PALE REIGN OVER GESHEM - CHAPTER 21 by Abyss DISCLAIMER: All characters and ideas that are the property of Marvel Comics are used without permission, for no profit. This work may not be resold. It may be redistributed in its original form. And on a less formal note, comments, criticisms... even just a short E-mail saying `I liked it.' are much appreciated. Keep the faith. A FINAL NOTE... I will be gone until April. I'm sorry, I tried, I really tried to finish the story, but I refuse to end it without doing what I consider my best, so regretfully, the conclusion will have to wait until I get back. Thanx for your patience, and I WILL be back. Abyss ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The bandits were loosing, she was sure of it. Katherine fought beside the Gambler, as they had time and time before. Nearby, the one called Prelate and the Hunter fought back to back, as effective a fighting team as she had ever seen in her years with the thieves... and Hades-knew, there were no finer fighters in closed spaces than Geshem's thieves. Her Shadowsuit let her fade from sight and substance before an enemy could strike, then fade in again with deadly surety. Dead and dying bandits lay about the floor, a testament to her skill. She felled another with a slash across his chest, then turned as the Gambler brought his staff down hard across the skull of another, and snapped his hand to his waist and back. Another bandit eight paces away fell as a wide bladed throwing knife invaded his throat. The Gambler threw her a grin and she returned it... then her jaw dropped and her eyes widened at the sight charging down the tunnel at them. It was a man, but almost seven feet tall, covered head to toe in overlapping plates of heavy metal armor that moved like bone and muscle. It was a sight at once wonderful and terrifying. She had heard of the knight with the magical armor before, but never seen him until now, as he ran forward to kill her and her allies. His face was the only exposed flesh, and then, only half of it, the other half covered by a featureless plate of metal without even an eyeslit. The Hunter must have recognized him, as Katherine heard her cry out as he approached her, a charging juggernaut of steel and force. "Sir Peter, remember yourself, remember the Queen! Whether he remembered or not, a massive fist sent the Hunter flying across the tunnel like a rag doll. She struck a wall hard and lay still. The Prelate, Summers, saw this and cried out even as he lashed out with his power. "No!" There was much in his voice, but Katherine had no time to wonder about it. Crimson force sped from his one lens to strike the charging knight dead centre in the chest. The steel figure slowed to a halt and stumbled backwards, even as the force blast ricocheted off his armor, playing about the narrow confines of the tunnel, knocking bandits aside like chaff. Katherine had merged with shadow as soon as the attack came. One lance of force passed through her shoulder, and she felt a slight tingle, nothing more. The possessed knight was turning towards the Prelate now. Katherine heard the red-haired woman scream a command. "Golem, kill them all!" The Gambler stepped forwards and swung his staff into the Golem's neck. The staff shattered and with speed unbelievable for so large a man, the Golem backhanded the Gambler. Katherine watched helplessly as he flew through the air, and then twisted so that his feet hit the wall, absorbing the impact that would have surely shattered his back. The Gambler leapt towards the floor, and lunged back towards the Golem, who was advancing into the flood of force the Prelate was throwing at him. Katherine scanned the tunnel... and saw the red-haired woman throw back her head and burst into flame and ashes... a lethal cloud that flowed through the air towards the Gambler. The sound of the Prelate's blasts were like trees cracking in a hurricane in the narrow tunnel. The Gambler couldn't hear her warning... so Katherine did the next best thing, and leapt forwards, trying to bring the Gambler into shadow. Her back was to the cloud of ash when it struck. Katherine screamed as every nerve in her body was lit on fire. * * * Prelate Summers was holding his own, but barely. The metal-man, so similar to the X-Man he knew as Piotr Rasputin, Colossus in his own lost world, was advancing into enough optic force to flatten a building. He was slowing down... but he was still coming, and the Prelate wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up. When he heard the screams, he stopped the barrage. The golem rushed forwards, and swung a fist the size of Apocalypse's head at him. Hard trained reflexes made him duck under the swing. Desperation made him fire an optic blast at the ground beneath his opponent feet at the same time. The man of metal went falling over. Prelate Summers rolled out of the way and looked quickly about the tunnel. He almost wished he hadn't. The Hunter was still lying against a wall, his doppelganger was nowhere to be seen, and more importantly, the thief, Katherine, was crouching on the floor. Red flame played along every inch of her body, but she wasn't simply burning... the flame was like an aura, a part of her. Standing over her was another woman, her arms by her sides, fists clenched, eyes shut tight. She was burning up and reforming again and again... bones and muscle and flesh and ash, moment to moment. Both women were screaming at the top of their lungs. Off to one side, the Gambler lay on the ground, shaking his head, trying to rise up. Motion from the corner of his remaining eye sent the Prelate leaping sideways as the Golem attacked again. He landed on his feet and faced the steel knight. The man's uncovered eye was fixed in a blank stare, and his huge metal-covered hands reached forwards, seeking the