Vertigo, Part 10
Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I am doing wrong (to correct it.
Day Six
Quintessence Plane
"In short, Commander Badshave and Dr. Dyejob managed to slip something big right under our noses, Stranger." Deadman paced worriedly around the Earth's image. His agitation clear to see as he was not indulging in his usual antics.
The Phantom Stranger stood stoically immobile, deep in thought, "Assimilation." He said. "The way their conversation went makes it clear it is not a metaphorical assimilation, but a physical assimilation. Biological assimilation."
"You don't think he really..?" Deadman left the question hanging.
"It would be very much in his character. Gendo Ikari wishes for two things above all others, and won't stop at nothing to achieve them. The safe return of Yui Ikari, and absolute control over his own fate. Any possible advantage is to be either acquired for himself, or denied to anybody else."
"So the big damned rube has, what? Eaten part of an Angel?"
"I fear it is something much worse than that."
Deadman facepalmed, "Oh, great! He ate Adam, didn't he?"
"It's the only conclusion that fits with the facts we know, his character and scenario." The Stranger nodded.
Deadman went stiff for a moment, his head perked up, listening, he raised a hand asking for silence. The Stranger waited until Deadman relaxed. "The Boss called me. She says it's not urgent, but that you should contact your pal Shazam. It seems the Big Red Cheese (1) is in the Dreaming, and will come back soon."
"Captain Marvel would be of great help to prevent Third Impact."
"Sorry, but he is in no shape to do much more than just… well… check out…" Deadman said, shaking his head. "Oh, great…" Deadman facepalmed again. "Red is in the Dreaming too, on her way from the House of Secrets to the House of Mystery."
"Interesting." The Stranger rubbed his chin with a gloved hand. "Rarely a mortal receives both a Secret and a Mystery."
"Hmm… I've heard some rumors, but nothing that really makes much sense about those places."
"We will have to trust her. Her spirit has healed most of the damage inflicted by her Mother's death."
"Okay, now, what about the Horaki girl? Do we recruit her? Work around her? Wait and see? Send her a fruit basket?"
"For now, wait and see. Once I'm fully recovered, I'll evaluate her. When you have the chance, ask Shinji for his opinion."
"Okay. On other news, Big Rei is missing Red somewhat hard. Shinji too, though he knows what's going on."
"Unfortunately, Rei is still under Gendo's influence. At this point, trying to recruit her would be dangerous. However, she is getting close to breaking her mental conditioning. We must stay alert for the moment she breaks free."
"I think Commander Badshave will do out job for us. His callousness for Red is eroding Blue's trust in him."
"Indeed."
Tokyo-3, Japan
Katsuragi-Ikari Apartment
"Um… Shinji..?" Hikari hesitated, putting her school bag on the coffee table. "I… I would like to ask you something? Before the others come from the store?"
Shinji paused as he ordered the ingredients for the meal after the study session. "Sure."
Hikari bit her lip nervously, fidgeting with her hands. "What do you know about White Martians?"
Shinji stopped for a few moments, completely flabbergasted by the question, and by Hikari's worried voice. "Not much…" he finally said, cautiously. "They were really close to conquering Earth once, a couple years or so before Second Impact. Why?"
"Um… just curiosity. My Grandfather mentioned them…"
"Well…" Shinji scratched the back of his head, Inner Robin listened attentively to each word. "They were about Superman-level on powers, just like the Martian Manhunter. Flight, super-strength, shape-shifting, extremely sensitive senses, telepathy, heat vision… funny, Martians can't stand fire. They get very weak and even sick when they are close to any open flame. It's like kryptonite for Superman. Anyway, they almost kill the JLA, but in the end, the heroes got them. I don't know what happened to them. I guess the JLA sent them back to space." (2)
"Um… and if there was one around?"
"If you see one, run, Hikari. They are vicious monsters!"
Hikari recoiled. "But if one was a good person?"
Shinji looked intently at her. "I don't know if that's possible. Their whole culture and identity was based on conquering and enslaving other beings. To prove their superiority, I guess."
