The following is a fan-based work of fiction. Young Justice is property of DC Comics, Warner Brothers and Greg Weisman – please support the official release.
"Some men just want to watch the world burn."
~Alfred Pennyworth
Doing things slowly and carefully was never Klarion's style.
This could not be further exemplified than by the room-full of corpses where he and Abra stood in the center. Some of the people had burnt straight to ash, the only things left of them being their bones caked black in soot. Others had been partially transmogrified to stone, moss and vines growing out of parts of their bodies while the other, clearly human parts were contorted in agony. The less said about those that dissolved into a puddle of sleet and blood, the better, though the Witchboy would disagree.
But watching the results of haphazard attempts at fusing an element to a person's soul had gotten boring, which meant it was time to actually do things that worked.
Abra, for his part, was sweating bullets. "Are you sure this is going to work?"
"Don't be such a baby," Klarion replied, holding a haphazard array of runes in the air. "Watching what happens to failures got boring ten minutes ago."
"Right, right," Abra said, nodding shakily while staring at the poor unfortunate soul who died when half of his face had turned into magma.
"Besides, we need a sub since Count Vertigo wussed out," Klarion replied. "Now hold still."
There were lots of ways to throw together a magical graft, Klarion had found. Since he had met that fascinating Michael Winter, his experimentation had been far wider and varied than was immediately apparent by the mob of corpses that had surrounded the two in the warehouse.
For this one, he was using neutral magic. Regular, plain ol' neutral magic. Not particularly good at anything, not all that bad at anything either. Normally, he'd give him something fascinating, turn him into a lava elemental or a dragon, but he wanted to be a regular wizard and Savage was clear; Abra's magic was supposed to be a surprise.
Klarion loved surprises.
He shoved the array into Abra's form and the usual happened. Abra's body rose into the air, engulfed in blooming magical energy that was sticking itself to his soul, eyes glowing, blah, blah, blah. It stopped being fun after the first round of tests and he knew what to expect.
The Witchboy checked his watch, impatiently tapping his foot. It was just an empty gesture, the watch a fake that pointed to things like cake slices and someone being zapped by lightning. In his arms, Teekl meowed in boredom.
"Not now, you stupid cat." Klarion glared down at his orange tabby.
Teekl hissed at him.
"We're waiting on him," Klarion snapped, pointing a thumb at Abra. "Then we'll get back to the good stuff."
He was being orderly, which was unlike an agent of chaos, which meant that he was being chaotic. However, him making plans on how to use the soul grafts he had practiced making was also orderly, almost enough to set up a pattern, which was also orderly. The only thing from directly stopping this from becoming too orderly for him was the fact that those plans changed from second to second. Which was chaotic.
Abra finally set down on the ground, sweating profusely and his neat ponytail completely undone. His breathing was hoarse and sounded like it had some sort of echo to it. In his hand was a small ball of energy, a mix between blue and purple colors swirling around.
Klarion took a deep breath, fingers drumming on Teekl's head in impatience.
When Abra's eyes finally caught sight of the ball of magic in his hand, his breathing stopped and the ball disappeared. Then it came back. With a wave of his hand, one of the stone-grafted corpses raised off the ground.
A chuckle turned into a full blow laugh. "I can't believe it! Magic! I have magic!"
"Yeah, yeah, keep your shirt on," Klarion snipped with a sneer. "Now remember, you practice in secret. We don't want you to ruin the surprise, you understand?"
"Yes," Abra was nodding rapidly, almost like he had only barely heard it.
"Just remember that if you mess it up, I can redo it," Klarion continued with a nasty smile.
That got Abra's attention. "I won't mess up. I swear! I'll keep it secret, promise!"
"Good," Klarion said. Then he gave a wave of his fingers. "Bye."
Abra grabbed his wand and teleported to his hideout.
"Finally," Klarion breathed out.
