The Otherworld:
The towering Amerind looked around himself, the bleak landscape testament to the destruction wrought herein. The bodies of fallen comrades littering the snowy ground whilst the sky burned with magefire.
He struck out at his foes, those strange techno-magickal constructs...the Ghost Staff grievious damage upon them, their electronic static akin to screams of agony as he waded into yet another phalynx...
Crusader X...aka Bran "Wakenshasa" Twoyoungmen Braddock, Marquess of Lyonesse: Shaman, mystic warrior, premier defender of the British Empire.
Talisman...aka Lady Branwynne "Nashota" Twoyoungmen-Braddock, sorceress, psychic, mystic and Bran's twin sister. A warrior in her own right, firing arrows of psychic energy into their foes from her ariel vantage point...one of a mere handful remaining on the battlefield.
Slowly, they made headway against the seemingly endless hoards of daemons, standing their ground. There was no mercy for their foes, who had shown none for their fallen fellows of the Captain Britain Corps... only grim resolve to end this, or die trying.
Bran's mystical senses registered something above him as psycho-warriors with some form of ariel adaption swooped down upon him, determined to carry him off....a brilliant lance of his sisters power striking the two wingmen that covered his abductor whilst he struggled most valiantly against the creature that sought to crush his skull.
Below him eldritch tentacles swarmed upward, seeking the tasty treat his very essence would bring them, something impacting the drone he struggled with, leaving him in free fall mode as he struggled to regain his bearings, "Bugger me!"
A familiar voice greeted him as Linda MacQuillan swooped down, catching the disoriented shaman, "Sorry, luv, I know they're hungry for your mystical blood...but you're off today's menu!!"
"Captain UK..." he exclaimed in relief, momentarily going lax in her embrace as she carried him clear of the destruction, Talisman and the other survivors following her lead, "Yer certainly a sight fer sore eyes, MacQuillan! Didn't think ye were goign t'make it back!"
As she set him down on a block of rubble in a ravaged section of the Hub, Otherplace, they coughed, smoke stinging their eyes, burning their throats, Linda filled him in, "All things considered, I almost didn't, Bran...it was touch and go there for a bit. A pack of these cheeky buggers tracked me to Earth 616. Would've been the end of me if I'd not had a little help from some chums.."
He looked up into her sky-blue eyes as she checked him over for wounds, pushing his damp black hair out of his lavender eyes, using a fairly scrap of cloth from the ruins to mop Bran's soot-smudged coppery skin, his voice gravelly and hoarse from battle cries and spellcasting, "So...yer mission was a success?"
"Quite..." Linda assured him with a wry smile, the shadows deepening around them in a manner that set his mystical senses a-jingle with every nerve suddenly awakening as a mild seizure rippled over his raw Mage-gift...
...and out of the darkness staggered Brian Braddock, the former Captain Britain of Earth 616, his wife, the empathic elemental called Meggan, the Black Knight and last, and certainly not least, the shadowy form of Brian's twin sister, Liz, whose face he barely recognised due to the cosmetic changes that'd given her beauty an Eurasian flavour, a sullen crimson glyph marring her otherwise flawless features as the eldritch darkenss slicked off her tall figure.
He groaned inwardly, his hopes fading as he looked at the four warriors, "Well, well, well, if it isn't 616...."
Brian glowerd at his half-Amerind counterpart, whom he'd met during the "Cross-time" adventures he and Excalibur had been caught up on several years prior, "Crusader X..."
"...this the best ye could do, Linda?" Bran asked Captain UK as he pulled himself to his feet, shaking off the unease that Liz's mystical presence gave him, as the ivory-maned powerhouse shrugged in resignation.
"On such short notice...." she grumbled, throwing her hands up in mock-defeat, as if to say "take it or leave it".
"Appreciate the vote of confidence," Liz interjected, a wry smile on her ruby lips, the sigil of the Crimson Dawn flaring brightly, in the unnatural twilight that had obscured the Otherworld for weeks, "Cheers, mates...we're here..."
Brian shook off the disorientation of his sister's unique means of transportation, "I oughta warn you lot: things have changed drastically... I'm just plain ol' Brian Braddock now... I don't have the powers that made me Captain Britain any more..."
Linda shook her head, as this was not a good turn of events... "It's not the powers that make the hero, Brian, it's the person..."
Liz saw to Meggan, whose own psi-talents and senses were still reeling from the trip through what had been total sensory deprivation for those unprepared, steadying the little Fey with both mind and body, asking her own questions as she took in the ruins around them, "Bran... what happened t'the rest of the Corps? Centurian Britannicus and Lady Londonium? Enforcer Capone...Captain Alboin and even Chevalier Bretange?"
