, raising their golden weapons and firing on the heroes. Valence swooped through the air to avoid being tagged by the energy projectiles, and magnetically lifted the detached locker door and swept it through the air, slamming two of the guards into the far wall. Hangfire's forcefield ably deflected all of the energy projectiles targeting him, sending several flying harmlessly into the ceiling and floor. Two of the projectiles ricocheted straight back at Hangfire's attackers, laying them out on the floor with the force of impact.

Ember soared to the weapon surrounded by technicians. It was vaguely cannon-shaped, with its barrel covered by jutting, irregular prismatic shapes of a dark metal cast, clustered mainly at the muzzle of the gun. The weapon was twelve feet high and twice as long, and bolted to the floor of the room on four jointed legs. As Ember approached, all of the technicians tentatively drew small pistols from their coats, and began shooting at him. Ember wove between the laser-like lines of energy and drove his fiery shoulder into the barrel of the superweapon. The metal around the point of contact with Ember's body began to glow slightly, and Ember pushed harder against it. The technicians ceased firing for fear of hitting their creation.

"Fools!" one of the trooper Cobra Cultists bellowed. "Stop him now! Repair the weapon later!" Along with three other troopers, the one who had given the command raised his energy rifle at Ember.

Valence spotted the bubbling mound of molten metal which had once been a storage locker door before Ember had destroyed it. Valence magnetically grabbed globs of the slag and hurled them at the Cobra Cultists' weapons. The liquefied metal clogged the barrels of the energy rifles. One trooper failed to notice before pulling the trigger; the energy exploded the semi-solid metal inside the barrel, in turn shredding the gun halfway up to the stock, while hot shrapnel gouged at the trooper's upper body.

Valence unhooked a three-foot long spanner from his belt and flew at top speed toward the armed cultists. Holding the spanner in the center, parallel to the floor, Valence sped between two troopers at eye-level, where the spanner caught each one square in the face, snapping their heads back accompanied by sprays of blood.

"Deploy the weapon!" the final, disgusted trooper shrieked, discarding his slag-drenched weapon after rolling away from Valence's attack.

A single technician, apparently the team lead, objected, "But we cannot be sure ..."

"Unleash it now before it is destroyed!" the trooper insisted. The lead technician shut his mouth and sprinted for the control panel on the opposite side of the room. The other technicians ran for the spiral staircase at the back of the weapons bay. The lead entered a command code at the panel and slowly the floor of the weapons bay began to separate beneath the superweapon. The air in the weapons bay began to rush out through the seam in the floor, and everyone in the room felt the tug of the vacuum beyond. Ember maintained his stranglehold on the barrel of the superweapon, while Valence magnetically anchored himself to the ceiling and braced Hangfire to the floor. The technicians at the staircase clung desperately to the railings, but one of them was unable to find a grip and was pulled inexorably across the weapons bay floor. He clutched at the edge of the widening seam in the floor for a few seconds, until an unconscious trooper skidded across the floor and slammed into the technician as two hundred pounds of dead weight. The two bodies tumbled helplessly out of the weapons bay into the cruel, cold embrace of space.

The weapon began to lower on its four legs through the aperture in the floor. Ember's flaming skin began to flicker in the rapidly thinning air, but he continued to try to melt the weapon between his arms. Detached locker doors, hand weapons and other debris clattered past him as the vacuum claimed any object not firmly attached to the room.

Holding on tightly to the door handle on a storage locker, the trooper giving commands cackled, "You cannot stop the coming of the Kali Yuga! You cannot stop the will of Lord Naga! Now the world entire will now that he can take away anything at any time! Mankind will doubt the very reality in which they live, as they learn that all is nothingness, transient and forever on the verge of non-existence!"

"Okay, that's just a little too Zen," Valence intended to yell, but the sound came out softly and was torn from his lips immediately.

"Valence," Hangfire struggled to make himself heard, "throw me at the control panel! Now!"

Valence obliged his teammate and magnetically propelled Hangfire toward the control panel, where the lead technician was gripping two handholds set into the wall on either side of the panel. Hangfire squeezed off several rounds at the technician's shoulders and the backs of his knees. The technician screamed in pain and released the handholds. Hangfire let go of his guns, which skipped like stones on water over the weapons bay floor and out into the black void. As Hangfire and the lead technician passed each other, moving in opposite directions, Hangfire reached out and snatched the back of the technician's coat with one hand. Hangfire's other hand found the recessed hold beside the control panel and grabbed it.

Flexing his arm to pull the lead technician's face within inches of his own, Hangfire demanded, "Belay that deployment. Close the doors NOW!"

