...All Hail Shadow!
I smirk at the Light of Peace, gesturing at Kirk-- er, Shadow.
“You realize what he’s done, don’t you?”
Shadow looks at one of his-- their white claws.
“We have taken the worst thing that Dr. Hans Stahlberg ever did to his son, and turned it into a force for GOOD. We have taken the identity of Projekt Schatten… and we have reinvented it as something BETTER.”
Then they smile at Pax.
“We are Shadow, a union of ideals dark and benign… but ultimately choosing to live in the name of LOVE. This is who we ARE!”
The slime on their head retracts partially, exposing Kirk’s widow’s-peaked face, but the big spikes remain.
And Kirk’s eyes are glowing red, but he’s still smiling confidently.
“Do you want to know why I chose that name, Herr Pax? Because a shadow will show you where to find the light. You’re wrong. You’re wrong about everything! Darkness isn’t inherently evil, and light isn’t inherently good! It’s how they’re used that matters! And the universe needs both of them!”
The Light of Peace dismissively sneers at Kirk.
“I think that I might be a BIT more knowledgeable about such matters than any of YOU. You’re all practically MAYFLIES to me. I’ve been waging war against the Devourer for EONS!”
I point at him.
“Because neither of you are willing to compromise! You both want it your way or the highway! You can’t even remember a time when you weren’t at war with the Devourer, can you? Never tried to sit down with them, talk things out and resolve the conflict peacefully? No. Of course you didn’t. Because neither of you can even comprehend the concept of compromise. Your name is a big fat fucking lie. Oh, and don’t give us that whole I’m unfathomably older than you so your lifespan is just a blip to me and I can’t even pretend to care about you bullshit, because you know how old Vic is and he still cares.”
The bastard sneers at me next.
“But how much will he still care about YOU, when I tell everyone about his immortality and he finds out that it’s all YOUR fault? That’s right, Mr. Korkea, I AM prepared to cross that line too. If exposing all of the ChaotiX and making the entire world your enemy is not enough to make you submit, how defiant will you be when your own TEAM turns on you? I know every. Single. Team. Member’s. Secrets. And I will leak them ALL if I have to, if you push me that far. If I need to destroy EVERYTHING you have, I WILL.”
“You really think they’ll turn on me that easily?”
Kirk chimes in.
“I won’t blame Cal if you tell everyone I was Projekt Schatten. I mean, anyone with two brain cells to rub together can see he’s not to blame for that. You’re the one putting him in this shitty situation. Können Sie also endlich mit der Opferbeschuldigung aufhören?”
The Light of Peace points at Kirk, having clearly lost his cool.
“Wh--”
Kirk blurs, and then he’s gone.
“That’s better. I started regretting luring him here five minutes ago.”
I stare at the blank space where Kirk was.
“What did you--”
“Oh, calm down, I just sent him back to the alleyway. He won’t even miss you.”
Pax turns back to me, all smiles, his eyes no longer glowing.
“I’ve set my terms, Calvin. Abide by them or don’t. There is no compromise. If you want the ChaotiX to maintain the good reputation you don’t deserve, you will return Venom to San Francisco and leave them for Michelle. If you don’t care about the consequences of all of the ChaotiX’s secrets being revealed to the public, then by all means, go ahead and stop Michelle from carrying out her duty. On your heads be it.”
I smirk at him again.
“You haven’t forgotten my own threat, right? You expose us, we expose you. How many people will want to join the Peacemakers when they’ve been branded as a doomsday cult?”
And he smiles smugly again.
“Do you think the public will believe you after all of your dirty laundry has been aired? They’ll never trust you again once they know how much you’ve been keeping from them. Perhaps you will be branded as a terrorist. And I will be the one who exposed the ChaotiX for the monsters they really are, so I will be seen as the real hero. People will be lining up from miles away to join my Peacemakers, to bask in the Light of Peace.”
He actually thinks he’s got us cornered, doesn’t he?
Should we tell ‘im?
That may not be wise, Niv.
If he doesn’t already know, we probably shouldn’t be the ones to tell him.
Pax gives me a very annoyed look.
