Fifteen
Castle Grayskull
Eternia
19 September 2017
After her mother broke telepathic contact, Teela felt lost. She had accomplished what she had set to do; get help on its way to try and stop the alien robots. Now what? Teela reviewed her options. She couldn't use the castle's power as she was not the current guardian. The weapons on the wind raider were useless against the machines. The races of Eternia still used some weapons like the bow and arrow, but those would not be effective because of how close one would have to get. The effective range of the enemy's weapon was unknown, but Teela assumed that it was longer than even the most powerful bow.
Teela wandered aimlessly around the main hall where the ring of statues stood guard over a hole in the floor that served a purpose no one could guess at, walking past them without really looking at them. She moved up several steps of the grand staircase and threw herself down in frustration. Elbows braced on her knees, Teela rested her chin on her palms.
Never had Teela felt so helpless as she had right at this moment. There was nothing she could do but wait. Waiting was not one of her strong suits; Teela tended to grow anxious when she had to wait. When she grew anxious, she got impatient. Being a woman of action, patience was not something she had when there was work needing to be done.
Like now.
Teela buried her face in her arms and did something she rarely thought of. She prayed for a miracle.
A familiar buzzing sound intruded on her thoughts. When the source of the buzz finally registered, Teela looked up. The massive multipurpose screen on the west wall was alive with orange streaks. Cautiously, Teela rose and walked down toward the portal, taking refuge behind the ring of statues. Just in case.
A black shadow approximately fifteen feet tall formed in the scintillating field. Moments later, Falcon stepped through the screen, the suit's footfalls reverberating about the chamber. It turned and backed up to the end of the wall dividing the throne dais from the rest of the chamber. Teela realized this was the suit her mother piloted -it was painted in the same colors as the Sorceress' costume.
Teela's eyes snapped back to the screen. Another shadow had taken shape. A shiver shot down her spine when a familiar black and silver winged form stepped out of the portal. The first time she had seen this suit, the pilot had tried to kill her. Recently, her mother had informed her that if the pilot wanted her dead, she would be.
War Wing emerged from the portal, took several more steps, then in a blaze of light, reduced its size down to the combat form power armor. The man-sized figure moved off to the right – closer to the throne – stopped, and opened up to allow Adrian Cobretti to step out.
The portal shut down, returning the massive screen to an inactive black panel set in an ornately carved frame.
The Sorceress had climbed out of Falcon and was using the installed winch system to lower herself the short distance to the floor. She walked over to Cobretti, where the pair was joined by a third person Teela had not seen exit the portal.
Is that a Val-kyrie? Teela asked herself. She had heard of the race of female warriors, knew King Hiss had killed one and briefly captured another a few months back, but she had never seen one with her own eyes. This one looked a bit younger than she expected.
Adrian and War Wing were in deep conversation when Anyssa and the Sorceress joined him. "I know your combat mode weapons won't hurt the big ones. But maybe the smaller ones won't be so tough. Still, we need alternatives. Go to Assault Mode." The AI reconfigured the loadout from winged flight pack and blaster mounted under the right arm to the twin-barreled blaster, energy projector and shoulder-mounted missile pod and drum-like grenade blaster.
"You have ideas," the AI said, flatly.
"Search your database for bladed weapons. They should prove more effective than energy ones."
Wing fabricated several double-edged blades using the projector on the left gauntlet. Adrian settled on a plain blade twelve inches long and six inches wide. Made of the same Etherium alloy as the suit's armor, the razor edge would slice through just about anything.
For the twin blaster replacement, Adrian settled on the less ostentatious pair of curved blades. Other sets had intricate carvings on the faces.
"I'm surprised by your turning down the ones with carvings. If you want to make a statement, do it in style," the AI observed.
"Aren't you the one always cautioning to keep a low profile? Be less ostentatious?"
"Yes, well, considering the past few battles, I figure it's pointless to council against being flashy."
Adrian growled, "There's still time to turn you into a wine rack. I even drew up a preliminary plan." Before the AI could produce a suitable rejoinder, Adrian asked the Sorceress about using the magic mirror to get an idea of the nature of the enemy. So far, all they had to go on was what the Sorceress had seen through Teela's eyes.
