Don't get used to two stories a week. I'm very sick, and I
realized writing makes me better. Which also means I'll write
more than before even when I get better, but not this much ;-)
This is a story in the LNH2 imprint. This means it's a POSSIBLE
future - perhaps not the most likely, probably not the one the
authors plan for the characters. You're warned.
Also, Acra Flight is (in principle) a tightly knit mini-series,
so don't expect to understand the stuff too well if you haven't
read the previous issues, and even then, you won't understand
it fully until you read the whole arc. Sorry. :-)
****************************************************************
My father likes to describe me as "Blackbird, the
personification of goth". Metaphysically, I don't think this is
correct, but in practice it usually works quite like that. But
even my taste for the dead and the silent couldn't cope with
that. I remembered something I heard as a child:
If language was liquid it would be rushing in.
Instead here we are in a silence more eloquent
than any word could ever be.
It was quite a shock to see the wild and colorful world of the
Jelly Queen blur into nothingness, and then nothingness blur
into death. Death and desolation.
Everything seemed dead. For far more than a decade. However,
nothing was in decomposition, because "decomposition" itself
was dead too. We felt something uneasy in the air, and we
somehow knew Blur was sick.
"Ohmygod."
Kathy Garrold, or Demon Girl, was the first of us to realize
where we were. Probably because she heard about the place a lot.
"That's the dead world my parents come from!"
----------------------------------------------------------------
Who Cares Studio presents:
ACRA FLIGHT
#5
Overpower
Part of the LNH2 imprint. Any similarities the characters and
events described in this story have with real life characters
and events - or with characters and events in your stories for
that matter - unless otherwise stated are purely coincidental.
Most characters (see end of message) and this story are
copyright (C) 2000 by Fernando "Lalo" Martins. Other
characters are (C) by their creators as credited below.
The text of the story may be copied in any form or medium, for
any purposes, provided that the text is copied verbatim. To use
parts of it, or to create derivative works, please contact the
author at mailto:lalo@hackandroll.org
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Well", Analysis aptly observed, "so they must be around there
somewhere."
"Is it possible", Kathy asked, "that Lady Carmine sent us to
look for them first?"
"Yes", Analysis answered. "But not probable. Actually, it's
quite obvious in hindsight; what other place in the multiverse
could the Green couple be attracted to, where they would need
energy and couldn't draw it from the local Earth Spirit?"
"Which still doesn't tell us the reason", I said.
"Can we get on with this? I don't want daddy to die", said my
cousin SoWhat.
"Well, in case no one noticed, this is an entire PLANET, for
Bob's sake. How are we supposed to find the source of the
trouble in time?"
"Aren't we supposed to be heroes?", Kathy asked. "The sources
of trouble usually have no problem finding US."
I pondered at what she said for a moment; yes, I decided, she
really *WAS* amazing.
"I... I think I saw something big moving around that
corner...", said Analysis.
"That's impossible" - Kathy said. "The whole world is dead."
Nevertheless, we obviously did walk to the corner. What we saw
was a very beautiful woman impaled with a cross, and with part
of her head blown away, looking down at something. When she
heard us, she ran like a cat and walked trough a wall. All the
others stopped, speechless. Regardless of your beliefs, there
was only one word for that, especially after we realized that
the thing on the ground was a dead body, exactly matching the
girl we just saw. They tried to say something, or even mumble
or scream, but they couldn't. I kept hearing the song.
Words are too solid, they don't move fast enough
To catch the blur in the brain that flies by and is gone
"Yes folks, it's a ghost, get on with it." With my senses, I
could see the ghost in a lot of other planes, so I could be
very sure that it was a ghost.
"But... but... Blackbird, that shouldn't be possible. My dad
told me there were no ghosts. Even the souls are dead, even the
spirit plane, even Hell..."
"Well, risking to take Analysis cue, I'd say something new
obviously happened."
We exchanged glances.
"I'd say we go to Net.ropolis", said Analysis.
"It's burned down to ashes", Kathy replied.
