Spark of Genius
Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy verse, Girl Genius verse, DC comics or any of the other smatterings of pop culture and literary ideas that I refer to in my story, I just tread through a few other sandboxes. Oh, and several names are made up, some are real, but the facts have been changed to protect the corrupt and innocent equally.
AN1. To all who thought the wild crazy bad luck and good luck situations, or incredible happenstance, were simply filler or random crazy situations just thrown in for no purpose other than laughs, I say WRONG! Ok, partially wrong… I do like to write them for laughs and enjoyment. That said, I now give you the chapter that explains what the hell is going on with all the crazy random crap that comes Xander's way. It's a Spark thing. Oh, and its a long chapter also, so I hope you enjoy it. Let me know your thoughts. Cheers!
AN2. To those who thought Xander should have just used his nano-clank armor to turn himself white, I give you two answers:
1. It's boring and using the nano-clank armor that way would have been the most logical rational way of turning himself white. Thus, as a Major Spark, Xander would do something with more pizzazz. Sparks don't do rational. Sparks don't do the simple way. Think Rube Goldberg solutions. Think about things like a gun that is fueled by transdimensional energy and shoots flaming marshmallows in order to simply make chocolate s'mores.
2. Xander's armor covers his face in a featureless helmet, Shiva has a human face with exposed features like eyes, ears and a nose. Thus it wouldn't have worked to use the full armor, especially not in the split second decision before he was facing the mob. Xander saw the paint, had a crazy idea, and went with it. Shrug, it's what makes characters with the Spark so dangerous, insane and most of all fun. Basically the mindset of the Spark is, rational = boring. That said, on with the story.
'Thought'
"Speech"
/foreign language/
Chapter 32: Life, The Spark, and Everything in It.
"A Buddhist monk, visiting New York City for the first time in twenty years, walked up to a hot dog vendor, handed him a twenty dollar bill, and said, "Make me one with everything."
The vendor pocketed the money, and handed the Buddhist monk his hot dog. The monk, after waiting for a moment, asked for his change. The vendor looked at him and said, "Change comes from within." With a wistful smile, the monk walked away." ~Unknown
Nine o'clock, and all was not well, for who enjoys getting stuck in an hour long meeting at the beginning of a Friday morning? Such was the life of the Justice League members as they met to go over the events since their last monthly meeting at the beginning of March. Still the fresh Sparkbucks coffee was a perk at the meeting, thus the explanations of the latest threat assessment was interrupted by intermittent sipping and slurping sounds, depending on the hero and their choice of caffeinated beverage.
"Now if you see here, we are noticing a recent down turn in the need for humanitarian relief while super villain actions remain at normal levels for this time of year." The Martian Manhunter stated as he walked in front of a large projected image of threat bubbles that populated a map of earth.
"SLurrrrrp."
The Martian Manhunter's eyebrow-ridge twitched at the sound of the slurp, but he stoically continued the forecast for potential problems. "Looking to the east, we note that it is about time for tornadoes in the mid-western United States, and if you follow this jet stream across the Gulf of Mexico we can expect a few major hurricanes that may need our attention."
"SLurrrrrrrrpppppp"
J'onn J'onzz the Martian Manhunter's eye took on a slight tick as the slurping sound was like nails on a chalk board for his alien mind. Gritting his teeth, the normally staid Martian continued his presentation, "Mudslides in South America, tidal waves in Indonesia and surrounding Islands, earth quakes in Japan, and…"
"SLURRRRRRRRPPPPPP!"
"By Saturn's Rings! I swear Flash, if you don't stop that slurping I'm going to telepathically switch your mind around so that think you are a six year old little girl on the good ship Lollypop!" The Martian Manhunter lost it, for probably the first time in the league's noted history. It was official; apparently The Flash could get more annoying than he already was.
All around the conference room jaws dropped open to stare at the panting and fist clenching Martian Manhunter, before they all swiveled to glare at The Flash.
The Flash was oblivious to the reactions around him, or even that the conference had stopped. Instead he was busy trying to look down the straw at the remaining drops of his quadruple no-whipped iced mocha Sparkbuck's special.
Realizing that it was quiet, Wally West finally looked up and then his head darted from side to side as he realized that everybody in the room was staring at him.
"What?" The Flash asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The slurping… stop the damn slurping." The Martian Manhunter uncharacteristically growled.
The Flash looked confused, "What? But the best stuff is at the bottom." He explained, looking around for any sympathy from his fellow Justice League members but not receiving any. "But, but, the chocolate syrup all drops to the bottom and gets stuck to the ice. Without the slurping it goes to waste." Wally West tried to explain.
"Give me that!" Batman said from next to Flash, snatching the plastic iced mocha cup from The Flash and crushing it before dropping it into a nearby trash receptacle.
The Flash pouted before replying, "Fine." With that he reached down to his waist and snagged a white and gold colored aluminum can from a bandoleer of similar cans around his waist, popped the tab and started to sip it.
Everybody just stared at The Flash for a moment in silence. Only Plasticman couldn't help but break said silence.
"Wait a second, are you wearing an ammo belt loaded with some sort of beverage? What is that stuff?" Plasticman questioned, stretching his neck up into the air to thread in between other heroes until he was able to look over The Flash's shoulder with his elastic neck.
"It's not an ammo belt, it's my utility belt. As for what it is, it's called 'Liquid Schwartz,' the new energy drink from the maker of Sparkbucks; you need a prescription to buy it." The Flash said with a big smile before taking another sip and then smiling contentedly.
"Wait, a prescription?" Plasticman asked, his question drowning out Batman's mumbled growl of, "It's not a utility belt."
"Yep," Flash stated proudly before turning and smirking at Batman, "You're just jealous that your utility belt doesn't come with energy drinks." The Flash ignored the murderous look of Batman along with the caped crusader's grinding teeth, and instead turned his attention back to Plasticman. "Twenty times the safe limit of caffeine for normal humans to consume. I had to get a Doctor to give me a prescription in order to get it. However, it's amazing what you can get people to do when you tell them something is needed in order to save the world." Flash finished with a large smile and another sip.
Plasticman looked intrigued for a moment, and then smiled at Flash, "Hmm, that might work for a great pickup line. Thanks Flash." Plasticman finished as one of his elastic arms snaked through the crowd go give The Flash a thumbs up while making a point to remember the whole, 'it's needed to save the world,' line. Two rows back, Booster Gold opened up a little black book and added the pickup line to his list.
"BAH! Fine! I'm finished. Back to you Batman." The Martian Manhunter threw up his hands in frustration and marched back to his seat; so upset that he didn't even float across the room gracefully like normal.
Batman growled at Plasticman and The Flash, and both hunkered down in their seats and remained silent. Well sort of silent, the Flash still sipped his drink, but very quietly.
Batman's glare cut through the room for a moment before punching in a few keys on the keyboard in front of him and bringing up a new threat assessment briefing.
In the holographic projector in the middle of the room, several figures were displayed, and Batman began to speak.
"As most of you know from the world news, we have some new meta-humans of indeterminate threat level to deal with." Batman started with a wave towards the holographic image and a picture of The Grey Knight appeared.
"First we have the self titled Grey Knight, whose only known appearances have been limited to the United States." Batman growled and his face scowled more than usual as the image of the scary red eyed visage of the hulking armored demon hunter was shown.
"Sources are scarce but what is known is that he is a demon hunter, comes from an unknown dimension, and is heavily armed and armored as well as leading several squads of highly trained armored troops." Batman explained while images of The Grey Knight were prefaced with a few pictures of his troops. "Etrigan should be especially careful in confronting The Grey Knight as it is unknown who or what he defines as a demon which he should hunt." Batman continued, giving a pointed look to Jason Blood, the man whose body housed the demon Etrigan.
Jason Blood nodded in understanding, and Batman returned to his discussion.
Gesturing back towards the holographic image projector as it changed to the image of a mirrored helmeted man in a black suit, black gloves and shoes, and a blood red tie. "The Leviathan, alleged cousin of The Grey Knight and self appointed political counterpart to his cousin." Batman stated while looking around at the audience of Justice League members.
Several members in the crowd gritted their teeth or fingered their maces, namely the Green Lantern and Hawkgirl. Whereas Superman and the Martian Manhunter looked stoically at the image and Wonder Woman looked defiant or unconcerned.
"Strength and speed on par with Superman, technology potentially rivaling or surpassing anything else on Earth, and heavily militarized, The Leviathan should be seen as extremely dangerous and still enough of an unknown to where we don't know if he will be a help or a hindrance to our efforts." Batman explained; Batman's statement punctuated in the background by the Green Lantern growling.
"His current known territory extends from Romania through Kasnia, where Princess Audrey has released reports that she is pleased with the development of her people. The Leviathan's only known ally is Kahndaq and its ruler Black Adam." Bruce explained, only to be interrupted by Wonder Woman.
"As well as Themyscira." Wonder Woman added with a simple gesture and a regal look.
"What?" Green Lantern exploded from his seat with a yell, only to have Hawkgirl rest a hand on John Stewart's shoulder and guide the Green Lantern back into his seat.
"And Themyscira." Batman added with a bit of a frown while he continued. "Original dimension also unknown, expected force size in the millions and heavily armed. Currently the United Nations has fully recognized and dropped all sanctions on the Empire of The Leviathan and countries are inviting the opening of embassies in their territory. The main export of the Empire is currently produce and food and is the largest reason for the decrease in our need for involvement in food shipments of humanitarian relief." Batman explained, and many of the heroes and heroines in the room took on contemplative looks, while Wonder Woman let slip a tiny smirk.
"The Leviathan has repeatedly stated that he is not interested in expansion, however there are mixed views on whether his relatively recent violent actions in Kaznia and Romania were justified or not." Batman described, but was interrupted by the Green Lantern.
"He's a murder." The Green Lantern growled.
Wonder Woman immediately jumped to The Leviathan's defense, "He is a warrior defending his people." She spat back.
"Quiet!" Superman interjected with a yell, all eyes sweeping away from the glaring match between Green Lantern and Wonder Woman to focus on the Kryptonian. "Though we don't agree with all of his methods, The Leviathan has the law on his side and is recognized and supported by the majority of the people on this planet." Kal-El stated firmly as he looked around, catching and holding the eyes of Green Lantern and Hawkgirl before looking around at the rest of the heroes.
"Until such time as he steps out of line I plan on treating him just like we would any other country's duly appointed President or Prime Minister. The people have decided to support The Leviathan, and he is insanely popular in not only his own Empire but has been deemed justified in his actions by the court of public opinion throughout the world." Superman explained with a simple gesture of his hand.
"The people are sheep!" Green Lantern groused angrily.
Superman turned and glared at Green Lantern, "John, might I remind you what happens when we take that belief to its fullest extent and make the people follow our lead? We are not the Justice Lords, and as a Green Lantern you should remember that you are basically a galactic police officer, not a judge, jury and executioner." Kal-El finished strongly, staring the Green Lantern down until the man nodded in grudging acceptance.
"Batman, please continue." Superman prompted, gesturing for Batman to continue.
"Unfortunately, that's about all I have to share at this time regarding The Leviathan." Batman stated before pressing a few buttons that had villains flipping through the screen before stopping on a picture of the bald and smirking Lex Luthor on the screen. "There are some hints that Lexcorp may have been responsible for supplying the weapons for the raid on Romania that was publicized to the world." Batman explained, and now it was Superman's turn to grind his teeth.
"Still, the United Nations subcommittee that did an investigation found the evidence circumstantial, as only the labeling on the weapons as displayed from the video was available. The Empire of the Leviathan is claiming that they are also running an investigation and that the matter will be handled internally." Batman detailed what little was known to have leaked out of the closed country.
"This finishes the portion on known threats, and leads us to the category of unknown individuals who are potentially new heroes on the scene." Batman explained.
"In the United States we have a new teenaged hero calling himself Static Shock fighting crime in his home town, and we have a tale coming out of Turkey about a thwarted terrorist attack." Batman stated as a picture of an African American teen surfing on a manhole cover was followed by a picture from the Istanbul Times; both were broadcast on the holographic screen. "This is the picture of the unknown vigilante who thwarted the attack in Istanbul, as you can see he is doing so a little more violently than we normally do things." Batman gestured to the picture of Xander literally disarming the terrorist, the detonator switch and dangling wires hanging from the severed arm that was clasped in Xander's grasp.
