Title: The Trials of Faith Part 4: The Madness of Machines and Men
Author: Majin Gojira
Category: Crossover/Action/Drama
Rating: PG-13 (So, do you 12 year olds who read this have a parent or guardian with you? No, then go away! SHOO! Scat! SCRAM!)
Type of Crossover: Wold Newton Universe based Crossover. No haughty large explanations…well, a minor Stargate SG-1 change…the "Ancients" are…well, the WNU explanation is that they were time travelers of us from the future, they created the multiverse, pocket dimensions like Hogwarts and Oz, and it is all very odd and weird. But, in a strange way, makes sense. Though that proto-ancient that they found in Antarctica has been replaced by an Elder Thing, much hilarity (and madness) ensued.
Author's note: I can't believe I got as far as I did without saying "Goa'uld".
Second Author's note: When looking for cheap ways to improve your writing—quote Lovecraft!
Summary: Action sequences, revelations and more tidbits of Faith's past are revealed.
Legal Stuff: Repeat ad Nauseum
Distribution: Really? Ok, just ask (hey, it happened once…)
Ships:
"Daddy, why do people write purely shipper stories with no care for how out of character, un-canonical, or utterly moronic the ship is?"
"Because they touch themselves at night"
"I don't claim to know who runs this operation, but they must have been ill upon choosing you. Seems you were quite sick to begin with, then, having all this muck go through you set off some new amusement…seeming to become almost an extension of what you were charged to contain. Messy, but I thought it was funny." – Senor Diablo.
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac #6
"So, Central Park. Usually one or two vampires here, least it was when Deacon Frost was around" Faith said as she and Goliath landed.
"In all our time here, we have not encountered a vampire" Goliath began, "Hopefully we can learn from each other."
"I'm all for learnin'" Faith smiled.
"Then have I a proposition for you!" an audacious voice quickly grabbed their attention. Both spun around and their eyes locked on a motley quartet. A Frenchman with a red suit, khaki pants, blue shirt and an orange tie, stood at the forefront. At his flanks stood a Japanese man in a traditional karate gi (whom Faith would come to learn was Goemon); a second Japanese man in a blue suit with matching pants, a white shirt, black tie, a hat that concealed most of his facial features aside from his prominent, curved beard(whom Faith would learn was Gigen); and an American woman in a combination of revealing red and black leather pants and shirt, with black gloves encased in scientific metal bracers (whom Faith already knew, Gwen Raiden).
Goliath recognized the leader almost immediately: "LUPIN!"
"Nice to see you remembered me" Lupin smiled.
"Well, I don't even know who the hell you are, so someone care to fill me in?" Faith asked.
"I am Arsene Lupin the Third! The world's greatest thief! Surely you've heard of me" Said Lupin with a grin.
"Nope, can't say I have" Faith answered.
"You're joking…" Lupin said, mildly depressed. "You mean…you've never heard of any of my great heists? The Dragon of Doom? The Castle of Cagliostro? The Twilight Diamond?"
"Nope, sorry."
Lupin let out a grand sigh.
"Can't be famous everywhere you go, Lupin" Gigen consoled.
"Oh, but it would be nice if all the pretty girls knew who I was…" Lupin answered.
"I'm waiting for a reason, Lupin" Goliath growled.
"I've got two, big boy." Lupin recovered from the blow to his ego and reclaimed his bravado. "My girl Gwen here can take both you and your new friend out rather quickly"
Gwen gave Lupin a look of sheer contempt, that went unnoticed by him, but not to Faith.
"And secondly, I have very important information on a group of criminals far worse than I am…"
Faith was at a loss for how she and Goliath had been talked into going with Lupin and his crew. The plan was sound, but Faith and Goliath were adamant about one change in the initial plan – they would not kill any of their human adversaries. Gwen, it seemed, agreed with them more hole-heartedly than Lupin. He begrudgingly agreed to their terms and altered his plan accordingly.