“Calvin, tell the voices in your head that they don’t have to dance around it, because I already know what they’re being so frustratingly vague about. You really need to get them under control.”
“You can--”
“Yes, I can hear them. And yes, I already know that you’re hunting down the Stones of Octavo, that you have already found four, that those four are in the custody of the Intergalactic Patrol, and that you plan to use them to get rid of me and the Devourer once you’ve found the whole set.”
He smiles smugly for the third time.
“Do you think that you can find the other four Stones as the most hated person in the universe? Will the Intergalactic Patrol even trust you with the ones in their custody anymore? You, the person who would kill anyone who angers him, and who would deny everyone the chance to be happy?”
“How many times do I have to say it? You can’t brainwash people to be happy! That doesn’t actually make them happy! Jeff’s got a good analogy for that whole thing! Go bring him here so he can tell you!”
Pax puts a hand to his chin.
“That’s not a bad idea, honestly.”
He points at the space where Kirk was standing.
There’s another blur, and then suddenly Jeff is standing there.
It takes Jeff a couple of seconds to register what just happened, and he looks around at the white void he has found himself in.
“…Okay, is this one of Chaos’ pranks?”
Pax chuckles amiably.
“Certainly not. Mr. Robinson, I am Father Lucian Pax of the Peacemakers--”
“The Peacemakers?”
Jeff looks at me, immediately afraid.
“Cal, didn’t you say that this guy is basically a light version of Dehak? A puppet for the Light of Peace?”
Pax facepalms.
“Oh, that’s right, you told him about me too.”
I smirk at him yet again, and it turns into a shit-eating grin this time.
“Forgot about that, huh? Yeah, your wolf in sheep’s clothing bullshit isn’t gonna work on him.”
Jeff raises a hand.
“So what the fuck is going on right now and why am I here? Because I was in the rec room a few seconds ago, and then everything blurred and turned white, and poof, now I’m here.”
Pax removes his own hand from his face, trying to regain his composure.
“Mr. Robinson, Calvin said that you have an analogy I should hear. That is why I have brought you to this place. Well?”
“Wait, which analogy?”
I give Jeff a reminder.
“The Joker Venom one you told Umbra.”
And Jeff snaps his fingers, finally understanding.
“Oh yeah! Uh, Mr. Pax, sir, do you know anything about Batman? Or the Joker, and the Joker Venom he uses?”
Pax nods, still not seeing where Jeff is going with this.
“I’ve watched Calvin reading his comic books enough times, so yes, I do know.”
“Wait what? Never mind. Uh, so yeah, if the Joker has to drug people into laughing at his jokes, it, um, doesn’t mean that his jokes are actually funny, you know? It means the opposite.”
“And that’s it?”
“That’s it, yeah. I don’t know how it’s relevant to this conversation, I’m missing a lot of context…”
“Okay, thank you, you’ve been… somewhat helpful.”
“Somewh--”
Pax points at Jeff, and he blurs out, presumably joining Kirk back in the alleyway.
Or he was sent back to the School’s rec room, I’ll find out later, when Pax does that to me.
When Pax turns back to me, his eye is twitching, a disdainful expression on his pale face.
“I brought that buffoon here for that?”
I shrug.
“He put it better in Umbra’s cell.”
“Oh, that reminds me, I’ll also be telling everyone that you’ve been keeping people prisoner without a trial.”
“Please, everyone knows supervillains don’t stay in regular prisons for very long. They’ll see why we have to do it.”
“Well, do you think you can cage me?”
I smirk my very best audacious smirk at Pax.
“Fuck around and find out.”
He holds up a hand, his patience clearly exhausted.
“Enough, Calvin. I told you what you have to do to gain my silence and maintain the current status quo, and I’ve given you my deadline. Remember this: if Venom will not come to Michelle, Michelle will go to Venom, with my blessing to cut down everyone who stands between her and Venom. And you have other enemies making their way to Cetteville as we speak. If you insist on waging war against me and Dehak, you will be overwhelmed.”
“Bitch, we’ve fought armies bef--”
Pax points at me, everything blurs, and I find myself back in the alleyway, with Kirk and Jeff, both in the exact same positions as when Pax blurred them out of his white void, both of them finishing the sentences he interrupted at the same time I finish mine.