Michael Winter, the source of this newfound ingenuity, was a reincarnate. It was patently easy to figure out once you looked past the soul graft. The soul was older than the body and was distinctly alien. Nabu, who had taken the kid under his wing, probably knew this as well, but that wasn't as relevant as it seemed. What was relevant was the fact that in coming from an entirely different earth, he brought with him a lot of fresh ideas. In getting involved in the superhero scene, he had changed the rules of the game.
Klarion loved it when the rules changed. Made things interesting. Sure, it meant that the plans his 'cohorts' came up with were falling apart at the seams but who needed plans? The whole 'take over the Justice League' idea was stupid anyway. Much better to put them in entertaining situations and see if you could get them to spread chaos on accident.
Of course, in order to get interesting situations, there needed to be a catalyst. Klarion hated that, it was so orderly. But the types of catalysts he could make were new and exciting and chaotic. So, it was fine. This time.
Like how it was fine that Michael had almost incinerated Teekl. Forgiven by being interesting and giving Klarion ideas. The next time, he would burn alive in his own fire.
You couldn't just attack the familiar of a Lord of Chaos and expect to survive the reprisal. Except when you did. Chaos was funny that way.
"Now," Klarion muttered, three-quarters to Teekl, one third to himself. "Let's play a game…"
A pseudo-wall of cackling red energy emerged in front of the Witchboy, as tall and as wide as a warehouse he stood in, cutting through the corpses in it's way like a hot knife through butter. On the walls were names and pictured like a board filled with pictures of missing persons.
"It's time to pick! Our! Winners!" Klarion said, rubbing his clawed hands together in anticipation. Teekl hopped down from his arms and curled up for a brief nap, completely bored. "Stupid cat."
Klarion turned around so his back was facing the opposite direction, five daggers of chaotic energy threaded in-between his fingers. He licked his lips with a forked tongue, showing demonic fangs as he did.
The daggers were thrown over Klarion's shoulders and he spun on his heels to look at his new targets. "Good. Good. Good! Four brand new supervillains in the world, just what we need to bring things back into equilibrium. So, we'll do five! If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing, right Teekl?"
The cat meowed and hopped back into its master's arms.
With a demented giggle, Klarion teleported away to his first destination in a flash of red light.
Not a minute later, the door to the warehouse opened, the bright beam of a flashlight illuminating the way forward. In stepped Frank, the security guard, who just got back from his lunch break. At first, his tired eyes didn't register that anything was wrong. Then slowly his brown eyes started to widen as the flashlight came on a stone statue that hadn't been there before.
With a grunt of confusion, he scratched his bald head. Frank stepped in something wet and he brought his flashlight down to see that he had stepped in a puddle of frozen blood.
Frank broke into a cold sweat, his eyes wide open and awake as he surveyed the warehouse, seeing the nearly hundred corpses that Klarion the Witchboy had left behind.
He bolted for the exit, desperately grabbing for his cellphone.
The first lucky winner was Wendy Sutton.
She was having a very bad year.
In January, her mother passed, a victim of one of Joker's gas attacks while she was on a business trip in Gotham City. It hit her really hard since they were really close.
Of course, the resulting grief had a domino effect, she wasn't as willing to be open and happy as she was before, so her boyfriend decided to start giving some other girls his attention. He dumped her at the start of February.
She had started cutting her wrists, something that made Klarion laugh condescendingly. Her father started drinking heavily, lost his job, which made him just start drinking more.
He passed the previous evening with her four-year old brother, driving drunk while driving him to a play-date with a friend that lived across the city.
This series of unfortunate events was why Klarion was watching her from the edge of a pool, having handcuffed a fifty-pound barbell to her foot trying to drown at the bottom of a twenty-foot pool.
Teekl batted her paw offensively at the water.
"Ah, suck it up," Klarion said, snapping his fingers full of chaotic energy. Teekl moved to curl around his shoulders. "Water's like a no-brainer here."
Energy from the Clear to manipulate water, mixed with energy from the Red for shape-shifting. On a burst of serendipity, he added some energy from the Rot and sent it down to the bottom of the pool.
The result soon became very apparent.
