Shards of Destiny
Beyond Infinity: Part II - The Fallen

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“Alfred is that you?”

There was no reply, so he continued the work on what was making people suddenly go crazy. So far he had tested the water, the air and the soil and found nothing unusual other then the normal pollutants that had infiltrated the eco-system, through mans own carelessness and indifference.

“Alfred could you get me some coffee, I think its going to be another late night,” This time Bruce Wayne turned, only to see Alfred in some kind of a trance. He walked up to where Alfred stood motionless and just staring into space.

Bruce Wayne, who was in the garb of Batman, unmasked, put his muscular hand in front of Alfred’s face.

Alfred then had an unusual display of movements. "Bruccie. You’re my fav caped crusader big time! No question!" Bruce took a step back as Alfred attempted to do a series of round-offs and backhand springs; he did it like an Olympic gymnastic. 

“Alfred, what’s going on are you experiencing the same dilemma that everyone else on this planet is going through?” After a moment or two Batman thought he figured it out. “Spectre is that you in there?” Bruce asked.

“That is correct. Adjusting,” Alfred uttered his tone was completely different than it had been a few moments ago. “To individuals brain wave patterns and physiology can take a few moments, even for Angels.”

“This is a bit strange even for me, I have actually spent the night in Arkham and felt more sane then I do now,” Batman said, sarcastically.

“Arkham?”

“Shouldn’t an Angel know something’s,” Batman shrugged, slightly. “Like directions to an mental hospital,” said Bruce sarcastically and slightly under his breath.

“Perhaps. But being all knowing doesn't always translate well, when I take the physical form of another.”

“Curious,” said Wayne. “Did you ask Alfred before you took his body?”

“Of course he declared only the other side works that way.  Quickly put on your other identity that is the one that will be of use to us tonight. By the way this body is experiencing some cramps, and it feels the body’s kind of full. Pressure.”

Bruce smiled. “The bathroom is down there.” And pointed down the hall.

The High Evolutionary and Adam Warlock did not look as if they would accept the two cosmic cubes declaration blindly.

“Give us the Gems and we will not attempt to make contact with the Beyonders,” Adam Warlock declared.

The High Evolutionary also interjected. “And tell me, tell me was counter earth supposed to be on display as a master piece or was it the work of a clumsy child.”

The Shaper looked at him, but giving no true hint of emotion. Instead he merely imprisoned Warlock and the High Evolutionary in indestructible cubes of light. They were truly unbreakable in the physical plane.

But in the spiritual plane even that was incapable of stopping there spirits as Warlock and High Evolutionary left there bodies, and confronted there opponents on another plane.

The Shaper shot twin bolts of energy at Warlock. But to no avail for it was just as Adam Warlock had suspected cosmic containment units could not affect the soul. A green pinprick of light shot forth from the vampirac orb and it began to cause the cubes to revert back to their former state. The Shaper and Kosmos were once again cosmic cubes.

But the anticlimactic battle with the Beyonders was cut short, as a box as black as pitch appeared before them. It was like a cube, but more like a containment unit in name, for its sides numbered sixty-six in total, and it seemed to expanded and then returned to its former state. It did this in a rhythmic motion, so it appeared to be mimicking breathing.

Whether it was or not was irrelevant because crimson filled the room, dripping down the sides of the cube and exploding forth like a satanic geyser. Warlock then felt his own life force being drained, and its source was the ebony containment unit.

Batman followed the Spectre who led him to a building, which was disheveled and ready to be condemned. The Spectre – who was in Alfred’s body – pulled out a cross. “It may help you.”

Adam Warlock was suddenly confronted with the true architect of the attack, as Victor von Doom appeared like a fallen angel emblazoned with the glory of the Beyonders themselves.

Doom waved his hand, and Warlock and the High Evolutionary were free of the black cube, which was their prison following the brief engagement of the Shaper and Kosmos.

“So you once again believe yourself supreme,” said Warlock, whose sliver of doubt did not plant itself in the supreme Doom.

“Allow me to show you something, Adam Warlock,” Doom’s very intonation seemed to have changed, bathed as he was in the Beyonders might.

“So god has made you benevolent,” Warlock said with a hint of mocking humor that was not characteristic of him. “Surely you realize ultimate power only makes you a more powerful version of what you already are. Doom is still doom.”

Doctor Doom seemed to disregard what Adam Warlock had just said, but the High Evolutionary stepped forward and grew twenty feet.

“If you are truly the Beyonder as you claim, then I would have words for the murder and thief of my world!” said the godlike anger seething from him like steam from black top on a hot day.

“There shall be no fight,” said Doom in a somewhat benign voice. He waved his hand and the High Evolutionary was devolved to the smallest virus known to man.