"Alexander Harris!" Wonder Woman exclaimed as she jumped from her seat and marched out of her chair to look at the image more closely.
Batman's eyebrow rose, "What? Do you know this man?" He questioned.
Wonder Woman glared at the picture, and the turned with a frown to Batman while gesturing towards the picture. "Yes, this is the man who I found at that temple in India. Somehow he was able to lie while under the power of my lasso, and tricked me into letting him leave." She finished, returning to glare at the picture.
"This is the multi-armed being who stopped the riot? Is he collecting limbs and adding them to his body?" Batman inquisitively asked, not joking in any way as he had seen weirder things during his own crime fighting.
"No, he only had two arms when I saw him, and there was white paint everywhere. I'm more worried about the fact that he was able to lie while under the control of an artifact forged by the gods. Now that I think about it, I'm not even sure if he gave me his real name." Wonder Woman made a cutting motion with her hand to stress the answer as a negative. She bit her lip in thought while one of her hands opened and closed in a fist while she thought deeply, walking around the hologram as if to examine the two dimensional newspaper image from all angles.
"I've read the report, and he was dressed as Shiva when he was in India. Are you sure that it was the same man? Could he really have been Shiva, or some sort of shape shifter?" Superman asked, always on the lookout for individuals with the potential to actually hurt him, especially since this Alexander had been able to overcome the power of Wonder Woman's magical lasso.
Wonder Woman briefly looked over her shoulder at Kal-El for a moment while thinking, before shaking her head. "I just don't know. There was so much white paint there that I don't think he was really Shiva… but then again he was able to negate the power of the lasso, so I just don't know for sure." She finished with a frown before returning to her seat.
It was silent in the room as the heroes quietly contemplated the individual.
Finally Batman spoke, "Well, this image had to be scanned in from a hard copy version of the Istanbul Times, as The Oracle was witness to the electronic copies of it being erased from all known digital locations. Whoever this Alexander Harris is, he has some interesting friends or powers and has been described as incredibly fast. He is a mystery for right now." Batman explained with a shrug as he tried to figure out if he could ascertain any of this Alexander's weaknesses in the case the individual became a problem.
The Black Canary chimed in with a question from one of the back rows of heroes in the room, "Is there any chance that he could be magical? That could explain his ability to shape shift, move incredibly fast, and disappear in mid step."
The combined population of heroes in the room all turned to stare incredulously at the blonde super heroine in the tight black leotard and fishnet stockings.
Black Canary turned to look at all of the people staring at her and frowned, "What? Just because I'm blonde doesn't mean I'm not smart or that I don't pay attention to the details in the reports." She finished with a glare and crossed her arms across her chest angrily.
All of the heroes quickly averted their attention back to Batman for the answer, as he was noted as the world's best detective.
Batman rubbed his chin deep in thought for a moment before slowly speaking, "It has merit, but we can't know for sure until we check. Unfortunately Dr. Fate has been indisposed of recent, and Zatanna was called home on family business. We won't know until we can talk to our experts on magic."
The other heroes all looked at each other before focusing back on the main heroes who ran the Justice League.
Superman interjected his thoughts, "Well from what we've seen so far, his methods may be somewhat questionable, but his heart is in the right place if he is protecting the population. I suggest we keep a look out for this Alexander Harris, he may be a potential invitee for the Justice League, but there is no telling where he may show up next."
With that, the heroes nodded and went on to discuss other business.
It was the ninth of April 1999, a third of the way through the climbing season on Mt. Everest, which just meant that it was the only time of the year where the temperatures and weather allowed people to somewhat survive the ascent up its slopes. That said, the climb was insanely difficult, and over the years hundreds of well trained and well equipped individuals had still died even though the climbing season was considered the 'warm period' in northern Nepal.
Oliver Queen's breath frosted over the inside of his oxygen mask as every heavy frozen step seemed to shudder through his body as he continued to ascend the mountain. One time Mayor of the northern Californian metropolitan Star City, billionaire playboy, owner of Queen Industries, and alter ego of hero The Green Arrow, Oliver Queen was in the midst of a climb up Mt. Everest in the Himalaya Mountains. Along with his band of merry Sherpas, Oliver was on a charitable climb up the world's tallest mountain, and for every foot of elevation he conquered donors had pledged money towards vaccination and mosquito netting for the children of South Eastern Asia.
Oliver was only at around the 27,000 foot mark and he already felt like he was about to die as the high altitude left him gasping and the cold seemed to cut right through his heavy duty parka. Even though he was an incredibly fit man, with the acrobatic and athletic skills beyond most Olympic athletes, he was still sucking wind and he felt that his heart was going to pop out of his chest.
'It's for the children, think of the children, it's for the children.' Oliver thought to himself repeatedly with every struggling step up the mountain. The rasping hiss of his oxygen tank was the constant sound in his ears, along with his pounding heart beat and rasping breaths that struggled to pull in the cold oxygen infused Nepalese air. Other than the sound of his own body struggling to conquer the mountain, the only sound besides the wind had been the sound of the trudging Sherpas that were with him.
Behind him in a line were the several Sherpas who were making the trip with him, and at this altitude even they were feeling the strain of the climb as they slowly threaded up a narrow track one after the other while digging in their climbing sticks and ice climbing boots in order to keep a strong footing.
It was a hard slog up the mountain, and it was very easy to get disorientated or even start hallucinating due to the mix of cold, low oxygen, and high altitude. That is why Oliver started to get a bit worried when he thought he started to hear music breezing by in the wind.
A few steps more, and Oliver stopped to make sure that his oxygen tank still had enough gas in it and that he wasn't hallucinating.
"dun… dun dun dun… dun dun dun…" Issued quietly in the distance and was carried by on the breeze.
Oliver slowly turned to look quizzically at the Sherpas behind him. Between gasping breaths he haltingly questioned, "Does *gasp* anybody else *gasp* hear music?"
The Sherpas all looked amongst each other, and then back at Oliver with their oxygen mask covered faces.
"Dun…dun dun dun… dun dun dun…" The definite sounds of some sort of bass music with a pounding beat started to get louder, and all of the Sherpas nodded in agreement to Oliver.
Then as one they turned to look down the slope of the mountain to where a corner of rock blocked off a view of the back trail. And the music got louder and louder until they could start to hear somebody actually singing along to it in a really bad falsetto voice.
First quietly, but growing louder they heard, "It's the, Eye of the Tiger, it's the cream of the fight, Risin' up to the challenge of our rival. And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night, And he's watchin' us all! In the eye of the tiger!" The voice finished hitting a high note that had all of Oliver Queen's climbing group cringing as well as worrying that it might inspire an avalanche.
Around the corner and up the trail towards them jogged a man in a heavy black parka and climbing pants and boots, but without an oxygen mask. The man had a big goofy smile on his face, frozen boogers hanging from his nose, and was barely panting at all in the cold thin air while singing along to the theme song to one of the Rocky movies, The Eye of the Tiger.
The Sherpas and Oliver stared slack jawed behind their masks as the man approached them quickly, music from some sort of hidden speakers continuing to play from somewhere in the man's outfit.
"On your right." Xander called out cheerfully with a wave as he made no move to slow down his quick effortless jog up the world's tallest mountain.
Oliver and the Sherpas silently pressed themselves back against the mountain without really thinking about it, giving the man a bit of space to pass them.
"Morning, morning, top of the morn'n to ya." Xander quipped with a jaunty little wave as he passed the three Sherpas and greeted each of them like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Great day for a run." Xander said cheerfully to Oliver as he passed by and continued on his way up the mountain as easily as a man going for a morning jog in the Californian suburbs.
Oliver and the Sherpas all stared wide eyed after the figure who once again continued to sing as he disappeared up the mountain.
Oliver Queen was stunned, so not knowing what else to do he started to slowly climb the mountain again.
Looking at each other, the Sherpas all shook their heads and thought the same thought, 'Tourists.'
In regards to mountains, back in Romania not every mountain had been hollowed out into one giant catacomb for growing great tracks of crop bearing land, rare ecological systems, or scientific testing facilities. In one of those carved out mountainous peaks, not far from the former Arcane Mansion, sat Xander's university for magical studies. The Arcanic University of the Leviathan was the facility that not only held all of the magical artifacts salvaged from Dracula's Castle and Arcane Manor, but was also the place where the magical citizens of the Empire could gather.
Over the last couple days the Arcanic University had played witness to an influx of Middle Eastern Magi and sorcerers from Bialya and Kahndaq whom had started to join the mix of Gypsies and other magic users. Xander's home grown population not only included the gypsies, but there were also many other magic users who had been in and around Romania and Kaznia before Xander had taken over those countries. The thought was that just because magic and Xander had an ongoing feud with each other didn't mean that Xander hadn't see magic as a viable resource and one worth fostering and researching. It would have been impossible for Xander to ignore the power of magic, what with one of his major allies, Black Adam, being a magically empowered being. Add to that the fact that Xander had spent the first fifteen years of his life living on a magical entrance to hell, and well, even the fact that Xander didn't like magic let him grudgingly admit that it was powerful. Besides, Xander was all about building up defenses against his weaknesses, and magic rated up there in the category of things that could make Xander's day take a turn from good to poopy in a heartbeat.
Throughout the University lay libraries, laboratories, and even a large glassed-in room that allowed people to have open access to the starlight and moonlight in case the spell the magic users were working on called for certain astrological conditions. Deep in the lower levels of the University lay the runic chambers, used for summoning and spell work, and they were well protected by wards and inscribed words and runes of power.
It was in one of these rooms that Cassandra and Janna were learning as Magda used her granddaughter's assistance in order to attempt magics that were on a level far above the two younger girls' level of ability.
The room glowed with an eerie green light, a light that bounced and reflected off of the cold iron inscribed runes embedded in the walls and dome, lighting the room enough for the three girls to work. They sat on a sort of stone precipice, shaped like half of a bridge as it dangled out over a pool of bubbling green fluid known only as a Lazarus Pit.
"Close your eyes and extend your senses to the power around you." Magda stated; sitting Indian style on a rug that was situated at the very edge of the outcropping of rock over the pit, her back to the drop off into the green fluid.
Before Magda sat Cassy and Janna, in similar seated poses, their eyes were closed and the almost shimmering light of the room casting dancing green lit shadows on their serene faces.
"The pool is both water and fire, life and death, and as the ley line flows beneath us it filters up until the very air is charged with the elements of nature and the universe." Magda said, and with a slight wave of her hands, the very air in the room seemed to come alive with almost the feeling of electricity dancing across their skin. The light fuzzy hairs on the back the girls' arms seemed to tingle as the air was charged with the magic of the room, of the pit, of the ley lines that flowed beneath the University.
"Cassy, keep your eyes closed and delve into your inner fire, that flickering light which you meditated on as a child." Magda directed her newest granddaughter in calling upon the elements.
Cassy looked like she was struggling to focus, a bead of sweat trickled down her brow as she focused on Magda's words and tried to comply.
"Feel the fire in the Earth beneath us. It is in the fluid of the pit, it bubbles up and heats the world from deep within." Magda continued, her words almost sending the young girl into a trance as Cassy started to picture the fire. "Feel the heat, become it and imagine its uses. It evaporates water, it melts stone, it burns the air." She continued in a voice that carried over its ideas straight into Cassy's mind.
Slowly ethereal flickers of green ghostly flame seamed to float up from the Lazarus Pit, passing through the stone floor and starting to twist around Cassy.
"Good, hold it, form it into the representation of fire within you, child." Magda stated with her eyes closed and a smile passing her lips as even with her eyes shut Magda saw the green ghostly flames slowly form into the twisting shape of a Chinese dragon that twisted and twined itself around Cassy, playfully swirling and wrapping around Cassandra as it moved.
"Hold it child and continue to focus on it, let the stone beneath us, the earth beneath us, ground you in yourself and allow you to control the magic." Magda directed before turning her head towards where she knew Janna was seated.
"Janna, feel the moisture in the air, the water of the world that wears away stone, extinguishes flame and cleanses the sky with its rain." Magda's voice took on a lilting quality to it as she directed her eldest granddaughter on how to call up the element of water.
