Torg Eternity – Dead Legion
Expedition into Darkness
Nile Empire – Cairo
"Everyone ready?"
"…I guess so."
"That'll have to do."
A crew of four in rough blue coveralls, pouches of tools hanging from their belts, started down the platform of Terminal 3.
Ramses Station was as packed as always. Scores of people passed through its doors underneath a sculpture of the ancient pharaoh of the same name, there to catch a train to all corners of the Nile Empire's borders.
Which, in many ways, made it an ideal hiding place.
The repair crew made their way to a phone booth that had an "out of order" sign sitting in the window. Instead of getting out tools to fix the rotary phone inside, however, the worker instead got a wooden nickel engraved with the likeness of a raven out of his tool bag and dropped it in the coin slot.
A panel in the floor slid away, and after making sure they weren't being observed, the repair crew descended into the stairway it revealed.
In the cavernous brick room underneath was a full laboratory, full of whirring machines, tables full of bubbling beakers and flasks, electricity arcing up a Jacob's Ladder, and all manner of dials and switches.
Ghost just walked past the equipment, used to such sights from his home world. Sophia and Wren looked over the equipment but studied nothing, such technology meaningless to their experiences. Kristina stifled a giggle, however, at the sight of such a cheesy old-fashioned mad science laboratory. She half-expected whoever worked down here to have a monster strapped to a slab.
Waiting for them were the Raven, in her familiar black costume and cape, and a man in a crisp white suit. His hair and goatee were black, and his expression was calm, but his blue eyes darted to each of them, spent a few seconds observing and then moving to the next entrant into his secret headquarters. Looking as if he was absorbing every detail about them and formulating an educated opinion of their entire group in a matter of moments. Behind the two was a face they recognized well, Deputy Director Kenneth Nakatomi.
Ghost stopped where he was in the middle of the laboratory. "Dr. Frest," he breathed, as if to no-one but himself. A reverence none of his teammates had ever heard in his voice before.
"And you're the Ghost, I take it," the man said, his assessing front suddenly falling away as he gave their group a welcoming smile. Self-consciously, Ghost put on his mask, but Dr. Frest went on, "I must say, I applaud the disguise. I know I didn't mention those when I gave Raven her instructions."
"Everyone," Ghost said, his voice suddenly dry, "I would like to introduce you to Doctor Alexus Frest, Terra's greatest hero."
"Well, I'm not sure about that," Dr. Frest said. "The Guardian's the one who's put hundreds of criminals in prison."
Ghost went on, as if he hadn't heard. As if he was saying something he'd been meaning to say for a long time. "He was the one who found out Dr. Mobius had come to Core Earth as part of a big alliance of other villains. Came up with a way to follow Mobius here, and asked all the best heroes Terra had to come with him. All the best heroes, and… and me."
"What do you mean, 'and you', huh?" Kristina demanded.
"Hey, you're the one who brought up how our success rate's been terrible lately," Ghost muttered to her.
"Seems to me you must be doing something right if you've attracted a band of allies from totally different worlds. Finding allies among your own, that's a simple matter," Dr. Frest interrupted, his smile turning joking. "That's why I asked Raven to bring you to my laboratory, after we found out you were investigating the same matter we were. Right this way, if you please."
The doctor led the way out of the laboratory, down a short hallway to a room with two rows of wooden chairs and a stand with a two-reel movie projector in the bank, aimed at a screen on the far wall. After the group had been seated, the lights went out and the projector lit up.
A scene in the desert appeared, with the Raven and a few other people that the footage was too blurry for the four Storm Knights to recognize. They walked up to a wide crater, whose entire flat surface glowed, reflecting the light from the desert sun.
"That area was the target of some kind of fantastic new weapon devised by the Empire," Dr. Frest explained. "It generated heat so fantastic it managed to turn that expanse of sand into solid glass, from nearly a mile away."
"What kind of weapon is it?" Kristina asked.
"We don't know," Dr. Frest answered. "Only that it'll be airborne, and has some kind of ray weapon, as the evidence demonstrates. Raven has been following Hooded Cobra for some time, who we believe is helping Dr. Mobius assemble this weapon. We're sure the Eye of Sebek is some vital piece to the apparatus.
"Mobius probably intends to use whatever he's constructing to expand the Empire's territory. His latest conquest has pushed across to Saudi Arabia. Israel's given him trouble, but I believe he's about to consolidate his forces and make another push. If so, it'll be all-out war."
Frest sighed. "Unfortunately, the Mystery Men are stretched thin, especially after heavy casualties they've sustained in the last few months. We'll need new allies in the fight to come. That's where you come in."
Sophia looked over at the scientist dubiously. "That's why you requested us, specifically?"
Nakatomi gave a sly smile over his shoulder from his seat at the front. "Yep! Your group's the only mixed-cosm Storm Knight collective in our territory right now! We think that'll help make you seem like open-minded ambassadors.
"Specifically, when the axiom wash swept across the Greek Isles, something very strange happened. Powerful reality storms covered the island of Karpathios, and, according to our admittedly vague reports, transformed everyone—even the men—into an entire nation of warrior women. They call themselves the Amazons, like the mythical tribe. They've remained strictly neutral in the war up to now, but nonetheless I believe their goals align with those of the Delphi Council. We need a group that can broker an alliance, to get these warrior women to bolster our forces."
The lights came back on, and Ghost stood up. "Now look here, Nakatomi," he began. "We've had some outstanding successes, and I'm proud of those, but we're not diplomats." He stopped talking when he saw the sly look on Nakatomi's face broadening.
