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Silent Jury
Issue #8
by Tom Zjaba
Chapter 12
Clash of the Titans
Psyclone looks out over the pile of debris that once was
Justin Rage's mansion. He smiles as he looks around at the grounds and sees the
stone and wood fragments scattered about. There is a hunk of the chimney in the
pool and the once perfectly manicured lawn is now littered with chunks of the
foundation and the remnants of what must have been an expensive couch. As he
looks over it, he sees something odd. Underneath all the rubble, something is
stirring. A pile of broken boards is moving. Then the whole pile is pushed aside
and out of it rises The Fallen One. He pushes the last of the rubble aside and
gets up on his feet. He then shakes off the dirt that covers him and stretches
out his immense wings. He then looks up and sees Psyclone floating in the air
above him. "Are you the insolent one who dared to attack me?" Psyclone floats
closer and says "Leave my legos alone!" With that, he lifts a half dozen large
sized pieces of stone from the foundation and tosses them at The Fallen One.
They come from both sides and he does not have time to stop them. He is thrown
off by the attack and the large rocks pelt him in the head and body. He is
shaken by the attack but it does not knock him off his feet. He then opens his
mouth and sends out a breath of fire at Psyclone. The flames fly at Psyclone,
who is able to put up a mental shield to easily block them. The flames pour over
the shield but do not harm anything. Psyclone then concentrates on a fallen tree
in the yard. He lifts the mighty oak tree and sends it flying right at The
Fallen One. This time he is ready for the attack and has his hands engulf in
flames which he then shoots at the tree. The flames pour over the tree and it
burns into ashes in a matter of seconds. A cloud of ash pours over The Fallen
One, who in turn shakes it off. He then takes flight as he head right at
Psyclone with his hands once again engulfed in flames. Psyclone quickly covers
his body in a mental shield and braces for the onslaught. Like a runaway train,
The Fallen One hits Psyclone. The impact of the hit as well as the flaming hands
is enough that it cracks the mental shield, which puts considerable strain on
Psyclone. He also bounces like a pinball from the impact and flies off until he
hits into a wooded area, where he crashes through numerous trees before his
momentum is stopped by a large tree. While he is not directly affected by the
blow, he does feel mentally taxed. He is not used to someone who can go toe to
toe with him. He has always wiped the floor with anyone who stood in his way. He
has toppled building and sank ships. How can this being be giving him so much
trouble. He knows that he must unleash his ultimate weapon and put an end to
this. The exact thought process of Psyclone is more fragmented and primitive. He
sees this being as someone who wants to harm him and his legos and must be
stopped at any price. Being insane helps shield him from the atrocities that he
has created over the years. He never sees the end results of his actions.
As Psyclone gets up from being bounced off a tree, he stands
up and looks at the path cut through the trees. But before he can realize the
impact that it took to make this path, he sees The Fallen One fly over and land
in the path. He is walking towards him with flames over his hands as before.
"Prepare to meet your end." he says as he takes his hands and points them
towards Psyclone and sends another flood of flames pouring out towards him. Once
again he puts up a shield to stop the flames from burning him. But this time he
feels the heat of the flames as they keep coming. The last attacks were a few
seconds of flames and then they stopped. But this time it is continuous and he
is feeling the impact of it. While the shield protects him, it is also becoming
quite hot and the sweat is literally pouring off him. He is also straining to
keep it up with the force of the flames straining him. And what's worse is that
The Fallen One keeps walking closer as he continues to pour on the flames. But
since Psyclone is in the middle of a sea of flames, he does not see it. He also
does not see that the flames he is diverting are burning the woods as the trees
are catching on fire. When The Fallen One is within a few feet of Psyclone, he
stops the flames for a brief second. But before Psyclone can do anything, he
begins to pound on the mental ball that Psyclone has cocooned himself in. He
pounds on the shield over and over, each time putting more strain on Psyclone.
