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Detective Inspector JumpMan fell to one knee, his face drenched with sweat beneath the angular helmet he wore. His uniform was torn and stained by dust and blood; the circle at the centre of the costume’s design all but obscured by grime. With disgust, he lifted himself up, slowly raising the featureless masque that covered his face and looking beyond his opponent to the horizon and the pale blue planet far beyond. His head swam with pain, eyes blurred as he tried to focus on the rising planet. It had been a mistake to come here, he reflected sadly. He should have known that with his armour so weakened in the fight against the bodyguard, Ahmedabad, he would never have been able to overcome Xero-X. It was a futile battle from the very start. Beneath the ruin of his masque, his teeth chattered and the blood ran freely down his bruised face. In his hands he still clutched the Tolc .45 pistol that had earned him his reputation in the Next Mage Academy and, as he slowly lifted it up, bringing the sight level with his enemy, he felt a fresh rush of adrenaline surge through him. He could do this, he was a Detective Inspector of the Next Mages, he could still win this fight despite how wounded he was. “It’s no use, Inspector,” the other man whispered, his words slicing through JumpMan’s confidence, “I can see your movements slowing down. Before you can even pull that trigger I will have defeated you.” His eyes tracked the movements of the other man, moving in a slow, languid circle about him just as a predator might circle its prey. Though all conventional wisdom warned against the use of the legendary crystal in combat, the intergalactic Science Agent had long ago accustomed himself to the possibility that he scarcely had any real alternative. The crystal itself was an artefact of the lost civilisation of Braeburn; an icon to the insect nation that had inhabited the world before the arrival of Earth #746364’s New Mages. Yet no previous JumpMan had ever faced a villain so thoroughly modern as Xero-X; a villain completely defined by the modern age that he utterly outclassed the heroic armour of the JumpMan legacy. Along the gilded halls of the Next Mage Academy of Earth #746389, the name of Xero-X was spoken with both fear and awe. Some said he was the son of the academy’s antiquarian founder, others that he was once a Millennium Man gone through some hideous transformation. Whilst none agreed on his origins, there was not a single account that doubted the strength and power of the rogue Science Agent. Beneath his fractured masque, JumpMan’s lips cracked into a dry smile. There wasn’t a single cadet or instructor that had passed through Next Mage Academy that would ever have expected him to even try what he now did. The Tolc .45 barked once, its bullet speeding outwards, guided by both the advanced technology of the weapon’s design and the control of JumpMan’s telekinesis. Xero-X stepped effortlessly aside, distracted by the bullet that tore past him. JumpMan allowed the pistol to slip from his fingers. With both hands, he dug deep into the breastplate of his power armour and tore it open, revealing the shimmering light of the JumpCrystal as it beat like a second heart within his chest. His lips parted in a scream as the crystal suddenly flared with violent luminescence. He felt the light explode outwards from the jewel, washing over the surface of the red planet and driving a shockwave of devastating power before it. His nerve endings twitched, the crystal tugging at them through the armour bonded to his flesh as it retranslated his being, willing evolution into not only skin and bone but also his sacred power armour. The shoulder-pads of his armour lengthened, blades rising from the elbows; his helmet now elongated like the head of some aquatic predator. Before him, Xero-X flailed in the blinding light, the dark shades of his own armour bleached by the horizon of illumination that engulfed the barren world. JumpMan felt the power of the crystal washing out from his flesh, shattering the rock beneath his feet and casting vast chunks of earth out into the void. The blue planet continued to rise upon the horizon. He reached out, seizing the criminal by the throat and lifting him from the ground…and then a sickening crack filled his ears, the terrible sound of a fracture within the crystal at the heart of his armour. His eyes widened in fear as another crack resounded through the quiet atmosphere of the red planet, its sound like nails driven through the lid of a coffin. He felt the power in his chest waiver, a chunk of crystal tearing lose and spiralling out from the whole and towards the distant blue planet. Instinct and conditioning took over. His hand tightened about the villain’s throat as he lifted him high above his own head and hurled him out into the breathless void, watching as the elemental forces of the gulf between Mars and Earth seized hold of the villain and pulled his body in opposing