“--ore.”
“--at?”
They both look around, and then they look at each other, speaking in unison again.
“What are you doing here?”
I wave to get their attention.
“Yeah, Pax did that to me too. Real fuckin’ annoying, right?”
Kirk’s Klyntar reverts to battle suit form as he and Jeff turn to me, the spikes disappearing.
“Cal, we’re telling the rest of the team about this, aren’t we?”
I nod.
“Abso-fucking-lutely.”
Jeff looks at Kirk with an expression of subdued shock and horror, apparently not having known about Kirk’s new friend.
“Hold on, can we take a moment to address that? Since when do you have a Klyntar, Kirk?”
Kirk turns to him.
“Did I not mention it before? A few team members already knew.”
I interrupt them.
“Guys? Not the time. Talk to the team first, deal with all of this shit, and then we can talk about Kirk’s new threads. Jeff, got your blipper on you?”
Jeff checks his pockets.
“Damnit, I left it in the rec room. Got my scrying jammer, though.”
“Mind letting Kirk teleport you back?”
“It’s better than walking back.”
Kirk puts his hand on Jeff’s shoulder.
“I’ll just… do it like this. Cal, we’ll see you there, ja?”
I nod at them.
“Get going.”
pop
And then Kirk vanishes with Jeff. He can teleport too, he copied it from Marley when we first met him.
Once they’re gone, I look at the light above Sugarbeans’ back door, next to the dumpster.
Pax’s door was on the opposite wall.
Even now, he’s watching us. Through every photon. He knows every move we’re going to make.
And if you think that means we’re going to give up, you don’t know us at all.
I give the light the finger.
pop
And then I follow Kirk’s suit, and teleport out.
In the white void, Pax pinches the bridge of his nose, breathing in and out.
It’s just to calm himself down. He doesn’t actually need to breathe.
Once he’s feeling sufficiently calm, Pax lets go of his face and turns around, pointing at empty spaces.
The two white armchairs blur into existence, and then so do the white televisions.
And when Pax points at one armchair, Anti-Venom blurs into it, summoned from wherever Pax sent her during his talk with Calvin, Kirk and Jeff.
“What the-- damnit Pax, WARN me before you do that!”
Pax chuckles again, sitting down in the other armchair.
“Apologies, my dear. So, how are things in Boise?”
Anti-Venom shrugs.
“Still really boring, and you should already know that.”
As Pax points at the televisions, they turn on one by one, displaying events on the Prime Material Plane.
By now, it should be obvious that they aren’t there for his benefit.
“Let’s just get back to watching the show.”
Pax summons two white paper bags of popcorn, blurring into his hands, and he offers one to Michelle.
“Popcorn?”
“Ooh, thanks.”
Just as Anti-Venom reaches for the bag, Pax pulls it away.
“There is one other thing I need you to do first…”
pop
pop
I appear with Kirk and Jeff on the School’s lawn.
As Kirk lets go of Jeff, I hear a commotion and turn to the gates, seeing the umpteenth surprise of the day on the other side.
The School’s parking lot is across the street from the School itself, and Tommy’s Mothership is parked there, next to a school bus painted just as garishly.
From what I can see of the interior of the school bus from where I’m standing, it’s been converted into a mobile home, like the Mothership before the Fondas settled down in Blueberry’s Forest.
As if those things drove right out of the Swinging Sixties, I swear to any god listening right now.
But this is my first time seeing that school bus. I would remember seeing something like that.
The bus is empty, its occupants spreading out. There’s gotta be at least a dozen hippies hanging out in the parking lot, stretching their legs and getting some fresh air after an apparently long drive.
Some of them are sitting on the ground and passing a blunt around. Doesn’t smell as good as Dave’s, or Doc’s.
One man is playing the bongos, a second man is playing an acoustic guitar, and a woman is singing along and playing a tambourine, the source of the commotion I heard.
They’re not very good, but I can tell they’re putting their hearts into it.
Right on the other side of the gates, Tommy and Woodstock are standing next to another hippie, a man with mutton chops and a tie-dye headband with a flower in it who I don’t know, and a navy earthie stallion who I don’t know either.
