Fragments from Earth 1282:
The morning light shone off the snow in Rougemont, Switzerland, high in the Alps. The tall blonde woman, barely more than a girl, skied down the slopes with the grace of a ballerina. The light reflecting off her fine gold hair made her look almost fae.
As she reached the bottom of the slope, she saw the slim, dark man approach her. "Diana," he said.
She slipped off her goggles, and squinted at him. "Oh, hello, Li," she said, "sorry I didn't recognise you earlier, the sun was in my eyes."
He saw the smile was not unreserved, and his heart sank, but he resolved to carry on. "I have tickets for the National Ballet of China, who are performing in Zurich this weekend. Are you sure you haven't changed your mind?"
Her face projected empathy, but she shook her head. "I'm sorry. You know I've been seeing Charles."
"But ... " he looked lost. "He's far too old for you. Can you trust him? He was dating your sister ... "
She sighed. "Please don't try to get between us. I was meant for him."
"You ... you see yourself as a Princess, that's it, isn't it?" His expression changed, and a sneer appeared on his face. "You think you know your destiny, that it's tied to those pampered royals ... but you don't. Their time will come, and so will yours!" Without another word, Li Ku Yu turned his back on the blonde woman, and walked eastwards towards the sun.
---------------
The seemingly endless line of limousines threaded through the streets from the royal palace in Caerdydd, capital city of the United Kingdom. The sidewalks, on either side of the metal barriers which lines the streets, thronged with people, some of whom tossed flowers at the couple who rode at the cynosure of the procession.
"They're calling it a fairytale wedding," the BBC announcer said with his clipped tones into the microphone, "and certainly Lady Diana is looking every bit the fairytale princess as she and Prince Charles proceed on their way to the Cathedral of St David ... "
---------------
Li Ku Yu attached the final piece of neural webbing to the extricated wolf brain floating in the special fluid which was designed to provide it with oxygen and nourishment. He closed the seal on the receptacle, and then stepped to the across the room where he booted up his laptop computer.
He wanted to laugh in delight as the Dragon software windows appeared on the screen. He resisted only because he sensed movement in his peripheral vision. He turned to see a man wearing the uniform of a military attaché, and quickly bowed.
"How goes Project:Mind?" the man enquired.
"We are making progress, Sir," Li responded. "We appear to have our first successful run with a higher mammal, though I still have to do more tests to ensure the animal brain is working properly as a microprocessor."
"Your team will. Unfortunately, you will not be no longer be leading them."
Li furrowed his brow. "I don't understand, Sir."
"You are under arrest by order of General Yen How," the man said. As he said the words, a pair of uniformed soldiers filed into the room, taking Li by the shoulders.
Li cowered. "Why would the general ... ? I don't understand ... what are the charges ... ?"
"The charges are as unimportant as your questions," replied the attaché. "Take him away," he said the soldiers.
---------------
In the back of the plush Mercedes Benz, she clutched the sides of her seat as her driver raced through the entrance of the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel. She had charged Henri with the task of evading the men with cameras, and he'd taken to the job with fervor. She mused dispassionately on her mixed reactions ... there was almost an excitement to the high-speed chase, but that didn't quite overcome the fear which bordered on paranoia at the endless intrusion, almost persecution, she felt at times from the paparazzi.
The dispassion ended as Henri swerved slightly round a bend, and she saw the headlights shining on a concrete tunnel pillar. She raised her hand in a gesture of appeal, "Don't ... " she uttered as she experienced the curious sensation of time slowing to a crawl ... she floated around the interior of the car ... she supposed there was some violence to it, but she barely felt a thing. Finally, time came to a full stop, and she found herself trapped in what seemed like a crawlspace. Pain came to her then, and she closed her eyes tightly as the pain centered into a small, tight ball around her heart.
She opened her eyes, and saw that the pain in her heart came from an enormous raven, roaming through the interior of the automobile and pecking at her, sharp beak tearing away the skin around her chest.
"Go away and let me die in peace," she said internally.
