When in
his green amphibious beast-man form, Doctor Stephen
Strange - more commonly known as the Mysterious
Stranger - was often called 'Doc Savage'. In
actuality, the name of his alternate form was
Xin'garoth, and it was the host of a non-sentient
demonic entity of the same name. None of that was
relevant, however - all anyone who met Xin'garoth
needed to know was that he was tough, difficult to
control, and powerful beyond measure.
Having
spent several hours wandering the forests of
Symkaria, Doc Savage found himself wandering along
the side of a river, his mind focusing on nothing in
particular. It was not the beauty of the scenery that
caused his mind to relax; it was, instead, a mystical
barrage that had assailed him shortly before his
arrival on the world he presently inhabited*.
[ - back in #7 - Adrian ]
Doc
Savage slowly waded into the water, oblivious to the
attempts of the current to slow his journey. The
river proved to have significant depth, and Doc
Savage soon found himself entirely submerged. Again,
he was not bothered by the change in environment; his
amphibious nature rendered him immune to the effects
of being underwater.
However,
something did cause his body to react, even
if his mind remained unaware of what was going on
around him. A putrid chemical permeated the aquatic
atmosphere and attacked his thick hide, not causing
any specific injury but still causing him to slow and
to weaken. He tried to push through it, but instead
began to stumble as his legs suddenly lacked the
strength to support his forward momentum.
He
fell, hitting the riverbed face first, and did not
rise.
"Um...
no."
Ph-Eros
could not believe the words that he had just heard
spoken by his young teammate, Firefly. They seemed to
hang in the air between them, as if somehow tangible,
like a poison which, if not cleared quickly enough,
would permanently and severely damage them in some
manner.
"You're
upset," Ph-Eros said. "I understand. But
there's no way either of us could take on Doc Savage,
and even if we could... look, kid..." He stared
at Firefly for a moment, taking in his emotionless
expression, and wondered how serious he was.
"Just go to sleep. Forget about it."
Firefly
shook his head. "What do you mean we couldn't
take him on? I've seen your power. You can calm him
down - control him."
"Go
to bed, Firefly. Now."
Firefly
shrugged, turned, and walked out of the room. Ph-Eros
let out a deep sigh and slid down into his bed,
wrapping the covers tightly around his body. He
thought briefly of Firefly's position - he was the
youngest member of the team, perhaps the least
mature, and he had been overlooked for the majority
of the time they had been together. He could
understand the boy's frustration; dragged from his
own timeline and across a number of unknown worlds.
But Ph-Eros also realised that he, and the other
Exiles, had also endured the same experiences.
I
don't need to deal with this, he thought to
himself. I was fine on my own... then I got
dragged into this mess... and of course, stupid me
develops an attachment to the first guy to
bite the dust. And Firefly... no. I'm not here to
babysit the kid.
His
mind wandered and began to be taken over by thoughts
of the seemingly close relationship between Joseph
and Aleta. The two oldest Exiles had appeared to come
together almost immediately, and had not been
separated for more than a few moments at a time
since. He wondered if anything special was going on
between them, and inevitably his thoughts drifted to
Scamp and Daywalker.
During
the night spent on Daywalker's world, Ph-Eros had
noticed Scamp entering their teammate's bedroom...
and she didn't come out. He could only guess at what
had gone on, but from Daywalker's intense fear of her
being in any way harmed*, he felt safe in his suspicions. Yet,
all she seemed to care about now was defending
Nachtgleiskette, and he didn't want to hear
any of that.
[ * - also in #7 - Also Adrian ]
No...
he had been okay on his own for a long time, and
that's the way things were going to stay.
Firefly's
Symkarian dress fell away from his body as he shrunk
to the size of the insect whose name he bore and
thin, translucent wings sprouted from slits in his
back. The wings began to beat so quickly that a dull
buzzing sound radiated from them, but he knew that
while the sound was loud to him, it was almost
imperceptible to almost everyone else; it was this
ability alone that enabled him to slip past the armed
guards he had seen standing at each exit of the wing
of the castle that the Exiles were allowed to rest
in.
He
buzzed through the castle's corridors, ignored by the
building's security cameras like any other insect. He
was searching for something, and while he knew which
room it was likely to be in, he did not know where
that room was.
He
flitted past talking officials and patrolling guards,
but it was some time before one of them mentioned
'the weird ball'. The guard explained to his friend
that it was being studied by scientists only a few
rooms away; Firefly buzzed off, and it was not longer
before he squeezed his way through a narrow opening
into a laboratory where the 'weird ball' - the orb
Spratt had given the Exiles shortly before they
departed the year 8162 - rested in a glass case,
observed by half a dozen scientists.
