🚀 go-pugleaf

[Continued From Part Five]

        Mary Agnes couldn't feel or hear the Commodore, but she could feel
his thoughts as he dozed, his tortured mind soothed by the music that
filled his head.  The songs from his possessed minions combined into a
soothing chorus that sounded like a cross between Brahams lullaby and a
blast of white noise.  But it was enough to comfort Dan Amiga.
        }{Wake him up, Synapse,}{ instructed Healer.
        {Are you sure I should?} asked the child.  {He won't get mad?}
        }{I'm sure, Synapse. It'll be okay.}{
        Mary Agnes hesitated, then gave him a mental tap on the shoulder.
{Excuse me, mister?}
        Dan Amiga started and stirred.  He had almost gotten used to the
background chatter of thousands of minds, but he had never experienced one
addressing him directly before.  It was like having an air horn blurt out
your name in the middle of a giant mental cocktail party.
        {Sorry to wake you, Commodore, but the doctors say you gotta save
the world now!}
        {What is this?!} asked Amiga, groping mentally for the child's
voice the way you'd grope to shut off an irritating alarm clock.
        {You have to wake everybody up!  Get them to stop singing and fight
off the monsters!  C'mon, Commodore, please!}
        {Five more minutes...} he pleaded, trying to find a snooze button.
        {Mr. Ray says there's no more time!  Please, now!}  The child's
mental tugs on him were becoming stronger, and impossible to ignore.
        {I can't} declared Amiga.  {Too many minds, too much sensation, I
simply can't keep track of it all!}
        {It's not that many!" insisted Synapse, and rapidly scrolled
through the assembled minds.  {Just 12,624!)
        {But each of them different, different feelings, different powers,
I can't coordinate them all!}
        {You don't have to!} insisted the child.  "They all know how to use
their own powers!  Mr. Maladroit taught them.  All you have to do is tell
them who to fight!}
        {Who to fight?} murmured Amiga, clearly confused.
        {Uh-huh!  The monsters!  We have to fight the monsters!}
        }{Pseudo-demons, Synapse!}{ corrected Healer.  }{Tell him they're
pseudo-demons!}{
        {OK, pseudo-demons!  The big black ugly things with claws and fangs
and bad breath that are killing everybody.  Look through everybody's eyes,
commodore, and you'll see 'em!}
        Hesitatingly, Amiga opened one collective eyelid, and was instantly
overwhelmed by the worldwide carnage, as scenes of devastation poured into
his mind from each of his minions.  {No, no!  It's too much!!!  They're...
they're _everywhere_!}
        {But so are we!}  Synapse's mind stepped in to buffer the images,
filtering out the differences and highlighting the similarities.  "And if
everyone just works together, we can beat 'em.  But no one can work
together unless you tell them to!}
        {The orders.. I have to give the orders?} A memory of his life
previous to this madness washed over him.  Mary Agnes picked it up and hung
it up to dry.
        {Yes, you tell 'em!  And I can help!} she said, excited.
        {Orders...  I know how to give orders!}
        {Sure you do!!!} Mary Agnes assured him.
        {*I* am in command of this mission!}
        {That's right!}  The pure delight that swept its way through the
child's mind was like a broom sweeping away cobwebs.  {Now, on your mark,
get set....}  Mentally, she cupped her hands over her mouth to make an
imaginary bugle and trumpeted a short fanfare.
        A smile crept its way across the Commodore's mind, and a trace even
made it to his face.  The battle cry was loud and strong within the group
mind, though it was a barely audible whisper to the medical personnel that
clustered around Amiga's bedside.
        {CHAAAAAAARGE!!!!}
***
     Avril and Shard stayed close to one another, using powers and spells
to ensure the other's defence. The young mage's eyes were teared with
exhaustion, yet somehow she found the inner strength to throw another
spell, calling upon the magics of sonomancy to vibrate a demons into
unconsciousness. For a moment she chastised herself for insisting upon
following Angellica into battle. Shard pulsed once, touching the young
woman's mind and absorbing her self-recrimination. Avril smiled ever so
slightly at the crystal mass that floated in the air, and raised her
pitch-perfect tuning fork to cast yet another spell. Suddenly, her
concentration was broken as she saw a wonderful sight across the
battlefield.