"It doesn't matter. In all planes related to ours, all
weirdness revolves around that city. So, dead or not, ashes or
not, it's probably where things are taking place."
"Walking?", asked SoWhat.
================================================================
In an empty church that shouldn't exist, the ghost of a
not-so-beloved preacher prayed for forgiveness. How could he
give in to influences not of his Lord, and kill all those
people? Could he ever be forgiven?
In the basements of a building that was destroyed almost twenty
years before, the ghost of a ninja warrior trained to keep the
perfection of his long-lost body.
In the streets that should be filled with ashes, a planner and
leader was once again plotting the best ways to protect his
world, and how to keep such a disaster from happening again.
And in the impossible ceiling of the building that wasn't, the
(now) greatest hero of the Dead Earth was fighting a horde of
demons (that shouldn't exist either) for the survival of his
world. If I can use the word "survival", of course.
And we, of course, weren't aware of any of that.
================================================================
"Blackbird can teleport us, can't he?", asked Analysis.
"No way. I usually don't use that level of power, because it
leaves nasty side-effects in the surroundings."
"Well, this would hardly be a problem in this place."
"Yes, but I'm not nearly depressed enough to teleport myself,
let alone all of us. Actually, that's weird, for some odd
reason I don't feel depressed at all." (Now I know I was
falling in love, of course. What a fool.)
"You have to be *depressed* to use your powers? How cute", said
Kathy.
"'Cute'?"
"Well, I think I can arrange some transportation, but it's not
gonna be exactly nice." And then she said a word we couldn't
understand.
Next thing we knew she was growing. I couldn't keep from
looking when her clothes start to rip and fall apart; of
course, soon enough her body wasn't human anymore, but then
again, well, not quite soon *enough*.
Anyway, she turned into a beast that was horribly similar to a
canary, except circa 6 meters tall, with two heads, and scales
instead of feathers. BIG scales. It looked down to us with
nasty eyes and started to gather us in its "hands" (do birds
have hands or feet?), while it/she started to flap her wings
and take off.
And then we were flying, trying to find out where in the world
we were and to what direction was Net.ropolis.
As we flied, we started to see patters of what looked like
spiritual energy flowing around, and masses of ghosts doing
numerous different things. We even saw some "ghost places"
being built from nothing.
And, obviously, we started to see trees and other kinds of
plants - very much alive, thank you very much.
It was in one of our stops for thinking that I realized we had
to hurry - when we saw a fly.
================================================================
"Sure dear, we'll be right off", said Sarah. She walked over to
her husband.
"Who was it on the phone, dear?"
"My sister, Brit."
"Oh. And what did she want?" The question wasn't just for
politeness, as he realized she was taking her uniform out of
the drawer and starting to undress.
"Nothing much. She asked us if we could go to a dead universe
to look out for a bunch of kids who are trying to save *our*
universe. Not that she thinks they need looking after, but she
said we'd just love them."
"Kids? One of these new groups?"
"Yeah. She said they call themselves the Acra Flight, if you'd
believe that."
"Why? I like it. Good name."
"So, are we going or what?"
"As soon as you're ready." She liked to put on her uniform the
old way, but he - formally know as Research - didn't need this
kind of ceremony; his uniform just appeared around him in
electric blue and circuits when he needed it.
"So, let's go." She snatched the fishbowl from its altar and
started to fill the air with braids of fuchsia, gold and black.
Her husband started emitting an electric blue glow, which soon
mixed with her own energies.
And then they were in a pool of ashes. Around them, hordes of
ghosts walked and talked to each other, while ashes shaped into
ghost buildings, and some ghost buildings started to solidify.
For the experience of two cosmic avatars, what was happening
was quite obvious.
"Oh sh*"
================================================================
By that time, there were already seven living people in Dead
Net.ropolis. One of them was running in the streets, chasing
ghosts - or rather, looking for a particular ghost.
And she had just found him.
"Israishus!"
"Kirsty. How have you been, my dear?"
"Israishus, what's happening to this place?"
"It's coming back to life, bit by bit."