Sorceress beckoned for him to follow her around the corner behind the wall Falcon was backed up to. Adrian and Anyssa followed. The mirror -three feet wide by five feet tall- and was set in a segmented green frame, a pair of curved teeth adorning each corner, and a base plate with three more tooth-like legs acting as support feet. Holding up her left hand, a white nimbus of magical power formed, followed by the mirror flaring to life.
"What do you wish to see?" Sorceress asked.
"Palace Eternia. Let's see how King Hiss if fairing," Cobretti answered.
An image resolved in the mirror. An intense battle was taking place in the palace. The Snakemen were not doing very well. Several snakes took direct hits from the arm cannons. The unfortunate victims disappeared in pink mists. A group of snakes pounced on an isolated machine, hacking away at it with whatever edged weapons were available. Adrian noted the specific areas they struck, mainly the joints. No matter how good the armor was, the joints were the hardest to protect adequately. Even the Guardians had vulnerabilities in those areas.
The trio winced when the assaulted machine flailed its right arm about and, by pure luck, connected with one of its attackers. The snake sailed away, hitting a wall hard and sliding boneless to the ground. If the serpent had not been killed, it would wish it had been.
Adrian whistled appreciatively.
"That's gonna leave a mark," Anyssa commented lightly.
Adrian had seen enough once the machine had collapsed in a twitching heap, joints shooting sparks from severed electrical conduits. He asked to see how the fight was going inside Snake Mountain.
"It's time," Falcon said.
Sorceress changed the view to Snake Mountain before stepping away to open the portal to Earth. Her upraised right hand glowed white. A ring two feet in diameter formed around her hand with sparklers flickering in the space between hand and ring. The massive screen turned into a sheet of flickering streaks of orange lights. The magic fire around her hand faded away. Turning away, Sorceress walked to Falcon, stepped into the triangular hoop, grasped the cable in her right hand and was hoisted back up to the operator's cockpit.
Sorceress activated the comm system. Seconds later, Colonel Markson's voice filled the cockpit.
"This is Colonel Markson. Clear to come through?"
Pressing the transmit button on the right-hand control stick, Sorceress answered, "All clear. Come through when ready."
Sorceress met the colonel when he stepped through at the head of the line. The pair stepped aside and set down the case as more people walked through carrying more boxes of equipment. After the last person came through, Sorceress closed the portal.
Cases were cracked open, armor and weapons passed around. Soldiers buddied up to assist each other in donning their armor. Jon and Apone finished check one another over, making minor adjustments here and there.
Sorceress opened her mouth to ask how the colonel intended to proceed, but a call from Adrian stopped her.
"Oh, Sorceress," Adrian called from around the corner by the mirror. "Could we see you over by the mirror, please?"
Suppressing an irritated sigh, Sorceress said to the pair, "You might want to come and see this."
The trio rounded the corner and joined Adrian and Anyssa.
"Who are they?" Adrian asked, pointing to the mirror.
The image switched around from the king and queen of Eternia to a younger man and woman Sorceress instantly recognized. She had already known the pair was in Snake Mountain.
"That is Prince Adam and Princess Adora."
"As in…"
"The offspring of King Randor and Queen Marlena," Sorceress confirmed.
Apone grunted. "So, two more friendlies to protect."
"And the hits just keep on coming," Markson sighed. "Let's get this show on the road before this goes from search and rescue to recovery."
Colonel Markson planned to take a force numbering only four, including himself. Due to the close confines of Snake Mountain, any more people than that was begging for trouble considering the power of the enemy machines.
Anyssa, however, wanted to go along. After verifying the loadout of her arrow supply, the princess made her pitch to the colonel.
"I need this to be fast and loose. I don't think your mother would approve of me getting you killed engaging those robots," Markson said.
"Those robots are the reason I need to go. If you had reservations about my mother and Commander Harana withholding information, you are correct. They don't want to face the truth."
"Which is?"
Anyssa shook her head. "Something I can verify only by going along. Like many of you, I have studied the Great War in detail. Discovered things most people overlooked or discounted out of hand. Please, colonel, let me accompany you," she pleaded.