The terrified scientist tried to reach for the control panel, but the injuries to his shoulders from Hangfire's mercy bullets prevented him from raising his arms. Panting heavily, the technician managed to say, "Can't ... reach ... but don't need ... code to close ... just hit ... blue button ..."

Hangfire allowed the technician to dangle at arm's length, and pulled himself closer to the control panel. With one set of knuckles whitening around the handhold, and the other kneaded deep in the technician's coat, Hangfire screamed through clenched teeth and drove his forehead hard into the blue button, assuring himself he would let go of the techie if he were lying.

The robotic legs of the superweapon began to reverse their motion, raising the superweapon up through the floor. The sliding doors set into the floor began to cycle closed as well. The Cobra Cult zealot who had ordered the deployment began to protest hysterically, until Valence ensnared the trooper. First the metal around the locker door handle swelled outward and encased the cultist's hand. More strips of metal were magnetically sheared off the wall and floor to bind the trooper's limbs and head.

The doors in the floor closed and sealed, and the superweapon was returned to its resting position. Ember hung weakly to its cratered underside in a melted impression of his body. As the air pressure in the weapons bay returned to normal, Ember's head began to clear and he resumed his fiery assault on the cannon. "Damn, they built this thing to last," he finally cursed.

"No kidding," Valence agreed. "It's non-magnetic metal, too. But luckily I'm prepared to deal with that." Valence loosed all of the metal tools from his belt and set them to bashing at the barrel of the weapon in the same area that Ember was applying himself at the most intense temperature possible.

Hangfire dispatched of the lead technician with a swift left cross to the man's jaw, then turned to the other technicians draped over the spiral staircase's railing like rag dolls, catching their breaths. "Somebody gimme a gun," Hangfire growled.

A cowering technician weakly lobbed an energy pistol at Hangfire. Hangfire caught it, moved closer to Kobra's vibrational energy weapon, and fired a steady stream of laser-thin energy at the midpoint in the barrel under attack by Ember and Valence. The onslaught continued for an interminable length, until finally the superweapon was snapped in half and the front end of the barrel clanged against the weapons bay floor. Sparks showered from the broken edge of the rearward section, as the continuous power supply pumped now unnecessary voltage through the base of the weapon. The shattered cannon smoldered and sputtered.

"Scratch one global chaos pop-gun," Ember sighed, hands on his knees as he tried to shake off the exhaustion.

"We should join the others, as soon as we take care of the geeks," Hangfire jerked a thumb at the technicians, who were slowly regaining enough strength to climb the staircase.

"No problem," Valence assured him. With a wave of his hand, the steel spiral collapsed down to the floor, pinning all of the technicians between steps and rails. Taking hold of Hangfire's bandolier, Valence was airborne and headed for the door above. Only slightly more wobbly, Ember flew behind him.

At a turn in the corridor just before the staging arena, Pierce held up a single hand to stop his comrades. Karnival, Enigma and More silently awaited the signal to proceed as Pierce peered through the corridor walls with his helmet sensors, observing the other side of the corner.

"Two guards, armed with heavy rifles," Pierce reported quietly.

"Guards? On a secret space station? How paranoid is this Kobra guy?" Karnival asked. Then, with genuine concern he added, "Was he expecting us?"

"Most likely they are serving a ceremonial purpose," Enigma answered in a low voice. "Kobra stationed them outside the door not out of any fear of attack, but because it is the proper thing to do."

"Swell," More sighed.

"Proper thing for us is to get past them," Pierce continued. "Enigma, how about a theatrical disarming?"

"Right away," Enigma agreed. One stride took him past the break in the corridor, into the sight of the guards. With a dramatic flourish, Enigma threw back his cloak in a swirl of deep maroon as a huge red disc opened behind him. Pierce followed Enigma in a low crouch. The guards raised their weapons, but did not have enough time to discharge them before a smaller red disc opened in the air before the muzzles, sucking the weapons out of the guards' hands. The weapons were ejected from the large red disc over Enigma's shoulders and landed at his feet.

At the same instant, Pierce sprang forward, detaching and extending his telescoping bo staff in midair and planting the end of it on the corridor floor. Braced against the staff, Pierce delivered a bone-jarring kick to both guards' heads. The double impact of Pierce's boot and the unforgiving wall behind them as they were slammed into it rendered the guards unconscious. Pierce landed on his feet and waved his teammates forward. Together, the foursome entered the staging arena.

