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Silent Jury
Issue #12
by Tom Zjaba
Chapter 16
Madness Reigns
In a mental institution, a man sits in a cell with a straight
jacket on. The man's long dark hair hangs in his face as he sits there and
sings. A mess of a beard covers his face and does little to hide the crazed
expression on his face. His eyes are wide ass he sings the song louder and
louder. "They're coming to take me away. Ha! Ha! To the happy home." As he sings
in an agitated voice that is way off key, a head appears before him. "Charles
Lewis, once more I have need of Zero." Charles looks at the head of a man with a
long beard that is well groomed and who looks wise. He remembers this man and
his presence agitates him so that he sings even louder (read Colt #1 for the
first Zero adventure). "They're coming to take me away. Ha! Ha! They're coming
to take me away. Ho! Ho!" The head speaks once more "Charles, I need your
assistance. Do you not want to leave here?" Charles stops singing for a moment
and says "Do I get my ring back?" The head rolls his eyes as he says "You know
the ring is gone." Charles then says "No ring, no Zero." The head then groans as
he says "Fine, I will give you a ring." Charles looks at him and says "If I
cannot have my ring, then give me a Green Lantern ring." The head laughs as he
says "There is no such thing as a Green Lantern ring. That is a comic book. But
I will give you a ring that is almost as powerful and will allow you to create
whatever you want with it." Charles smiles and says "And I get my costume as
well?" The head once again rolls his eyes. "Yes, you can have your costume as
well. Now will you come?" Charles nods his head and says "Calgon, take me away!"
With that, he disappears from the padded cell. All that is left behind is the
straight jacket that lays empty on the floor.
Then Myth pulls Robert's damaged armor up from the hole in
the ground and holds it up. "Who gets the honor of ending his life?" he says as
he looks at Doctor Warlock and the Miner. "This one is mine. You can do with the
females as you wish." Doctor Warlock says. The Myth drops Robert to the ground
and says "Where are the girls, magic man?" His arrogance upsets Doctor Warlock
but he chooses to ignore it. He knows that when this is over, he will dispose of
them. He steps back for a moment and concentrates as he looks for the girls. His
mind's eye rises and looks around the city. In a few moments, he opens his eyes
and says "They are on a car in the subway." The men smile at the thought of what
they will do to their victims. "We will return, eventually." the Myth says as he
starts walking towards the subway.
Once the two men are a safe distance from Doctor Warlock,
they begin to talk. "I am sick of taking orders from him." the Myth says. "I
know what you mean. We should team up and take him out." the Miner replies as
they keep looking over their shoulder to make sure he is not around. "It's cool
he gave us these powers, but what's stopping him from taking them back? If we
knock him off, then we can keep the powers for good." the Myth states. "Yeah and
then I can create a cool name. The Miner is so lame. You have a cool name. Myth
just sounds cool. But the Miner sounds so lame." The Myth looks at him and
laughs "It could be worse, you could be the janitor." They both break out
laughing at the thought of being a villain named the Janitor.
Doctor Warlock stands over Robert and laughs. "For a mere
mortal, you have caused allot of trouble. But fear not, it will soon all be
over." He then waves his hands and Robert starts to slowly rise. As he floats in
front of him, Doctor Warlock looks at armor with great interest. He looks at
detailed the suit is and says "Allot of work went into the design of your armor.
Too bad it was for naught."
As Doctor Warlock talks to Robert, he is unaware that behind
him, Zero has just appeared out of thin air. He is standing there with his black
and white costume with a giant letter Z across the front. "Hey magician, put him
down before I kick your ass." Doctor Warlock turns around and looks at this new
threat. He drops Robert to the ground and turns to face him. "Is there no end to
the number of foolish mortals that want to die?" Zero then aims his ring at him
and says "Zap him!" Nothing happens. He looks at the ring and then points it
again and says "Fire away!" Still nothing. Doctor Warlock laughs at him as he
tries once again. He aims the ring and says "Thing ring, do your thing." Still
nothing. "Your powers are like your costume, utterly pathetic." Doctor Warlock
says as he levitates Zero into the air. "Let me down, I like gravity." he says
as he is floating in the air. Doctor Warlock then mentally throws him across the
street. Zero flies through the air with no control over his body. He heads
towards the stone building, when an invisible force stops him. Then the same
force gently places him on the ground. The floating head once again appears, but
only to him and says "The ring derives its powers from your mind. Your insanity
fuels it. Think what you want the ring to create and it will create it for you.
The wilder the creation, the more powerful it will be." Zero asks "Are you
telling me this is an insanity ring?" The head replies "It is the Madness Ring
and while it has incredible power, it drives its wearer insane. But with you,
that is not a problem. Zero then laughs and says "Madness reigns in the Hall of
the Mountain King!" He then holds up the ring to the heavens and laughs.
