Dimensional Warrior
Chapter 5
A white flash filled Harry's vision. Energy coursed through his body, setting every cell on fire as he was yanked upwards. When it faded, he fell to his knees, steam rising off his body.
Sweat dripped onto his reflection in a golden floor.
In the periphery of his vision, he could make out a circle of electricity crackling around him.
Slowly, he pushed himself to his feet.
Muscles tense, he looked around him, subconsciously circulating Psionic energy through his body.
He was in a long golden rectangular room. Square gold columns lined either side.
He appeared slightly to the left of the room, off the crimson carpet that ran down its center.
At the far end of the room on a raised dais sat a broad white-haired man, his single blue eye radiating power. His right hand was wrapped around the gold shaft of a spear.
He shifted, his white hair cascading over the golden chest plate adorning his body.
Harry bowed, "Lord Odin, I am Harry John Warkiller…"
Odin cut him off, "I know who you are, I can sense the blood of Asgard in your veins. Now, why have you desecrated my son's mortal tomb?"
"I would like you to allow me to learn to forge from the dwarfs."
Odin rose to his feet, his black boots clicking on the marble stairs of his dais, the heel was reflected in the gold that outlined the edge of the stairs. The Golden shaft of his spear clunked on the floor as he closed the distance between them.
Stopping a foot away from Harry, he raised his spear, "Before we discuss anything. This needs to be taking care of." He thrust the spear forward.
Harry tensed, but froze in place as Odin's eyes flashed.
The spear sunk into his body, but instead of it exploding out his back, his flesh rippled as it sank deeper within him.
In his mind, Harry heard the sound of shattering glass before his entire body was consumed in green flames. The last thing he heard before his mind was pulled elsewhere was a phoenixes cry.
–XX –
Harry sat up, his hands pressing into a brick floor made up of a swirl of glowing green and blue energy.
"That bastards stabbed me!"
Climbing to his feet, he looked around the long hallway he was in. A black film crawled over the green and blue bricks that surrounded him. Each time the film tried to crawl over bricks, the blue running through it would flare, burning it back.
"Where the hell am I?"
'You are in your soul.'
"Who's there?"
'I am the Phoenix heart, and it is time we completed our destiny.'
"And how do we do that?"
'Follow the yellow brick road.'
Square sections of brick began to shine with a golden light.
"Really?"
'Give me a break you're the first person I talked to in over a millennium.'
Shoving his hands into his pockets, Harry began making his way along the path. Part of him wondered if he was walking into a trap, but with nowhere else to go he continued forward.
–XX –
kneeling beside Harry's prone form, Odin placed two fingers of his left hand on the boy's forehead. Closing his eyes, he concentrated.
Images flashed through his mind.
Kal-El the Kryptonian, an alien who drew godlike powers from the sun.
Thanagarians, birdlike people who reminded him of the beings from the tenth heaven.
Amazons, female warriors created by the Greek gods to fight in an unknown battle.
Martians, green skin, red-eyed aliens with shapeshifting abilities, superhuman strength, Psionic abilities, and density control.
White Martians, a white version of the Martians that were warlike in nature.
Tamaraneans, orange-skinned aliens who drew power from ultraviolet rays gaining, incredible strength, speed, durability, energy projection, and flight.
Kherubim, immortal aliens with superhuman strength, durability, speed, regenerative healing, and Psionic abilities.
New gods, beings that evolved close to primordial energy, gaining immortality, superhuman strength, superhuman speed, durability, regenerative healing, and enhanced senses as well as cosmic energy manipulation.
James Warkiller, born from the flesh of Athena, the heart of Balder, and the soul of James Howlett, known to him as Wolverine. In Harry's world, he was the god of battle, animals, and honor.
Standing up, Odin backed away from the body. His universe was so different yet the same, he recognized races such as the Broods, Eternals, Deviants, Skrulls, and the Kree.
His people didn't seem to take an active interest in the world until the end. Is that why it fell? Is that why those Daemonite creatures one? Could something like that happen here?
He shook his head that didn't matter right now. He'd never seen a universe that was so full of life. Balder's blood sung within the boy's veins, he could feel the pull towards him in the Odin force.
His single blue eye narrowed, but the entity in his soul was too powerful of an unknown to let go unchecked. If he didn't defeat it, he would kill them, blood or no.