The door opened under shadows cast from an overhanging section of the arena. The room itself was gigantic, like a stadium capable of accommodating fifty thousand or more. The floor was packed with bodies, all with their backs to the door, in the green and yellow uniforms of the Cult of Cobra, some augmented by personal weapons systems, body armor, even small attack vehicles. Pierce, Karnival, More and Enigma could see that the overhang ran all the way around the huge chamber, and offered more standing room to the troops of Kobra. At the far side of the room, on a raised dais, stood the imposing figure of Kobra, his cloak flaring behind his powerful frame, his muscular arms raised over his head as he exhorted his minions for the coming battle.

"My devoted children!" Kobra boomed. "We sstand at the edge of a new age! The ignorance of the world below, ignorance which manifesstss as the misssguided sstruggle for order, iss a barrier to the coming of the Kali Yuga! But you ... ALL of YOU ... will break down that barrier, as fragile as it iss ignorant, and releasse gloriouss CHAOSSS upon the Earth! The terror wrought by thiss sspace sstation's weaponry shall be compounded by your forcess acrosss the globe! You shall take control of a world in the throess of chaosss, and you shall tesstify that the Kali Yuga hass arrived! And that with it, your Lord Naga hass declared himsself the Lord of the Earth entire!!!"

The four members of Bad Blood steeled themselves as the walls around them and the floor beneath their feet seemed to thrum with the upraised cheers from Kobra's army. Kobra's electrifying charisma was undeniable, even for those to whom the madness of his words was apparent. Clearly this was one of the most dangerous creatures alive.

"Do or die time," Pierce announced calmly.

"Lead the way," More replied, cracking his knuckles.

Pierce stole behind one of the nearest followers of Kobra. His hand shot out in a precise knife-strike for the base of the cultist's skull. The cultist dropped unceremoniously to the floor, unheard above the din of the cheering. Still, the two minions of Kobra on either side of the fallen trooper turned around as he fell, and Pierce struck at both of them at once. Balanced on one foot, Pierce drove the heel of his boot into the midsection of the cultist on the right, and thrust his gauntlet out at the throat of the cultist on the left. Both troopers staggered backwards in tremendous pain. Greater numbers of the surrounding troopers began to turn to identify the source of the commotion, and Pierce flipped backwards and fired a sonic blast from his gauntlets into their midst. The troopers not caught in the line of fire began shooting at the members of Bad Blood, which in turn drew more attention from a larger part of the amassed cultists.

More charged forward, intent on knocking down anything and anyone in his path. Karnival literally flattened himself against the wall, and a bolt of energy from a cultist's rifle grazed his two-dimensional shoulder. "Gaaahh! Felt that!" Karnival wailed.

"Interesting," Enigma commented, "Physically-based attacks cannot touch you as a two-dimensional construct, but energy still retains an effect. Perhaps ..."

"Save the physics lecture, doc," Karnival snapped, slithering down the wall with one hand clapped over his wounded shoulder. Karnival moved across the floor toward the minions of Kobra and said, "If we make it out of here alive, I swear we can talk all about it."

Enigma nodded his tacit agreement as Karnival's image form swam into the midst of the cultists. Enigma swirled his crimson cloak in an effort to attract as much attention as possible, and was pleased to see a line of ten or so Kobra troopers bring their armaments to bear on him. For one heartbeat Enigma deliberately hesitated, then quickly summoned an oblong red portal directly in front of the gun-toting cultists. The troops were sucked in and almost immediately redeposited where they had just stood; now, however, they were facing the opposite direction. Before overcoming their disorientation, most of the inverted troopers completed pulling the triggers of their weapons, which fired pell-mell into the midst of the assembled Cobra Cult, dropping several green and yellow clad figures in the blast.

Karnival skimmed along the floor, impervious to the trampling of cultists' boots. He reached what he gauged to be the center of the staging arena and stopped his progress. A moment later a gigantic illusion of a great winged dragon circled in the upper reaches of the massive chamber. Ignoring the pain in his shoulder from the energy weapon's hit, Karnival focused his concentration to make the illusion as believable as possible, from the translucent, sinewy wings to the iridescent scales along the monster's belly to the angry intelligence in the dragon's eyes. Then, confident that he had most of the room's attention, Karnival mentally commanded the illusory beast to hover and open its reptilian jaws, from which blazing white fire bellowed forth. The searing dragon's breath swept through the heart of Kobra's forces, affecting each of the minds in a slightly different way. Some of the troopers were stunned to paralysis, some screamed in agony as if their flesh were burning, some simply passed out from a combination of artificially induced mental pain and fear. Karnival made the illusion dive down to just above the cultists' heads and snap at several with its blade-like teeth, with similar results.