Not sure why he did not smash into a building or who he is
talking to, Doctor Warlock flies across the street to confront Zero. "I do not
know what stopped you from dying, but I am here to remedy the situation." he
says as he flies towards Zero. As he nears, a really insane look comes over
Zero's face. He aims the ring and starts to concentrate on what he wants it to
create. As he thinks about it, his face begins to glow and wisps of smoke come
from his eyes. Then out of the ring comes a thousand cream pies. This swarm of
pies fly towards Doctor Warlock, who is stunned by this insanity. Within
seconds, he is hit repeatedly with cream pies. First the banana cream pies hit
him, followed by the coconut cream and then the Boston cream pies. Before he can
do anything, he is completely covered in pie. He tries to shake the clinging
pies from his clothes, but finds it is too thick to get it off. He tries to
talk, but his mouth is full of pie. Zero just laughs and says "Everyone should
get a pie in the face at least once in their lifetime. You just received a
thousand lifetimes worth." Doctor Warlock wipes a big chunk of pie off his face
and mumbles a spell. Within seconds, a cloud appears over him and it begins to
rain. It starts out as a drizzle, but soon it turns into a downpour. This heavy
downpour washes the pies off him, leaving him very wet and very angry. As the
water clears away the pies, he looks at Zero and says "You will die a thousand
deaths for that insult." But before he can utter a spell, Zero points the ring
once more and out pops a giant family of sea monkeys. They look just like the
ones in the comic book ads, only they are twenty feet tall. There is the father,
the mother and two children. He yells to them "He wanted to flush you down the
toilet." As he yells this, he point at Doctor Warlock, who is stunned by these
giant, silly looking creatures. The Sea Monkeys look at him and attack. They all
jump at him, trying to hit him with their giant webbed hands. He jumps back and
creates a quick fireball spell. He shoots the fireball at the giant sea monkeys.
They are hit by the spell and scream out in agony as they are consumed by
flames. Before the fireball does any real damage, they just vanish. With the sea
monkeys out of the way, Doctor Warlock looks at Zero with an evil grin and says
"Now it's my turn." He then mutters a spell as he points to the sky. Within
seconds, the sky gets very dark. A very large shadow appears overhead and it
grows larger by the second. As it comes within view, Zero can see that it is a
giant meteor. A giant meteor that is heading directly at him. Doctor Warlock
laughs as he teleports away.
The Fury struggles to keep from passing out as the giant
flaming hands crush his mental shield. He looks out at The Fallen One who is
also taxing himself as he sends all his energy into making the hands squeeze
harder. It is a battle of wills and right now it is a draw. Both men are pouring
every bit of their mental energy into trying to overcome the other. But as they
battle each other, Doctor Warlock teleports into the room. He sees the battle
going on and shoots a lightning bolt at The Fury. With his concentration on
keeping the fire hands from crushing him, he does not see the lightning bolt and
is hit dead on. The charge of electricity is just enough to knock out his mental
shield and he finds himself being burned by the flaming hands. The combination
of both knocks him out and he falls to the ground. His mental shield kept him
from being killed, but he did suffer injuries as his body has suffered some
burns. The Fallen One looks at him and says "Have you removed the other
threats?" Doctor Warlock smiles and says "Yes, I have destroyed them."
Hidden in the subway car, Vanessa and Connie are slowly
coming to. The girls look around at the dirty subway car and wonder how they got
here. "What are we doing in a subway car?" Vanessa asks as she looks around.
"Robert must have hid us here, but why?" Connie asks as she sits up. "Girl, we
really need some serious training." Vanessa says as she also sits up. She then
says to her armor "Whitney, give me a status report on the armor." After a few
seconds, a female voice responds "All systems are operational. Damage is
minimal." Vanessa then stands up and says "Connie, we need to see how Robert is
doing. Connie also runs a diagnostic test on her armor and also gets a clean
bill of health. "Hope he is all right.” she says as she also rises to her feet.
Before the girls can do anything else, the car starts to move violently. The car
shakes back and forth and both girls are knocked from their feet. Before they
can get up, a beam of energy cuts through the car. As soon as the energy stops,
two giant hands come in the freshly made hole from the energy beam and grabs
hold of the metal and starts pulling it apart. The girls rise up and see The
Myth tearing a large hole into the side of the car. “Here’s Johnny!" he says as
he peers into the car.
All is quiet in the headquarters. Mr. Smith looks over the
controls and wonders how long he can keep the portal open. Charlie and Gadget
are watching the monitors to see how the battle goes. They are both worried
about what shape Robert is in and wonder who this new character is. They cannot
see into the building to see how bad The Fury is doing. They also do not know
the fate of Connie or Vanessa. All they know is Robert and the One are out cold,
possibly dead. They want to go to them and try to help, but they know they are
needed here. Unless Daniel comes back with the other wizards, everything is
over.
As they watch the monitors in vain, they hear a scream from
the other room. "Someone or something is coming!" Mr. Smith screams out. They
get up from their chairs and head back as quickly as possible. They curse their
old bodies and dream of the days when they were swift and strong. While they are
only in their fifties, their bodies have been through more than the average man
and they feel it. Their years of battling as members of the original Silent Jury
have taken their toll. There is aches in their joints and creaks in their bones
as if they were much older. But they push themselves and get to the room
quickly. Once in there, they see an excited look on Mr. Smith's face. "Daniel is
coming back and he is not alone!" They rush over to greet the men as they come
through.
The portal begins to glow even brighter than before. It grows
in size as Daniel emerges from the other side. As he comes through, they rush to
greet him. But before he can say anything, he is quickly followed by three other
wizards, all of whom are older looking than he is. The four men come through the
portal and then it closes behind them. "We have returned to right the wrongs of
the Fallen One." Daniel says as he looks different. While he is obviously
younger than the rest, he has a maturity in his face that exceeds his youthful
appearance. "You couldn't have come at a better time as things are looking bad."
Gadget says as he points to the other room where the monitors are. "Time for my
brothers and I to take him back to our world and imprison him." With that, the
four men disappear as they teleport away.
Silent Jury © 2006-2007 Tom Zjaba
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