A Stark And Wormy Knight (14 page)

“They stand face to face!” he squawked, then tripped and fell, rolling until he stopped at Bannity’s feet. The priest helped him up, but did not take his eyes off the tent. “They do not speak, but stare at each other. The air is so thick!”

“It seems…” Dondolan began, but never finished, for at that instant the entire clearing – in fact, all the woods and the sky above – seemed to suck in a great breath. A sudden, agonizing pain in Bannity’s ears dropped him to his knees, then everything suddenly seemed to flow sideways — light, color, heat, air, everything rushing out across the face of the earth in all directions, pushing the priest flat against the ground and rolling him over several times.

When the monstrous wind died, Bannity lay for a long, stunned instant, marveling at the infinite skills of God, who could create the entire universe and now, just as clearly, was going to dismantle it again. Then a great belch of flame and a roar of rushing air made him roll over onto his knees and, against all good sense, struggle to sit up so he could see what was happening.

The tent was engulfed in flame, the trees all around singed a leafless black. As Father Bannity stared, two figures staggered out of the inferno as though solidifying out of smoke, one like a pillar of cold blue light, with flame dancing in his pale hair and beard, the other a growing, rising shadow of swirling black.

“I knew you but pretended, demon!” shouted Kettil Hawkface, waving his hands in the air, flashes of light crackling up from his fingertips. “Devourer! I know your treachery of old!”

The shadow, which had begun to fold down over the archmage like a burning blanket, instead billowed up and away, hovering in the air just above Kettil’s head. A face could be seen in its roiling, cloudy midst, and Bannity could not help marveling even in his bewildered horror how it looked both like and unlike the silent Eli.

“I will make sure your dying lasts for centuries, Hawkface!” shrieked the dark shape in a voice that seemed to echo all the way to the distant hills, then it rose up into the air, flapping like an enormous bat made of smoke and sparks, and flew away into the south.

“Master!” screamed Feliks, and stumbled off through the woods, following the fast-diminishing blot of fiery blackness until he, too, disappeared from sight.

Kettil Hawkface, his pale robes smeared with ash, his whiskers and hair singed at the edges, strode away in the other direction, walking back toward the village with the purposeful stride of someone who has completed a dangerous and thankless job and does not bother to wait for the approbation he surely deserves.

As he emerged at the forest’s edge, he stood before the hundreds of onlookers gathered there and raised his hands. “Elizar the Devourer’s evil has been discovered and ended, and he has flown in defeat back to the benighted south,” the archmage cried. “You people of the Middle Lands may rest safely again, knowing that the Devourer’s foul plan has been thwarted.”

The crowd cheered, but many were confused about what had happened and the reception of his news was not as whole-hearted as Kettil had perhaps expected. He did not wait to speak again to his colleague Dondolan, but climbed onto his white horse and galloped away north toward Thundering Crag, followed by a crowd of children crying out after him for pennies and miracles.

Bannity and Dondolan watched in silence as the ramrod-straight figure grew smaller, and then eventually disappeared. The crowds did not immediately disperse, but many seemed to realize there would be little reason to collect here anymore, and the cries of the food sellers, charm hawkers, and roving apothecaries became muted and mournful.

“So all is resolved for good,” Father Bannity said, half to himself. “Elizar’s evil was discovered and thwarted.”

“Perhaps,” said Dondolan,. “But a part of me cannot help wondering whose heart’s desire was granted here today.”

“What do you mean? Do you think…they clasped hands?”

Dondolan sighed. “Do not misunderstand me. It is entirely possible that the world has been spared a great evil here today – Elizar was always full of plots, many of them astoundingly subtle. But if they did touch hands, I think it is safe to say that only one of them was granted his heart’s desire.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Elizar may not have seemed entirely happy as Eli the dumb miracle-worker,” Dondolan said, “but he did seem peaceful. Now, though, he is the Devourer again, and Kettil once more has an enemy worthy of his own great pride and power.”

Bannity was silent for a long time, watching the sky darken as the sun settled behind Squire’s Wood. “But surely God would not let Elizar’s evil back into the world simply because his enemy missed it — God must have a better plan for mankind than that!”