More continued slugging through the mass of Kobra troopers with slow but steady progress. Cultists who failed to remove themselves from his path were summarily tossed aside, colliding with brutal force into their nearest cohorts. The few troopers who deliberately positioned themselves to oppose More were met with More's reddened knuckles, scraped raw from repeated impact with body armor and helmets. Finally a cultist operating a large, green, heavily armed exoskeleton faced off against More. More continued his relentless progress until he was within reach of the unit, which had elongated arms and legs and a sparse safety cage around the torso and head of the trooper within. The exoskeleton's arms swung at More, and More caught one in each hand, spreading his feet wider to brace himself. The weapons along the exoskeleton's limbs began to deploy and train on More who, before they could fire, pulled his arms outward in a quick jerk. His muscles strained, but he held his grip on the exoskeleton's arms, and the weapons suit split down the middle of the safety cage. The operator was dumped to the floor amid a shower of sparks and fragments of metal. More continued the arcing motion of his arms, swinging the cleaved halves of the exoskeleton through the throngs of cultists on either side of him, taking out at least a dozen in the process.

Pierce continued to battle inexorably toward the front of the staging arena, where Lord Naga remained rooted to the dais, arms folded across his chest as he observed the battle with cold, hard eyes. The followers of Kobra knew that their master was watching, and needed no encouragement beyond his mere presence to push themselves to their limits to stop the effrontery of this invasion of the space station. Still, Pierce's red and white armored form catapulted through their ranks, another cultist sent to the floor with every foot of progress the Knight made. Each movement Pierce executed simultaneously pushed him through the mass of troopers and blended fluidly into a martial strike against his closest opponent's greatest vulnerability.

From the upper level of the staging arena, twenty Cobra Cult troopers wearing aerial jet packs took flight. Half of them moved to engage the gargantuan dragon dominating the upper reaches of the domed chamber, while the remaining ten converged in a spiral formation on Pierce. Sub-machine guns mounted on the jet packs discharged with a metallic ripping noise, and Pierce dove to the floor under the strafing assault. Hot bullets tore mercilessly into the ranks of Kobra troopers near Pierce, their green and yellow armors providing some protection but not rendering them completely immune. The swarm of cultists on the ground began frantically shoving against one another to evade the jet troopers' attacks, while Pierce remained low to the floor and continued to work toward Naga himself.

At the same time, other followers of Kobra on the upper level were stabilizing large pieces of artillery against the steel railing, and beginning to take aim at the members of Bad Blood on the lower level. An arc of fusion energy like a bolt of lightning sheared through two troopers on the floor to blast at More, who was knocked off his feet by the impact. Nearby, a shell whistled through the air and exploded next to Enigma, tossing him through the air like a rag doll before he could escape via warp portal. A path was opening among the moving bodies of cultists, as the troopers on the ground began to run from Pierce rather than engage him and become grist in the heavier crossfire. A sizable laser beam lanced the floor directly in front of Pierce, who vaulted over the melting metal and stayed on course to reach Kobra's dais.

Karnival suffused his illusory dragon with a nova-bright light, which manifested into an explosion of dragonfire, tearing the false beast apart and, Karnival hoped, knocking most of the jet troopers out of the air. As the light subsided, Karnival could see that a few of the airborne troopers were dazed, but most retained control over their jet packs and were now seeking new targets after the dragon's disappearance.

Suddenly, a door at the top of the upper level blew inward, and Valence soared through, carrying Hangfire by his bandolier. A moment later Ember's glowing orange form burst through the entranceway as well. Valence whooped and tossed Hangfire at two jet troopers facing away from them. As Hangfire fell through the air, a gun in each hand, he scored two bullseyes on each of the jetpacks' exhaust ports. A moment later the explosive shells detonated and black smoke began billowing from every side of the jetpacks, as the troopers crashed to the floor. Hangfire landed in a crouch, and took a moment to shake off the bone-jarring impact.

Valence reached out magnetically to snare three jetpacks on nearby troopers. With one mental flex Valence drew the troopers into a tri-cornered collision, and with another he sent them straight up at top speed into the apex of the chamber dome, after which the jet troopers plummeted back down. Across the way, Ember flew just above a jet trooper, matching his movements exactly, and reached down and slagged the thrusters of the jetpack shut. Ember peeled off as the jetpack exploded and sent its operator flying into the wall.

"Thank God the cavalry's here," More exclaimed as he rose to his feet, one arm defensively crossed against his bandaged chest.

