Earth:

The Morlock Tunnels,
Somewhere Beneath Manhattan…

Brian Braddock wrinkled his nose as they passed another open sewer pipe that spewed waste into their path. His stomach was churning at the wretched odors and he wondered again at how anyone could live day after day in such filth.

It was disgusting, but it was not something that he thought he would not be used to. He had survived worse of course. The time spent on that other Earth where they stopped the Jaspers Reality Breakdown had been a Hell on Earth, literally. They had lived as refugees; He and Betsy and Linda McQuillan and so many others, playing Merlin's little games to set things straight. They had won, eventually, but at what cost? Death and devastation on an astounding scale, and the hell had followed him home. It was only recently that he and Meggan- the only good thing to happen to him as a result of the Jaspers insanity- had settled to a somewhat normal life. They had spent some time with Excalibur, and some of Xavier's cast-off mutants, but that was over now as well. He simply wanted to be left alone, just for a time.

Yet here he was again, back in his costume of red-white and blue, trudging through the muck and decay and looking for a madman in the darkness! Where was the justice?

He had wanted to at least take the point, but the Morlock leader, Callisto had denied him that. She claimed to be a tracker- one of her mutant abilities- and on a par with Wolverine to hear her tell it. She seemed to know what she was about- Braddock would give her that- but he had met Wolverine, and she was no Wolverine!

Worse, Meggan had wanted to take the point as well. Her powers would let her track, but that was a bit unsettling in itself. She would take on the appearance of a rat, and before long they would have a pack of the filthy creatures following in their wake and nipping at their heels, squealing every step of the way. In the end it was decided that Meggan would take the rear, the glow of her powers lighting the way for poor Brian who could not otherwise see. Callisto would take the point, tracking far ahead and out of the light, just close enough to remain in sight. Captain Britain would be between the two women, safe and sound-

"Bugger this…" he mumbled, taking to the air and soaring ahead. He heard Meggan's warning gasp as he left the safety of her glowing aura but he paid no heed as he plowed ahead. The sudden darkness was a bit unsettling, but within a second or too he was certain that his Otherworldly armor would kick in and enlighten him. He just had to stay low, perhaps reach out and brush the slime-encrusted walls to keep him on the straight and narrow path-

He felt something twist into the strange material of his suit, near his neck, suddenly gaining hold. He tried to veer, to swoop away in his flight but it was too late, he was going too fast and whatever had grabbed him had leverage. He veered, but suddenly down and slamming into the slick, cold stones of the sewer tunnel. There was a crash, and he saw a flash of starlight as his head bounced off of the old stone, but before he could right himself he found a booted foot crushing down on his throat, a slim metal knife pressing up into his left nostril! Callisto snarled down at him-

"Are you trying to get us all killed?" she said, pressing her knife harder into his skin. Brian was relatively certain that the slim blade could not pierce his skin, still it was a bit intimidating. He tried to talk, choking under the pressure of her heel in his throat-

"Orf me, woman!" he spat through gritted teeth. He did not want to hurt the Morlock, but he would if he had too. To make his situation worse, Meggan came floating up, beaming between giggling and concern.

"Brian! You look so silly down there. Why did you fly ahead like that?"

"Yes, Brian…" Callisto said with a sneer, removing her foot and pocketing her knife, "why did you do that?"

Brian Braddock sat up and rubbed his throat. The suit would heal him, if needed, but it would do nothing to heal the burn of humiliation that he felt sitting in the muck before these two women. He was hating this-

"How much farther is this going to take us? Seems we've been walking in circles for hours! Where is this 'Marrow'?"

"I'm following her scent, Captain. It's not so easy." The woman, Callisto looked almost normal for a moment letting her shoulders sag and her head hang down. She was tired, and worried over her friend. Brian felt shame now, along with his humiliation. He had had friends gone missing before as well-

"Don't worry, Callisto." Meggan stepped forward with a reassuring smile, placing her hand on the other woman's shoulder for comfort. "We'll find your friend, and we'll stop this killer! Brian's the greatest hero ever! You'll see!"