–XX –
Harry strode down a hallway that seemed to go on forever. As he ventured deeper, the walls seem to come covered in that black film.
Spikes emerged from the film, but a blast of psychic power, or was it energy from his own soul, he shook his head, and the film disintegrated, withdrawing from the walls deeper into the path ahead of him.
Coming out into a circular room, he paused.
A Phoenix made of emerald fire lay in the center of the room, chains made of black webbing emerged from holes in the walls to wrap around its body, pinning its wings to its side.
The Phoenix looked at him, its white eyes boring into his being.
'So, you are finally here.'
Harry closed the distance between them, "Who are you?" The black chains wrapped around the bird shuddered at his approach.
'I am the Phoenix heart, the merger of your universe is Phoenix force, and the star heart, the entirety of the planet Oa's magic.'
"Why merge with me?" He asked, "why speak to me now after all this time?"
'I merged with you because your unique energy signature can help me achieve my destiny. As for why now, Odin broke the containment the guardians put me in, so I could finally pull you here. Before now, I could only do so much. As a matter of fact, if it wasn't for the psychic energy released during your birth, I wouldn't have been able to merge with you.'
Harry narrowed his eyes. Blue energy began to gather around his hand and danced like flames. "What do you mean," he began slowly suspicion dripping from each word, "I can help you achieve your destiny?"
The Phoenix shifted, causing the black web-like chains to be pulled taut.
'Before my merger with the star heart, I was a part of the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix force. That is no longer the case, I can still see my own future. By merging our energy, we will create a new type of universal energy called the Sage force.'
'It is why our universe was created in the first place and why it collapsed after you landed on a node world.'
Harry's eyes widened, he slowly slid down to the floor. "My universe is gone?" he said numbly, staring at nothing.
'Yes, nothing made by the energies of Darkseid is meant to last.'
Suddenly, he sprang to his feet, leaning forward, a hint of pleading in his eyes, "Wait a minute, your part of the Phoenix, you can sense life. Did my parents make it out of our home universe?"
The Phoenix shook its head, and Harry's stomach dropped.
'That I do not know, I am no longer connected to all life, the merger with the star heart energy has fundamentally changed me.'
Harry just stood there not knowing how to feel. For years he had secretly hoped his parents made it out somehow. Part of him hoped one day he would be able to return home and set things right, but now his universe was gone. He cast his eyes around, searching for anything to take his mind off what he had just been told.
"What do you mean by node world?"
'Our universe was created when two cosmic beings from two different multi-verses collided. Right now, you are on one of the earth's that spawns its parallel counterparts. The other being separated from us by a river of dimensional space-time called hypertime.'
Nodding, Harry focused on the room "What are these black chains you are wrapped in?"
'The Malthusians did not realize when they locked me inside the star heart, that the magic of the planet Oa had already begun to gain consciousness.'
'Since our merger, we have been in a fight for dominance. It took me a while to learn the ins and outs of my new abilities. By that point, he had already gained the upper hand imprisoning me here. I have been using a large portion of your psychic energies to push back his assimilation of our power.'
Harry stood there. The Phoenix was telling him they were meant to create a new type of energy together, his parents could be dead, and there was another mind in the Phoenix heart that was trying to absorb the combined power of the Phoenix and star heart for an unknown purpose.
He shook his head, he may not trust the Phoenix, but anything that wanted to assimilate another being couldn't be good.
"How do I help?"
The moment the words left his mouth, a black film leaped up from the floor spreading out to wash over his body.
Leaping to the side, Harry allowed his energies to leave a trail along the floor. Twisting as he landed on the ground, he placed his hand on the trail.
Spikes of translucent blue energy emerged from the trail, stabbing into the film.
As they pierced the substance, the spikes burst into flames.
One of the six chains holding the Phoenix snapped, transforming into a large serpent and lunging forward.
Casting his will towards the flames, they leaped up from the floor, forming a spear just in time for him to stab it into the snake's mouth.
The snake thrashed, writhing on the spear as it shifted from form to form, trying to pry itself loose.
Finally, it turned into a slime dripping and sliding down the shaft to pool on the floor.
Harry backed away as it bubbled rising up to take the form of a spider.
It scuttled towards him, translucent green energy fangs dripping venom, it's eight eyes burning with a familiar green light. Twirling the spear around him, Harry shifted its form into a translucent blue pistol.
Releasing a breath, he took aim and slowly squeezed the trigger.