"Cavalry, nothin', buddy," Valence replied, letting fly a long, slender wrench which he magnetically directed to slide between a jet trooper's shoulders and spin, severing the straps which connected the trooper to the jet pack. The Cobra cultist fell from the air and the uncontrolled jetpack smashed into the rail of the upper level. "We're the damn party police, and we came to tell Mr. Kobra that this place is over the limit for trigger-happy snake-worshipping psychopaths!"

"Well, yeah, that's good, t-- ... oh, hell." More's eyes narrowed as two doors behind Kobra's dais opened and a single figure emerged from each. On Kobra's left, the deep blue and white uniform of Headhunter; on his right, the towering frame of Minotaur. Both men moved past Lord Naga and placed themselves in the oncoming path of Pierce.

More launched himself into the air, a prodigious leap powered by his enormous leg muscles. The rest of his team, knowing More would have set his sights on Minotaur, focused on Headhunter. Enigma reacted first, opening a shimmering red disc on the air behind the mercenary. Headhunter was quick to create an icy staff frozen to the floor, which he held onto to resist being sucked into the warp portal. Instantly a hellish vehicle was bearing down on Headhunter, a huge demonic snowplow topped with ram's horns and dripping scarlet blood and belching sulfurous fumes. As the jagged plow blade rammed into Headhunter under Karnival's mental control, a volley of small steel projectiles magnetically charged by Valence and two concussion grenades tossed by Hangfire impacted on the villain as well. Ember descended on the scene and gripped the top of Headhunter's staff, melting it immediately, and the battered Headhunter flew into Enigma's warp portal. He was ejected from another high overhead, which sent him crashing into the upper level of the arena.

More landed thunderously in front of Minotaur, with Pierce charging up right behind him. Pierce scaled More's back and launched himself from the big man's shoulders toward the dais. Minotaur threw his arms up to catch Pierce, and left himself completely open to More, who clasped his hands together and drove them both with sledgehammer force into Minotaur's stomach. The villain doubled over in pain as Pierce cleared the edge of the dais and landed before Kobra.

Kobra stood two inches taller than Pierce, and was slightly broader through the chest. His bearing was regal, stiff and upright, which made the difference in their heights seem even more dramatic, as Pierce was poised with knees slightly bent, ready to attack. Kobra uncrossed his arms and flexed his fingers dramatically before balling them into fists at his sides. "I pressume you will ssspare uss both the indignity of inssisssting I ssurrender," Kobra seethed.

"I don't even want to give you that option," Pierce countered, lashing out with a roundhouse kick toward Kobra's head. Kobra ably deflected the blow with one hand.

In front of the dais More and Minotaur rained blows upon each other furiously. Minotaur grabbed the back of More's head, pulling it down quickly so that his flying knee could meet More's jaw. More bellowed as his chin split open in a spray of blood, yet managed to reach around and drive his fists into Minotaur's kidneys. Minotaur's back arched and he grunted in pain, then swung his free hand at More's head. The impact forced More to stagger backwards two paces. Minotaur drew back his hand for another strike, but More kicked out savagely at Minotaur's knee. Shockwaves of pain exploded through Minotaur's leg as it buckled under him and he dropped to the brutalized knee. More pressed his advantage, closing in for a knife strike on Minotaur's eyes. Minotaur moved his head slightly at the last second, catching More's stiff fingers in his temple, but at the same time reached up and raked his fingers hard through the gauze X covering More's chest.

More screamed in agony as his vision went gray. Pus and blood oozed freely from the burns on his chest torn open by Minotaur's attack. Minotaur smiled sadistically, then lost his expression of triumph as More focused on his adversary once again. Fueled by pain and rage, More was now a roaring, unstoppable force, pounding Minotaur into the floor with punches that could pulverize reinforced concrete. Minotaur tried to mount a counteroffensive but More ignored any blows which connected and only increased the ferocity of his own. After an interminable number of punches, Minotaur was too weak and stunned to move. More hefted the villain over his head and tossed him with all his might at the nearest wall. Minotaur's massive body bashed through the internal wall of the room and was embedded in the outer wall of the space station's superstructure.

"Thiss morality sstruggle iss pointless," Kobra insisted, attempting to sweep Pierce's legs with a low kick. "I am desstined to lead the world into the Kali Yuga! The order you sseek to presserve iss fated to disssappear!"