"I am not going to let you die," the bird said. "You have too many responsibilities."
She wanted to cry. "Haven't I done enough?"
"It is the responsibility of mankind to heal this world, and no," it said, "you have not done enough."
She tried to swallow, but her throat did not work. "What do I have to do?"
"All this vanity, all this need for celebrity, all this attachment to crude luxuries, it must be peeled away." It pecked at her again and tilted its head back as it swallowed a gobbet of flesh, "Will you take up the sword?"
"I can't heal the world with a sword." She wanted to cry, but her body had no moisture. She felt hopeless and delirious, "I will beat it into a plowshare ... "
"You have spoken wisely," said a voice above her. She looked up to see a pair of impossible specters that had conjured themselves from the night: a man with white hair and beard who looked somehow familiar, his voice the same as the raven's; and a young woman whose own hair was long and as black as the raven's.
"Who ... ?"
"I am Myrrdin," he said, and she recognised the image as being that of the fabled magician she had read about ever since she was a little girl. He looked exactly as she'd always thought he would. "And this is my daughter, Roma," he continued. "From the days when King Athrwys ruled the nation from his castle at Caerllion, we have granted individuals the ability to wield power ... power enough to save this world from its path of destruction. In this day, the individual we have chosen is you."
"How do I ... "
Roma reached one hand out, and placed it over Diana Spencer's forehead, caressing the other woman's eyes closed. "You will learn," she said, speaking with a gentle, lilting tone that was soothing and almost hypnotic.
Diana felt a sharp pain in her chest. She suddenly realised that, since she had noticed its return, the pain must have been absent for some time before that. She uttered a gurgled cry, and her eyes snapped open. She realised she was laying on her back in what appeared to be an operating room. "My god, she's awake ... I thought we'd lost her," said a man in French. She vaguely recognised him from a fundraiser she had attended; he was chief surgeon at the Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière. He said something else, and she felt a pinprick strike her arm, and then the pain faded with her consciousness.
None of the doctors noticed that the amulet, glittering gold around her throat, had not been there a moment before.
---------------
The surgeon looked down at Li who was secured to the hospital gurney; he ignored the man's terrified eyes as he carried out the death sentence, opening up the man's chest to manually stop the heart. Li's head and jaw were strapped down, preventing him from screaming.
Quickly, before it could undergo cellular deterioration, the operating team sliced through his skull with a laser scalpel and then removed his brain, placing it within one of the nutrient tanks originally developed for Project:Mind. From behind a window, General Yen How watched the procedure with interest. He suspected Li had been deliberately stalling the Project, but whatever the case he was superbly qualified to be the first human test subject.
The doctors attached the neural webbing to the disembodied grey matter which had once been the core of consciousness of Li Ku Yu. They closed the seal on the receptacle, and then linked the brain to a network of computers which had been imported for the purpose.
Li awoke to his surprise, and to a new kind of consciousness. He seemed to float, numb and bodiless, in some sort of boundless space. He wondered whether this was death, and then he felt a prick, a spark, a small electrical sensation. He focused his attention onto it, and suddenly saw beneath him complex patterns of 1's and 0's. He suddenly realised this was his subconscious visualisation of the pure information that he had access to, and what must have been done to him. "I'm attached to the nerve net," he thought. "They made me a test subject."
The physical detachment caused an odd emotional detachment, and he found himself more curious than horrified or outraged. He focused his attention on the patterns below him and began a fractal zoom, watching as they expanded into complexity.
Suddenly the electrical sensation increased, and his awareness expanded as if he were floating above a vast plateux of mirrors. "I'm linked to a network," he marveled. "I wonder whether I can ... " He forced his consciousness outwards, and realised he was capable of drawing upon the ambient electrical energy in the computers.
As he did so, he became aware that his awareness expanded once again. This time, he realised that he was tapping into the other minds around him, the doctors and the military attaché and General Yen How. By drawing upon their emotions he found outrage, and it manifested into the physical world as he attacked them all with blasts of psionic force.