She was right about many members of the command studying past wars. He had no idea what they were about to walk into, but maybe, just maybe, Anyssa did. Plus, she had gotten pretty good at making ricochet shots with arrows. He had absolutely no idea how she managed it, but it was an impressive sight to see.
Markson shot a glance at the Gunny. He shrugged slightly and nodded.
"All right," Markson relented. "Let's see the layout."
The Sorceress obliged by magically creating a red wire diagram of Snake Mountain. The impressive construct was fully interactive. Touching any part of the display zoomed in to a closeup of that location; tapping it again zoomed out. Touch and drag rotated the construct any way one desired on any plane.
Red dots slowly moved up the bowels of the mountain -the enemy machines. Blue dots swarmed to head off the red wave and steadily vanished singly or in groups. Skeletor's mechanical troops were not faring very well at all.
"The best point to enter is likely up here in the snake's mouth," Sorceress said, touching that location and magnifying it. "The corridor forms the throat and leads right into the throne room."
No corridors intersected that one. Once down past the throne room, several intersections spread downward like the branches of a tree. The smaller robots could traverse any of the corridors while their bulky brethren were forced to stick to the main corridor winding its way up the mountain.
"You know, we people talk about going into the mouth of Hell. I never thought I would actually have to do it," the colonel commented. He nodded to the Sorceress. "Do it."
Leaving the projection in place as if it sat on a tabletop, the Sorceress activated the massive screen once more.
"After you," Markson said to the waiting Anyssa.
Grinning, she touched a switch on the handle of the compact device in her left hand. The device unpacked into a compound bow fitted with a selection of five pin sights adjusted to her personal settings. Her right hand automatically reached up behind her right shoulder, snatched an arrow from the quiver and fitted nock to bowstring. Hunching slightly, the warrior princess stepped boldly into the portal.
Colonel Markson snapped his rifle up to his shoulder, aimed slightly to the right and followed. The next two in line stepped through, aiming off to the left and right. The last person backed through the portal with weapon at the ready to watch the group's backtrail.
The portal closed seconds later.
"You planning to hide there all day, or are you going to come and join the grownups?" Adrian called out.
All eyes turned to Adrian, everyone but the Sorceress confused. The Sorceress had sensed Teela's presence somewhere over on the other side of the ring of statues. How Adrian knew she was there was unknown.
Tentatively, the girl stepped from behind the statue she used for cover. She was still unsure about these people. Despite her mother's assurance that Adrian was not out to kill her, the sight of him and his battlesuit still made a lump of apprehension form in her chest. Still, she did sound the alarm and call for help.
Apone recognized her from the after-action reports. Turning away, he growled at the remaining troops to gear up. He needed to get everything set up outside the castle; an attack on the castle was coming sooner rather than later and Apone meant to be ready.
Frost watched as War Wing opened up to allow his operator to step inside. "I thought the way the Val-kyire bow unfolds was intriguing, but that suit is still the coolest thing I've ever seen. So, when do I get mine?"
"When you grow up," Adrian quipped. The faceplate dropped into place concealing his mocking grin.
"Shit, that's cold," Frost muttered.
Spirit spoke to the castle to lower the jawbridge so the ten soldiers and one Guardian could go out and prepare the welcome mat for the enemy. Sorceress only half-listened to proposals about using the shallow gully off to the east for cover along with shattered pieces of armor plate from the destroyed Horde machines for enhanced cover.
"Are you sure it will hold up against the enemy machines?" Frost asked Adrian.
"I don't know. I never had a chance to talk to them. When they show up you can walk out and ask," Adrian replied, a condescending note to his voice.
The jawbridge slamming closed cut off the corporal's rebuttal.
Teela finally walked over to stand by the display of Snake Mountain. The blue dots representing Colonel Markson's team in the head of the snake were starting to make their way down. The sea of red dots started to shrink. Earth weapons were apparently more effective than first thought.
"What's bothering you?" Sorceress asked. When Teela did not answer, she continued, "You are concerned about amount of people we brought?"
Teela nodded.
"Do you think they have an army just sitting around waiting for the call to arms?"
"Of course not," Teela said. "I just thought there would be more than fourteen people."