Savage
knows what the orb is, Firefly thought to
himself. Maybe he has some connection to it -
maybe it can help me find him!
He
landed on a polished metal surface and watched for
what seemed like hours - but, a clock on the wall
told him, were mere minutes - as scientists bombarded
the orb with a variety of forms of energy, none of
which affected it in the slightest. It was not much
longer before all but one of the scientists left the
room, and Firefly saw his opportunity. He flew across
the room and hovered just behind the woman's head; he
waited; she turned; and a very narrow stream of fire
arced from his hand into her ear.
It was
not enough to cause any significant injury, but it was
enough to hurt.
"ARGH!"
she yelped, as she ran from the room clutching her
ear.
Firefly
smiled as he turned back to the orb. He returned to
his normal size and approached the glass case, which
smashed easily as he slid it off the pedestal on
which it stood. The orb rolled towards him and he
picked it up. He returned to insect-size and began to
fly again, grateful for the tendency of Pym particles
to allow their users to retain their normal strength
regardless of their size, and carried the orb outside
of the castle and into the nearby forest.
Aleta
sat at the end of a long, lavishly-decorated bed,
trying to make sense of the events that had taken
place since the last time she had had the chance to
relax. Despite her recent determination to do
whatever she had to to get back to her own life*, she found recent events -
the death of Daywalker, the team's capture - to be a
little more than she could bear.
[ * - in #6. - Adrian ]
What's
worse, she no longer had Spratt's orb, which seemed
to be essential to the group's mission.
Even
worse than that was the knowledge that she was, in
many ways, alone. Away from the Guardians of the
Galaxy, away from Kristoff (the man she loved), away
from Vance (the man she used to love), and even
somehow separate from the rest of the Exiles, as she
remained the only one to hear the sporadic
instructions from their mysterious master.
Daywalker's
death, the sudden jaunts through time and space -
that, she realised, she could deal with... if given
enough time. But being alone... that was something
else entirely.
She
stood and made her way to the room next door, where
Joseph lay spread out on a bed identical to the one
in Aleta's own room. His eyes were closed, but his
breathing was too shallow for him to have been
sleeping.
Of
course, that's something I would notice, Aleta
rolled her eyes as the thought entered her head. I've
slept beside enough men to know when they are really
down for the night.
"Joseph...?"
she whispered from the doorway.
Joseph
sat up and saw her, then motioned for her to enter.
Aleta stood beside his bed then, after a moment, sat
down and looked Joseph in the eye.
"What
is it?" he asked. "Did you have another -
"
"No,
no commands this time," she told him.
"Maybe we're here just for the chance to
rest?"
"I
think we deserve it." Aleta saw Joseph's lips
begin to curl into a smile, but they quickly reverted
back into his usual, flat-line grimace. It occurred
to her that Joseph had never really seemed happy; not
overly upset, either - he, more than anyone else,
seemed to be 'rolling with the punches' as far as
adapting to their new situation, but he did always
seem like just one more thing could tip him over the
edge, and she wondered whether it was fair to him to
do what she was about to do.
"Joseph..."
"Yes?"
She
took a deep breath. "It has not been long since
we were all brought together. I'm not sure, because
of all the time-hopping, but I think it has only been
two, maybe three days?"
"Close
to three," Joseph confirmed.
Aleta
nodded. "Right. During that time, we've formed
our own groups... you, Firefly and I. Scamp, Ph-Eros
and Daywalker... and the Stranger... But I think, if
we were all brought together for this mission - to
learn what we can in order to change our own worlds
for the better - then we must have been
chosen for a reason. Yet will all that's
been going on, we haven't really tried to learn what
we have in common, and what that reason might be. In
fact, it seems we've all been deliberately secretive,
putting walls between us when we should have been
bringing them down."
"I
agree," Joseph said.
"I
thought... perhaps the two of us could set an
example. Make the effort, and bring the team
together... because it is just too much, now, for any
of us to try to handle everything on our own. We're
so exhausted, we haven't even..." Aleta's voice
trailed off for a moment, then:
"Nachtgleiskette!"
"What...?"
Joseph wondered.
"We've
been so overwhelmed, so exhausted, we haven't even
spoken to Nachtgleiskette! He was going to tell us
how we can save Daywalker!"
Joseph
stood, and took Aleta's hand. "Then let's speak
to him now. Together."
"Wake
up, you monstrous mal - "
Namor
stopped speaking as Doc Savage's eyes fluttered open
and the great beast coughed, spilling lungfuls of
toxic water onto the ground beside him. Namor smiled
at the stranger's recovery.
"You
are amphibious. Are you one of - "
Doc
Savage stood and began to walk, cutting Namor off in
mid-sentence as he pushed past him.
"You
dare ignore me?!" Namor shouted after him.
