Prologue
As I step out of the School’s front doors with Marley and walk up to the gates, wearing my bag of holding over my business suit, the reporters still being kept out by the wards immediately notice us, and they immediately start bombarding us with questions, shouting over each other.
“Mr. Korkea--”
“What do you have to say about--”
“Is it true that--”
I hold up my hand, and they immediately stop talking to let me speak.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I will be happy to answer all of your questions in due time, but I cannot do so at the present time.”
I’ve had a lot of coaching from the Trinity of Terra. How to talk to reporters and whatnot.
“At the moment, the ChaotiX are currently occupied by matters that require our full attention. Fighting the forces of evil, you know how it is. And we do this to protect you, so, if you would be so kind as to disperse for now, we will reach out to all of you so you can ask the questions on your mind after the crisis has been resolved.”
A deep, calm, masculine voice with an unidentifiable accent speaks up behind me and Marley.
“Do you not have time to answer just one question, Mr. Korkea? Because the most important question is…”
Me and Marley have already whipped around, finding fucking Pax standing right behind us, wearing a white business suit instead of his usual robe.
How did he get through the-- oh, right, eldritch.
Pax smiles ever so smugly at me as he raises his voice for the reporters to hear.
“…why didn’t you tell them that Kirk Stahlberg, one of your own team members, is the Nazi super soldier known as Projekt Schatten?”
“You heard correctly, ladies and gentlemen. I, Father Lucian Pax of the Peacemakers, can confirm that Calvin Korkea and his associates in the ChaotiX have been working with a Nazi, and didn’t have the decency to tell anyone outside the ChaotiX about Mr. Stahlberg’s dark past. And that is the kind of people Calvin has working for him.”
As the crowd starts murmuring, I glare at Pax, my eyes glowing red.
“Did you miss my speech, Pax? I warned you what would happen if you told the public anything else without our permission. Now you’ve gone and done that.”
A certain brunette reporter speaks up.
“Mr. Korkea? Is what Mr. Pax said about Mr. Stahlberg true?”
I turn to Alethea Kent, one of the several reporters present just outside the gates, kept from going any further by the wards.
“It’s an oversimplification. Kirk was brainwashed to become Schatten, by his father Hans back in World War II, who experimented on his own son and pumped his brain full of Aryan supremacist propaganda, hoping to turn him into a Nazi super soldier and freezing Kirk after failing to get him under control. And then Kirk spent the intervening decades on ice before Hans finally thawed him out to join the MetalliX. I’m sure you all remember their robotic minions, and Hans’ mecha. After that whole fiasco, we deprogrammed Kirk to remove the Nazi brainwashing and restore his true self and his memories, and he joined us to atone for his alter ego’s actions, which is how he joined the team. Just like Alpha, François, Jeff, Dave, and so on. Kirk was never evil. Just misguided, and eager to make his father proud. He didn’t get a chance to participate in in the Holocaust, and he didn’t truly believe the propaganda infecting his mind. We should have revealed his past sooner, I admit it. We didn’t know how the public would take it, if we would even get a chance to finish explaining.”
“Oh. Yeah, Mr. Stahlberg can’t really be blamed for that.”
Then I turn back to Pax, smirking at him.
“And now, I’m gonna tell them what that sign outside every Peacemaker branch really means.”
He just chuckles, entirely unafraid.
“By all means, throw away your final chance to join the winning side.”
Kirk storms out of the main entrance, pointing at Pax as he strides over to us.
“YOU!!!!! HOW DARE YOU?!?”
He shoots me a quick look of understanding.
“Danke for clarifying the matter on my behalf, Cal. For having my back. I don’t blame you for this.”
Then he turns back to Pax, glaring at him, his own eyes glowing red too.
“But you had no right to tell everyone about that!”
Presumably, he either heard everything from inside, or saw it on TV thanks to those reporters and their cameramen.
Pax beams back at Kirk.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Stahlberg. Or should I say sieg heil? Yes, everyone knows about your past as one of Adolf Hitler’s goose-stepping toadies. Calvin exposed my dear friend Michelle as a Peacemaker. I was merely responding in kind.”
