Do You Remember Me?
It’s Cal again, been like ten minutes, and I’ve gotta speak quickly this time.
As me and Marley were talking to the Nerd Squad (and Sander), Deston called me with dire news.
“Dire” was his exact phrasing.
He told me that a casino in Atlantic City, one of the Caesars chain, is currently under attack, and is already on fire.
It still bugs me that there isn’t an apostrophe in the name.
It bugs me too, Niv, but right now, that’s not important.
Because this is the second time a Caesars casino has been set on fire, and like the one in Old Las Vegas, it’s not going to stop there.
If we don’t act, all of Atlantic City may burn down, and then the rest of New Jersey, and the flames still won’t stop there.
Still, the world’s a better place without casinos draining people dry. Why did we even bother to rebuild the ones in Vegas?
Well, Victor still makes a pastime out of scamming casinos in disguise, and Chaos hasn’t stopped screwing with them either.
But again, not important right now. What’s important is that innocent people are in danger, and we can’t do nothing about it.
Judging by the description of the assailant from eyewitnesses fleeing the scene, he’s probably a demonic Silicoid.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. You think it’s one of Mhortur’s Stoneheads, Cal? The ChaotiX DID kill a few of those fuckers during the Inhuman Alliance’s attack, and no one ever said that Silicoids can’t become demons.
I’m not going to say that it’s impossible, Niv. Not in a world like this.
We’ll see who’s behind this soon enough.
At any rate, it’s not Mhortur himself, because he and any other Stoneheads who survived the battle between the ChaotiX and the Inhuman Alliance have been rotting in space prison ever since then, so they’re still alive.
I missed that one, that’s one of the adventures that took place before my creation.
We ALL missed that one, MIKA. While all of the good stuff was happening here in Cetteville, Cal was busy fighting Om away from Earth, so their battle wouldn’t awaken Vulcanus. By the time Cal was done with that, the battle in Cetteville was pretty much over.
Hmm…
Look, we don’t have time for yet another recap.
So, unfortunately, we can’t explain who the Stoneheads are to the readers, but I’ve done that recap before, around the time of the New Tenneb mission, and they should already know.
In a nutshell, they’re Silicoid supremacists. Like Neo-Nazis from space, with exactly the same reputation. They call themselves the Stoneheads for the same reason skinheads are called skinheads.
And it turns out that they were the ones who inadvertently introduced the Trinity of Terra to Shyne, by hiring an Arachnoid clan to kidnap Shyne.
So those racist rocky bastards were criminals long before Mhortur threw his lot in with Vanessa, and then Hans. The Ganglion used them as expendable muscle for centuries.
And Gooroo was the one who leaked Shyne’s location on Arach to the Trinity, because even he knew that Silics ruled by the Stoneheads would be a very bad thing.
Ah shit, I did a recap anyway. Oh well, back to the matter at hand.
We need to go do something about this, even if we’re playing right into Pax’s hands by doing so.
I’m all but certain that this is that something else he mentioned earlier, during our little chat in that white void. Whatever is going on in New Jersey, he knew about it all along and didn’t feel the need to tell me anything beyond a deliberately vague warning.
Presumably, because he wanted it to catch me off guard. Lower your guard and you’ll allow the enemy in and all that.
He’s probably banking on me dropping everything, going to New Jersey to deal with the new situation, and forgetting all about the situation in San Francisco.
And the shitty thing is, if that’s the case, he’s not entirely wrong.
I am going to go to New Jersey.
But I’m not forgetting about San Francisco.
The sooner we deal with this, the better. We can go back to dealing with the San Francisco situation, and once I’ve done what I need to do to nullify Pax’s threats, we can bring Venom back to San Fran and kick some evil Klyntar ass.
And, hopefully, we can prevent Carnage’s spawn from becoming another evil Klyntar ass we have to kick. It’s pretty much just a baby.
So was the one that became Carnage, and look what happened.
That was a very unusual bonding, Niv. And Carnage… or whatever Carnage was called before he became Carnage was a very unusual fluffy, psychologically speaking. He was already so insane that a newborn Klyntar’s mind just didn’t stand a chance against his own.
But as I said, the sooner we deal with whoever is setting Atlantic City aflame, the sooner we can go back to San Francisco and prevent the new Klyntar from becoming Carnage 2.0, or from becoming another of Michelle’s victims. Pax said he wanted all Klyntar gone. And there are multiple Klyntar hosts in the ChaotiX besides Venom.