He is also cracking the mental shield and it is slowly falling apart. Realizing
he has to do something, Psyclone drops the shield and flies off. He just misses
the blows of The Fallen One and he flies up in the sky. But before he can fly
off, The Fallen One is right behind him. With his massive wings, he is very
fast. Psyclone has one chance to end this and takes it. He stops midair and
faces The Fallen One. His eyes go white and smoke is pouring out of them. He
then puts up his hands and unleashes the Psyclone. A twister of pure mental
energy soars from his body and hits The Fallen One like ten tons of bricks. The
impact sends him flying with no control over his body. He is send crashing into
a nearby house, where he is literally sent smashing through the house. As he
crashes through wall after wall, he sends drywall, paintings, vases and other
items flying around the house. The family is luckily not in his way. They only
hear the smashing sound and rush to find a large hole bored through the middle
of their house. When they look outside, they see a crater sized hole in the
ground about fifty yards from the house. There is a long strip of their lawn
that has been ripped out as The Fallen One hit the ground. The trench grows in
size as it finally ends at the large hole that has scarred their yard. They all
look at each other and run to see what caused so much damage. Was it a meteor or
possibly small plane. As they come to the hole, there is smoke and dust floating
around and making it hard to see. As the father, mother and two children look
into the hole, they do not hear Psyclone coming behind them. He is floating
right over them, when one of the kids notices the shadow and looks up. He then
grabs his father's sleeve and pulls it. "What is it son?" he says as he turns to
look and sees his son looking up. He then looks up and also sees the floating
man. He grabs his wife's head and turns it upwards. She is in total panic as she
sees him. The little girl who has not seen him yet says "Look, someone is coming
out of the hole." The mother turns to see what could possibly survive that. She
fears it is another super powered being and she has no idea how right she is.
Crawling out of the hole, The Fallen One climbs out and struggles to his feet.
His wings are torn to shreds. His body has numerous cuts and scrapes and he is
bleeding. One of his horns is cracked off. But he is alive and looks pissed. The
little girl and her mother both scream as they see it is a demon that has
climbed out of the hole. The father grabs them by the hands and pulls them away.
The mother instinctively grabs the boy who thinks this is really cool. He knows
a battle is happening and wants to watch it. What he doesn't realize is his
chances of survival are minimal if he remains in the danger zone.
With the family out of harm's way, Psyclone lands on the
ground a dozen feet away from The Fallen One. He is waiting to see what he does
and is scanning him to see how serious his injuries are. While he is busy
scanning The Fallen One, he does not realize that Doctor Warlock is nearby. He
walks out of the wreckage of a house and sees the two standing there. He then
teleports right behind Psyclone and grabs him in a bear hug from behind. This
stuns Psyclone and for a moment he forgets about The Fallen One. This turns into
a mistake as The Fallen One seizes the moment and rushes in and shoves his
clawed hand into his chest and tears out his heart. He then brings the heart to
his mouth and eats it while Psyclone looks on. Within seconds, he falls dead.
Doctor Warlock lets him body fall to the ground and looks at The Fallen One who
just finished swallowing the heart and has blood dripping from his face. "Where
do we go now master?" The Fallen One reaches down and picks up the body. He
takes his claws and runs them along the neck, slicing it wide open. He then
grabs the head and twists it until it snaps off. The body falls to the ground
and he holds up the head. "This will make a nice present for the man who sent
him." Doctor Warlock looks at the grisly head with part of the spinal cord
dangling and blood dripping from it. "So are we going to see Justin Rage now?"
The Fallen One looks at him and says "First, I need to rest and recover. This
battle has taken its toll on me." He then looks at Doctor Warlock and commands
"Take me somewhere that I can rest without any interruptions." Doctor Warlock
thinks of places to go. It has been decades since he was in this world and so
much has changed. He thinks about his old fortress but if they released Damien,
then they have found it. And it is most likely not a safe place to go. But
before he can figure out a safe haven, the sound of sirens fills the air. Within
seconds, the source of the sirens is visible as four police cars zoom towards
them. The first two cars come within a hundred feet of them and skid to a stop.
Quickly some officers emerge and duck behind their opened car doors. They
quickly have their guns out and are standing there in awe of what they are
seeing. They have seen super heroes and super villains battling it out. They
have seen giant robots and even some other strange things. But a large demon
looking creature is new. Tall Oaks is a distant suburb, so it does not have a
large police department. The four police cars that are here is almost the entire
force but when you are a small suburb that mostly deals with domestic disputes
among its very rich citizens, you do not need a large squad. The worst they ever
had to deal with is breaking up wild parties and the occasional burglary. But
they were never trained to deal with something of this magnitude. Over the
loudspeaker, one of the officers says "This is the police. You are under arrest.