Bran looked at the woman who'd briefly taken Brian's place before one of his foes had sorely wounded her...taking the measure of the woman, he was surprised and impressed with the changes she'd undergone...she was most certainly her father's daughter...
He joined her in assisting Meggan's recovery, drawing a healing elixir from his medicine pouch, "All dead, as near as I can tell, Liz... Linda, Talisman and I are among the few left t'battle the madness that Roma's unleashed upon the Otherworld..."
Brian sat down, pale and shakey as the reality sunk in, pulling out his silver flask and taking a swig of the amber courage, his voice a bare whisper, "...just...just like those nightmares...I've never been precognitive before...it was always Liz who's psychic..."
Linda shook her head, a frisson slithering through her soul as she realized that Brian had fallen off the wagon, returning to the bottle for comfort, "All of us share a psychic connection to the Otherworld, it's pain is our pain...that's what's been causing your visions...any of us who are of the Blood have felt it."
Meggan shivered as her metamorphic nature struggled to cope with the horrors dealt to the land and its peoples, fighting the blight that threatened to make her wretch with illness, her voice a bare whisper, "...but...but this horror...is so completely unlike Roma...why would she do this... What could she want?"
Bran sighed wearily, as he feared he knew the answer already... "The Sword of Might, fair one...one of the Spoils of Annwyn created by her father, Merlyn. The other being the Amulet of Right. Collectively, the power of the Spoils could sunder the Omniverse..."
Brian looked confused, none of this making sense to him, "When I first became Captain Britain, Merlyn and Roma offered me both the sword and the amulet... I chose the latter as it seemed the wiser at the time..."
Talisman nodded as she joined them, "Aye...it was. Only the true monarch of the Otherworld may wield the Spoils without jepardizing all that is... In her seeming insanity, Roma has come to believe herself that sovereign..."
Liz's gaze met those of her allies and friends, "But didn't Merlyn incorporate the amulet int'Brian's new costume the second time he resurrected him? Y'know, t'supposedly amplify his physical powers?"
Brian watched, listening to all of this in disbelief...he was still a man of science, dipped in magic that he couldn't quite fathom, wondering how Dane and Liz made sense out of all the hocus pocus, but Bran interrupted his confusion with more of his supposed shamanic wisdom...
"And when yer brother lost those powers, where d'ye think they went, luv?" Bran pointed out sagely as a look of dawning understanding crossed the psychic's face, bits and pieces of what her Sight-gift'd been bombarding her with falling into place like the sections of a jigsaw puzzle, her piercing violet eyes narrowing as she comprehended the ramifications of what he hinted at.
"It's simple...since that kind of magick can be neither created nor destroyed, it has t'exist in one form or another..." Liz replied, the mystic sigil that marked her as an elder of the Crimson Dawn pulsing like a heartbeat, "Without Brian's power t'sustain it, the costume and all that mystical circuitry reverted t'its original state--becoming the Amulet once more!"
"That's some piece of jewelry," Dane exclaimed, drumming his fingers on his helm thoughtfully, "Hrm...."
Meggan cocked her head to one side, having her own take on it...her form having adapted, and allowed her the elemental awareness of the Otherworld, the pattern becoming so very simple and clear--at least to her way of thinking, "And now...all we have t'do is stop Roma from inserting "Tab A" into "Slot B", and we've saved the whole bleedin' ball of wax, right?"
Liz sighed, pushing her dark hair out of her eyes, twisting it up with her mei-fa sticks, "If only... Roma's already got that amulet, and I'd wager she took it when she returned t'the Starlight Citadel...which leaves the sword up for grabs, IF we can find it first..."
"It should be here somewhere..." Dane pointed out as he donned his helm again, the Ebon Blade sheathed across his back, "I oughta know...I personallyl handed it to Arthur the last time Brian and I were here in Otherworld together!"
Bran nodded in agreement, raking a hand through his unruly dark mane, "But...that was before Merlyn apparently died the first time around, m'friend. Lore has it that upon his passing, Arthur hid the sword t'keep others from stealing its power--until his rightful hier might come t'claim it...now mind ye, that this isn't necessarily the sword that he pulled outta the stone, as there've been several blades called "Excalibur"--all lumped together over the years. The "Sword of Power" supposedly rests in the darkest depths of the Forest of a Thousand Sorrows, guarded by a mighty dragon...only one person can best that dragon..."
Brian swallowed hard, scrubbing his stubbled face with his hands, his voice a mere whisper, "The true heir to Camelot..."
"Precisely," Talisman pointed out as she cast her runes on a section of scortched flagstone, "But none've ever traversed that wilderness and faced the guardian and lived t'tell about it."
Meggan's sweet face reflected her distress, as she realized what Brian was thinking, her bright green eyes glassy bright with tears, "Brian...yer not thinking....?"