Pierce leapt over Kobra's sweep kick and in mid-air shot out his own boot at Kobra's solar plexus. Kobra caught Pierce's ankle in both hands. Pierce brought around his other boot intent on burying his toes in Kobra's larynx. Kobra twisted Pierce's trapped leg and turned the Checkmate Knight completely around to face the floor of the dais, where Pierce's free foot landed. Pierce instantly dropped to his hands as well and used the momentum to pull Kobra off his feet, snapping the leg Kobra clutched to flip him onto his back.

"When's the last time you took a good look at that world down there, Kobra?" Pierce demanded while lashing out with a palm strike that connected with Kobra's nose. "When's the last time you observed humanity outside your cult?"

Kobra answered with only a growl, lunging forward with a fist aimed at Pierce's head. Pierce dropped into a split underneath the blow and landed three blows in rapid succession on Kobra's stomach. Kobra kicked Pierce away, putting distance between them without really doing any damage to Pierce.

"Let me paint you a picture of that world down there," Pierce went on. "It's got countries in it full of people who hate each other so much they'd rather slaughter each other in the gutters than find a peaceful coexistence. It's got six year olds in it who bring handguns to school and kill classmates on the playground." Pierce sidestepped another of Kobra's punches, crouched slightly and came up with his shoulder wedged under Kobra's arm and his other hand grabbing Kobra's belt. Pierce lifted Kobra off his feet and yanked up on the cult leader's belt to invert Kobra's body, then allowed him to fall headfirst into the dais.

"The world is full of sick people who would rather sell their soul to addiction than live a full life, depraved ghouls who acquire power so they can more easily use other humans as objects, and a few billion cynics who can't be shocked by it all anymore because they've seen it all already," Pierce shouted, leveling Kobra as he tried to rise with a well-placed jab to the neck. Pierce rolled Kobra onto his back and squatted over his scaly chest plate to intone, "Not to mention enough incurable diseases, natural disasters and every other random act of cosmic cruelty to make everyone wonder sometimes what the point of it all is. You want to bring on the Age of Chaos? You pathetic, raving megalomaniac, the Kali Yuga's already here. And you've got nothing to with it."

Kobra bared his teeth in an indignant grimace and brought both knees up into Pierce's shoulder blades. Pierce went sprawling across the dais, and Kobra slowly rose to his feet.

More looked around frantically and spied a long-barreled plasma cannon which Valence and Ember had uprooted from its mooring on the upper level. More grabbed the muzzle, and lifted the huge weapon over his shoulder like a baseball bat, and swung the heavy base of the cannon into Minotaur's immobilized form. With a crack and pop, Minotaur was blasted out of the space station, and the vacuum beyond the walls began sucking at the contents of the staging arena. More lost his balance and fell to the floor, bloodied and exhausted.

"Twice in one day? Unreal," Valence shook his head, throwing both hands toward the tear in the hull of the space station. Metal debris from around the room flew to plug the gap, twisting and knotting together under the guidance of Valence's power. Ember flew to the wall and melted the debris into a single sheet, and the pressure inside the staging arena stabilized.

"All right, let's bag Kobra and blow this snake-sicle stand," Valence urged.

"No," Hangfire waved him off. "This is Pierce's fight, his alone."

"Aw, no, not the John Wayne garbage, not now," Valence groused. However, he made no attempt to disobey Hangfire's edict. He, and every member of Bad Blood, knew Hangfire was fundamentally correct. Karnival, Enigma and Ember gathered around Hangfire and Valence, and no one moved toward the dais. Even the remaining troopers in the staging arena only stood and watched as their leader squared off in personal combat. All eyes in the room were upon Kobra and Pierce, the two men who would decide the final outcome of the larger battle.

Kobra drew himself to his full height as Pierce regained his feet. Pierce leapt at Kobra, arms raised high. Unflinching, Kobra reached out and caught Pierce by the throat. Kobra swung his empty hand at Pierce's midsection in a martial strike. Pierce deflected the blow with a counter maneuver. "You undersstand nothing!" screamed Lord Naga. "You profane my calling, but cannot thwart my dessstiny!" Kobra swung again and again, aiming for different parts of Pierce's hanging body, always connecting only glancing blows with Pierce's armored forearms or gauntlets.

Pierce brought up both legs and drove his heels into Kobra's chest. Kobra took a single step backwards, as Pierce slipped out of Kobra's grasp. He fell to the dais and tucked into a backward roll away from Kobra. Kobra lashed out in rage, bringing both fists crashing down on the surface of the dais mere inches from Pierce's retreating tumble. Pierce sprang upright and brought both hands chopping into the sides of Kobra's hood. Kobra howled but remained rock steady, one arm shooting out like a piston to collide with Pierce's stomach. Pierce spun out in an effort to roll with the punch.