Kirk snarls at the asshole who revealed his most shameful secret.
“Okay, yes, I joined the Nazis because my father pressured me into it, and yes, he pressured me into being his lab rat too. I just wanted my dad to be proud of me! I didn’t actually do anything for the Nazi cause! I didn’t choose to have my mind broken and lose my memories of my old life, I didn’t choose to be remade as Schatten, and I didn’t choose to be frozen for decades! But I chose to break free from the role my father wanted me to play, and now I just want to put that ugly chapter of my life behind me! How dare you imply that a Nazi is all I am?!?”
He shifts to Shadow mode, the slimy spiky-headed suit forming from his battle suit, making the crowd gasp.
“THIS is what we are now! A PROTECTOR of this world: Shadow! Fighting to save EVERYONE who calls this world home from bastards like YOU!”
Pax smiles his annoying smug smile.
“With every person who bonds to a Klyntar, the universe becomes a little less safe, and everyone is in a little more danger. If left unchecked, darkness will devour the light. The Klyntar are a threat to this universe that must be exterminated down to the last.”
I smirk at Pax yet again.
“So why did you give that bitch Michelle one? Using the Klyntar to kill the Klyntar, are you?”
Pax’s smile falters, a small victory for me.
“So you know about Anti-Venom. Well done, Mr. Korkea, well done indeed. However, this changes nothing. Your School is harboring several members of the dark race of interlopers known by several names, including the Klyntar. Their extermination is necessary to bring about a peaceful world. Their existence in this universe is a mistake that needs to be corrected if the Light of Peace is to shine upon all.”
“Folks, do you want to know what Pax is actually talking about? What the Light of Peace really is? Because it’s not as good as it sounds.”
“Calvin, I’m warning you, if you tell them--”
“I warned you, and you didn’t listen.”
Pax narrows his eyes at me.
“Do not test me any further, boy.”
Aaaaaand there it fucking is!
He really IS a light version of Dehak, isn’t he?
I hold up my wrist, my COMP forming on my sleeve, and I push a button on it.
bip
Pax is very confused when he hears his own voice coming from my COMP, loud enough for the crowd to hear.
“It’s not your fault, though. You humans are basically children, barely developed as a species, struggling to make sense of the world around you, but even the first humans knew that darkness is something to be feared, that the darkness had to be driven away if they hoped to survive. As do fluffies, despite being even more infantile than you humans are.”
As he stares blankly at me, I turn to the crowd, giving them another smirk.
“You hear that, folks? That’s how Pax really sees everyone around him. Here’s a few more snippets of my talks with him.”
I push the button again, playing another recording.
bip
“If you and your ChaotiX want to survive, bow your heads low while you still can. Bend the knee, and you’ll all have places in the world of light. Refuse to submit, and none of you will have a place anywhere. You won’t even be safe in your own homes--”
bip
“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--”
bip
I think I’ve made my point.
The crowd is murmuring louder than ever, and it sounds like they’re on my side, so I continue, smirking harder than ever.
“Yeah. He doesn’t actually care about anyone, he just pretends to care, until they defy him. And that’s the head of a supposedly innocent charity.”
Pax struggles to find something to say.
“How… how did you get those recordings?”
I pat my chest.
“It’s simple: this dashing number I’m wearing is actually a suit of multi-million dollar cutting edge hardware designed by a woman who thinks of everything. Yeah, I was recording you during those talks. When the guy blackmailing me asks to meet in person, why wouldn’t I make sure to get it on tape? I’ve got video too, and I’ll show it to anyone who asks.”
Pax chuckles, trying to regain his composure, but his eyes give away how he truly feels.
“So what is your next move, Mr. Korkea? To strike me down in front of all of these reporters? Or do you plan to make a show of forgiveness, find me later and cowardly kill me when no one is watching, like you killed Oliver?”
I laugh at his audacity.