He stood up and brushed his hands off against his jeans, "That I'm the next king? Certainly not..."
But something in his face said othewise, and it wasn't possible to lie to an empath, he was going to be bullheaded about this, and both Meggan and Liz knew it...there would be no disuading him of the folly of the matter as he confirmed their suspicians, "But..of all of us, I'm the biggest liability...powerless and therefore, the most expendable...if anyone should search for the sword, it oughta be me..."
The Fey elemental sniffled, trying not to let it show too much, "...but yer not expendable t'me..."
Brian arched a blonde brow at his little wife, a sigh of disgust and the expression on his face were unmistakable, "Someone's gotta stop her, Meggan...now buck up and get over it.."
Liz slipped an arm around the girl, embracing Meggan as she cowered away from Brian's presence as if he'd slapped her. The empath huddling against her sister-in-law's shoulder, "This has t'end..."
And it didn't take Linda or Dane, Bran and his sister long to to figure out that Liz wasn't referring to the threat of Roma's madness, either.
Linda shook her head and changed the subject quickly, "That forest is vast, and it'll take days to search even a fraction of it on foot..."
"Who said anything about searching on foot, eh, Whitman?" Liz smirked, as she had an idear that the Black Knight had thought of a moment before.
"Way ahead of you, Linda," Dane joked, as he realized that he and Liz were thinking along the same lines. He drew his sword and summoned his dark-coated mount, named after the ranger in Lord of the Rings, Aragorn...
The surge of magic made both Liz and Bran shiver as the glossy black pegasus manifested before them, whickering in anticipation of a treat from his master's gloved hand, pawing the ground impatiently as Meggan perked up and used her unique abilities to answer the stallion's questions.
"He's got a good head on him, this one..." Dane beamed proudly as he took the carrots and apple Talisman conjured for him and gave them to the pagasus, "..if you need him, Bri, just whistle, and he'll come...won't ya, ol' boy?"
Twibbet.... Aragorn snorted, almost as if he could understand human conversation, spitting the apple core at Brian, hitting him in the chest with it..much to everyone elses' amusement!
Brian mounted up with a glare at the feisty steed, "Toe the line while I'm gone, Sis..."
Liz pulled herself up to her full height and glowered at her thick-headed twin in askance, "Don't be too long, egghead... Five against five thousand ain't the kinda odds I usually care t'play!"
He rolled his eyes at her, hoping that they'd be able to overcome those odds, and he could get to that sword and regain his powers, her sarcasm utterly lost on him, "Steady ol' gal, you and the X-men have faced worse odds and come through with flying colours..."
Aragorn pulled away from Brian's harsh grip on the reigns as Meggan tried to reassure the pegasus--and made one last effort, feeling buoyed by Liz and Linda's strong wills, to reach her husband, "I'm your wife, Brian...where ever ye go, I go..."
"Not this time, Meggan," Brian told her tersely, resenting her implication that he couldn't take care of himself, "You're powers are needed here..."
"But ye heard what Bran said..." Meggan protested, her form shifting, becoming plainer and faded, a reflection of the land around her, "...what if ye don't come back? I'm too young t'be a widow..."
"Meggan, darling...after all the times we've been apart, haven't you yet realized that I don't need to be coddled?" Brian inquired, speaking as if to an utter imbecile who tried his patience, "...and do try to stop sniveling so..it's most unbecoming..."
The Fey woman cringed away from him, blinking back tears that spilled unnoticed down her pale cheeks and cowered between Liz and Dane, as if she feared Brian would strike her, causing Liz to look from Brian to her sister-in-law, her sigil flaring as she used her telepathic abilities to sooth Meggan's fears.
Dane's usually smiling mouth hardened into a grim line as he saw a new side of Brian, and realized just how much his ex-partner and friend had changed since loosing his powers... He didn't like what he'd just seen one bit, and had a very bad feeling about all of this.
Meggan dried her tears against Liz's shoulder, pulling herself back together with a little telepathic help, and moral support from Linda and Talisman, her voice shaky but stronger, "Stiff upper lip, right, Liz?"
"Stiff as can be, luv!" the telepath assured her with a wink and a quick hug before Bran interrupted them, "Uh...ladies? Hate t'interrupt this Hallmark moment between ye two, but ...we're about t'have company!"
"Right, then...." Liz agreed as she turned, pulling a pair of katana from Talisiman's shadow, the crimson glyph flaring with power as she took the stance of a master kensai beside Dane and Bran, Linda and Meggan launching themselves skyward as Talisman drew back her bow, an eldritch arrow aimed, "...let's show 'em what it means t'have the Blood..."