"But there shouldn't be ghosts!"
"The spirit of life itself was gone, erased. So, without any
living, there was no spirit world. Everything disappeared for
good, except for the Stranger (who couldn't die before he
passed his legacy on) and the Saviour."
"Saviour?"
"Yes. He went by other name in your time, of course, but now
all of us call him Saviour. Except for Self-Righteous Preacher,
of course, because he finds this name profane."
"I see."
"Yes, you do. You obviously already met him."
"But how could he come back, when the whole world was gone?"
"Such was his curse. A curse which ultimately became our
salvation."
"But you're killing another plane! An entire planet! How can
you do to others what someone did for you?"
"Who told you the other world will die? I say you worry too
much. You should leave that for me."
"I can't allow you to proceed."
"You can't do anything, actually. Remember, you're not
Leviathan Lass anymore. The Leviathan is gone."
A circle of walking corpses surrounded her, and started to
close in. .o(Oh my god, now the corpses are walking), was her
first thought. .o(OH MY GOD, I will be joining them in a
minute!), was the next one, of course.
But something boiled in the sewer system, just as the lights of
a nearby building decided to start working, and between vapor
and light everything was quite Blurry, and then she found
herself high in the air, in the hands of a gigantic bird-like
demon with three kids. And the demon said:
"Hi mom."
================================================================
Of course, after we started seeing the phantasmal energies, we
started seeing patterns, and Analysis soon realized they all
"orbited" a common center. Then it was a matter of finding this
center, and bang! - Net.ropolis.
Seeing the city was a shock. Buildings re-growing in front of
our eyes, and dead heroes flying all around. More important
than that, dead or not, it wasn't "our" corrupted,
corporation-controlled Net.ropolis, but the Net.ropolis of the
golden days of 1996, with the LNH in all its glory.
As soon as we entered the city, Demon Girl sniffed something
and darted in a very specific direction to rescue her mother.
As soon as we were all safe in the sky - well, "quite" safe,
because it was hard to ignore the ghosts of heroes all around -
we asked mrs. Garrold what was happening.
"No time to explain", she gasped. "Hurry, to the roof of the
LNHQ, Andrew's there trying to delay the disaster enough for
you kids to arrive."
Of course, there was an LNHQ. Bigger than life, in the very
center of the city - in the very center of the whole universe,
I could tell with my senses. Much, *much* bigger than the LNHQ
we know. And its roof was a tropical jungle. With *animals*.
Not to mention the demons, of course.
We jumped from Kathy's hands, ready to fight the demons (and
die, by the way, since our powers are not offensive). SoWhat
was already staring at a big one with a smile of pity in her
lips, when mrs. Garrold stopped us.
"No! Not the demons! They're on our side, Andrew summoned them"
"I thought daddy could only control one demon at a time"
"He's not controlling them. They're from the Hell of *your*
world, from Perdition's army, and they're fighting of their own
free will, because they don't want your world to die."
What? Too creepy? Wait, there's more. She was there, sure
enough - Perdition herself, with Tech Support Man, both
coordinating the armies while Demon Boy (I mean, mr. Garrold)
kept the portal open for more and more demons, and Innovation
and Research, two of the most powerful heroes in existence by
that time, kept a protective dome around something in the
center. Everyone against a single man, who we could now see.
"WHAT???", was the general comment.
"That's what I said too", said mr. Garrold, under visible
stress for the portal.
"But... but... it can't be! How can he be an important
character in a story? He's always been just a silly joke to
throw around, sometimes even literally..."
"You can't say life has no irony", said the object of our
comments.
"I can't believe we're fighting *you*!"
"Neither can I. You should be helping."
"But... *CANNON FODDER*???"
"The name is Saviour now. Cannon Fodder was the LNHer that
would come back every time he died, no matter how. When the
whole world died, there was nothing left to come back to, so it
took a while - but the curse was finally stronger, and I
appeared in the ashes of Net.ropolis."