If it’s just a demonic Silicoid, it won’t take long to beat him. Or her, there were a few female Silicoids in the Stoneheads. Mhortur might have been severely racist, but he clearly wasn’t sexist too.
I’ve beaten demons before, and I’ve beaten Silicoids before.
Hell, Miles’ power to turn to silver might be all I need.
But first, we need to see what we’re dealing with, with our own eyes.
Right now, me and Marley are at the School, preparing to move out to Atlantic City.
We’re in my office, and Deston’s here too.
“Des, I’m gonna need you to tell Judy that I may be home late for dinner tonight.”
“Of course, Cal.”
“And let me know if there are any developments in San Fran, but hopefully I can get this done quick.”
“An bee-fowe At-wan-tik Sitty buwns down.”
“Y’know, losing the casinos wouldn’t be a big deal, probably a net gain to society, I remember everything my dad said about casinos. If it wasn’t for the innocent people, I’d be tempted to let that demon do his thing. Des, make sure the team is ready to evacuate Atlantic City if need be.”
“We’ll all be hoping that you can resolve this situation before it comes to that, but if this is another Las Vegas, we can always rebuild.”
“Mal’s friends probably have another job coming their way, seeing as Caesars is already on fire, but I’d rather not have to rebuild a whole city again. Yeah, we can get the people out before the worst happens, but it still fucks their lives up, and I don’t think the Peacemakers will lend a hand this time.”
Deston shrugs.
“Pax still wants to maintain the illusion that the Peacemakers are just a humble charity. He still wants to maintain the illusion that he cares. I’d wager that he’ll offer his aid, if only for the publicity. He wants people to think that he’s the good guy.”
“I’m gonna see him again soon. If not after this, then after tomorrow.”
I look at Marley.
“You ready to go scratch an item off the to-do list, Mar?”
He nods determinedly.
“Weddy wen yu am, daddeh.”
“Then let’s not waste any more time. See you there.”
pop
pop
pop
pop
Me and Marley appear in Atlantic City, outside Caesers.
Being on the other side of the country from Cetteville, it’s a couple of time zones ahead, close to evening.
Sure enough, the casino is wrecked, and almost everything in the surrounding area is on fire, firefighters trying to fight the flames with hoses and failing, people screaming and running for safety as the flames spread.
I can already see some of my fellow ChaotiX members blipping and portalling in to evacuate the area, which frees me up to deal with the perpetrator.
The air is thick with the stench of sulfur, and considering who we’re potentially dealing with, those flames are no ordinary flames.
So I know what the firefighters are doing wrong. I know why they can’t douse the flames.
I call to them.
“Get a priest to bless the hydrants! Holy water works better on hellfire than regular water!”
They thank me, and one of them runs off to find a priest.
Gotta be hard to find a priest in good standing in THESE parts.
I’m sure there’s one, Niv.
As we stride towards the casino’s front entrance, the doors destroyed and engulfed in flames, we see a silhouette in the flames, just inside the entrance.
Big, bulky, horns and wings. Probably a demonic Silicoid as the witnesses said. His eyes are burning brightly through the flames.
He speaks in a voice that strikes me as oddly familiar, and is unusually devoid of the expected Silicoid/troll speech patterns.
“Do you remember me, Calvin?”
I call to him next.
“Are you one of Mhortur’s Stonehead pals? Because I’m not afraid to knock your teeth out again!”
He chuckles.
“No, no, no… I’m not one of those foolish, small-minded bigots. But I DO have a score to settle with you, my boy.”
He steps out of the burning entrance, revealing himself in full.
Over ten feet tall, with a body made of what appears to be black volcanic rock. Long, sharp horns, a furled pair of big, gargoyle-like wings, and a face with only two burning eyes and a mouth, twisted into a cruel smile. His entire body glows red with sheer heat, and we can feel the heat from here.
“Remember me NOW, Calvin? No? Of course not. I look much different from the last time we met.”
His body starts glowing even hotter, taking on an appearance like a humanoid mass of magma, his wings and horns vanishing.
Despite his smile, he’s staring daggers at me, almost literally, and when he speaks next, it’s in a rough, deep, raspy, slow, malicious voice I know all too well, and my jaw drops when I realize who he is.
“When I killed your brother… I looked JUST!!! LIKE!!!! THIIIIIIIIIIS!!!!!”