The gates are currently open, with a small flap next to them so fluffies can get in after we close the gates for the night.
We’re willing to help fluffies at any hour.
But the School’s wards keep unwanted intruders out, which is probably why the newcomers haven’t entered the grounds yet. ChaotiX members and allies can come and go as they please, and no ward could keep Chaos out, but visitors have to be invited in by me or someone I’ve authorized to do so on my behalf, and presumably, no one on that very short list is here right now.
The wards don’t keep fluffies out, barring a few exceptional expectations. You should know their names, dear readers.
And Umbra has that Mark of Justice keeping him from leaving the School without my permission. Boy, I’m glad we put that on him when we did, otherwise we’d have another problem.
Okay, why are there a bunch of hippies in our parking lot? Is Tommy trying to start his own music festival again?
Let’s find out, Niv.
“Jeff, Kirk, go inside and wait for me, please. Oh right, and can one of you tell everyone at the Tower lab we’re back? Mar’s still there, I’m probably gonna need him for this.”
Kirk nods.
“I’ll go tell everyone you’ve got news while you deal with the, uh… the uh…”
Jeff cracks a grin.
“The hippie music jam starting in the parking lot? Better hurry up, Cal, ‘cause if more show up--”
“I remember last time, Jeff, thank you. Please just do what I asked, okay? I gotta see what this is about.”
As Jeff and Kirk head inside, I walk over to the gates, Tommy smiling at me.
“Cal, dude, I told ‘em we had to wait for you to invite ‘em in.”
The other hippie is poking the invisible barrier keeping him out with a look of childish amazement.
“Magic’s far out, man…”
I give Tommy and the other hippie the look of a teacher catching his students in the middle of mischief.
“Tommy, why have you brought a bunch of hippies to the School? Again?”
Tommy explains with a defensive tone.
“It’s not like last time, Cal! This time, I actually have a good reason! A really good one, man! This is Leo, an old friend of mine. He’s a good guy, likes to give rides to fluffies.”
The mention of his name gets Leo’s attention, and when he finally registers my presence, he’s even more amazed.
“Woah, you’re Cal Korkea! Groovy! Oh yeah, that’s right, we’re here to talk to you. Yeah, me and Tommy go way back.”
“Our grandpas were both at Woodstock.”
Woodstock the fluffy chimes in.
“Da fes-tih-vaw, nu…”
He points a hoof at himself.
“…yu git da point.”
Tommy continues the introductions without missing a beat, pointing at the navy stallion.
“And that’s Stephen, Leo’s current, uh, hitchhiker. Stephen, um, he’s connected to everything that’s going on with San Francisco, and Venom, and Carnage.”
Fuck me running, I can see where he’s going with this.
I look at the navy stallion, who is smiling up at me in a pleading, apologetic way.
“Hewwo. Am Stee-fen. Stee-fen am sowwy to bov-vew yu abowt dis, mistah Caw.”
It would be in another fluffy, wouldn’t it? Well, we already guessed that, but I don’t see how the school bus full of hippies comes into this.
I look back at Tommy, who gives me an entirely redundant explanation.
“Yeah, see, you know that spawn of Carnage we’ve been lookin’ for? Well…”
He points down at Stephen.
“…he’s the host, man.”
Kirk and Jeff walk back into the rec room, and Jeff is immediately noticed by Electra, who was talking to Venom, having a much more pleasant conversation than she initially expected.
“Jeff, whewe did yu gu? Yu jus bwuh-ed away… Ewectwa fowt dat it wuz wun of Kay-ohs pwanksies…”
Chaos is suddenly right next to Jeff, wearing a comically large rubber nose over his harlequin mask and making exaggerated sniffing sounds at Jeff.
SNIIIIIFF SNIIIIIIIIIIFFFFFF
When Chaos speaks, his cheerful, flamboyant voice is tinged with deep concern.
“Oh, I’d know that stink anywhere. This was Pax’s doing. See, this is why I never invite him to my parties.”
He’s still wearing the nurse outfit over his jester outfit.
Kirk nods.
“Völlig richtig, Herr Chaos. Pax just had another chat with Cal and dragged the two of us along for the ride.”
Jeff chimes in.
