16 October 2020
“My dear, you look divine this evening,” Diamond Dave Dawson said, bending to kiss the air over Jane Valentine’s hand as he ushered her, and the rest of the civilian-clad Vanguard into the Blue Note Room. “But of course you always do… whatever the costume.” His eyes glinted with a hint of mischief, and she gave him a sardonic half-smile that both acknowledged and ignored his double entendre. He knew, of course, that the classic little black dress she wore was almost certainly her Cloak, reconfigured to her current needs.
“Thank you David,” she replied. “And I see you’ve made an effort yourself tonight.” Always a dapper dresser, he was wearing a particularly stylish cut of his usual charcoal gray suit, black shirt, and white tie, but with the addition of an intricately patterned silver waistcoat and matching cufflinks. In his left hand, as always, was his signature walking stick of old Japanese cedar with its Kagami crystal head cut into the cherry blossom sukara pattern.
After greeting the other incognito members of her team, and being introduced to their newest member under the name Peter Preston (using the new image inducer JJ had whipped up for him), David led the group through the Friday night crowd to a large, semi-private alcove overlooking the dance floor. It held a large table with four chairs, two smaller tables with two chairs, and a good view of the stage, where the Charlie Porter Quintet was just starting their first set. Jane slid into a chair at the large table, followed by John and Kyle, with David taking a seat next to her with a a suspiciously smug smile.
Chuck and Cooper took the smaller table next to them, while Jonny and Preston sat down at the furthest table and almost immediately began to arm wrestle. While neither had changed forms, Jane could tell they were both generating a certain amount of heat – something Jonny had only recently learned he could do while still in his human form. She reached up to tap the comms bug in her ear, then stopped. Sighing, she pointedly dropped them from her attention. This was a night off for all of them, and Jane didn’t need to play den mother for once. She’d just have to trust them not to go overboard and burn the place down…
A very pleasant jazz- and conversation-filled hour or so later the Charlie Porter Quintet were taking their first break, and Chuck stood up, stretching. “I think I’ll risk a trip to the restroom,” he said quietly to Jane in passing, giving her a wry grin. She acknowledged his meaning with a raised eyebrow and her usual half-smile.
But of course Jonny couldn’t just let the subtlety speak for itself. “Don’t get sucked into any inter-dimensional portals while you’re peeing!” he called out, just loud enough to be heard only by those nearby. Jane saw Chuck roll his eyes, and was a little surprised when he chose to ignore his friend’s gibe and continue down the steps and into the throng.
“What was that all about?” David asked her, sipping from his rum-and-coke and drawing her attention back to himself. “Some sort of Vanguard in-joke, I assume?”
“Oh, I suppose you could call it that,” Jane sighed. “Awhile back Chuck was on a date and dancing at Mimoza, upstairs, when he stepped into the men’s room, only to find himself… elsewhere. It’s a long story, but he was essentially kidnapped via inter-dimensional portal. He was a little leery of returning tonight, but eventually decided the odds were small of a repeat, especially in a different part of the club.”
“Oh,” David said, looking thoughtful. “Um, the odds might not be so long as he imagines, actually.”
“What?” Jane looked at him sharply. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you do know that Mimoza sits atop a convergence of so-called ley lines, right? Making it a weak point in Earth’s inter-dimensional walls…” David trailed off at her expression. “I assumed you knew that – isn’t that why you were so reluctant to trade me the old warehouse in our deal back in ’73?”
“No I didn’t know that! How the hell would I have known that?” But looking back, suddenly several things clicked into place – things he’d said almost 50 years ago that now took on new meaning. She grimaced in annoyance, and David winced.
“I’m sorry, my dear,” he sighed. “I really did think you understood why I wanted this site so badly. Have you never wondered why there have been so many superhuman “incidents” here, over the years? Or why my insurance premiums are so damn high? The convergence means that openings into extra-realities, which can usually only be reached by geographically fixed “gates,” are possible here as well. I know you know of other such places… Stonehenge, that spot in the Everglades…”
“Not your fault, David, but no, I had no idea about this place,” Jane said, relaxing fractionally. “Still, what are the odds of a repeat with Chuck, specifically? I think—“
She was cut off by the sound of Cooper speaking in her ear over the comm link, from the dance floor. “Artemis, I just sensed a strange flux in the local dimensional fields – I think someone, or something, has opened an inter-dimensional gate nearby.”
“I felt something too, a disturbance in the quantum field,” Kyle chimed in. “I wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but what Cooper says makes sense.”
Jane tapped her earbud. “Chilz, what is your status? Report, please.” There was only silence, She repeated her call.
“Damn! I think I know exactly where that gate opened!” Jane growled. “Vanguard, we’re back on the clock, I’m afraid. Everyone to the main restroom, now please! But try not to draw undue attention to yourselves.”
Moments later the Vanguard, minus Chilz but including Diamond Dave, were in uniform and gathered in the night club’s unisex restroom. A quiet word from their boss had caused two club employees to block off the doors and take up guard outside the restroom to ensure no interruptions. An unhelmeted Scion finished making a tweak to his wrist-comp, and looked up with a smile.
“Given the combined data from Totem and Quanta, I was able to calibrate my sensors to attune to the most recent extra-dimensional vibrations in this space… they’re dropping off quickly, but I think I can amplify and sustain them, at least for awhile.”
“And with that amplification, I’ve got a lock on the… well, wormhole, for want of a better term,” Quanta said, clearly focusing intently invisible to the others. “I can open a portal to whichever extra-reality Chilz was shunted to, but if we’re going to follow him we need to do it soon… I can’t hold this lock forever.”
“Will you be able to get us back?” Artemis asked.
“Probably? I’m 95% sure I can get us home.”
“And I have no doubt at all that I can get us home, if needs be,” Totem assured her.
Artemis looked at Scion, and he gave a short nod. “Alright, we’re going. We can only assume that Chilz’ Ice Giant father has again taken him, and plans to force him to fight in their war on the Aesir. We had no desire to be drawn into this conflict, but no one takes one of ours without repercussions. Let’s make King Logarthin regret involving the Vanguard of Earth!”
At her nod Quanta opened a shimmering silver portal, and the Vanguard stepped through in pairs. Artemis and Quanta were last, and she pulled in David for a quick, but passionate kiss. “No idea how long we’ll be gone, but we will be back!” The last thing she saw as she stepped into the silver haze was his fond, sardonic grin, and his cane raised in farewell, light flaring off its faceted head like silver fire.
• • • • • • •
Chuck was still shaking his head at his friend’s embarrassing antics as he stepped through the unisex restroom’s swinging door… and onto a windy, snow-covered roof of a tower. A tower set atop a hill overlooking a frozen lake and a snow-covered forest of dark fir trees. On the far shore of the lake a battle was raging, between fancy vikings and really big blue giants. A sharp wind blew a freezing, stinging rain into his face… goddamn it! Not again!
“Look, Logarthin, I don’t know what you think —” Chuck’s angry words cut off as he whirled around, expecting to see his “father,” only to find a silver haired man in golden armor, leaning on a great spear. A flowing silver beard poured over his chest, and his right eye was covered by a black leather patch. At first Chuck thought the stranger was short, but then realized he himself was now in his blue Ice Giant form. The man was, in fact, rather tall, if no Giant.
“You’re not my father! Who the hell —“ Again Chuck cut himself off, as realization dawned on him. Really, this could only be one person. The two large ravens circling above him rather clinched it, he thought.
“Indeed, We are not your sire Chuck Logarthinson, and neither Hela nor her realm have anything to to with the matter. It is Wotan, All-Father of the Aesir and King of Asgard, who has summoned you here today.”