     The unconscious possessed superguys were beginning to stumble to their
feet... and those who sang had stopped. With one mind - Commodore Amiga's -
they raised their fists towards the attacking demons... and charged.
     The battled had been joined. Avril slumped to the ground and nearly
sobbed with relief and release.
***
     One thing that you normally imagine when you think of mighty battles
between super-heroes and the Forces of Darkness(tm), is that they're all
fighting hand to hand, or power blast to power blast, or salami to salami
or whatever.  The point is that you think of them fighting outright,
snarling quotable phrases at each other.
     Now, there are umpteen pseudo-demons flying around, as opposed to a
large but nowhere nearly as umpteenish number of heroes.  Not to mention
you've got all of those unconscious group mind superguys littering the
battlefield, which makes running around and dodging pseudo-demonic attacks
without tripping a little difficult.  Yes, there is a point to this, and
here it comes.
     You'd have to be really stupid to run around on this battlefield if
you can help it.  And so Ted Baxter and Gerry Anderson were hiding in the
sewers.  It wasn't that they were scared to be out there (though they
were).  It wasn't that they weren't that much help in the fight (though
they weren't).  It *was* that both of their powers didn't require line of
sight to work, and so the two superguys were valiantly seeking cover to
attack from, selflessly preserving themselves only to carry on the fight a
little longer for the good of humanity.
     Excuse any laughter you hear in the background.  The Technical Support
Staff seems to have trouble controlling themselves.
     "Cities.  I hate cities," Gerry muttered.  "There's only so many
plants to control here."
     "Uh-huh," Ted sighed.  "I can't get into their minds well to screw
with their senses.  And they keep ripping through whatever you throw at
them.  Let's face it, we suck."
     "No!  Really?" Gerry said sarcastically.  "We are going to die. Just
as soon as they realize we're down here, we are dead."
     "So.  Do we run?"
     Gerry shrugged.  "Why bother?  They'll find us sooner or later, and
we'll be dead then.  Might as well stay here and fight."
     "Heroism?  From you?"
     "Nope.  I just don't feel like being on the run from those monsters,
staring over my shoulder and waiting to die."  Gerry winced slightly.
"There went another tree."
     Ted sighed again.  "Whatever.  Let's just keep this up as long as we can."
     "Yeah, I... bwah?"
     "What's up?"
     "It's the zombie-guys... they've stopped singing... they're moving!"
***
     "Um, I don't know how to tell you this," Badass said.  "So I'm just
going to say it."
     "Say what?" Spatial K asked, as two bottles worth of shaken up
Tahitian Treat sprayed from the portal in his chest upon a surprised demon.
     "I'm out of ammunition."
     "Er," Microvax, who was on the other side of Badass trying to move his
armor, which had been made to rust just prior to the collapse of the
Maladroit-controlled superguys.  "What?"
     "I'm finally out of ammunition.  For everything.  Not a single bullet,
grenade, knife, mortar shell, candlestick, rocket, missile or lottery
ticket on me.  I'm completely out."
     "This is *not* the time I wanted to hear that," Willwarp noted as he
missed connecting his fist with a demon's jaw, but succeeded in connecting
his stomach with a demon's fist.
     "Where'd Bizarre Guy go?" Microvax asked.
     "Buried under that pile of pseudo-demon's over there," Badass said,
pointing to a rather large heap of the aforementioned beings.  "Usually he
could handle that number, no sweat, but they're consuming doritos and then
breathing on him and its grossing him out to the point he can't move."
     "Ew, don't blame him," Spatial K said.  He watched as a few of the
pseudo-demons in the pile went flying, as MeltDown continued to try to dig
toward the Man of Warped Wood.  But more demons seemed to be arriving with
every passing second, and the heroes of the world were at the brink of
defeat.
     [stock footage: the cavalry arrives.  U.S. WWII tanks stream over the
battlefield.  Old ladies clapping.]
     "Bwah?" Microvax asked as a fresh onslaught of power beams and the
occasional otter drove into the unprepared pseudo-demon horde.  All around
the nearly-beaten superguys, Maladroit's controlled superguys were surging
to their feet, unleashing their fury upon a surprised enemy.  The CalForce
heroes recognized one of them.