Elsewhere:
An enormous scrying crystal glowed with the battle that the seemingly power-mad sorceress, Roma, observed with her techno-magical body guards and warped minions, her voice conveying her contempt for the warriors she remotely viewed, "Hmph...heroes...half of Otherworld lies in ruins, over run by my precious children...the Captain Britain Corps lies dead and dying, yet still they insist on fighting a war they can never hope to win...bloody fools, all of them!"
She arose from her throne, the Amulet glowing brightly in the hollow of her throat on its golden chain as she moved through out the halls of the Starlight Citadel to one of the dungeons, where she held one of the strongest members of the Corps, having tried in vain to break him over the past weeks...
"Hauptmann Englande...leader of the nefarious Lightening Force," she began a she surveyed the man confined in techno-magical restraints a god couldn't break, "Scourge of the so-called mongrel races...shining beacon of the Fifth Reich...how easily the mighty have fallen..."
His watery blue eyes opened behind lids blacked and swollen, finding the strength to spit on the face of the mad arch-mage...his breath coming in labored gasps as he watched her eyes glow red with an unholy light.
"Stubborn to the last, are we?" she gloated with a cruel smile, "That is no matter...I don't need you to tell me that sword's location...I can simply take it form your inferior, half-breed mind..."
His body convulsed in fear, agony and self-loathing...to have been so weak as to let the Corps down... his screams echoing against the plasteel walls as Roma gave him to the techno- wraith that hovered behind her, "Nien...nien....was Sie tuend sind?
(No...no...what are you doing? from the German)
"Danke schoen, Hauptmann," she replied as she tore his mind asunder with ease, her lips forming an ironic little smile as she took pleasure in his death, "You've just handed me the Omniverse..."
Above the Forest of a Thousand Sorrows:
Brian was relieved to be away from that clinging vine he'd been tricked into marrying, and away from the cold eyes of his twin sister, and that strange power of hers...he hoped he'd never have to confront that darkness again...it was enough to drive a man to drink, and drink he had...in a vain effort to banish his inner demons and doubts that plagued him!
The pegasus seemed content to carry him as he rambled, "...the forest, I guess..."
He looked down at the vast old-growth bisected by occasional rivers and mountain ranges below him, "...doesn't look too dangerous t'me...
"Whoa!!" He exclaimed as Aragorn jostled him, an altogether too clever look in the horse's eye to suit Brian's tastes, rattling him as he bucked Brian off, only to maneuver back under him a moment later...knocking some of the wind out of the pompous drunk's sails.
Brian shook off his stupor as the stallion whinnied...sarcasticly? "Righto...now, let's see the bligher who's about t'get his face..hic..bashed in..." the former Captain Britain muttered, summoning his bravado as he surveyed the bridge below him, above a waterfall that made Niagra look inconsequential.
A towering form emerging from the densely wooded banks to challenge him, deep voice booming out across the vale, "Salutations, traveller. I am Sir Aurelius Drake of the Falls. Ye cross me path at yer own peril. Now, either state yer business or be off be off with ye!"
Aragorn landed and Brian slid off, unsteady on his feet due to the potent flask of liquor he'd enjoyed on the way to this location...he then pulled himself up and shook off the rest of his demons, as it appeared he'd be facing one, "I seek the sword of might! Give it to me, or suffer..."
The enormous reptilian looking fellow shook his spiney, ridged head, eyes reflecting like quicksilver as he looked Brian over, "Sorry, ol' boy, but I'm afraid ye can't have it..."
Brian laughed in his face, testing the uncertain footing of the bridge, approaching the guardian as Aurelius threw a sword to him before drawing his own, a sad smile on his near- humanoid face, "...unless of course, yer willing t'die f'r it..."
Brian barely caught the sword, it's weight jarring him soundly as he tried to heft the weapon before him, snorting in derision, "Well...now, look at this...aren't you the bold one?? You realise I'm gonna kill you?"
Aurelius shook his head, a grim smile greeted Brian's arrogance, "I'll take me chances, boyo...just so we're clear, eh?"
Brian rushed the dragon-man, hefting the sword with both hands in a poorly executed haymaker of a swing, only to have his effort blocked by the guardian's parry and counter strike with such force that the sword went sailing over the falls and then kicked in the midsection to land in an untidy heap on the shore...
"This ain't just some piece of metal we're sparrin' over, lad..." Aurelius reminded him, watching the pompous fool gasping like a landed fish, chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath, "Ye've got t'be worthy of the sword of might...ye must earn it...now, c'mon, quit muckin' about and prove yerself... or stop wastin' me time..."
Brian picked himself up and took up the sword thad wedged against a rock near him, and charged again, with no style or grace about him, just the usual bull-headed frustration and lack of subtlety that he'd always had...only to find himself beaten back again and again...finally pitching head first over the side of the bridge, the roar of the falls drowning out Brian's cries for help as Aurelius shook his head sadly... this one wasn't the first, nor would he be the last...