“Observe!” said Doom. With a thought time and space were manipulated like clay in Doom’s mighty hand, and Adam Warlock found himself surrounded by Celestials of every shape and design. Armored entities who were a thousand feet tall, and cloaked in armors of similar design, but with much diversity in appearance and function. But like the celestials Adam Warlock had witnessed in his wars with Thanos and the Magus, these were inert and immovable.

“Have you slain them?” asked Warlock.

This received a minute chuckle from the armored Doctor Doom, his green cloak wavering about him. “You seek to goad me into showing my hand, but what matter I am now supreme as far above Eternity as Eternity is above you.”

“Revelation,” said Warlock. “They are mere containment devices for the Beyonders might, as were the cubes.”

“Very good. It is no wonder Eternity used you as he did. For you must have also been aware that the Beyonders possess no true sentience or consciousness they but mirror what they see which is why the force that became the Beyonder was so insecure.”

“Because humanity has always been in doubt, and this Beyonder must not have existed until - -” Warlock was interrupted by a smallish imp of a man dressed in a childish costume white bolts of lightening, on tacky green shirt.

“Molecule man.” said Doom.

“I created you Doom, before my accident the Beyonders, you did not even exist. It was my accident that opened the dimension of the Beyonders; it was my accident that made them self-aware. So man creates god.”

Batman walked into the dark building which had its door completely torn off the hinges, inside he stumbled about until he pulled a light from his utility belt, and began to illuminate the pathway. It was fairly disheveled, and when the light flashed on a group of corpses broken and bloodied together he dropped his light. It was quite a horrific sight even for a detective with his record of dealing with the criminal insane and the homicidal maniacs that plagued Gotham on a daily schedule. None of the serial killers he had witnessed did not even kill in such a grisly manner. Some of there tongues had been ripped out and placed where the eye sockets had formerly been, and their eyes were placed in a mouth that had been forced open and held open by a small knife.

Batman suddenly felt a presence behind him. Turning quickly he found only shadows. He was sure it was someone, but it was someone who moved like no one he had ever known. He felt a hand brush against his shoulder but when he reached only a wisp of smoke could be felt.

“WWAAAYYYYNNNNEEEEEEE . . . IIIIIIIIIIII . . . HUNNNNNGGGGGERRR!!!!!!”  

The voice filled the air. But did not seem to becoming from anyone direction. No, instead it was coming from his own head. A form of telepathy, but it hurt as the snake like voice burrowed in his mind attempting to rot it out like a worm that lives in the apple. A worm that never dies, a worm that’s appetite is never quenched. A great figure came from the shadows catching the Batman in a steel grip. Batman attempted to struggle but it was in vain against the shadows black grip.

Adam and Owen Reese stood before the  power of the Doom Supreme. “Do the two of you think to unseat me!”

“You mean the three of us!” Owen waved his hand and an enraged High Evolutionary was restored to his former status.

The battle was joined as the three of then released a searing blast of might, which sent Doom back, but only a single step. Doom smiled victoriously. “As I said I am supreme, and though I desired no conflict, I will brook no rebellion.” Doom gestured and the High Evolutionary and Warlock were scattered leaving only Reese and Doom, face-to-face.

“So it comes to us as I knew it had to be. Now we shall see who is mightier creator or created!” There hands were joined as the universe around them began to shake and turn inside out, only one could be left standing, only one could be supreme.

“I protected us from the brunt of his blow, God Slayer, but   he operates on levels even unimaginable to me,” uttered the High Evolutionary.

“I sense another in this conflict,” said Warlock as he looked about. There was the smell of brimstone and the Dark Lord himself appeared.

“Greetings,” said Mephisto. “Soon I will be in possession of the Beyonders might, a portion which I had siphoned off long ago when he created a machine which I used to capture his unimaginable might, so much more then even a cosmic cube.”

“Didn't you tell me that the cubes were able to tap into an infinite storehouse of might.” declared Warlock, it was not a question.

“But only if certain taboos could be over ridden, or corrupted,” said a grinning Mephisto, “which seed is a being called Rune, and he has tainted the Beyonders making them susceptible for the usurpation of their power. “Doom saw something similar,” Mephisto continued with a toothy grin. “But as powerful and as intelligent as Doctor Doom is he is a mortal. And I am ancient beyond  imagination, Doom will be weakened by his battle with the Molecule Man, and in that state he shall be prey to my wiles and to my own tap with the Beyonders might through my agent Rune.”

Mephisto roared a laugh of pure delight, grinning devilishly at Warlock’s direction. The words “All is lost . . .” hissed from his mouth like venom.

Continued in issue #16

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