A giant, writhing mass of tentacles erupted from the pool, sending water in every direction. The main body, feminine shape notwithstanding, was covered in a thick, dark blue hide. The arms were massive, razor-sharp claws coming out of each finger. The head was, of course, modeled after a shark with more teeth than the Osmond family.
Wendy screamed in horror, looking down at herself, undoubtedly waking the neighbors. She pushed herself out of the pool with her new, tentacle heavy lower body and found herself shrinking back to her normal size.
She backed away from the pool on hands and knees as quickly as possible, green eyes wide in horror as she hurriedly brushed aside a long strange of black hair.
"Again! Again!" Klarion cheered, clapping with a manic smile. "Do it again!"
"What-I…what happened?" Wendy whimpered, backing herself into the back of the chain-link fence, kicking at the floor. "What did you do?"
"I gave you a new purpose in life," Klarion replied, calming down. He continued in a sing-song voice. "Don't waste it."
"You gave me a…" She shook her head in disbelief and her stomach grumbled.
"Yup," Klarion pointed off on the horizon. "There's a lake about a mile that way. Food will come to you. If you want my advice, I'd stay away from the ocean."
"But," She started, still terrified as her stomach growled more.
"Clock's ticking," Klarion told her with a grin. "I'd hurry before the police get here. Unless, you know, maybe that's your plan…"
"Hey!"
They both turned and looked at a Hotel security guard briskly walked up to them, hand on his pistol. He was a large, overweight man with long blonde hair. His face was clean-shaven and his eyes were covered in shadow beneath his hat. "This is private property!"
Wendy felt fangs growing in her mouth and before she knew it, she had jumped at the guard. His scream was brief and not particularly loud.
Teekl meowed in annoyance.
"Yes, the craving for human flesh was necessary," Klarion muttered in defiance. "She might've become a hero or something without it."
Unsurprisingly, for someone with shapeshifting, it didn't take her long to finish her midnight snack. Wendy looked down at her blood-soaked shirt and jeans with a sob. "What did you do to me?"
"I told you, I gave you new purpose in life!" Klarion replied his grin growing more sadistic with every word. "As a vicious, man-eating sea-beast."
"You what-?" Wendy might've been crying, it was hard to tell tear apart from the beads of pool water.
"Well, a vicious undead man-eating sea-beast," Klarion amended. "You know, so we can avoid any more of that suicidal stuff. I mean, this isn't the Darwin awards."
"Shut up!"
"Actually, it might be the Darwin awards," Klarion continued muttering to himself. "Give she was dumb enough to tell a Lord of Chaos to shut up…"
Teekl meowed.
"I can't just obliterate her, that's what she wants!" Klarion complained. "So much more fun to let her being an undead sea-beast."
The sound of sirens came from the edge of Klarion's hearing. "Oh, there's the police."
"I'm not running," Wendy said with a fervor she hadn't felt in months.
"So, you are going to eat them too!" Klarion asked with a grin. "Wow, you took to this faster than I thought!"
Just like that, the fervor died. Her stomach grumbled.
"Anyway, I got another appointment," Klarion said, looking at his watch, which now pointed to an exit sign. "So, I'm leaving. Have fun with the police-buffet!"
Klarion vanished in a flash of red light.
Now alone, Wendy looked around. The sound of sirens was getting closer. She slowly turned to the fence and easily hopped it, heading toward the lake.
Heading towards safety.
Ryan Lacroix was not having a good day.
He scratched at his black beard while looking at the ceiling of his cell, hands held behind his head as he lay on a pillow behind his head
This was no ordinary prison, however. It belonged to Checkmate.
It was a…small department in the Government. Just barely getting past experimental phases and getting more clout and funding. One dedicated to understanding and combatting the superhuman menace that was growing daily.
Ryan was one of their surgeons and researchers. He had cut open several dozen metahumans delivered to his table. Some may have been alive, but that didn't matter after their hearts had been removed and analyzed. All that mattered was ensuring that the threat would not grow so great that humanity was rendered extinct no matter who won at the end of the day.
