🚀 go-pugleaf

(Continued from part one, preceding)

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     "Anarky!" shouted Sig.Lad.
     "Don't worry about him.  Tell me, have you seen him around lately?"
     Particle Man looked a bit confused, and replied, "Define lately, M.A."
     "In the last, oh, four months or so."
     Sig.Lad shook his head.  "There's been a few sightings, but we've managed
to tag those on Mimic."
     "Wait, what about The Flame Wars II?  From what I heard, that had to be
the real thing," noted Particle Man.
     "Flame Wars II?  Oh, that thing.  Never read the reports...sorry."
     M.A. leaned against the hallway wall.  "You see, your friend was displaced
in time.  This is several months in his future.  You must have found him in
some kind of time loop.  He got out in any case...you'll have to ask him how he
fared.  Presuming he even remembers what happened.  Time travel can be
traumatic."  He looked down to the tile floor, where several scraps of leather
lay.  "Whoa...we must have utterly destroyed the Pocket Bureaucracy.  Still,
why are we out here?"
     Sig.Lad looked grimly at the door.  "Because he expected we'd escape,
probably.  And now he's probably got some kind of trap on the other side of
that door, if I know him.  And I know him like I know myself.  After all, he's
my evil alt.version...*my* evil twin."
     M.A. cocked a finger at Sig.Lad.  "Not exactly.  More like bastard son.
Important distinction."
     Particle Man had his ear to the door.  "I don't hear anything...but then
again, since this is more a metaphysical representation than a physical door, I
guess I shouldn't."
     Constellation looked a bit grim.  "Let's just get this twisted power game
over with, okay?"
     "Don't let your personal grief affect your better judgement, son.  I know
what happened to your old friends, but what do you expect when you steal the
Holy Grail?  It made you perhaps the most powerful enemy of all, and, well, not
all scales are left for Judgement Day to be balanced," said M.A., his voice
sounding for all the world like that of a man of incredible age, yet with the
firmness and timber of youth.
     Constellation decided he didn't really care how the kid knew that.
"Whatever.  Standing out here won't help...eventually we'll get caught.  Might
as well go in now."
     "I agree," added Sig.Lad as he grasped the handle.
     Everything changed.
     They were now in an arena of some sorts.  M.A., Constellation and Particle
Man were sealed in a clear box, and Sig.Lad stood alone in the middle of the
floor.  A voice boomed out.
     "Thank you for kindly waiting until I had my preparations in place.  The
box your allies are in is strong enough to keep them there, and although they
can hear us, we cannot hear them.  An isolation booth of sorts.  This entire
arena has been requisitioned from a reality where magic and internal powers
don't work...so don't even bother.  Only devices and skills will help you.
This will be our final battle, Sig.Lad."
     With that, a figure rose out of the floor wearing a complicated looking
suit of bio-booster armor.
     Acton Lord.
     Not the withered husk that even now was dissolving into random code in the
Office itself, but the real thing.  Fit and ready for battle.  He clamped down
the helmet and drew a wickedly curved sword.
     "So, the hallway was just an illusion, I suppose?" asked Sig.Lad.
     "Of course.  Actually, I was about to remotely open the Pocket Bureaucracy
when you burst out so rudely.  Now kindly die!"
     Acton Lord swept his sword in a shimmering arc with the intent of
splitting Sig.Lad into Sig.Lad.Upper and Sig.Lad.Lower.  He skipped back out of
range and taunted, "Ha!  Your split failed the straw poll!"
     Before Sig.Lad could take the offensive, he found himself under attack
again.  He was good, but relied too much on his Sig powers.  And with that
Bio-Booster armor, Acton Lord was just way too quick.  He barely parried the
blow and it sunk into the floor up to midblade.  Trying to take advantage of
the bound blade, Sig.Lad thrust at what he hoped was a weak point on the armor,
but Acton Lord raised one arm to block the blow while freeing his own sword
with the other.
     Sig.Lad braced to parry another of Acton Lord's inhumanly strong attacks,
and was totally caught off guard by a hail of needles from the shoulder of the
armor!  Clutching his chest in shock, he found that although his costume was
shredded, his skin was unmarked!  His amazement at this lasted just enough
longer than Acton Lord's that he was knocked of his feet by a full sword smash.
     Sig.Lad skidded across the floor, his side on fire with pain.  A quick
glance confirmed that his skin was unbroken, but he didn't think he could say
the same for his ribs.
     Acton Lord leapt to the attack, but Sig.Lad was able to bring up a leg and
throw his nemesis over and into a wall with a dull thud.  Overcoming his pain,
he brought his own sword around in a powerful arc that terminated on the back
of the prone Acton Lord.
     To no effect.
     The Bio-Booster armor seemed to be impervious to his sword, at least at
his current strength level.  Sig.Lad struggled to his feet, but was bowled over
again by a blast from Acton Lord's left boot jet.
     This was hopeless!  He was fighting his own evil twin who was outfitted in