They stole themselves into the cavernous crypt. How, Faith was not sure, as Lupin and Gwen had lead them to a set of stones, depressed a hidden switch, and they were all surrounded by a series of rings which arose from the ground. After a blinding flash of light, they found themselves in the temple. It was covered in ornate and extravagant Egyptian artwork and styling—it was like a hidden Egyptian temple that seemed to draw a little too much from the bio-pic Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The group hid in the corners and ease-dropped on a group of five cloaked wizards as they chanted and burned herbs around the fist-sized ruby known as 'The Heart of the Dragon'.
A set of five rings tapered down in front of them the ceiling and in a flash of light, seven men appeared. Six of them were armored warriors with oddly shaped staffs and even stranger symbols tattooed on their foreheads which resembled a three headed dragon—on two of which, the symbol was golden and reminiscent of the King of Terror. The seventh man appeared to be dressed as an Egyptian pharaoh with many additional parts that Faith could not easily identify. But all with a black motif that disturbed all those present. It was his skin that was darker than his clothing, however. Not to say that he was of African decent—his skin was really black; carbon black, a darkness that seemed to suck the scant light from the room like a black hole. Whatever he was, he certainly was not human.
"Lord Nephren-Ka," A blond haired wizard spoke, "it is good to see you."
The Black Pharaoh, Nephren-Ka, shocked the spies further when his eyes shone brightly for an instant. His voice was deep, abysmal and awe-inspiring; sending shivers down Faith's spine when it reached her ears.
"Malfoy" boomed Nephren-Ka, "Do you have what your Lord asked you to retrieve?"
"Yes, Lord Nephren-Ka" Draco Malfoy answered, "We have retrieved the Dragon's Heart." With an ornate gesture, Draco Malfoy presented the Dragon's Heart on a small velvet pillow before the Black Pharaoh.
"Lord Nyarlathotep will be pleased with your work, wizard." Nephren-Ka smiled as his claw-like, jewel encrusted fingers enveloped the jewel. Nephren-Ka knew full and well that the Wizard, in handing him the jewel, had damned himself and the entire planet—for with it, the King of Terror could be revived to full health before the petty creatures currently laboring over his still-living body had a chance to implement their own futile plans. Malfoy merely thought of it as a powerful magical item—but it was the missing heart of King Ghidorah, the beast which had leveled Hogwarts and a good deal of the wizarding world several years before. He was unknowingly serving the Talons of the King of Terror!
In the dark corner, Lupin smiled, "Time for phase two...Hold on a second there, Pharaoh!"
"Who dares disturb the sanctity of this palace?" Nephren-Ka thundered as his eyes once again flashed in a brilliance of white light.
Draco Malfoy recognized who it was and spoke his name without hesitation "Lupin!"
"The one and only Lupin the Third… to be precise," Lupin bowed dramatically, "and I'm here to tell you that the jewel you have there is a phony!"
"What?" Draco and Nephren-ka asked in unison.
"A counterfeit, a fake, a forgery, a copy, a sham, a-"
"I know what the word means, human!" Nephren-ka growled.
"But you obviously don't know how to spot one, and as a master thief – I always know what to steal and what not to and I wouldn't look at that glass bead twice."
"You lie! The Kingpin assured me he had the best he had on the case for the amount I paid for it!" Draco fumed.
"And you didn't think that the Kingpin wouldn't double-cross you? Man! I knew wizards were naive about the real world, but you! You take the cake!" Lupin laughed as Draco grew crimson with rage.
"ENOUGH!" Nephren-ka yelled. "Is what you say true, is this a fraud?"
"I'm a master thief, I can spot a forgery a mile away, and that's such a poor forgery that it makes me sick just to look at it" Lupin answered, then reached into his pocket and produced something that surprised all those watching. "Now this is the real deal."
"The Heart of the Dragon! Give it to me." Said Nephren-ka.
"Of course, your kingliness…for a price…"
Nephren-Ka composed himself and then began to deal with the shrewd thief. The talks were tense as Lupin managed to seemingly convince the entity not to just kill him and take the gem. In the end, he managed to allow himself safe passage out of the crypt and several gold bars (how the self-proclaimed god managed to gain them he did not know nor care). He'd had years of practice making deals on the fly with megalomaniacs.
In the shadows, Gwen smiled. 'So that's why he was following the jewel…'
"Hold on a moment." Draco interrupted "You did set this whole thing up, didn't you?"
Lupin did not respond as he looked over his impressive, golden prize.