"Remember swimming, remember the ocean. Pull up the water from where it exists below and around us and claim it as your own." The Elder Woman of the Kalderash Clan commanded.
Janna silently complied with a shiver as the moisture in the air congealed as droplets of water around her, chilling the air as they formed into first little drops and then slowly turned into some sort of elemental water serpent. Like some mythological monster of the deeps it twined around Janna and seemed to frolic through her long dark hair as if it was diving through waves on the ocean.
Janna smiled with her eyes remaining closed, and all three women sat quietly as Magda internally called upon the power of air.
Magda did not need the step by step instructions in order to embrace the element, nor did she really need the girls' help, but it was her role as The Elder Woman to teach the next generations.
A whisper of wind grew into a billow which grew into a wind that danced and played with Magda's grey hair and black silk robe like some sort of invisible genie, and Magda's smile slipped away as she grew serious.
Words of power spilled out of the elder woman's mouth, words of languages not spoken lightly from languages thought long dead, and while she spoke her hands seemed to make grabbing motions towards the two girls before her fingers twitched expertly as if she was threading or braiding a rope.
With their eyes closed, the girls did not see it, but their elementals slipped away from their shoulders and started to dance in the air above their heads. First fire dancing with water, then water with air, followed by air with fire. The speed of the dancing elementals continued as they twined and wrapped around each other as if some great knot was being formed, for in reality that is exactly was what was being woven.
Round and round, in and out, over and about the elements spun in the space above the women's heads as if forming some sort of loop or endless knot where one end of the serpent met its tail while twined with its partner spirits.
Finally the climax of the spell drew near, as Magda's words built in power and volume while the spirits danced faster, floating to be above the pit and just at the edge of the stone precipice, as if one could walk up and step out into nothing through the circle formed by the swirling spirits.
"Now!" Magda stated, and as one the three women opened their eyes and turned to look at the dancing spirits.
Cassy's eyes danced bright green with flickering flames, Janna's the blue of the Caribbean before becoming storm washed seas, and Magda's the bright shining white that they always were as all three turned to look at the spirits and were briefly blinded by an incredible flash of light.
Blinking, the three women cleared the tears from their eyes caused by the flash of light and looked to where the spirits had been dancing.
Where before had been an unhindered drop off into the Lazarus Pit, now stood a stone arch with three gold dragons or serpents etched and twined around the sides of the rocky arch; the eyes of one golden dragon set with blue sapphires, another with green emeralds, and the third with sparkling diamonds. In the middle of the arch spun a colorful fog.
Magda smiled and exclaimed happily, "Excellent girls, and now we have our dimensional portal to connect back with Xander's realm."
Both Cassy and Janna smiled and gave each other a one armed hug as they continued to stare at what they had just created.
Magda stood, her old bones creaking as she pushed herself up to a standing position before the arch and braced her hand against the black stonework that represented the element of earth and which anchored the portal in place.
"I call upon the spirits to connect me to my equal, to The Elder Woman Kalderash of the realm where the ruler of this land harkens from." Magda stated authoritatively, and the colors in the portal started to spin until a head and face started to become clear.
Janna and Cassy smiled on as the face grew clearer and clearer, only to frown when the face finally became distinct enough to see exactly who or what they had connected with.
"I'm sorry, the Dimension you are trying to call has been disconnected or is out of order. Please hang up and don't try again." The smirking floating head of Mister Mxyzptlk, the fifth dimensional imp, chuckled from within the smoky mirror's surface.
"You." Magda spat angrily.
"Yep, me baby face." Mxyzptlk stated with a doff of his little blue hat with the daisy on it, before putting it back on his head and smirking. "I'm sorry, but I made it quite clear to Alexander that I didn't want him getting distracted with his old dimension." The Imp stated with a growing smirk that left Magda and the other two girls impotently furious.
Looking from each girl to the next, the Imp continued while scrunching up his nose, "I might not be able to stop his pals from powering through a spell into this dimension, but I dang toot'n can make sure that he and his can't get messages or what's-its back to old Sunnydale and that nasty little power vortex that the locals call a hellmouth. Brrr, nasty dimensional vibrations that place has." The imp gave a visible shiver and made a face as if he had eaten something that didn't agree with him for a moment.
"Nope, no siree." The Imp stated, now with another smirk and a shaking of his head. "You ladies won't be distracting Xander from focusing on this here dimension. Why, I haven't had this much fun since the time I turned the Daily Planet building into a walking talking being with the people still inside of it. Oh those were the days, such fun and games with Superman." Mxyzptlk said, looking like he was deep in thought remembering good old days of yore.
Magda, Janna, and Cassy all just frowned at the fifth dimensional being. Xander had discussed the reason why he hadn't tried to get back home and he, his family, and minions, had tried to come up with a contingency plan for dealing with Mister Mxyzptlk, only to fail thus far. It was grudgingly agreed that until the imp grew bored with them or they could somehow barter a change in the situation with Mxyzptlk, then it was best to just humor the being and not make the situation any worse than it already was.
"Well then, you ladies take care and all that rot. Tally ho, pip pip, adieu, and so long!" The imp said with a jaunty wave and a wink.
With that, the dimensional portal returned to swirling smoke, and a very pissed off Magda marched silently out of the room, followed also in silence by Cassy and Janna.
"I'm on top of the World!" Xander yelled into the wind as he reached the top of Mount Everest and just enjoyed the view from the tippy top of the world's tallest peak.
Looking around, Xander smiled to himself, "Eat that Principal Snyder! You said I'd never amount to anything, and now look, Ha, I'm on the top of a mountain. How's that for amounting something?" Xander laughed aloud, only to pause and then cringe as he looked around quickly.
"Wow, maybe I've been by myself for too long. That pun was of the deadly variety." Xander said to himself, sort of relieved that nobody had been around to hear him make a fool of himself.
Finished checking the vicinity for anybody who would take umbrage at him cracking a not-so-funny pun, Xander again smiled to himself and decided to see about getting to the mysterious end destination as quickly as possible.
Smirking to himself, Xander crouched down before exploding in an amazing leap towards the neighboring mountain peak that was a minimum of a couple miles away.
"WHEEEEEEEE!" Xander yelled in joy as he spun his arms and kicked his legs like he was running in the air.
Looking down, he saw the figures of the hikers he had passed a while ago looking up at him, so Xander waved as he disappeared towards the peak to the west.
Mount Everest was actually a good distance to the east of where his digital map told him he was supposed to be, as in he had traveled out of his way to climb the world's tallest mountain.
As Xander allowed gravity to claim him and start to pull him back towards the earth, he smiled and mentally activated his nano-clothing to go into full armor mode; sealing his body over in the black armored weave that protected him from physical harm.
"Cannon ball!" Xander shouted as he saw a large snowy glacier coming into view, and right into the path of where he was going to land.
Tucking his knees to his chest, Xander wrapped his arms around his legs right before he impacted with the glacier in an explosion of flying snow, ice, and stone.
The sound of the "KABOOOM!" echoed back and forth off of the surrounding mountains as a billow of snow and ice showered down on the area surrounding Xander's impact.
Floating out of crater that he had left in the side of the mountain, Xander smirked to himself as his Heads Up Display inside his helmet told him that he had crossed the border from Nepal into the Tibetan region of the People's Republic of China.
Getting ready to take off into the air to fly the remaining distance, Xander was startled by a warning symbol flashing an alert on his helmet, stating that his satellite system of little clanks had located a nearby incoming threat. Xander followed his instincts by activating his chameleon system and quickly blurred in a run up the angle of the mountain till he hit the ridgeline above the impact creator. Where he ducked down behind the ridge until he could look over it while remaining still and blending into his background.
Xander didn't have a long wait to figure out what the potential threat was, as a black and purplish red alien-looking fighter craft zipped out of the lower canyons between the mountains, skimming the slopes at an incredible speed before swinging towards the crater Xander had made, only to instantly zip to a hovering halt right above the hole in the glacier.
'Immortal-Man-in-Darkness and the Dragonwing!' Xander thought with a raised eyebrow as he remembered exactly what that black stealth looking fighter aircraft was. Xander was looking at one of the members of China's super hero defenders, and he watched as the Dragonwing jet slowly pivoted in a circle, as if scanning the surroundings.
Xander's eyes got large and he quickly ducked behind the ridge and activated his energy absorption shield in addition to his chameleon camouflage, hoping that the absorption ability of his shield would protect him from whatever mix of alien and Chinese technology was in the fighter craft used to protect China's territory.
Focusing on the direct beam image that Xander was getting from the satellite clank overhead in space, Xander watched as the living fighter craft slowly pivoted and then circled the hole in the side of the mountain before slowly picking up speed and flying off; the jet seemed to effortlessly twist and turn through the tight mountain canyons before disappearing from sight.
'That guy is freaking nuts.' Xander thought to himself about the Immortal-Man-In-Darkness who was the pilot of the Dragonwing. Sure it was beyond state of the art for Earth technology, and sure it could kick major ass. But every flight that a pilot flew in it the Jet fighter literally took a year off the pilot's life span until the pilot was nothing but a soup of liquefied human slop. The Dragonwing was alive, and it eventually ate its pilot.
Xander slowly slipped down the back slope of the mountain towards the west, trying to leave the scene of his entrance into China without being noticed.
'And I thought Ampata the mummy girl was bad, but at least there was the possibility of sex with a girl.' Xander continued to ponder what made a pilot willing to get into a plane that would eat him alive. 'I mean come on, I like flying just as much as the next person with super powers, but you don't see me building a space fighter that bathes its pilot in industrial grade stomach acids. I might be insane, but I'm not crazy… or wait, is it I might be crazy, but I'm not insane?' Xander just finished with a shake of his head to clear the conundrum before he concentrated on getting the heck out of there.
Xander slipped over another ridge in a blur, both due to his speed as well as the chameleon suit. The camouflage system didn't work that well when traveling at high speed, as even Xander's computer systems struggled to deal with the number of images that it needed to examine and project as he ran at super speeds across the terrain. Still, most of the background was grey or white due to the amount of stone, ice and snow on the slopes that he sprinted across. Xander was fortunately not seen by the high-tech member of China's Great Ten hero team as the mixes of grays and whites of the background still allowed Xander to blend in, even if it wasn't a perfect image blending.
Reaching the base level of the hilly Tibetan plateau, Xander skirted the edge of the Himalayan Mountains at incredible groundspeeds as he made his way towards his target peak, valley, or whatever it was at the end coordinates. Even as he was getting closer, his sensors in his armor still couldn't pick up a sign of anything of interest in the direction he was headed, nor could his satellite clanks pinpoint anything besides an almost endless wall of ice on a mountainside.
Giving himself a mental shrug while turning off his shield system, Xander's mapping technology told him that he was at the base of the mountain that he would need to climb in order to reach his end destination.
Xander looked up the steep slope above him and noted how the mountain was shrouded in clouds, looking like interlaced layers of wispy fingers that together blocked all view of what lay above him.
"Going up, first floor woman's clothing, second floor, men's shoes…" Xander chirped to himself as he floated slowly up and into the clouds, counting the imaginary department store floors he was floating up along the steep slope of the mountain and into the clouds.
Entering the clouds blocked out Xander's vision, and he flipped through infrared, sonar and x-ray vision systems in order to pierce the cloud cover, but still he didn't really see anything as he proceeded to rise higher and higher.
"Third floor Bedding and household goods, fourth little girls and boys clothing, and fifth floor… Holy Nikola Tesla's Coils Batman, it's a city!" Xander's humorous 'elevator' ride was interrupted as the clouds around him suddenly disappeared like fog on a sunny day and Xander stopped floating upwards. Xander's exclamation was caused by him being stunned still by the view of tall gates and buildings behind a massive stone wall; all of which were situated across a seemingly bottomless pit with a long rope bridge spanning its width.
Xander's jaw dropped as he turned around to look below him and behind him. There were no clouds to be seen and he had a perfect view of the sun shining down on the hidden city.
Closing his jaw, and rubbing his chin, Xander gave a "Hmmm" and floated about fifteen feet down again.
Sure enough, the moment he finished dropping ten feet down, he found himself suddenly covered by clouds. Floating back upwards again found Xander back in the bright sunlight looking at the city with its towers and Chinese looking gates with the overly large crossbeam. The city looked like the Shaolin temple right out of the television show Kung Fu with David Carradine, but only this looked like a Shaolin temple that was mixed with the shrines in Kyoto Japan and the sculpted temples of Cambodia or Thailand.