Brian Braddock stood feeling two inches tall. He wondered where Meggan got all of her faith in him after all they had shared, both good and bad. Especially bad…

"I'm sorry," he said, wiping mud and offal from his white uniform, trying his best to sound sincere. He did not want to be here, but Meggan had volunteered their services and he would have looked the ass had he said no after that. Still, there was no reason why this should take forever-

"I'm sorry about your friend, but this is getting us nowhere. I say we go back up and call SHIELD or S.T.R.I.K.E. and have them blow through these tunnels in force. They'll find your friend straight away and kill this murderer in the bit!"

Callisto stared at him, her one good eye sparkling queerly in the glow of Meggan's aura. She shook her head and turned towards the darkness again.

"Just how is it you're still breathing, Captain? Attitude like that seems would'a gotten you burnt right away. SHIELD don't care about us muties, Cap, 'n' your S.T.R.I.K.E. might care, but just enough to round us up 'n' collar us for study 'n' use. You want out, then leave! I'll find Marrow on my own!"

"Fine!" Brian snapped, turning and grabbing Meggan's arm to drag her away and out. He had had enough of this! "C'mon, Meggan! We're off! Let this woman alone! We'll call Fury once we're topside and-"

"No!"

Meggan seemed to snarl and easily wrenched her arm from his grip. Granted he was not holding her all that tightly, but she still should not have been able to pull away. She was stronger than Brian thought-

"Meggan! What is this? Let's go!" he shouted, adding the slightest anger in his voice to get her moving. He would be damned if they were going to stay down here another min-

"I'm not going!"

Brian Braddock blinked, staring at the woman he loved, the woman standing before him in the murky gloom that he apparently did not know.

"What?"

"You heard me, Brian! I'm going to stay with Callisto and we're going to find her friend, and the killer! With or without you! If you want to leave, then go ahead!" Meggan stood tall, taller than Brian remembered. She was glowing, sparkling gold and red in defiance, her hands on her hips and a stern look on her face. It was annoying to say the least.

"Meggan! Be reasonable. This is ridiculous! These tunnels stretch on for miles under Manhattan, and stretch under the boroughs as well. It could take months to-"

A scream cut through the air, and as Brian Braddock slowly turned the two women were off. Callisto quickly disappeared into the shadows and Meggan flew away, hot on her heels. They left Brian standing in the darkness, the muck of the sewer tunnel trickling slowly past his ankles. He waited a moment for his armor to compensate for the sudden darkness, then floated up into the stale air.

"Bloody hell!" he cursed, and soared off into the gloom, following the women. He was already regretting this…

Katharta…

Tarakis leaned back on his stool and moaned, clenching his eyelids tightly shut as he pinched the bridge of his nose. His eyes hurt from the close work, and his head was aching from the smell of ink and smoke that curled throughout the chamber.

He hated the intricacy of his art at times. It took hours to get the details just so, and he was often hard pressed to recall the exact image that he needed to recreate. Too, it did not help that his canvas squirmed and whimpered every time his carving tool cut into his pale, parchment like skin.

Klonus writhed about on the stone slab where he was chained, his all-encompassing iron mask muffling the sounds of his complaints as well as dulling his ability to tap into the mystical resources of his home. The sturdy iron chains held him fast, but still he squirmed and twisted against the hot blade that sliced into his skin as Tarakis carved the details of the magicks that would enact the spells needed to open the Gate with his sacrifice to Thog the Demon. He hated depending on lesser beings like Thog, but there were times when he could not avoid an unruly partnership.

Tarakis set the small, slender knife back into the red hot coals of the brazier, his foot pumping the foot pedal a bit to get the fires glowing white once more. The blade had to be a certain temperature as well, and the room had to be just so warm, just so dark with a certain special number of candles sparking the air. The designs on the floor had to be perfect, laid out in salt and coated with the blood of virgins (not an easy task in Katharta- finding virgins). The languages were more guttural mutterings than actual words, but Tarakis had to learn them all; tone and pronunciation, inflection and accent. It was much ado, but all too necessary, and the slightest mistake on his part might set him back over a thousand years until the next alignment and another mage came to proper power. Klonus was only good for one go. It had to be absolutely, perfectly right. God knows he did not want to end up as Thog's bounty for an error in his spelling.