"You're the Kingpin's "top man" that he sent and you double-crossed him and are getting a double-payment for doing a single job" Draco theorized.
"Give the boy a cigar!" Lupin taunted.
"Everything is in order, thief" Nephren-ka announced. "Your payment is here. Now give me the Heart of the Dragon"
Lupin casually tossed the gem over to the false god, who caught with equal ease.
"Jaffa! Kree!" Nephren-ka commanded and the Jaffa aimed their staff weapons at the red-clad bandit.
"Oh, Great…" Lupin stressed.
"Our deal is done, as are all matters concerning it" Nephren-ka smirked, "No mortal bargains as an equal to a GOD…What is the matter Lupin, you didn't expect me to double cross you?"
"Actually, I counted on it" Lupin said as he depressed a switch on one of his cufflinks. The gem in the Faux-Pharaoh's hands exploded, creating a dense plume of suffocating black smoke.
"Kill him!" Nephren-ka commanded.
The sounds of combat echoed through the foggy room. But not only the sounds of staff weapons, spells and guns; but the sounds of slashing blades, claws and something monstrous growling in the dark became more and more dominant as the unseen battle raged. When Nephren-ka's eyes were finally able to penetrate the black smoke, he could see the forces that had materialized from the smoke had defeated both the wizards and his Jaffa guards. Many simply unconscious, only a few were grievously injured.
To the group's horror, Nephren-ka showed none of the fear they expected him to—his face was full of confidence and contempt.
"You honestly think you've won." The Black Pharaoh mocked. "The King of Terror shall rise again! Such is the will of Nyarlathotep!"
Jigen and Lupin both opened fire, only to see their bullets fizzle out on an energy shield that erected itself around the Black Pharaoh.
"Well that was unexpected." Jigen reflected.
Gwen instinctively clanged her forearms together to activate her power-gloves. A blast of electrical energy crackled toward Nephren-ka. She watched in horror as her blast was deflected harmlessly by the Goa'uld's shield.
"Maybe we should try a more direct approach" Faith said as before sprinting toward the Pharaoh. Goliath and Goemon soon followed, but all three were thrown back with a wave of Nephren-Ka's hand. The blast of unseen energy rippled in front of Faith and hit her with the force of a sledge hammer, sending her flying into the group. Goliath and Goemon had been on the edge of the blast and were still knocked away by the invisible blast.
"You fools dare to challenge the will of the Great Old Ones!" Nephren-Ka mocked, and depressed a switch on his ornate glove.
"You will all suffer for this outrage!" he called out before he was surrounded by rings which levitated down from the ceiling. In a flash of brilliant light he disappeared and the rings returned to the ceiling.
As the unlikely team lay on the ground, Lupin managed to speak first:
"I believe the phrase 'take the money and run' would apply to our current situation."
"Except you aren't leaving" Goliath said as he rose menacingly.
"Oh, great" Gigen groaned
"Out to turn the lot of us in, eh?" Lupin smiled.
'Goliath certainly is a hard-ass when it comes to the law…' Faith thought as she untangled herself from the pile with an audible groan of both annoyance and pain.
"I have a little problem with that" Gwen said before raising her arms and unleashing a powerful twin-blast of lightning which struck the two heroes dead in the chest. Goliath and Faith flew through the air and crashed unceremoniously against a far wall.
Before passing out, Faith heard Gwen taunt: "What exactly do super-heroes have shoved up their ass that makes them this uptight?"
"I don't know, but whatever it is, I bet it's pretty big" Lupin answered.
With that, Faith's world turned black.
Faith and Goliath eventually returned to Castle Wyvern, when they had awakened, they did not have time to continue the patrol before the sun would rise. It was a bitter awakening, for not only were Lupin and his gang long gone, so were the cultists. As Goliath landed with Faith in his large arms, the greetings and welcomes of the clan were intentionally cut short as the sun was only minutes from rising. Faith felt something odd about the way some of the questions were directed, it seemed like the other gargoyles knew something about her that they did not before and did not like. But before she could question them, the sun rose and silenced them for the rest of the day.
But there was also Elisa Maza.
"What did you tell them, detective?" Faith asked, keeping her back towards Elisa for the moment.
