OCCULT ORISONS AND PRINT PRISONS

By Quillon42

When the two of them made love, when Eden and Lukasz came together at last in a manner that involved a mundane melding only of bodies—no psyche swaps or anything else so Ultraversaciously unconventional—they believed that, in that moment of carnal release, they would finally create something that was beautiful and durable, that would stand for at least decades to come.

Goodness knew that Eden Blake, as well as those closest to her, had deserved as much. The woman herself had her fabulous figure coopted impromptu by a warrior whose mind displaced hers in the midst of a sorcerous undertaking that spanned centuries. The warrior, Lukasz, had been forced into Eden's fair frame by the magical machinations of his otherworldly employer, a man known by name and by occupation as Archimage. Swept up in all of this too was Eden's daughter Evie—a girl of elementary school age who at this time in her life should only have been concerned with conquering certain homework assignments and not panicking about who was occupying her mother's form.

After several months during which Lukasz's mind adventured within Eden's body—the two coming together as one to become the heroine Mantra—an off-planet ordeal ended with each in the pair plunked back into his or her own original physique…or at least a semblance of it. The hero of so many centuries celebrated with his lady of the Malibu Nineties by seeing in the incoming new year in both festive and fleshly ways. It was such a relief, spiritually—and such a rush, sexually—for the two to be able to come together for once in a way that did not involve the mystical mission to which Lukasz had been bound for a millennium and a half.

…But, of course, said occult obligations were bound to recur, even in those most intimate and unexpected moments. Just the morning following the couple's first tryst, Eden emerged from the privy appearing nine months full with child. Neither she nor her antediluvian lover could posit who or what had put this into motion, but nevertheless they pursued the superperson known as Penny, or Pinnacle, for medical assistance on this. Said Penny/Pinnacle was once an automated assistant to a loathsome corporate mogul named JD Hunt…but then she became somewhat self-aware, actualized her abilities, and optimized her potential. As a result, Penny left Hunt spent in the dust and went off on her own to capitalize on her own assets and exploits. Because the automated lady seemed to be knowledgeable and powerful in this sensitive area concerning the conception of life, Eden and Lukasz looked to her for answers and aid.

With Penny's help, then, the extemporaneous infant emerged effortlessly from Eden's insides—and, romanticizing the happenstance as much as they could, the latter and Lukasz agreed that the new baby girl would be christened Marinna, after the ancient warrior's wife of so long ago. Despite the sudden shock of the unscheduled arrival, the two lovers had looked upon this occurrence in a gracious light, as an opportunity to bond in yet another way through this bright product of their union.

Just as conception came on so abruptly, though…so did maturation. Within minutes of the infant's entrance into the cold world outside of Eden's womb, the creature somehow mystically copped Mantra's mask—and manifested itself now not as a miniature Marinna, but rather as the nefarious Necromantra—the corrupted counterpart to the ultraheroine. Said Necro flexed her oversexed figure as she emerged, just as the alluring chestnut-tressed evil brandished the spiked lash which she wielded in an attempt to match Mantra's own fabled Sword of Fangs. It was just there, in that same room in which the demoness was birthed, that she opposed the parents who bore her.

(And in turn it bore mentioning, as one last post of exposition, that the soul of said Necro was that of none other than Thanasi, the old stalwart ally of Lukasz who also occupied bundles of bodies over the centuries, and betrayed his fellow heroes for the promise of immortality. It was Thanasi's belief now that bringing down his old friend and his literal soulmate Eden would bring him one step closer to his eras-spanning objective.)

At any rate, it was now the same turn of events as one might have witnessed in the printed pages of the style-over-substance stint known as the Nineties Era of comics, that age dominated by flashy costumes, fluffy plotlines, and insidiously appallingly loathsome sideways-page-panel layouts. Consistent with the events that Mantra fan-tras might have remembered, after a brief yet barbarous battle of mystical abilities, the provocative yet pernicious Necromantra had his/her old compatriot and the latter's lover on the ropes, Lukasz's body all but beaten and blasted almost out of existence. Eden was holding up her end of the heroing quite well, at least for someone who was more into childbearing and childcaring than crusading against evil for fifteen hundred years. Unfortunately, though, her A-level efforts fell short in affording Lukasz any kind of fate other than a state of near-expiration at the hands and concussive force blasts of Thanasi.