He forced them to experience what he had, the fear and pain of his death. He considered killing them all, or wiping their minds clean, but instead realised it would be more practical to serve him; he needed to reach into the external world in order to conceal his whereabouts from the authorities, at least at first. He left them enough consciousness to understand what was happening to them as he moved their bodies like marionettes.
Using the eyes of the surgeon, he saw the death certificate with his name on it. Very well, he thought, Li Ku Yu is dead ... he chose the name for himself of Doctor Sun, in honor of the great doctor Sun Yat-Sen who had liberated China from the decadent Quing Dynasty ... just as he would now liberate it from its current corrupt government. Just as he would liberate the world.
---------------
Captain Cymru floated above the three Vicious Boys, arms folded. "Barely free from prison and what do you do with that freedom? abuse it."
Carl, Edgar, and Eddie Vicious looked up at the woman. "'Oo the 'ell is that?" Carl said. The three of them looked like they had the physiques of bull elephants. Fortunately, based on what she'd read, they also had the intellectual capacities to match.
Edgar shrugged, reaching through the shattered glass window and stuffing the last of the jeweled necklaces into his coat pocket. "Dunno. Nice legs, though."
Diana sighed, doubly glad she'd chosen to modify the uniform Myrrdin had granted her so as to conceal her identity. "My name is Captain Cymru," she announced. She peered at them through her mask. "You'll be hearing a lot more about me soon. Would you like to surrender now?"
Eddie snorted. "Not by 'alf," he said, reaching through another section of the window, hand crashing through the glass as if it wasn't there.
"Let's do it the hard way, then," she said as she swept forward, taking Eddie by the arm and hoisting him in the air. "Oi!" he shouted as she whirled him around, upending him and sending him hurtling downwards. As his body struck the ground, she felt herself recoil in surprise. Her body experienced a direct response to his impact.
She understood it was a psychic echo and not a physical blow. "I understand people's suffering," she realised, "I feel people's pain." Nevertheless, it disoriented Diana enough that Carl was able to surprise her by picking up a parked motorcycle and hurtling it at her.
The momentum carried her backwards. She set the cycle down safely and then flew into the battle scene. "I'm just bumbling around," she thought, "I have to end this quickly."
Edgar stampeded towards her. "Ah'm gonna kick yer inta orbit," he grunted, building up speed. She swept her leg out, causing him to lose his balance, and grabbed him by the shoulders to propel him against the brick storefront. She winced as she felt him collide.
With an internal shudder, she rocketed towards Carl, buffeting him with her diamond-hard fists until she felt him go lax. She panted for breath, head throbbing, knuckles raw. She looked around, and saw the people on the street cheering her. "No, this isn't right," she started to say.
She soared skywards. I can't keep on this way, she thought to herself.
---------------
"You thought you and your little friends would just get away?"
Gareth Rhys, known as the Red Dragon, looked at the man who stood before him. From the color of his hair to his bodyshirt to the gladiatorial kilt he wore, the man glittered like gold; on his chest was the German eagle in black and red. "Masterman, they're innocent. We've fought alongside each other before ... you know that I wouldn't lie to you."
"I don't know anything about you British anymore," Masterman said. "Spying, industrial espionage, terrorism ... if we were natural allies once, we are no more."
Red Dragon scowled, wiping clean a trickle of blood from the scaled surface of his chin. "You dare accuse my country that way? After that Underground bombing? Your government all but took credit for it."
"You're not going to fool me with your BBC propaganda. Pick up your pieces and go home."
"Not without the British citizens you are holding," Red Dragon said, flying forwards towards his opponent.
Masterman seized him mid-air in a crushing grip and then slammed him down into the pavement, kicking him again with his boot. "I can't say that your talents haven't proven useful in the past, but the power to flutter about doesn't mean you've ever been close to my strength. Go back home, little lizard."
Red Dragon felt his ribs cracking. His breath constricted, he didn't dare attempt to use his fiery breath, not that it would have worked against Masterman's invulnerability, he suspected. With a moment of clarity, he remembered a secret confided in him once: der Ring des Schicksals ... the Ring of Fate. He gathered himself to his feet, and stumbled towards the other, as if attempting to wrestle him down.