"And you found out the whole world was dead, and had to live
here alone for years, dying of hunger every other week, so you
went insane, yadda yadda yadda" - chanted SoWhat.
"Not quite, dear. I started walking around the world and
gathering all knowledge about dimensional travel I could. And
by the way, after some months dying of hunger, I started to get
back a lot faster than before, as if the curse was challenging
the dead world. And I accepted the challenge, and decided to do
something."
"But how did you manage to travel to our world?", I asked.
"I didn't. It would take me another twenty years to master the
skills necessary for that. However, what I *did* master was the
ability to contact the minds of the LOH. I made the Garrolds
tell Kathy everything about this world; from their revived
memories and her dreams, my power grew."
Kathy? I looked around; I hadn't seen her ever since we landed.
With her powers, she could well have decided to join the fight.
But, uh, what were the demons fighting after all, if Cannon
Fodder - I mean, Saviour - was with us now?
Then I realized. He wasn't *only* with us. He was everywhere.
There were about three of them for each demon. He was being
dilacerated, eviscerated, ripped in pieces, swallowed whole,
thousands of times per minute.
And then I saw Kathy. She was walking out of a bush, with a
lovely uniform of red and yellow scales - uh, "lovely" for my
tastes, of course; anyone else would find it terrifying. This
was what the package contained, it seemed; the package her
"aunt" tossed her and she carried all the way.
"And", Saviour went on, "I pushed Vicky Delaware and Green
Trenchcoat together and made them want a baby. And made them
think this was a good place to give birth."
================================================================
Now it all made sense. How the ghosts appeared, what was the
plan, what was Israishus talking about, what were mr. Garrold
and Perdition trying to fight, and what were Innovation and
Research trying to protect. I ran towards the dome, and sure
enough, I could see the woman in there, in labour, and her
husband with the green clothes holding her hand and trying to
keep their baby from being born without killing them.
"So, you see", Saviour went on, "just the labour is already
bringing all ghosts back from non-existance, re-shaping the
world..."
"What will you do to the baby, you monster?", cried Kathy.
"Nothing, don't be silly. Actually, I'm giving her/him a
wonderful present. And if s/he breathes our air, our world will
live again."
"And ours will die", I said. "Can't Innovation and Research
just send mrs. Delaware back?"
"Piece of cake", said Innovation. "We're breaking dimensional
barriers since the first time we worked together."
"However", explained Research, "it's too late right now for us;
the ghosts are already here, and many of them have powers more
than sufficient to stop us."
"All we can do", said Innovation, "is protect them while Green
Trenchcoat holds on. Nice standstill, isn't?"
"This isn't a standstill at all", aptly remarked Analysis. "The
longer the Green couple fight, the more energy they take from
our world, and more the danger grows."
================================================================
I looked around as the ghosts of the more powerful beings of
the Dead Earth were gathering around our little conversation.
The demonic armies now had a lot more to fight than the many
copies of Cannon Fodder.
I didn't know what to do. "Mary, can't you do something?"
"No", replied SoWhat. "I happen to believe in ghosts. It would
be very cruel to just be condemned to non-existence."
Analysis looked at me with a face that said "don't count on
me". So, I was completely lost.
Fortunately, Kathy wasn't. She walked to Innovation and
Research resolutely. "Dismiss the dome."
"What???"
"Dismiss it. Look around. Nobody will do anything to the
Greens, obviously - it would defeat their very purposes.
Unless, of course, one of the demons decides to kill the baby
and finish the story."
"That's quite likely", said her father.
"So, just unsummon them all. This fight isn't helping, there are
a lot more Cannon Fodder and ghosts than there are demons in
Perdition's armies."
"Don't you dare", screamed Paytan. And then she was gone.
Andrew Garrold breathed deeply and passed out.
"Nice", said Kathy. Then she walked to Green Trenchcoat and
whispered in his ear and in Vicky's. The three exchanged a
glance. And then they let go, and we heard a baby cry.
As they gave up, the plants on the top of the building
immediately withered and died. The flies and other animals just
disappeared, and the walking corpses in the streets fell once
more to the ground.