The towering Amerind looked around himself, the bleak landscape testament to the destruction wrought herein. The bodies of fallen comrades littering the snowy ground whilst the sky burned with magefire.
He struck out at his foes, those strange techno-magickal constructs...the Ghost Staff grievious damage upon them, their electronic static akin to screams of agony as he waded into yet another phalynx...
Crusader X...aka Bran "Wakenshasa" Twoyoungmen Braddock, Marquess of Lyonesse: Shaman, mystic warrior, premier defender of the British Empire.
Talisman...aka Lady Branwynne "Nashota" Twoyoungmen-Braddock, sorceress, psychic, mystic and Bran's twin sister. A warrior in her own right, firing arrows of psychic energy into their foes from her ariel vantage point...one of a mere handful remaining on the battlefield.
Slowly, they made headway against the seemingly endless hoards of daemons, standing their ground. There was no mercy for their foes, who had shown none for their fallen fellows of the Captain Britain Corps... only grim resolve to end this, or die trying.
Bran's mystical senses registered something above him as psycho-warriors with some form of ariel adaption swooped down upon him, determined to carry him off....a brilliant lance of his sisters power striking the two wingmen that covered his abductor whilst he struggled most valiantly against the creature that sought to crush his skull.
Below him eldritch tentacles swarmed upward, seeking the tasty treat his very essence would bring them, something impacting the drone he struggled with, leaving him in free fall mode as he struggled to regain his bearings, "Bugger me!"
A familiar voice greeted him as Linda MacQuillan swooped down, catching the disoriented shaman, "Sorry, luv, I know they're hungry for your mystical blood...but you're off today's menu!!"
"Captain UK..." he exclaimed in relief, momentarily going lax in her embrace as she carried him clear of the destruction, Talisman and the other survivors following her lead, "Yer certainly a sight fer sore eyes, MacQuillan! Didn't think ye were goign t'make it back!"
As she set him down on a block of rubble in a ravaged section of the Hub, Otherplace, they coughed, smoke stinging their eyes, burning their throats, Linda filled him in, "All things considered, I almost didn't, Bran...it was touch and go there for a bit. A pack of these cheeky buggers tracked me to Earth 616. Would've been the end of me if I'd not had a little help from some chums.."
He looked up into her sky-blue eyes as she checked him over for wounds, pushing his damp black hair out of his lavender eyes, using a fairly scrap of cloth from the ruins to mop Bran's soot-smudged coppery skin, his voice gravelly and hoarse from battle cries and spellcasting, "So...yer mission was a success?"
"Quite..." Linda assured him with a wry smile, the shadows deepening around them in a manner that set his mystical senses a-jingle with every nerve suddenly awakening as a mild seizure rippled over his raw Mage-gift...
...and out of the darkness staggered Brian Braddock, the former Captain Britain of Earth 616, his wife, the empathic elemental called Meggan, the Black Knight and last, and certainly not least, the shadowy form of Brian's twin sister, Liz, whose face he barely recognised due to the cosmetic changes that'd given her beauty an Eurasian flavour, a sullen crimson glyph marring her otherwise flawless features as the eldritch darkenss slicked off her tall figure.
He groaned inwardly, his hopes fading as he looked at the four warriors, "Well, well, well, if it isn't 616...."
Brian glowerd at his half-Amerind counterpart, whom he'd met during the "Cross-time" adventures he and Excalibur had been caught up on several years prior, "Crusader X..."
"...this the best ye could do, Linda?" Bran asked Captain UK as he pulled himself to his feet, shaking off the unease that Liz's mystical presence gave him, as the ivory-maned powerhouse shrugged in resignation.
"On such short notice...." she grumbled, throwing her hands up in mock-defeat, as if to say "take it or leave it".
"Appreciate the vote of confidence," Liz interjected, a wry smile on her ruby lips, the sigil of the Crimson Dawn flaring brightly, in the unnatural twilight that had obscured the Otherworld for weeks, "Cheers, mates...we're here..."
Brian shook off the disorientation of his sister's unique means of transportation, "I oughta warn you lot: things have changed drastically... I'm just plain ol' Brian Braddock now... I don't have the powers that made me Captain Britain any more..."
Linda shook her head, as this was not a good turn of events... "It's not the powers that make the hero, Brian, it's the person..."
Liz saw to Meggan, whose own psi-talents and senses were still reeling from the trip through what had been total sensory deprivation for those unprepared, steadying the little Fey with both mind and body, asking her own questions as she took in the ruins around them, "Bran... what happened t'the rest of the Corps? Centurian Britannicus and Lady Londonium? Enforcer Capone...Captain Alboin and even Chevalier Bretange?"