Taking a break, Tarakis ignored Klonus' mewling and strolled to the window. He glanced out, casting his gaze at the army amassing below, now well over one hundred thousand strong and still growing. By the time the Gate was opened the number of barbarians following his command would be well over one million, and more would follow. Everyone on this backward mud-ball was a warrior of sorts it seemed and willing to follow anyone to glory. Truth, the army thought that they were following their ruler Mortak the Usurper, but in real truth they were following Tarakis who guided Mortak's every move. Tarakis, true ruler of Katharta, such as it was. Tarakis laughed.

Far below the Temple of Zokk where he stood secure in the confines of the Skytower, in the valley below the great mountains, in the city that had once been the capitol the Gateway was being constructed from the ruins. The city had been razed and pillaged- that was what barbarians did it seemed- but after they had had their fill he had set them all to work in creating the frame needed to bind the energies that he would loose. It had to be huge to send the massive army through, a great arching frame that would allow hundreds to pass through amass along with their weapons of mass destruction, their animals and followers, their mob! It was a mighty mission to gather and move an army it seemed, but Tarakis knew that it was needed.

The Asgardians were strong, and warriors in their own right. He would give them that much respect. They knew how to fight, how to make war, and they were immortal though not indestructible. Sheer numbers would overwhelm even their mighty Host. Odin would fall! Balder would fall! Thor, the mighty Thor would fall hard!

Once the Golden Realm was in hand and under his control, Tarakis would use Asgard as a staging area to take his war beyond. He would incorporate the enemies of Asgard into his armies; the Trolls and Frost Giants, the witches and Dark Elves! There were many that would join his cause and rally under his banner, each plotting their own plans and being used as fodder. They would cross Bifrost; the Rainbow Bridge, first to Earth, where they would slay the queer super-powered guardians that were Thor's ilk. Then they would go out, conquering the galaxy, the universe and more! Dimension after dimension would fall to his machinations, and in the end Tarakis would be the supreme ruler above all, one of those who sit above in the shadows controlling destiny forevermore…

Tarakis sighed, turning back to his canvas; the shackled form that had been this reality's Sorcerer Supreme! What had Klonus thought, he wondered, when his body had begun to reform within the crude pentagram that the mage had formed that day? Had he dreamed dreams of power, thinking that he had trapped some demon to do his bidding? Did he suspect that his days were numbered? Tarakis shrugged.

Klonus had stumbled, faltered and Tarakis had taken the initiative and gained the upper hand. Klonus had become the slave, the sacrifice. He would be remembered-

"Isn't that right, wizard?" Tarakis chuckled, retaking his seat and plucking his blade from the fires. He touched the scalpel to Klonus' skin, enjoying the smell of sizzling flesh and blood whilst it lasted. He started to carve away at the wizard's skin, etching another design into the dry flesh. Smoke and steam rose into his face, making his eyes water. Klonus screamed!

"Yes…" he chuckled, slicing away. "You will be remembered…"

Earth:

The Morlock Tunnels…

Brian Braddock's eyes grew wide as he stared in shock at the horrific scene before him. He had seen horrors of unbelievable cruelty in his life, scenes of incredible depravation on countless worlds so close to his own. He had seen starving masses slaughtered and good men killed outright by a creature with no purpose other than to do just that. He had seen people simply vanish from existence, and others slain simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But there was nothing- nothing in memory to compare to what he saw now…