Kobra returned to his feet and kicked Pierce in the back. Pierce flew off the dais and landed gracelessly behind it. Kobra leapt down after him. The entire chamber held its breath for a moment as the only portion of the struggle visible was Kobra's backside from the shoulders up. Suddenly Kobra slammed against the edge of the dais, arms flung out to the sides. Then Kobra doubled over, and stood again quickly, tossing Pierce backwards over his head. Pierce flipped in midair and landed on his feet on the dais. Kobra bounded onto the dais behind him.

Pierce was on the offensive as Kobra landed, and Kobra executed a flawless block for each of Pierce's blows. The two bodies, one red and white, one green and orange-gold, ranged back and forth across the dais in a martial duel. The combatants appeared too evenly matched for any victor to emerge. Then Kobra threw a left cross, and as Pierce's arm came up in its path, splayed his fingers like a talon and caught Pierce's wrist. Kobra bent Pierce's arm back, twisting it at a precise angle to inflict maximum pain on the limb. Pierce tried to jump into a backflip to ease the pressure on his arm, but Kobra backhanded him out of the air.

"The Kali Yuga iss not open to your interpretation, fool!" Kobra cried triumphantly. "It iss absssolute!" Kobra kicked the side of Pierce's prone form, lifting Pierce's body off the dais. Pierce clearly lacked the strength to resist the force of the blow as he collapsed after the impact. Kobra reached down and jerked Pierce up to his feet. Pierce swayed slightly, and Kobra rammed a fist into the underside of Pierce's helmet. Pierce went down on his back. Kobra raised the weary Knight to his feet again, and spat at him, "Your petty complaintss will pale before the true CHAOSSS I sshall usher in!" Another uppercut knocked Pierce onto his back again.

"Come on, Pierce, come on," Ember urged under his breath.

Pierce pushed himself up to his feet with convulsive determination. He delivered a punch-kick combination to Kobra's midsection, both blows bouncing ineffectually. Kobra had drawn his fist back while allowing Pierce his feeble strike, and let it fly at the center of Pierce's helmet. The sound of the helmet cracking at the point of impact rang through the chamber like a gunshot. Pierce staggered backwards on trembling legs, his helmet deformed by a sizable dent surrounded by a spiderweb of microfissures.

"Sweet Jesus," Karnival moaned through clenched teeth.

Kobra caught hold of Pierce yet again, prepared to strike him with an open hand, then reconsidered. The leader of the Cubra Cult reached under his flowing green cloak and withdrew a golden ceremonial dagger from his belt. "BEHOLD!!!" Kobra boomed, his voice once again filling the entire staging arena. "Behold the fate of thosse who ssscoff at the imminence of the KALI YUGA!" The troopers cheered, a murderous, maniacal sound. Kobra pressed the dagger to the side of Pierce's neck, then continued in a low voice that only Pierce could hear. "My sstudiess of your Checkmate forces made clear to me your every weaknesss," Kobra menaced. "Including your vaunted armor, itss denssity proportional to the force exerted upon it. And thuss it iss only fitting that your death sshould now be ssslow and exquissite." Kobra began to gently apply pressure to the dagger's hilt, and the razor-sharp tip of the blade sliced through the armor against Pierce's neck. A scarlet teardrop of blood welled up and began to run down Pierce's white armored arm.

Faster then the eye could follow, a large projectile streaked through the air and struck Kobra in the center of his face. Kobra dropped both Pierce and the dagger, Pierce slumping into a heap as the dagger clattered to the dais surface, and was driven backward by the blow, lifted off his feet. The object which had bashed Kobra between the eyes, a large utility hammer, caromed off Kobra's skull and up into the air, where it was met by Valence in flight. Valence caught the hammer, hovered in midair, and threw the tool again, magnetically accelerating it to crash into Kobra's hood at near-lethal velocity. Kobra reeled, completely dazed, as the hammer returned magnetically to Valence's hand again. Once more Valence took aim, let the hammer fly, and the steel head brained Kobra and knocked him flat. The leader of the Cobra Cult made no movement to rise, no movement at all.

"I'll be damned," Hangfire whistled. "When you've got a hammer, everything does look like a nail."

"Looks mighty good to me," More commented.

Valence landed on the dais and uncoiled his steel cables, wrapping them tightly around Kobra's unconscious form. Satisfied with the bonds, Valence turned to Pierce. Kneeling beside him, Valence asked, "Pierce? You ... all right?"

"uuhhrr ... I'll live ..." Pierce replied simply.