Bran looked at the woman who'd briefly taken Brian's place before one of his foes had sorely wounded her...taking the measure of the woman, he was surprised and impressed with the changes she'd undergone...she was most certainly her father's daughter...
He joined her in assisting Meggan's recovery, drawing a healing elixir from his medicine pouch, "All dead, as near as I can tell, Liz... Linda, Talisman and I are among the few left t'battle the madness that Roma's unleashed upon the Otherworld..."
Brian sat down, pale and shakey as the reality sunk in, pulling out his silver flask and taking a swig of the amber courage, his voice a bare whisper, "...just...just like those nightmares...I've never been precognitive before...it was always Liz who's psychic..."
Linda shook her head, a frisson slithering through her soul as she realized that Brian had fallen off the wagon, returning to the bottle for comfort, "All of us share a psychic connection to the Otherworld, it's pain is our pain...that's what's been causing your visions...any of us who are of the Blood have felt it."
Meggan shivered as her metamorphic nature struggled to cope with the horrors dealt to the land and its peoples, fighting the blight that threatened to make her wretch with illness, her voice a bare whisper, "...but...but this horror...is so completely unlike Roma...why would she do this... What could she want?"
Bran sighed wearily, as he feared he knew the answer already... "The Sword of Might, fair one...one of the Spoils of Annwyn created by her father, Merlyn. The other being the Amulet of Right. Collectively, the power of the Spoils could sunder the Omniverse..."
Brian looked confused, none of this making sense to him, "When I first became Captain Britain, Merlyn and Roma offered me both the sword and the amulet... I chose the latter as it seemed the wiser at the time..."
Talisman nodded as she joined them, "Aye...it was. Only the true monarch of the Otherworld may wield the Spoils without jepardizing all that is... In her seeming insanity, Roma has come to believe herself that sovereign..."
Liz's gaze met those of her allies and friends, "But didn't Merlyn incorporate the amulet int'Brian's new costume the second time he resurrected him? Y'know, t'supposedly amplify his physical powers?"
Brian watched, listening to all of this in disbelief...he was still a man of science, dipped in magic that he couldn't quite fathom, wondering how Dane and Liz made sense out of all the hocus pocus, but Bran interrupted his confusion with more of his supposed shamanic wisdom...
"And when yer brother lost those powers, where d'ye think they went, luv?" Bran pointed out sagely as a look of dawning understanding crossed the psychic's face, bits and pieces of what her Sight-gift'd been bombarding her with falling into place like the sections of a jigsaw puzzle, her piercing violet eyes narrowing as she comprehended the ramifications of what he hinted at.
"It's simple...since that kind of magick can be neither created nor destroyed, it has t'exist in one form or another..." Liz replied, the mystic sigil that marked her as an elder of the Crimson Dawn pulsing like a heartbeat, "Without Brian's power t'sustain it, the costume and all that mystical circuitry reverted t'its original state--becoming the Amulet once more!"
"That's some piece of jewelry," Dane exclaimed, drumming his fingers on his helm thoughtfully, "Hrm...."
Meggan cocked her head to one side, having her own take on it...her form having adapted, and allowed her the elemental awareness of the Otherworld, the pattern becoming so very simple and clear--at least to her way of thinking, "And now...all we have t'do is stop Roma from inserting "Tab A" into "Slot B", and we've saved the whole bleedin' ball of wax, right?"
Liz sighed, pushing her dark hair out of her eyes, twisting it up with her mei-fa sticks, "If only... Roma's already got that amulet, and I'd wager she took it when she returned t'the Starlight Citadel...which leaves the sword up for grabs, IF we can find it first..."
"It should be here somewhere..." Dane pointed out as he donned his helm again, the Ebon Blade sheathed across his back, "I oughta know...I personallyl handed it to Arthur the last time Brian and I were here in Otherworld together!"
Bran nodded in agreement, raking a hand through his unruly dark mane, "But...that was before Merlyn apparently died the first time around, m'friend. Lore has it that upon his passing, Arthur hid the sword t'keep others from stealing its power--until his rightful hier might come t'claim it...now mind ye, that this isn't necessarily the sword that he pulled outta the stone, as there've been several blades called "Excalibur"--all lumped together over the years. The "Sword of Power" supposedly rests in the darkest depths of the Forest of a Thousand Sorrows, guarded by a mighty dragon...only one person can best that dragon..."
Brian swallowed hard, scrubbing his stubbled face with his hands, his voice a mere whisper, "The true heir to Camelot..."
"Precisely," Talisman pointed out as she cast her runes on a section of scortched flagstone, "But none've ever traversed that wilderness and faced the guardian and lived t'tell about it."
Meggan's sweet face reflected her distress, as she realized what Brian was thinking, her bright green eyes glassy bright with tears, "Brian...yer not thinking....?"