The shot echoed around the room, the bullet slamming into the center of the spider and out the back of its body.
Black chunks and viscous fluid sprayed along the floor behind it.
The film that had first attacked him swarmed over the spider, healing its wounds.
Its form began to shift and bubble.
"Hey, Phoenix. Any idea of how to defeat this thing?"
The Phoenix flared its wings, the appendages having been freed when the chain transformed into a snake.
A wave of green fire washed over the spider.
It screeched, bubbling, and breaking into small pieces under the influence of the flames.
'We have to merge our wills and force it out of your body.'
Another chain yanked itself free. It shot towards the fire, coiling around it and the spider within.
The flames died. The chains glowed with a neon green light
Slowly, it began to fall in on itself.
"How would that help us defeat this thing?"
'Though it is powerful, my presence here has kept It from developing into anything more than a mindless beast trying to protect itself. If it consumes you it will gain control of your body and this realm in the process consuming me. If we merge, our sense of self will be enough to drive it out of your body.'
"What will happen to it after that?"
'Without a host or the majority of its power, it should disperse into the ether.'
"And how do I know you're not going to take over my body?"
'We are merged, our fates are intertwined, whatever happens to you happens to me, and besides, I cannot reach my full potential without you.'
A wolf emerged from where the chains had been, its grey teeth bared, hatred burning in its luminescent neon green eyes. With a roar, it released Gale force winds from its mouth.
Screeching, the Phoenix released another wave of green fire, but this time the wolf inhaled. Its eyes flashing as it absorbed the energy.
"Okay, that's not good."
Shifting his pistol into a curved blade, he sprinted forward. Leaping into the air, he slashed one of the three chains that still held the Phoenix in place.
As he cleaved it into, the chain bent curling like a snake as it lashed out at him.
Twisting his body, he released a blast of psychic energy from his right hand, shooting himself towards the next chain. Grabbing a hold of the chain he gritted his teeth as his body jerked around, wrenching his shoulder. Wrapping his legs around the chain, he began sawing at it.
It writhed in his grasp, he cried out as spikes emerged along its length piercing his flesh and sending rivulets of blood cascading to the floor.
The chain snapped, its spikes still buried in his legs as he plummeted to the floor.
He cried out as he tensed his legs, trying to curl into a ball to absorb the impact.
He could feel muscles tearing.
–XX –
Odin frowned as the boy thrashed on the floor, his leg twisted sideways with a sickening crack, blood-soaked through the fabric of his jeans. Holes appeared in the leg as well as in his hand, spraying blood across the golden floor.
The King of Asgard frowned, his grip tightening on his spear. Lightning crackled along its blade while magic swirled around his body.
"Fight, boy! Show me you are worthy of the blood that runs through your veins."
–XX –
Phoenix flared out its wing, catching Harry and allowing him to slide down its length. It bent its head to stare into Harry's eyes as he gritted his teeth against the pain throbbing in his hand and leg.
'Are you ready to merge our spirits?'
"Yeah, sorry I couldn't get you free of all the chains."
The wolf growled, closing the distance between them, its paws leaving dents in the brick floor.
'It was a nice gesture, but not really necessary.'
"Now you tell me."
Before he could say anything else, the Phoenix shifted its body so that their foreheads were touching. The bodies exploded into energy, blue and green light swirled before washing throughout the room.
The Wolf howled before it broke apart into moats of black energy.
–XX –
Odin watched as Harry's back arched, a black film exploding from his mouth, a beast-like roar reverberating from his throat.
When his body finally relaxed, the black film had disappeared through the ceiling.
Odin took a step forward, only to stop as a green light burst from Harry's eyes and mouth. His body slowly evaporated into streamers of green energy.
Reality flexed; Boeing outward. Streamers of green energy sliding in all directions.
Through his connection to the Odin force, he felt something in the universe shift.
Slowly, Harry's body began to reform feet first.
When the boy lay on the ground before him, he didn't look any different, but he could sense there was something fundamentally different about his body.
His body floated up from the floor, and Odin turned, making his way out of the throne room. He would provide the boy a room for now, but tomorrow the real test began to see if he was worthy of being on Asgard.
– XX –
A red hand reached out of the darkness, its black clawed fingers wrapping around the will of the star heart. Two yellow eyes stared at the squirming black mass in its grasp.
"Well, aren't you interesting."