Masterman waited, shaking his head in dismay. "I'd admire you if your case wasn't so hopeless," he said. He reached out for his opponent, and was surprised when he felt razor-sharp teeth clamp around the ring finger of his right hand, surrounding the golden ring. He started to shout an objection, and then he felt the flesh sever.
He screamed, his voice cracking, and Masterman disappeared amidst a flash of gold lightning. Red Dragon looked down at the unconscious body of Rodebrecht Pfeilmacher, a young boy in his early teens. "Hrm," he said in curiosity, and kneeled down. The boy was skinny and bespectacled, and while his features were not attractive, one could just about recognise a structural similarity to the perfect Aryan visage of the adult Masterman. The boy's missing finger appeared to have been sutured closed by the heat.
He brushed the dirt from his scales and his torn uniform, hoping that his distraction had been enough that the espionage team he'd been accompanying would be able to do their work. He extended his wings, flying crookedly towards the building which held the German government's interrogation centers, and then was encompassed within a blast of noise and heat and blinding flame as the building exploded before his eyes.
---------------
Diana peered uncomfortably at the device in her hands. "It's a gun?"
"Not exactly." Peter Chinnery grinned at her, where she sat in his laboratory.
She raised an eyebrow at him. Peter's scientific expertise had been invaluable to her when she'd studied at the New School in West Heath, and as she'd come to know him she'd learned that behind the young man's heavy spectacles and the mild-mannered exterior lay a subtle wit and a courageous heart. As she contemplated this second life she had been granted, she realised she could not accomplish her goals without his assistance.
She handed the weapon back. "I told you that I was sick of violence, that I want some other way to save the world. I want to demonstrate ... healing the world ... by using something other than my fists."
Peter's girlfriend, a lovely Eurasian girl named Oyone, whom Diana had just met, listened to the exchange with an oddly studious, analytical expression. Finally, she smiled too, her grin matching Peter's. "Then Peter's new invention will be just what you're looking for," she purred. She took a bite of an apple she'd been carrying, and then tossed it straight at Peter's head.
Peter reacted quickly, and fired the gun, which made a quiet 'thwip' sound. A weblike substance emitted from the muzzle of the gun, which connected with the apple in mid-air and knocked it against a nearby wall, whereupon the substance resolved itself into a pale goop which held the apple in place. "I call it Plastrix," he said, "it's an adhesive stronger than steel, but it completely dissolves after an hour to an environmentally inert substance."
"Oh!" Diana's eyes widened, "Peter, thank you! I love it!"
Peter's grin widened. "Let me show you this other little trick I've been working on ... do you think you have any government contacts still who may be interested in antigravity?"
---------------
General Devilliers looked at the profile marked Genetic Coding: GP80114G. "Is she trustworthy?" he asked.
Sir Marcus hesitated before answering. "Blodwen Reese broke free from Mys-Tech's and Oonagh Mullarkey's control, and has been operating as a free agent since then. She has technically been a mercenary, though has steered clear of overt illegalities, and despite a somewhat ... volatile and incendiary character ... has displayed a strong tendency towards civic responsibility."
Devilliers nodded. "You have also been employing Owen Llewelyn, codenamed Gog, yes? The only successful remnant of an attempt to imitate the Americans' Super Soldier programme. And of course military branch has Gareth Rhys, the Red Dragon, from the Taskforce UK project."
"It has proven exceptionally difficult to produce metahumans on demand," Sir Marcus mused. "The laws of physics and biology seem reluctant to bend to our will."
"They are just such a motley lot," Devilliers replied. "Queen Minna is quite right: Prime Minister Asquith's government is in disarray, and we need symbols behind whom the people can rally in these difficult times. Stinger ... that is what the Reese girl calls herself, yes? ... is hardly appropriate, and the other two are physical freaks." He stood up and walked to the window, peering out through the one-way glass. The Caerdydd borough of Teml was darkened, as was the rest of the city; the only illumination came from the aerial bombardment which rained chaos on the city streets, and from the city's own returned fire. "A Eurasian war. Who would have thought of such a thing, in this day and age?"
