Listen
up Game fans, 'cause this is only comin' once!
In
one cornah, we have Dragon's Claws - the best Game
team ever to set foot on this 'ere Earth! Dragon,
Mercy, Scavenger, Digit, and Steel... how can anyone
hope the beat them down? Especially on the Claws'
home turf?
In
th' other cornah, we got the Exiles - new to the
Game, and apparently weaponless! Do Aleta, Scamp,
Firefly, Doc Savage, Daywalker, and Ph-Eros have what
it takes to earn the title of the 'best players in
the world'?
I
doubt it!
Now...
LET'S GET READY TO RUUUUMMMBLE!
Dragon's Claws' Base
If the Exiles hadn't just walked
through a mechanised steel door set into a long steel
wall, they never would have guessed that they were
inside a building in the middle of the eighty-second
century London desert.
All around them were boulders and
small mounds of rubble, with the occasional trench or
fallen tree. A few hundred meters away in every
direction, tall mountains rose into the sky. Above
them, they could see the clear blue sky stretching
forever in every direction.
But they knew better - they were in
the headquarters of Dragon's Claws, the world's
premiere Game players. What the Exiles
didn't know, however, is what the Game was -
although there was little doubt that they would soon
be finding out.
"Let the Game begin!"
a loud voice blared over a public address system.
From all of the various rock mounds,
laser rifles on swiveling bases sprung forth, aimed
at the Exiles. Instinctively, Aleta erected a solid
light shield around her body just as the rifles
fired. She, and most of the Exiles, were uninjured in
the attack; Scamp, however, was not so lucky.
A crimson laser blast struck the young
woman's shoulder, sending her reeling. She fell to
the ground, the torn red fabric on the right shoulder
of her uniform growing dark as it was stained with
blood.
"SCAMP!" Firefly cried as
the unconscious girl did not rise. In less than a
second he had shrunk to the size of an insect, and
two barely visible translucent wings had sprung from
his back. He flapped his way over to the end of the
rifle that had fired at Scamp, touched it, and with a
dim silver flash the end of the rifle was reduced to
slag.
The boy has powers, Aleta
thought. I wonder why he waited until now to
reveal them?
Scamp was unconscious, and this simply
added to Firefly's rage. He swooped and ducked
quickly, blasting many of the laser turrets but
damaging only a few.
"Firefly, stop!" Aleta
called. "Attacking like that will get us
nowhere. We need to formulate a plan..."
"Face it, babe," Ph-Eros
said from Aleta's right, "by the looks of it,
he's the only one of us that can do any damage. My
powers are useless against those turrets, and from
what I know Daywalker's are useless as well. It's up
to you and bugboy there to fight this fight!"
While Ph-Eros and Aleta spoke, Firefly
took out most of the turrets. He was too small for
them to lock onto, and he managed to get to them
before they could blast any of his teammates.
"Nice work, Exiles," the
loud voice blared again. "Now for something
completely different."
The complex suddenly grew very dark.
Aleta attempted to raise her arms to defend herself,
but as soon as she twitched she felt her arms pinned
back very forcefully. She tried to pull herself free,
but the figure that was holding her wrapped it's leg
around hers, rendering her totally unable to move.
Suddenly, bright white lights began to
flash on and off suddenly, accompanying by an
incredibly loud wailing sound. Aleta tried to call
out to her teammates, but any sound that she made was
lost in the horrible din.
One sound did manage to penetrate the
wailing. Behind her, Aleta could hear a bellowing
sound as the Doctor began to transform. She heard the
Doctor roar loudly as he ended his transition into
Doc Savage.
He bounded forward, and Aleta managed
to catch a few glimpses of him in the almost blinding
white flashes of light. He barreled right past her,
and suddenly, the flashes stopped and wailing
stopped.
"Doctor, help me!" she
yelled before her mouth was covered by a gloved hand.
Aleta began to be dragged backwards, but after a few
moments she heard Ph-Eros' somewhat feminine voice
murmur "Release" and her captor's grip
slackened.
Aleta jutted her elbow back, and he
figure that had been holding her fell to the ground
with a thud. She could not see her fallen enemy or
Ph-Eros. She concentrated for a moment, and her hands
began to glow, surrounded by orbs of solid light.
They lit up the area for about half a meter in every
direction, and Aleta could finally see Ph-Eros
standing a few feet away.