Defending humanity was a global responsibility. So, Ryan had sold the secret that there was a gene, a gene that determined if someone could get superpowers following a serious accident.
He had never expected for it to be found out.
So now here he laid, awaiting the military tribunal to tell him he was going to hang. Or get shot. Or lethal injection would be used. It didn't matter.
Ryan had felt like he had done his duty. As many minds as there could be would be working to solve the superhuman crisis before it got any worse. Remove powers from those who were dangerous and ensure they were tightly regulated.
He sat up in shock as a red flash of light signaled an intruder in his cell.
"Oh. You're in jail," Klarion said with a raised eyebrow. "Whatever. We can still work with this."
Ryan recognized him and sat up. Klarion the so-called 'Witchboy', designated dangerous reality-warping meta. Noted for childishness, sadistic behavior and general unpredictability. That he was in his cell meant things were going to look up…or going to get much, much worse.
"To what do I owe a visit?" Ryan asked with a fascinated eyebrow.
"Random chance!" Klarion replied with a huge smile…one with an uncomfortable number of teeth. "So, how would you like to break out?"
Ryan blinked. "What's the catch?"
Klarion laughed, loudly. He held a black and red ball of energy in his hand. "No catch. This time."
"Hey, hey, hey, keep it-" He never finished his sentence.
It was energy entirely from the Rot, carefully constructed to avoid giving any of the…downsides. No, Klarion had decided spur-of-the-moment that it would be much more fun if Ryan just had death powers as is without any additional compulsions.
The application took a few minutes, but when it was done, Ryan fell to the floor on his hands and knees. "What did you do?"
"Come on, you can feel it," Klarion replied easily, scratching Teekl behind the ears. "I gave you powers."
"What kind of powers?" Ryan asked.
The door to the cell flew open and there stood the guard to Ryan's cell. "What's going on in here?"
He looked to find that Klarion had disappeared, but also that he could see the guard. His name was Richard Rex and he had been alive for thirty-two years. He had a wife and six children, two of which from another marriage that was cut short by disease. Ryan could see the way that his soul was hooked to his body, perceiving the anchors that kept from ascending to a good place that waited for him after he died.
Ryan's head tilted.
"Answer the question!" Richard barked angrily, drawing the club at his belt. "What was the light?"
It would be such a simple thing to break those anchors…
Richard's face was barely an inch away from Ryan's.
"Answer. The. Question," Richard snarled.
Richard hated traitors.
And he was gone.
The corpse collapsed to the ground. Ryan knelt down and grabbed the keycard.
"No hesitation," Klarion said approvingly. "You are going to be a lot of fun."
"I have things to do," Ryan replied, starting to undo the armor that the guard wore. "Important things. For the safety of the world. I can't do them stuck in a prison cell."
"Sure, sure, yeah. Things," Klarion was nodding rapidly. He produced a business card between his two front fingers. "Head to club L'Excellence, ask the bartender for Marc. He'll take care of you."
"Why are you helping me?" Ryan asked curiously.
"Because I had an idea," Klarion replied with a grin. "And it's turning out to be a good one."
He was gone.
Ryan got the uniform on and walked out Checkmate a free man.
"What are you aiming at?" Zachary Edison shouted at his tvscreen, controller in his hand. "Shoot the objective you idiot!"
He had brown eyes and shoulder-length brown hair. His chin had some scruff and he was wearing an orange beanie.
"Man, does your mother not love you or something?" Came the reply from his teammate.
"OH SHUT UP YOU…" Then Zachary just went off, his fingers turning white from gripping the controller so hard, his eyes wide. It looked like he might pop a blood vessel.
Given that his mother was just killed by a drunk diver the previous evening, his outburst was understandable.
Klarion just sat beside him on the couch, petting his cat and watching the display with an amused smile.
"…AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR RECTUM!" Zach finished, turning his game console off with the press of a button on his controller.
"That was the funniest thing I've heard in a while," Klarion offered.
Zach jumped two feet in the air, backing up on the arm of his couch and then accidentally falling off over the side.