impervious armor, and although he had mysteriously gained immunity to cuts, he
could still be smashed to death!
     "Bastard son.  The distinction is important."  M.A.'s words floated across
Sig.Lad's mind as he rolled out of the way of another overhead smash.
     Then it clicked.  He was wielding a sword he had pulled from a stone
almost a year ago.  His foe was his own bastard son, aged by a warp in time.
His foe wore impervious armor.  And he was being helped by a mage with the
initials M.A. who knew about the Holy Grail.  Insanely, he laughed.
     "What's so amusing?  Is the prospect of your death more than you can
handle?" mocked Acton Lord.
     "Not my death, my rebirth!  The cycle never ends, does it, Acton Lord?  Or
should I say...Modred?"
     "So, you finally put together the clues that lay about you like blades of
grass.  Unfortunately for you, I win this cycle...the knowledge comes too late
to save you."  Acton Lord drew back his sword for a killing stroke.  Then he
swung.
     Then Sig.Lad didn't die.
     Frozen in time, a tableaux of sorts, Sig.Lad stood on one knee with his
sword, Excalibur, held in front of him in defense.  Acton Lord stood in a
position of offense, his sword shattering into fragments which seemed to hang
in the air, glimmering like droplets of water.
     The tableaux was broken as Acton Lord staggered back a step.  He drew
another weapon, an axe.
     Sig.Lad stood fully and pointed Excalibur at his eternal foe.  Brightly it
glowed, filaments of pure white licking out from it and sparking off the walls
and floor of the arena.  His lips moved, but the voice which issued forth was
not quite his own.  It was deeper, more mature, more powerful.
     "Though the forces of evil may try to corrupt the works of good men, may
try to bend right to their might, there will always be those who will oppose
such evil.  I swore to return in Britain's darkest hour, but this cycle brings
threat to all that is...so I return.  In the name of all those who live by the
credo of Might in service of Right, I, Arthur, strike for RIGHT!"
     Acton Lord raised his axe to block the blow he knew was coming, and fired
an explosive charge at his foe.  Sig.Lad easily deflected the charge and almost
effortlessly brought Excalibur down and across in a sweeping arc.  Through the
axe he cleaved, the blade not slowing enough to see.  Through head and body and
leg it followed, as Acton Lord screamed in pain before his armor shattered from
the blow.  The explosion consumed Acton Lord and shattered the arena as if it
were painted on glass.
     Sig.Lad slumped down to his knees, clutching his side in pain as the
surroundings reverted to those of the Universal Office.  A dried husk of Acton
Lord finished disintegrating in a puff of pixels.  Particle Man, Constellation
and M.A. appeared in the doorway.
     Sig.Lad looked up at the screen of the computer on the desk.  Wincing at
the fire that seemed to shoot up his side, he thrust Excalibur into the
monitor, which exploded into sparks.  All the lights went out, and the room was
lit only by the faint glow of Constellation's stars.
     "So, M.A., or Merlin Ambrose I think it's safe to call you now, is it
over?  I mean, for a moment there I really felt like Arthur, King of the
Britons.  But now I'm just me."
     While Particle Man and Constellation looked at Merlin in shock, Merlin
replied, "Yes, it is.  You were never really Arthur...he was a person outside
the net.  However, you were a representation of many of Arthur's principles,
much as Acton Lord embodied much of what Modred stood for.  I created a net
version of Excalibur, knowing that I'd need a champion in the Net to defeat
this generation's version of Modred.  And with it you were able to for a brief
moment become Arthur and access the full power of Excalibur.  But now the
sword's power is devoted to keeping the Multiversal Office Building dormant.
You will have to leave it here to keep the Office from returning.  Don't worry,
only Arthur or one worthy of being his proxy can ever remove it.  It's one of
the oldest enchantments on the blade."
     "But what about his mutation problems?  He needed the Sword of Sig to
overcome those," asked Particle Man.
     "Yeah, and what about Scarecrow's brain?" added Constellation.
     Merlin wisely chose to ignore Constellation's last comment and replied,
"He's carried the sword long enough that he no longer needs fear destabilizing.
If anything, it was a crutch these last few months, one he no longer needed.
He will always be linked to it, however, and in times of dire need may summon
it back.  However, this will raise the threat of the Office once more, and I
would not advise it.  In addition, should anyone tamper with the sword, he will
know."
     "So that's it?  We're done?  The whole Secret Dvanders thing is over, and
I can go seek some respite from all this madness?"
     The door flew open again and a black-shrouded figure entered.  "Indeed,
this event which required the formation of the Secret Dvanders has passed.
However, be you alert that the Dvanders may once more be called upon, if not to
save all of reality, at least to save a part of it.  Debts are owed and scores
to be settled.  More I cannot say, for I am but a Stranger."  With that, he
left.
     "Y'know, he almost looked surprised that he got to say he was a Stranger,"
remarked Sig.Lad.