The Kobra troopers were frozen in place by the horrific sight of their leader pummeled into submission. After a few seconds, one of the field leaders screamed, "Nothing can stop the Kali Yuga, and we are its footsoldiers! To the dropship!" The troopers were galvanized into action, streaming toward the doors of the chamber to reach their transport to Earth.

"Go after them?" Enigma asked.

"Don't think there's time to stop them all," Hangfire replied. "We might get the stragglers but they'd still launch the dropship. Best bet's to get back to our ship and try to intercept them all in orbit."

"You guys did take out the ultimate vibrator, right?" Karnival asked, his skeletal countenance blurring at high speed.

"Yeah, we got it," Ember confirmed.

"I'll get us back to our craft immediately," Enigma offered, summoning a warp portal before them. More, Karnival and Ember stepped through. Hangfire waved over Valence, who flew toward them with Pierce under one arm and Kobra in tow. Valence flew through the portal, Hangfire ran after him, and Enigma stepped in as the red disc spiraled shut.

Valence threw Kobra into a corner of the cabin and secured Pierce in the medical bay as Hangfire began detaching the ship's magnetic grapples and the rest of the team strapped into their seats. A moment later the spacecraft was separated from Kobra's orbital station and speeding away in a wide orbit around Earth.

The Cobra Cult dropship blasted away from the space station a few seconds later, heading directly for Earth. Hangfire guided Bad Blood's craft into the dropship's wake, saying, "Time to see if this baby's as easy to fight with as it is to fly." A battery of laser weapons sprang out of the underside of the craft, which was keeping pace with the dropship as both entered the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere. Hangire triggered the weapons to life, and hard red light slashed ahead into the dropship's thrusters. The damage was instantly apparent, as the dropship began to fall like so much dead weight while dark smoke plumed voluminously from the thrusters and the engine cells beyond them. The dropship went into a tailspin that ended in an immense splash on the surface of the northern Pacific Ocean.

Hangfire dropped back into his seat, releasing the deathgrip on the ship's controls and sighing heavily. The rest of the team exchanged a few smiles, but lacked the energy for more jubilant celebration.

"Guess we should call somebody about that trash floating in international waters, huh?" Valence asked after a moment's reflection.

"We should," Karnival agreed. "But that's a call I'd say we can make from home."

Hangfire nodded, "Next stop, New Orleans."

PART THREE: THE FUTURE

"You'll never guess who Interpol just picked up," Karnival said, walking toward the Riverboat's communications console.

"Your mom?" Ember asked insouciantly, without looking away from the monitors.

"Minotaur."

"What, picked up the pieces?"

"Nope, apparently he survived re-entry just fine. Landed about ten miles outside of Nairobi, made a big old hole in the ground. Took a while for the word to get to the authorities, and then longer for anyone to believe what the locals had reported. But even by the time some agents got out there, Minotaur wasn't terribly alert. Stunned out of his gourd, but definitely alive."

"Son of a bitch. You gonna tell More?"

"Nah, I'm already scared to death by the fact that we've got a genuine unkillable enemy. I don't need to go upsetting More, too."

"Point. Still, Interpol's gotta be pretty pleased, we basically handed them Kobra, a bunch of his flunkies, and now Minotaur, too."

"Yeah, too bad Headhunter got away."

"Pierce figure out how yet?"

"No. I think a couple of JLAers dismantled Kobra's satellite, rounded up the troopers who had been left behind. Reports said Headhunter was nowhere to be found. He also wasn't on the dropship when Interpol recovered it."

"And nobody wants to believe he's decided to hang up his mask and have a low-profile retirement, right?"

"We're not that lucky ..."

"Whoa wait a second ... man, take a look at this," Ember pointed at a monitor screen.

"No rest for the weary," Karnival snorted. "All right, let's grab everybody else ..."

AS IT WAS AND ALWAYS WILL ... TO BE CONTINUED!!!

MESSAGES WRITTEN IN BLOOD ...

Send e-mail correspondence to badblood51@hotmail.com

Just a quick author's note here to say thanks to everyone who's been reading Bad Blood from the beginning, everyone who endured my April hype-month and waited patiently for me to finally tie things off here a month later than originally advertised, and especially everyone who was willing to read this gigantic anniversary issue. Please send feedback to badblood51@hotmail.com. The stories are still going to come whether I hear from you or not, but with your inpu they can only get better! - DWG

NEXT ISSUE: A new year of Bad Blood has only just begun! The team returns to New Orleans to face new challenges and old foes, to earn allies and find trusts broken, and as always, to meet with the unexpected and kick what needs kicking! Stick around!

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