'No,' Xander thought to himself reverently, as he suddenly felt that such a place deserved such feelings of reverence for some unknown reason. 'This is what those other places are modeled after, what they are all seeking to portray. This is the pinnacle, and those are the copies.' Xander finished thinking to himself with a little nod.
Xander stood floating in midair, just examining the city and its architecture for several minutes deep in thought, letting his mind wander for a few minutes before slowly drawing back into himself and giving himself a shake to pull his attention to focus on the real world.
Smiling, Xander verbally ordered, "Jarvis, connect me through to Igor at the Castle."
"Yes Sir, connecting." Jarvis's voice replied inside Xander's helmet.
Xander waited. Then Xander waited some more. By this point Xander was frowning.
At the twenty five second mark Jarvis finally answered Xander's unasked question, "I'm sorry sir, but I am unable to connect to the Castle, and my queries to the satellite system is going unanswered. I believe our signal is being blocked somehow. Please do forgive me Sir."
Xander ignored the reply of the AI as he rubbed his chin in thought, looking out at the view from the mountain when the clouds were clear as compared to what the weather was really like when he looked out from the bottom of the mountain. When he was at the bottom of the mountain, then it was still covered in snow and ice and windy, but up at the level of the hidden city it was definitely warmer and the view from the break in the clouds showed a cloudless sky and a warm sun. If one could see Xander's face through his helmet and camouflage system, they would have noticed when he had his gestalt moment and the smile grew across his face.
"Time transference pocket." Xander muttered to himself before questioning his AI. "Jarvis, what does your internal clock say?"
"The time now is twelve oh five in the afternoon sir." Jarvis replied resolutely.
Xander smirked and lowered himself back another fifteen feet, back into the suddenly appearing cloud cover in order to test his hypothesis on whether he had guessed correctly as to the name of the city on the mountain.
"Jarvis, see if you can ping the satellite system and get a fix from the atomic clock. What time is it now?" Xander asked, guessing that he knew what the answer would be.
Jarvis was quiet for a several moments, "I'm sorry sir, but this does not compute well, but somehow my internal clocks must be off. The time now is eleven fifty eight in the morning, shortly before your lunch time Sir."
Xander's smile grew across his face and he replied with a shake of his head, "No worries Jarvis, it's not you, it's time that's screwed up. That city, if I don't miss my guess, is Nanda Parbat. Think of it like Shangri La from fiction. Anyway, time moves differently there than it does in the rest of the world. Just create a new time zone N localized for Nanda Parbat and allow it to run at whatever the time difference we experience, that way you shouldn't have any Y2N problems with your internal clock circuits. That place is basically caught out of time and time passes in there while it only crawls slowly out here comparatively, no wonder I couldn't connect with the Castle." Xander finished his statement more to himself than to his trusty sidekick AI.
Still floating in the clouds below the level of the city, Xander queried, "Connect to Igor and the Castle please."
"Connecting." Jarvis answered, and there was a beep sound before Igor answered.
"Yes Sir, how may I help you." Igor spoke as his face appeared on one portion of Xander's helmet heads up display.
"Good afternoon Igor, what are you up to? I'm right outside the end destination from Magda's vision. The city of Nanda Parbat. Please put it on the secure map system." Xander responded with a smile.
"Very well Sir. As for what I was doing, it is night here Sir, and I was just about to retire to bed. As you are now on the line with me Sir, would you like a briefing on the current list of items for your discretion?" Igor questioned, stoically as always. A stoic Igor was the one that Xander preferred, as his Chief minion had definite blood thirsty traits.
Xander's smile grew larger and he replied, "Yes please. You always are good at giving me what I need Igor. I was just about to ask as when I enter Nanda Parbat I will be out of contact until I exit the time difference area."
"Very well Sir." Igor stated before his image seemed to look down off the screen, no doubt reviewing data from his computer pad that he carried around with him.
Igor pressed a button on his data pad and information scrolled across the other side of Xander's heads up display as Igor dictated to Xander what was going on.
"Our embassy's and consulate locations worldwide are in severe need of repair and remodeling as all official locations overseas have turned out to be heavily bugged and monitored by rival governments." Igor looked up at Xander and scowled, which meant that the situation was very dire if Igor was showing negative emotions. "The Embassy to the United States was especially bad as even the poured foundation and the metal struts of the building have been bugged to such an extent that the entire building has become one large microphone, picking up any vibration in the air and transferring it into sound that can then be recorded. We have tracked the signals to the United State's National Security Agency as well as the Cadmus Program, FBI and CIA. All in all there are over seven million bugs and monitoring devices planted in that building, and those are just the ones from the United States. We have tracked another million or so devices to other rival countries as well as several large corporations. RedTree has tapped into the corresponding databases that were gathering the information, and we are waiting your command on how to proceed."
A dark light seemed to shine from behind Xander's eyes and a sneer grew across his face. Sure the United States was where Xander was born and raised, but it wasn't like the system had ever really helped him or his friends out; not when his father was beating the shit out of him, and not when the Scoobies were fighting the things that go bump in the night. Add to that the fact that he had his people and followers to look after, and Xander was pissed off.
"Level the Embassy." Xander spat, before his sneer turned into a smirk, "Better yet, before you destroy the building capture all of the monitoring devices and catalog them all, along with the address of where the facility is that is doing the monitoring as well as the names of any individuals involved and their home addresses." Xander's smile became menacing, and Igor's growing smile mirrored his Master's.
"Ship the cataloged list and cross-referenced data to the President of the United State's office with a note from The Leviathan stating that we will be releasing all of the information to the world unless he approves our building of a new embassy. Such a simple request with a blank check to rebuild our facility shouldn't stress him out too much, not compared to the political pain he would face if his citizens found out we were going to not offer services to his citizens. Not to mention the release of information on his security personnel…" Xander continued with a smirk.
Igor quickly copied down Xander's order into the minion's data pad, looking down at his keyboard as he quickly noted what had to be done.
"Very well sir, and the design for the new embassy?" Igor asked after finishing putting in his notes and looked back up at Xander's image.
Xander's smirk grew even larger, "Set into construction design W-5. I want to have complete control over the entrance and exit of my new Embassy. Let's see them try and break into Castle Wulfenbach with it hovering thousands of feet off the ground." Xander finished with a dark look before cackling to himself. "Bwa ha ha ha. With my airship as my Embassy, then I will also have the perfect location for the next step in the Prince to a Pauper plan."
"Yes Sir, it will be done right away Sir." Igor responded with a bow to the screen. When the chief minion looked back at Xander and smiled, Igor added, "I'm sure Magda and Clan Kalderash will be glad to bring that unpleasantness to a rightful termination."
Both Xander and Igor smiled back at each other in silence for a moment.
Igor was the first to break the silence, his smile slipping from his face back into the guise of the proper chief minion and steward of Xander's growing empire, "Everything else is going well sir. How shall I contact you if you are needed while you are visiting Nanda Parbat, Sir?"
Xander tapped his chin in thought and then shrugged, "I'd really rather focus on what is going on here, but if you need me then I figure you will have to send somebody to fetch me. Make sure they have the ability to fly and send them to my current location. I'm just outside the boundary to the effect that hides the city, but I'm floating in the air." Xander finished with a hint of warning, he didn't want any of his minions or clanks plummeting to an untimely death. Not that death couldn't be fixed, but having to resurrect people or repair machines was a waste of experimentation time that could be used towards furthering Science.
"Very well sir, if there is nothing else?" Igor asked with the slight raise of an eyebrow.
Xander merely smiled and shook his head, "Nope, that'll do Igor. See ya when I see ya."
"Very well Sir, goodbye for now Sir." Igor stated with a bow, and the connection ended.
Xander smiled to himself, deactivate his camouflage system, and floated back into the space around the city of Nanda Parbat.
"Well then, let's find out what was so important that I had to run halfway across the world to get here." Xander mumbled to himself, and floated to the end of the long rope bridge before starting to walk across it towards the gates of Nanda Parbat.
Meanwhile in the real world, the lost tribe of Amazons were beyond angry, they were enraged. Those who had forsaken the Greek Gods and called themselves the Bana-Mighdall Amazons were named after their city Bana-Mighdall, which in their language meant "The Temple of Women." With their former city Bana-Mighdall destroyed, they wanted revenge. They wanted war, and they wanted land in retribution for that which had been stolen from them.
That isn't to say that the Bana-Mighdall Amazons didn't want war or revenge all the time. Quite the contrary actually as the reason they had separated from Hippolyta and the Amazons of Themyscira was that they disagreed with their sisters regarding the pursuit of peace. No, the Bana-Mighdall Amazons wanted war. Whereas the Amazons of Themyscira sought peace with Man's world, the Bana-Mighdall wanted to see Man's World and all men slaughtered or enslaved in revenge for what Hercules and his army of men had done to the woman in their ancient past.
Denying the Greek gods and their command to seek peace, the Bana-Mighdall Amazons had hidden themselves behind a magical sandstorm in the deep Sahara Dessert. There they had created weapons of war which they sold back to Man's World, in the hope that the weapons they forged would be used to spill the blood of men. They had sold their weapons, traded for enslaved men and for the supplies they needed, for unlike the Amazons on Paradise Island, the Bana-Mighdall Amazons were mortal and did not live forever unless killed. They needed men in order to continue their population, though no Bana-Mighdall Amazon would ever admit or agree with the statement that they "needed" men.
In this situation though, the hate of men was neither here nor there, for the Bana-Mighdall Amazon's anger was focused on their Amazonian sisters on Themyscira, and all because of Wonder Woman.
It was purely by accident on the part of Wonder Woman, but she had stumbled upon the lost tribe of Amazons while hunting for the villainess Cheetah. Stumbling upon the hidden city of Bana-Mighdall, Wonder Woman was attacked by the Bana-Mighdall champion, the Shim'Tar who was protecting the city. Soon an enraged Olympian god Hermes, who thought he was in love with Wonder Woman at the time, took vengeance on the desert Amazons for attacking his beloved, and the city of Bana-Mighdall was destroyed. It was decided by the remaining Amazons that since the Themyscirian princess was the initial cause of their city being destroyed, they would take over her Amazon city in lieu of their own.
The only voice of reason against waging war on her fellow Amazons was a young soon to be 16 year old teen named Artemis; an up and coming weapons master of the Bana-Mighdall Amazons who did not want to spill the blood of her sister tribe. Still, her voice was overpowered by the Witch, Circe, whose message caused the Bana-Mighdall Amazons' blood to boil and rage to grow.
For too long the Bana-Mighdall Amazons had been separated from their sisters on Themyscira. Their differences growing… Their loneliness turning to resentment… Their Envy turning to Rage. What Circe offered them, revenge, territory? It would never exactly be remembered what the Witch said in order to sway the lost tribe, but it worked.
The Bana-Mighdall Amazons still had traditions about the city of Themyscira, and still knew its secret vulnerabilities. Thus as night fell in the Caribbean Sea and the Amazons of Themyscira entered the sleeping realm of Morpheus, Circe teleported the Bana-Mighdall Amazons onto the island.
With sword and with spear, with dagger and shield, the slaughter began.
Inside the mystical field that surrounded and hid Nanda Parbat, time seemed to pass as normal, while out in the real world time barely crept along. It created in Nanda Parbat a sense of timelessness that no matter how much time was spent in meditation, introspection, or the uplifting of mind and spirit, that the real world and the ravages of time could not touch you while you enjoyed the peace of the hidden city. For every month or so that seemed to pass in Nanda Parbat, a day passed in the real world. Thus the rat race of the real world and the hustle and bustle of mortal life were left behind and ignored, if not quite forgotten, at Nanda Parbat's doorstep.
As Xander shouldered his backpack and walked across the teetering bridge, the ropes and old boards creaking and swaying as he crossed it, he looked forward as the gates drew nearer and larger in his perspective. Even the front wall of Nanda Parbat was impressive, with giant bronze gates with a decorative pattern of the wheel of life and the symbol of the city's patron goddess, Rama Kushna, emblazoned on a split circle down the middle of the two large doors.