"That's exactly why we've picked you guys for this job!" Nakatomi exclaimed. "These women, and their leader, Aegea…if they're anything like the legendary Amazons, they'll only respect capable warriors! They won't listen to anything a stringbean in a fancy suit says to them!"
Sophia interrupted by coughing delicately into her hand. Once everyone's eyes were on her, she asked, "Just do how do you suggest we prove ourselves to them? Ride up to their front gates and declare war?"
Nakatomi laughed, and Sophia scowled, but he answered her question: "We've thought of that too, Miss Black. We think we've located a powerful Eternity Shard they'd appreciate as a peace offering, called the Bow of Sekana. This Sekana was a warrior-queen from Zembiti, a city conquered by Egypt long ago. She led her people in battle against the armies of Egypt and drove them back again and again, until the Egyptians called down a curse that wiped Zembiti overnight. An offering of the personal weapon of a great warrior-queen, we're sure enough that'd get their attention."
"Fascinating," Wren spoke softly, steepling their fingers. "But you said you've 'located' this treasure, not that you have it."
Nakatomi laughed again and nodded. "Very astute," he complimented the mage, and went on, "The researchers believe they've found its rough location, near the Boyoma Falls area of the Congo, not too far from a modern city called Kisangani. There were reports of a group of Colombian expedition who showed up in town, looking for the lost city to bring back its treasure, but that was almost two weeks ago, and they never came back.
"We need you guys to head there, mount an expedition to find the lost city, and bring the bow to the Amazons to ask for their help."
A frowning Ghost scratched the back of his head. "This would be the first time I asked another outfit to join up…"
"But what've we got to lose?" Kristina finished for him.
"This world, my young friend," Dr. Frest informed her. "And so many more, if one of those fiendish High Lords succeeds in taking the throne of the Torg."
Kristina Rouge shut up fast.
Nile Empire – Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo
It was a different kind of heat entirely from what they'd gotten used to in the city of the desert.
Moisture choked the air of the Congo jungle, especially with the Dead Legion riding upriver in a rickety wooden skiff a desperate captain had agreed to pilot for them. Sophia was slapping insects on the back of her neck and that'd crawled inside the sleeves of her coat, scowling in a very undignified way. Before they'd left, Kristina Rouge had asked around in stores about getting bug spray. She'd had no luck, finding out to her discouragement that modern aerosol technology was a little ahead of the Nile Empire's technology level.
For most of the trip, Wren sat alone near the prow of the boat, hiding in the darkness of their hood and saying nothing. Their head turned to Ghost when he sighed after slapping at another bug, reaching into his belt and withdrawing an empty cigarette packet. He looked down at it for a few seconds, then put it away again.
"Forget to buy your cigarettes before we left port?" the mage asked.
"…not exactly."
"Oh? Do enlighten me, please," Wren persisted, but their voice had a note of playfulness.
He sighed again, got out the empty cigarette packet and looked down at it again, before looking back at Wren. "You won't let it go until I do, I get the feeling."
They shrugged. "I'm a mage. Asking me not to probe the unknown is like asking a fish not to swim."
Ghost's eyes drifted to his empty cigarette packet, and it went into its pouch on his belt. "Actually, I saw plenty of places that sold cigarettes when we were walking around," he said.
"Oh? Is the Delphi Council not accepting requisitions for cigarettes, anymore?"
"No, I'm trying to quit," Ghost answered. "I was thinking about that the whole flight out here."
The wizard's head canted curiously, their eyes glinting in the shadows of their hood. "What prompted such a weighty decision?"
Ghost didn't answer right away. He slapped a giant mosquito away from his exposed forearm, looked up the river, and then when he didn't seem to see their destination, he turned back to Wren. "I was thinking about far away we are from Cairo, that's pretty much where I've been since I got to this world from Terra. Everybody smokes there, nobody notices it on me when I have to go around invisible. But now…the Delphi Council could probably send me somewhere else. Where I might run into people, or…monsters, or whatever they've got, that would notice."
Hidden by the darkness of their hood, the wizard nodded back. "You're preparing yourself for a future outside the world you know."
"It feels weird."
"I imagine I know what you mean," Wren replied. "This place. All the beasts, the spells and curses, the conveyances…None of it makes sense to me. And I hope you won't be offended, Ghost, but that the heroes of this world wear masks too, that's still the strangest thing of them all."
"No offense taken," Ghost said, giving a slight smile. "Like I said, it's kind of like using some of the enemy's methods against them."
Wren reached up and pulled back their hood, freeing their dark curls. "I suppose when you put it like that, it isn't so hard to understand. I've had comrades who were willing to adopt some of the methods of the Darkness, to achieve greater goods."
"Maybe sometime you'll tell me that story. Right now, let's keep our eyes open for that lost city we're supposed to find."
Back in Kisangani, a precipitous phone call was made.
"Ah, yes, hello, Hood. Good to speak to hear your soothing voice again. Just making that report you asked me, if I saw any strange characters in town. 'Fraid I have, old chap. According to an employee of mine who tailed them, they chartered a boat to take them upriver. Couldn't overhear what they were after, but can't imagine it isn't something germane to your grand visions, what?
"Yes, yes, I'll look into it. Standard arrangements. Put your mind at ease, Hood. The prey hasn't been born that can get the better of Sir Arthur Henry Killingsworth."
It was nearing dark when the boat puttered past a collection of tents and foldable chairs in a clearing off to the side of the river, a pair of boats moored to the shore nearby. The four Storm Knights made a quick but thorough search of the camp, weapons drawn, finding things like stores of food and a crate of various ammunition, indicating whoever had established the camp had indeed intended to make a serious expedition. But no blood, trampled grass, shell casings or weapons laying about, which might've indicated a battle.