“Oh, I’m not even going to pretend to forgive you. And I know that killing you won’t accomplish anything.”
I pause for dramatic effect.
“Because then the incomprehensible being of pure, blinding light that calls itself the Light of Peace and wants to brainwash everyone into mindless bliss will just possess someone else, probably another Peacemaker, and you’ll go right back to running your cult under a different alias! That’s right, folks: that’s what the Light of Peace is! The only peace Pax offers is the peace of unthinking obedience!”
The crowd goes silent, and so does Pax, looking angrier than I’ve ever seen him before, but I press on.
“But wait, there’s more! Thanks to a little thing called facial recognition software, I know that puppet’s real name! It turns out that the face of Lucian Pax is a perfect match for that of a retired old man from Boise, Idaho by the name of Warren Schwarz, who was reported missing a few decades ago, not long before the Peacemakers established their flagship branch in Boise. We’ve been working to find out who Lucian Pax really is since the Vincal incident, and it was only a couple of hours ago that we got some results. Yeah, should have been a bit more reclusive, Pax. No public appearances or interviews at all would have been smarter, even Umbra knows that!”
I turn back to the crowd, the reporters’ cameramen still dutifully filming, getting a good shot of Pax’s angry face.
“And there have been missing persons cases in other places with Peacemaker branches too. Pax has been making people disappear to join his Peacemakers for years. Tens, hundreds, maybe thousands of people who have been reported missing might be working for him! I’ve seen the results of his work, like Hector! Pax just wants to turn everyone into puppets of the Light!”
Pax struggles to re-enter the conversation.
“All I want is to create a world where everyone is happy. It is not my fault that there are so many things keeping everyone from being happy.”
“Like free will? Why should you be the only one who has any?”
At this point, Pax stops trying to hide how angry he is at losing control entirely.
“You know, that’s humanity’s problem! You uppity little apes are so determined to do things your way that you don’t care that it’s the wrong way! You claim to desire happiness, but you cling on to everything that makes you miserable! And in the process, you allow darkness and corruption to infest yourselves! You wallow in your misery! I’ve seen that in every timeline where I win, and humanity’s stubbornness only delays my victory!”
Every timeline?
He smiles at me, a cruel, terrible smile.
“That’s right, Calvin. My existence is multiversal. I have bested you in many worlds, and I will best you in this one too.”
“Think again, bitch. Your winning streak ends here. Here and--”
“ENOUGH.”
Pax’s eyes glow pure white, and he apparently doesn’t care who sees it anymore.
Now that I’ve exposed him, it looks like he’s going for broke.
“I observe the same repeating patterns in EVERY timeline I face you, Calvin. I meet you, I offer you help, you find out what I really am, you refuse to cooperate, and then you defy me, and start trying to expose me. Over and over and OVER again. Do you want to know what usually happens NEXT?”
He grins a mad, desperate grin.
“I KILL you. I kill anyone else who would stop me, I enlighten your whole world by force, and then I move on to the next conquest, finding a new puppet to repeat the whole process all over again. The process has become very efficient by now. I am not happy to see it disrupted like this. Never before have I met a Calvin THIS chaotic, and I assure you, you WILL pay for what you’ve done, your agony will serve as an example for the NEXT Calvin I face. You will not serve me, so you will DIE for me, just like every OTHER version of you that I have had the displeasure of meeting. I have watched you die THOUSANDS of times, boy. Today, I will watch you die AGAIN, and you will die knowing that your pathetic little world is LOST.”
He sighs sadly, like he actually regrets doing what he does.
“For now I see that this is yet another world which will not WILLINGLY accept my help, and that forces me to do things the HARD way. Why are humans so defiant in every timeline? Why are YOU so defiant, boy? Even when it KILLS you, you STILL defy. Do you have ANY idea how FRUSTRATING that is? Why can’t I just meet a version of you who will get with the program?”
“Because any Calvin worth his salt knows that it’s better to be free in his grave…”
Marley finishes the sentence for me.
“Den tu wive as a pup-pet ow swave.”