               *              *              *              *

     Epilogue One:
     Acton Lord ached all over.  Transferral to another GIF body was never
pleasant.  His personal power was vastly depleted, and his external resources
had been drained by the effort to subvert the Office.  It would take time to
recover, and he suspected he'd never be able to remember what happened during
the final moments of battle, but he would return.
     Oh yes, he would return.

     Epilogue Two:
     Back in alt.fan.PAD, Merlin kicked off his sneakers and tossed the
baseball cap onto a nearby chair, disturbing a cat that had been sleeping
there.  The cat hissed at him for a moment before settling down to sleep again.
     "Oh, be quiet Nimue."

     Epilogue Three:
     "Whatcha doing, Sig.Lad?" asked Particle Man.
     "Oh, I figured I liked having a versatile weapon for combat, so I'm
building a gauntlet with some stored GIFs of swords and other weapons.  Also,
in case anyone writes me into a story without taking into account my loss of
the Sword of Sig, any weapons I use can be explained by this."  He pulled on
the silvery gauntlet and flexed his arm a few times to see how it fit.
     "Um, neat.  Where's Constellation?"
     "Haven't seen him today.  He's been checking out various computer records
trying to find a place to vacation or something.  Why?"
     "Oh, nothing I suppose."  Particle Man decided that his fellow Dvanders
weren't exactly the best people to ask about relationships anyway.  Maybe he'd
go ask around the LNHQ later....

     Epilogue Four:
     Constellation was in one of the computer areas in the LNHQ, doing some
research on likely places to hide for a very long time.  Then a fuzzy image of
a man in black appeared.
     >>Constellation...you are needed!  Time is of the essence!<<

Epilogue Five:
     Dejected, a figure in a red, white and yellow costume sat on his bed in
the LNHQ.  He'd been so enthused to help out Sig.Lad and act as his 'secret
weapon' in this new adventure, but he never got the call.  Once more Sidewinder
was doomed to the sidelines.  He knew it was his power, but lately he hadn't
even been getting to blast into anything before being sidelined.  Oh, Sig.Lad
was very nice about explaining everything when he got back.
     "Sorry, SW.  The one time I really could have used help, Acton Lord had
rigged it so that powers wouldn't have worked.  You'd have arrived and ended up
on the sidelines right away...or worse, impaled on Acton Lord's sword," had
been what Sig.Lad said.  Then Sig.Lad had gone off to tinker with something or
other.  The Secret Dvanders had been his best shot at joining a subgroup, and
now they'd fulfilled their mission and looked like they might disband.  Already
Constellation was looking for vacation spots.
     Sidewinder was about to go see if Easily Discovered Man had gotten back,
maybe he'd wanna form a new subgroup.  But then...everything...slowed...
down....
     [To be continued directly in LNHCP #13.  The LNHCP arc takes place before
Particle Man #10 and Annual #1]