Put your hands on your head and kneel down, facing us." Doctor Warlock looks at
the Fallen One and laughs. He then takes his hands and aims them at the ground.
He mumbles something and a burst of energy rushes from his fingertips and goes
into the ground. The police look at each other as they do not know what is going
on. "Sarge, should we shoot or what?" one of the officers asks. But before he
can get an answer, large pillars of stone thrust out of the ground, right under
their cruisers. They send the vehicles and officers flying in the air. While the
police are falling to the ground, Doctor Warlock teleports both of them away. As
they leave, the police fall to the ground, with most of them breaking their arms
or legs.
A man bursts into the room with a laptop computer. He quickly
puts it on Justin Rage's desk and says "You gotta see this boss." He then plays
a video of the battle between The Fallen One and Psyclone. "We were able to grab
this from satellite." he says as the video plays. Justin watches his house being
destroyed and then he sees his ace in the hole, Psyclone, being defeated and
ultimately killed. When it is over, he says "Thanks for showing that to me. Now
destroy it." The man is shocked but leaves the room. As he leaves, Deacon comes
in. He can tell by the worried look on Justin's face that things are not good.
"I take it Psyclone failed in his mission." Justin looks up at him but says
nothing. He then continues "Maybe it is time to go into hiding. I can have
everything ready in a matter of minutes." Justin looks forward as he says
nothing. After a minute of deafening silence, he speaks "I still have one last
card to play."
Inside the mountain headquarters, Gadget, Charlie and Mr.
Smith are working hard. Mr. Smith is soldering some wires together while Gadget
and Charlie are separating the wires by color. "So how did you invent a machine
that could go to other dimensions?" Mr. Smith keeps working. He is hard at work
with sweat beading on his brow. He does stop for a second and answer "Doctor
Warlock commissioned me to make a teleportation device. As you know, he paid me
to create devices for him to sell to super villains." Charlie then jumps in "So
you are the person who invented all these devices we found here." Mr. Smith
looks up with a half hearted smile "Yeah, that was me." Gadget wanting to know
more about this device asks "So what happened next?" Mr. Smith goes back to work
as he continues his story "Well, I was working on a device to teleport matter.
And I thought I found it. So I sent an object from one point to another and it
worked. It was an apple I sent. Then I tried it on a hamster and had the same
success. So my next test was with a human subject. Doctor Warlock sent over a
minion for me to test on. When I sent him, he came through with no problem. But
he said he saw another world, a different world. That was when I first learned
that I did not create a teleportation device, rather I created a device that
could make two tears in this dimension and allowed me to send an item through
the tear." Gadget and Charlie look at each other with amazement. He looks up to
gauge their interest and when he finds they are excited, he continues. "So I
sent myself through and sure enough there was a whole new world. So when I came
back, I worked on controlling the device and figured out how to control the
tears as well as the speed that an object would travel through the tear. With
some work, I made it so that I could go to this world and explore it. But I also
had the ability to open a tear and leave whenever I wanted, in case of any
danger." The story has completely captivated Gadget and Charlie. With both of
them having scientific backgrounds, they wanted to know more how the device was
created and this new world he explored. Charlie is the first to throw out the
next question. "So how does Daniel work into this?" Mr. Smith finishes his
soldering and puts down his equipment. He wipes the sweat off his head and takes
off the safety glasses. He grabs his can of soda and takes a big gulp. He puts
it down and answers the question. "One time when I was exploring, I saw Daniel
fly overhead. I was amazed at a man who flew with no rocket pack or wings. He
did not notice me, but I followed him the best I could. I saw him go towards
what looked like a large tower in the middle of a field. When I returned, I told
Doctor Warlock about this and he offered me a very large sum of money to capture
him and bring him back here. So I devised a way to use the device to track him
and made a tear right in front of him, which swallowed him and sent him back
here. Doctor Warlock took over from there and I was paid and that was the last I
heard of him." He then takes another drink of his soda. Gadget takes the
opportunity to ask a different question. "You said you were the one who created
all the weapons for super villains, correct?" Mr. Smith nods his head. Gadget
pulls out the glove they had before that shot out the endless stream of ice and
hands it to Mr. Smith. "We found this here and wondered if it was one of your
devices?" Mr. Smith looks at the glove. At first he cannot tell. Then he starts
taking it apart and when he finds the core which has what looks like a small
black ball that glowed with a bright light. He smiles as he looks at it and says
"Ahhh Julium, I have not seen this in a long time." Gadget and Charlie look at
each other with odd looks and then turn to Mr. Smith and ask in unison "Julium?"