"Plus, two Guardians," Sorceress reminded her. "You witnessed the battle outside these walls a few months ago. You know what these battlesuits can do."
Teela looked over to the towering form of Falcon. She shivered. "I feel like it's watching me."
The green lenses that were the eyes flared brightly in response to Teela's comment.
"All six have an artificial intelligence that has evolved over a thousand years," Sorceress explained. "They are self-aware, opinionated and absolutely do not like being referred to as objects." Walking over to her daughter, Sorceress added, "Although you may feel foolish, apologizing would be a good next step."
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Teela stammered out an apology. For several moments, nothing happened except for the pulsing green glow. Five seconds later, the pulsing stopped, and the glow faded away.
"I guess I'm forgiven?" Teela asked, unsure.
"For now," Sorceress confirmed, returning her attention to the wireframe map. She had no idea what was going with the girl, but Sorceress had no time figure it out. The enemy was on the move and the castle would soon be the next target. She had to focus all her attention on the coming battle. Afterward, there would be time to for the Sorceress interrogate Teela and get to the bottom of whatever was eating away at her.
If she survived, that is.
Snake Mountain
Anyssa stepped through the portal into the ribbed corridor forming the throat of the snake. A darker shade of pink, or possibly purple, grated on the eyes. Nothing about the design of the mountain was natural. One had to watch their step when not walking the center path because of the ribbing. Those ribs were functional as well as decorative in shoring up the floor, walls and ceiling.
The Val-kyrie warrior took it all in at a glance, saw no enemies and kept moving as the next person stepped through the magic portal. The last person backed through to guard their backs. Colonel Markson looked fore and aft, meeting the eyes of each person. Everyone was set and ready to continue. At a nod from him, Anyssa set off once more, leading the way deeper into Skeletor's domain.
Forty meters further on the group entered a deserted throne room. Colonel Markson had seen this place once before, though it was livelier then. Alcoves on either side were vacant. The dome in the center of the oval table glowed with shifting images of the attackers cycling ever three seconds. The colonel nodded to Anyssa, and they pressed onward and downward.
Another fifty meters along brought them within earshot of the battleline. Using hand signals, the colonel kept the current line-up, sending Anyssa and Private Jacobs ahead to find the enemy. Jacobs gladly followed the princess. She could sneak up and fire on the enemy without announcing her presence in dramatic fashion, whereas the echo from a pulse rifle would reverberate through the corridors like a sledgehammer to the head.
Anyssa crept up on the next bend just feet away from the front line. The distinctive sounds of magic in use, punctuated by the return fire of enemy energy weapons drifted up to the approaching soldiers. However, the energy weapons did not sound as powerful as those carried by the ten-foot monsters. Anyssa suspected the smaller machines might have picked up weapons belonging to Skeletor's troops. She was almost certain the smaller units were the Servator drones often seen on battlefields with the Shadowdemons. She would know for sure the moment she saw it.
Laser bolts smacked into the wall twenty feet away. Anyssa spied a figure cowering on the floor below where the bolts had struck. Shards of stone peppered the person's back. Anyssa snapped a quick glance around the bend, fixed the location and number of enemy units, dropped back. Using the hand signs, she indicated to Jacobs there were two machines, the distance and which one she would take. Jacobs nodded. Anyssa would take out the enemy on the left, leaving the other one for the private.
Taking a deep breath, Anyssa drew back the bowstring, and flung herself around the corner. As expected, the enemy was surprised by the sudden appearance of a new target, The few moments it took their electronic brains to process the new information was all Anyssa needed to aim and loose her arrow.
The string sang, flinging the missile across the forty feet separating the combatants in an instant. The pointed Etherium head easily pierced the head of Anyssa's target. A second arrow containing an explosive tip followed it up. This one punched through the thin chest armor before detonating a microsecond later inside the chest cavity.
Anyssa's target toppled backward as Private Jacobs followed up Anyssa's attack with her own. Pulse rifle planted in her shoulder; Jacobs squeezed off a short burst of four explosive-tipped rounds center mass; as in training, it was the easiest part to hit.
