1

"So what are you really up to, Yori?", Kim asked. "And don't tell me closure or taking care of me."

Yori frowned just as slightly and demurely as her smile. "An evil has always perculated around Master Stoppable, or at least for the past few years. It is why we invited him to our campus before he became. We struggled to determine what it was. For a time, we believed it was Lord Fiske as he was exposed to the marker and had a penchant for talismans and other constructs. Then the Yono imprisoned him and the aura continued. That was what motivated Master Sensei to warn Master Stoppable. But then there were the Lowardians. Not exactly supernatural evil but a menace to the world none the less. But we continued to sense this ominousness. All the way until his passing.

"It is still here, somewhere in Middleton. But without Master Stoppable as a center there's no way for us to focus on it anymore."

"That fits my evidence.", Will contributed. "If I could describe it absolutely any other way, I would. But that's just it. It's like a whirlpool of evil descended on this town around a few months before the Ron Factor studies. Super villains that are documented and evidenced geniuses flock here no matter how inane. Occurances that defy description continue to plague this community.

"But you said you had to use Mr. Stoppable for a focus. Why would you have to do that?"

"Master, not mister.", Yori corrected. "He was the Ultimate Master of Mystical Monkey Power."

"No he was not.", Will insisted. "The Ron Factor investigated every possible facet of Ronald Stoppable with every conceivable scientific test and found no such 'power'."

"Conceivable?", Yori repeated. "That the world is limited to what you can conceive. Has he always been this arrogant, Possible-san?"

"You have no idea.", the other girl agreed.

Will sighed. "So what exactly is MMP?"

"No one has ever known.", Yori replied. "It took many men many years to learn how to identify its masters.

"And your evidence points to one legend of a master. The first was Master Umbuto who honed his control in the jungle continent. And nearly as soon as he did, Master Umbuto was faced with an opponent that seemed manifested to test him.

"A full season was spent clearing the land of the criminals and horrors that permeated it. The creature left a wake of evil that 'stank of a thousand twisted chambers into the earth'. Every villain that was defeated along the way to finding the monster could not offer a reason why they had moved into the area, only that they had been 'called' to 'serve'. The beast's passing had whispered a siren's call to anything that was damned and walking.

"When Master Umbuto found the phantasm the legend becomes more allegorical. It is said that the single fight lasted for one hundred and eight moons. The creature wore a 'sea of blood that lived on its own without wind' and 'snakes of ore'. Its skin was 'liquid onyx' and 'deadlier than the teeth of the fiercest lion'. And that is only when the 'shadow of mystery' and 'rumors of hate' existed at all. His Tai Sheng Pek Kwar was proven against 'the skill of the greatest killer the dead have ever had the grace to serve'. When it was angered it sprayed emerald flames. When it bled, 'glowing poisons ruined life unto the depths of diamonds'."

Yori shrugged. "The actual epic is one hundred and eight one hundred and eights of repeating haiku. It ends with the Jungle having been roasted, rotted and crushed to become what his now known as the Sahara Desert. The battle had starved and slaughtered the indigenous population to the point where they felt that there was nothing left to lose. The people Master Umbuto had sought to protect attacked him. Rather than turn on them, he fled to the farthest land he knew. A student of his teachings transcribed the epic after founding our school."

Both Kim and Will had raised eyebrows and questioning glares directed at Yori.

Kim tried. "Are you saying that you suspect this monster has returned? And has just hung out in Middleton for years? And murdered Ron...because its evil?"

"Ms. Possible, legends aside you can't be entertaining this.", Will scoffed.

"Monkey Fist nearly turned me into a monkey. The Yono, Jackie the Jackal, and don't get me started about overdue library books!", Kim admonished. "Plus...I saw what Ron could do. It...there was no cause for that storm of power."

"There is a British saying.", Yori explained. "I believe it was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, through the lips of Sherlock Holmes, who said 'If one eliminates the impossible then whatever remains-no matter how improbable-must be the truth'. Our evidence is that there has been a localized wave of tangible evil that has managed to bring the corrupt to serve its master. Something managed to best Master Stoppable. I cannot think of even a reference to anything that powerful besides a ヘルスポーン. Sorry, a 'Whelp of Hell', I think is the translation. Or perhaps 'Cub of Hades'?"