She looked down, "Thank you, I guess that answers my question. Could you tell me about the Martian Manhunter? He was not like the White Martians, was he?"
Shinji smiled, "Oh, no. Not at all. He was kinda like a… well… I don't know the right word. He was the last survivor of his whole world. Some catastrophe killed all the other Green Martians, he was the last of his whole species… I can't even begin to imagine how alone he must have felt… Somehow, he got to Earth, and decided to hide among us, helping people in secret. That's it, until the original JLA formed, he was a founding member, and he revealed himself to the world. In a way, he was the soul of the JLA. He was one of the few really global heroes, he was active all over the world." He walked to the bookcase, and brought back the JLA book, the one written by Lois Lane. "Most metahumans, heroes and villains, were active in the USA or Europe, here in Japan we only had one or two heroes, who worked internationally, and none was seen after Second Impact." (3)
He put the book in Hikari's hands, "There's an interview with the Martian Manhunter, back when the Justice League went International. The Martian Manhunter, being an extraterrestrial, was named leader so no country would be given preferencial treatment. He is very candid about his life. He had a strange sense of humor, according to some of the other heroes in the JLI. Like you never knew if he was joking."
Hikari took the book reverently, she know how much it must mean to Shinji. "I will keep it safe." As she put it in her book bag, the door opened, and Rei and Kensuke entered.
"So, how is your pilot training going, Hikari?" The bespectacled kid asked, putting the bag with snacks on the kitchen table. "Got your suit?"
Hikari blushed crimson. "N-n-no. Not yet. I got my measures taken for it, though."
Rei spoke then, her soft voice almost indifferent, just like before Shinji arrived to Tokyo-3. "The system calibration session has been scheduled for tomorrow. We are to report to NERV HQ directly from school. Special Inspector Kaji will provide transport."
Shinji's eyes darted all around the room. "Um, yes… Urm…" He ran to the kitchen and busied himself preparing the first batch of ingredients. Hikari joined him while Rei and Kensuke set the table. He whispered to her, "Toji won't like this test… Heck, I don't like it."
"I'll talk to him, I'll ask Lt. Ibuki to explain the procedure to him."
"I think that will be for the best. I have no wish to lose more teeth."
"How did you manage that?" She asked, her hands gesturing vaguely around her own mouth.
"Lots of stress in the plug…" Shinji sighed.
The Dreaming
The House of Mystery
Asuka stood on the decrepit porche of the supernatural house. Two oil lanterns hung from big nails, one at each side of the threshold. Dead, dry plants hung from the walls and the porche railing. Shells of dead insects crunched under her feet. There was a decidedly clear air of menace to the House of Mystery, as if it was personally hostile to her. A sharp contrast to the playfulness of the House of Secrets. The air felt cold and wet, and it carried a hint of rotting vegetation, and maybe… something… else.
The Second Child pressed her lips together in annoyance. She fought titanic monsters for a living! A mere decrepit House was nothing in comparison! She walked to the ornate door, yet her hand froze an inch from the bronze knocker. 'Control yourself, Soryu. You're the Gott verdammt Huntress!' Brusquely, she grabbed the knocker, grimacing at its coldness. It felt vaguely slimy under her fingers. She knocked three times, the sound booming like a gunshot in the eerie silence.
The door opened with a sinister creaking. A wet smell of rotting wood and cloth hit her face. The room was so dark it seemed solid black.
Asuka took one of the lanterns. The wooden handle was covered in dust. Asuka passed the lantern from one hand to the other, wiping each hand against the yellow sundress she wore. She took a moment to wonder what had happened to her plugsuit. 'This is a dream, you geistloser Narr (4)! Don't try to make sense of it.'
Bravely, she set foot in the room. At the other side, a door creaked open. "Enough with the haunted house games!" She exclaimed. The door opened fully, behind it, a very familiar hall waited for her.