“Perhaps,” said Dondolan the Clear-Eyed. “Perhaps. We will think on it together after we return to the church and you find the brandy you keep hidden for such occasions.”

Father Bannity nodded and took a few steps, then turned. “How did you know about the brandy?”

The priest thought Dondolan’s smile seemed a trifle sour. “I am a wizard, remember? We know almost everything.”

Bad Guy Factory

Issue #1: “Heatseeker”

PAGE 1

PANEL ONE:
SPLASH — the SEVEN ROOKIES (HEATSEEKER, DOLLY, MINK, COLDBLOODED, CELL, THROWBACK, SNAIL) are standing by themselves under a SPOTLIGHT, looking UP at BYZANTINE, a nasty, COLD-FACED old man in an ornate bronze battlesuit standing on a platform; next to him is his right-hand man, FARSIGHT.

(WE DON’T HAVE TO SEE BYZANTINE’S FACE IN THE FIRST PANEL.)

A CROWD of other COSTUMED VILLAINS fills the huge, warehouse-sized room, the main meeting space of the FACTORY, watching this SPECTACLE — most with amusement or disdain. (We might see PRETTY BOY, TIME MASTER, WALRUS and CARPENTER, FLAK, SAILOR, OCHO, MADAME MIRAGE/MIMOSA, PROFESSOR NACHTIGAL among them.

CAPTION 1: There are some things you never like to hear…

CAPTION 2: “Your credit card has been declined.”

CAPTION 3: “Your tests are back, but we didn’t get the results we’d hoped for.”

CAPTION 4: “You’re being deployed to the Middle East.”

CAPTION 5: This is a new one…

BYZANTINE: In less than two minutes, one of you is going to be DEAD.

A) TITLE:

BAD GUY FACTORY

1: HEATSEEKER

B) CREDITS

PAGE 2

PANEL ONE: We see a GLOVED HAND, powerful-looking, raised to knock on a door.

CAPTION: Hakim Anthony – now calling himself Anthony Hack after being reported AWOL from the military — should have seen it coming. After all, the day pretty much started OUT like shit…

PANEL TWO: Looking over ANTHONY’s shoulder (he’s in civilian clothes as he opens the door.) We see GUARD #1 (black) and GUARD #2 (white) just beyond him, looking through the door, which is still on its chain. They are wearing sunglasses and wool watch caps and wearing coveralls. The letters “BGF” are printed on their chest pockets. GUARD #2 has a HIDEOUS DWARF about TEN INCHES HIGH (“CARPENTER”) RIDING on his SHOULDER.

GUARD #1: You Anthony Hack? Heatseeker?

ANTHONY: Could be. Who are you?

PANEL THREE: GUARD #2 points to the pocket of his coveralls.

GUARD #2: We’re from Byzantium Gates Fabrication.

PANEL FOUR: ANTHONY, a lithely muscular black man in his mid-20s, opens the door and steps back.

ANTHONY: Yeah, that’s me – but how about you? Got some I.D.?

PANEL FIVE: GUARD #1 reaches into his POCKET

GUARD #1: Oh, yeah, no problem. You got all your stuff ready?

ANTHONY
(pointing toward two duffel bags)
: Right there.

GUARD #1: Good.

PAGE 3

PANEL ONE: (Splash) — A HUGE ARC of electrical plasma ZAPS from the object in Guard #2’s fist to ANTHONY, knocking him off his feet him with a huge and painful jolt.

SFX: GzzzZZZZAPPP!

GUARD #1: And HERE’S my I.D., BITCH!

PANELS TWO, THREE, FOUR: (Small, at bottom, panels black except for the guards’ words, unless we want to show the DISTORTION, THEN BLACK of a progression of ANTHONY passing out.)

GUARD #1 (
Off Panel, as CAPTION
) : Now the gas to make sure he stays out.

GUARD #2 (
OP, as CAPTION
) : Why didn’t you just use the gas in the first place?

GUARD #1 (
OP, as CAPTION
) : Because burnin’ his no-respect ass was more fun.

GUARD #2 (
OP, as CAPTION
) : Christ, where’d that freaky little thing go? Damn, he’s in the wastebaskets looking for food. Come help me catch the dwarf or we’ll never get back.