Whatever had happened to them, it hadn't happened there.
After completing their search, they gathered around the cold ashes of the firepit in the middle of the camp. "Anyone find anything useful?" Kristina Rouge asked the rest of the group.
"Wren and I found some documents," Sophia answered. "This is indeed that Colombian expedition's camp. They also describe the route they intended to take to this lost city."
"Not only that, we found recorded images," added the mage. "It showed a group of men against some kind of tomb, underneath a very large tree. It showed the image of a woman on horseback, aiming a bow. Sophia and I believe they found the tomb we are looking for, and they returned here to gather supplies before claiming their prize."
"Obviously, they didn't make it back," Sophia finished. "I recommend we make camp here ourselves, and follow their route in the morning."
Kristina nodded in agreement. So did Ghost.
Which made a look of mild shock form on Sophia's face. "I'm…slightly surprised to see you agreeing so readily."
"The last guys who tried for it died, right?" Kristina replied with a shrug.
"Yeah, I'm not in such a hurry to get this magic bow that I'm stupid enough to try to take on whatever got them in the middle of the night. In the jungle."
The huntress slapped another bug on the back of her neck, pulling away a glove smeared with insect gore. "Wise. Even if it does mean spending the night in this wretched heat," she sighed, then seemed to catch herself, and sighed again. "I don't believe this, I never would've complained so openly about a little heat before I came…Ghost, what's this miserable world of yours doing to me?"
He smirked, took her hand and led Sophia back in the direction of the tents. "Showing humanity?" he asked. "Come on, let's go see if these guys left a fan behind."
A whistle from the bank of the river drew the others' attention. "Oi," called the boat captain. "I'm going to wait for you here until you're finished, all right?"
"Sure," Kristina said, looking around the jungle, finger on the trigger of the gun dangling from her shoulder. Wren stepped in front of her.
"Something bothering you, Kristina?" they asked.
She sighed, lowered her weapon, and scratched the back of her head. "Look, I know we had that talk, but I was in the Living Land before this. I asked the Delphi Council to transfer me out, so I could get away from jungles full of monsters."
"You are not curious about the beasts of other worlds? Of dragons, or giants, or trolls? These vampires or werewolves, and their like, that Sophia's spoken of?"
"Nope," Kristina immediately answered. "You've got all your magic, Ghost has real fricking superpowers. All of you guys have had tons of experience fighting monsters and villains. What have I got?"
Wren smiled passively at her. "More than any of us probably realize."
Kristina grimaced. "That sounds like the kind of moral we put in kids' stories where I'm from."
"Strange. Where I'm from, we put morals into children's stories hoping they'll carry those morals into adulthood. That doesn't seem to have changed while I was gone."
With that, they walked off to the tents, leaving Kristina alone with those words.
The next morning, Sophia was, as always, the first one up, and went through each of the appropriated tents waking up the rest of the Storm Knights at the break of dawn. Soon they were collected, armed and heading into the jungle.
It wasn't long before the air was filled with the noise of a Congo day, a crashing cacophony of birds and chimpanzees calling to one another across the treetops. Slowly, sweatily the hours slid by as they tried to follow the directions given by the previous expedition's journal, and the signs of their passage had left behind. It got easier when soon the quartet managed to find a pair of tire tracks leading through a path of smashed foliage.
Eventually the treeline started to thin, and the tire tracks led up to the edge of a canyon, at the bottom of which was a rushing river.
"How far down you believe it goes?" Wren asked.
"Maybe half a mile," Kristina Rouge replied.
"I'm not familiar with that measurement."
"If we fell, we'd die," Kristina clarified.
Wren shivered and looked up. "I'm familiar enough with that."
The path led to a rope bridge with wooden slats that looked like it'd been rigged recently. It sagged in the middle, thanks to the covered jeep twisted sideways there. The windshield had been smashed in, and there were red smudges on the remaining glass that even from that distance, they could tell had to be blood.
"Looks like we found the original expedition. Everybody, be ready," Ghost told the others, and unholstered one pistol before he started across the bridge. After getting to the middle, he climbed over the jeep, and helped Sophia do the same. Giving the bridge an uncertain look, Kristina took the grip of her machine gun, and followed.
Wren was the last. "Is this wise? The bridge does not look entirely…secure, with that vehicle on top of it."
"Well, can you fly?" Kristina asked them.
"If I could remember more of my spells, yes, I believe I could."
"That was a rhetorical question," Kristina said, but let out a soft exasperated laugh. "None of us can fly, even if you could."
"I'll see if I can remember it, just to show you, then," the mage said.
"Pay attention, you two," Sophia barked. Kristina looked forward again and was about to tell her off, but saw something that shut her up.
Forming a line along the edge of the opposite ridge were chimpanzees. A few on the ground, some sitting on or hanging from tree branches. Eerily, none of them made a sound, but all their eyes were focused on the Storm Knights. A glance over their shoulders showed more of the animals along the edge behind them, too.
Even more disturbing, suddenly the chimpanzees all started to screech at the same time.
The exact same sound, making it almost like a word.
"Ko-lo! Ko-lo! Ko-lo!"
"Do primates usually do that kind of thing in the world you're from, Ghost?" Sophia asked, but started to raise her revolver.
He didn't answer, but a roar from the far side of the gorge did. Something jumped from the trees, and landed on the far end of the bridge with a crash, sending it shaking and forcing the Storm Knights to grab for the support ropes.