He stood up and brushed his hands off against his jeans, "That I'm the next king? Certainly not..."
But something in his face said othewise, and it wasn't possible to lie to an empath, he was going to be bullheaded about this, and both Meggan and Liz knew it...there would be no disuading him of the folly of the matter as he confirmed their suspicians, "But..of all of us, I'm the biggest liability...powerless and therefore, the most expendable...if anyone should search for the sword, it oughta be me..."
The Fey elemental sniffled, trying not to let it show too much, "...but yer not expendable t'me..."
Brian arched a blonde brow at his little wife, a sigh of disgust and the expression on his face were unmistakable, "Someone's gotta stop her, Meggan...now buck up and get over it.."
Liz slipped an arm around the girl, embracing Meggan as she cowered away from Brian's presence as if he'd slapped her. The empath huddling against her sister-in-law's shoulder, "This has t'end..."
And it didn't take Linda or Dane, Bran and his sister long to to figure out that Liz wasn't referring to the threat of Roma's madness, either.
Linda shook her head and changed the subject quickly, "That forest is vast, and it'll take days to search even a fraction of it on foot..."
"Who said anything about searching on foot, eh, Whitman?" Liz smirked, as she had an idear that the Black Knight had thought of a moment before.
"Way ahead of you, Linda," Dane joked, as he realized that he and Liz were thinking along the same lines. He drew his sword and summoned his dark-coated mount, named after the ranger in Lord of the Rings, Aragorn...
The surge of magic made both Liz and Bran shiver as the glossy black pegasus manifested before them, whickering in anticipation of a treat from his master's gloved hand, pawing the ground impatiently as Meggan perked up and used her unique abilities to answer the stallion's questions.
"He's got a good head on him, this one..." Dane beamed proudly as he took the carrots and apple Talisman conjured for him and gave them to the pagasus, "..if you need him, Bri, just whistle, and he'll come...won't ya, ol' boy?"
Twibbet.... Aragorn snorted, almost as if he could understand human conversation, spitting the apple core at Brian, hitting him in the chest with it..much to everyone elses' amusement!
Brian mounted up with a glare at the feisty steed, "Toe the line while I'm gone, Sis..."
Liz pulled herself up to her full height and glowered at her thick-headed twin in askance, "Don't be too long, egghead... Five against five thousand ain't the kinda odds I usually care t'play!"
He rolled his eyes at her, hoping that they'd be able to overcome those odds, and he could get to that sword and regain his powers, her sarcasm utterly lost on him, "Steady ol' gal, you and the X-men have faced worse odds and come through with flying colours..."
Aragorn pulled away from Brian's harsh grip on the reigns as Meggan tried to reassure the pegasus--and made one last effort, feeling buoyed by Liz and Linda's strong wills, to reach her husband, "I'm your wife, Brian...where ever ye go, I go..."
"Not this time, Meggan," Brian told her tersely, resenting her implication that he couldn't take care of himself, "You're powers are needed here..."
"But ye heard what Bran said..." Meggan protested, her form shifting, becoming plainer and faded, a reflection of the land around her, "...what if ye don't come back? I'm too young t'be a widow..."
"Meggan, darling...after all the times we've been apart, haven't you yet realized that I don't need to be coddled?" Brian inquired, speaking as if to an utter imbecile who tried his patience, "...and do try to stop sniveling so..it's most unbecoming..."
The Fey woman cringed away from him, blinking back tears that spilled unnoticed down her pale cheeks and cowered between Liz and Dane, as if she feared Brian would strike her, causing Liz to look from Brian to her sister-in-law, her sigil flaring as she used her telepathic abilities to sooth Meggan's fears.
Dane's usually smiling mouth hardened into a grim line as he saw a new side of Brian, and realized just how much his ex-partner and friend had changed since loosing his powers... He didn't like what he'd just seen one bit, and had a very bad feeling about all of this.
Meggan dried her tears against Liz's shoulder, pulling herself back together with a little telepathic help, and moral support from Linda and Talisman, her voice shaky but stronger, "Stiff upper lip, right, Liz?"
"Stiff as can be, luv!" the telepath assured her with a wink and a quick hug before Bran interrupted them, "Uh...ladies? Hate t'interrupt this Hallmark moment between ye two, but ...we're about t'have company!"
"Right, then...." Liz agreed as she turned, pulling a pair of katana from Talisiman's shadow, the crimson glyph flaring with power as she took the stance of a master kensai beside Dane and Bran, Linda and Meggan launching themselves skyward as Talisman drew back her bow, an eldritch arrow aimed, "...let's show 'em what it means t'have the Blood..."