Chuck took a minute to let this bizarre new twist sink in. He really was standing on a tower in the middle of a howling winter wilderness, talking to the ruler of the Norse gods while a mythic battle raged behind him. Better than dealing with his “father” he supposed, but still… when had his life become a goddamn myth?
“Well All-Father, I’ll say to you what I was about to say to my own dear old “dad”: I’m not alone this time, and my friends won’t be far behind me.”
“Indeed, that is exactly what We hope for – it is one of the reasons We have brought you here in this manner, Lord Logarthinson. For Asgard has great need of your aid. You and your boon companions, despite their very polite refusal to become involved in this affray which your father has brought upon us all.
“With the young new Magus Prime at their side, and the skills of your compatriots Scion, the half-Atlantean techno-mage, and Quanta, master of that which lies Beneath, they should have no trouble following the mystical trail We have left them… indeed, this must be them now…”
Chuck turned to look at the spot behind him where Wotan’s gaze had gone. He quickly recognized one of Quanta’s shimmering silver portals slowly irising opening…
• • • • • • •
Artemis stepped through the portal ready to fight, barely aware of Quanta behind her. But there proved no immediate threat of battle, and she slipped into mere cautious wariness. She stood, with the rest of the Vanguard, on what looked to be the top of a tall stone tower, on a hill overlooking a frozen lake and a snow-covered forest of pines and firs. In the distance, on the far shore of the lake, a great battle was raging between what looked like high-end Vikings and enormous blue-skinned giants. Before her Chuck stood in his blue Ice Giant form (she noted in passing that his night-out street clothes seemed to have sized up along with his body), and next to him was… her eyebrows went up in genuine surprise.
“Greetings, Wotan All-Father,” she said, bowing slightly.
“Greetings, cousin, and welcome to the lands of the Aesir,” Wotan replied gravely, tilting his own head to her. “And Our greetings to the Vanguard of Earth! Wotan the All-Father, King of the Aesir, welcomes you to Asgard.”
“While we appreciate your royal welcome, King Wotan, I thought we had made it clear that we did not wish to be embroiled in this conflict between your folk and the Ice Giants,” Artemis said, gesturing to battle beyond the lake.
“Indeed, your most courteous message, delivered by the Magus Prime when he brought your warning, was clear on that point. It is Our hope, however, that in despite of your doubts and earlier denial, you will yet aid Us, and your boon companion, in this desperate hour. We cannot compel your help, to be sure – and what good would it be if We could, eh? But this son of Logarthin,” he gestured at Chuck with a tilt of his great spear, “We may press, for his blood and bone are bound to this affair, will he or nil he.”
“And cousin, you at least will not regret this venture, I think. Not when all is said and done.” His one brilliant blue eye seemed to twinkle at Artemis with some hidden amusement, and she felt a sudden thrill at his words. She had no idea why, and she looked inquiringly at their host, but he merely turned his singular gaze to the rest of the Vanguard as he continued.
“After your timely warning Loki went, at My behest, into the Yotan lands to scout out the situation – a task he had performed many time over the years, to be sure. But this time something went wrong. He was somehow detected and taken by his father’s people, I know not how. But I can sense that they have since bound him by some great ritual.
“My blood-brother is a sorcerer of great potency, and however they have managed to bind him, they now steal his magics, draining him and pouring his Power into themselves. By this ritual all of the Ice Giants have grown in size, strength and ability. They swarmed over the passes into the lands of Asgard, and though we stood prepared, thanks to you, and they did not surprise us as they had thought to, nonetheless we are hard pressed.”
“Without my blood-brother and his powerful magics at my side, but instead stolen by our enemies and turned against us, Logarthin seeks to make the ancient prophecy come true… and he may yet succeed.”
“But the prophecy is vague, as such thing usually are. The Yotankin have always believed that it predicts their own triumph… but I have studied long and deep in these matters, and I am not so certain. The truth is, it simply says that a half-mortal, half-ice giant son shall bring a final end to the millenia of our great strife… and an end may come in many ways, not always from outright victory.”
“So how do you want Chuck, and us, to help, Sir, if not to fight on your side?” Scion asked.
“I need you all to help your friend to free Loki from whatever spell ensnares him, breaking the mystical connection to Logarthin and through him to the Yotankin – once that is done, and he is returned to us, I have no doubt the warriors of Asgard shall prevail in the larger battle.”
“May we have a few minutes to discuss your… request?” Artemis asked. Wotan nodded graciously and withdrew to the far side of the roof as the Vanguard huddled together.
“I didn’t want to get involved,” Chuck said quietly, “but I have to admit, spiking Logarthin’s wheels would give me a certain satisfaction. I may never have met my half-brother (and it still freaks me out to know he’s Loki from the Norse myths), but I feel some responsibility to help him. I can’t ask the rest of you to get involved, though—“
“No, Chuck, we’re a team,” Quanta said. “We’re either all in or all out — and I for one think we should help, at least in this one task. I wasn’t for going to war, but this seems a more manageable job, and about our speed – a rescue mission, yeah?”
The rest of the Vanguard agreed with very little debate, and they turned back to Wotan. Artemis and Scion stepped forward and announced their decision to the visibly pleased Norse god-king.
“We thank you, children of Midgård, and look forward to your triumphant return to Us. We can transport you into the heart of the Yotan lands, but not directly to where Loki is bound — Logarthin’s defenses are too strong to simply bypass, and if We strove to break through he would know of your presence instantly and guess your purpose. But We will get you as close as possible…”
With that he began to wield his great spear (Gungnir, Artemis remembered it was called) in a complex pattern of shifting lines of light, forming a glowing dome around the heroes… and then it was gone, in a flash. The Vanguard found themselves standing in a wide, snow-covered clearing amidst a dense forest of towering fir trees. A ring of immense standing stones, easily three times the size and mass of Stonehenge, which it otherwise resembled, surrounded them. Overhead the sky was gray and leaden with heavy clouds that seemed to threaten snow at any moment.
“I guess we really are in the Land of the Giants,” the Blue Flame said. He laughed, but Artemis suspected that he found the darkness under the massive trees around the clearing daunting, moreso even than the 500 foot and more height of the trees themselves. She could feel that oppressive weight herself, truth be told.
“Why don’t we take to the air,” Scion suggested, breaking the mood. “We’ll do a little aerial reconnaissance while Totem gets his bearings on our target.”
“Oh, sure, that’s a good idea,” the Blue Flame agreed, and the two rose quickly up toward the lowering skies. Unfortunately, the cloud cover proved to be just at the tops of the trees, many of the tallest actually vanishing into the mists. Visibility was no more than a hundred feet, and the heroes dropped back toward the ground all too soon.
By then however, Totem had channeled a spell of seeking through his staff, and could at least point them in the right direction. Five narrow avenues led out of the clearing, and he indicated the widest one, which happened to lay in the direction they’d been facing when they’d arrived.
“Our target is actually in that direction,” the Magus Prime said, gesturing ahead and to his right, his breath puffing visibly in the frigid air, “but this path is the one to start us out.”
He led the way, Artemis and Blue Giant Chuck behind him, Quanta and Brimstone next, with Scion and the Blue Flame flying a hundred feet above. The towering trees closed in around them on either side, dark and foreboding, and the only sound in the otherwise freezing silence was the squeaky crunch of feet in snow.
As they advanced, wary eyes scanning the darkness beneath the snow-laden branches of the forest, Artemis glanced coevrtly at Chuck. She had thought, on the tower roof, that he seemed taller than than the 9’ 6” he’d shown the team after his first unwilling visit to Yotan, but had been too distracted to pursue the thought. Now, she could see that he was clearly taller. Approaching 11 feet she suspected — taller even than he’d been on the rooftop half an hour ago.