Doc Savage still bellowed in the
distance, but Aleta could not see him.
"Ph-Eros," she began,
"see if you can - ugh!"
She was interrupted by a leg swinging
around and knocking her legs out from under her. She
fell to the ground, her solid light globes
disappearing. Her attacked wrapped it's arms around
her legs and rolled her away from Ph-Eros. Aleta
kicked one of her legs out and felt it contact with
her attacker just as the light suddenly came back on
in the facility.
"Who are you?" Aleta asked.
"Why do you insist on engaging us in
combat?"
"I am Mercy, a member of Dragon's
Claws," Aleta's attacker, a white-haired young
woman garbed in pink tights began, "mine is a
rather ironic name - for mercy is not something I
often show!"
From her sleeve came a long shiv that
Mercy hurled at Aleta's head. Aleta barely managed to
duck as it came whizzing past.
"That answers my first question.
Now, why are you fighting us?"
"Are you an idiot? We're rival Game
teams. It's what we do!"
Aleta kicked her legs free and jumped
to her feet as Mercy did the same. She took a quick
look around the room and saw Daywalker lunging to
tackle an olive-skinned man with goggles and orange
hair; Doc Savage, in his burly green form, had his
arms pinned by a yellow-skinned man with slanted
eyes; Firefly was nowhere to be seen; and above it
all, on top of a huge mound of rocks stood a man in
green body armour carrying a large rifle.
Aleta turned back to Mercy.
"Listen, we don't even know what this Game is!
We didn't come here to fight! We came here seeking
information!"
"Sure," Mercy said, lunging
for Aleta. She leaped into the air, crashed into
Aleta, and brought the heroine to the ground.
"Digit, it's time to finish this."
Aleta followed Mercy's gaze, which had
wandered to the rock mound. Inside a small crevice
was a short, red-haired man busily handling a
computer. He turned from the computer for a moment to
retrieve three odd-looking shackles. He threw one to
the man that was holding Doc Savage, and climbed out
of the crevice to approach Mercy.
"Daywalker!" Aleta yelled.
"Retreat! Find Joseph!"
Daywalker, distracted by Aleta, fell
prey to his opponent's attack. A metal-gloved hand
struck Daywalker's chin and knocked him to the
ground.
From the top of the mound, the
armoured man raised his hand. "Let the lady go,
Mercy."
"But we've got them, Dragon! I -
"
"I said to let her go."
Mercy climbed off of Aleta, and Aleta
stood and brushed herself off. Her costume was
slightly torn from her left shoulder to her neck, but
there was nothing she could really do about it.
Mercy stepped back, scowling, as
Dragon approached Aleta.
"I don't think you came here to
fight us. I'm Dragon, leader of Dragon's Claws. Who
are you?" Dragon asked.
"I am Aleta," Aleta replied.
"The people that I came here with are the
Exiles. We wanted information, and someone named
Deller outside said we should ask here."
"Ms. Deller is my wife,"
Dragon explained. "I am sorry about your
friends. I'll see to it that they get medical
attention." Dragon snapped his fingers, and the
Exiles were led away - except for Doc Savage. He
thrashed about, and Aleta finally realised that
Ph-Eros was missing.
"Steel will be able to handle the
green oaf," Dragon said. "What is it that
you wanted to know?"
"We need to find a man named
Spratt."
"Spratt..." Dragon spat at
the ground. "Spratt is a member of another game
team. A very bad game team that we were about to take
out. Scavenger," Dragon indicated the man who
had been fighting Daywalker, "was also a member
of their group."
"I need to find them, and I need
the Exiles to come with me - "
"The Exiles aren't going
anywhere. Mercy and I will come with you. We can
protect you better than they can anyway."
This isn't going well at all, Aleta
thought.
Outside Dragon's Claws' Base
Joseph had walked across the desert
for two hours before finding the Exiles. He'd been
wary of using his powers as Aleta had, for fear that
in this world, like the world that he had been
plucked from, the populace would fear mutants and
their amazing abilities.
When he finally arrived at the
settlement that housed the base of Dragon's Claws, he
was stunned to find a mob gathered around the
three-storey building in the center of town.
He approached a gawker, and asked what
was going on.