He knew little of the girl known as Marrow, and most of that was what was told him by the woman Callisto. She was a mutant, an otherwise normal girl with the affliction that bones seemed to sprout from her body for no apparent rhyme or reason. Her difference had made her an outcast in humanity, above ground at least, which was why she had joined the Morlock community living in the forgotten tunnels that ran beneath the streets of New York City. She had found acceptance in the darkness below ground, where the shadows made everyone equal. Her affliction had made her angry of course- and Braddock could understand why, looking at her now. She had turned that anger into a sort of pride Callisto had said, making the bones a weapon. Neither pride nor power had helped her…

Marrow hung from the cold stone wall where she had been pinned like a butterfly. Her wrists and ankles were held tight by railroad irons wrapped and driven into the stone with brute strength. Her body hung limply bones still jutting from her flesh even as they watched. Blood dripped from wounds pooling with the mud and scum beneath her dangling form. Her face was a purple mass of bruises, her mouth swollen and red. Many of the bones that had sprouted from her body had been broken away, snapped at the nub and now littered the floor of the tunnel. Some had been rammed back into the girl's body, pinning her further so that she could not move about, or even talk. All seemed hollow, sucked dry of marrow and life the same as their namesake and mistress. Brian could not imagine how the girl was even still alive, but she was. He could see it in the bloody pulp behind her swollen eyelids. He saw her breathe and spit blood. He heard her moan…

Callisto was at the girl's side already, slipping in the blood and filth on the ground as she pulled at the iron girders pinning her friend to the wall. Marrow's jagged bones were slicing at the older woman's skin, but she either did not feel the pain, or did not care. She was frantic!

"Help me, damn it!" she shouted, her voice cracking with terror and pain. "Help me get her down!"

Brian heard Meggan gasp and watched as she flew forward without a thought, tears streaming down her face. The room erupted with the glow of Meggan's aura, brighter as her emotions swelled. He watched as his girlfriend heaved at the metal bonds, but even her great strength was not enough. It would take his power to set the girl free. Brian Braddock floated up, easing forward-

Captain! You are needed!

A strangely ephemeral face appeared in his path, blocking his way. It was huge, like the image of the Wizard of Oz and no less imposing, but oddly familiar as well. It was glowing brightly, wavering in its brilliance and beauty. He hesitated, studying the visage, understanding slowly coming to his being-

"Roma?" he asked, then, "No! Wait!"

There was a sudden blinding glare, a flash of light that wiped all shadow away. And just as suddenly there was only the flickering aura of Meggan's emotions lighting the room. A stench of burnt ozone lingered, smothering the rank smell of the sewers for a bit, just long enough to draw attention.

Meggan turned from her efforts, her fingers already bloody and raw where she had clawed at the cold, binding iron. She sniffed smelling sulfur and saw the fading light dwindling in shadow. She saw too that they were alone.

"Brian?"

Meggan drifted away from the girl pinned to the wall, scanning the darkness for her lover. Brian Braddock was nowhere to be seen however. Captain Britain was gone-

"Where is he?" she heard Callisto's voice, harsh and accusing. "Did he turn tail and run away?" Meggan spun on the other woman, fire crackling in her eyes-

"You take that back!" she snapped, floating up into the other's face. "Brian's no coward! He's the bravest man I know! Something's happened to him!"

The two women stared daggers at one another, both ready to fight. Long moments passed, hearts pounding, tempers flaring until the girl moaned again, pulling them back from the brink. Meggan's face softened, pity replacing anger. Callisto simply shifted her rage to the bonds once more, grunting and tugging with all of her futile strength.

Meggan drifted back, watching as the girl spasmed in pain at Callisto's efforts. Every tug seemed to send a new ripple of agony through the young mutant. Meggan feared that Callisto would kill the girl herself before she pried her loose. They had to try something else.

"Get back!" Meggan ordered, feeling the power swell within her body. It was like a song, growing louder and fuller, racing to the finale. The power made her tingle, made her feel alive.

"Get away, Callisto! I'll blast her free!"

Meggan saw Callisto hesitate, staring at her friend and giving the iron a final, forceful heave. It was no good, and Callisto nodded, stepping back and away, finally turning towards the glowing mutant-

Her one eye grew wide!

"Look out!"