Those doors creased and slid silently open as Xander neared the large portal into the city. As Xander stepped off the old rope bridge and onto the snow at the city's gate he was met by a short man with bald head, bare feet, and red and yellow robes.
"Greetings Alexander Harris, we expected you to arrive here, but not so soon." The monk of Nanda Parbat both greeted and mildly chastised Xander in crisp English yet with a Chinese accent. "It is said that it is better to travel well than to arrive… but I believe you may have already learned that lesson in your travels." The monk looked at Xander knowingly, and Xander couldn't tell whether the monk just making a statement filled with wisdom, or whether the monk was internally laughing at Xander, knowing about the happenstance after Xander's short cut to India.
Xander caused his armor to melt off his face, and he rubbed a black armored hand against the back of his neck while looking down and scuffing his foot at a clod of snow that was there, "Heh, yeah, um, let's just say that I learned my lesson about taking things one step at a time and traveling how I am supposed to." Xander quipped a bit disconcerted under the unblinking gaze of the monk.
Xander looked up, and the monk merely continued to stare at Xander for a long pause, before finally nodding and stepping inside the gate while issuing with a hand for Xander to follow.
"The foot feels the foot when the foot feels the ground." The monk acknowledged, and started walking down the large round stone cobbled path that led into the city.
Xander just looked around, feeling a weird mixture of peace and unease as he followed the monk into the city. Addressing his escort, Xander rubbed the back of his neck, trying to figure out what the monk had meant by his last statement, "Um yeah, uh, I never did very well with philosophy type stuff. I'm more of a science kind of guy. Is there any way you could explain what you just said in a way I'd understand?" Xander questioned.
The monk continued to lead the way into the city, the stone walls and path starting to break up and show glimpses of trees and gardens, ponds, paths, and white sandy expanses as they proceeded deeper into the city. The monk slowly looked over his shoulder at Xander and smiled a small smile before looking forward again, "We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. That is all you need to think about and concentrate on for now, as Rama Kushna has drawn you here to teach you a lesson about that which is in you. I do not know what the lesson is, but I was instructed to tell you to contemplate that 'We are what we think, including the world around us.'" The monk answered before leading Xander around a corner of a place where four stone paths intersected. Up ahead, Xander heard the sound of bare feet slapping on rocks and the quiet whisper of fabric shuffling and snapping of thick cloth as bodies moved.
Xander was deep in thought, trying to figure out what the monk meant by his statement about the whole "We are what we think" and about the whole arising and making the world thing. Xander still didn't understand why he had been called or directed to come to the city. However he knew there was a reason for it, so decided to keep an open mind about what the monks wanted to teach him.
It felt a bit odd that the monk knew who Xander was and was trying to teach him a lesson, without Xander even being introduced to the guy. Heck, Xander hadn't even been given a name for the monk. Still, Xander knew that an actual goddess literally looked over this city and directed the monks. Xander wasn't about to discredit the directions by a goddess, not when it wasn't uncommon for gods and goddesses in the DC comic book universe to literally smite down their foes or people who pissed them off. Plus, given Xander's experiences with mystical forces, higher dimensional beings, and a past life on the hellmouth, well Xander wasn't too terribly worried about the monk knowing about him or trying to lead Xander to some new discovery. Everything seemed innocent enough if a bit too Zen for Xander's normal tastes.
Xander merely followed along silently, his superior sense of hearing letting him know that they were drawing nearer to what sounded like a large group of humans doing some sort of coordinated effort together on the stone pavement.
Taking another turn and stepping through the entrance into what looked like a courtyard; Xander saw that his sense of hearing and his guess hadn't led him wrong.
Before Xander were row upon row of bare footed, bald headed monks dressed in loose red and yellow pants and shirts. As one they were doing a kata of some sort, step block, sweep back, turn and draw the fist up and above the shoulder, spear hand sweep as foot slaps down to block an imaginary kick. Xander paused inside the entrance to the courtyard and smiled at the grace of movement of the men, and the almost tangible feeling of peace that seemed to issue from the monks doing their motions. For a moment, for only a brief moment, the ever present voices in Xander's head paused and were silent, and for the first time since that fateful night when he inherited the Spark and was cast into this dimension, Xander felt his mind come to rest.
The moment was fleeting however, and soon the voices started chatting again. The Primal discussing the fighting style and calling it a pansy effort at fighting as it was purely defensive. The Heterodyne persona examining the body mechanics of the monks and talking about creating ninja clanks. The little voice of Xander's libido was looking through centerfolds of Xander's memories of nights with DC universe hotties that Xander had slept with and talking to himself about harems, while the voice of insanity was chewing bubblegum and blowing large floating bubbles that had kittens frolicking inside of them. The other smattering of voices and inner psyche were busy also, but that was normal these days in the confines of Xander's mind.
Xander just shook his head as he had missed something that the monk had said to him.
"I'm sorry, I missed what you said. What was that?" Xander asked, looking down at the shorter man who stood next to Xander.
"I said that your armor will not be needed here, and the temperature is quite nice. Would you like to change into something more fitting for the environs?" The monk repeated, looking up at Xander who was still covered from the neck down in his black solid body armor with the leather looking backpack on Xander's back.
Xander looked down at the monk, then at the other monks all going through the martial arts routine, before smiling and shrugging to the monk standing in the doorway next to him. With a thought, Xander's armor shimmered and took on the image of the shirt and shorts that the monks wore, only Xander's was all black.
"Sure, why not. When in Nanda Parbat, do as the pandas do… um, that didn't make sense." Xander started, only to end up confusing himself. Looking at the monk, Xander tried to explain, "I was trying to make a statement kind of like when in Rome and do like Romans, but uh, um… I'll shut up now."
The monk had just stared blankly up at Xander through his rambling, and continued to stare blankly at Xander after Xander shut up and started to blush a bit.
Finally the monk looked forward towards the ranks of the monks repeating the same kata over again. With a brief wave of his hand, the monk guiding Xander through the city gestured towards the action in front of them. "Perhaps you would like to join in the exercises. We will have lunch after they are done. Go, stand in the last rank and follow the motions of those around you." The monk stated, simply expecting Xander to comply before walking away from Xander.
Xander's eyebrow rose as he watched his escort walk away. Looking around and not seeing much of an option to talk to anybody or learn anything else besides the kata, Xander shrugged and did as the monk suggested.
Shrugging off his backpack and laying it to the side, Xander joined the back row before haltingly following along at first. It took a few motions, but very quickly Xander allowed his arms and legs to start to move slowly in pace with the graceful monks. His speed increased, and the knowledge that Xander had gained from Cassy kicked in, allowing Xander's instincts to take over and guide him through following the motions in line with the monks of Nanda Parbat.
'He he, do as the pandas do.' Xander's twisted sense of humor chuckled in Xander's mind.
Xander merely shook his head and followed along with the monks, and slowly but surely he lost himself in the motions and felt the slightest bit of chaos in his mind come under control.
Martial arts and exercises were followed by a midday meal which Xander partook of with the monks in silence. It wasn't that Xander had sworn an oath of silence, it was just that nobody talked as they sat in a large room eating together, so it was hard to strike up a conversation. Besides, Xander's first form of 'self-defense' had been the art of Slacker-Fu; the primary weapon of which was blending in with the crowd and not drawing attention to yourself. That way you avoided being volunteered for such things like taking kids trick-or-treating; not to say that Xander was a master of Slacker-Fu, judging by his being forced to take kids trick-or-treating. Still, in true Xander fashion he put on his persona of 'just one of the gang' and followed along with the monks.
A gong sounded, ending the simple meal of fish, vegetables and rice; all harvested and grown from the crops and ponds in the large hidden city.
A different monk came to guide Xander, well ok Xander thought it was a different monk, but in reality they all kind of looked the same to Xander. Anyway, Xander went with the flow and followed the monk who led him to a secluded garden.
The garden trail went off of the stonework path and became soft dry dirt with low lying leafy plants along the sides and well manicured trees that looked like larger sized bonsai conifers. The monk led Xander to an opening in the trees and plants, where two buckets stood silently waiting; each bucket several feet away from the other.
Pointing to the two buckets, the monk stated, "Take the water from the bucket, and move it to the other bucket without breaking the continuity of the surface, and without moving the bucket." With that the monk turned to leave.
Xander's eyebrows rose in confusion, and he quickly dropped his ever present backpack and turned to call to the monk before the monk fully left, "Wait! How am I supposed to move the water from one bucket to the next without breaking the surface tension?" Xander questioned; eyes a bit wild at the daunting task.
The monk's only answer was, "A jug fills drop by drop."
With that the monk left Xander to his task.
Xander sat down in between the two buckets that were slightly out of reach, and tried to think of a way to move the water from one container to the other. He didn't realize that the assignment was really a meditative exercise in monotony, a seemingly impossible task where the supposed only way to move the water was to ever so slowly dip a finger into the water and then slowly remove the finger with a drop of water on it before carefully transferring it to the empty bucket. A task that was in fact impossible given the amount of time he would be given before the monk returned.
The only problem with the monk's impossible task, not a problem for Xander but actually a problem for the monk, was that the Major Spark that was Xander laughed in the face of impossible tasks. Which is in fact what he started doing when faced with this particular task.
Xander looked from one bucket, to the other, and then back again to the bucket full of water.
Slowly, a smile started to creep across Xander's face, and then a smirk, as his eyes took on a bit of an insane glow. And then a snicker escaped his lips, a snicker that became a chuckle, which became a laugh, until the formerly tranquil garden was filled with the sound of maniacal laughter.
"Bwa ha ha ha ha! Wa HA HA HA HA HA HA! Puny buckets, you are no match for the power of science! Water, your mere surface tension of 72.75 millinewtons per meter is no challenge for the power of my mind! You will rue the day you challenged me and bow to my control over fluid dynamics." Xander cackled evilly at the silently sitting bucket of water.
Xander raised his hand above the full bucket as the cloth of his shirt rippled until he had gloves covering both hands. Then the palms of his gloved hands started to glow, mirroring the gleam in his eyes.
Now any good scientist will tell you that the force of gravity affects everything on the earth with mass, but that the force of gravity is a coefficient of mass. The same good scientist, following the laws of physics as they know them, would also tell you that gravity and magnetic fields are not the same thing. Those scientists would be quick to add that though mankind has discovered how to manipulate and create magnetic fields, the same cannot be said for the force of gravity. But alas, that scientist would be wrong on all counts if they were dealing with a spark for sparks didn't need no stinking rules or niceties of rational laws of science, and in the case of Xander, he was a major spark.
Xander's right hand began to slowly spin in a circle around the circumference of the bucket full of water, and he slowly picked up speed while spinning his hand around the outside of the bucket. And strangely, impossibly you might say since you are not a spark, the fluid in the bucket began to spin in the same direction as Xander's rotating motions without the bucket being affected.
Faster the water in the bucket spun, faster and faster in an even smooth surface until it looked like a concave dimple or whirlpool but without the choppiness that one would get if they were using an object to agitate the water.
And still the water spun in the bucket, until it was an inverted smooth cleft, spinning so fast that it began to slide right up the sides of the bucket and spill out in a wave; a wave that Xander had counted on.
Continuing to laugh madly to himself, his deep insane laugh now no doubt disturbing the meditations of others in the city, Xander used his free hand with the glowing glove to sort of balance the sloshing water so that it seemed to pour in a hovering stream through the air. Xander's hands were traveling back and forth so fast as it was if a solid surface had been created to float the stream of water hovering above his hands, hovering right into the other bucket where he again captured it with a swirling motion so that it wouldn't just splash into the second bucket and break the "continuity of the surface."
It took a surprisingly short time before every drop of water in the bucket was transferred from one to the other, Xander using the very power of surface tension and the power of a pseudo-vacuum effect that sucked the water from one bucket into the other.
Finally Xander was done pouring the water from one bucket to the next yet he continued to laugh in the face of the laws of physics he had mutilated and outright ignored.
"Bwa Ha ha ha ha! Nothing is impossible with science! Bwa Ha ha ha ha!" Xander laughed at making the Universal laws bend over and take it. The situation was a bit ironic given that Xander had no problem breaking universal laws of physics, motion, gravity and a slew of others yet specifically worked to stay within the bounds of the rules the monk had given him.