"Dragon's Claws are fighting a
new game team," the gawker explained, "some
group calling themselves the 'Exiles'. We're waiting
for the announcement of the victor!"
Joseph furrowed his brow. "What
is 'the game'?"
"You don't know? What rock do you
crawl out from under, buddy?" the man asked.
"The Game, devised by the World
Development Council to curb civil unrest, involves
two teams with a varying number of plays fighting
through any means necessary. Most teams avoid using
lethal force, but some don't. When one team is no
longer able to fight, the other team wins.
Simple."
"Are Dragon's Claws a good
team?"
"The best. No-one has ever fought
them twice."
Joseph felt anxious. Did the man mean
that Dragon's Claws killed their opponents? Were the
Exiles - was Aleta - dead? He had to know. He
concentrated, allowing his ability to manipulate
magnetism come to the fore. When he was ready, he
unleashed the full fury of his powers, wrenching off
one of the steel plates that formed one wall of the
base.
"Whoa!" the gawker cried as
many heads turned to see what had happened. "How
did you - "
Joseph didn't let the man finish. He
strolled into the base, where the many mounds of
rocks and dirt had been replaced by cold metal walls.
In one corner sat Digit, unaware of Joseph's presence
as he busily typed away at his computer.
Joseph waved his hand in the
computer's direction, and the machine switched off.
"Where are the Exiles?" Joseph asked.
Digit turned in his seat to face
Joseph. He was carrying a long laser rifle.
The Desert
The Dragon's Claws sandsled sped
across the dusty desert with Mercy at the controls as
Dragon and Aleta spoke inside the vehicle's cabin. It
was a rickety machine, and Aleta feared that if it
hit even a slight bump that it would fall to pieces.
It was all that she could do to keep her balance as
the sled moved forward at immense speed.
"Why do you want Spratt?"
Dragon asked.
"We need his help."
"Doing what?"
"I don't think that that is any
of your business."
Dragon grabbed Aleta's arm roughly.
"I decide what is my business. Tell me what you
need Spratt for. Now."
Aleta pulled her arm free. "Do
not dare to touch me again," she stepped back.
"Spratt is supposed to help us build a device to
prevent a robotic bounty hunter arriving in this
timeline."
"A robot? I don't believe any of
it."
"I am telling the truth,"
Aleta said. "You will see when we get to
Spratt."
Inside
Dragon's Claws' Base
Digit
was no longer carrying a long laser rifle.
It now
hovered two feet away from his face, aimed squarely
at the space between his eyes.
"Where
are the Exiles?" Joseph asked.
"How
are you doing that?!?" Digit asked, terrified.
"How're you making my rifle just float
there?"
"I
am a mutant," Joseph explained. "I am a
master of magnetism. Answer my question."
"I
don't know what a mutant is, man!" Digit cried.
"But your friends are through there." He
pointed to a small, open doorway on the other side of
the room. Joseph turned to the door as Digit reached
for a knife in his pocket. Before Digit could throw
it, Joseph swung the rifle around, hitting Digit in
the face with it's butt. The red-haired man fell to
the ground.
Joseph
determinedly walked out of the room as the many
gawkers he had seen outside stared in amazement. When
he entered the next chamber, he saw the Exiles being
dragged through another doorway. He used his powers
to tear a piece of steel plating out of the wall
through which the door allowed access, and stormed
through it.
"Let
my associates go," Joseph demanded. It was then
that he noticed Firefly, Ph-Eros and Aleta were not
among the captive Exiles. "Where are the other
Exiles?" he asked.
Scavenger
dropped Scamp, whom he was holding under one arm, and
let go of Daywalker, whom he was dragging behind him.
He snarled at Joseph before looking at Steel, who was
easily restraining Doc Savage.
Steel
nodded, and Scavenger leaped. He sprang high into the
air, pulling a shiv from the inside of his right
pants leg as he came down towards Joseph. Joseph
flexed his wrist, and the metal shiv was forcefully
pulled to the ceiling, where it was magnetically
held. Scavenger's hand was crushed between the shiv
and the ceiling.
"Ungh!"
Scavenger cried out as Joseph turned his attention to
Steel.
"Let
the Doctor go," Joseph said, walking over to
stand beside the green behemoth and it's captor.
Steel shook his head, and before Joseph could react
he stuck out his leg and kicked Joseph hard in the
ribs.
"Uh!"