directions. Another chunk of crystal tore loose from the whole and then another and another. He staggered forwards, the ground disintegrating as he moved, and then with a final sickening burst of energy, the all-powerful JumpCrystal shattered in two, the energy of the division hurling him into the void after Xero-X. The last thing Detective Inspector JumpMan remembered was the sight of the red planet spiralling erratically away from him. * * * Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna film She could still remember her birthday party, the colourful banners and strawberry and cream cake and how her mother had cried with joy and said her name over and over again. The day after she had been apprenticed to a famous magician and her name was never spoken again. Magenta smiled sadly at the memory, idly scanning the various designs of t-shirts featuring bands she was too young or too disinterested to have any real acquaintance with. Over her shoulder, and resting amongst her wallet, keys and mobile phone, Hoodwink sat upright in the cradle of her shapeless, white on black polka dot handbag, a trail of gacha machine toys and charms hanging from the straps. The man in the thick canvas parka behind the stall eyed the strange pair with open suspicion and she smiled disarmingly and moved on. She loved Camden Town; there was something of Harajuku in the colour and sound of the streets that brought back the memories of waiting with friends in warm sunlight on Jingu Bashi, the contrast of Snoopy Town in full view before her and gathered visual kei fans and the path to ancient Meiji Shrine behind. She remembered the short walk from the faux European design of the station to streets and markets filled with music, clothing shops and crêpe stands. All of that had disappeared the moment she had embraced London. Whilst she was not separated from her home by the gulf of a divide in time, as both Fait and Flavius were, she was just as distant as either of them, possibly more so. Should Fait or Flavius decide that the path of their destiny lay within the remits of their own timelines then she knew for certain that the Thin White Duke would do everything in his power to have them restored to their very different points of origin. Her past, however, was less tangible. The family she had once been a part of and the city she had loved had already changed and were changing with every day she remained a member of the Duke’s agency. Unlike Fait and Flavius, who originated in a past crystalline and frozen until their return, she was a citizen of the present; a girl lost in a world forever changing. She smiled absently, a small act of self-deception, a way to tell the world that everything was alright. “You seem distracted,” a voice purred at her shoulder. The smile she had worn to distract became one of genuine affection as she turned to see the inquisitive face of Hoodwink looking up at her; the distinct patterning of his fur giving the impression that nature had bequeathed him with his own unique Science Agent costume. She grinned and indicated the variety of clothing and records before her. “It’s because there’s too much choice,” she answered. Hoodwink blinked slowly and wrinkled his nose. “You’re a terrible liar, young lady…” his voice trailed off and both cat and girl lifted their heads upwards to the clouded February skies. Spiralling down from the unseen stars were two specs of shadow, a fair distance apart but still recognisable as foreign bodies. Without missing a beat, the young girl swiftly swung the bag round to face her and thrust a hand inside, retrieving phone and wand from beneath the cat and lifting her eyes again to the heavens. “The first object is going to hit close by,” she said, a statement divined not by magic but by experience. “We have to stop it,” Hoodwink announced, leaping free of the bag and landing on all fours on the worn street. Magenta had already flipped open the phone, her fingers dialling the number and lifting the receiver to her ear. ‘Dodgson,’ The Goldwyn Follies movie download the voice on the other end said simply, by way of introduction. “Magenta,” she identified herself, “there are two objects falling…” ‘Greenwich already picked them up for us,’ Dodgson cut her short, ‘Eagle Kaiser is on an intercept path with the second object but the first is travelling too fast for us to reach.’ The voice paused and she sensed a smile crossing the frozen lips of its owner. ‘Anything you want to do about it, Magenta?’ My Last Love download She smiled again, all thoughts of the past completely absent as her naked eyes tracked the descent of the falling body. “A lot,” she answered simply and snapped the phone shut, hooking it by the trail of varied charms to her belt buckle. She span the holly tree wand between her fingers, aiming the tip at the clouds above beneath and craning her head further back as the falling object settled on an arc that put it on a direct course for the gathered markets of the town. “Hoodwink, look after my bag,” she said simply. Particles of silver light gathered about the tip of her wand as she held it up towards the heavens. The light swelled, fragments colliding and reacting with one another in relation to the owner of the wand’s synchronicity with the magical forces at her command. With a twist of her wrist, she flipped the wand down towards the ground and aimed directly at the pavement beneath her feet. “Confringo!” she cried out suddenly. The gathered particles converged in a jet of energy that hit the pavement with such force as to drive the young girl’s body upwards. Her youthful form shot ever upwards into the skies above, leaving behind the perennial smog of the city and the ever expanding mass of the surrounding boroughs. Within moments she was in sight of the falling object, curving in an arc of descent from a point of origin she had neither the time nor patience to calculate. Her body rocketed through the sky, clouds parting and sprinkling the exposed flesh of her arms and legs with faint drops of translucent rain. She had just enough time to realise that the object she was heading towards was not some extraterrestrial debris as she had firstassumed, but rather a human body, wrapped in bone white armour. Her heart quickened in her chest, memories of the news reports showing the size of the crater the Science Hero, Millennium Man had left in the Australian wilderness upon falling from the ruins of the moon. If a similar event were to take place in London then the impact would obliterate not only the capital but significant chunks of land in the Home Counties also. All she could do was hope to knock the falling man from his trajectory and pray that her shield charm would be powerful enough to cushion their inevitable impact with the ground. She braced herself, sucking air between her teeth and struggling to prepare herself for collision. The details of the falling man’s armour grew more and more detailed and then, all at once, he was upon her. There was no time to judge the angle at which he would hit her, only the sudden, unnerving sensation that an unstoppable object was hurtling towards her. She reached out instinctively and he slammed into her, shattering several of her ribs in the impact along with the bones of her wrist. Her skin blistered, the armour of the falling man superheated by his descent from the distant heavens. The course of his fall weaved violently at an angle amongst the pale skies, the energy generated by his collision with Magenta changing the direction away from Camden and towards the ancient river running through the heart of the city. Desperately she wrapped her free arm around his armoured form, skin peeling back from the flesh and sticking to the white hot metal. Through the waves of pain that assaulted her, she struggled to hold her wand aloft, pointing the staff of holly wood directly up towards the blue skies and the distant sun and weakly mouthing a single word: “Protego download Youve Got Mail movie The Ant Bully movie full Bratz: Genie magic download .” At her back, a silver arrowhead of shimmering light flickering into existence, a line of magical defence that would slow their descent and protect the city below them. The pain in her head reached critical mass and she lost consciousness, her burnt body limp but held in place by the barrier she had cast to protect them. Below them, the dark waters of the Thames rose up to embrace them. * * * Fait Accompli cast a worried glance through the thick glass and turned away, placing finger and thumb at the bridge of her nose and attempting to drive the ache in her skull away. In the distance, beyond the divider between the two rooms, she could still hear the subtle clicks and chimes of the life-support machines that kept the slumbering Magenta stable. Dodgson looked blankly over her shoulder, his dark eyes seemingly fixed on some detail Fait herself had failed to register. “So,” she began, with more than a hint of agitation, “to sum up: we have two unknown, possibly alien Science Agents and one field agent down. Certainly doesn’t sound like our most successful mission thus far.” “There was very little alternative,” Hoodwink announced, his voice clear in both tone and intent, “Magenta acted to the best of her abilities to avert what would have otherwise been a catastrophe. The fact that she was wounded is regrettable but acceptable, considering the scale of the situation we faced today.” Dodgson pushed himself away from the empty desk upon which he leant. “I don’t like the fact that we were caught unaware,” he growled, his voice deep and resonant, “we’ve dealt with space debris before, so what went wrong today, people?” Flavius Furius Aquila unfolded his arms from before his chest and turned his attention towards his teammate and two superiors, looking carefully from Fait to Dodgson and Hoodwink. “There was an indication from the seers at Greenwich that ghost radiation might be the answer to your question, sirs.” “That may be the case,” Hoodwink remarked, “but