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| Issue #5 June 2009 |
"Turn the Tide" Written By Ed Ainsworth |
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Nate and his group watched as the High Evolutionary continued to tinker with the double helix in his hands, removing and reorganizing entire strands from the structure, with a pinch and a pull from his glowing fingers here and there.
“Is there are reason you disturb my peace so, Grey?” the Evolutionary finally asked before Nate stepped forwards, his eyes closed and a sigh on his lips.
“I hoped that we could find an amicable solution to all of this, Evolutionary,” he began as he removed his jacket slowly, baring his chest and the X-Shaped scar that carved its way over his body, standing there only in a pair of suit trousers.
“Amicable? You are an insect to me, Grey; something not worth my time,” the Evolutionary responded, not even turning to look at Nate.
Nate Grey cast his gaze back to the assembled warriors behind him. Sersi was lying on the floor, blood trickling from her mouth and nose as Krang attended to her, salty tears running down his face, not only a sign of his shamanic awakening but also as a sign of the respect and emotions he now felt towards his actions.
Crystal stood with Ransak, her arm around him to prevent him from falling apart completely.
“An insect? I've brought here, today, four examples of the evolutionary aspects of humanity. The most viable strain of existence on this planet and the manifestations of more are on their way, Evolutionary. We're not just pests that scuttle around on the surface of the planet. We are Eternals and Deviants, Inhuman and Atlantean. We are Mutant and Human, Plant and Machine. We are magic and the mind and everything else that goes with it? Is that not worth saving?”
Nate took a few steps towards the Evolutionary, who held his hand up to alter the genetic code of the man before him. He found he could not. “What?” he began as Nate leapt from his position, swinging a Telekinetically-aided fist for the Evolutionary's face, sending him hurtling backwards and into the helix trees behind him.
“I am the Master of this Realm, Evolutionary. You may hold the keys to genetic manipulation and evolution on Earth, but within the Mind Reef, I am High.”
Nate shot forwards as the Evolutionary threw up a shield to protect himself. Nate exploded against it, sparks of mental power cast themselves with a blue glow against the Evolutionary's spiralled powers.
“Now we'll see just how powerful you think you are,” Nate said, with calm breaths against gritted teeth.
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“Ugh.” Threnody woke up, her eyes flickering open against the torrent of pain in the back of her head. Moving to raise her arm to the back of her skull, she found she wasn't able to; her arms were bound. “Damnit! Blackheath?” Threnody asked, looking around for the Plantman.
Samuel Smithers sat next to her, bound around the waist and arms, kept off the ground by two plinths. It seemed their attacker didn't want him to be contacting his part of the Mind Reef.
Threnody turned her attention to him, already feeling that pang of nervousness and pain that was associated with being a prisoner. Was he going to kill her? Eat her? Rape her? She'd heard before that panic comes with the uncertainty of death, but acceptance comes with its certainty.
Well, she was certainly panicking.
“Who are you?”
The figure turned to her, black face and glowing eyes. The creature had no features but a large tube from the center of it's face, almost like a growth of bone, and four long, flexible arms. It appeared as though it didn't have any bones in the way the arms flopped and wrapped around each other, like the tentacles of an octopus.
The Meme bomb sat in its lap as it floated in the air, legs crossed into the Lotus position.
“I am your enemy, Threnody,” was all it said before turning it's attention back to the pool of water before it.
“I got that part,” she began. Biting sarcasm was all that was keeping her from wetting herself. “What do you want?” she asked, hoping it'd give her something more.
“I want to see the results of an experiment, Threnody.”
“What experiment?”
“The experiment of war and natural selection, Threnody.” It continued to use her name, rolling it around in its mouth like a foreign object.
“What's your name?” she asked, trying to get more knowledge about it. Hopefully she could accumulate some of it and mentally call for Nate.
“I do not have one,” It answered with little more than a flop of one of its arms.
“What's this experiment then?” she asked after four long minutes of silence between the two.
“The bomb I hold here was designed to make humanity go mad.” Like all scientists, apparently the passion for their subject over-wrote their ability to keep quiet about it. In this case, the entity was either so passionate about his scheme or it was beyond the point of Threnody altering it that she was told everything.
“The offshoots, you see, they would fight amongst themselves. Find ways to kill each other, to make war against each other. With every death and rape there would be a new offshoot, a new type of human form coming through the group consciousness of this Mind Reef. Something I would draw knowledge from.”
“So you're doing all of this to know you can do it?”
“I'm doing this, Threnody, because knowledge is power.” It looked at her, or would if it had eyes, and Threnody felt fear and a cold sweat wash over her features.
“God.”
“You've turned evolution into a weapon, haven't you?”
“Not a weapon, Threnody. A virus.”
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The energy tore through the Mind Reef, exploding their surroundings. Sersi had since gotten to her feet and was trying to change their very surroundings to prevent any lives from being lost in this battle.
The Evolutionary had pinned Nate down on the ground, pincers of light pushing his wrists into the dirt below them as energy sucked Nate's genetic code through the Evolutionary's abdomen.
“I will become you, Grey. I will know your genes and I will use it to better myself and my works.”
