Mazes and Monsters

Part 5.

Nightblade stood in the centre of Callisto's cell, silently staring into nothingness; his yellow eyes were empty.

Darwin understood Jason's anguish completely. He experienced the same feeling of loss and loneliness when his team was killed on Krakoa, when he was forced to watch the woman he had ever loved being sliced in half, when he awakened in the world where nobody remembered him and his friends. That was enough to drive an ordinary person insane. Darwin survived, but a part of him withered and died.

Darwin understood. But he wasn't blind to the fact that the leader of Morlocks picked the wrong time and the wrong place for falling apart.

Adaptoid mutant grabbed Nightblade's shoulders and started shaking him fiercely, "C'mon, let's get out of here!" Morlock's reaction was far from desirable. In fact, Darwin got no reaction from Jason at all.

"Get a grip! We are not out of the woods yet!"

Again, he got no reaction.

You are a mighty good leader – can't even help a depressed teammate! Why on earth Timebroker gave me the Tallus?

The stray thought about Tallus invoked a chain reaction in Darwin's mind that ended with a light bulb popping up above his head.

"Listen to me! Timebroker is watching us! And I never got 'mission failed' message! Nothing, you hear me? The mission is NOT failed yet! Callisto can still be alive! Do you understand? She-can-still-be-alive! SHE-CAN-BE-ALIVE!"

Darwin kept shaking him and repeating these words again and again like a spell, until he felt that Jason relaxed.

"Thanks, Armando, I needed it," Nightblade took deep calming breaths, desperate trying to slow down the frantic beating of his heart. "Now you see why I have chosen you and not one of my soldiers?" The attempt to joke was rather poor, but for Darwin it was a good sign. The moment of weakness passed and the fearless leader of Morlocks was back. "And you are right. For all I know about Mole Man, he never could miss a chance to gloat. Killing Callisto is not enough. He needs a grand spectacle".

"And until the final curtain falls, there's a chance for us to rescue her," finished Darwin. "So let's not waste our time!"

When the old blanket accidentally tangled around Jason's leg, a small piece of paper fell out of its folds.

"What is it?" Jason grabbed a piece of paper. It was a handwritten note.

"Nightblade,

By the time you are reading this, Callisto must already reach a place of execution. Yes, I guessed that you are going accept my invitation and show up. For a former military man, you are too predicable.

Here's the bad news: there's nothing you can do to stop the execution. And before you try something foolishly heroic, let me give you some food for thought. As you noticed, Callisto wasn't my only "guest". If you go after your damsel in distress, that means leaving the prisoners to face certain death in the hands of Moloids. Make your choice, Mr. Dudley-Do-It-Right! A ghost of a chance to save Callisto or the lives of fifteen Morlocks as a consolation prize!

P.S. If your trained monkeys are staging a false attack to distract me from your daring rescue, they are in for a BIG surprise".

Jason was right. Mole Man couldn't miss his chance to gloat.

Nightblade studied piece of paper intently and said through gritted teeth, "Great Scott! That's why I couldn't tell that the cage is empty!" Darwin gave him a puzzled look and Morlock explained, "Mole Man was smart enough to figure out how to mess with my sense of smell. The paper is pheromone-laced".

"Neat trick. I think it's a pretty safe bet that he sprayed this stuff all over the place to misguide you".

And without Jason's sense of smell we can blindly wander through these corridors for hours and find nothing.

"Can your Tallus draw us a map or something?"

"Like GPS? Sorry, it doesn't work that way".

A pregnant pause filled the air.

"Well, well, well. It seems you two are in serious trouble," they turned around to see a hooded figure standing in the doorway.

Giant drill was grinding through the hardest stone with impressive speed.

Morlocks's usual policy was not to throw things away, even the trophies they considered useless. Now their habits worked at Exiles' advantage – first with the broken Sentinels, then with Roxxon drill machine.

Nico rubbed her temples. Between Crimson Dynamo playing with her toy soldiers and the constant roar of the machine it wasn't easy to stay focused.

And I can't afford to get distracted. If the spell works, it can cost me all my inner resources, but if it doesn't…

"Rockman is a king? I mean, for real? It's not a cover-up story?" asked Dzemal.

"What's with all the questions about Rockman?"

"Well, for a royalty he is too good as a miner".

"If you have doubts about his story, don't ask me, ask him," Nico was irritated by the young Morlock's endless questions and his badly-hidden attraction towards her

"I don't want to distract him".

"That's why you keep distracting me?"

"Leave her alone, Dzemal," said Dave Landers with a smirk. "Don't you see, young lady is not in the mood?"

"Yessir," Morlock retreated with his tail between his legs. Satisfied by his reaction, Dave turned to Crimson Dynamo, "What about you, Lena? How are you doing so far? Are the robots causing you any trouble?"

"I'm getting a hand on manual control… Well, more or less," added Yelena after one of the Prowlers broke the ranks. "But it's like playing blindfold chess on twenty boards. I'll be too vulnerable if it comes to close combat".

Yeah, me too, thought Nico.

"Don't worry, Lena. I'll protect you", Dave patted the barrel of his shotgun.

And who will protect me? Raza barely notices me - not that I wanted help from the agent of SWORD anyway. Wall-crawler is busy with Healer, Miss Belova – with her precious robots. And I stopped believing in guardian angels when I was eight.

When all the Sentinels finally stood still in perfect formation, Yelena asked the mechanic, "What was Roxxon mining equipment doing in your caverns anyway? What is so valuable down there to look for? Gold, diamonds? Uranium ore?"