Joseph yelped, stumbling back out of Steel's reach.
"Relax,"
Joseph heard Ph-Eros' familiar voice whisper. Steel
slumped to the ground, releasing Doc Savage who
immediately turned toward Joseph. "Calm,"
Ph-Eros said, making Savage revert to the calm form
of Stephen Strange.
"Where
are Aleta and Firefly?" Joseph asked, clutching
his ribs as he tried to stand.
"They're
on their way somewhere with Dragon, the man whose
'Claws' we just fought. Dragon is showing them where
to find that Spratt guy," Ph-Eros explained.
"I smuggled Firefly aboard their little sled in
case Aleta needed back-up while I rescued everybody
else."
"Excellent
job," Joseph said sarcastically. "Where
were you while I fought the asians and the man with
the gun?"
"I
was looking for somewhere to patch Scamp up,
actually," Ph-Eros answered. "She's hurt.
Badly."
"That
can be dealt with later," Joseph said.
"Tell me which way Aleta and Dragon went."
"I
don't know," Ph-Eros said.
"I
can find them," the Doctor said. He looked
to the sky and closed his eyes, and started to
levitate. He passed through the solid steel ceiling
and out of sight.
"That
man is insufferable!" Joseph yelled.
"I
don't think you're listening, Joseph. Scamp is badly
hurt. We need to help her."
"Fine,"
Joseph muttered. "What do we do?"
The
Chaney Maximum Security Prison
The
Chaney Maximum Security Prison was built in 8113 to
house the criminals that society had decided it
wanted to lose forever. The lowest of the low -
murderers, rapists, and above all Game cheats -
were sent there to see how well they could fend among
their own rotten kind.
Then,
in 8152, it was discovered that the prison had been
built on a major fault line. Whether or not this was
accidental was never determined. In fact, there was
no documentation to support that anyone even asked
whether or not the prison was placed on the fault
line intentionally.
The
prison was swallowed up by the Earth in less than ten
minutes. The authorities assumed that all prisoners
on the lower levels had been killed instantly.
They
were wrong.
But
Dragon's Claws knew the truth.
As the
Claws' sandsled dipped into the canyon that contained
what was left of the prison, Aleta was stunned. The
hole in which the prison sat was surrounded on all
sides by seemingly unscalable cliffs. Aleta doubted
that anybody who still lived in the prison could
obtain food or water from the outside, but apparently
the prison's occupants did.
"Spratt
is in there?" she asked incredulously.
"Yes,"
Dragon replied. "He and the cheating game team
to which he belonged were sent to Chaney years ago,
before an earthquake swallowed the prison. The
prisoners have now banded together and call
themselves the Chain Gang, now, and even have their
own Game team that the Claws have fought on more than
one occasion."
"Your
friend Scavenger was a member of this group?"
"Yes.
We were going to use information that he gave us to
take the Chain Gang out once and for all."
"You
mean that you were going to kill them?" Aleta
asked. Dragon didn't answer.
The
skysled settled a few dozen meters away from the
prison, and it's occupants stepped out to approach
the giant pit in which the prison rested. When they
were a meter away, Mercy forcefully shifted a boulder
that had been covering a passage that Aleta guessed
would lead into the prison.
Mercy
leaped into the hole, and Aleta turned to Dragon.
"You
go first," Dragon insisted, pointing his rifle
at Aleta. Aleta followed Mercy, and found that a
flight of very steep stairs had been dug into the
side of the tunnel. With some level of difficulty she
was able to scale them, and she eventually found
herself standing beside Mercy in a dimly lit room. As
Dragon arrived behind Aleta, the lights came on and
Aleta saw that on the other side of the room, no less
than ten men stood, armed to the teeth with chains
strapped across their chests.
"Well
well well," one of the men, wearing a red suit
of armour, blue boots, and spiked silver shoulder
pads remarked. "Look who's come back. Here to
kidnap another of our members, Dragon?"
"Maybe,
Fox," Dragon replied. "We're here to see
Spratt."
"Over
my dead body!" Fox yelled. He turned to one of
his companions and tore the chains off of the man's
otherwise bare chest. Taking one in each hand, he
began to rapidly spin them around his head. Dragon
did not prepare to defend himself - instead, he
nodded at Mercy.