     "Templar!" Badass called.  "Over here!"
     Criticalman didn't seem to hear the call, instead lashing out at the
demons with downturned thumbs, celluloid, jump cuts and stock footage.
Alongside him, Kid Gothic and Baffled Boy were radiating a confused sort of
broodingness that, if nothing else, made the demons feel vaguely bad.
     "Come on!" Badass declared, grabbing a demon and swinging him around
like a club.  "Last one to the front lines is Adam Sandler!"
     "Hey!" protested Microvax, after watching Badass, Spatial K, and
Willwarp follow Criticalman into the fray.  He returned to concentrating on
getting his armor to go, and was frustrated to hear it continuing to grind
gears.  A pseudo-demon marched up to him, laughed, and kicked him in the
shin.
     VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR....
     "Ah, thanks," Microvax said, as rust fell from the armor.  "Thought
something like that might do it.  Now, you die."
     "Eep!" the demon commented, as Microvax unsheathed his VaxAxe.
***
     STOP trooper Clarke felt his Tornado armour shudder as he forced it to
keep walking, despite numerous safety warnings which flashed on his visor.
Stiffly and painfully he made his way towards the troop transport. Relief
flooded his body as he walked; the addition of an army of superguys to the
battle meant that Earth - and Commodore Amiga - had a chance to survive
this mess. On the micro-level, he would have a chance to rearm, get some
quick repairs and possibly even rest for a few minutes.
     Clarke looked up at the sky... he froze as he saw the combatives who
flew about, killing and being killed. War was no shock to the career
soldier's eyes, but one sight did jolt their owner.
     "Portia..." he gasped, watching the woman dart willessly through a
cloud of demons, doing her best to drive them to the ground where those not
empowered with flight could finish them off. "Not you..."
***
        Inside the snowbound Rectijet, and unfortunately far from any of
Amiga's controlled superguys, Judy huddled beneath a blanket and kept watch
over the unconcious Fre Ludge, because she could think of nothing else to
do.  She had long since given up trying to distinguish the roar of the
blizzard outside from the roars of the psuedodemons which were trying to
claw their way into the airplane.  "I thought you said they'd have frozen
to death by now." she asked Tony.
        "Apparently I miscalculated." was the response.
        "So.  We're going to die?"
        "'Some say the world shall end in fire.  Some say ice.'" mused the
older man.   He closed his eyes, obviously intent on spending his final
moments in personal meditation.
        Judy rolled her eyes and breathed heavily on her hands to warm
them.   "Well, they say third time's the charm."
***
        The man paused. Something...was different. He looked at his
companions, and realized they'd stopped too, and were looking around
themselves as though they'd just awakened from a deep sleep. He thought a
moment, and realized what it was that was different...He couldn't hear
Maladroit's thoughts. He shook his head to clear it, and wondered why he
was on the outskirts of Austin with a bunch of weird-looking people wearing
spandex costumes. He thought he remembered something about the 'Mazin' Mob,
but...no, it was gone, replaced by a new voice whispering in his mind.
        He stepped over to the person nearest him, a woman whose name he
thought he remembered to be Detritus, and started to ask her what was going
on.
        He'd just opened his mouth to speak when the sky opened up, and a
rain of demonic creatures descended upon the city. A group of them
descended toward the small cluster of colorfully-dressed people, and there
was no more time for talk. There was only survival.
***
     Slowly, Janet's head rose from where she lay sprawled on the ground,
and she looked around, momentarily confused.  The confusion quickly passed
as she instantly understood her purpose.  Not more than an hour ago, that
purpose had been to protect her lord and master Maladroit, the controlling
mind of the symbiote-afflicted superguys. Now it was to protect her *new*
master, Commodore Amiga, and help fight the invading pseudo-demons.
     Usually, Janet despised politics.  Usually.
     Continuing to take in her surroundings, she quickly found a familiar
face fighting a losing battle against two pseudo-demons. Raising her arm,
she loosed an electrokinetic blast that knocked away one of the
pseudo-demons just as it was about to lunge at the hero.
     Roboguy didn't waste the opportunity.  He quickly blasted at the
now-distracted other demon with both tasers turned up to full power,
disintegrating it quite nicely.