"The only thing that matters to Morlocks is that Roxxon came to Subterrania uninvited. And, what's even worse, their careless digging ruined a lot of the tunnels. So they got just what they deserved. Don't look at me like I've just grown an extra head. Imagine Roxxon coming to your house looking for treasures and destroying the floor of your kitchen in the process?"

"Point taken".

Suddenly and without warning the man in red and blue spandex landed between them.

"What did I miss?"

"You moron! Never do this again!" yelled Landers lowering the shotgun.

"Scared?"

"No, relieved. I nearly made a new hole in your empty head! You are lucky I recognized you before I shot. Never – you heard me – never sneak up on a man with a loaded gun!"

"Unless you are bulletproof," added Yelena to ease the tension, tapping an armored finger against her metal shoulder pads.

"Of course, there's an exception to every rule," answered mechanic, the anger disappeared from his face as he flashed Yelena a brilliant smile, "and you are an exceptional woman, Lena, in any sense of the word".

Nico just rolled her eyes at the blatant display of flirting.

The woman looked almost as old as Healer, with an enormous amount of wrinkles on her face, graying hair and a slight stoop to her stance, but she was holding the energy rifle firmly.

"Old Zera likes what you did to the guards, Jason".

"How do you…"

Old woman smiled wryly, "Unlocked the door with a bobby pin. She wasn't always a farmer's wife. Or do you want to know how can Old Zera know your name? Callie told her".

"You know Callisto?"

"Old Zera was in the cell next to Callie's. Talked when we could; used Morse code. Callie was worried for you, afraid that you can go after her and walk into in a trap".

"Where is she?"

"Callie was dragged to Coliseum with all the Morlocks who can fight. Mole Man left only those who were weak, ill, or too old like Zera," the woman added, "She knows a short way to Coliseum".

"What about the other prisoners? We must free them before we go!"

"Old Zera can do it. And she can tell them that she sent you to get help. With all the Moloids in Coliseum, it's safer to stay here," she looked at him with a mix of sadness and empathy in her old eyes. "Zera I can't ask you to forfeit your woman's life. Go and save Callie. Old Zera can hold the fort until you return".

"Can you? Do you know how to use this weapon?"

Without a word of warning Zera fired a single shot from energy rifle, beheading the statue of Mole Man.

"Wow!"

"Does it answer your question, son?"

"Are you ex-cop or what?"

Old woman smiled proudly, "Told you, Zera wasn't always a farmer's wife".

Crimson Dynamo entered the large empty cave on the other end of Rockman's tunnel, accompanied by her Sentinel Squad. Yelena thought that the cave was nothing like the ones she got used to when she was a guest of Morlocks - no stalactites hanging from the ceiling, large clearing in the middle of the cave and hundreds of flat rectangular stones surrounding it.

Yelena waited patiently until the last Prowler joined the squad. Only then she ordered Razorback and his troops to follow her.

"Whoa! What kind of place is this, a circus arena?" exclaimed Dzemal.

"Sure, if the circus owners were Neanderthals".

Healer and his reluctant bodyguard were the last who walked into the cave.

"Guys, my spider-sense is tingling," said Captain Spider nervously when he joined the others.

Razorback snorted like a pig, trying to contain his amusement, "In case you didn't notice, we are going straight into the monster's lair".

"I'm serious! My spider-sense is going mad!"

Dave asked, "Are you sure it's not a bad case of poison ivy? Because all I see is the big empty…"

The wall at the opposite end of the cave shimmered and disappeared.

"…cave".

Too late Yelena understood what happened. They were fooled by a hologram. Captain Spider warned them too late, the trap was already sprung. Now they had to face an army of Moloids in their territory and on their terms.

Damn? What was wrong with my sensors? Holograms can fool your eyes, but there were no life signatures either!

Crimson Dynamo launched a threat assessment program. The results were unsatisfactory – her allies were outnumbered by approximately five to one.

But Moloids and brainwashed Morlocks were the least of her problems. Three monsters, and each of them was easily twice as large as Yelena's battle robots, approached her army from the right flank. One of them was a twisted caricature of a dragon, with glowing red eye in the centre of scaly lizard's head and two huge rows of sharp yellow teeth. The second one looked more like a mammal, with two long horns that protrude from the sides of its head; he was covered with spikes that would make a porcupine jealous. The largest of them all moved slowly, which was appropriate because the monster looked like a gigantic snail with the large octopus-like tentacles and shell that resembled tank armor.

"Mole Man was waiting for us!" Dave Landers loaded the shotgun, aiming it at the big lizard's head.

Dzemal gasped, "Sweet Jesus! What are these things?"

Healer reprimanded him, "Jesus has nothing to do with these abominations! And don't you ever use God's name in vain!"

Razorback shouted, "FALL BACK! Crimson Dynamo, cover us! There are too many of them!"

The dwarf in a purple mantle who stood in the middle of the enemy army tapped his staff thrice upon the stone floor. The ground started to shake fiercely. Yelena turned back to see Rockman's tunnel, their only way back, was sealed by a cave-in.

Mole Man's evil laughter was Oscar-worthy.

"We can't retreat!"

"Thanks a lot, Captain Oblivious!"

Forcing herself to remain calm, Crimson Dynamo ordered, "Everybody, time for Plan B! Assume the positions; hit them with all you have, no holding back! If Mole Man wants to fight, let's give him fight he never forgets!"

She marked three beasts as primary targets and ordered Sentinels to open fire.

To be continued…