“Chuck,” she began, coming to a decision after some serious thought, “have you noticed that you —“
But a warning shout from Totem drew everyone’s attention. They had just passed out of the narrow forest trail and into another clearing, larger than the first one. Scattered patches of granite stone poked up from the snow-covered earth, and a large outcropping of the same, the size of a very large house, jutted out from the eaves of the forest on the far side. But what had caused her friend’s outcry were the five massive creatures rushing toward them, each one at least nine feet tall.
“Yeti!” she cried, pulling Totem back to leap past him. She had dealt more than once with Yeti in the mountains surrounding Shambhala during her time in that hidden land. She knew their size, strength and surprising speed, but had also known them to be shy, gentle creatures, very conflict-avoidant unless severely provoked. These Yeti seemed very provoked, for some reason!
Their pale blue-tipped white fur had made them essentially invisible in the snow until they’d moved. Now they were rushing at the group in leaping bounds, their black-skinned faces twisted into masks of rage, white teeth and fangs bared. She noticed that their breath didn’t steam as their chuffing grunts filled the still air. The leading beast reached for her, and Artemis ducked under its grasping claws, rolling away to the side.
Blue Chuck slammed an ice ram into the lead Yeti’s chest, but it did little more than spin the creature slightly sideways and slow its momentum a bit. Artemis leapt into the air and aimed a flying kick into the beast’s gut. — it was like hitting a stone wall, and she bounced off, spinning backwards almost ten feet, to land in a three-point crouch, her black cloak settling around her on the white snow.
As she considered her next move Artemis saw Brimstone running forward, his body shifting from solid to his sulfuric gas form as he went. Fully gaseous when he reached them, he engulfed two of the oncoming Yeti on her left, concentrating his noxious form around their heads. One staggered to a stop, clutching at its throat and gasping hideously as it inhaled the toxic fumes; in seconds it had collapsed to its knees.
But the second Yeti managed to hold its breath and took a massive rolling leap out of the yellowish cloud. Snarling, it turned to face its struggling companion and brought its hands together in a massive clap. Artemis’ eardrums popped at the sudden change in air pressure, as the preternatural shock wave blew Brimstone’s gaseous form apart, dissipating him into the cold air… which did little to help his victim, who remained choking and writhing on the snow.
Artemis’ attention was wrenched from her teammate’s plight when a pair of massive arms grabbed her from behind and lifted her into the air. She cursed silently at letting herself be distracted, and struggled in the third Yeti’s powerful grip. But with her arms pinned and her feet well off the ground, she had no damn leverage…
Suddenly, Scion was there above them, and she saw him aiming a hand… some invisible force, probably his Magnetic Seizure blast, hit the creature’s head. Its grip on her slackened just a bit… but not quite enough…
To her left, Quanta attempted to encase yet another Yeti in one of his quantum matter shells, but the monster managed to shrugs off the attack even as was forming, shattering the silvery matter into flying shards. It let loose with a loud and unnerving roar that made even Artemis’ heart skip a beat.
A similar roar came from her right, where the Blue Flame had hurled a Plasma Bolt at the Yeti who had dispersed Brimstone. Although the beast was visibly singed, it seemed otherwise unaffected, unless it was to become even more enraged. Her vision began to dim, and she wondered if it was time to try something she’d been thinking about for awhile… the evil version of herself on Counter Earth had swallowed up victims into her Cloak, and Artemis had wondered ever since if her own Cloak could do likewise… and if so, could she swallow herself?
But before she could attempt the possibly very dangerous stunt, the Yeti’s grip on her slackened, and she was able to take a gasping breath. Next to her ear a voice not well suited to human speech rasped out the words “Cannonball-Alpha.” It took her two beats to realize what was going on, and then she smiled.
Totem must have turned his Mind Control power onto the Yeti holding her, and succeeded in seizing the creature’s mind — and thereby its body. The coded command he’d had it growl to her meant that — she barely had time to prepare herself as the Yeti suddenly lifted her high and hurled her at the back of the first Yeti she had attacked… the creature roared in surprise, and then pain, as she began pummeling critical pressure points in its neck and shoulders with her Shadow Sticks.
She had little attention to spare as she jabbed, while twisting away from the creature’s increasingly enraged attempts to grab her, but was vaguely aware that the Blue Flame had redoubled his plasma attacks on his already singed Yeti – he seemed to be doing some real damage this time, if the creature’s roars of pain and fury were any indication.
She did spare a fleeting smile when the Blue Flame’s Yeti, driven totally mindless by its rage, made a prodigious leap upward to try and grab its hovering tormenter. Its massive hands passed right through Blue Flame’s legs, of course, burning the naked skin there even more deeply… when it fell yowling back to earth, it plunged its smoking hands into a snow drift, turning the ice to hissing steam.
Ah, better start paying attention to what I’m doing… that last grab almost got me. She turned her full attention back to attacks on her own Yeti’s vulnerable nerve clusters…
• • • • • • •
Chuck had been shocked at the strength and sheer toughness of the rampaging Yeti – very few living things could take an ice ram to the chest and just walk it off, as if it had been a water balloon. Obviously magic had to be involved, and he wasn’t quite sure how to fight that, truth be told. Given that his own powers were decidedly cold-based, it wasn’t immediately clear how he could fight creatures for whom the cold was a birthright.
Still, he had been feeling stronger ever since he’d been pulled into Asgard, and even more so since Wotan had dumped them all into Giant Land itself. He was also quite sure he was now several feet taller in this blue-skinned giant form than he’d been before — either that or all of his friends were shrinking, which seemed unlikely. He also felt his power, really the power of the Living Ice he supposed, coursing more and more strongly through him the longer he remained in this winter landscape.
A closer connection to the source? A result of Loki’s stolen power being pumped through their father and broadcast into all the Yotankin, himself included now that he was here? Whatever was causing it, maybe he could supercharge his power to do some damage that even these cold-loving monsters couldn’t shrug off…
With a grin he saw three of the Yeti had moved close enough together that an area-of-effect attack might be worth a try. He wanted to avoid the one Artemis seemed determined to beat to death, of course, and Totem looked in firm control of the Yeti he’d dubbed Larry, but those three… using his outstretched hands to channel the energy (and it was still wigging him out a bit to see his Smurf-like blue skin) he sent a super-chilled vortex of polar air at his targets.
The Yeti that Brimstone had choked out was just beginning to regain its breath, staggering back to its feet while still coughing hoarsely, when it took the full brunt of the more-than-arctic-cold air square to the head. It barely had time for one surprised yip, and it was down again, this time for the count. The two others, unfortunately, seemed to sense the attack— both managed to roll away, only the edge of the frigid air catching them.
But Chuck saw with some amusement that their escape put them with their backs to a reformed Brimstone. As his newest teammate dissolved once more into a yellowish cloud of gas Chuck heard him mutter “You think your breath smells bad? Choke on this you frozen gorillas!” before he engulfed them both. One of them, the one who had clapped Brimstone away in the first place and was still smoldering from the Blue Flame’s plasma bolts, found itself choking and clawing with badly burned hands at its throat. It quickly collapsed to lay unmoving in the churned up snow. Chuck was pretty sure it wouldn’t be getting up again any time soon.
The other one, however, had inhaled only a bit of Brimstone’s noxious form. It lunged blindly out of the yellow cloud, and directly into a surprised Quanta. For such a massive, muscled creature the Yeti moved fast, and before Quanta could react it had grabbed him in a powerful bear hug, much like the one its comrade had used on Artemis.