"A lot of the things that you neglected to mention. Like what you were in for – and other little details."
Faith turned quickly towards Elisa with anger in her step, "So I didn't explain my entire life story to you when I first met you? I barely know you! Why the hell would I tell you my entire frickin' life story when I've only known you for a day?"
"Like how you're not an ex-con yet" Elisa continued undaunted.
"What?" Faith stepped back at this statement.
"According to your file, you're still a convict – not even listed as escaped."
Faith was silenced by this revelation. She wanted to say things. To ask questions. About what exactly it was that Luthor had done to get her out. All she could do was sputter for a moment before slumping on the ground with a huff.
Elisa was unprepared for Faith's reaction. Judging by her show of bravado on the previous night she expected one of two reactions: adamant denial or running off. Elisa wondered about what the missing pieces of this girl's past did to her.
Faith let out a heavy sigh, "Well, he said I'd be cleared after I did his dirty work…" She looked up at the detective, "So what are you going to do with me?"
"I still haven't figured that out yet. Someone put you here for a reason; I intend to find out what that reason is."
With a sigh of relief Faith stood up, "Well then, if you're not going to hold me—I'm gonna crash back at my place for bit—if I still have it—then there are some people I'd like to see before you arrest me."
As Faith turned to leave, Elisa asked her "Is one of them your son?"
Faith stopped dead in her tracks for a half second, the other half second was spent grabbing Elisa by the throat and lifting her over a foot off the ground. Elisa struggled to breath as Faith's one hand wrapped tightly around her throat. Through clenched teeth, Faith answered the detective's question with a vicious threat: "There are five basic torture methods, detective. If you tell ANYONE about my son I will personally introduce you to every single one of them!"
She dropped Elisa, who fell to the merciless stone floor of the castle with a noticeable 'thud'. She coughed and gasped as she tried to fill her lungs with air and re-open her esophagus.
Faith stepped back for a moment before rushing to Elisa's side
"Oh my God!" she said in a panic, "I'm sorry! Are-are you okay?"
'Oh God, I almost killed her' Faith thought as she helped the detective to her feet. 'After all I've done to try and control myself…it only took that to nearly ruin it all…'
"I'm ok…" Elisa wheezed. Faith slowly lifted the detective back to her feet. Elisa could tell from Faith's eyes that she was more rattled by what had just happened than she was.
"I-I don't know what happened—"
"You obviously care a lot about your son" Elisa smiled slightly, raising her guard up in a combination of legitimacy and jest.
"Yeah," Faith's voice was hollow and unsure as she spoke, "I guess so"
"Mr. President, the CIALD agents Hippolyta Trevor and Steve Rogers have just arrived in New York City"
"Excellent. Inform Dr. Trask that he may begin field testing his latest weapon."
"Yes sir"
When Faith finally returned to her room, or rather, what remained of it after her tussle with Batman, she didn't even bother to change her clothes. She simply collapsed on the bed and fell right to sleep. It had been a long night and she needed the rest: real sleep as opposed to unconsciousness she had been experiencing with alarming frequency as of late.
As she dreamt, she was first assaulted in the mind with many horrible images: of a terrible receding city of cyclopean towers and great monoliths of granite. The wind was aroused with grand, horrible piping. Names and images flashed before her in a madding mix that even the most advanced human minds on earth could not hope to comprehend: "The Black Pit", "Shoggoth", "Elder Thing", "the King of Terror", "the Space Demon", "The windowless solids with five dimensions", "the nameless cylinder", "The Lord of Spiders", "Yog-Sothoth", "the primal white jelly", "the color out of space", "The original, eternal and undying", "Iä! Iä! Cthulhu Fhtagn!", "the Plateau of Leng", "The Stone Fiend of Vengance, Daimajin", "The Crimson Destroyer"…
Within the madding words and images, a clear voice echoed through her mind:
"Jamie Lloyd" said the voice, "You dare to include yourself in the affairs of the Great Old Ones, of whom it is unlawful for men to see, lest they bring horror and madness to your worthless life, even if you are a child of the New Gods. Watchers have warned you of these things, and yet you defy them. These are the gods whom have stayed behind in the deep and left for the void. It is best for you to let these gods lay, lest they rise again in terror and blasphemy. But you shall not forget them! No, you have placed yourself in their way. So they shall haunt you until your final death! Forget not this single warning, Jamie Lloyd, lest horrors unthinkable suck you into the gulf of shrieking and ululant madness. Remember the Other Gods, for they are great and mindless and terrible, and lurk in the outer void. They are good gods to avoid. Pray you may never meet me in one of my thousand forms. Farwell Jamie Llyod, and beware FOR I AM NYARLETHOTEP! THE CRAWLING CHAOS!"