     "Whoa," he said, then turned to see who had provided the distraction
for him.  By this time, the other present members of Team Temporary had
returned to consciousness.  "What the..?  Oh, man, not again..."
     "Amiga did it!" someone shouted from the crowd of fighting that was
going on all around Roboguy.  "They're on our side now!"
     "We're here to help you, Roboguy," Kinelectric said firmly.
     "Hold that thought," Roboguy said, turning his attention inward.

     Arnie, the Computer Intelligence that was the secret identity of
Roboguy, approached the sector of memory that was serving as a virtual
prison for David Harris, a.k.a. Kid Virtual.  He paused, wondering if
Amiga's control extended to Kid Virtual, who currently didn't have a
physical body.  Or, at least, Arnie didn't think he did.
     "David?" Arnie asked.
     "Yes?"
     "Who do you serve?"
     "My lord and master, Mal...Mal..."  The young man seemed to be having
trouble saying it.
     _Huh.  Amiga's influence must not be fully reaching him,_ Arnie
thought.  _Probably because of his current form._  "Computer, unlock
sector."
     [+ Sector unlocked. +]
     "I'm free?  You're freeing me?" David asked.
     "Yup," Arnie said.  "Go figure out who your master is."
     Kid Virtual didn't say a word, but rather sped out of the sector and
back to the physical world.

     Arnie returned his attention to the world outside his robot body just
as Kid Virtual emerged from it, his body shifting back into a physical
form.
     "I'm free!" he shouted.  "And now, to..."  He paused, then nearly fell
over as Commodore Amiga's control of the mass-mind reached him. He blinked,
then shook his head to clear it.
     "Are we all on the same side now?" Roboguy asked.
     "Yes!" Team Temporary shouted.
     "Then let's kick some-- OOF!!"
     The members of Team Temporary looked at each other, shrugged, and went
after the pseudo-demon that had just knocked Roboguy off his feet.
***
        Mr. Morbid's finger twitched.
        It moved again, ever so slightly.
        Suddenly, and without much warning, his hand forced itself  into a fist.
        Mr. Morbid sat up violently, spilling strands of hair into his
face.  A chilling black aura of unearthly energy burned behind his eyes.
He stood up just as if nothing had happened to him and moved to where the
pseudo-demons were pressing their attack on the building.
        Morbid grabbed a demon with both hands and raised it off the
ground.  A black aura enveloped the creature.  The energy field held the
pseudo-demon totally paralysed as Morbid stared into it's eyes and prepared
to speak.
        *You have slain my host,* Eugene growled malevolently.  *For this,
I will have each and every one off your heads.*  Eugene flooded the demon
with necromantic energy until it exploded violently, letting the remaining
dust slip through his fingers.
        Morbid fired a blast of necromantic energy from his hand at another
pseudo-demon.  The blast struck the monster and it too exploded with a
similar result.
        Eugene was all too aware that this comeback was only temporary.
With Mr. Morbid's lifeforce now gone, he had no conduit to this plane.
Consequently, his energy reserves were going fast. Nevertheless, he was
determined to make what few remaining moments he had left count, if only in
some small way.
        A pair of pseudo-demons leaped into the air and charged  Morbid.
Eugene prepared for the final blast.  Morbid released twin beams of energy
which instantly obliterated the pseudo-demons. While that itself was
extremely good, there were still so many left. Far too many for him to deal
with.
        Morbid fell to his knees.  It was over.
        Almost.
        Morbid's head snapped to attention.  The unholy glow had faded in
his eyes.  "Must ... fight on," he mumbled to himself before finally
pulling his thoughts together.  He was still too shaky to stand, and more
than a little confused.  "Must have blacked out," he gasped to himself.
        *Your wounds are severe...*
        "I noticed," Morbid commented dryly.
        *... and my ability to keep you alive has been tested beyond
limits.  You must leave the fight.  Now.*
        "No!" Morbid argued back.  "It's too late to change my mind now.
I'm not running away."
        *You are in no condition to be of any assistance to these real
superguys.*
        "Hey!  I'm as real as they come, man," Morbid replied angrily as he
forced himself to his feet.  "I'm not through yet.  If your power won't see
me to the end of this, then I'll just have to do it myself!"