It was clear that Quanta was trying to return the hug with a crushing quantum matter encasement of his own, but the Yeti kept shrugging off and shattering the shells as they formed. Chuck started to move int to help, but saw that both Scion and the Blue Flame were swooping in, and Larry the Yeti, obviously still under the control of Totem, was taking a roundhouse swing at his former pack mate’s head. Instead, he turned his attention to the other Yeti still standing.
Well, barely standing, Chuck thought wryly as Artemis did a backflip off the beast’s shoulders, landing just to his right. The battered Yeti swayed on it feet, snarling feebly at them both, but is massive arms hung limp at its sides, useless thanks to Artemis’ knowledge of critical nerve clusters. And her strength, of course.
“Would you care to do the honors?” she asked Chuck, and he was surprised that she actually seemed slightly out of breath. With a grin he made a gesture and formed the most powerful ice ram he’d yet attempted. The steel-hard column was a flash of silver in the frigid air, and slammed full speed into the Yeti’s chest. This time there was no shrugging off the blow. The creature was flung back ten yards to slam into the large granite outcropping, where it slid to the ground and did not move again.
They turned in time to see the last Yeti go down under barrage of attacks from Scion, Larry and the Blue Flame. Quanta drove a wedge of quantum matter between himself and the staggering beast, leveraging himself backwards and giving the Blue Flame a clear target for one final plasma blast. The smoking corpse hit the snow with a tremendous thud, after which the deep silence of the winter forest returned, as if it had never been disturbed.
“Jesus on skates,” the Blue Flame said after a moment. “If five frozen apes gave us this much trouble on Level One, I hate to thing what the Boss Level is gonna be like!”
• • • • • • •
After a few minutes to catch their breath and assess their damages (surprisingly, there were no serious injuries) the group prepared to continue onward. “From here we should turn right,” Totem said, indicating the direction with his staff. “I have the sense we’re getting closer now. Past the halfway mark, if I had to guess…”
As the group once again entered a narrow path between dark, gargantuan trees, Scion flew up to scout ahead once more, although still unable to see beyond the tall tree tops and heavy clouds. The Blue Flame also took to the air, but stayed at the rear, in case any more Yeti’s might be trailing them.
Less than half mile on, Scion broke through into another clearing, and for a moment he thought they’d reached their goal. But the shattered, ruined remnants of this tower had clearly not seen human (or Ice Giant) use in many years. The great primeval forest was actually encroaching on parts of the ancient ruins, casting much of the site in deep shadows.
“False alarm here, I thought we’d arrived,” he called over comms. “Just an old Ice Giant ruin, and I’m not detecting anything living on my heat sensors. There are a couple of ways out of this clearing, though, so I assume Totem might need a few minutes with his magical divining rod to sus out the right one. Might be a good place to take five.”
As the rest of the Vanguard trooped into the clearing and began curiously looking around, Chuck’s eyes went wide as he glanced up at Scion. Behind his hovering friend, rising sinuously up from the deep shadows of the broken tower, was a blue-black horror of glistening scales along a snake-like body, powerful claws, a massive reptilian head with a mouth of razor-like teeth, and quickly unfurling wings of black skin stretched between boney spines.
“Scion! Up! Move up NOW!” he roared.
Scion reacted to his warning instantly, shooting up towards the clouds in a bronze-gold streak. The blast of silver-white freezing energy that poured forth from the Ice Dragon’s gaping maw missing him by inches. The creature’s frustrated roar shook stones loose from the ruined walls and knocked snow from tree branches all around the clearing. It also seemed to momentarily stun most of the rest of the Vanguard, Chuck realized.
As Scion vanished into the cloud cover the dragon turned its malevolent blue gaze on the ground-bound heroes. Chuck could have sworn an evil grin stretched that horrifying mouth just before it opened its jaws wide and prepared to entomb the Vanguard in lethal ice.
Not on my watch, you frigid bastard, he thought savagely, and leapt to place himself between the monster and his friends. The brilliant cone of searing cold met his outstretched hands — and broke into a swirling vortex around them! With a tremendous effort of will, Chuck turned the arctic energies back on their creator. The silvery stream suddenly reversed itself, slamming back into the very surprised dragon’s head.
The beast was momentarily taken aback, and Chuck instantly used his own ice-manipulation ability to form a massive ice-muzzle around the dragon’s mouth, clamping its jaws firmly together. The creature emitted a very muffled roar and reared back into the sky, its great wings beating, its massive head whipping violently from side-to-side, trying to dislodge the muzzle.
In it’s fury it failed to see Scion dropping back down out of the clouds, and completely missed the golden, glowing net of the armored hero’s tangle field as it shot out to ensnare its limbs in painful, constricting knots. At the same moment Chuck saw Artemis step from the shadows atop the highest of the ruined tower’s remaining wall. Her Shadow Whip snaked out, impossibly long, to wrap around the dragon’s slashing tail — her own prodigious strength seemed barely enough to anchor the beast in place, thrash as it might.
Held in place by ice, electricity, and shadow, only it’s vast wings free to keep it aloft, the Ice Dragon had no chance at all to dodge the massive block of quantum matter which Quanta brought into existence a few yards above its head. Gravity worked just as well in this beyul as on Earth, and the mass slammed into the dragon’s head with a crack like a rifle shot.
The mighty beast fell like a blue-black comet, its wings rippling behind like a tail of black smoke. Artemis leaped from the tower wall just before the massive form crashed into it, shattering its stones like glass. She landed gracefully a dozen yards away as debris fell around her like rain. Slowly the rest of the Vanguard stepped up beside her to gaze at the fallen behemoth.
“It’s out, but I think it’s still breathing,” Chuck said, kneeling by the bleeding head as Quanta’s drop block rippled back into non-existence. However out of it the dragon seemed, he nonetheless kept the ice muzzle firmly in place.
Totem stepped up, his controlled Yeti Larry a few paces behind, and studied the dragon intently for a moment. Then he sighed and turned to Quanta. “Can you make a sword — a very BIG sword — for Larry here? Like his own erstwhile companions, I don’t think we can afford to leave this beast behind us, an uncertain threat at our backs as we move forward.”
With a disturbed grunt, Quanta acknowledged the dilemma and gestured toward the enthralled Yeti. A shimmering haze appeared and coalesced into a tremendous two-handed sword, straight out of a manga comic book. Larry reached out to grasp the hilt, and hefted the sword effortlessly. He then strode up to the fallen dragon and, with a single powerful overhand blow of the sword, severed its head.
Chuck was a little sorry to see the beast killed so unceremoniously, but he knew it was probably the necessary thing to do. Artemis hadn’t drilled proper combat tactics into them all for nothing, after all. Still…
As silver-blue blood flowed from the stump of the neck and dripped from the head, Larry hefted both head and sword over his shoulders and began shuffling off after Totem. “I think we’re not far now,” the Magus Prime said. “But I doubt this was the last guardian we’ll have to face, so let’s stay alert.”
• • • • • • •
It was less than a mile before Totem was proven right, in both regards. At the end of the latest clearing they’d passed through, this one thankfully clear of guardians, Artemis threw up a hand to call a halt. At the end of the clearing, through a narrow, steep-sided defile, they could see a second clearing and what had to be their target. It was a massive gray stone structure, clearly built by and for giants, with a vaguely Gothic look of flying buttresses and steeply slanted roofs accented with distinctive Norse elements.
But ranks of the snow-clad, omnipresent giant firs blocked any movement in that direction, save where they loomed over the tops of the small cliffs defining the only approach to the building. The trees left the narrow passage dark and exceedingly gloomy, and the group hesitated at the mouth of the relatively short defile. Their goal was less than a hundred yards away, but something abut that dark passage had Artemis’ hackles up…
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Quanta said uneasily, echoing her own thoughts.