GUARD #1 (
Cont
.) : Shee-it. You hear that punk? Askin’ ME for I.D…

PAGE 4

PANEL ONE: CLOSE ON ANTHONY’S FACE – TINY DROPS OF SWEAT, BUT HE’S POKER-FACED.

ANTHONY THOUGHT CAPTION 1: Man, I hate this place, and I truly hate being underground. Reminds me WAY too much of the Russian’s place…and those motherfucking flies…the FLIES…

BYZANTINE (
OP
): Two minutes to live – it’s not a very long time, is it?

PANEL TWO: MEDIUM SHOT on BYZANTINE, FARSIGHT.

BYZANTINE (
Cont
..): In any case, now that I have your attention…listen carefully and understand this: You are now part of Byzantine Gates Fabrication, sometimes known as The Factory, the most successful program ever devised for training metahumans and their associates to a life in the unregulated marketplace. You belong to me.

BYZANTINE (
Cont
.): I am Byzantine…and while you are here, I am your god. If you offend me in any way, you will suffer. After you leave, you will still be mine until you have paid off your debt. You know this. You all accepted the bargain before you came.

PANEL THREE: CLOSE on BYZANTINE’S FACE

BYZANTINE: But spies and traitors – that is a different story. For them, there is only one penalty.

ANTHONY THOUGHT-CAPTION 2: Do they know about me? Can’t be. They don’t know about me. He’s just trying it to see if anyone flinches.

ANTHONY THOUGHT-CAPTION 3: But I don’t flinch.

PANEL FOUR: SHOT ON ANTHONY in the midst of the other ROOKIES.

BYZANTINE: Anthony Hack – Heatseeker.

ANTHONY THOUGHT-CAPTION 4: Shit. They MUST know

ANTHONY THOUGHT-CAPTION 5: Damn! No side-arm, no way to fight back — what kind of dumb-ass gets himself into something like this…?

ANTHONY: Sir?

PANEL FIVE: BYZANTINE – EVIL-LOOKING old dude, the COLD, ANGRY GRANDPA from HELL.

BYZANTINE: What do you think we do with traitors and spies here, Mr. Hack?

ANTHONY THOUGHT-CAPTION 6: Shit!

PAGE 5

PANEL ONE: ANTHONY and MINK and THROWBACK and SNAIL

ANTHONY: I don’t know, sir.

BYZANTINE: Letisha Angel – tagging, as you young people say, as “Mink.” Tell me what you think happens to people who spy on the Factory, Miss Angel.

MINK: Don’t know. Trouble.

PANEL TWO: SAME as ONE

BYZANTINE: Mr. Carter?

THROWBACK: Oh, f’sure. BIG trouble.

PANEL THREE: SAME as ONE

PANEL FOUR: SAME as ONE.

SNAIL: Trouble. Double.

PANEL FIVE: |EVERYONE TURNS TO LOOK AT SNAIL. HE’S STARING DOWN NERVOUSLY.
]

SNAIL (
Cont
.): Mister Bubble.

PAGE 6

PANEL ONE: BYZANTINE walks down from the PODIUM, LOOKING THEM UP AND DOWN. We see/hear his SERVO MOTORS CLICKING.
SFX: Ssss-klik. Ssss-klik. Ssss-klik.

BYZANTINE: Which of you is the one called Cell? Benny Santos?

CELL: That would be me.

PANEL TWO: BYZANTINE STOPS, stares at him like a VULTURE at a DYING MAN. We can see FARSIGHT behind BYZANTINE, still up on the PODIUM.

BYZANTINE: No, I’m afraid it wouldn’t. Mr. Farsight?

FARSIGHT: Your real name is Anselmo. You told our recruiter you’re a TP specialist for a Midwestern crime syndicate who wants to go solo. In fact, though, you’re an undercover police officer out of New Columbia PD H Plus Division.

PANEL THREE: CELL points ANGRILY at FARSIGHT.

CELL: That’s a lie, man! You got it all wrong!

FARSIGHT: I can feel him firing, sir, even through the damper effect. He’s broadcasting at full strength.