Faith's scream shot through the now thick, damp air like a bullet as she bolted up, escaping from her sanity-shattering nightmare into the waking world…that the Old Ones left be through their shear mindlessness. With these thoughts on her mind, she tried to get some sleep.
When Faith again awoke it was approaching the evening and she was hardly rested. The images she saw in her dreams would haunt her for the rest of her life. She, quite frankly, didn't care what they were as long as she never saw or heard of them ever again.
She changed her clothes rather quickly into simple black-leather pants, a tight red shirt and leather jacket.
In an effort to remove her mind as far from the nightmarish images of her dreams, she flaunted herself in front of the mirror for quite a while.
"I don't ask to be this hot, it's just a gift" she said to inflate her own ego and forget the horrors of her dream.
This might be her last day of freedom; she decided to look good for it. She grabbed her bag and headed back towards Castle Wyvern.
In the early hours of the morning, central park became a haven of military vehicles. A Goa'uld incursion on earth was a momentous event for those who knew what the above was. Daniel Jackson was one of those people. He now found himself in a deep, underground chamber below central park full of Goa'uld writings. He had been sent to decipher them and did not like what he was seeing.
"So, we've got 5 incapacitated Jaffa with golden dragons on their heads, the appearances of a firefight of some sort…please tell me you've found something interesting in those hieroglyphs," Colonel Jack O'Neill said, his usual casual demeanor prevalent even in the tensest of situations.
"I think I have, but you're not going to like it…" Daniel said
"When do I ever?"
"Well, this is apparently a temple for both Nyarlethotep and King Ghidorah"
"Whoa, hold up—Ghidorah? Explains the dragons…"
"Apparently Nyralethotep loves Chaos and Destruction…so aiding something like Ghidorah is right up his alley…According to the text, his followers would come here to bring things that he wanted or needed in order to power his allies"
"I'm guessing something went wrong this time"
"Obviously"
"Colonel," Major Samantha Carter's voice called out, "I think I found something."
Col. O'Neill left Dr. Jackson with the ancient text and joined Carter near an alter at the far end of the chamber.
"What is it?" he asked as he approached.
"Would you believe a calling card?" She answered
The picked up the small, white card in her gloved hand and showed it to the Colonel.
"Who the hell is Lupin the Third?"
Underneath the three cities, something stirred; a mechanical monster with a roughly humanoid shape. It stood some 3 stories tall, colored with crimson and royal purple hues, its 'face' hidden in a mask of shadow.
Above it, scientist buzzed about like colonial insects, working and fussing over the hulking iron behemoth as if it were their queen. Updating its weapons systems and setting its programming.
The order had been given. The testing would begin to field test numerous new technologies in a military capacity against superhuman foes. Dr. Bolivar Trask smiled at the chance to let his project shine against all of the genetic anomalies that have popped up around the globe: non-terrestrials, genetic freaks, mutations (both natural and artificial) and other abominations before God.
The technicians, after many hours of work, cleared the launching platform as he personally began running diagnostics.
C:/diagnostics.exe
C:/Combat Systems Check
C:/Armor Check: NT-20 Synthetic-Diamond Armor/Heat Shield at 100 integrity
C:/Weapons Check:
Combat Lasers (x2): Operational
"Mega-Buster" Cannons (x3): Operational
Plasma Grenade (x1): Operational
Missile (x6): Operational, Loaded (10 rounds)
Mortars (x6): Operational, Loaded (10 rounds)
Impact Webbing Launcher (x1): Operational; Fuel: 100
Sonic Cannon (x1): Operational
Weapons check complete
C:/Fuel Check
Naquadah reactor at nominal output
Fuel lines fully functional
Jets at nominal output
C:/Sensory Equipment:
Camera 1: Check
Camera 2: Check
Camera 3: Check
Camera 4: Check
Nightvision/Thermal variants: Check. Check. Check. Check.