The first burst mangled the chest plate. A second volley punched through destroying critical electronics and machinery. The second robot joined its brother on the deck. Smoke from shorting electrical circuits mingled with the cordite stench from the rifle fire.
Evil-lyn uncurled and looked around. Anyssa nudged her to run back up the corridor. She didn't need to be told twice. She snatched up her short magic staff and dashed back up toward the throne room.
"Not even so much as a 'thank you,'" Jacobs commented. She and Anyssa threw themselves into a side corridor where they would be out of direct sight of the enemy. "At least our weapons are effective."
"On the smaller ones. The big ones will be harder," Anyssa said. "Speaking of which-" She spied a ten-foot machine moving up the corridor.
Jacobs saw the monster robot, grabbed Anyssa by the arm and threw themselves further up the side corridor moments ahead of an energy bolt that slammed into the corner vaporizing a sizeable crater of rock. Unlike other laser weapons that caused small explosions when the bolts struck a target, like rock, the weapons mounted on the ten-foot machines caused little more than a small cloud of dust after exploding against hard surfaces.
Before the dust had a chance to settle, Anyssa knocked an explosive-tipped arrow, and leaned out to launch it. Anyssa set most of her weight on her bent right leg with the left stretched out to stabilize her stance. One mistake people often make with a bow is holding it vertical. Even with an arrow rest, an arrow doesn't necessarily stay in place. Shooters are taught to hold the bow at a slight angle, so the weight of the shaft holds it in place. The correctly adjusted pin sight assembly made aiming quick and easy. Removed the sentence since she's a seasoned warrior -it's implicit she's had the training and experience to pull this off.
The arrow zipped downrange in a blink, slamming into the joint where the upper left arm attached to the powerful cannon. Exploding on contact, the charge didn't do much surface damage. It did, however, break critical linkages and the weapon's power feed. The machine's brain paused to examine its situation; the weapon's muzzle drooped to point uselessly at the floor. All attempts to bring it back in line to the annoying targets hiding up the side tunnel failed.
Jacobs darted out in in a crouch, right index finger resting on the trigger for the grenade launcher as Anyssa flung herself out of the way. She barely heard Anyssa's call to aim for the joints as she squeezed the trigger. Thwap! The first shell sped away, exploding against the thick chest plates. Working on automatic, Jacobs pumped the grenade launched slide, jacking the next round into the chamber, and squeezed again. This time, the round missed the armor plate and slammed into the vulnerable hip joint. The third round hit the already compromised left elbow. The weapon broke away and thumped to the floor. Together, the pair finished off the monster with a combined barrage of Etherium-tipped arrows in strategic places and 10mm explosive rounds.
The pair didn't have time to exult in their success as a group of big and little robots zeroed in on their position. Anyssa and Jacobs dashed away down the side corridor, searching for a way to loop around behind the enemy without catching a few energy blasts in back.
"Well, we have confirmation that our low-tech weapons can hurt them," the private huffed, sucking in oxygen in great gulps.
"They certainly were surprised," Anyssa agreed. She gestured down another corridor, using the echoes of the firefight as a way to get back into the fight.
The rest of the team had arrived moments after Anyssa and Jacobs took off through the side corridors. Two pulse rifles hammered away at the smaller robots while grenades peppered their larger cousins.
An intense firefight broke out with Colonel Markson's people having a slim upper hand. The big cannons were hard to maneuver for a clean shot in confined spaces. It also became clear that those weapons were not discharging at full power. It wouldn't do to bring the roof down and block corridors they needed to navigate to get around. That made it a little better for the colonel and his soldiers, but that made the enemy fire no less deadly.
The larger dead robot, courtesy of Anyssa and Jacobs, made for decent cover and a better angle of fire. The two smaller drones were dropped in short order. The other two staged a walking retreat back down the corridor; Markson thought they were trying to lure them out into the open into order to get better angles on their attackers. Even after downing one of the two hulking brutes, the other kept on withdrawing.
From then on, it was a walking retreat.
A scream drew Markson into a side corridor. Halfway down, he found a door blasted off its hinges and a smaller robot armed with a stolen laser rifle standing just inside the doorway. Anyssa and Jacobs, attracted by the scream, arrived from the opposite direction.