It was a gorilla, with white fur, and some disturbing additions. A glass dome now covered its head, exposing the animal's brain. Instead of hands, it had mechanical snapping pincers. Which opened and clanged together ominously a few times before it charged across the bridge at the Storm Knights.
"What is that thing?" Kristina Rouge demanded.
"I imagine it's Kolo," replied Sophia. She took aim at the gorilla, but didn't get a chance to fire. Within a second chimpanzees were swarming across the bridge and its support ropes to get at them, screaming as they rushed to protect the territory of their great leader.
And the invaders to their territory opened fire.
Many in the first wave of chimpanzees from each side fell. Some rolled off the bridge into the canyon. But there were more attackers than bullets the Storm Knights could put into the air at once. Two piled onto Ghost, one wrapping itself around his arm and the other grabbing a leg. The first bit into his wrist, making him yell out in pain and sending the pistol in his hand falling off the edge of the bridge. He drew the other from his belt and put a bullet in its head then managed to kick the other chimp off his leg, and off the bridge.
He spared a second to glimpse over his shoulder and spotted Sophia fighting off more of the enraged primates with her foot-long blade. Two fell at her feet and she sank the knife into the back of another clinging to her torso.
Behind them, Kristina Rouge stood protectively in front of Wren, a mound of dead chimpanzees on the bridge in front of the two of them. She flung an empty magazine over the side and slapped another into her gun while another wave of attacking chimpanzees came in like a screeching wave.
Ghost reached for his belt, and grabbed something from one of its pouches.
It was a small silver sphere, with a red switch on top. He flicked the switch, and lobbed the device through the jeep's shattered windshield.
Immediately its other windows popped, and the primates attacking them stopped, screeched in pain and scrambled off the bridge and to the sides of the gorge as fast as they could before disappearing into the trees again. The only attacker still there was Kolo.
"You gonna move, or are we gonna have to make you?" Ghost called, eying the altered ape.
His answer came when Kolo let out an angry shriek and slammed his mechanical claws together a few times. Before suddenly launching himself into the air, and coming down on Sophia. She gasped and managed to twist out of his way, but before she recovered enough to attack, Kolo had grabbed her in one of his claws and thrown her into Ghost, dazing them both.
Then he turned and fixed his monstrous eyes on Kristina and Wren.
"Leave this to me," Wren said, then started chanting a magical incantation. Kolo shrieked angrily again, as if recognizing some attempt against him was being made, and launched himself into the air again. He came down hard on the other side from Wren and Kristina Rouge, who saw the ropes starting to snap from the powerful impact. He lashed out with a claw, connecting with the back of Wren's head and knocking them down.
Next he turned his attention to Kristina Rouge.
"You're not getting me, King Kong!" she cried out, raising her machine gun, but her voice quivered. Before she had a chance to fire, Kolo charged and shoulder-checked her into the side of the bridge. Kristina fell to her knees, all the air seeming to be crushed from her body. Feebly she slid a knife from her belt. Before she could use it, Kolo snapped one of his mechanical claws shut around her waist and threw her at the jeep in the middle of the bridge.
Honed survival instincts from many death-defying races took over as Kristine Rouge realized she was about to be smashed against the side of this jeep. With what mental energy she could focus, she concentrated on what the trainer from the Delphi Council had told her months ago.
She was a Storm Knight, and that meant she had the power to wield the energy of "possibility". The most basic function of that was to tweak the outcome of a deadly event. Kristine concentrated, and imagined a world where instead of being thrown against the wall of a jeep by a robot gorilla and breaking several bones, she twisted and skidded across the roof of the jeep on her hip.
Kolo charged to press his attack, claws clanging shut menacingly as he closed in. The ropes were fraying from his violent run across the bridge, but Kristina was counting on that.
When he jumped on the roof and grabbed for her head, her knife flashed through the air and sliced through the support rope.
She jumped from the jeep as the ropes gave way and it rolled off into empty air, but Kolo was caught by surprise and shrieked as he slid along with it. He reached out and caught the edge of one of the wooden slats in a powerful robot claw. Kristina didn't pay any attention to him yet, she wasn't ready to carry out the rest of her desperate plan.
"Wren! Can you hear me?" she yelled. Groggily the mage stood up and gripped the remaining support rope, but gasped as a strand popped in their hand. "Hurry!" Kristina warned them, and turned to the others. "Ghost! Sophia! Get down and hold on tight!"
"What's demented scheme's being concocted in that head of hers?" Sophia hissed, but did as she was told, grabbing onto the same bridge slat as Ghost.
Kolo had almost hauled himself back up, and his claw was about to close around Kristina's leg.
But then her knife flashed again and sliced through the remaining rope.
Gravity immediately asserted herself, and it was all Kristina Rouge could do to hold onto the bridge with her one hand as its halves fell apart. Her knife went spinning away into oblivion, but to her relief, so did Kolo. The giant white ape somersaulted wildly through the air and disappeared into the raging river.
Then the bridge slammed into the canyon wall. Kristina lost her grip.
She didn't fall.
Wren was holding onto her arm with all their might.
When they'd managed to climb to the top of the cliff, Kristina fell flat on her face. She almost kissed the ground, but changed her mind before she could go through with it. Instead, she sat up and breathed. "Do you guys see any of those monkeys around?"
"No, seems as if that device Ghost used put the fear of the devil into them," Sophia answered. She turned to the masked hero, a look of curiosity on her face. "What was that, anyway? I'd never seen anything like it."
"Oh," he said, and chuckled. "It was a device they gave me before we left the lab. What did the say it was, a…a sonic hyper-phase psycho-repulsor? Said it might come in handy if we got attacked by unruly jungle animals."