Callisto shouted, her hand slipping towards her hidden knife even as Meggan started to turn to see what was happening. Her soft lips parted, curling into a smile, thinking that it must be Brian returned, maybe with help. She never saw what hit her!

Callisto watched as the glowing girl slammed into the slime encrusted stone floor, her head bouncing and spurting blood as she hit. Her glowing aura flickered and dimmed to a soft, low pulse that seemed to wax and wane with the girl's breathing. Callisto had seen enough fights to know that Meggan was down for the count. She turned her attention to the new player in the room.

He had been above, up in the rafters apparently, and now he dropped down to stand over the sprawled, fallen body of Meggan. He was black and young she could tell, perhaps younger than Marrow. He looked old however. His skin was pale and weathered, withdrawn. His eyes were dark, glowing spots dancing in the deep hollows of his sockets. He looked haggard and worn, his face craggy with lines from stress and worry. Too, he looked hungry, and oddly familiar.

Perhaps it was his clothes. He wore a ratty and tattered uniform of sorts that had once been a brilliant red and gold but was now faded and dirty. He wore too a belt with a huge blue buckle, an X emblazoned within the circular emblem. One of Xavier's get then. One of Generation X gone bad.

He smiled, and she noticed then that his teeth were jagged and rotting. He seemed to be glowing slightly as well…

"Another!" he said, glancing down and Meggan for a moment, then turning his attention back on Callisto. Too quickly, or maybe she was getting old. She had missed her chance.

"And another, and another…" he hissed, still grinning madly. Callisto could see that he was gone. Whatever had made him so had driven him mad. "I eat good tonight!" he cackled, then started forward, his glow growing brighter with every step.

Callisto felt a surge of energy wash over her, as though something were tugging at her soul. She felt suddenly weak, and heard Marrow's choked groan from behind. The boy was eating off of them- all three of them- tapping into their strength and all at once she remembered-

"Synch!" she whispered.

His name was Synch…

Katharta…

Captain Britain stood on the rocky crag and stared in despair at the mass of people that stretched out across the plains beneath him. It was obviously an army; hundreds of thousands of warriors gathered together before the great arching hunk of metal that rose up in the distance. It was a Gateway of some sort, and it dwarfed the huge Arch in St. Louis like Everest dwarfed the old GPO Tower in London. It was enormous!

It did not take a military genius to realize that the army was gathering to march through the great arch. They were set to invade somewhere, but that then was the real question. Where were they off to invade? Brian had a sneaky suspicion that he knew exactly where they were bound.

The other question was, what to do about it?

The quick solution would be to destroy the arch, but they had managed to create the thing once, so odds were they could manage it once again. No, the proper thing was to find the source- the leader of the army and take him (or her he corrected) down. Cut off the head and the body dies! He hoped to heaven that it was not a Saturnyne again…

With a sigh Brian Braddock stared up the length of the mountain that Roma had dumped him on. It was high, higher than any on Earth by the looks, stretching up into the clouds where its lofty, jagged peaks were softened by the mists. There was a structure of some sort near the cloudline as well; a temple by the looks, or a castle. That seemed a likely place to look.

Villains liked temples and castles.

Brian Braddock raked a hand back through his thick hair then locked his helmet back into place. He would need his armor no doubt, for defense and the air was probably thinner up that high. There were probably big, hulking creatures there awaiting his arrival. Super beings with wild powers too, and sniveling little men with guns- he'd faced them all before, and would no doubt again. He wished though that just once someone would take the time to explain to him what was going on.

Having little choice if he wanted to be returned home, he finally rose into the air. He found his center, focusing his anger on the fierce speech he was preparing for Roma, having ripped him away from Meggan and some potential danger. He hoped that she was all right as he increased his speed, flying up…

Up and away…

NEXT ISSUE: Captain Britain battles to save Katharta and Earth from the villainy of Tarakis! Will he succeed? And if so, will he get back home in time to save Meggan, Callisto and Marrow from the horrors of Synch? Come back next time and find out in World's High and Low

Story © Curt F