Somehow, one of NERV's sterile, long halls had appeared inside a wooden house over a century old. The overhead neon lights barely illuminated beyond the light of her lantern. "Great." Asuka grumbled. "Two or three kilometers to get to wherever that creep Cain is waiting for me."
Eventually, she arrived to a sliding door at the end of the hall. It hissed open to let her pass.
"Natürlich (5)" she growled. "It had to be…" The room was an almost exact copy of Commander Ikari's office. She had a vague impression the engravings on ceiling and floor were subtly different, but couldn't put her finger on a precise change. Behind the big desk, a man occupied the Commander's seat, the only occupant of the espacious room. Instead of his usual hunter jacket, Cain wore the same uniform Commander Ikari always wore. Black jacket, white shirt. Even the ever present orange-tinted glasses. "Get in, Soryu. We have a lot to cover." Cain said, hiding his mouth behind his interlaced fingers. He tilted his head towards the chair next to the desk.
Gritting her teeth, Asuka obeyed. Openly antagonizing Cain would serve no purpose. So he wanted to be annoying? So be it. She could do subtle. With a saccharine smile, she sat primly on the chair. "Certainly, good sir. Wouldn't think of wasting your valuable time."
Barely acknowledging her greeting, Cain pushed a button on the desk. A cleverly disguised platform under them spun to the right, until they faced the windows. Another button pressed, and an old style contraption emerged from the desk. Cain extracted a round thing from a drawer and proceeded to put it into place over the mechanism. It looked somewhat familiar (6) to Asuka, but as something seen in an old, barely remembered black and white movie.
Asuka raised an eyebrow. "I was led to think you'd narrate a story."
"I will. But this story is told better with some visual aid." Cain struggled to fit the… whatever it was on ist place. Finally, he simply hit it with the palm of his hand and it slotted in place with a "clack!" Cain turned the device on, and a beam of light emerged; outside, a rectangular area of white light appeared on the opposite wall. Asuka calculated it measured about 30m or so, diagonally (almost 100ft).
Meanwhile, Cain pulled a cable from the drawer, connected it to the device, and pushed a button. With a click, the round thing dropped something inside the device, the light changed, and an image appeared on the wall. The top consisted of a strip of black and white squares. At the left side of the image, a round seal proudly proclaimed "Superman", "DC", and "National Comics". (7)
Under that unusual header (8), a text that looked like an old time movie title read "Sugar and Spike", with the images of two toddlers. One at each side; apparently, Sugar was a blonde girl with a sweet smile and a ponytail on top of her head; while Spike was a red headed boy with short hair, cut bowl style, and a mischievous, almost malicious look in his eyes.
"Wait a minute! What's with that seal? Superman National Comics? What DC means?"
Cain chuckled, "Don't worry about that, girl. It's something to do with copyright, multiverse, and seriously humorless lawyers. It comes with the slide anyway. And DC stands for Detective Comics. Nothing to worry about." (9)
Asuka glared at Cain, but managed to contain the outburst. "Very well. If you say so." She leaned back, her arms crossed.
Caín grinned, with far too many teeth for Asuka's taste. "Our story begins in 1955, with the birth of two particular babies (10)." He pushed the button, and the image changed to the blonde baby, wrapped in a blanket, in the arms of her mother, both in a hospital bed. "This cute little demon-spawn is Sugar Plumm. I'm being metaphorical, of course. And yes, that's her real name."
Click.
"And this little bundle of doormat spirit is Cecil Wilson, though everybody calls him Spike." The new image was very similar to the previous one, but with the boy in the arms of his mother.
Click.
"Their parents were next door neighbors, so it was inevitable they met." A neat, old-style living room, with a playpen in the middle. Both babies inside, and poor Spike being pummeled on the head with a stuffed giraffe. (11)
Tokyo-3, Japan
Horaki Household
Hikari finished the homework for the day, and settled down to read Shinji's book. Her father sat next to her, looked at the cover of the book, and said nothing, he nodded to Hikari, and began to read his own book. An old fantasy book, The Return of the King.
After a while Hikari closed the book, and her father did the same a moment later. "Father? I have a few questions."