Klarion just laughed and stood up.
"You! I know you!" Zach said, pointing at Klarion. "You were on the internet! Fighting that Doctor Fate guy and Red Tornado!"
"Ooh, I love being recognized," Klarion replied. "So, how are you?"
"Please don't hurt me," Zachary whimpered.
"You know, I think I like you," Klarion said, pooling together a package from all the elemental planes. "Now hold still."
"What are you doing?"
Klarion just shoved the ball at Zach without answering and laughed like a maniac at the face Zach made before he lost consciousness.
"Oh, this is too good," Klarion wiped a tear from his face.
Teekl meowed curiously up at the Witchboy.
"I don't know, let me check," Klarion said, pulling up the information from the internet with his magic. "Mary Edison, drunk driver…Larry Sutton?"
That just made him laugh harder, collapsing to the floor and banging his fists on the ground. "Oh, oh! That's hilarious! Small world is best world!"
The transformation finished, and Klarion disappeared from sight.
Zachary immediately sat up, his eyes wide like a deer caught in the headlights. He looked left, then right and caught no sight of his impromptu visitor. Which was good. Because he hated visitors.
His stomach growled.
He hated leaving his room, too, but food was in the kitchen and his Mom just finished stocking up on Cereal. So, Zach stood up, vigorously brushed the dust off and walked toward the door. He opened the door and was greeted with a cobblestone corridor lit by torch that stretched off into the shadows before him.
Zach closed the door and shook his head. He'd have to ask his mother to get him double the prescription on his medication. No, no. Father. Mother wasn't here. Then he opened it, and was greeted with the sight of his parents living room.
He walked forward, poured himself a bowl of Batflakes and came back to his room. He pulled open the door and found a cobblestone corridor lit by torch that stretched off into the shadows before him.
Zach closed the door, then opened it again. There was his room. Then he shut the door again and found a cobblestone corridor lit by-he closed the door and opened it. There was his room.
"Okay, uh," Zach said loudly. "This isn't funny."
"It's kind of funny."
Zach slowly turned around and saw Klarion waiting for him.
"Uh…"
"Hey, you should be happy!" Klarion said. "You have super powers!"
"What kind of super powers?" Zach asked.
"You can create your very own Labyrinth," Klarion answered. "Filled with whatever you'd like, with as many entrances, exits, and traps that you can imagine."
Zachary blinked, and opened the door again. He found a cobblestone corridor lit by to- "Where does it go?"
"Nowhere," Klarion answered.
"Well, I want to go to my room," Zach replied.
"Then open the door again," Klarion shrugged.
Zach opened the door and there was his room.
"I don't understand what's going on," Zach said frantically. "What did you do?"
"Gave you super powers," Klarion answered.
"Why?" Zach asked.
"The dart landed on your name," Klarion shrugged.
"Why do you have a dartboard with my name on it?" Zach asked.
"It kind of had everyone's name on it," Klarion replied.
"Everyone?" Zach asked.
"Everyone."
"So, what do I do?" Zach asked.
"Well, for starters, you could get back at that guy who insulted your mom," Klarion offered.
Zach's eyes narrowed. "How would I do that?"
"Think really hard about the Labrynth's you have in place right now," Klarion answered.
Zach closed his eyes and hoped Klarion would disappear. When that didn't work, he thought about the hallway that stretched out of his room and a golden glow appeared in front of his closed eyes. It was a…map.
"Okay, so the next thing you do is you think of the guy who insulted your mother," Klarion replied with an innocent smile. A door icon appeared on the map. "Okay. Then you build a room just off of that door."
Zach's head tilted. "Can I fill it with traps?"
"Yes."
"What kind?"
"Any kind!"
"Okay, I want him to fall into a spiked pit," Zach said. "No, no. I want him to get eaten by Piranha's. Flying Piranhas!"
Behind Zach, Klarion was grinning like a demon. "Do it."
"Okay," The room appeared down the hall. "There's the room. Now, do I wait?"