Kim shook her head. "That's it. I'm bringing Wade in on this.

"Don't worry. I'll keep you two off screen."

The red head walked to a corner of her living room so that the conversation could be heard without instantly placing Will and Yori in frame of the Kimmunicator's camera. "Wade, I need a secure channel and you to shut off the sensors of the Kimmunicator."

"Okay...", Wade answered cautiously. "You better not follow this with a ransom demand or else I'm going to be mad enough to go real world.

"You've been through enough lately."

Kim nearly smiled.

"Alright, got the sensors down.", Wade notified. "What's up?"

"Can you find me anything you can on a 'Whelp of Hell'?", Kim asked. "The translation is from Japanese."

"You want concrete information about a demon from Japanese mythology.", Wade reminded. "That'll take...got something.

"A book has been shipped from La Universidad de Ciudad de Mexico to the Museo Nacional de Antropologia. It's title translates as 'My Damnation as Spawn of Hell'. It's written by a conquistador, Cogliostro de Castille-Leon. Summarizing the novel and..."

"Alright. It's early fiction and is written from the perspective of the author as if a diary. Cogliosto claims he was killed in Spain's unification war under King Ferdinand, by Morgan le Faye because he was Merlin and a few more graphic fights. The running theme is that he can't exactly remember because his memory was taken from him but whatever the cause, he was in deep with secret military issues of the time as an uniquely skilled...murderer."

Wade stared at Kim through the screen. "Are you sure you need to be hearing this, Kim? It's only been/"

"Yes.", Kim answered. "I'd tell you more, but I trust you. Others might not."

"Is that why you had me turn off the sensors in the Kimmunicator?", Wade continued.

Kim stared hard at the ninja and the semi-secret agent. "Don't ask, please and thank you. Just go on with this book you found."

Wade pursed his lips, then continued. "The author goes on to describe his descent into hell. He was confronted by a 'king of the damned' but it doesn't seem to be Satan or Lucifer or even the Devil. He describes a great court with vassals and even a jester. The demon king gave him an offer, eternal damnation for the sins he committed or become the leader of his armies. His purpose would be to turn the world into such a horrible place that evil would reign supreme. This in turn would kill enough souls to tip the balance between hell and heaven. This would allow Armaggedon to happen only with the Host-the angels that became demons when they helped Lucifer demand worship from God-winning. He demanded to return to his family in exchange.

"Cogliostro is given a Scarlet Shroud. It moves at his will but instinctualy covers him. The cape wraps up enemies, treasures, victims, etc. It guards him as a shield and moves to interfere with any attack. It can cloak him in darkness to the point that he can fall in and out of any shadow, cloak him in invisibility and wrap him in any disguise he commanded.

"Cogliostro is chained with the same chains that bind the damned souls of hell in their eternal slavery and torment. Jeez. *ahem* They act as attack dogs that he is leashed to. They destroy his enemies but bind him to a path of violence.

"He is then given his true armor. It's like a pet slimy ink that can turn into...well, anything as long as it's military. Blades, coffins, tentacles that lace in the chains... And it heals his injuries.

"And since he was once touched by the flames of hell, it's impossible for him to cool to an earthly temperature. Sometimes he wields a green flame, like an iodine fire, as a magical attack. Sometimes he simply places his hands on a person and burns into their mind.

"But his greatest ability is at the cost of the other damned. The energy of their souls is given for him to wield. He has a limited omnipotence that costs its weight in the existence of the condemned. If he uses that up, then he falls back into hell for his own damnation."

Wade rubbed his face. "Kim, this doesn't make any sense. The character is way too powerful for any work of literature's protaganist. The only value the museum is expecting is the insight into the mind of someone living in the Age of Exploration."

"Age of Conquest.", Kim said while gesturing to someone off screen. "Just go on, Wade."

The boy took a deep breath and a sip of his ever present soda.

"Cogliostro comes back to earth in his family's native village. But for the first fortnight, he doesn't remember anything. The village attacks him as a monster and he burns it down and rap...hurts everyone, including children and the elderly, to death. After he forgets this but remembers who he was he is told that a man with darkness for skin committed the act. Not realizing it was himself, Cogliostro is filled with a rage against every person on the planet with non-white skin.