"I'll try to answer as best I can, Hikari."
"Um… if my name is actually H'Karii, what are Kodama and Nozomi real names? What do they mean?"
Koichi smiled, "Well… their real names are Kodama and Nozomi. Your mother won the coin toss, so she chose their names."
Hikari had to smile at that little revelation. "Shinji let me borrow this book. It has some stories about the Martian Manhunter."
"Written by Lois Lane, I see. She was very close to some of the heroes, especially Superman."
Hikari nodded.
"Quite a woman, from what I've heard."
"Her interview with the Martian Manhunter made me sad. He was so alone."
"He was, yes. We at least had others of our race, even if we were not a peaceful company."
"I wonder… if he has had somebody special in his life."
"I don't know…"
The Dreaming
Cemetery Between the House of Secrets and the House of Mystery
Billy Batson sat under the dead tree, he tried to think, but his thoughts kept on getting tangled with each other.
Finally, he stood up and began to walk among the graves. Unknown names, but familiar symbols on the tombstones. All of them covered by weeds and dry leaves.
He knelt down over the tomb of Roy Harper, Arsenal. He had met him during the JLU time. Good guy. Billy began to clean the grave with his hands. And as he did so, he spoke to the occupant.
"Hello, Roy." He said, awkwardly, "I'm not really good with this kind of stuff, you know. But I don't think it's fair for so many good people to have died…"
"I don't know what to do now. I'm just a guy… I'm not a hero anymore. All I can do now is to clean your grave. I'm supposed to decide what I'll do, but honestly, I have no idea." He kept silent for a minute. "Well, your grave is clean and neat, Roy. And I feel a bit better. Thank you for listening."
Billy stood up, and went to the next grave, "Dawn Arsala (12). Dove II. Hello, Ms. Arsala. I didn't have the pleasure to meet you back on Earth, but I'm sure you were a hero." He began to clean her grave too.
Author Notes:
(1) Dr. Sivana, one of Captain Marvel's most persistent enemies, used to mock him with the Big Red Cheese nickname.
(2) The relocation of the humanized White Martians was done in secret, to prevent lynching mobs, and any accidental or deliberate awakening of the Martians.
(3) I'm counting Rising Sun as the best known Japanese hero. The other is left to debate. Could even be an alternate version of Samurai, from the Superfriends cartoon. Rising Sun was a member of the Global Guardians, and debuted in the SuperFriends comic book, issue 8 (Nov, 1977). All the Global Guardians were eventually included in the main continuity.
(4) "Witless fool", according to Google translatpr
(5) "Of course".
(6) A Slideshow projector. Carrousel type. I'm very familiar with them, from my own school days. Just in case, small pictures set in transparent film are mounted between two pieces of card; to view them, they are put in front of a beam of light so the image is projected on a screen (or a handy wall). The arrival of computer projectors made them obsolete.
(7) For several years, all DC books carried a checkered heading. The seal described was part of the cover design.
(8) Technically, the early issues of Sugar and Spike's title didn't carry the checkered header, but I like the image.
(9) Cain is fourth wall aware. He knows he is a comic book character, and occasionally, he comments on it.
(10) Sugar and Spike are one of those little outliers in comic book history. A simple tale of two mischievious toddlers. The worst that could happen to them was to be put in time-out in a vorner. They debuted in their own title with issue 1 (Apr, 1956), written, drawn, and inked by Sheldon Mayer, who kept working said duties in the title until its final issue (98, Nov 1971). It's worth noting that Sugar and Spike were not part of the DCU, though there have been multiple attempts to integrate them into it. Also, Sheldon Mayer returned in 1992, doing a special issue for the Silver Age Classics collection (Sugar and Spike issue 99, Apr, 1992). It was the only issue that was not a reprint!
(11) A reference to a really good Evangelion fanfic, "Once More, With Feeling", by Crazy-88. Sadly, it is unfinished.
(12) Billy is a bit mistaken here. For this story, Dawn Granger married her lover, Captain Arsala, and took his surname.