"Well, not exactly," Klarion continued. "You do have to give him a way out."
"Why?" Zach asked.
Because it's no fun if your power is an automatic win every time. Klarion thought. "You need to finish the Labyrinth is the thing."
"I do," Zach nodded. "Okay, okay. So, uh…this is crazy."
"Lord of Chaos."
"Right," Zach thought, wrapping another hallway from the room filled with flying Piranha's back around to the guys door on the map. "Okay, it's finished."
"Now you just sit and wait," Klarion said, sitting on the couch and leaning back. Teekl meowed at him. "Hush, Teekl."
"There he is! There he is!" Zach thought, pointing at the map at the person icon that had just come from the door.
The icon slowly, but surely moved through the hall until it got to the room. After thirty seconds, the icon changed into skull and crossbones and disappeared.
"When someone dies, their body is transported back to the real world," Klarion explained. "You know, because. We don't want you to have to deal with a lot of garbage like that."
"Gotcha, gotcha," Zach nodded.
"So!" Klarion said happily, rubbing his hands together with glee. "You just killed someone who insulted you on the internet! How do you feel?"
"Pretty good," Zach said.
"Not even the slightest bit of guilt?" Klarion asked.
"No. He insulted my Mom," Zach replied darkly. "Besides, people suck. That's just a fact of life."
"Alright then," Klarion nodded with an amused chuckle. "So, I'm out of here and you won't see me again. Have fun! Also, word to the wise: Don't use minotaur's."
"Why not?" Zach asked.
"They'll kill you," Klarion replied. "They move through labyrinth's like a fish goes through water and it doesn't matter if the two of you are in disconnected parts of your maze – they will find you and kill you."
"Good to know," Zach said with a nod, going back to the map of his labyrinth.
With a wave, Klarion departed in a flash of red light.
It was a productive visit. He just got a teenager to casually murder a man the day before his wedding to the mother of his child.
Those were always the best types of visits.
Klarion found himself standing in a spacious kitchen. Down at his feet were a pair of corpses with knife wounds in their back, a middle-aged man and woman. Looking ahead to the dining room, he saw the brown hair of the lucky winner draped over the back of the chair she was sitting in.
This was Sarah Fields.
He quietly walked up behind the girl, who was eating a sandwich.
"You know, so far people haven't actually killed anyone until after I've given them powers," Klarion started conversationally. "It warms my heart to see someone buck that trend."
Sarah wirled around in her chair, clutching the knife she used to kill her parents and swung it at Klarion. It simply phased through him like he wasn't there and she recognized who it was in her parent's dining room.
She went deathly pale, rapidly backing up as Klarion stepped forward, closing the distance just as quickly. She wound up against a wall, hyperventilating. "Relax, I just wanted to help. And know why. Yeah, I'd like to know why?"
Her reply was slow and deliberate. "They were going to cut me off. Said that I was making enough from my job to pay for my own college."
"Were you?" Klarion asked.
"That's not the point," Sarah's eyes narrowed. "I have other expenses besides school and living. I haven't worn the same outfit twice a single day since I've been in school and I wasn't about to start now."
Was she this unhinged before she left home or did college do her in? Klarion asked with a delighted laugh. "What's your job?"
"I work in the school genetics lab," Sarah replied stiffly.
"Ooooooh," Klarion said with an impressed expression. "Researcher?"
"Yes," Sarah replied.
Klarion's smile got very wide as he begun speaking in a sing-song voice. "I know what I'm doing…"
"Um…"
An energy ball with power pulled from the Divide, the Red and the Grey slammed into Sarah's abdomen. She stood there, floating as the energy fused itself with her soul. When it was finished, she collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily. "What did you just do?"
"Oh, take a look at yourself and find out," Klarion suggested happily.
Teekl meowed.
"Take a good, long look."
Sarah looked at her hand, then her body, noticing no changes. But then it came to her. She could feel how her blood rushed through her body, how her DNA determined how her body was built…and she could feel the power to change them.
Her arm became scaly and large, fingers tipped with claws. "This isn't possible."