But the forest was still there, with the animals - a ghost
forest, with ghost monkeys making loud noises at us. And from
every place a walking corpse fell, the corresponding ghost
raised and looked around.
As promised, the whole word "lived" again. Not in the literal
sense, as we thought; there were ghosts everywhere, for
everyone that died in the Tragedy and in the weeks just before
that, and then some. Vicky's first husband stopped by to
congratulate her for the baby, and Ultimate Ninja could be seen
congratulating LNHers for one thing or another.
"So, is our world dead?", asked Innovation.
"I never said it would be", answered Saviour. "Now that the
baby is born, all the energy is back to your world where it
belongs, and the baby can even go away with the parents.
Actually, the whole threat to your world was in your resistance
- and I couldn't even warn you, because I wasn't aware of it
till the kids told me."
"Kathy, what you did was stupid", said Kirsty. "How could you
know that..."
"I knew. It was obvious for me. Mom, you worry too much."
"That's what I told her", said Israishus, who just walked in.
"But", asked Research, "I still don't see. If the plan wasn't
to steal the life force of our planet, then..."
"Oh silly", said Innovation. "The girl's right dear, it's
obvious. Don't you see?"
I got tired of that talk and walked to the happy family. Not
that I like babies, they all look like knees to me; but it was
infinitely better than the "moment of collective
enlightenment". Well, the sight of Green Trenchcoat smiling was
enough to give me the shivers. Still, I made the obligatory
polite question.
"So, is it a boy or a girl?"
"Oh silly", said Vicky Delaware. "Can't you see dear? It's
neither. Blackbird, meet Green." Before my eyes, the baby
mutated into a full-grown person of uncertain sex, who seemed
to be about twenty years old, with plain clothes and green
hair. "Green is the Earth Spirit for this Earth now."
================================================================
Well, after everything settled down, the Dead Earth - and this
name kind of sticked as official - became a quite cool place,
well, at least for my tastes.
Innovation and Research, who were officially retired but
couldn't resist diving into trouble now and then, found the
perfect solution; they founded The School and offered to look
after the Acra Flight.
Analysis was ecstatic, and Blur just loved the idea of being
part of a group, the sheer weirdness of that.
Green didn't have any other place to go. S/He sees GT and Vicky
about everyday, but s/he isn't a normal child at all, and
absolutely doesn't need parents the way children do. More like
a teen or young adult, I think. And staying on Dead Earth
wasn't even an option; having living things around would kinda
spoil the fun of all those ghosts. Except, of course, for
Saviour, who a few months later changed his name to Alive Lad.
Aunt Emily decided to let Mary hang around with us; as much as
she hated the idea, Mary wasn't a normal baby anymore, so she
needed to be with people who understood. But Mary still spends
all weekends in Mi.NET.sotta with her parents.
Kathy - Demon Girl - after saving two worlds, didn't have any
trouble convincing her parents that Acra Flight and The School
were good for her. Besides, in a few years high school would be
over and she would be able to attend college in Net.York.
As for me... I didn't care much for the whole concept of a
group, and all that. For Dad's despair. And even then, I
agreed. Of course, in hindsight, you can easily understand why.
It was an excuse to see Kathy almost everyday.
And that's the origin of the Acra Flight. Does this tale help?
Is it enough for what you needed? Great. Glad to help.
****************************************************************
Next issue: A small angst interlude. Oh, what am I talking
about? You probably already read #6 by now.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The music quotations are (C) 1987 by Suzane Vega, from
"Language" (found in the "Solitude Standing" album).
Emily and Luke Jones (the ex-Teens in Trenchcoats) are (C)
1999, 2000 Ben Rawluk.
LOH, or the Legion of Occult Heroes, is (C) 1994, 1995 Paul
Hardy (whatever happened to him?).
The Misfits are (C) 1995-2000 Jennifer Whitson.
All other characters are my creations, based on those
characters and their stories, except for Blur and Brit's
husband who are all mine!
[]s,
|alo
+----
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