Prelate's death. * * * Screams and the weird sound of his own optic blast forced Cyclops from the darkness of unconsciousness. He had rolled with the blow even as he realized he was under attack. Even so, his head was pounding, and the pain threatened to drag him back into a peaceful void. He resisted and forced himself up, as he had so many other times... he was needed, and this was no time to black-out. A quick scan of the situation and he almost resented his own stubbornest. Action followed. His optic blast struck down the tunnel. He sent it towards the golem, so like Piotr it was frightening, in a move he knew to work from hours training in the Danger Room with the Colossus of his own world. The Golem was advancing into a storm of optic force from the Prelate. The massive figure was leaning forwards, head down, arms spread and reaching. Cyclops' blast hit him just as he took a single heavy step... hit him in the knee. The sudden force threw the knight-turned-golem over as if he were rolling down a hill. He flipped onto his side in mid-air and fell down hard. The Prelate wasted no time, triggering his own blast through the cybernetic link to his visor. Cyclops saw the optic blast descend and strike the golem in the face, the only apparently vulnerable place. The high=pitched sound of the optic blast, so strange when it didn't echo in his own head, was joined by the shattering of metal. Fragments fell to the ground... and the golem lifted its head and looked down the tunnel at Cyclops. Cyclops froze at what he saw. "Piotr... no..." * * * Prelate Summers had seen genetic constructs before... Sinister had been something of an artist, and McCoy had been an absolute madman... even so, the sight before them gave him pause. Katherine and the red-haired woman's screams still echoed in his head, but for an instant, they were lost to him... Where there had once been a face, now there was only half a face... the Prelate subconsciously reached towards the long scars tracing down his own visage... the golem's remaining features were noble, a strong brow, heavyset chin, but all pale and drawn... the eyes vacant and staring... one in the face of a man, and the other ... a nightmare... It was a spider, or maybe a starfish... five brown mottled tentacles clasped tightly to the side of the knight's head, meeting in a black, twisted knot of a body, like rotting brain tissue. The thing was drawn tight against the skull... skin and cartilage had nearly all fallen away... and worse of all, the thing pulsed with a horrid mockery of life... *It's taken him... there's no man left there...* Thought and deed were instant, and the Prelate unleashed a burst with all his tired strength. It struck the weird construct dead centre. The thing shuddered... a horrid hollow moan left the knight's mouth... and nothing else happened. Despair flooded the Prelate and he braced himself to strike again. Before he could, the golem slammed a fist down on the floor. The shockwave force of the blow knocked him up off the ground, even as pieces of debris flew up from the ground and fell from above. The ceiling caved in, and he could only throw his arms up to protect his head as a long wooden brace fell down on him. The dust cleared quickly... the Prelate found himself on the ground... someone was still screaming... Footsteps, and a familiar optic blast struck the Golem in the side again and again. Suddenly Cyclops was there, directing his power at the golem's head. It was useless, there was no stopping the golem. The eerie spiderlike construct on his face pulsed with a disgusting life, but it would not let go however Cyclops hit it with optic blasts. A casual backhand sent the man sprawling, and the huge enemy, once a knight of the realm, turned towards the trapped Prelate. Prelate Summers pulled and pushed at the rubble pinning his lower body, but it was too damn heavy. The golem was almost on top of him and there was no help from any direction. Prelate Summers gave up on trying to free himself and looked to the immediate threat. The golem's face was a blank slate, devoid of conflict or emotion. It's hands were reaching out, and once they closed on him, the end would be quick and final. Prelate Summers wasn't willing to die. Years living with the greatest geneticist of Apocalypse's regime had taught him how to deal with this... *If you can't hurt the controller, hurt the host.* He waited as the golem was an instant from closing those massive hands around his head, and then focused his one eye on the one vulnerable point he could perceive. The crimson optic blast was barely a finger wide, and it drove right through the golem's eye, between the tentacles of the thing controlling him. For an instant, the golem stood there, a thin trail of smoke emerging where the eye had been, and then the thing that was once a man dropped to the ground like a suit of armor, suddenly empty of its wearer. * * * The Gambler's head was ringing, and his body ached in places no man's body should... but the sound of a familiar voice in agony tore him out of the stupor. He starred at the sight before him... his companion, Katherine, locked in an embrace of fire with Pyre, one of the Pale Man's lackeys. "Kat...! Kat!" He knew she couldn't hear him. He remembered her grabbing him, a sudden flash of heat, and then little till this instant. *Best I return the favour then... a'fore it too late.* Dropping his staff, the Gambler ran forwards and launched himself at the thief. He felt the briefest moment of fiery pain, and then they were rolling on the ground. Quickly he sat up and looked to Katherine. She was pale, and warm to the touch, but seemed otherwise alive. Another shout tore his attention away. "NO! You murdering FOOL!" The Gambler watched as the man he called Cyclops attacked the one called Prelate. END CHAPTER 21