Unsure of the positions of the people inside and unwilling to risk a stray round hitting a friendly, Markson used hand signs to tell Anyssa to take the shot. She was good at making sure her arrows did not over-penetrate. The princess nodded, drew an appropriate arrow, and silently moved into position.
The machine stepped further inside, menacing the occupants. It dawned on Markson that this was the quarters for the Eternian king and queen. Their children had likely taken refuge in there, as well. Laser rifle leveled at King Randor's chest, the machine took another step inside, ready to terminate all four occupants. Randor stiffened, standing up straight. If this was his time, he meant to put on a brave face. He jerked involuntarily when his would-be executioner stuttered as if it had suddenly lost control of its movements. The sharp tip of an arrow protruded from the robot's chest. Knee actuators lost power, causing it to collapse on its face with an arrow jutting from its back.
"Someone call for a rescue?" Anyssa asked. She stepped out of the way for the colonel.
"The way is clear back up to the throne room," Markson informed the king. "Take your family and get up there. We'll clear out the rest of these things."
"How did you know?" Randor asked, confused.
"Teela sent out a distress call from Grayskull to the Sorceress. She called. We came. Now get going," the colonel advised. He disappeared to resume the fight.
Forty-five minutes after the counterattack began, it wound down. The enemy machines were definitely withdrawing. In the atrium where the main entrance was located, a damaged machine with a damage right hip ground to a halt.
Markson signaled a halt just out of sight, taking a peek around the bend. The machine just stood there, facing the wrong direction, waiting. Frowning, Jon signaled for his people to stay in place. Dropping into a crouch, he slid along the right-hand wall toward the stationary machine. Twenty meters up-range from it, the colonel stopped. Holding his pulse rifle up one-handed wasn't easy. Accurate firing was impossible but laying down suppressive fire was achievable with strong arm muscles.
Something was wrong with this situation. All the other machines had withdrawn. All but one. Damaged as it was the machine could still make it back to wherever it came from, but it wasn't limping away.
Markson dove to the ground at the first sounds of laser fire. He knew there was no way the enemy machine could not have seen his position. Instead of the expected wave of heat from energy blasts passing overhead, an explosion ripped the air apart. He waited until the pinging of shrapnel hitting the ground stopped, then raised his head and looked. The explosion reduced the machine to useless fragments not worthy of examination later. He theorized it had been equipped with an explosive device to destroy critical parts to prevent later examination.
Getting to his feet, Jon rejoined his troops. While reloading, several squads of Mark II troopers came pounding down the corridor from further up in the mountain. Markson's people tensed, weapons aimed, but the robots did not aim their rifles at any of them.
"State your purpose," Anyssa demanded, being the closest to the troopers.
The lead machine turned its head in her direction. "We were ordered by Lord Skeletor to secure the entrance and guard against a possible enemy return."
"Any orders regarding us?" Markson interrogated.
"Lord Skeletor directed that you are to be regarded as allies. For now," the trooper responded.
"Good enough for me," the colonel said, waving for his people to stand down.
Soldiers stepped aside, allowing the troopers to continue on their way.
Markson returned to the throne room to find the royal family gathered there along with a shaken Evil-lyn and the lord of the mountain. Jon refrained from asking where he had been during the fighting. Since energy weapons were ineffective against the enemy, Skeletor probably had been looking for something else to throw at them. With the siege broken, Skeletor returned to the throne room to use the magic dome set in the tabletop to view the withdrawal.
It was a withdrawal. No retreat had been ordered. Whatever the real purpose of the attack had been, it had succeeded. No more losses needed to be incurred needlessly.
"Thanks for the rescue. I had everything under control, but your timely assistance is welcome."
"No problem. We were in the area. Hadn't heard from you for a while and decided to drop in for a visit," Colonel Markson said.
Skeletor studied the man for long seconds before finally saying, "Thank you for your timely assistance." He resumed studying the dome.
"Did he actually thank me? With feeling?" Jon asked King Randor.
"He did."
"I'm shocked."
"Me, too."
"How did you get here?" Evil-lyn not quite demanded. She was still trying to recover from her experience with the enemy robots. As Skeletor had warned her, magic being energy did not work any better on the enemy machines than laser weapons.