“You'll become nothing, Fool!” As salt water shot from his pores, leaking over his body and made the grip on his weapon difficult, Krang leaped through the air and brought his scythe down, raking it across the Evolutionary's back.
He lurched upwards, trying to protect himself from his attacker as Krang landed in a crouch and turned to him, dropping the weapon to his feet and pushing his hands forward.
A spout of mental amniotic fluid cascaded between his fingertips and against the Evolutionary, throwing him onto the ground and pinning him for a few moments as his mind was awash with the emotional torment and pain that Krang felt as a result of his actions over the years, his accumulated pain powering him.
As the Evolutionary got up, he received a swift kick to the stomach and a heel to the back of his neck, pushing him into the dirt as Ransak looked down on him, feeling the features on his face as he launched another kick into the Evolutionary's side.
“You don't know what it's like! You're the Master, the King. People love you, people hate you, but in the end their opinions don't matter!”
As the paranoid concerns and thoughts of Ransak leaked out through his voice, the Evolutionary, launched a burst of piralled energy into his chest, launching him through the air.
Ransak clutched his chest and wept. “Thena, what did you see in me?” As he came crashing to Earth, a gust of wind and lighting crackling around her fingertips signalled the arrival of Crystal. Lightning exploded against his sides, charging his nervous system with power.
“We're all something new in this realm, Evolutionary, and I am the body’ ultimate weapon! Nature uses the elements around it to power its organisms. You should know this!” she shouted as another electrical jolt shot into the Evolutionary back. “A nervous impulse?” She threw her hand upwards, wind casting him into the air as a fist grew from the ground and collided with him, bending over at it’s center and punching him into the ground.
“The oxygen you breathe to respire? The elemental building blocks of minerals and proteins?” As a fire burst into light around the Evolutionary, he got to his feet and tried to walk through the fire but found himself prevented by the burning that now spread through his mind. “And the fire of thought. You cannot fight through all of this.”
The Evolutionary grew in size until he was four times the length of Crystal and stepped over the fire easily as he bore down on her, his massive hands moving towards her small form. “You think you can overpower me, Underlings?” the Evolutionary asked, getting to his feet as the spiralled energy emanated out of his body.
“No,” Crystal replied with a smile. “I am just here to distract you for Nate.”
Turning his head to look over his shoulder, the Evolutionary saw the powered form of Nate Grey shooting towards him, his telekinetic signature clearly visible as he powered over the ground, shooting past Krang as he threw his fists out to create a battering ram. Hitting the Evolutionary in the stomach, the smaller took him through Sersi's barrier, which shattered in the face of his power, and into the uppermost elements of the Mind Reef, where only the most lofty and mentally unhinged minds floated.
“Why are you doing this, Grey?” the Evolutionary asked.
“Because we want your help, Evolutionary, and you need ours, but you're too stubborn and stupid to know that.”
“I am ANYTHING but stupid!” the Evolutionary shouted, slamming his glowing hands into Nate's back, only to find, with shock, they were repelled.
“I cannot ask you to turn your experiments away from humanity, Evolutionary, but the Earth will crumble if we continue to do this. There is something attacking the offshoots of humanity. The Evolution of these species is in jeopardy and, without them, the planet itself may crumble.”
“And how would this effect me, Grey?”
“I know you could leave this planet, you could find something else to do with your life, but I have only one question to ask your inquisitive mind.” As Nate began to slow his speed, the Evolutionary looked directly into his eyes. “Have you ever thought about the Evolution of the Planet, rather than just the creatures on its surface?”
For a moment the Evolutionary scoffed, but as more seconds passed the thoughts appeared to dawn on him more and more. Ideas ran across his vision with a quickening pace, casting his thoughts back to the development of the planet and its constant changes over time.
“Yes! Yes! It is so obvious now, Grey! Why didn't I think of this before? Release me!” Nate dropped the Evolutionary where they were, allowing him to fly under his own power. “You've opened my eyes, Nate. I cannot thank you enough for this.”
Nate grabbed the shoulder the Evolutionary and pulled him back towards him, looking into his eyes. “Don't thank me, help me. I need something from you to stop what's going on across the surface of the planet. I need it to repair the problems within the Mind Reef by changing their genes back to their original places.”
“You cannot do this yourself, Lord of the Mind Reef?” the Evolutionary asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
“No, I can't. I need your help to do it. I need to find my wife and I need to stop whatever is doing this from doing it again.”
“Fine. Fine. Whatever it is you need it is yours,” the Evolutionary replied with a wave of his head, looking down at the reef below them. “I shall do this, but don't ask for any more boons from me.”
“I won't, Evolutionary. You have my promise.”
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“Everything is going as planned,” the entity said, turning to Threnody and wrapping it's long, slithering arms around her neck and shoulders.
“What are you?” she asked for what seemed like the hundredth time.
Instead of being met with a vague gesture, the entity moved in close to her, moving it's featureless face towards her ear. “I am the Cosmic Cube, Threnody.”
Next Issue: The Final Issue of Series One! What Exactly has Nate got from the Evolutionary? How is he going to save Threnody?