"Then he is given his first mission by a demon that acts like his handler in the story. He is told to kill the political enemies of and guide the more corrupt of mariners to King Ferdinand of Spain. You see, Queen Isabella believed she made a pact with God for King Ferdinand to unite Spain in exchange for using the kingdom's resources for converting what she called heathens to Christians. That's why the Italion Christopher Columbus couldn't find financial backing anywhere in Europe but was granted three ships by Spain: they were to find a route to new converts. Cogliostro's missions get people like Cortez in the exploration business in order...oh, god. In order to to bring looting and warfare to first contact with the peoples of the New World. The goal was to have victimizers be the first to get to the Indians (the people that Columbus described as 'un gente de Dios' or 'a people of God') so that they could be stolen from. The returning treasure and conquered territory would give the kings of Europe a reason to accept hurting non-white skinned people.

"The book goes on like this. If you accept it at face value, Cogliostro blames himself for inventing modern racism. I mean, throughout history, people have always found a reason to dislike people who were different. It's an evolutionary defense mechanism: humans primary tool of survival are things we learn, and if that education becomes too unmanageable to learn from excess outside influence people without modern technology lost their communities. But the author describes himself as the monster that diseased native Americans with small pox laced blankets, adultered the first evolutionary discoveries with the desire to place white people on top of others as 'perfect' and 'holy', fueling Crusades... He demands that the reader believe he's responsible for everything from African slavery to colonization to even Nazism and the foundations of the War on Terror.

"It ends with him realizing that his missions aren't worth avoiding hell for. So he surrenders his Scarlet Shroud to an angel. The book stops there."

And this is when Wade became truly frightened. "The museum says that the writing doesn't stop there, the book does. It was eaten away by something that must have been a flammable acid, much like the blood of the Hell Spawn, but they can't confirm what it was."

Wade hunched over his keyboard typing furiously. "According to my calculations, the splatter pattern matches that of a full grown man at the height people were during the Renaissance having been decapitated by a flaming sword.

"Kim, are you after something like this for real? This would be way too dangerous. It doesn't sound like something like Gil or Diablo robots. You need to at least pass it on to someone better able to handle it, like Yamonouchi or Global Justice."

Kim cut off his concerns. "You rock Wade!", she said with too much false cheer.

Yori gazed questioningly at the Du. "I concede that there are too many matches between your ancient poem and this newly discovered book to be coincidence. And I will give you that the separation of your culture and it prior to the time of writing means that the two could have been based on each other, or the work of a single organization."

"A single earthly organization.", Yori lamented. "If Yomi...er, Hell itself is where these ghosts come from, then the 'inspiration' for these legends is obvious."

"I can't go back to Dr. Director with this.", the agent informed. "She barely tolerated me following up on this case during my own leave. There's no way she'll authorize was these stories claim is needed on the basis of myth and circumstantial evidence. Even having lost Mr. Stoppable."

"Then we find it.", Kim commanded. "And when we do, we send it back to hell."

"Are you certain that we can?", Will asked.

"Ron always believed I could do anything.", Kim replied. "I'm not going to let him down."

2

Angela walked the streets of Middleton without rest. She was determined to find exactly who...what she was searching for. And when she did, it would not be happy to see her.

3

The phantasm slumbered under its sapphire shroud. It dreamed of Señor Senior Jr. vulgarly, clumsily, ear-splittingly crooning on stage and the lithe red-head dazzled and amazed by his brutally offensive display. Standing in a crowd of likewise screaming girls was the blonde boy...dressed like a girl. The monster knew it was symbolism that illustrated how far away from any romantic attachment the boy who served the girl's every whim was. It could not be a memory-that would be entirely to cruel.

But the monster had grown to nearly welcome these visions. It steeled its heart for the murder it must commit. No matter what his emotions told him, the girl must die. And soon it would be time. He could feel the approach of fate in its necroplasm infused 'flesh'.

4

The clown, still clad in ill fitting denim and unflattering and unwashed underwear, sat on a bench trying to convince a child that the entity was a perfectly acceptable clown. The performer tried by making a balloon naked mole rat. And even though there was never an intention of a single twist, just to hand over a wrinkled, barely inflated pink balloon, the clown failed.

The clown could smell what was coming.

And it could not stop laughing long enough to draw a single breath.

Even to convince the picture of innocence to accept its violating ways.