"Sure it is," Klarion shrugged grinned. "It's happening right there."
"But…but…" She turned her head on its side and accidentally found out that she was flexible enough to turn it three-hundred-and sixty-degrees counter-clockwise. "How…why?"
"Random chance," Klarion replied with a grin. "Now, what are you going to do?"
"I don't know."
"Sure, you do! You were mulling it over when I walked in."
"I need to leave," Sarah said, looking past Klarion and at the bodies of her parents. "I don't want Superman coming in and putting me in jail."
"Might I suggest somewhere remote that's teeming with wildlife you can experiment with?" Klarion asked with a grin. "Like Alaska. Not a lot of people up in Alaska."
"But it's so cold up there, though," Sarah pointed out with a pout.
"Are you sure that's going to be a problem?" Klarion asked.
Sarah stopped dead and her skin rippled across her muscles like a shockwave was sent through them. "No. No, it won't be. My mistake."
"Have fun on the trip," Klarion waved and disappeared.
"I know, I know," Klarion said. "We've got just one more thing to do, and I've got a plan."
Teekl meowed.
"No, this time I'm making something," Klarion pointed out, dropping Teekl onto the floor.
They were on a rooftop in Central City, the cars down below honking and beeping like loud, ground-bound fireflies in their roads.
Klarion started by turning part of the roof to metal, which he then shaped. First it was male, then it was female, then it was both, then it became neither. With narrowed eyes, he turned the suit of armor into a male shape. Then he gave it a round shield and a short Warhammer to fight with.
Then came the enchantments.
Intelligence, it needed that in spades. It needed to move quickly, so speed and flight. Give it the strength needed to fight if it needed. Make that hammer able to smash through magic like it was butter. Make the shield extra resistant to magic. Then give him the ability to teleport because why not?
Then turn it on.
The visor on the armor's helmet slid open, revealing a human face that was slightly green. His voice was of the deepest timber, the words echoing out of his mouth with a power that ran just beneath the surface. "How may I serve?"
Klarion opened his mouth, then he made another wall of names on the roof beside him. He casually tossed a dart at one and brought it forward. "Your name is Avenger."
"Thank you."
"And you can serve by killing the hero-brat named Pyroclasm," Klarion replied. "His real identity is hidden, you might need find it. Or not. Coordinate with the four nutcases I just turned into walking nightmares if you need too."
"Do you know his identity?" Avenger asked.
"That changes from minute to minute," Klarion replied.
"His identity changes?"
"No, whether or not I know it changes," Klarion replied.
"How am I to find it?" Avenger asked.
"Start in New England," Klarion replied. "He's smart, but he's got a vicious temper and a strong conscience. Use those smarts of yours to track him down. Or lure him out. Or something."
"I will begin immediately."
"Just make it entertaining," Klarion replied viciously. "He tried to kill my cat."
"As you wish."
Forgiveness was such a fickle thing, really. At least, when Klarion did it.
Author's Note: Just when we thought the cast of characters couldn't get any bigger, here's five new characters all made by Klarion because he was inspired by the Prometheus Rite. I confess that I'm starting to get a bit nervous about how big the cast is, so it'll be a bit before we see any of these people again.
Also, Klarion's a monster, but he's a chaotic monster, so I thought I'd try to make some creative villains. Hopefully I did a good job. I know the characters are kind of flat right now, we kind of just had everything thrown at us at random, thanks to Klarion picking people at random. But I wanted to just get straight to the point since it'd be a bit much to ask you guys to be invested and attached to these guys with only one chapter beyond 'cool villain bro'.
Anyway, shout out goes out too Melden V, Anders Kronquist, Ray Tony Song, makopaulo, Volkogluk, Aaron Bjornson, iolande, Martin Auguado, Julio, Jiopaba, Hackerham, Tim Collins-Squire, Maben00, Sultan Saltlick, PostLifeSyndrome, Ventari and PbookR. Your continued support helps makes writing this possible, thank you so much.
Until the next time!
~Fulcon