"Our allies the French have it worse than us," Sir Marcus reminded him. "We are protected by the channel, and far from intrusion by German or Russian tanks."
"Although the Italians have declared war on France as well," Devilliers countered. "At least we are not alone, with Denmark and Sweden warring on Germany, and Austria and Sweden fighting Russia."
"And the Chinese, of course, trampling across Russia on its Eastern front. Will they stop at the Baltic states, I wonder?"
"Genghis Khan did." He sighed and peered out the window once more. "This all started in such confusion ... a German secret service operative sets off a bomb in the city for an unknown reason, and then they accuse some of our minor diplomatic staff of being spies and lock them away ... and then it escalated after one of their own government buildings was bombed which set off a flurry of further accusations. I wonder who is out there, Sir Marcus. Who will lead us?"
---------------
On the Bevan estate in the village of Llareggub, Owen Llewelyn looked up from his book with a grunt as the phone rang. "What?" he said irritably.
"Owen, it's Sir Marcus," said the voice on the other line. "Are you ready for a job?"
The man snorted, folding down a corner of the page in his copy of Over Cheese Log, and then laying his book down. "You're paying, I'm ready. What do you want me to do, head over to Deutschland and give Chancellor Adenoid a good kicking?"
Sir Marcus chuckled politely. "No, though it's tempting. But we have a simpler job which could wind up to be much more dangerous to the Germans. There's a man named Peter Chinnery who needs a military escort."
The man glanced out the window, and thought he saw one of his daughters, Kelly, walking down the block on the arms of a young man. He narrowed his eyes, and focused the cybernetic implant on them. As they telescoped into clarity, he saw it was Ned Ralston. Ralston was a good boy, if slightly bookish. Harmless enough. "Well, I'm your man," he said into the phone. "Just pass me the details."
After Sir Marcus returned the phone to its cradle, he smiled grimly to General Devilliers. "Gog is on it. If Chinnery's designs work as well as the early tests indicate, and we force them into accelerated production, the Germans will be due for a nasty surprise. If they try to advance further, with any luck, Chinnery's antigrav 'warm jets' will be ready to put paid to the German blitz and anyone else who tries to invade our airspace."
---------------
General Ching walked into the office, involuntarily shivering as he always did, at the low temperatures the Chairman preferred. He bowed low. "Doctor Sun?"
The humanoid form turned to face him, if face was the word. The entity which was once Li Ku Yu had long since fashioned a robotic body to house his disembodied brain, though he had gone through no trouble to fit the human sense of aesthetic. The grey matter floated, clearly visible, in a translucent bubble, and the mechanical optic sensors focused on the General. "How goes the war effort?"
Ching, as ever, was acutely uncomfortable in the Doctor's presence. His practiced visage was typically impenetrable, and he knew his men considered him lacking in all human feelings, as was appropriate. Nevertheless, he felt physically and emotionally soft before the cybernetic entity before him; the pair of them clearly representing mankind before and after science "We will soon be within striking distance of Europe," he said. "They are still in complete disarray. They exhaust themselves while we gather our forces at their borders."
Doctor Sun paused, and Ching had the sense that he would have smiled had he a mouth capable of it. "The inferior white races have fallen easily to my manipulations, and soon they will fall completely before our master race."
"I have additional news, Doctor. A weapon which could have troubled us had we not taken precautions. One of our British agents who goes by the name Oyone has delivered to us plans for an antigravity device."
One of our British agents ... and a woman, yet ... how appropriate, Doctor Sun thought to himself. I'll have my revenge on you yet, Diana, you and the rest of the country that spawned you.
---------------
Diana curled up before the television set, watching the news grimly. "It's getting worse, isn't it, Peter?"
Peter Chinnery nodded. "It must have been Oyone. I was stupid."