“I can’t imagine why,” Brimstone replied. “I mean, aside from the bloody, well-churned snow you can see near the other end.”
“Maybe whatever caused that is gone,” the Blue Flame offered as he touched down. “You know, had its fill and retired to its den to sleep off its meal? Like Grendel?”
“Not a bad theory, actually,” Scion said, also back on the ground again. “And I’d like to say my sensors confirm it, since I detect no heat signatures within range. But I could barely see the Yeti, I couldn’t see the damn dragon at all,” he gestured toward Chuck, “and even Big Blue here is almost invisible to my heat sensors.” Chuck grinned at the new nickname, and shrugged as if to say ‘not my fault, boss.’
“Well, there’s no point in trying go through the forest,” Artemis said. “The underbrush is too dense, and time presses us. We’ve proved able to handle whatever this place has thrown at us thus far, so we’ll just have to take our chances… it’s only about thirty yards until it opens up again. Scion and Blue Flame, go high to cover us. Stay frosty, everyone.”
The Blue Flame and Chuck whipped their heads around to stare at one another. Had Artemis just made a joke? In the field? And a pop culture reference at that? Nah, it had to be coincidence… right?
• • • • • • •
The ambush came less than fifty feet from the end of the defile.
Two heavily armored Ice Giants leapt from the cliff tops on either side of the group, landing with a ground-shaking thump in front of them. One was a massive male, easily 19 feet high, and Chuck thought he recognized him from his last visit to Yotan… but if this was… oh, what the hell was his name? Haugarson! Yes, if this was Haugarson…
“Think I recognize this guy,” Chuck murmured over comms. “But Haugarson was no more than about 11 tall last time I saw him… If this is him, I guess we’re seeing what Logarthin is doing with that stolen power from Loki. Shit, if it’s a proportional thing, some of the Ice Giants must be close to 30 feet tall or more now! Oh, and I have no idea who the giant chick is.”
“So, cur-like son of King Logarthin, your royal father was right,” Haugarson roared, glaring at Chuck… who realized with a start that he himself must now be close to 17 or 18 feet tall… and his clothes still fit! Well, that’s magic for you. Damn, he’d lost the thread of Haugarson’s rant… something about betraying their people, yada, yada, yada.
“Yeah, listen Haugarson old sod, I’m really not in the mood for a lot of monologuing just now. So how about you and your girlfriend… sister… whatever… just step aside and let us get on with our business, yeah? That way you both can go on living. You know, to fight another day.”
“You insult Fringsdottir, as well as pissing on our people?” the female warrior roared in a decidedly unladylike-like baritone. “Die, treasonous changling!”
She leapt forward, drawing her staggeringly massive battle-axe from her back and bringing it down on Chuck in one very fast motion. But he was just as fast, and had his left arm up and covered in a thick shield of iron-hard green ice before the blow landed. He felt the impact through the ice and his arm, clear up into his chest. Ice chipped and flew, but her blade skreed along his ice-covered arm, throwing her slightly off balance. He brought his right fist up, also encased in solid ice, to slam into her side. With a pained grunt, the giantess staggered back two steps.
Out of the corner of his eye Chuck saw Haugarson pull a good-sized boulder from the defile’s wall, and hurl it with blinding speed at Quanta, who had reluctantly taken to the air. Chuck winced as the rock hit his friend full on, knocking him back to the ground with a crunch and a thud. But he had his hands full with Fringsdottir and her flashing blade, and Quanta would survive or not, as fate decreed…
He felt an odd moment of confusion at that last thought, but before he could pursue it Larry appeared to his left. The enthralled Yeti was still carrying the dragon’s head over his shoulder and brandishing Quanta’s massive sword like it was an épée. Fringsdotter seemed surprised to see a Yeti fighting for the interlopers, and it caused her to miss a beat… Larry dove in and scored a hit, drawing first blood with a long gash across her right bicep.
This made her miss another beat, but actually proved lucky for her — she narrowly missed a plasma bolt that might otherwise have hit her full in the back. At least with Larry and the Blue flame both targeting her, Chuck could safely turn his attention to Haugarson… that is, to Quanta.
The giant warrior was just stooping to grab the still-dazed Quanta, and Chuck aimed an ice ram straight at his head. Unfortunately, whatever arcane energies were flowing through him seemed to give the giant some sixth sense – he pulled his head back just in time to narrowly avoid the impact. Haugarson instantly rolled aside and came up in a fighting stance facing Chuck, his own battle-axe now out.
But before either could act, Scion’s tangle field ripped the weapon from the giant’s grasp, leaving him open to a sulfuric blast from Brimstone. His face contorting with pain at the burning attack, Haugarson staggered back, hissing and clutching his side. He eyed his battle-axe, laying on the ground 15 feet away, and Chuck grinned coldly.
“I dare you to try,” he called out, with a laugh devoid of any trace of humor or warmth.
As Haugarson made his lunge, Artemis’ Shadow Whip lashed out, wrapping around the giant’s arm. She pulled hard, causing him to stumble, and used the momentum to somersault herself over him, landing a kick to his head in passing. As she came lightly down on his other side, Scion unloaded a fusillade of electro-bolts into the warriors back, staggering him; Brimstone came in from the side to deliver another searing sulfuric blast.
But despite his obvious pain, Haugarson managed to use the momentum from their attacks to actually roll toward his fallen battle-axe. Chuck sneered and prepared to deliver another ice ram… and this time he wouldn’t wouldn’t miss…
A roar from behind him made Chuck whirl around, and his eyes grew wide. Larry was bleeding from a deep gash in his side, and Fringsdottir was looking triumphant… until the Yeti lunged recklessly forward, swinging its quantum sword like a scythe. This forced the giantess to leap back, narrowly avoiding a cut that would have disemboweled her.
Then it was her turn to lunge forward in a flurry of sweeping, slashing attacks. But Larry pulled the dragon’s head from over his shoulder and used it as a shield, blocking Fringsdottir’s every move. On her last attack he drove forward again, feinted with the sword, then brought the massive dragon’s head around in a surprise attack. Half-a-dozen of the razor-sharp teeth in the gaping mouth embedded themselves in the back of Fringsdottir’s left leg, and she went down to one knee with a terrible shriek.
In grim amusement Chuck realized that at least some of the dragon’s teeth must have sliced through the giantess’ achilles tendon, crippling her quite agonizingly. Before she had any chance to recover, Larry grabbed her by the hair, her helmet having spun off in her fall, and held the molecular-thin quantum blade to her throat.
“Hey, you giant bastard,” Totem called out to Haugarson through Larry’s rough, barely understandable Yeti vocal cords. “Surender now, or I’ll finish off your sister-girlfriend!”
Maybe it was because it came in the Yeti’s voice, but somehow Chuck didn’t think Totem was bluffing. Of course, he thought in cold humor, Cooper was usually so quiet that you tended to forget he was Haida, who weren’t exactly known for their gentle lifestyle or merciful inclinations toward their enemies.
Haugarson, who had swept up his axe in the confusion, didn’t hesitate. With a roar he ran forward, his axe flashing. Chuck barely managed to get an ice shield up in time. The blow shattered his half-formed protection, and the axe bit deep into his arm. As Chuck reeled back in sudden pain, his cool sense of amusement turned to a cold fury.
Before he could return the attack, however, Artemis darted in to land several precise blows with her Shadow Sticks on Haugarson, rendering his arms numb and causing him to again drop his weapon. That was all Chuck needed — he sent an ice ram into the giant’s gut, slamming him into the cliff side hard, and stunning him.
“This has gone on long enough,” Chuck growled, suddenly tired of the game. “Surrender now if you want to live. You and Fringsdottir. Decide now, for both your lives, Haugarson.”