In the reality with which readers might recall, what transpired at this juncture was that Eden and Lukasz Mantra-melded once more, reverting the old warrior back into the woman's body and rendering the lady's psyche effectively erased for all time. When Lukasz would emerge from the bout against his old traitorous compatriot, he would have to deal with an exponentially more exigent encounter in explaining to Eden's daughter Evie nearby that the girl would never truly see her mother again, even though the lady's body was there in the flesh. The hoary hero would then go on to serve as surrogate mother in spirit while continuing to live in Eden's actual, physical place. And Evie would come in time to accept and even enjoy this—though the abscess in her heart generated from the permanent absence of her real mother would never really heal.

Something that could certainly, retroactively act as a balm for the brash young girl, though, was the authorial magic of retroactive alternation (perhaps to be portmanteaued as "retalting"?). As this author has done before in various stories involving that most malodorous Machine which eventually masticated this Malibu universe, he now invites the old Mantra fan-tras to imagine an alternate reality, one which would render much more satisfied and gratified these three brave figures changed so cogently by fate. For the sake of Eden's encountering actual empowerment for once; for the sake of Evie's avoidance of a possible future dysfunctional upbringing; and for the sake of Lukasz's lucking out as much as he would deserve for faithfully serving his occult overlord for so many centuries…let us consider what might have happened differently during the last Mantra-meld between the ancient hero and his latter-day lady.

"Eden…take the mask…become Mantra…!"

"I'm not Mantra…we are! You know that, Lukasz…!"

"No…I promised I'd never leave you…!"

But then, in this reality…the Change…Growth…Power mantra that activated the eponymous man/woman hero who chanted it…what resulted was not Lukasz back in the cerebral driver's seat of Eden Blake…

…but rather the mind of the modern maiden herself.

"YOU!" shouted this new, all-Eden Mantra, as she now addressed the Necro enemy so stridently, "YOU'RE the one responsible for the loss of Lukasz!"

As she swung out, with a new ferocity, granted her by the fighting prowess and talents bequeathed to her by said expired warrior—these parts being that which never would, in truth, ever leave Eden—the newly-endowed lady struck Necro/Thanasi fiercely and ever more fiercely with the falchion of Fangs. "We were supposed to be together, Lukasz and I, you body-hopping whore."

As she severed the luscious legs out from under Necromantra's top-heavy torso: "We earned the right to be happy—he especially did, having endured all he did all this time!"

As the henna-haired head followed in Eden's disgusting duty of dismemberment: "But you…

"I should have flicked the Fangs sword on inside of me and aborted you…before you could even emerge through the birth canal."

It then came to pass that, on the strength of Eden's brute force, imbued with the assistance, again, of Lukasz's centuries of sword-skills, the heroine hacked her foul foe to the point at which the latter went from Necromantra to negligible human trash.

Eden stood proudly, yet pantingly over the remains of the evil that plagued and parted her from her lover. Although she was empowered more than ever in her life, and really just about had it all now—her life fully back in mind and body, with ultra abilities to boot, not to mention the children she adored so much as well as her corporate career at Aladdin—there was still a loss that lingered within her that she felt she would never remedy, at least not in the waking world.

She could sense, seconds later, that Evie was just literally around the corner—Penny having removed the little girl from the graphic conflict just when Eden was starting to make it very bloody for Thanasi. The child would have the inevitable question for her…

"Are you…my mommy…?"

…and unlike what was arguably the most poignant and heartwrenching instant in all of Mantra's very limited Malibu run, in which the Lukasz-occupying lady would have to tell Evie that the psyche of her mother had departed for the duration…

…here, all the Eden-minded and Eden-bodied Blake would have to say, to lift her daughter's spirits once again, was…

"Yes, my little Button. It's me."

And the tears that would streak down the miniature moppet's face would not be those of anguish…but rather of elation.

And Eden would endure far into the future as one of the oldest ultras in skill, while being the most mighty and motherly in soul.

…But what of the luck of Lukasz, one might ask…?

He found himself on a bewildering dreamscape of sorts—that same astral atmosphere wherein he first encountered the consciousness of Eden Blake after taking over her body not long before. Only this time, the woman whom he met with had hair not of a bold midnight black, but a warm, mahogany brown which was all too familiar to him…

"…

"…Marinna…?"

It was her, indeed, in the flesh as well as in the spirit. It was in this way that the warrior was rewarded for his efforts all these years. After so much adventuring out into the ether of epochs under the service of Archimage…he was back home once again.