Finally letting his laughter settle down, Xander sat down for a break and just started looking around in silence.
Xander looked around, and then continued to wait and look around.
Xander lasted a whole minute before the silence started to bother him and he decided to do something with his free time.
With a shrug, Xander popped up from his seat on the ground and sauntered over to his backpack, popped the clasp and then wiggled inside the regular sized backpack until only his feet were sticking out.
"No, no, ah ha, that's what I'm looking for." Xander's muffled voice could be heard to come from inside the bag as his feet scuffed in the dirt as they stuck out of the mouth of the backpack. Suddenly pieces of thick bronze colored sheet metal, both curved and straight pieces, started to fly out of the bag to tumble to the ground next to Xander's feet. The sheet metal was soon followed by hundreds of gears of all size and shape, axles, jewel works of every shape as well as a sealed metal box of indistinguishable contents. That was followed by a large ball of what looked like finely woven bronze chain rolled out from between his feet to settle against a rock on the edge of a clearing. Finally several sets of curved blades of about eight inches in length were the last to come out of the bag before Xander shuffled backwards out of the bag on his knees and elbows.
Standing up and dusting himself off, Xander smiled before his eyes grew large for a second in realization that he had forgot something, "Oops, forgot the tools."
Xander dived headfirst back into the backpack, and then grunted as he pulled out a large workshop sized metal crimping and cutting press, dived in a second time and came out with a tool belt and bandoleer covered in tools along with a pair of welding goggles on his head.
Smirking, Xander decided to meditate in the way that came easiest to him, using his hands. Alternating between whistling and humming a complicated tune to himself that even included a counterpoint undertone, Xander flipped down his goggles and wiggled off his shirt before putting on the bandoleer and tool belt kit, he tossed his shirt on the ground and then plugged the electrical cable from the large metal press into the shirt.
Still wearing his gloves, Xander got to work. His hands were a blur as tools were taken off of his kit and then returned quickly. Xander was enjoying himself as he hummed and just enjoyed making something. His thoughts harkened back to Sunnydale, before he had been hit with the spark, and Xander realized that that he had always enjoyed working with his hands.
'I've come a long way since carving the Scooby's wooden stakes.' Xander thought to himself with a huff as he used his strength to forcibly bend the metal into the skeletal shape of the clank he was building before putting it into the metal press to help get several exact angles just right. Xander reached behind him and his glove glowed, pulling the ball of wrapped chain to him with a clang of metal against metal. Two of the fingers of his left gloved hand grew bladed lengths, and Xander began to snip off lengths of the fine chain before welding it around the head of the clank like a long thick mane. After finishing that task it would be time to start on the inner workings of the clank.
Hands that blurred at speeds faster than the eye could see still did finely detailed work. The gears, pegs and clockworks scattered on the ground were quickly disappearing from their seemingly abandoned locations in the dirt and were quickly forming the inner works for a four legged machine.
While Xander's hands were busy, his mind was free to wander in introspection back to life in Sunnydale as well as his new life.
'I've always been handy… I had to be if I ever wanted to get by with all of the crap that Tony broke in his drunken fights with mom.' Xander thought to himself as the sounds of rivets being driven through metal, driven via Xander's gloved covered hands without any tools, echoed through the usually tranquil city. 'Still, I bet I would have ended up a carpenter or in some sort of construction job, never would have guessed Xander the King of Cretins and slacker extraordinaire would become The Leviathan, mad scientist with his own empire.'
As Xander worked, he smiled as he just enjoyed building things, seeing things from his imagination come to life, even if some of them were on the more destructive side.
Stopping and stepping back from the four legged clank that was seated on its back haunches, Xander walked around it once before nodding and then pulling out the sealed box. Xander bent down and slid the box through the opening in the chest panel, sticking his arm clear up to the shoulder as he situated the combination heart, mind, the power source and the thinking center, of the clank in the center of the gear works where it 'clicked' into place before slowly seeming to melt and connect to the inner workings of the clank.
The inner gears started whirring and they meshed so well that not a single click or clack was heard.
Pulling his arm out, Xander smiled and securely attached the front armored plate to the beast of a machine's chest and then stepped back, trying to figure out why it just didn't feel right, didn't feel like it fit with its surroundings.
Rubbing his chin and moving his jaw back and forth in thought, Xander looked around the clearing for inspiration.
To his right was a tree, so that wasn't going to help, to his left a bush, but looking up and over his clank, he saw the inspiration that he needed.
The wheel of life, the intertwined symbol of Rama Kushna, it was perfect.
Smirking to himself, Xander held his hand out towards his backpack and ordered his nano-clanks to connect with his lightsaber. The lightsaber unclipped itself from the strap of the pack with a click and darted through the air and right into Xander's hand; just as he had designed.
Spinning around to face his construct, Xander smirked and snapped the blade on.
The snap-hiss of the red bladed lightsaber igniting caused Xander to chuckle manically… he was such a geek.
Marching towards his newly constructed clank Xander ordered, "Hold still, or this could do some damage." With that, Xander began to spin and twirl his blade while seeming to hop around and jump up and over the back of the clank as he worked, only the very tip or sides of the lightsaber touching and scorching the metal of his robot as etched patterns, lines and swirls began to appear all along the body and face of the clank.
The sounds of the spinning blade and scorched metal continued on for several minutes, until finally with a flourish and a slight twist of the wrist, Xander disengaged his blade and smirked at the work he had completed. Reaching down into a pouch on his side, Xander pulled out a thick piece of leather and went to work buffing off the scorch marks and black carbon so that only the pattern would be left. What scorch marks and carbon scoring the leather sheet and superfast buffing couldn't get out, Xander removed by running his gloved hand over the surface and mentally ordering the nano-clanks in his glove to polish and clean the metal surface.
What he was left with was a brightly burnished cat like figure with a spiky mane of finely linked chains that draped about the clank's head in a thick carpet.
"Very interesting." A voice from behind Xander questioned. Xander turned around to see a monk with alien eyes and grayish colored skin looking at Xander and his construct. "What is it?" The red and yellow robed being, who didn't look quiet human, questioned.
Xander smirked, "He's a Guardian Lion. This is Krosp two point O, the king of cats. I took the idea of the guardian lions of the type you usually see carved out of stone in front of Chinese temples and palaces, only he's a lot better protection than any old stone statue."
As if knowing that Xander was talking about him, the ornately marked burnished metal lion-clank opened its mouth in a wide yawn that showed an impressive array of sharp teeth like metal bits before closing its mouth and turning its eyes towards Xander and his visitor and blinking. Standing up out of its seated position, the lion-clank stretched with its front paws out behind it and put its butt in the air and wiggled it from side to side, almost as if it was about to pounce, before stretching out its back legs and kicking them at the dirt. Cruel curved claws flexed out of their hidden sheathes in the claws as the lion as it smacked its articulated maw as if a cat waking up from a nap. On its back and sides was what looked like decorative swirls and lines that made the lion look like it had a mane and hair, only stepping back and taking in the complete view would allow somebody to realize that the pattern of decoration was in reality the symbol of Rama Kushna.
Krosp 2.0 sauntered over to Xander and pushed into Xander's side and under his hand, and Xander smiled and gave it a rub on the back of its metal head, rubbing his hand through the lion-clanks chain-linked mane and rubbing over one of the beast's short round ears. A deep rumbling sound, almost like a large car subwoofer, started to vibrate the air around Xander and the lion.
"Is that, is that robot purring?" The alien looking monk questioned while raising one elegant eyebrow.
"Yep." Xander smirked. "It's pretty much a real lion, only it can't procreate and will last for as long as the sun shines in its heart. It's going to be my model of the gift I thought I'd leave for Rama Kushna in repayment for letting me visit." Xander finished, playfully pushing the lion's head away from him, but just like a cat it head butted Xander back wanting attention.
"Stop it you." Xander said with a smirk, and pushed the large cat-like clank away.
The lion huffed and padded off to a corner of the little clearing before walking in a circle and then settling down for a nap in the sunlight that filtered in through the trees.
The alien looking monk twisted his head to the side and asked, "Just who are you?"
"Eh, no one special, but you can call me Xander." Xander answered and turned his focus away from his cat to hold his hand out to the monk.
The monk look puzzled down at Xander's hand, before tentatively reaching out and clasping it awkwardly, "And I am Kai-Ro, the last descendent of the ancient civilization of Nanda Parbat. Now come, I was sent to retrieve you from your… meditations, though I see now that perhaps you have not come here so much to meditate as you have come here to be a test for patience sent by the Goddess." Kai-Ro added in a calm voice as he turned to guide Xander away from the clearing, the only sign of agitation being a slight tick in Kai-Ro's eyebrow.
"Hey now, none of that wise cracking, that's my job." Xander joked with a smirk while he quickly blurred to put things away in his backpack and slid his shirt back on. "Besides, if you aren't nice, then I won't tell you about your future with the Green Lantern corps."
Kai-Ro raised an eyebrow at Xander in question, "Indeed? Well then I'll have to try and be patient with you."
With that just the hint of a smile spread across the alien features of the future Green Lantern, while Xander's smirk never really left his face.
Two months had passed inside Nanda Parbat, and it wasn't quite clear who had been more affected by Xander's time in the hidden city; the monks, or Xander.
Every day the stoic monks went about the same routine. Morning exercises were followed by a small mid morning meal, followed by more exercises and martial arts or working in the gardens, fields or ponds in the hidden city; all to strengthen the body and hone the mind. The afternoon saw meditative exercises or tasks followed by more martial arts and finally an evening meal followed by most of the monks walking through the gardens or taking time out to talk or for introspection.
Xander too followed the same schedule, and Kai-Ro had taken Xander as his special project, either that or Kai-Ro pulled the short straw.
It wasn't quite clear who was tortured more by the other, Xander, or Kai-Ro. A perfect example is Xander's first full day at the temple and hidden city. Upon starting up the martial arts exercises with the monks in the large courtyard, Kai-Ro noted that Xander wasn't even breathing hard, and that the man's heartbeat hadn't even risen at all.
"To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear." Kai-Ro commanded, insisting that Xander figure out a way to make the workout actually be a challenge to Xander.
They had settled on Xander turning off his Amazo technology nano-clanks whenever it was time to exercise, and that night Xander felt his first muscle cramps since coming to the DC Universe. Xander wasn't sure whether it was the constant repetitive katas, the hundreds upon hundreds of pushups and laps around the courtyard doing duck walk, or the fact that Kai-Ro felt that upside down sit ups should be accompanied by a whack with a stout bamboo switch to the stomach in order to toughen Xander up. Either way, Xander hurt.
Still, Xander was fortunate that his natural healing factor, the combination of the science engineered into the body of Xander Heterodyne added to the gifts granted by The Primal Spirit, left him fully healed every morning. Still, it took Xander at least a week to learn how to fall asleep exhausted and aching from bruises all over while his muscles screamed at him. It seemed that it was one thing for the technology of Xander's nano-clanks to heal that which was already there, but the build new stronger bigger muscles required Xander's natural healing abilities to do all the work. Xander wasn't quite sure why he was letting himself be put through this pain, but he had to admit that he felt his body growing stronger and heartier, and the skills that he had gained from Cassy had become almost instinctual. An unexpected aspect of the constant exercise and tasks was that Xander began to gain a bit more control over his own mind, though not enough to make life boring and fully stop the chaos that was his normal mindset. Xander realized that the training by the monks was helpful, but the overall torture/exercise was brutal and left Xander in a lot of physical pain.
As opposed to Xander's physical pain, Kai-Ro on the other hand was dealing with severe mental pain. Xander was driving him up the wall. If it wasn't Xander's ability to take the exercises and beatings and keep on going the next day stronger and better unlike anything Kai-Ro had ever witnessed before, then it was the way that Xander went about addressing the assigned meditative tasks.
Xander could not, absolutely could not sit still. Add to that the fact that Xander took the meditative exercises and turned them into some sort of scientific expression that perverted the laws of nature, and Kai-Ro usually left the sessions with a migraine.
"What is the sound of one hand clapping? Now Meditate on it." Kai-Ro stated the first day after leading Xander to join him in meditating near one of the rock gardens. Closing his eyes, Kai-Ro turned his vision inwards in order to learn more about himself.