He laughs for a second and then answers "My first name is Julius, so I named it
Julium. Sort of like uranium. I found the material in the other dimension. There
was a softball sized rock of Julium in the dimension. I brought it back here and
analyzed it. I found that even a small piece of it could provide enormous energy
and it was self renewing, so it never ran out. Amazing stuff, but unfortunately
Doctor Warlock kept it all for himself." He then hands it to Gadget who looks at
it. "So why did Doctor Warlock take it all?" Mr. Smith looks at him and says
"Let's just say it was a choice between the Julium or my life." Both Charlie and
Gadget have a "I see" look on their face as they nod in agreement.
Standing on a deserted beach, Doctor Warlock is standing near
the water and concentrating. He is doing a mind's eye spell and a large eye
floats over the lake and is looking down. With the spell, he can see further
than with the naked eye. He also can see through things he would never be able
to, like through the murky waters of the lake. As the large floating eye scans
over the lake, it suddenly stops. Then it disappears and Doctor Warlock looks at
The Fallen One and says "I have found it." The Fallen One looks back at him and
says "Will this wreck be safe?" Doctor Warlock nods and says "This wreck has
been down here for decades. With a air breathing spell, we can hide in there
without any worry of being bothered." He then nods in agreement and Doctor
Warlock casts a spell over them. They then emerge into the murky water and find
that they can indeed breathe underwater. They swim towards the wreck which is a
few thousand feet off shore. When they near it, they find it is still fairly
intact with some damage, mostly from local divers who came looking for
souvenirs. The wreck is a cargo ship that traveled on these great lakes years
ago. It had an explosion in the engine room, which left a large hole in boat and
it sank quickly. Since it did not contain any real valuable cargo, it was not
pulled from the lake. So it sat down here for the past forty years and became a
home for fish and a place for amateur divers to play around in. As they enter
the wreck, the find it empty except for a handful of fish. As they swim into the
wreck, the fish scatter. Doctor Warlock then does another spell which creates a
bubble over the ship and it slowly drains the water out of it. Soon, they find
the ship to be damp but quite livable. There is rotting wood and some rusted
metal as is expected but since most of the ship was made of steel, it is still
quite solid. "You should be safe down here. I will go do some advance scouting
on our friend, Justin Rage and see what he is up to." The Fallen One then lays
down on the damp floor of the ship and says "Return in two day's time and I will
be fully healed." He then creates a cocoon around him. Doctor Warlock watches
him go into the cocoon and then waves his hands and teleports out of the ship.
Justin Rage is standing in his elevator, headed to the sub
basement. He has a worried look on his face. Being alone, he can show some fear.
He knows that his chances of surviving this are slim. He has overcome numerous
odds in his life but his luck may be running out. The Fallen One will know he
sent Psyclone and is probably heading this way now. Since they teleported away,
he has not been able to locate them. His only hope is that the injuries that The
Fallen One has sustained are great enough to sideline him for awhile. This will
give him adequate time to make plans for one last stand. The doors of the
elevator open and he looks out and sees one of the scientists heading towards
him. "We halted all our projects just like you asked. What is it you need?" he
asks. Justin steps out of the elevator and starts walking with him. Within
seconds, two other scientists join him. When the last two arrive, he turns to
them and says "We are facing a foe unlike any we ever faced. He has already
defeated Psyclone." He pauses here as the scientists all look at each other in
disbelief. No one has ever faced Psyclone and lived to tell about it. This enemy
must really be someone powerful. He then continues "He was wounded in the battle
and hopefully he will need some time to recover. I will send down a tape of the
fight for you to analyze. But in the meantime, I want all time and energy put
into the super human project. I want as many possible super powered beings as
you can come up with. We need a powerful force to battle him when he comes. Can
I count on you?" The men all look at each other with shocked looks. Then one of
them speaks up and says "We will need more supplies and equipment." Justin looks
directly at him and says "Let Deacon know what you need and we will give it to
you. This is crucial for our survival and possibly the survival of North Shore
and all the citizens of this city." He then walks out of the room and heads back
to the elevator as the scientists all talk among themselves.
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