"A falcon sent us," Markson answered cryptically.
Skeletor straightened from his viewing. "The enemy is withdrawing to their transports."
"And the palace?" Randor asked, referring to the attack on Palace Eternia.
"King Hiss is still engaged with the machines," Skeletor answered, offhandedly. Clearly, he was not going to rush to the aid of the Snakemen any more than Colonel Markson would.
"If these are Shadowdemons, why would they disengage?" Markson asked Anyssa.
"They wouldn't unless Snake Mountain wasn't a primary target," the princess answered.
"Shadowdemons? They haven't been seen in the galaxy for over a thousand years," Skeletor growled. "These look nothing like the descriptions of them."
"I came across an obscure reference to a possible upgrade that wasn't implemented before the war ended. I'm sure those are Shadowdemons, though. The others are called Servators. They handled all tasks including repairing the demons while the demons carried out the mission parameters," Anyssa explained more, at length.
"And you know all this – how?" Skeletor's voice dripped with sarcasm.
Evil-lyn answered for the princess. "Because she's Val-kyrie. If anyone could identify the enemy, her people would."
Don't bet on it, Anyssa thought.
"The point is that this was likely just a probe of enemy defenses. The one on Palace Eternia, too," the colonel said.
"If this is a probe, then where is the real attack going?" Randor asked. He answered his own question a moment later. "Grayskull."
"Grayskull," Markson agreed with a nod.
"The castle is practically undefended," Evil-lyn put in. "The Spirit of Grayskull and the entity residing within can protect against most intrusion attempts, but those machines are something else."
"They are," the colonel agreed. "But the castle is far from being undefended."
"More of you troops and weapons will not keep them out," the witch snarled venomously.
Skeletor perked up. "The Sorceress has returned." When no one confirmed or denied his statement, he continued, "Her powers won't last long against them. They will pull down the jawbridge and storm the castle."
"Care place a wager on that?" Jon asked. "I have people in place waiting for an attack that is almost surely on its way. Can you get us back there?"
Sighing with irritation, Skeletor said, "If I could get into the castle, do you really think I would still be languishing in this place?"
"Not in it," Jon countered with equal irritation. "There is a lake south of the castle where I fished a few days ago. Can you get us there?" He removed a device from a belt pouch. "If you don't have any magic left in the tank, I'll just ring up the Sorceress for a portal. What about you, witch? You got anything left?"
"Why should I open a portal to send you back?" Skeletor demanded.
"Because we saved your bony ass, so you owe me one. Get us back in time to help with the defense and we'll call it even," the colonel proposed.
When put that way, Skeletor reluctantly agreed, adding that he was going along. Evil-lyn invited herself along as well. Jon had little choice but to agree.
Evil-lyn checked over her scepter. Skeletor shoved himself up from his throne, snapped up the ram-headed havoc staff and walked around the table. He aimed the staff farther up the corridor and fired a blast of magic. It stopped as if hitting an invisible wall, pooling into a vertical oval. The white burst coalesced into the magic portal Jon and company had come to recognize.
"Why fish south of the castle?" Randor suddenly asked the colonel.
Jon shrugged absently. "A friend suggested bragging rights of catching a fish on another planet."
"Ah." The king hadn't thought of that. A trivial thing, but since the people of Earth did not travel to other worlds like others the king knew of, he could understand.
Skeletor waited expectantly. "There is a clearing a little closer to the castle. The portal leads there."
"Oh, good. That's the rally point I picked out earlier," Jon replied. Keying his helmet comm, he said, "Markson to Apone. The portal is us. All clear on your side?"
"Good timing. The party is about to start. Thought you might be fashionably late. Or pull one of Cobretti's famous entrances," the gunny answered.
"All present and accounted for. We have the royal family plus two coming through."
"Understood. We're waiting. Out."
When everyone had reloaded their weapons and checked their gear, Colonel Markson led the way through the portal back to the area of Castle Grayskull. Anyssa stepped through, followed by the royal family. Skeletor and Evil-lyn walked through on the heels of two soldiers, leaving Privates Jacobs and Harris to bring up the rear.
The portal faded out of existence moments later.
138