The racket of a loud, almost explosive, clapping sound nearly knocked Kai-Ro off his perch on the wooden bench next to the garden. When the ancient monk had finally looked up, he saw Xander happily smirking at the large metallic arm Xander was holding in hand. Every time Xander pressed a button on the arm, the hand would hinge in the middle and clap loudly. Xander had turned a smiling face towards Kai-Ro and exclaimed, "There you go, one hand clapping." At which point Kai-Ro's migraine began.
Kai-Ro's migraine would go on to return every day during meditation periods, when Xander figured out an atomic level physics sorting device that melted the hyper accelerated the atoms in the five foot tall pile of white sand into its constituent atoms until the only thing that was left was the single piece of black granite sand that Xander had been told to find. Xander even discovered that yes, if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around, there still is a sound.
The fact that Xander saw the literally impossible as a mere challenge to conquer drove the ancient patient monk to distraction. Yet Kai-Ro still continued to work with Xander, trying to help the young man learn the hidden lesson that Rama Kushna meant for Xander to learn. Kai-Ro struggled and toiled to help Xander figure out what Rama Kushna wanted the lad to learn regarding "What we think, we become." Kai-Ro constantly quoted that over and over to Xander along with the ancient saying, "We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world." For that is what Rama Kushna led Kai-Ro to tell Xander.
Ultimately though, it wasn't Kai-Ro's relatively peaceful actions and guidance that led Xander to the answer to why he came here to Nanda Parbat.
No, as with most lessons in Xander's life, it was through adversity that he learned the best.
It had been a strange morning for Xander. Xander's schedule for the day was the same, but Kai-Ro wasn't there to beat on Xander. After two months of the same thing day in day out, the lack of the ancient monk trying to help Xander reach his inner self and learn the lesson of Rama Kushna threw Xander for a loop.
Xander was so put off his game that he was actually able to truly meditate for once. Xander knew that he was so close, so close to consciously connecting with his inner Xander for the first time in his over two month long stay in Nanda Parbat, so of course something or somebody had to interrupt.
Eyes closed and in the lotus position, Xander sat on a flat rock in an immaculately raked white sand garden, nothing around him in a ten foot radius but unmarred and neatly raked sand. Krosp, and the six female looking metal lion-clanks that Xander had created as a protection for Nanda Parbat, lay sunning themselves on the outskirts of the sandy pit that lay around the rock Xander sat on.
With his eyes closed and his back protected, Xander willed himself to relax and just focus on trying to reach his inner self and the meaning of what Rama Kushna was trying to teach him. Without the external distractions, and with the voices in his head being strangely reserved or busy with little mental tasks, Xander felt that he was just a few moments away from succeeding in reaching his inner self and learning the lesson that led him to the city.
Boston Brand existed in a state of un-death. Not alive, yet not able to fully pass on to the promise of rest in the land of the dead. Simply put, Boston Brand was a ghost. In fact Boston was the ghost known as Deadman, a former acrobat that had been killed by Ra's al Ghul's League of Assassins and who was brought back to life in order to be the champion of Rama Kushna; the goddess of balance and the guardian of Nanda Parbat.
Deadman served a purpose, for it was at Rama Kushna's direction that the ghost hunted for his murderer and used his ghostly ability, that of being able to possess any living intelligent being, to help guide and lead insanely evil villains to Nanda Parbat where Rama Kushna could look after them and keep them from furthering evil in the world. Deadman would possess the bodies of the evil individuals and such was the nature of his possession that he took full control of their bodies and left them with no memory of their time under possession. Only those of absolute incredible willpower could cast out Deadman and stop the possession from taking control of their bodies. Even characters such as Superman and even villains on equal power level with Superman had been possessed by Deadman. Thus one would think that a chaotic minded individual such as Xander would easily fall prey to the Ghosts incredible powers of possession if Deadman so chose to use them.
Boston Brand had just returned from his latest unsuccessful hunt for his murderer; a murderer who Deadman only knew was a member of the League of Assassins and had a hook for a hand.
Floating ethereally and unseen, the pale white skinned and red and black garbed Deadman was floating towards where he knew the master of the temple was, needing to find out what the goddess wanted him to do for his next mission. As Deadman floated above the gardens he saw a man in what looked like black monk's robes seated in a lotus position with his eyes close. Seated in a large circle around the man and scattered around the clearing was what looked like a pride of robotic lions, their burnished bronze colored metal gleaming in the light and looking like nothing more than cats sunbathing.
Intrigued, Deadman floated invisibly closer to the man, wondering who he was and what he was doing here; especially with the pride of armored beasts.
Now Deadman could have simply appeared visible and questioned the man, but the ghost figured that the easiest way to learn all about the man was to do a simple possession and get access to the man's memories.
Boston figured that he could be in and out in a moment, get the information he wanted, and the man would be left totally unaware and uninterrupted in his meditation.
With that thought, the ghost known as Deadman floated down, and merged himself into Xander's seated form.
Xander had been struggling to keep his eyes closed and his hands still as he attempted to meditate by himself. Kai-Ro and the other monks had attempted to help Xander learn how to find his inner self and bring it to peace, but Xander had just taken their supposed impossible tasks and completed them easily. Ultimately, not only was Xander left without the promised gift of peace and lack of inner chaos, but the monks that worked with him had also become quite frazzled. In all honesty, Xander had treated the exercises and tasks with his normal candor, and decided to have fun with them. He was starting to realize that he might be allergic to boredom, though Xander was probably the first person ever whose allergic reaction was for his subconscious to either blow things up or create devices that tried to make other things blow up.
But for once, just once, Xander had felt that on this morning he might just be able to really meditate and quiet his mind on his own. Xander could feel that inner control just out of reach, and as he focused down deep inside himself and tried to still his thoughts, Xander had almost reached the place that he wanted to be, almost reached nirvana and that peace within, when Deadman's possession hit.
Suddenly Xander found himself shoved into the back of his mind, similar to the time when the Primal Spirit had first possessed Xander and left Xander as a backseat witness to the actions of his body.
Xander looked around the inside of his mind in shock, and all of the other iterations of Xander's mind all stopped to stare at Xander in that instance when the conscious mind of Xander appeared in the inner sanctuary of his subconscious wearing a copy of the loose black monk's shirt and pants that he had been clothed in while meditating.
Xander looked around at the Primal spirit, the Heterodyne, the Lack of Reason, the Voice of Reason, the Mr. Miyagi, the Libido with its centerfold magazine, the Voice of Insanity in its straight jacket, and even his inner child who were all in that particular mental room at the moment. They all turned to look at the conscious mind of Xander appearing in his black monk's robes, and as one they blinked and said, 'Well now, this is odd.'
As soon as they said that a second figure appeared in their midst. This one was bald and had a pasty white face and eyes of the dead, and was wearing a black and red acrobatic jumpsuit with a tall collar. The most distinguishing feature of the figure though, was the fact that he wasn't a Xander.
Deadman blinked and looked around him at the inner representation of the man he had possessed, and he suddenly realized that he had stumbled upon something very new to his normal experiences of possessing a person.
Boston Brand only had a moment to get an inkling that something was wrong here before the multiple images of the man standing around in different garbs, and partaking in different activities, all turned towards the ghost and grinned.
'GET HIM!' The voices of Xander's mind all yelled, as evil smiles instantly flashed across their faces and they all leapt for the intruder in their midst.
Deadman only had the instant to go wide eyed and mutter, "Oh shit!" Before he was dog piled by the pack of Xanders.
Boston tried to leap straight upwards in an attempt to stop the possession, but his leg was grabbed and Deadman was quickly 'yoinked' back to the ground level of Xander's mental living room. The surprise in the fact that Deadman, as a ghost, could be physically touched by these figments of imagination kept Deadman from reacting in time to stop the coordinated wedgie and beating that Xander's inner voices met out; the Voice of Insanity being the one who grabbed a hold of the back of Deadman's underpants and proceeded to try and wrap the ghost's tighty whities up and over the ghost's head.
'You picked the wrong head to mess with bub.' The Primal spirit growled with a with a left hook to the chin before delivering a right cross that spun Deadman in a circle and into the waiting arms of Xander's rational and irrational voices.
'Here you go good man, please do try and stand still for your beating.' The Voice of Rational Thought said while holding the ghost up and giving him a good right jab to the solar plexus, which was within Queensbury rules, while at the same time the Irrational Voice did a three stooges imitation and stuck his two fingers in the ghost's eyes.
"Ahhh!" Deadman screamed in pain and ducked forward, stumbling about and covering his eyes from where they had just been poked.
Xander's inner child took that moment to run up and stomp on Deadman's right foot, and then proceeded to give the ghost a good kick to the shin while sticking out his tongue at the 'bad ghost' before running off to allow another voice a shot at the intruder.
Then it was the turn of Mr. Miyagi, who to add insult to injury, crane kicked Deadman in the ethereal family jewels; effectively lifting the hopping, eye holding, bruised, and wedgied ghost off the ground to fall crunching to the ground in the fetal position.
Several other inner voices crowded around in a circle to add a kick or a blow to the intruding Boston Brand, preventing the moaning ghost from escaping. The circle opened, and the figure of Xander's conscious mind walked forward with a glare on his face.
Xander addressed the spirit inside Xander's mind with a growl that would have done the Primal proud, 'Boston Brand, you made a big mistake.'
Xander reached down and seized the ghost by the throat and pulled him off the ground with one hand, leaving the ghost dangling in the air and held up by Xander's strength.
"How…?" Deadman choked out a question while struggling to loosen the grasp of the man strangling him.
Xander quirked his head to the side while continuing to glare. 'How are we hurting you? It's easy, my body is full of Nth Metal, thus when you entered my body you basically surrounded yourself with the one element on this earth that can kill ghosts. And unfortunately for you, even though you are a hero, you now represent a threat to all that I hold dear, all of my loved ones are in danger due to the secrets that you have given yourself access to.' Xander mentally gritted out. For if the choices were to kill a hero or sacrifice the protection of those he loved, Xander would scalp that hero in a second.
Deadman gulped and tried to speak, but Xander's grasp tightened on his throat and crushed out the ability to talk.
Xander looked around at the voices standing around him and asked, 'Anybody else want to get a few hits in before I kill this guy for trying to steal our secrets?' Xander looked around, and saw the voice of his libido standing there reading a Sunnydale edition of a magazine; Cordelia Chase wearing a bikini on the front cover.
'Hey libido, do you want to get in on this?' Xander mentally queried.
The voice of Xander's libido just made a waving off gesture with one of his hands while continuing to look through the magazine with a horny smirk. 'Nope, I'm a lover not a fighter, do what you want with him.'
Xander turned his attention back to the soon to be very dead man and said, 'Deadman, for the crime of stealing secrets and putting those I love in danger, I sentence you to complete destruction of your form.'
A dagger appeared in Xander's free hand, and he pulled back his arm to stab it into the head of Deadman…
Only to be interrupted by a loud voice crying "STOP!" And suddenly Xander found himself no longer in the living room of his mind, but now in a different realm of color and light.
The knife in Xander's hand was stopped just between Deadman's eyes, the point almost touching. Instead of penetrating through the ghost's forehead and forever erasing the stolen secrets that the ghost had gained by possessing Xander, Xander found a large floating hand gripping his wrist, as two giant purple feminine eyes looked down on Xander from above.
Xander's jaw opened wide in awe, for he instantly realized that he was looking into the face of a goddess.
Xander released his grip on Deadman and dropped the ghost to the ground while disappearing his dagger and turning to bow at the waist to the embodiment of Rama Kushna.
Inside Xander's mind he was repeatedly chanting, 'Please don't smite me, please don't smite me, please don't smite me…'
The sound or deep and sultry feminine laughter brought Xander out of his internal chanting. "Ha ha ha ha ha, you are so amusing Xander. No, I will not be smiting you today, that is, as long as we can work out an agreement where you won't try to destroy my champion.' The goddess of Nanda Parbat stated playfully with a smile in her voice.
Xander stood straight and looked up at the floating eyes far above him, and his head nodded very quickly, "Yes Sir, um, Ma'am, um, Goddess. Um I'm just going to say Yes and shut up now." Xander replied quickly, a bit too quickly though which led to his stumbling over his tongue. Inside his mind Xander was trying with all of his might to keep his thoughts quiet so as not to think something offensive that might offend the goddess who could apparently read his mind even through his telepathy blocking technology.