“Yeah, I’m still missing the context of that whole… thing. I’ll just wait for Cal, he’s, uh, dealing with something else now.”
“But we texted everyone at the Tower. Have any of you seen the…”
“The hippie jam outside?”
Venom raises a slimy eyebrow.
“A hippie jam? Wut am DAT abowt?”
They have lived in San Francisco for a while, remember.
So they know what a hippie is.
Once we’ve gotten through the tedious process of inviting all of the hippies onto School property and arranged lodgings for them, I sit down with Marley, Tommy, Woodstock, Leo, and Stephen in the meeting room.
I’m sitting in the big chair, usually occupied by Deston during Cabal meetings.
The other hippies are all in guest rooms, because they didn’t really have anywhere else to spend the night, they don’t have to go find somewhere else to park the van this way, and if they’re allies of Stephen and his Klyntar, they’re potential targets for Carnage.
Marley teleported back here as I was inviting the hippies in. As usual, the fluffies are sitting on the table.
I look at Leo as he pets Stephen.
“Okay, now that you’re here, I’m going to need to know the whole chain of events that lead up to… this.”
Leo shrugs.
“I only know some of it. Stephen’s the one you want to ask, Cal. I can tell you everything that happened after we picked him up, but only he can tell you what happened before that.”
“Let’s just start at the beginning, then.”
I look at Stephen next, trying to show him some sympathy. Odd name for a fluffy, frankly.
“Stephen, I already know the basics of what happened. We, ah, have friends in Ohio, and they reported a herd being attacked by Carnage near their location. Was that your herd?”
Stephen nods.
“Onwy Stee-fen gut owt. Udda tuffies, da smawty, Stee-fen speciaw fwend an babbehs, dey aww gut…”
Seeing the look on his face, I decide to move things along.
“We don’t have to talk about that specific part if you don’t want to, but that’s when you bonded to Carnage’s spawn, wasn’t it?”
“Yus. Stee-fen awweady knoo abowt Venom an Cawnage, su Stee-fen gessed dat Stee-fen had bee-come wike dem.”
So word of Venom and Carnage has reached fluffy ears that far out. Huh.
Stephen waddles across the table to me, shifting to Klyntar form.
Now, he looks much like Venom, but with a red front, much like Carnage, and a dark blue back, red tendrils extending from his-- their back. And a green tongue, for some reason.
“Su we dee-side-ed tu gu tu San Fwan-siss-koh, cuz we knoo dat Venom am dewe, an we hoped dat dey cud HEWP us. We twy-ed tu take a wide awn a twuck, an, uh, dat nu did gu su weww. Den we met mistah Wee-oh an him fwends.”
Leo takes over the recap.
“Like Tommy said, giving fluffies a ride isn’t very unusual for us. It wasn’t until later that we found out about Stephen’s little buddy, man. And we don’t mind! Hey, they ain’t eatin’ anyone, are they? So yeah, we kept driving to Kansas City, saw that they’ve got a drive-in Tele-Port now, and that’s how we got here.”
Tommy pulls an atomica out of his jacket pocket.
“I saw them at the traffic light right after they got here, Cal. They said they needed to talk to you, and I could see what Stephen really is. All I needed to know, man. Hey, you mind lighting this for me?”
I give Tommy a look.
“As much as I want to toke up right now, it’s not the right time. Later, Tommy.”
“Alright, alright.”
He puts the atomica away with all the care of a father tucking his child into bed.
I turn back to Stephen, or whatever his Klyntar is called, I don’t think it has a name yet.
“Let me tell you something: you are a very lucky fluffy. Not just because you survived a Carnage attack, became a Klyntar host and made it all the way from Cleveland to Cetteville, but also because you came here at exactly the right time. See, Venom is currently here, at the School. Down in the rec room right now, I think.”
Marley looks at the symbiotic fluffy.
“Su wut kinna hewp du yu wan fwom Venom?”
The symbiotic fluffy looks at their hoof.
“Gittin tu gwips wif DIS. We nu knu wut we can du, we am weawn-in as we gu…”
I smile reassuringly at them.
“We have a few Klyntar hosts in the ChaotiX, they can help you adjust to this. Can I also assume that you want payback for Carnage killing your herd?”