"I am Namor, scion of Atlantis! No creature that
breathes water can defy my will!"
Apparently,
Doc Savage could, as he continued walking along the
riverbank, heading nowhere in particular, seemingly
oblivious to Namor's presence.
Elsewhere
in the forest, Firefly zoomed between branches and
eaves, the strange orb glowing intermittently in his
hands. He was not sure why it was glowing,
but he continued to hope that it was, somehow,
guiding him towards Savage.
He had
been flying for hours, and was beginning to tire -
but somewhere inside, he knew he had reserves of
strength; the kind of strength kept aside for the
moments that really mattered... like trying to kill a
monster more than twice your size in revenge for
killing someone you hardly knew while in an
uncontrollable rage.
Okay,
so when phrased like that, it didn't sound too
rational.
The
left side of the orb pulsated, and Firefly quickly
turned to his left and saw, a few feet ahead of him,
a large clearing that sloped down towards a river.
Two men walked along it: one was pale, and wore a
black, tight-fitting suit with gold highlights; the
other was Doc Savage.
Firefly
increased his speed and shot straight for Savage's
back, allowing himself to grow as he did so. With the
increased weight came increased momentum, and he
found himself colliding with the behemoth's bulky
frame with such force that Savage fell forward.
Firefly settled on the ground and retracted his
wings, then tossed the orb away.
"You're
dead, Savage," he said simply.
Namor
rushed to Savage's side. "What is the meaning of
this?" he asked angrily.
"Stay
out of this, sir!" Firefly demanded. "This
monster is a killer, and he needs to be
punished."
"I
am Prince Namor of Atlantis, and - "
"Atlantis?
As in, underwater?"
"Yes.
I - "
"I
think this will really hurt." Firefly raised his
left hand and pointed towards Namor. A thick jet of
bright orange fire shot from his fingertip and
covered the Atlantean monarch, but rather than growl
Namor let loose a roar of thunderous rage and began
to march closer to Firefly. Yet with each step, he
became visibly weaker, and before he covered even
half the distance between himself and the young Exile
he found he needed water, quickly. He dived into the
nearby river the surface of which, polluted as it
was, burst into flame behind him.
Firefly
turned his attention to Savage and began bombarding
the other Exile with flame. At first, Savage seemed
completely unaware of the added heat, so intense that
even his thick skin began to blister and
boil. After several long moments he took a step back,
and then another, but Firefly pressed his slow attack
and, as he realised that it must be hurting
Savage - despite the lack of any visible response to
such pain - he began to smile.
Suddenly,
Firefly realised that he had started to grow - and
the intensity of his flame had grown with him. The
long black hair burned off Savage's head, and with
his increased height Firefly could clearly see the
burning scalp underneath; and, beyond Savage, the
strange orb glowing furiously.
Before
Firely could do anything, a figure so dark he was
almost invisible stepped out of the shadow between
two trees and scooped up the orb. It was
Nachtgleiskette, and as the sphere settled into the
palm of his hand he smiled, and Firefly could clearly
see his golden mouth widen.
"Exile,"
Nachtgleiskette said. "You must stop your
attack."
"No!"
Firefly cried angrily, growing still larger. "He
killed our friend!"
"He
was out-of-control," Nachtgleiskette told him.
"You saw that for yourself. He did not choose
to kill the Daywalker."
"But
he did kill him!"
Nachtgleiskette
frowned. "You need to end your assault, Exile.
The monster is subject to a condition beyond his
control, and should not be punished. And even were
that not the case, this device seems to want to
communicate with you."
Firefly
closed his hand, and the flaming barrage stopped.
Savage still burned, his hair and skin having been
thoroughly ignited; but without the continued
assault, the flame was bearable, and he continued his
slow walk by the river's edge.
Firefly
returned to his normal size and crossed the clearning
to where Nachtgleiskette stood, and took the glowing
orb from his hand. His mind flashed with images of
Savage, but they were all images he had already seen:
the barren wasteland, where Ph-Eros first used his
own powers to turn Savage back into the Mysterious
Stranger; the blow which called Daywalker. They
repeated again and again in his mind, making no
sense, giving him no reason to change his mind about
Savage. Then, just as suddenly as they had started,
the images stopped, and the orb's glow dulled.
"Hmmmm..."
Nachtgleiskette mused.
"What?"
Firefly asked. He turned to follow Nachtgleiskette's
line of sight and saw, walking by the river, not the
burnt green form of Doc Savage, but the pale, lanky,
pink body of the Mysterious Stranger.
NEXT ISSUE: Sanctuary!
AND IN EXILES DX #1: Meet
Valour. Meet Airwave. Meet "crazy armoured
guy". Meet the first clue as to what brought the
Exiles together... and why...