"You certainly are casual about something so powerful!"
Kristina got to her feet, and nudged Sophia's shoulder. "He's got special powers too, you know. Lots of heroes use gizmos like that to fight evil, right?" she asked, and turned her eyes to Ghost.
He shrugged and chuckled. "Well, yeah? I haven't met any myself, but I've heard about a few genius inventors who are supposed to always have gadgets for anything they need."
Wren tapped their chin and smiled. "What an exciting world the one you come from must be, Ghost."
"Wait, speaking of that, what about the white ape?" Sophia asked, eyes narrowing. "Where do you suppose that came from? Could there be more like it nearby?"
Ghost squinted at her incredulously through his mask. "Sophia, are you…scared of that gorilla? And his monkeys?"
"Just answer the question, can't you?"
"Well, maybe there was a crazy scientist with a lab in the jungle somewhere around here. Did experiments on a gorilla like that, maybe to make some kind of superhuman warrior. Hell, maybe to make some kind of unstoppable army of apes he'd try to give to the pharaoh to get some kind of big reward. I've heard about villains like that back home. Guess we'll never really know."
Wren chuckled, and Kristina realized she was too after a second. "That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard," the mage said.
They all looked at Sophia, however, and she was not amused. She didn't seem to be annoyed at the rest of them like she had been a moment ago, though, with the way she was looking around cautiously. "Don't you feel it?" she quietly asked the others.
The other Storm Knights fell silent, and realized they could. All the sounds of jungle animals had stopped since they'd managed to cross the bridge. Even the sweltering heat of the jungle had lost some of its sting.
There was a distinct feeling in the air of another reality seeping into the one they occupied, something only those such as them could've noticed. A sensation of a cold, malevolent reality competing with the warm, energetic reality of the Nile Empire.
Some unholy power was near, getting stronger. The Dead Legion did the only thing they could do.
They headed deeper into it.
Sophia Black was the one in the lead as they headed into the thickening jungle, but Ghost fell into step beside her. She unlimbered the slayer's rifle from around her shoulders, and started to look around with a pointed cautiousness.
"Look, Sophia, is something wrong?" he asked softly. "You were really on edge back there, and it wasn't just you picking up on that feeling we all had."
"Your world is not the only one with mad doctors creating obscenities of life in hidden laboratories, Ghost," she replied, also softly. "I would not make light of such things, as they were doing."
"Yeah, well, this is kind of why they picked us, isn't it?" Ghost murmured. "Everyone's got a unique perspective."
Sophia frowned. "They could stand to have a better perspective about a place like the one we're walking right into."
As they made their way deeper into the discomforting miasma, the already scant light making it through the treetops was starting to get thinner. After the experience at the bridge, and their decision to avoid a trek through the jungle in the dark, Ghost almost thought about calling a halt. However, eyes sharpened by the attention to detail required of a crimefighter, locked onto the shape of an archway through the trees.
He tapped Sophia on the shoulder, but with a true hunter's poise she froze exactly where she was instead of whipping around to bring her slayer's weapon to bear on him. "Look, there!" Ghost whispered with some excitement. "We found the lost city, looks like!"
"Let's see if that's so," Sophia whispered back, creeping forward silently. Within a few moments they'd gotten close enough to see twin golden serpents painted climbing the curves of the archway. "It would seem this place was indeed inhabited, once," Sophia agreed.
Ghost turned and cupped his fingers around his mouth. "Hey! Everyone form up over here!" Once Kristina and Wren had jogged up, he said, "Everybody light your torches before we head in any farther."
The others got out the torches they'd been supplied with, and lit them as instructed. Kristina gave Ghost a dubious look, and asked, "You gonna tell us why you're making us use burning sticks for light, instead of regular old flashlights?"
"Remember that time back in the tomb, where we got surrounded by mummies?" he replied and held up his own torch. "Fire would've helped a lot then. We might've even got out of there with the jewel."
"You're expecting mummies all the way out here? In a country that's not even Egypt?" Kristina asked, again dubiously.
Sophia gave her a sharp look. "Never limit your weapons when you face the darkness, child." Kristina said nothing. She was worked up enough already from the monsters in the jungle to do something like snap back at someone her life would probably depend on.
Checking on Wren, the mage waved off a torch that Ghost was offering. "I'd rather test the fabric of magic in this world, and see what my limits are," they replied. Then, twisting their hands in the air, Wren conjured a small globe of light that floated above the area. "Let me keep my main asset available, please."
He nodded, and the Storm Knights headed through the arch, into the darkening jungle.
Crumbling walls and buildings surrounded the group as they made their way through overgrown paths that had, centuries before, been streets of Zembiti's proud city. Menacing shapes danced around the corner of their torches' light, but vanished once anyone looked back.
One thing that didn't vanish no matter how hard any of them looked were grotesque carved heads hanging from tree branches littered throughout the ruins. They were painted with red streaks, that looked a little too much like dried blood for Kristina's liking.
But to her horror, Sophia Black stepped away from the rest of the group and prodded one of the hanging heads with the side of her rifle, and even from where she was, Kristina could hear a rotten "squish" sound. It didn't stop there, when Sophia used the side of her slayer's gun barrel to push it upward and look at the bottom.
Then she said exactly what Kristina was afraid of hearing. "This is a human head."
"Why do you suppose it was placed there?" asked Wren. "As a warning?"
Sophia Black nodded, an expression just like her name forming on her face. "And I shudder to think what else," she added.
"You said the other expedition found the tomb near a large tree," Ghost interrupted, sounding very intentional. He extended a finger on his free hand. "Like that one?"