“Dat gu wif-owt sayin.”
“Well, we’ve got a bone to pick with Carnage too. So it looks like we’ve managed to resolve one of the day’s problems: we found the spawn of Carnage, and we know which side you two are on. But now we have the relatively less dire problem of figuring out what to do with all of those hippies.”
Leo smiles just as reassuringly as me.
“We kinda want to stick around and see how this plays out, but we’ll get out of your hair when it’s over.”
In the School’s parking lot, a white door suddenly appears, bereft of a wall around it.
It opens, Anti-Venom stepping out, All-White in her hand.
“Fucking Korkea, thinks he can keep Venom away from me…”
The parking lot is outside of the range of the wards, by necessity. Otherwise, visitors wouldn’t even be able to park without an invitation.
Of course, Pax only has to respect the wards out of politeness, and his politeness is running low tonight.
But he doesn’t want to play all of his cards in one go.
For now, Anti-Venom is here to send a message.
She notices Leo’s school bus, and she can detect something that feels somewhat like her target lingering about it.
“That thing has the stink of KLYNTAR on it. And the stink of HIPPIES. God, that’s one thing I always HATED about San Francisco. Why are hippies even still a THING?!? Hello, the 1960s were decades ago! Take a shower and get a job already!”
Anti-Venom walks over to the front of the school bus, easily popping the engine compartment open with her free hand and taking aim with All-White.
SHUNK
She impales the engine with her white sword, and then she gives it a few more stabs.
SHUNK SHUNK SHUNK
“Let’s see how fast those dirty hippies are NOW!”
As Anti-Venom pulls her sword out of the ruined school bus engine and moves to do the same to the Mothership, she sees someone running out of the School’s main building, having noticed what she’s doing from across the street and taking flight.
She can see orange skin, spiky blond hair and gaudy armor, but all Saingans look the same to her.
“Shit! Gotta go, no time to do the other one.”
She runs back into the white door, and it vanishes after closing behind her.
Konba lands in the parking lot a few seconds too late to stop her, and he quickly notices what she did to Leo’s bus.
“Okay, what in the name of the Great Ape happened here?”
I sense Konba’s considerable power level approaching the meeting room, and I get up to open the door, doing so just as he arrives.
“Cal! I think Michelle Howard was just here!”
“What? Really?”
Konba nods.
“She was in the parking lot, but I couldn’t stop her from running out through a white door.”
He turns to Leo.
“You are the owner of that bizarre vehicle currently parked outside the School, yes? The bigger one, to be specific?”
Leo nods, and it looks like he’s got a horrible hunch on his mind.
“Yeah, I am.”
“Well, you’re not going to like this, but…”
“GREAT GAIA, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY BABY?!?”
We now stand at the School’s parking lot, around the front of Leo’s school bus.
The engine compartment is open, and the engine is wrecked. It looks like something stabbed it several times.
When I look closer, I can see small traces of white slime, and I’m not sure it originates from the engine.
Leo’s clutching his head with both hands as he fails to keep his mellow, the angriest hippie I’ve ever seen.
Yeah, they’re usually all about peace and love and whatnot.
Then Leo throws his head back, screaming his grief to the heavens.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!”
At this point, he starts sobbing.
“Oh, Grandpa, I let you down, man…”
I try to put Leo at ease, patting him on the back and offering him a handkerchief from a pouch to dry his tears.
It’s standard practice in the ChaotiX to keep plenty of those on one’s person. We have to dry a lot of eyes in our line of work. Especially when we’re busting fluffy abusers.
BLOOOOORT
So when Leo loudly blows his nose into the handkerchief, I decide that he can just go ahead and keep that one.
“Thanks, man… I dunno what I’m gonna do about this…”
“We can fix this, Leo. You know Miles? One of my protégés? He can fix any machine.”
Marley nods as he backs me up.
“Yu seen dem mekkahs owt-side town? Doze bee-wong tu Mawwey an daddeh, an Miwes fikst wunna dem too times. An a mekkkah am much biggew den a bus.”
“And we won’t even charge you a dime.”
Stephen, back in normal fluffy form, looks up at Leo.