And this time, there would be no interference with his home life…not by Archimage or by artifice otherwise. Because if anyone knew of the baseness of a broken home, it was the women who were sometimes left behind in them.

"We didn't want you to suffer forever, Lukasz…"

"No one should be made to contend with that for all time."

The old soldier turned while in the arms of his first and most fantastic lady love. Before him were three ladies who were youthful and voluptuous: one sported yellow-blonde hair, another was brunette in hue, and the third was golden-blonde. They divided their address evenly amongst themselves as they continued to approach the man in the arms of his original lady.

"Lukasz…" said the golden-blonde lady, who had not yet spoken, "You have met us before. We were the three gray-haired brides of Boneyard, who opposed you so many times under his magicks. But the collective efforts of Eden and yourself have set us free; through that bony bastard's destruction, we have inherited his energies and have been using them for good."

"And we have no intention of returning the power to our first husband, Archimage," continued the brunette maiden, who was the second one to speak upon the ladies' appearance into this astral area. "The residue of the mystic abilities first bestowed upon us by said derelict wizard…they are all ours now."

"But we intend to utilize the power all for the sake of good," finished the yellow-blonde, who was first to speak upon the trio's first alighting here. "After all, for example…who do you think brought you here?"

The soldier could only smile as he found himself facing, then, the benefactresses who brought him back into Marinna's embrace. Everything was well again…

…Although he couldn't help but wonder about one thing.

"And what of Eden Blake?"

The three derelict's-ex-wives said nothing, but merely chanted a second and generated a portal through which Lukasz could espy Eden, reading a bedtime ballad to her Evie, who fell asleep peacefully in her mother's arms—much more tranquilly than the man had ever seen or felt the girl rest in Eden's arms when he commandeered that body.

Satisfied at this resolution of events, the man crossed his arms snugly. Even more so when Eden caught sight of him gazing out at her—as she could perceive under the aegis of her ultra abilities—and the raven-maned lady waved back at him. All seemed to be in its proper place once more.

But then it set the man to ponder just one more item.

"…Sorry, ladies," he said, causing the three to turn their heads in unison as he beckoned for them one last time. "What of Thanasi?"

They looked off to the side a second, then nodded collectively. Waving their hands, they gently closed the portal to view Eden Blake and opened another, one which would fade in time from color to sepia to black/white. Inside, the time-honored traitor cowered in his original form, along with a comely, shapely blonde decked out in the tackiest Sixties lovechild duds.

"Kismet Deadly," Lukasz said, recognizing the young female figure…or at least, the semblance of same, as Kismet never really enjoyed existence beyond being that of an image. Even the others in this fictional 'verse still had lives, and interpersonal connections—but KD here was only an astral projection.

Now, as it appeared, so was Thanasi to join her.

"The time of the Print Age is nearing its end," said the golden-blonde bride, which Lukasz realized in full as he watched the dimension existing through that portal, noticed its parameters pushing inward ever so slowly. "For their transgressions, these two have been relegated to this primitively-published past for all time."

"Malibu is destined to reclaim itself from the clutches of the Machine." Now it was the brunette bride speaking. "And arising from the ashes will be no phoenix or anything so mentally subversive…but rather something much more serene, a pleasant pheasant instead, something which would never be so obnoxious or inflated."

"We are nearing the Digital Era, Lukasz," stated the yellow-blonde in closing, as the three ladies started to leave the hero and Marinna to their own intimate activities for all time. "You two, we three, and Eden, her family, and so many other Ultras like Mantra…they will all be included. These…threats, however…they are fated to be flung back into the premillennial past, with no hope of parole."

And so Lukasz kept watching the interdimensional opening, through which Thanasi and Kismet Deadly could only watch back and never hope to traverse through. The hero reflected in the back of his mind on how his most impassioned prayers—his most fervent orisons—had been answered, both in the return of Eden to the heavenly Eden of her family and her own body…as well as the return of Lukasz's own person to his respective frame, as well as the arms of his original, loving lady.

In turn, the more insidious pair, Kismet and Thanasi, they felt an embrace all around them of a shrinking, smothering world whose hold was much tighter than any "big hug" Eden could ever bestow upon Evie, or any grasp Lukasz in which could engage with Marinna…

…but also a restraint which was not amorous but ominous, which was bondage without fondness, prison without passion, a fetter without a future.