Rama Kushna laughed again, and her floating eyes almost seemed happy, "Do not fret about your thoughts, they are still protected from other beings as long as you are not in their chosen realms. Things are different here, for I cannot help but hear them and will not hold them against you. This realm is my realm, it is me, and everything in it is at my disposal." The goddess explained, and Xander took a brief instant to allow his eyes to take in the details of where he was.
Stretching out into every direction were colors, moving lines and uncoordinated shapes with an undertone of bright yellows, oranges, reds and purples. It looked like a California hippy convention where the tie dying booth blew up while everybody was on an acid trip. The only thing besides the moving nebulous colors and shapes were the pair of purple eyes looking down on Xander, each eye the size of his head.
Rama Kushna quickly drew back Xander's attention to Deadman at his feet. "Boston." She said, "I did not give you your powers merely so that you could assuage your curiosity. This is going to add time to your karma debt needed to pass over to the afterlife." She stated in chastisement, and Deadman silently nodded in understanding while still cupping his injured testicles; the fact that the ghost's underwear was still cinched halfway up his back probably wasn't helping the pain in the family jewels.
"Xander, I apologize for my champion's invasion of your inner being for selfish reasons. If you foreswear your destruction of my champion, I will erase the memories he stole from your mind with his possession while leaving him the reminder of the beating he received. However I am the goddess of balance, thus the scales must be equaled. In further repayment, I offer to guide you to the answer that drove you to come to my city. I only offer to guide you, for understanding must come from within and I believe you have already learned your lesson regarding cheating on the path to enlightenment." Rama Kushna's voice seemed to come from all directions at once as she made her offer.
Xander's only available response was a "Yes ma'am" with very vigorous nodding. For it was one thing to tangle with beings like Superman and the Justice League, it was something entirely different to tangle with an 'honest to goddess' goddess; especially when you're currently stuck in their realm.
"It is done." The Goddess's voice commanded and Deadman disappeared. She then went on to focus on Xander with her eyes, and she softly guided him to think. "Xander, I want you to remember back to when you first arrived at my city. Xander, what was the statement that the first of my monks told you to concentrate on." She guided.
Xander tapped his chin in thought for a moment as he sorted through his memories, then he answered her, "We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. Though I still don't really understand that whole thing, sounds a little Zen to me."
Rama Kushna's eyes closed and then opened again briefly with a flutter, "Look around you. I think, therefore this realm exists. What did you do when the monks gave you impossible tasks to complete?" She questioned softly, her voice still sounding like deep bells ringing in the distance.
Xander smirked up at the goddess, "I showed them there is no such thing as an impossible task; you just need to twist the rules a bit."
"Never doubt that to most, those tasks would have been impossible to complete in the time given and within the laws of nature. How did you succeed where others would fail?" She asked, pointing him in the right direction to lead him to the answer he unknowingly sought.
"Hmmm, it would have to be the Spark I guess. It allows me to ignore those pesky suggestions such as gravity, thermodynamics and what other's call reality." Xander answered with a shrug of his shoulders, not understanding where she was leading with this. Philosophical thought was not Xander's strong suit given the scientific bent of his mind.
"Good." Rama Kushna answered with a smile in her voice, the colors of the realm brightening briefly for a second with the goddess's pleasure that Xander was finding the answer, even if he wasn't entirely there yet. "And what is the Spark?"
Xander thought about it, and then paused as his eyebrows furrowed and he tried to go through his thoughts to figure out if somebody from the Heterodyne universe had ever defined what the Spark really was. After several moments, he had to look up at the goddess and answer, "Uh, I don't know, care to cheat and tell me?" Xander finished the last one with puppy dog eyes and a smile on his face.
The goddess laughed, the sound like tinkling bells filled the air and seemed to come from all directions, and Xander shrugged and smiled.
"Figured it wouldn't hurt to at least ask." Xander said smiling up at the goddess now that he knew he wasn't about to be smote by the goddess.
"It doesn't hurt to ask Xander, but it would be better if you figured it out yourself." Rama Kushna replied with happiness shining from her eyes. "Try it this way, I see in your mind that you have read the story by Douglas Adams. What is the answer for life the universe and everything in it?" She questioned him.
"42," Xander immediately quipped, not really having to think about it.
"Yes, 42 is the answer, but what is the question?" She asked patiently.
Xander was puzzled, he didn't know where she was going with this, because in the book "Life, The Universe, and Everything in It," there was no question. The question part of the equation was what everybody was looking for.
"There!" Rama interjected on Xander's thoughts, "The equation. That is the answer, for the equation is in you, the equation to life, the universe, and everything in it is the Spark."
Xander looked stunned up the goddess, but then answered with a puzzled look, still not quite getting it and trying to think back to his DC comic book knowledge to try and figure out if she was referring to some sort of equation that was talked about in the comics. "What, the anti-life equation is in me?" Xander asked, referring to the controlling equation that existed in the DC comic book universe, an equation that gave control over all life.
"No." Rama Kushna answered, a bit of disgust coming through her voice, "I do not speak of that measly little equation that such self proclaimed 'new gods' such as Darkseid quest after or which the being Mister Mxyzptlk use in order to control reality. You have the answer, so I shall spell out the meaning to you." She directed Xander to listen, and he did intently.
"Inside you Xander Harris, is the Spark of Creation, the chaos that spurred the invention and creation of the universe. It is a power that you will never fully control, for it will more often control you and the world around you causing seemingly improbable or impossible things to happen around you as things outside of the normal rules and chances of the universe happen around you. The Spark is the full equation, it is the question and the answer of 42. It is the Godwave, it is that which created all life, ends all life, it is beyond the laws of the universe, for it set the laws of the universe to be what they are. You have inside you the Spark of chaos, entropy, creation and the infant form from before order was made to control things in this universe. I sent the signs for you to come here so that you would understand that chaos and not allow it to bring you to evil." The goddess passionately stated, finishing the last part with care and concern shining from her floating eyes.
"Now wait a second, I'm not evil…" Xander started to interject, forehead wrinkling as he scowled at the idea. Yet Rama Kushna interrupted him.
"No, you are not evil, but you could be." She answered, "For I am the goddess of balance, and I see you teetering on the edge. Absolute power does corrupt absolutely, and in one such as you the outcome could be horrible for all of current creation and even extending into other dimensions. Unaware of its power, you like most of those who are gifted or cursed with the Spark in what you call the Heterodyne Universe, have allowed the spark to run rampant and control you more than you control it. Even now your retrovirus is spreading not only through the criminal world and through the dictators and tyrants, bringing more of those who would cause harm to bow before your control, but it spreads to the victims of crime and abuse also." Rama Kushna chided Xander, and he paled in horror at what he had done.
"No… I didn't mean to, I didn't want, you have to believe me…" Xander started stumbling, his eyes wide and unseeing as he quickly thought about what it could mean for the world if his virus spread to every non-metahuman in the world.
"Hush child, it is not as problematic as all that yet." Her voice said softly and caringly, drawing him out of his internal debate and mental abuse that he was reaping upon himself.
"The virus has been spread to those victims of crime and abuse through the bodily fluids, and it will continue to spread as your minions serve you to what they see as best for your goals. Still, it spreads no quicker or wider than the AIDS virus does, and where as AIDS leads towards death, your virus has even stopped the evil and abusers from continuing their evil actions after the virus completed the change within them. The morals of your donor minions breeds true in their DNA, an aspect of a change that was inserted into them by The Black Heterodyne when he first led his minions out of Europe centuries ago." Rama Kushna explained.
Xander's fear eased a bit, though he still felt guilty for unleashing something that could lead to him accidentally taking over the world.
"Yes, your virus could lead you to dominating the world to your will. That is why we meet now to confer, to keep you in check and to let you know that I will be watching you, yet encouraging you as you bring peace and protection to the people of this world." Rama Kushna said carefully, cognizant of Xander's inner turmoil at his potential problems and responsibilities growing beyond just those lands that he directly controlled.
"I had only wanted to help stop the crime and abusers Rama, you have to believe me! I never wanted it to go this far, I only wanted to stop those monsters who were hurting the girls and threatening my life, stop them from doing it again to me or anybody else." Xander pleaded with the goddess.
"And you did, yet on a scale you did not initially guess." Rama Kushna softly answered, her voice coming to Xander as if on the wind as the dimensional colors turned to light blues and greens in tune with the goddess's emotions.
"Rest child, for what you have done is not evil. I grant you this knowledge with the understanding that you must continue to walk the balance, for if you don't then the power of those coming to serve and follow you will drive you to corruption, and from corruption comes true evil." Rama Kushna stated, a bit of a warning in her tone. "To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. If a man can control his mind, if you can control your Spark, then you can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to you."
Xander merely nodded, deep in thought.
"But now it is time for you to go. It is has been two and a half days since you left the world you came from, and you are needed to right a wrong and protect those who you promised to help. I am confident that you will find the right means to bargain their safety." Rama Kushna stated finally.
And with that, Xander disappeared from the realm of the goddess, and the giant purple eyes closed deep in thought of things that had been and things that could come to be.
The battle for Themyscira lasted without stop for two days. Women of equal incredible beauty and skill at arms and war met in battle, and there was hardly one Amazon on either side without a wound. After the initial surprise, the forces of Themyscira and Bana-Mighdall were evenly matched, and neither side could find an advantage. Swords and spears crashed and the tide of battle waged back and forth across the island as Amazon fought Amazon and sister attempted to kill sister.
All of the Themyscirian communications equipment was fused and blocked from calling for help. Doubtless by the Witch Circe. Nothing remained for the peace loving Amazonians of Themyscira to do but to conquer, or die.
But that was only the first part of Circe's plan. She had never intended to play fair, even with her allies. The Witch meant there not to be one Amazon left alive after that day.
Circe, that Witch of old, wielding the Greek goddess Hecate's own powers, brought into being a terrible spell which tore through the fabric of time and space…
The land of Themyscira itself was spun into another dimension, and the amazons almost realized the new threat too late.
A peril more terrible then one they might have mete out against each other.
With a cry of rage and victory, the giant illusion of Circe's head hovered above the battlefield. "At Last! AT LAST! VENGENCE IS MINE! DIE, AMAZONS!" The image of the witch's floating head screamed in glee over the battle field. Circe tied the spell holding the Amazons in this foreign dimension to her magic, and her image disappeared.
There was a flash, and when the light cleared over the battlefields of the Amazons the sky was black and the earth and sky were filled with the growls and cries of millions of hungry Demons.
For Themyscira had been cast into Hell.
AN1: All I have to say is, "Oh yeah! This is going to be AWESOME!" I really can't wait for the next two chapters, as I've been planning these for a while. This was a long chapter, and frankly I felt that it could have been cut off at the point where Xander entered Nanda-Parbat. However I really wanted to get the explanation of the Spark and why crazy things happen out in this chapter. The equation "of life, the spark, and everything" in it will play a role later in the story, along with the anti-life equation. Also, I've been chomping at the bit to get to these next chapters with the Amazon's stuck in a hell dimension. BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA! (Come on, I know you want to do an evil laugh also, let it out!)
That said, credit should be given where credit is due. The story of the Themyscira Amazons being attacked by the Bana-Mighdall Amazons and being cast into hell by Circe was originally from Wonder Woman Vol. 2 comic books, written by Loebs and Deodato and published by DC comics. I'm not going to give the issue number because I don't want to give parts of the plot away.
AN2: The first major part of the journey is done, and now it is time for some major events to happen in the story and some of Xander's harem to start being cemented in place. I'm not going to ask for more criticism, for I still get enough flamers to make me want to put down my laptop and stop writing for a while. I'm always amazed that the biggest jerk-wads are those who have never published a work of their own, and if you look at their review history they are mostly full of crappy flaming reviews. To those who flame, I say you are not taller by standing on the shoulders of others; it only gives us an eye level view of how small your penis is. Alternatively, I'm always looking for thoughts and ideas, and I've gotten some really good ones this last chapter so I thank you and ask you to continue giving them to me. If you like this story, I ask that you let me know what parts you like most so I can learn from my actual successes versus what I only thought might be successes. With that said, Cheers!