Mercy
jumped at Fox, and in one swift movement she grabbed
the chains that Fox had been preparing to use as
weapons. She landed and pulled, drawing Fox close so
that she could kick him - hard - in the stomach. Fox
reeled back, and snapped his fingers to summon his
men to battle.
"Are
you an idiot, Fox?" Dragon asked.
"No,
I - " Before Fox could properly respond, Dragon
nodded to Mercy again and the white-haired vixen
pulled hard on the chain in her right hand. Fox
tripped, and fell flat on the ground in front of
Mercy. Mercy pulled on the other chain, lifting Fox's
torso up, and said "You should have dropped the
chains, genius." before making sure that his
face connected with her boot with a sickening snap.
"You
were right, Dragon. He was an idiot," Mercy said
smugly.
Dragon
smirked. "Fox could kick all of your butts, and
look at what Mercy did to him. Do the rest of you
wish to join him on the floor?"
Fox's
men shook their heads and backed as far away from
Dragon as they could.
"Now
where's Spratt?" Dragon asked. One of Fox's men
pointed to a doorway beside the entrance to the
tunnel that Dragon, Mercy, and Aleta had used to gain
access to the subterranean prison.
"Mercy,
stay here and watch them," Dragon ordered.
"Come on, Aleta. We'll find Spratt, but if you
lied to me..."
"I
did not lie, Dragon," Aleta insisted,
stepping in front of Dragon and leading the way.
Dragon's
Claws' Base
Joseph
and Ph-Eros had finally found a medical bay inside
the sprawling complex that served as the base of
Dragon's Claws. The medical machinery turned out to
be quite primitive by both Ph-Eros and Joseph's
standards, and Joseph had easily been able to set
Scamp and Daywalker up while Ph-Eros watched. Joseph
explained the basics to Ph-Eros, so that the young
mutant would know what to do in the case of an
emergency.
"I'm
going to find Aleta," Joseph said. "While
we were looking for this room, I saw a communications
center. There was a monitor that was following a
moving vehicle. If that is the vehicle in which Aleta
and Dragon departed, I will follow it and join
them."
Ph-Eros
nodded. "You tied up the Claws?"
"Yes,"
Joseph replied as he left the room, "after a
fashion."
Ph-Eros
smiled as Joseph departed, wondering just what the
master of magnetism meant. When Joseph was gone, he
watched Scamp for a few minutes before reviewing
Daywalker's vital statistics. It was only then that
he noticed something startling. According to the
instruments in the medical bay, Daywalker's heart was
not beating, but when Ph-Eros examined his companion
he discovered that the man was breathing.
"What
the...?" Ph-Eros wondered aloud.
The
Chaney Maximum Security Prison
The
door to which Dragon and Aleta had been referred led
directly to Spratt's laboratory. Spratt was a young
scientist, and before being sent to prison with the
rest of the Game team that would one day form the
Chain Gang, he had been responsible for devising
armoured suits and weapons for his teammates to use
while playing the Game.
His
time in prison had allowed him to refine and further
his abilities, and he had eventually become one of
the world's top engineers - even if the rest of the
world would never know.
He
stood over some test tubes that were filled with
orange liquid, his back to Aleta and Dragon as they
entered the laboratory. He had medium-length curly
red hair, pointy, protruding ears, and wore an old
army officer's uniform. At his side were two gun
holsters, but instead of guns they held long knives.
"Spratt?"
Aleta asked. Spratt turned, clumsily knocking over
the test tubes that he had been looking at earlier.
"Darn!"
he muttered. "Who are you?"
"I
am Aleta," Aleta replied, "and this is -
"
"I
know who he is."
"Very
well. I am here to seek your aid, Spratt."
Spratt
laughed, and Aleta saw that he also had a pair of
bucked teeth. "You're joking, right?"
"I
am certainly not. I have been sent to obtain your
services," Aleta said seriously.
"I'm
listening."
"I
have been sent from the thirty-first century to
prevent a murderous robot from entering this timeline
and probably killing hundreds or thousands of
people," Aleta explained, "and I was told
that you would be able to help erect a barrier that
could deflect the robot before he could enter this
time continuum."
"Okay,"
Spratt said simply.
"Okay?"
Aleta asked. "You agree to help? I did not think
that you would even believe me." She looked at
Dragon.