“Maybe it’s finally time to realize that your whole damn ideology is flawed, Pax. You can’t get people to agree with you in any world, not without forcing them to agree.”
“Because you stupid little apes refuse to see that MY Way is what’s BEST for you! All of you would be better off if you would just SHUT UP AND DO AS I SAY!!!!!”
The crowd outside the gates are giving Pax very nasty looks now, and he sees that he’s lost any chance he had of swaying them with words.
He grits his teeth, a trickle of spittle at the corner of his mouth, staring daggers at me.
“And in every world I extend my reach into, it is YOU who encourages everyone to rebel! YOU are the cause of this sickness, Korkea. YOU are the virus.”
Pax waves his hands.
“But I? I am the CURE.”
FLASH
In a flash of light, the lawn is suddenly covered in short, slimy, white creatures, despite our wards. I can’t even count ‘em.
Pax points at the School’s main building.
“Tear it down. All the way down to the foundations. Kill EVERYONE inside, save Venom. Bring the SHITRAT to me. Any OTHER Klyntar you find are to be exterminated with extreme prejudice.”
The creatures immediately obey, attacking the School, punching and tearing at its walls, smashing windows.
The crowd quickly backs away from the gates, retreating to the parking lot, and then retreating even further when they realize that our wards might not keep the creatures in.
And Pax smiles, waving goodbye without bothering to explain what he’s done.
“Consider this but a taste of what awaits you. I’m not THROUGH with you, BOY.”
FLASH
With another flash of light, he’s gone.
Shadow turns to me, still in Klyntar mode and looking worried.
“Cal! What do we do about this?”
“As you said yourself, Shadow…”
With a thought, my Endo-Klyn Suit shifts to battle suit mode.
“…we fight! Like we always have!”
Because now we have a clear goal.
Get these damn things off our lawn.
And knowing how the pattern goes, fighting those things will get us closer to Michelle.
Marley nods.
“We gutta bwing ev-wee-wun in! Dis nu am a jawb fow fwee!”
“Four, technically, but let’s not bicker! It’s go time!”
As me, Marley and Kirk leap into battle, I quickly pull the Sword of Kings out of my bag and put it on.
Welcome back, Fi.
What did I miss in there?
No time to explain, unfortunately.
MIKA!
Yes, Cal?
Contact all ChaotiX members! Tell them the School is under attack!
And tell the Nerd Squad to find out what is attacking!
Actually… I think I can guess what those things are… or at least who we have to thank for them…
In the white void, Pax walks in through a white door, wearing his robe and looking completely composed, his eyes no longer glowing.
“So sorry about that, my dear. Where were we?”
Anti-Venom points at herself, her white Klyntar bubbling.
Little bits of white slime are being launched from the suit, and when they land on the floor, the bits start growing into more of the creatures currently attacking the School.
And once each creature reaches full size, it blurs out of the void.
“Reinforcements are still comin’, but how much longer do I have to keep DOING this, Pax? I can’t go face Venom like THIS.”
“We only need enough Antibodies to overwhelm the ChaotiX. So, at least twice as many Antibodies as there are ChaotiX members, at the very least. The fluffies should tire out first, and the Klyntar will fall before even them. When Calvin and his friends are exhausted, you make your move.”
“Good, because this feels REALLY weird.”
From the New Order’s magical workshop, Dehak and his fellow Octovirate members watch the fight starting at the School.
Jaws is watching too, with the newly promoted Eli, and Pumyz.
Pumyz seems to be getting even more impatient.
“Now, Dehak?”
Dehak shakes his head, waggling a finger.
“Not yet. I believe that the Klyntar are weak to flames, and we don’t want to make this too easy for the boy.”
“Yes, he has enough flames of his own. Can you at least get me something to burn while I wait, Dehak? I’m getting ANTSY again.”
“Usually, I’d just give the New Order’s most expendable minions to you, but I want you to save your strength for the boy. You need every. Last. Drop for him.”
“Fine. This had better be worth it.”