For long moments Haugarson lay sprawled against the cliff, his chest heaving as he tried to regain his lost breath. For a moment, as the giant’s shoulders slumped, Chuck thought he might actually do it. Instead, the warrior made an amazing leap to his feet, whipping out a massive dagger from his belt and lunging for Chuck.
The Blue Flame engulfed the warrior in a searing column of plasma from above, and Haugarson dropped, smoking and unconscious, at Chuck’s feet.
Chuck stared down at his fallen foe for a moment, then pulled the giant’s helmet off, lifted Haugarson’s head by his long braid… and put one of the helmet’s horns through the back of the giant’s skull with one quick thrust. He then strode over to Fringsdottir, his face coldly impassive. Larry released his grip on her hair and stepped back. Chuck stooped to take up the giantess’ own battle ax and without any words brought it down on her neck, decapitating her with that single blow.
At the stunned silence and shocked faces of his teammates, he shrugged. “I said they could live if they surrendered. They didn’t surrender. The same logic as with the dragon applies — we could hardly risk leaving them bound out here while we face whatever waits in that building.”
He dropped the axe and strode away towards the building where he suspected his half-brother was being held. He scooped up snow as he went, packing it tightly into the wound on his arm.
After a moment, the rest of the Vanguard followed, Larry taking up the dead giantess’ helm and putting it on his own furry head.
• • • • • • •
Loki’s presumed prison was a massive, rectangular structure of granite and basalt that stood almost 100 feet high at the peak of its blue-gray slate roof. Great buttresses ran down its sides, and no window pierced its grim walls. Only a single carved, arched doorway provided entry, and that was blocked with doors of black oak and iron. Carved low on the doors was a strange word…
“‘punom?’ What does that mean?” the Blue Flame wondered aloud. “And why is it using the roman alphabet? Don’t both the Ice Giants and the Aesir use runes?”
“Yes, but there is strong magic all around this building,” Totem replied, staring intently at the carved letters, “and most especially around these doors. I strongly suspect this inscription would appear in any viewer’s native script… and for all of us that would be the roman script.”
“What?” the Blue Flame sounded confused. “Aren’t you Native American? And didn’t Scion grow up in some Atlantean suburb or something? Shouldn’t you guys see it differently, then?”
“My native tongue is Xaat Kil, that is true,” Totem said distractedly as he ran his fingers over the carved letters. “But prior to the coming of the Europeans we had no written language, so the first script I learned was the roman alphabet.”
“And while I was born in an Atlantean outpost,” Scion added, “my very American grandparents taught me English and the alphabet (among other things) right alongside my Atlantean schooling. Since I’ve never thought of myself as Atlantean in any way, it’s not surprising if my subconscious default is English.”
“Which is all fascinating,” Chuck interrupted brusquely. “But it isn’t getting us anywhere. Can we focus on getting these doors open?”
He noticed the sideways stares from his teammates, but honestly he didn’t have the time to worry about it. All he wanted at this point was to find Loki and then get back home to Midgård. That is, Earth. Why the hell did I think of it as Midgård?
“If you flip the word on its horizontal axis,” Artemis said after a moment, “it reads ‘wound’.”
It didn’t take long for Totem to realize that blood, willing given, must be put into the strange locking mechanism connecting the doors — two intricately wrought iron circles touching one another, bottom to top. The question then became whose blood should be used.
“I think it’s obvious it needs to be mine,” Chuck sighed. “It’s an Ice Giant “lock,” so I’d think Ice Giant — or at least half-Ice Giant — blood would be required. Besides, none of you can even reach the lock, unless you fly. And I’m already wounded, so…”
Chuck knocked the snow off the wound in his arm and held it up. Already the edges were starting to pull together. Not as fast a healing as when I’m in my ice form… so why have I been so reluctant to change to Chilz today? He visibly shrugged the uncomfortable thought away, and squeezed several drops of dark blue blood out to drip into the locking mechanism.
For a moment nothing seemed to open. Then, with a rumble like distant thunder, the leaves of the door began to swing outward. Cautiously, senses keen for any hint of another ambush or hidden traps, Chuck led the way into the massive building’s interior…
• • • • • • •
Artemis followed close behind Chuck, her own attention divided between her habitual awareness of her environment and a growing concern over her teammate’s – her friend’s – increasingly unusual behavior. Ever since they’d arrived in the Yotan beyul he’d not only been growing taller, but becoming more distant and… hard edged? Certainly colder and more ruthless than the rather laid back and humorous Chilz she’d come to know. And why had he chosen to stay in his Ice Giant form, rather than change to his more usual ice form? True, his blue form seemed to retain most of his ice powers, but still…
She consciously set aside her speculations to focus on the large square chamber in which the Vanguard found themselves. A series of torches set around the perimeter of the room flickered with a cold, pale blue flame that gave off no heat and a cold light. The plain gray stone walls soared up to a vaulted ceiling at least 90 feet overhead, the details mostly lost in shadow. Six very tall alcoves of various widths lined the two side walls, while the far wall, facing the doors, was covered in deeply incised runic glyphs. In the center of that wall, about 20 feet up, was inset a disc of glowing blue crystal, utterly smooth.
The alcoves at the near end of the room, flanking the doors, were large and each contained a statue of a stylized Ice Giant warrior. Each very distinctive sculpture stood about 15 feet tall, constructed of a dark blue stone and inlaid with various metals and uncut, polished gemstones in intricate patterns. Matching alcoves flanked the far wall, but their pedestals stood empty. The smaller alcoves set into the center of each side wall contained smaller stone plinths, upon each of which sat a strange assortment of objects.
In the niche in the righthand wall lay two scrolls of parchment, each bound by leather ties; a golden candle stick holding a fine beeswax candle of deep maroon red; a sliver dagger with a grip of carved bone in the form of a snarling wolf’s head; and lastly, a hand mirror of wrought bronze and silvered glass.
In the niche of the opposite wall sat a tall bronze ewer, empty, engraved with three warrior maidens; a large silver key, intricately carved with animal figures; a blood red leather-bound book, closed by a golden clasp; and a life-sized golden apple, beautifully rendered in precise detail.
“What the hell is this?” Quanta asked, staring around at the otherwise vast empty space. “It doesn’t look much like a prison…”
“I suspect it is… a puzzle,” Totem said, stepping up to examine one of the collections of items. “You have to understand, beings like the Yotankin, and even the Aesir, are more than just powered-up humans. Their existence is tied not only to the energies of the beyul’s they occupy, but even more so to the psychic nourishment of humans of the Prime Plane (that is, Earth), who help form and shape those extra-dimensional realities.
“In other words, they are often bound or constrained by the expectations of the mythologic structures that created and sustain them. It’s the major reason most of the pantheons and other mythic realms withdrew from contact with Earth over time, to try and escape those bonds. But the constraints often remain.”
“So you’re saying that this ice giant, Logarthin, was constrained by his… I don’t know, mythological programming… to create elaborate puzzles as keys to his prison, instead of just using massive locks and a platoon of guards?” Quanta demanded, sounding incredulous.
Totem shrugged. “More or less. It’s obviously more complicated than that when you get down to details, but it’s a valid approximation. Actually, the history of the creation and development of the so-called mythic realms is a fascinating one…”
While Totem lectured the others on basic cosmology, Artemis began examining all of the items on display, looking for some connection or clue. Scion and Chuck were doing same, she noted with approval. It took a second pass through the displays to stumble across the key, as it were.