        In another dimension, far removed from the danger of the
world-threatening battle raging in Canada, Eugene allowed himself a smirk.
***
     Grey Leopard fought and wished for an end to the fighting. He ducked
and rolled, dodging energy bolts which deluged from the sky like a deadly
hailstorm, and wished for one last burst of energy. Grey Leopard rolled and
ducked behind Gaskell, who frantically raised the illusion of a burst of
light directly on Exavatar's retinas. The corrupted Avatar screamed with
frustration, loosing bolts in all directions while Quartermain swooped down
towards the pair, an unwilling murderous fury in the possessed woman's
eyes. Power skirted the edge between energy and matter on the tips of
Quartermain's fingers, then danced towards Grey Leopard and Gaskell in an
effort to roast them where they stood. Gaskell flinched and the Leopard
looked away only bare seconds before a brick wall appeared in front of
them, blocking the attack. Aphra turned back to the battle at hand, looking
up at her two potential targets. Singling out Exavatar, she summoned up a
flint cocoon around the man, dropping him to the ground. Suddenly, the
cocoon began to crack and spark, as Exavatar began to burn his way out.
     Spenser muttered to himself about having his access to Faerieland
blocked and stood his ground, waiting for the aerial combatants to come to
him. Quartermain obliged, swerving away from Aphra's wall and towards him.
Spenser took two blasts to his armour, knocking him back before he could
climb to his feet and lash out with his sword, scoring a blow on the
woman's shoulder as she flew past. Energy played down the blade, grounding
into the armour, and Spenser fell to the ground again, dazed.
     Aphra frantically began reinforcing the prison around Exavatar as his
powers threatened to shatter it. Milton glanced around, searching the lurid
skies for any pseudo-demons which he could take control of, but saw none.
Just as frustration threatened to turn into despair, he hit upon an idea.
     "Everyone!" he shouted, trying to be heard over the noises of the
battle, "Drive the two of them to that rock there!"
     Aphra did not doubt her husband. She stopped reinforcing the shield
and dove towards the rock that Milton had indicated. Grey Leopard saw what
she was doing and bounded there as well, ready to lend his assistance.
Gaskell concentrated, dropping to the ground to present a smaller target
while she did so, making it seem as though a black portal were opening near
the rock. From the portal sprang illusory superguys in an unending horde,
racing to join the battle. Quartermain, her instructions clear even if her
sense of self-preservation had been knackered, wheeled towards the invading
troops, ready to do battle. At the same time, Exavatar broke free of his
coffin and spotted the woman who had put him there. With a roar, he raced
towards her, fuelled by Gggthsxth's surrogate rage, ready to rip her apart
with his bare hands as anti-social behaviour was generally encouraged in
the avatars of mad gods. Aphra tried to dodge to the side and was nearly
too slow but for Grey Leopard's timely kick to the rump, which knocked her
out of harm's way. Before Exavatar could switch targets, the young hero
somersaulted into the air, landed on the Avatar's back and spring-boarded
to comparative safety. Exavatar blinked and wondered why he suddenly felt
compelled to hold up an 8.5 scorecard. Milton grinned grimly as he saw the
two Avatars in position and concentrated, shouting one of his two words of
power as he did so. There was a low sound, as of the moaning of a convicted
man's last gasp on a gibbet, and a deep, black portal flew open, leading
back to Earth. It caught both Quartermain and Joe, sending them far out of
contact range with their targets.
     "Good wo--" began Aphra, as the team began to relax for the first time
since they had entered the blasted dimension, but it was not to be.
Gggthsxth's eyes flicked open, and the deity glared down at the group,
expressing his near-divine rage, as could only be found elsewhere in the
eyes of a taxi driver stiffed for his tip.
     "You have no sense of import, do you?" he rumbled, snarling with
anger. "If you did, you would have had the sense to simply die while I
orchestrated the cosmos' most important moment. Instead, you buzz around
like flies at an event which you should feel ultimately grateful for being
permitted to see with your too-limited senses before they're darkened
completely! Very well, you've succeeded to the only degree that you're
able. You've managed to delay my conquest of the Earth for the half-second
it will take to crush you underfoot. Rejoice... for you've done the
impossible. Now die."
***

[Continued in Part Seven]