The news broadcast images of fleets of antigrav craft, along with the Chinese army, marching crushingly across Asia and Europe. "The RAF adopted your 'warm jet' design, didn't they?"
"I don't think it's enough," he replied.
"It's all we have," she said.
He turned to her, with the same wry smile she had seen on him before. "No it isn't."
---------------
Gog looked up into the air. The dark of night was eerily quiet save for the water lapping below his feet, but with his enhanced vision he could see the silent fleet of streamlined planes soaring southwards across the skies. He knew that, from across the Channel, a much larger fleet was heading to meet them. He scowled as he recognised a pair of humanoid figures amongst the aeroplanes: a gargoyled figure possessing red skin, bat-like wings, and sharp teeth; and a woman clad in a gold cloak and a revealing black outfit.
Red Dragon and Stinger, he thought to himself. I ought to be up there with them. Instead, all I've been useful for in this war is as a messenger boy. He was distracted from his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder. He turned quickly, to see a familiar face. "Mister Llewelyn?"
"Ned Ralston?" Gog blinked. "What are you doing so far from Llareggub?"
Ned peered up at him ... which faces tended to do, as Gog was over seven feet tall. "I ... I came here because I wanted to help."
Gog scowled at him. "This is useless, boy. You should have signed on. If you want to be helpful now, go home and take care of your mother."
Ned shook his head, "No, I mean ... " the boy swallowed, looking acutely uncomfortable. "I ... please don't tell Kelly about this, but ... one of the reasons I started seeing her was to get to know you ... I'm a mutant, Mister Llewelyn."
"You think this is going to flatter me? You break my little girl's heart and I will break your spine. Well, what do you have, twelve toes? Unless you can get me up there, don't waste my time."
"Yes sir," the boy said, and before Gog's astonished eyes, the boy's features started to redden, then shift and change. Scales sprouted from his skin, and wings from his back. He then began to increase in size ... and soon Gog stood before an immense dragon, nearly 150' in length. "Well shite, the Red Dragon ain't got nothing on you, boy," he whooped. "Can you talk in this form?"
The dragon shook its head.
Gog placed a hand on its hot, scaly surface, and boosted himself up on its back. He pointed towards the south. "Here come the warm jets," he said. "Let's go join them." And with a flap of its great wings, the immense, red-scaled dragon took to the skies.
---------------
Red Dragon soared after Stinger, "Slow down, you're breaking formation."
She turned mid-air to look at him. "You're a veteran, aren't you? I know you're supposed to be the grand old man of the modern day superhero set, but you sure are a martinet." Her energetic propulsion was much faster than his winged flight, and it took some effort not to overtake the fleet. She did slow down, though.
"We'll be in battle soon enough. Don't be so eager to rush into it." He still found the silence of the jets unnerving, but the speed and maneuverability of the antigrav fleet were unquestionably superior to the old style.
Then he saw it, cresting over the channel ... the Nova Prime: an enormous vessel modeled after a dragon; completely lacking in aerodynamics though it mattered little with antigrav technology, and the psychological impact was enormous. He half-smiled to himself ... it's to be Welsh versus Chinese dragons? So be it. Alongside the Nova Prime was the vast Chinese fleet, modeled to resemble angular kites.
He shifted position to align with the team attacking the Nova Prime, passing by a pilot that he knew. "I've got your back, Apgar," he said and gave the man a thumb's up. Then, everything changed.
The silence disappeared in the sound of screaming metal. He blasted kite after kite with his fiery breath, landing where he could on a plane and tearing away at its engine. He glanced to the side to see Stinger, slim form aglow with energy as she blasted at their opponents. He got closer to the floating Nova Prime in time to see its cannon ports open, firing forth aerial mines which blazed paths through the British forces.
He landed on one of the cannon, tearing and melting it to pieces. He started on a second one, when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye ... and witnessed a furious flame greater than his own pour forth.
He peered at the living dragon which soared towards him, and saw with relief that it was apparently on his side. He recognised the immense man who rode on its back like a cowboy. "Gog ... what the hell?"