“Stee-fen am sowwy abowt dis, mistah Wee-oh.”
Leo shoves the damp, snotty handkerchief into his pocket, taking a deep breath to calm himself down.
“It’s not your fault, little dude. Cal, who did this?”
“Michelle Howard, as Kon said earlier. She’s also connected to everything with Venom, and Carnage, and… Stephen, your Klyntar doesn’t have a name yet, does it?”
Stephen shakes his head.
“We nu cud fink of a gud wun awn da way hewe.”
“Well, our own Klyntar members can help you with that. Venom and Shadow are on the premises, and I can have Bellikose and Mania here in a flash. Actually, they should still be here too, they’re in the squad. Leo, you and your friends will probably have to stay at the School for the time being. Not just until your bus is repaired, but for your own safety. Michelle did this for a reason, and Venom is not her only target. Anyone with a Klyntar is a target, and anyone close to them is in danger too. Michelle targeted you just because you gave Stephen a ride, and she isn’t the only one who wants a piece of Venom. When Carnage finds out which side his spawn is on, he’ll gladly tear through all of you to get to his goal.”
Leo mournfully looks at the damage the bitch did to his bus.
“If that Michelle chick did that to my bus, I don’t wanna know what she’ll do to me.”
Tommy is looking at his own Mothership with a sense of renewed appreciation, like he just watched a family member narrowly escape their death.
“If it hadn’t been for Konba, she’d have done the same to the Mothership.”
He bows to Konba respectfully.
“Kon, my royal dudeness, I am in your debt.”
Konba chuckles.
“There’s no need to bow, Tommy. I was just doing what any ChaotiX member would have done. And Leo, I’m sorry I wasn’t there in time to save your vehicle.”
Leo looks up at Konba, apparently not being confused by Konba’s unusual appearance. Has he met Saingans before?
“Dude, I’m just glad we weren’t in it at the time. You’re a Saingan, right? Met a few on the Jersey Shore once. Cool dudes, but I couldn’t keep up with ‘em at the bar.”
Ah, he has. That explains it.
Konba nods, offering a handshake in a diplomatic way. I’ve caught him practicing it in the mirror.
“I am Konba, Prince of all Saingans, son of King Tema, student of Lorekeeper Karne, paramour of Dr. Valerie Valentine, member of the IntergalactiX, the ChaotiX’s squad for extraterrestrial matters, the first Super Saingan of the modern age, and owner of Bulma, a rather clever and snarky former street fluffy. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
Leo accepts the handshake, looking very impressed.
“Your business cards must be huge, man.”
Konba chuckles again, rolling with it.
“You would need to be as strong as a Saingan to lift them. So what is our next move, Cal?”
I think about it.
“Let’s get inside first. Leo, go fetch your friends so we can break the bad news to them.”
Half an hour later, the rec room is full of hippies and ChaotiX members, everyone brought up to speed.
The former all look dismayed about their bus being attacked.
But we explained that it can be fixed. Miles is busy at the moment, but he’ll get to it once the crisis has passed. That takes priority at the moment.
So for now, we’ve got a whole mess of hippies hanging around the School.
If they’re going to be staying here, can we at least ask all of them to take a shower? Peeeeeeeeee-ew! Come on, even Tommy showers! He makes his own soap by hand, the same soap we use when it’s bath day for the Fluffy Cartel!
There should be room for all of our guests in the training facility’s locker room showers.
The guest rooms have their own bathrooms, that won’t be necessary.
Yeah, and I don’t trust them not to start an orgy in the locker room. Are we SURE they’re all JUST friends? Because I’m getting kind of a POLYCULE vibe from some of them.
That’s none of our business, Niv. We have more important things to discuss right now.
I look around at everyone.
“This was Michelle sending us a message on behalf of Pax. A warning shot.”
We’ve told our visitors that Pax is more sinister than he seems in the public eye, but we aren’t being entirely honest about his true nature yet.
That’s still an option, mind you.
“Pax doesn’t want us to feel safe, not even in our own homes, not even at the School. He wants us to think that the only safe place is under his thumb. He’s probably watching us right now, so any plan we make, he’ll know about it. He truly believes that he has already won, that he’s got us in checkmate, that we can’t do anything without playing into his hands. Well, who the hell does he think we are?”