Artemis had picked up the bronze hand mirror for a second time, and was about to set it down again, when something caught her eye… she had been turned so that one of the statues flanking the door was visible behind her. Or should have been. Instead, the pedestal appeared empty in the reflection. When she turned to look directly, the statue was exactly where she expected it to be. She checked the reflection of the other statue, and it appeared both in reality and in the mirror. She then turned to the empty alcoves flanking the far wall, and found the mirror showed the “missing” statue reflected in the right side nook.
“I think I’ve got something here,” she called out, and explained her odd discovery. It was quickly agreed that the obvious course was to move the statue on the left of the door to the empty pedestal catty-corner to it across the room. Even with Scion’s and her own great strength, this might have proofed a difficult task, but Blue Chuck was able to lift the multi-ton sculpture with barely a grunt.
As soon as he had set the statue in its new alcove, the blue disc in the center of the back wall began to glow even brighter. Carved runes appeared around its rim, and a keyhole materialized in the center of the crystal. Artemis smiled in satisfaction.
“Well, it looks like we have someplace for this key after all,” Brimstone said, lifting the silver key he’d been holding when she’d announced her own find. He stepped forward, but found the disc and its new keyhole rather out of reach. He sheepishly handed the key to Chuck, who had no trouble inserting it into the crystal… as soon as he turned the key, the runes carved into the wall began to shift around, changing size, shape, and location to spell out, in English, three lines of a riddle.
If I have it, I don’t share it.
If I share it, I don’t have it.
What is it?
After a brief moment to consider, several of the Vanguard answered at once — “A secret.”
Immediately the wall itself wavered, twisted and vanished like a mist. It reveal a space half as big as the original room, in the middle of which a tall, red-haired man in tattered green robes hung spread-eagled, bound by glowing blue crystal blocks. His feet were locked in a wide crystal base, his hands encased in crystal pillars hanging from the ceiling. Pulsing blue-white energy coruscated around him like lighning, and a pale violet energy seemed to flow out of him and into the crystalline restraints. He was clearly lost in his own pain, and it took him a moment to become aware of the change in his surroundings. Then he lifted his head to stare at the Vanguard – and despite his pain, a sardonic smile of recognition lit his narrow, fox-like face, when he focused on Chuck.
“So, my young half-brother,” he gasped out, “I assume your timely presence here is thanks to the All-Father’s machinations – a daring and unexpected gambit on my blood-brother’s part, I must say!”
Artemis barely heard the words, and nothing of Chuck’s response, over the sudden roaring in her ears as she stared in disbelief at the bound man. For a moment her vision narrowed and there was nothing in the world but her and — her father! The man her mother had known as —
“Spartan!” she cried out, hardly aware of doing so. And then, almost a whisper, “Father!”
Loki’s gaze shifted to her, and he stared intently, clearly surprised himself. After a moment he smiled a sweet, weary, melancholic smile. “Ah, you have my eyes,” he said softly, “but the lines of your face… truly, you have Katherine’s beauty. Well met, daughter.”
There was a moment of stunned silence, then everyone began talking at once. Artemis was too lost in contemplation of the face she had searched for, for much of her 150 years, to pay them any attention. Scion eventually restored order, and only at his gentle touch on her shoulder did she pull herself back from her spiraling thoughts.
“So Loki is your father?” Jonny burst out, having reverted to his human form when they entered the building.
“Apparently so,” Artemis replied, forcing herself to set aside her shock, and thousand questions, to focus on how to free… she’d just think of him as Loki for now. There’s be time to talk, later, if they could free him…
“But… that makes King Logarthin your grandfather!” Jonny blurted out. “Oh shit, that also means that… oh my god, Chilz is Artemis’ uncle! Or half-uncle, I guess…”
Chuck himself looked gobsmacked at this realization, but Artemis just shoved it down with everything else, to be dealt with LATER, goddamn it!
“Focus, people,” she said, stepping forward to examine the crystal structure that held her fa- Loki in place. “No telling if our solving his puzzle has alerted Logarthin that we’re here. Time is of the essence now. Totem, can you break these bonds?”
“There are powerful magics at work here,” the Magus Prime said slowly, his inner eye focused on the arcane enemies pulse around them. “But if I channel my own powers through my staff…”
As Artemis watched, frustrated at her own impotence in the moment, Totem tried three times to break the complex binding and siphoning spell. “It’s almost working,” he gasped. “But the crystals… they keep reinforcing the spells… we must destroy the crystals…”
Before she could react, Chuck whirled around and snatched the quantum sword from the blank-eyed Larry, whom Totem had left in a fuge state. In his hands the blade looked more like a long kinfe. He swung it with all his strength into the glowing base encasing Loki’s feet, and the pulsing blue crystal shattered. Instantly, he brought the sword around again in a sweeping blow that shattered the upper pillars.
A burst of white light radiated out silently from the wrecked mechanisms. In concentric waves it washed over and passed through everyone in the chamber. Then Loki collapsed, and Artemis caught him, lowering his unconscious form gently to the floor. In her concern for her father, it took her a moment to realize that something else was going on…
The wave of arcane energy seemed to have passed through the Vanguard with no effect — with the exception of Chuck. Artemis saw that he had been changed into his Chilz form — albeit a much larger Chilz than they’d ever seen before! Even as she stared at him in surprise, he was continuing to grow. He was well past 20’ when he turned away, blank-eyed, striding purposefully for the door.
“Charles!” she called after him. “Chuck! What are you doing?”
He gave no sign that he heard her, and when he reached the door, now at least ten feet too tall for it, he simply smashed through the thick granite of the surrounding wall without even slowing. As he vanished in a cloud of masonry dust Artemis cursed, stooped to lift Loki’s limp form, and raced after her friend. The rest of the Vanguard followed, Scion and the Blue Flame taking to the air.
“Damn, he’s become Mega-Chilz!” the Blue Flame said, in what seemed to Artemis more like admiration than concern. As Mega-Chilz, now well over 40 feet tall, strode into the woods, Totem rose into the air himself, via his Cloak of Levitation. He didn’t try to approach their erstwhile teammate, but hovered at the height of his head, just behind him. After a moment he suddenly grabbed his own head with both hands, in apparent pain. He drifted quickly back to the ground.
“I attempted to scan his mind, to see what was driving him,” he mumbled, clearly shaken by the experience. “But I could only detect the faintest sense of Chuck Chisholm, and that was buried deep beneath… I don’t know what. I’ve never experienced anything like it, except perhaps the mind of Gojira. There’s a sentience, I think, but one very far from human… it’s vast and cold and… hungry? I’m not sure that’s the right word… but in any case, Chuck is not in control, of that I’m certain.”
“It must be this ‘Living Ice’ he’s spoken of before,” Scion said over coms, echoing Artemis’ own thoughts. And she had a premonition that getting their teammate back wasn’t going to be easy…
• • • • • • •
Chuck floated in a blue-green eternity of solid ice, a fly caught in freezing amber. He could sense an awareness all around him and through him, an awareness that was this place… and one he had dimly touched at least twice before… the extra-dimensional entity King Logarthin had called the Living Ice.
But how had he gotten here, wherever exactly here was? And where was his body?
As soon as he articulated the thought, it lead to a distant awareness of his physical form, or at least his ice form… Jesus, he’d grown huge! How… ah, he could sense it now. His body had always been an extension the Living Ice’s own substance, and now here, “closer” in some metaphysical sense to it’s home plane, it could pour more of itself into the world through him.