Radar: Check
Sonar: Check
EM sensors: Check
DNAnalyzer: Check
Sensory Equipment: Fully functional.
C:/AI: Activated
SNTL:/ awaiting commands…
C:/Run capturegenanom.exe
The huge machine activated, signified by the flash of its iridescent eyes, and moved towards the elevation-platform of the underground base. Its mission was about to begin.
Its cold mechanical voice echoed through the chamber.
"SENTINAL ACTIVATED. BEGIN SCAN FOR MUTANTS"
As Faith walked through the crowded streets of Manhattan towards the building, she bumped into someone, knocking the papers he was carrying to the ground.
Faith was just about to apologies to the man when she recognized him. His build, glasses, now-grayed hair…
"…Elektra?"
"…Egon?"
It was Dr. Egon Spengler, her first inter-um Watcher.
"Well, this is a surprise." He said calmly, with out any vocal intonation. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Faith could feel his agitation. "I thought you died. It would have made more sense, seeing as we didn't hear from you after they found Kylie's body…Why are you here?"
Faith felt like she was a little girl again, scared and alone. "It's a long story…and it's not a happy one."
Faith had first come to Egon with the name of "Elektra Nachios", he had assumed she picked it to garner the rep of the then believed dead assassin who had fought with the aging Daredevil in the early 1980's. In reality she chose this new moniker as a joke, a corruption of a favorite food from a local diner: the ultra-spicy "Electric Nachos".
She came to the Ghostbusters at first to discover what was happening to her. It did not take Egon long to identify her as a Slayer. They soon found her teaming up with the Ghostbusters on many cases aside from the problems she would encounter on her nightly patrols. Eventually, portents showed a rise of vampire activity in the South. Faith went down to Florida with Kylie Griffin, one of the new Ghosbusters, to inspect the situation. They had become very close friends during Faith's stay at the Firehouse, though Egon could sense something else between them. They apparently arrived too late to deal with the rise of the vampire known to experts as Dracula-Lothos. They followed one of his minions, an ancient vampire by the name of Kakistose, to Louisiana, where the vampire was trying to re-amass a power-base. Kylie was killed by the vampire and Faith went on the run, to Sunnydale—where the other Slayer was. Faith's story of fall and redemption held Egon's full attention. He especially perked up at the mentioning of the vampire with a soul and her epic battle with and the final defeat of her murderous uncle, Michael Meyers. With the help of her mother; whom she thought had died many years ago; they ended the reign of one of the most feared murders the US had ever known – a man as infamous as Jason Voorhees, Charles Lee Ray, Norman Bates, Bubba Sawyer or the Springwood Slasher: Freddy Krueger
When Faith finished her tale, Egon let it all sink in for a moment before he would consider a response:
"So, what do you plan to do now?"
"Depends if I don't get put back in the slammer tonight" Said Faith, unwavering certainty in her voice, "but if I don't, I'm going to come back here and we can talk some more…settle everything"
Faith returned to the Castle Wyvern, but was stopped before she got to the towers where she expected to see the Gargoyles. Owen Burnett walked towards her.
"Ms. Faith" he said, "If you are looking for the Gargoyles, they are in the main hall with Mr. Xanatos. I believe it would behoove you to join them as soon as possible."
"Why? What's going on?" She asked
"This way, please" he motioned to his left and lead her to the main hall. When they reached the room, she found only David Xanatos watching the events on the television screen unfold. He turned slightly, before getting up to great her.
"Ah, so you must be Faith I've heard so much about. It's unfortunate that our meeting will have to be cut short because as you can see"—Xanatos motioned towards the television screen "It seems you're desperately needed elsewhere."
Faith's eyes did not leave the screen one they passed over it. For on it she saw the Gargoyles fighting a losing battle against a large, humanoid machine. Its inhuman eyes shinning a demonic shade of orange, its body covered in red and purple colored armor…
To Be Concluded…
Coming up: The Heroes of New York vs. The Sentinel! Faith's Decision!