"Well,
I don't actually know how to erect a barrier like
that, and I've never dealt with time travel before,
but if you really did come from another point in time
you should have a kind of temporal aura around you
that I can scan, and if I can discover the frequency
on which it resides I can quite probably recreate it
and attach it to another object, sending that
travelling through time."
"I
will take your word for it, Spratt. I did not
understand a word that you said."
"No-one
ever does," Spratt remarked as he fumbled under
a table. "Ah. Stand still." He withdrew a
small, handheld device that he pointed at Aleta.
Aleta immediately moved into a defensive stance, but
Spratt quickly put the device away.
"What
kind of weapon was that?!?" Aleta asked.
"It
wasn't a weapon," Spratt said. "I was
scanning you to find the frequency on which your
temporal aura reverberates."
"Oh,"
Aleta said, bewildered.
"Here
we go," Spratt once again reached under a table
and withdrew a large, fancy looking gun. He pointed
it at Aleta, and at that instant Firefly, who had
been nestled in Aleta's long blonde hair flew out and
returned to full-size, standing between Aleta and the
gun.
"Don't
you dare fire that!" Firefly shouted. "Hand
it over. Now!"
"Firefly...?"
Aleta wondered. "Firefly, there is no danger.
Step away from Spratt."
"He
has a gun, Aleta!" Firefly yelled.
"Yes,"
the Doctor's voice could be heard above the group,
"but his is not the one that is aimed at your
head."
Aleta
and Firefly turned and saw that Dragon had withdrawn
his own weapon and aimed it at the back of Firefly's
head, despite now looking up at the Doctor's floating
form.
"Where
the hell did you two come from?!" Dragon asked.
"Somewhere
beyond your ken," the Doctor replied. He looked
down at Dragon, made a slight hand movement, and a
blue streak quickly moved from his hand to Dragon's
head. Dragon remained perfectly still.
"Fine,"
Firefly said. "Keep your gun, but at least
explain how it works to us."
"There
won't be time for that," Spratt explained.
"According to my scanner, temporal energy not
unlike that which surrounds your bodies is building
up in this room."
"What
does that mean?" Firefly asked.
"A
time traveler is on it's way," the Doctor
replied.
The
Doctor was right. Behind Aleta and Firefly, a
sparkling ball of blue energy appeared, and began to
grow larger. Aleta and Firefly turned and, upon
seeing it, stepped away from it.
"If
I'm right, when your robotic friend appears I should
be able to fire this at him and he'll go back where
he came from," Spratt explained.
"And
if you're wrong?" Firefly asked.
"You'll
have a robot to deal with. I'm doing you a favour,
remember - don't nag me about it! You're lucky I even
did this, you ungrateful - "
"Spratt?"
Firefly said.
"Yes?"
"Fire
the gun now."
Spratt
looked at where the ball of blue energy had once been
and saw that it had been replaced with a
seven-foot-tall robot. On his back were two maces and
a sword; a spiked shield was attached to his arm; and
two red horns protruded from his forehead.
"I
am Death's Head," it said with a metallic voice,
"a freelan - "
Spratt
fired the gun, hitting the robot in the middle of the
chest. Immediately, the robot began to melt into the
blue energy that it had been earlier.
"This
is becoming a bother, yes?" Death's Head said as
he disappeared in a flash of blue light.
"We
did it!" Firefly cheered.
"It
would seem so," the Doctor said as he passed up
through the ceiling and out of sight once again.
"Thank
you, Spratt," Aleta said. "We would not
have been successful without your help."
"You're
welcome, ma'am," Spratt replied. "Oh,
before I forget, you might want to this with
you!" Spratt placed the gun between his legs and
wrenched off the barrel with his hands. He reached
into the butt of the gun and removed a small clear
orb, which he handed to Aleta.
"What
is this?" Aleta asked.
"When
I scanned you, I noticed something," Spratt
said. "That orb will allow you to - "
Before
Spratt could finish, Firefly and Aleta had both
disappeared in flashes of blue light...
Dragon's
Claws' Base
As
Aleta and Firefly engaged Spratt's help many miles
away, Daywalker and Scamp suddenly woke up.
"Hey!"
Ph-Eros cried, startled. "You're both al -
"
NEXT ISSUE: A world
trapped in darkness... an army of the night... and
only one Exile can save the day in this special
two-part story written by Jensen DuVernet!