He dimly sensed his teammates, his friends, calling out to him, trying to reason with him, to get him to stop… to talk to them… to stop growing! But he wasn’t in control, not of his body and barely of his thoughts… he felt so sluggish…
There was a sensation, then… not a pain, not even really a discomfort… just a sense of something… oh, it was the new guy, Brimstone… he’d hit the Mega-Chilz form with some superheated sulfur attack, melted away part of one thigh.. poor Preston, he looked so disappointed as the wound healed over almost immediately… but he felt a ghost of a chuckle, actually the strongest emotion he’d felt since he woke up her, at the nickname Jonny had given him… he liked that, Mega-Chilz… very on brand…
That thought gave rise to a sudden, vivid memory, and his incipient humor died. He recalled the vision he’d once been granted — a vision of himself, monstrously large, towering over the skyscrapers of Astoria as the city was buried beneath snow and ice; of the thickening ice expanded ever-outward to engulf the world. With a jolt of real horror, he realized that was the vision which the Living Ice wished to bring into reality. It wanted to use him as a living portal to enter Earth’s dimension… and when it had taken the planet and made it a tomb of living ice, would it then move on to the rest of the universe?
He was snapped from his spiraling thoughts by the distant sense of Quanta buzzing his head, and then speeding off ahead of him… wait, Kyle hated flying, he thought he was shit at it… and had he actually muttered “I call on the Power Quantum” as he flew past? He felt a little part of himself return as he laughed at the thought…
Suddenly he was aware of Artemis landing on his shoulder… on the Living Ice’s shoulder. She was going on about something… his mother… the thought of his mother widened the cracks in the metaphysical ice around himself. And then the Living Ice seemed to notice, and shoved him back into his almost somnolent state.
He was only dimly aware of his hands reaching up and plucking Artemis from his shoulder, closing around her and beginning to squeeze. He tried to muster the will to stop it, but the lassitude was overwhelming, and he could do nothing. Then the sheet of ice between himself and the world seemed to thin, as he saw Jonny suddenly rising up in front of him!
His friend had expanded his plasma form to match his own size, and had somehow solidified his plasma into a denser state than usual. Yes, he remembered he’d been practicing that… Jonny moved to grapple with Mega-Chilz, and he felt, as the Living Ice did, the heat blasting away his ice form where they touched. It still wasn’t pain, but it was… uncomfortable. And the Living Ice seemed unsure how to deal with it… it retreated a bit, and Chuck surged forward to take back some control… not much, but enough to loosen his grip.
It was all Artemis needed, as he’d know it would. She pulled herself free with a graceful flip, then slid down his frozen six-pack abs, leapt, touched down on the thigh of his extended leg and turned it into an impressive somersault, coming down a dozen yards in front of him in a perfect three-point-landing. Damn, she always looked so hot doing that… oh, ugh, I can’t think about her like that, she’s my damn niece now!
That thought did a little more to strengthen his grip on his body, but it was still too damn tenuous… he could feel the Living Ice, wary, but cold patience personified. Then he heard Jonny, talking to him about all the reasons he had to come back to them – he wanted to laugh when his friend insisted they couldn’t let the Phantom Ace become the reigning GTA 5 champions in the Pyramid… but he couldn’t laugh…
Then the rolling fight, such as it was, entered a large clearing, and he looked down to see the head from a truly gargantuan statue, fallen and half buried in the midst of the forest, its features broken and blurred by time. Chained to it were three Ice Giants, who had clearly been languishing there for quite awhile… three giants he recognized! The King’s Champions, who had fought, and tried to kill, him in Logarthin’s test months ago! Apparently they were being punished for their failure… but it wasn’t enough! Blind rage suddenly blotted out everything, and he felt the presence of the Living Ice retreat further…
With a roar he bent down and grabbed the massive head, heaving both it and its bound prisoners into the air. Fully in the moment for the first time since he’d changed, Chuck hurled the rock and the screaming warriors chained to it as hard and as far as he could. He almost knocked a startled Quanta out of the sky, and his relief at not having killed his friend made the rage vanish as suddenly as it had come.
“Holy shit, he must’ve thrown that thing a mile,” he heard Kyle say, and he tried to speak. But still his body was not entirely his own, and he felt the restraints of the Living Ice, and its singular goal, compelling him. He must get to the portal, to go to Earth… no, I can’t, I WON’T! he screamed silently. But nonetheless, his body moved forward, clearing a hundred feet at a stride now.
Then Quanta was behind him, and he felt the strands of quantum matter forming around his legs. The Living Ice strove to break them… he couldn’t oppose that will directly, but he could help his friend along… Mega-Chilz stumbled and toppled, taking out a dozen massive fir trees as he did.
As he lay on n the ground, struggling with the Living Ice not to rise, Scion was suddenly overhead, firing electro-bolts into his torso. The Living Ice was forced to divert some energy to repairing their shared body, and when JJ next launched a huge tangle field over him, Mega-Chilz struggled only feebly to free himself.
Brimstone again turned to his gas form and attempted to suffocate him, and Chuck felt sort of bad for him… his offer to show him around Calgary if only he’d snap out of it had actually moved him, for some reason. He really liked Preston, but the poor guy hadn’t been around long enough to know in his ice form he didn’t actually breathe…
Then Totem was there at his head, muttering incantations or something… and he felt a pressure, something new! The pressure drove a wedge between himself and the presence of the Living Ice. Not enough to separate them entirely, Chuck doubted that was possible now, but giving him enough space to bring him truly and fully to himself again. And in that moment he knew what he could do – what he HAD to do.
He bent all of his thought on the Living Ice itself… and he offered it a deal. He would stop resisting it, and together they would take the Yotan dimension. He offered it as a sort of amuse bouche before the main course of Earth and the Prime Plane. And because Cooper’s powerful spell of banishment had succeeded at least partially, he was able to keep a part of his thoughts secret…
The Living Ice accepted his offer, and almost immediately he sensed its attention shift to the joy of unfettered expansion, as its substance flowed through their shared body and began to fill up Yotan. He wasn’t sure how long he had, but he had to get his friends out of this place, and to make them understand what was going to have to happen.
“You must all go, now!” he roared, and realized his voice sounded like two glaciers grinding together. He could only hope they’d understand him. “I have made a bargain, and it means Yotan is doomed… but Earth will be saved. Once this pocket realm is one with the Living Ice, I will be able to block it at the portals to Asgard and Earth, its only two choices to escape from here. That or retreat to its own dimension.”
“But Chuck, are you strong enough to fight this entity?” Totem cried. “I have felt its mind, so strong, so… vast.”
“I cannot win against it one-on-one for control, true. But thanks to you I now know I can block it in this one small way, at the choke point. However vast it is, it must still metaphysically squeeze itself down to use the gates. And there I can block it forever, if I must. Like that famous Dutch kid, I can be the thumb in the extra-dimensional dike.”
“But Chuck,” Artemis said, one arm around a semi-revived Loki, who was looking grim. “That Dutch boy died in the effort. There must be a way to block this entity without sacrificing yourself!”
Chuck shook his massive head slowly, staring down at the tiny figures of his niece (and how very odd to think of her that way) and his brother. He must be almost 200 feet tall by now, and he could feel his growth accelerating. “No, Artemis, I think your father and Totem can explain it better, but it is the only way, please trust me.
“But I’m not planning on dying, in any case, niece.” He figured this was probably the only chance he was going to get to tweak her with that without suffering her wrath, so he might as well seize the moment. “I must live to block the way; but maybe someday Totem, or Loki, or somebody will figure out a way to free me and still block the Living Ice from engulfing Earth.
“But you have to go, now, this place doesn’t have long, and you do not want to be caught here.” Already the snow was falling in a blinding torrent and the temperature was dropping at a staggering rate. He saw the reluctance with which Cooper and Kyle worked to open a portal, and the sadness with which his other friends entered it… but even Jonny was having a hard time with the cold. Jane and Loki were the last through, and the last thing he saw was her hand raised in salute…