As much as she'd rather not, Norma clocks out early tonight. She still can't imagine why the Turkish sultan would reject his own kin. It's one thing for him to deny his abetting of the Sultan's Syndicate; she's pretty sure the world expected that from him. But the Sand Demon was different. Or, at least, SHE thought so... She's wondering if she should...
But then, what if one of her employees heard of it? As much as she understands that it was like many of her predecessors to have sex affairs with test subjects, she's not really trying to repeat her predecessors' mistakes...
One time, there was this wild turkey from another dimension, and... This is too outrageous to dwell on.
Reluctantly, OsCorp shuts down for the night. Norma takes a coach home...as much as she'd rather take that glider her upstate lab's been experimenting with...
In his containment cell, Speed Demon's hand vibrates. It can't stop. But then, Norma doesn't expect it to. She's even invented energy-absorbing materials, in which Speed Demon's inhuman speed energy is collected, for the purpose of further experimentation/invention development. She's working on a speed serum, that the New York state militia, among a few others, have expressed interest in investing in... It may prove useful, in the wars with the Indians out West...
Speed Demon's been rejected...by the Turkish Sultan. He doesn't show it...but then, he can't, as Norma has him.
Far away, from Uzbekistan, the cloud in the remote arch tries to connect with him. Between itself, the cloud grows hot. It glows orange. Something hisses inside, and flashes light...
Somehow, Speed Demon starts phasing through what's keeping him captive. All around him, alarms go off.
One constraint at a time, he vibrates like crazy, and phases through his bonds as if they were nothing. Once free, he takes off in a flash. He phases right through the back wall of Norma's building, and takes off across the Atlantic Ocean, like a basilisk lizard.
He takes a detour, to Constantinople. In a flash, he zips into Dolmabahçe Palace, nicks a stick of lipstick, leaves a scribbled message on a mirror in his Imperial Majesty's chambers, and leaves. Outside, the guards' hats get blown off by Speed Demon's tail wind...but naturally, they don't see him come or leave. Even if they did, they couldn't chase him if they wanted to.
He makes it to the Uzbek desert. He speeds right into the arch, without hesitating. And he vanishes. Whatever's inside takes him under his wing, and suckles him with her fire...
All around the Arch, torches light. A storm blows. All around, gerbils and lizards are spooked, as they scurry back to their burrows. Some, alas, stay, with starry eyes, and watch.
The cloud inside the Arch lights up. It's like a beacon in the night...
Someone, from inside, walks through. It's Speed Demon. His eyes glow orange. He breathes smoke. He vibrates. He generates smoke as he does.
On his hood, a phoenix symbol carves itself. It cuts right through to his forehead, causing him to flinch and swear.
Around, some of the jerboas and lizards follow their kin to their burrows. This is just too gruesome to watch...
"This is strange," Speed Demon says, with a voice that's neither disguised nor his. He peers around, with glowing eyes. "In a big way, the shoe's too small. In other small ways, the shoe is too big..."
He looks around. There's a lot of space out there...and whatever's inside Speed Demon has only got a little body, and a little power, to cover it...
"Sorry, cute boy," the voice says, "but ultimately, I can get picky, when it comes to inhabiting a new host." With that, the right half of Speed Demon's face catches fire.
The gerbils squeak, and scurry back to their burrows. The lizards gape, and keep watching...
Behind him, Speed Demon sprouts a pair of wings. He's got an errand to run...
Hours pass. The sun rises over Constantinople. Roosters crow. Hourglasses run out of sand...
This is Dolmabahçe Palace. It's changed much, since its grand opening in 1856. That's alarming. Most of Turkey's most powerful officials are conservatives...
In a bed full of concubines, Sultan Abdülaziz slumbers. Across his chambers, the sun streams through his window...
Before him, the doors to his chambers open. The morning's peace is shattered by a screaming eunuch.
This wakes the concubines...but not the Sultan. Once they realize what's going on, they scream too. They virtually trample the eunuch as they leave their Imperial Majesty be.
There's a corpse on the floor, before the doors to his Imperial Majesty's chambers. The audience wouldn't know him, because you've never seen him out-of-costume. His name is Yalçðn Sandalli. Earlier in his life, he was the Sultan's errand boy, and later his student. The ladies loved him so much, he made a lot of tabloids; or rather, the Victorian equivalent of them. But then, when Turkey refused to become a republic, as Sandalli publicly advocated for, at great risk to his relationship with society, Abdülaziz refuted any remaining connection with him, and left him alone...alone to join the Sultan's Syndicate, when they came to Constantinople recruiting...as if that wasn't where it was founded...
Yes; this is the corpse of Speed Demon. Whatever possessed him didn't like how he fit, so it returned him to the man who'd most likely understand...
If the Arch and the Sultan didn't have something in common before, they sure do now...
In the morgue, a pair of eunuchs rip open the cloth that covers Sandalli's back. Whatever did this to him left a message...carved, in fire, into it. The message says one word, in all-caps: REJECTED. The "T" in the word is fashioned to look like a phoenix, with its wings spread...
One eunuch sighs, and shakes his head. "Sorry, folks," he jokes, "but it looks like this one WASN'T Jafar's 'diamond in the rough..."
Another eunuch scoffs. "As much as I appreciate Arabian Nights, that version of that story hasn't been animated yet...or filmed."
The other eunuchs look at him, confused...