Not a little worriedly after what they'd just seen, the others followed his finger to an extremely large banyan tree that stood alone among the crumbling buildings. Slowly, Wren nodded. "That looks like the one from the images the last expedition left."
"Let's check it out," Sophia said, if anything, even more grimly.
None noticed the shadow far behind, creeping silently along, the shape of a rifle tucked under one arm.
Feelings of chills and lurking menace got stronger and stronger as the Storm Knights made their way through the lost city, always keeping the tree in sight. Eventually the ruined buildings and walls gave way to the large plaza where the tree stood.
Aside from the tree, though, the light of their torches revealed something more immediately menacing.
The ground was littered with headless bodies.
"Hey," Ghost whispered, while creeping around the corpses to get closer to the tree. "Anyone you recognize?"
"Is that some sort of joke?" Sophia muttered, looking down at the red circle absorbed into the dirt where a corpse's head had once been.
"They're wearing the same garments as the men from the images we found of the last expedition, yes," Wren answered more helpfully. All of them headed into the ruins more cautiously, not needing to be told to watch for whatever could've done this to the ones who'd come before them.
Eerily, nothing happened as they kept creeping across the plaza over to the trunk of the tree. Stepping over the winding roots, or crawling under them when they formed arches over the broken tiles of the plaza. All four of them could feel eyes on them every step of the way. In the light of their torches, however, the spotted a stone arch peeking out of the ground underneath a gnarled black root of the giant banyan tree.
It wasn't the only thing. Sophia saw something that made her gasp, and leaned over toward the trunk to see it in a better light. And in the glow of her torch, her fears were confirmed.
There, in the whorls of the wood, was an unmistakable image.
A human face, contorted in terror.
"Everyone, it's a Nightmare Tr—" she started to cry out in warning, but suddenly all the tension they'd been feeling seemed to exploded at once.
An unmistakable sound came, the report of a gun being fired. Sophia screamed from surprise and ducked down, clutching her arm. Everyone else dove to the ground and scanned the area quickly with weapons drawn, and immediately they spotted their attacker: a rugged man in khaki jacket and pants, wearing a pith helmet and his dour face decorated with a thick brown mustache connected to his sideburns. In hands covered with sun-weathered skin was the rifle he'd just fired at Sophia, and still had pointed in their direction as if deciding who his next target would be.
"Spotted me, eh?" he drawled. "Must be a bit out of condition. No matter, a feeble assemblage of Stormers is no match for Sir Arthur Henry Killingsworth."
Before anyone could offer a witty rejoinder, a black shape they'd been wrapped around a stone arch that seemed like one of the roots suddenly uncoiled itself. Then whipped through the air and loomed above the Storm Knights, emitting a serpentine hiss.
Once more the hunter fired his rifle, but it was aimed at Sophia Black again, not the giant snake weaving closer to all of them. She ducked and the bullet lodged itself in the wood of the banyan tree, but Sophia's mind, out of reflex after years of training to fight monsters, was focused on the giant black snake staring down at her.
In her mind, there was no doubt they'd discovered a Nightmare Tree.
Which, she'd been taught relentlessly, always had some terror guarding them.
It would seem they'd just met it.
She fired her slayer's rifle at the monster's head while the hunter was lining up one of his own at her head. Another gun barked before he had the chance and a bullet grazed the hunter's cheek.
"Not so fast, buddy!" Ghost yelled and shot at him again, then got to his face and rushed the hunter. Who turned and ran low, back into the broken avenues of the lost city, with the masked hero in pursuit.
Meanwhile, the giant snake had gone diving at Sophia, who threw herself to the side, dropping her torch but clutching her slayer's rifle tight to her body as she rolled. If there was one thing she wasn't about to let happen, it was to lose her weapon at a time like this. She could hear the stone crack as the giant snake bounced off where she'd been, but already it had arced around and was staring her down as it waited to make another attack.
Sophia didn't intend to give it the chance. Her rifle roared and a jet of black blood erupted from the side of the snake's neck. Ominously, it made no sound as it bobbed back and forth, no doubt looking for the best angle to strike.
Something else struck before it could. A rapid chatter from across the plaza sent bullets pelting into its scaly hide, and the snake turned its great head to see Kristina Rouge. Throwing away a spent magazine and slapping a precious reload into her machine gun, while awkwardly holding onto her torch with her other hand. She was about to take aim again but the snake opened its jaws wide and lunged for her.
Kristina Rouge screamed and ran, while stumbling awkwardly through the web of roots spread across the area. From among the tangles of the Nightmare Tree's roots, one suddenly curled upward and lashed Kristina across the leg. It had been the serpent's tail. She screamed as she lost her balance and tumbled into the root morass. Her torch bounced from her outstretched hand, rolled up to the base of the tree and brushed against its trunk.
Immediately flames started to crawl up the tree. The snake, instead of continuing to pursue Kristina even when she was flat on the ground, let out a shriek and whipped backward to beat out the flames with its own belly. It didn't even notice when Sophia took advantage of the giant serpent's distraction to fire a high-gauge bullet from her slayer's rifle that tore a hunk of flesh from its neck. Black blood dribbled onto the ground below from its gaping wound.
As soon as the flames had been smothered, the guardian locked its shining eyes on Sophia Black.
Killingsworth dashed around what remained of a house, slithered through a hole at ground level, and reloaded his rifle with the silence of a consummate killer.
Momentarily, he glanced over the top of the crumbled wall to see if his masked pursuer had managed to follow his trail that far into the darkening ruins. He'd heard about this particular group from the rest of the Retribution League; they were persistent, but not particularly capable. So far, Killingsworth's compatriots had had no trouble getting the best of them. After hearing all that, he half-expected none of them would even be able to track him if he made a strategic withdrawal from an engagement.