Gog grinned, "Say hello to your cousin ... I think we'll call him Pendragon."
Red Dragon arced an eyebrow, pleased but amazed at the sight. "Glad to have everyone along," he said. He felt a sharp pain and saw that he'd been winged by a bullet from one of the kites, and broke off to attack it, leaving the Nova Prime to his 'cousin.'
Off in the distance he saw Apgar's jet, working as flight leader, as he and his wingman looped up and then circled around behind a group of their enemies to bring them down ... and saw the wingman fall into the water under a hail of bullets as that segment of the battle was joined.
He dispatched his opponent and saw with despair that the numbers of the silver jets seemed reduced in proportion to the golden Chinese ones. There was a burst of light above them, and he looked up to see Stinger, having exhausted the last of her energy, tumbling towards the ground. He shouted out, "Pendragon, help her!"
The dragon backed through the air, and the girl landed in Gog's waiting arms. "Well look what I've caught," he said with a leer, ogling her scantily clad form.
Stinger scowled at him. "Just let me get to my backup energy storage pods ... and keep your hands to yourself."
Pendragon turned his head to look at his charges. They all saw the way the battle was turning. "We need to regroup," Gog said. "We need ..."
His words were interrupted by the cry of woman's voice. Advancing on the fleet was a redheaded woman clad in green, white, and red, carrying with her the largest Union Jac flag he'd ever seen: red dragon passant at the center, with bars representing the crosses of England, Scotland, and Ireland radiating outwards from its heart. Her cry somehow seemed to penetrate the minds of all the combatants:
Cymru Am Byth!
Gog shook his head in bemusement; the woman's helm was now open to a face he had seen on television countless times. "Well I'll be damned," he said, "if it isn't the People's Princess."
As she advanced on the airborne battleground, the jets rallied behind her. She tilted the flag back, and Gog saw that what he'd taken for a flagpole was in fact some sort of technological artifact. From its muzzle came Peter Chinnery's new invention, the Redlike Ray, shining like a laser as she arced it across the Chinese fleet. He saw that as the ray struck the Chinese combatants it seemed to blind them, and they screamed as they tried to pilot through their internal blackness. In its wake, the kites lost control and fell or crashed into one another.
"Cymru Am Byth!" Gog shouted, as he and Pendragon rejoined the battle in earnest.
As the Chinese fleet fell into disarray, the remaining jets focused their attentions on the immense Nova Prime, with Red Dragon and Pendragon at their side. The former glanced back at Captain Cymru, to see her drooping in mid-air. Even suspended as she was, her posture looked bruised and battered, though there were no visible physical wounds. He flew towards her, and caught the massive flag as it drooped towards the ground. From above, he shouted once more, "Cymru Am Byth!" holding the flag of his nation in one arm, and the personification of his nation in the other.
---------------
General Ching burst through the door. "My apologies, Doctor, but have you seen ... " He stopped as he saw the sword held in the mechanical hands. The other end had been used to pierce through the tank which held the nutritive liquid keeping the brain alive.
On the counter was a note in an envelope which was directed to an address in the United Kingdom. Ching opened the envelope and began to read. "Your Royal Highness," it said in English. "Congratulations ... "
Captain Cymru, Gog, Pendragon, Red Dragon, Stinger, and Doctor Sun trademark and copyright Marvel Comics, Inc.
The Vicious Boys trademark and copyright Stephen Mellor.
Li Ku Yu copyright the estate of M.P. Shiel.
Many aspects of the plot are borrowed from "To Arms!"/"The Dragon" by M.P. Shiel; thanks to Jess Nevins' research for providing information about the character of Li Ku Yu (buy his books!).
Some aspects of Captain Cymru's origin sequence have been modeled after Captain UK's from "Memories from a Distant Home" by Stephen Mellor, with his permission.
It was a mistake of mine to think Ned Ralston was Welsh, but he had already been established as such in the earlier written sequel, "Another Gwyrrd World;" I had originally planned for him to approach Captain Cymru in costume but it was more convenient mid-story to connect him with Gog)