Elsewhere:
An enormous scrying crystal glowed with the battle that the seemingly power-mad sorceress, Roma, observed with her techno-magical body guards and warped minions, her voice conveying her contempt for the warriors she remotely viewed, "Hmph...heroes...half of Otherworld lies in ruins, over run by my precious children...the Captain Britain Corps lies dead and dying, yet still they insist on fighting a war they can never hope to win...bloody fools, all of them!"
She arose from her throne, the Amulet glowing brightly in the hollow of her throat on its golden chain as she moved through out the halls of the Starlight Citadel to one of the dungeons, where she held one of the strongest members of the Corps, having tried in vain to break him over the past weeks...
"Hauptmann Englande...leader of the nefarious Lightening Force," she began a she surveyed the man confined in techno-magical restraints a god couldn't break, "Scourge of the so-called mongrel races...shining beacon of the Fifth Reich...how easily the mighty have fallen..."
His watery blue eyes opened behind lids blacked and swollen, finding the strength to spit on the face of the mad arch-mage...his breath coming in labored gasps as he watched her eyes glow red with an unholy light.
"Stubborn to the last, are we?" she gloated with a cruel smile, "That is no matter...I don't need you to tell me that sword's location...I can simply take it form your inferior, half-breed mind..."
His body convulsed in fear, agony and self-loathing...to have been so weak as to let the Corps down... his screams echoing against the plasteel walls as Roma gave him to the techno- wraith that hovered behind her, "Nien...nien....was Sie tuend sind?
(No...no...what are you doing? from the German)
"Danke schoen, Hauptmann," she replied as she tore his mind asunder with ease, her lips forming an ironic little smile as she took pleasure in his death, "You've just handed me the Omniverse..."
Above the Forest of a Thousand Sorrows:
Brian was relieved to be away from that clinging vine he'd been tricked into marrying, and away from the cold eyes of his twin sister, and that strange power of hers...he hoped he'd never have to confront that darkness again...it was enough to drive a man to drink, and drink he had...in a vain effort to banish his inner demons and doubts that plagued him!
The pegasus seemed content to carry him as he rambled, "...the forest, I guess..."
He looked down at the vast old-growth bisected by occasional rivers and mountain ranges below him, "...doesn't look too dangerous t'me...
"Whoa!!" He exclaimed as Aragorn jostled him, an altogether too clever look in the horse's eye to suit Brian's tastes, rattling him as he bucked Brian off, only to maneuver back under him a moment later...knocking some of the wind out of the pompous drunk's sails.
Brian shook off his stupor as the stallion whinnied...sarcasticly? "Righto...now, let's see the bligher who's about t'get his face..hic..bashed in..." the former Captain Britain muttered, summoning his bravado as he surveyed the bridge below him, above a waterfall that made Niagra look inconsequential.
A towering form emerging from the densely wooded banks to challenge him, deep voice booming out across the vale, "Salutations, traveller. I am Sir Aurelius Drake of the Falls. Ye cross me path at yer own peril. Now, either state yer business or be off be off with ye!"
Aragorn landed and Brian slid off, unsteady on his feet due to the potent flask of liquor he'd enjoyed on the way to this location...he then pulled himself up and shook off the rest of his demons, as it appeared he'd be facing one, "I seek the sword of might! Give it to me, or suffer..."
The enormous reptilian looking fellow shook his spiney, ridged head, eyes reflecting like quicksilver as he looked Brian over, "Sorry, ol' boy, but I'm afraid ye can't have it..."
Brian laughed in his face, testing the uncertain footing of the bridge, approaching the guardian as Aurelius threw a sword to him before drawing his own, a sad smile on his near- humanoid face, "...unless of course, yer willing t'die f'r it..."
Brian barely caught the sword, it's weight jarring him soundly as he tried to heft the weapon before him, snorting in derision, "Well...now, look at this...aren't you the bold one?? You realise I'm gonna kill you?"
Aurelius shook his head, a grim smile greeted Brian's arrogance, "I'll take me chances, boyo...just so we're clear, eh?"
Brian rushed the dragon-man, hefting the sword with both hands in a poorly executed haymaker of a swing, only to have his effort blocked by the guardian's parry and counter strike with such force that the sword went sailing over the falls and then kicked in the midsection to land in an untidy heap on the shore...
"This ain't just some piece of metal we're sparrin' over, lad..." Aurelius reminded him, watching the pompous fool gasping like a landed fish, chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath, "Ye've got t'be worthy of the sword of might...ye must earn it...now, c'mon, quit muckin' about and prove yerself... or stop wastin' me time..."
Brian picked himself up and took up the sword thad wedged against a rock near him, and charged again, with no style or grace about him, just the usual bull-headed frustration and lack of subtlety that he'd always had...only to find himself beaten back again and again...finally pitching head first over the side of the bridge, the roar of the falls drowning out Brian's cries for help as Aurelius shook his head sadly... this one wasn't the first, nor would he be the last...