But to his surprise, a slinking shadow that betrayed the unmistakable shape of a man with a pistol in one hand was halfway across Killingsworth's field of vision.
A target far below his worthiness, but putting such a miserable opponent out of their misery would be the work of a moment, and then he could see about dispatching the others and collecting the legendary bow before it could make its way into the hands of the Delphi Council.
He silently lifted his powerful rifle and took aim at the masked man's head.
When suddenly the masked man looked up, eyes straight at him, and fired the automatic at Killingsworth's vantage point.
The bullet only hit stone, nearly a foot away from his head, but Killingsworth fell backward with a whole second to spare thanks to reflexes honed on many a hunt against far more dangerous prey than one vengeful Stormer. No sense staying a target where his opponent expected him to be. He ducked behind a bush next to him and leopard-crawled behind it, making no sound, until he could see out into the street again. Peering into the scope of his rifle, he looked in the general direction of where he'd seen his target last.
Only to see nothing, not even a cowering silhouette of his enemy making a desperate bid to preserve their life by clinging to the shadows, as he'd seen them do so many times in the past.
It was as if Killingsworth's pursuer had simply disappeared into thin air.
He grumbled almost inaudibly, but then came the unmistakable sound of a boot awkwardly skidding across stone. Killingsworth turned his sites and saw a short, dark figure staggering over one of the banyan tree's thickened roots. Running totally on instinct, Killingsworth swiped his rifle to the right and fired.
The hunter's target staggered again and fell, a bullet right through the heart.
One of the cleanest kills in recent memory, even for the likes of a mighty hunter like Sir Arthur Henry Killingsworth. But the height, the build, the walk, none of that added up in his mind.
That hadn't been the masked man.
Suddenly a gun barked off to his left, a muzzle flash that came from nowhere accompanying it. A bullet lodged in Killingsworth's side, but he easily ignored the pain and fired a shot where the one that had hit him came from. A yelp of pain, and the masked man materialized, clutching his side and taking a shaky step before he fell face-first into the dust.
"One of those Mystery Men with those fancy powers, eh, I see," Killingsworth said. "No match for good old-fashioned lead, eh, old chap?"
Slowly he rose from his vantage point and did a quick turn to make sure none of the Stormer's allies had slipped away from their own struggle to come to his aid. But no, the reports of gunfire from a few avenues over told him those other two must still have been busy with the serpent.
The serpent. Oh, what a trophy that would be! As soon as Killingsworth saw off the presumptuous masked Stormer. From his vantage point across the broken street, the hunter took aim at his opponent's torso.
"What are you talking about?" the fallen masked man suddenly asked with a wheezing laugh. "It made you think I was the one sneaking up on you!"
Then he heard stumbling and crashing coming from where the first target he'd downed had come from. It was them again, no doubt one of the Stormer's friends, coming desperately to try to save him. Killingsworth put another bullet through their body and they staggered from the impact. But this time, he noticed something in the low light he hadn't before: his target had no head.
Not only that, but his bullet hadn't killed them a second time, either.
Their grey hands reached out for Killingsworth's throat. Even though the headless assailant was only a few feet away by that point, he emptied his rifle into their body. He could see the street beyond through the holes, but they kept coming.
The Stormer, he reminded himself. Killing them was the priority. He was a professional, and wouldn't be cowed even by something like the walking dead. Killingsworth dodged away from the headless zombie clumsy lunged for his throat and turned toward the fallen masked man.
Only to run right into the grasp of another decapitated zombie. Another came shambling from his left, another from the right, along with the first that had refused to stop coming after being shot twice. A cry of terror escaped the throat of Sir Arthur Henry Killingsworth as they hauled him to the ground.
Ignoring the carnage was a cloaked figure who limped out of the shadows over to where Killingsworth's victim lay. Desperation tinged a tired whisper as they asked, "Are you alright?"
"It's not the first time I was shot, and it's not even that bad," Ghost said. "What about you? You look like you were run over by the Continental Unlimited."
"That wasn't easy," Wren sighed hard. "Vivifying the dead takes more magic than this world can provide me. I almost lost touch with my essence, conjuring results like that."
"Let's get out of here," Ghost murmured. "Our friend can see what it's like to be the prey."
With the fire on its unholy tree taken care of, the enormous snake had turned its attention back to the remaining Storm Knights. It went diving at Sophia, jaws agape, baring fangs that could penetrate her entire body. The huntress cautiously backed away, sparing only the barest of seconds to glance over her shoulder to make sure she didn't trip over one of the Nightmare Tree's roots.
In that second, the snake threw itself at her.
So Sophia ran before the serpentine horror had a chance to crush her.
Meanwhile, with her weapon reloaded, Kristina Rouge considered going after the snake to help Sophia. She stopped herself, though. She remembered when her torch had set the banyan tree on fire, and the snake automatically ignored everything to put it out. Even when it meant suffering Sophia's high-powered bullets.
Fifty feet away, Sophia's own torch lay on the ground. Still burning.
Kristina Rouge ran for that instead of the giant snake.
She scooped up the torch without stopping her sprint and in another few seconds was at the base of the tree. One brush against the dry wood of the dead immediately caught it alight. Kristina didn't stop, running in a circle around the tree, jabbing fiery torch anywhere the bark looked especially dry.