I pause for a moment, my eyes lingering on Chaos, who has removed the nurse outfit and rubber nose from his jester getup because even he knows that this is no time for his usual silliness.
“What we need… is a place to make a plan where he can’t watch us. Chaos, is he capable of observing events in your domain?”
Chaos shakes his head.
“Not if I don’t let him. I make the rules there, and the rules are what I feel like.”
“Then would you mind if we make the plan there?”
“For you? I don’t mind in the slightest, dearest Cal. Consider it my way of making up for my screw-up with Jeff and the golem earlier. I wanted to warn you guys, Cal, but I was under orders to keep mum.”
“Thank you. Seriously, I mean it.”
Jeff laughs nervously.
“And hey, you got me out of there alive, Cal. Thanks for having my back.”
“Always, Jeff.”
I look up at the light on the ceiling, imagining Pax seething as he sees this, and smiling as smugly as he did earlier.
I found a loophole.
Bitch.
In the New Order’s magical study, Dehak, the Rider and Darksyde Doyle stand around Dehak’s big black cauldron, scrying on their enemies, the golem still standing by, next to Pumyz.
One of Calvin’s hairs and one of Jeff’s teeth are floating above the water, both glowing black.
And thanks to those disgusting trophies, Dehak can bypass Calvin and Jeff’s scry protection, seeing them clearly in the water, switching back and forth with a wave of his rotten hand.
Dehak grins maliciously.
“Sympathetic magic, how I love thee. Looks like more Klyntar have affiliated themselves with the boy. Ha, he still doesn’t know what that name means.”
He waves his hand, dismissing the image in the water and deftly catching the hair and tooth as they cease glowing and fall.
Then he walks over to the desk, placing the tooth back with the others, and placing the hair in a small wooden box, with the other hairs he stole from Calvin during Operation Rising Sun.
One of those hairs was used to create Shadow Calvin, who is still waiting for its moment.
But Dehak still has a few.
He closes the box, picking the Philosopher’s Stone up.
“We’ll have to send a minion to fetch Eli. He’s just been promoted to the New Order’s Senior Alchemist.”
The Rider raises a bony hand.
“Uh, isn’t he the ONLY alchemist in the New Order?”
Dehak nods happily.
“Exactly, that makes him the Senior Alchemist by default. And even if we did have other alchemists, which we’ll need to work on, Eli would have seniority over all of them. We’ll have to set up an alchemical workshop for Eli and the team I’ll supply him with. Once we have all the gold we can transmute, we’ll never want for funding again.”
He turns to Darksyde Doyle.
“And your part in securing the Philosopher’s Stone has earned you a place in the Octovirate. Now, all we need is to find a way to remove the Mark of Justice that prevents Umbra from rejoining our number, and we will be eight once more.”
Darksyde Doyle’s face can’t be seen in the shadow of his hood, but he’s clearly honored to receive this privilege.
“My eternal thanks, my Lord. But what of Robinson? Are you not planning to recruit him anymore? Or to liberate the Dark Demon from his prison within Scott Korkea?”
“Robinson will still make for a fine member of the New Order as a Darksyde. And as for the Demon… well, he was delightful company, but… it was a bit hard to keep him on his leash.”
“That’s what I LIKED about him.”
“Yes, as I said, he is our kind of people, but we still have a few pieces on the board, so we will have to make do with those for now.”
Dehak carefully places the Philosopher’s Stone in a pocket of his robe, the same pocket he keeps his Key to Infinity, the original from which the New Order’s copies are made.
He walks over to Pumyz, sitting on the floor and gently smouldering, his wings furled.
Dehak has asked him-- ordered him to hold back his flames in the headquarters.
“Are you ready to face the boy again?”
Pumyz nods.
“I wanted to take the SLOW way there. You know, see the sights, burn a few cities along the way.”
“Yes, but this way, he won’t see you coming. I think by this time tomorrow, your moment to act will have arrived.”
Another malicious grin appears on Dehak’s face.
“When it’s most inconvenient for the boy. That’s when you make your move.”