The last bullet in Sophia's slayer's rifle had just been fired at point blank when it tried to crush her underneath it, costing the monstrosity an eye. It only seemed to make the snake even more determined to destroy her, charging forward suddenly and smashing into Sophia. She hit her head on the ground and everything blurred. Even through her daze, though, Sophia Black could recognize the smell of smoke.
A shriek of panic escaped the monster snake before it twisted back toward the Nightmare Tree. Flames had race up the trunk and were spreading across its tangle of upper branches. Its serpentine guardian slithered forward as if intending to beat out the fire with its body again, then seemed to realize it was much too late. Another shriek, but of helpless rage, and the snake thrashed around the plaza while the tree burned. As the branches and burnt leaves tumble down into the plaza, the snake crashed to the ground in defeat, the source of its awful life leaving it. Within minutes it had shriveled into a flattened cylinder of dry snakeskin.
Eventually the flames burned themselves out, hunks of brittle, scorched matter littering the ruins of the ancient plaza. Kristina Rouge found Sophia, coming out of her daze, and shared her canteen until Sophia had recovered enough to stand. Her walk was unsteady and Kristina suspected she wasn't as ready to be up as she let on, but was determined to present a strong face.
If she was from the same reality that had "Nightmare Trees" that were protected by things like giant demonic snakes, Kristina supposed she could understand needing to seem unafraid…
The point was driven home when Kristina almost stepped on something that looked like a blackened human hand, and she flinched and looked straight ahead.
"These trees are created with a human body at their core," Sophia said gravely. "That's probably what's left of them."
"Don't need to hear that!" Kristina shrieked.
"…how can you protect yourself when you don't know the danger you'll face?" Sophia asked.
Kristina Rouge didn't want to admit Sophia had a point.
Ghost and Wren stumbled into the plaza a minute later, Wren leaning onto the masked hero's shoulder. All of them proceeded in silence to the blackened husk of the Nightmare Tree. Peeking out from below the intersection of two dead roots was an ancient stone door, with a small slope leading down to it. After Ghost had them light fresh torches, just in case they found themselves confronted by more flammable dangers, they pried open the door and went inside.
Their flickering light revealed a small, round tomb. A stone coffin rested in the center, with an image of a woman wielding a boy, riding on horseback, etched wide across the top. After some minutes, the Storm Knights managed to tip the lid off the coffin and drop it onto the floor with an echoing crash.
Inside was a mummy, arms folded over a silver bow. Streaks of red and blue shimmered throughout the black wood of the grip. From that there could be no doubt, this was the Eternity Shard the Delphi Council had learned about, and sent them to recover. Sucking in a hard breath through her nose, Kristina Rouge made herself be the one to reach out for the bow and pulled it from the arms of the mummy.
It didn't try to grab the bow back, or sit up in its coffin and lay a curse on the Storm Knights for desecrating its tomb. Before they'd looked away from the coffin, though, the mummy started to crumble to bits, its remains carried away into infinity on an eerie wind.
Back above ground, the feeling of alien darkness had subsided completely. This made the Storm Knights feel safe enough to plant their torches in the ground and spend the night among the lost city before braving the dangers of the jungle again. Ghost and Kristina Rouge left to make a circuit of the area, just to be sure they were alone. Sophia and Wren sat with the Bow of Sekana sat between them.
"Sophia," Wren asked. "The world you come from…it's the one that tainted this place, is it not? The reality that was created by that…Nightmare Tree."
Grimly, Sophia nodded.
"Then who, or what, do you think it was that decapitated those men, and hung their heads from the trees?"
It was a little while before Sophia answered the question. Eventually, she offered, "It was most likely the apes. I wonder if the one who converted that Kolo had been some debauched intellectual from my world, able to experiment with the bizarre technology of the Nile Empire."
"We'll probably never know for sure."
"No, I suppose we won't," Sophia agreed.
Sophia grabbed up the bow the instant she heard a cry echoing through the broken streets.
"Guys! Come check this out!" was Kristina's exclamation.
They did, somewhat relieved it wasn't a scream of pain. Kristina Rouge was standing in front of what had once been a house, but had fallen into decay even before the wrecked one-prop plane had fallen on top of it. The access door in the side had been there long enough to fall off its hinges, and provided no obstacle for the Storm Knights.
A few skeletal limbs still dangled from the plane's shattered windows. Curled up in the copilot's seat was a complete skeleton, clutching a black backpack. Kristina took the backpack, opened it, and pulled out a mostly-intact journal. She leafed through pages of months-old entries and others left unreadable by the elements, until she got to the last one.
"To whomever might find this: My name is Cassie Byrd. I'm the sole survivor of my team. Our plane went down in the Congo in a reality storm. We're in some kind of abandoned city. The place looks very old and no one is here. Just the kind of place we would explore under different circumstances! But I think something inside me is broken. I'm having a hard time breathing. I have to write this down in case anyone finds us.
"We have important cargo on board this planet. We were on a secret mission for the Delphi Council to bring back a Nightmare Tree seed for study. We did one better, stealing a victim inside a pod. We fled Orrorsh on a boat across the Arabian Sea to Mombasa. There we used the last of our funds to buy this plane. Templeton was going to fly us around the Nile Empire so we could get to our Delphi contact in Kinshasa, but something went wrong. A reality storm hit us out of nowhere. I think the Nile Empire just spread and caught us in the expansion.
"I can feel it. Our secret cargo, the Nightmare Tree seed pod, flew out of the plane when it crashed. I'm too injured to go find it. If it survived the impact, it could start growing again.
"Please, if you find this journal, you have to destroy the Nightmare Tree seed. Burn it. Send it back to Hell.
"And tell Quinn we tried. ~Cassie Byrd"