ghost radiation alone couldn’t have propelled those two at the kind of speeds we’re talking about, and certainly not with the violence of momentum we registered.” “So,” Fait hissed, placing her arms firmly upon her hips and once more stealing a concerned glance at the girl in the adjoining room, “are we to be Science Detectives now, as well as Science Agents?” Hoodwink shook his head, his wide yellow eyes narrowing as he spoke. “Not quite,” he answered softly. “In addition to the trajectory of the two aliens, Greenwich also registered a sizeable explosion on the surface of Mars, an explosion large enough to be simultaneously logged by observatories around the world.” “So right now, we’ve got everyone’s attention, yes?” Fait questioned, looking back at them. Dodgson smiled wryly. “Try taking a look at my answer phone; that should give you a fairly good idea.” The former actress smiled faintly, the deep lines on her forehead easing slightly. “Our first course of action should be to talk to these aliens,” Flavius said, once more turning the conversation to the matter at hand, “the more we know about them and what they did to provoke Mars to smite them so, the better we will be in a position to understand what has led them to our gates.” Fait felt her smile widen by degrees. No one in the room challenged the old soldier on his terminology but she found it a constant source of amusement that whilst his logical nature had allowed him to swiftly come to terms with the progress of technology, he still could not shake free of his Roman notions of cosmology. To the fourth century Roman, the heavens above were still presided over by Mithras, resplendent in Phrygian cap and cape, each planet an actual deity to whom devotions may be given in exchange for rewards and the avoidance of a bad fate. The idea of the two aliens fighting tooth and nail upon the surface of some vast, slumbering deity suspended in the starry skies above them struck her at once as both comical and terrifying. “I agree,” Dodgson remarked after a moment’s silence. He turned towards her, his hair of stark icicles casting an unusual shadow upon the wall behind him. “You watch over Magenta; Flavius and myself will take it in turns to watch over our guests whilst Hoodwink can look for some kind of lead on just who these outer space nutters are. I’ll try and get someone from resources to find some cover for you in a couple of hours.” The former actress smiled weakly. “It’s okay,” she said, her voice unusually soft, “I don’t mind sitting with her until she wakes up.” Dodgson didn’t miss a beat. “That’s really noble of you, Fait, but the last thing I want is for you to burn yourself out, especially when we’ve got a load of nurses up there on state pensions doing nothing but waiting for one of our guests to go off on one.” Fait crossed her arms and pouted. Flavius reached out and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I believe that the chief is trying to recommend that you should conserve your strength, soldier,” he said with a smile. * * * With a roar of pain, his new flesh flashed into existence, perspiration running down his face and his wide mouth open as he struggled to draw ragged breaths into his lungs. The act of duplication, of siphoning energy from his various selves on other Earths and recreating it as a new body for himself, was not only physically exhausting but also mentally draining. He felt the agony of his other body as it collapsed into dust and ash, disappearing forever from the Earth upon which it had once existed so that he might claim another form upon the world of his birth. He had never stopped to question the ethics by which he condemned those other selves to death nor paused to consider what right he had to preside over them; all that mattered to him was that he was whole again. Gently, he let slip his mind’s grip on the wounded body sweating beneath hospital sheets. Like the pain and suffering of his alternate selves, Xero-X refused to pay the old body’s desires any further heed. His last impression from the damaged shell he had once inhabited was of the chirp and twitter of medical machinery and an indomitable presence watching over him. Instantly, he dismissed the sensation. He had nothing to fear from a single, bad tempered man, not when he had bested so many heroes and champions over the years that he had lost count. A cruel smile spread upon his lips and he straightened his back, the unique armour that covered him once more resplendent in black and shades of dark green. At long last he had returned to his point of origin. Now, beginning with the solitary fortress he had awoken in, Xero-X would begin to remake the world, like the flesh of his alternate selves, in his own image. * * * More than anything, she remembered the pain; something integral fracturing in her heart, the very root of her being suddenly divided into shards of brittle light. She recalled the dust of Mars beneath her feet and the cold, stillness of the void as light had washed over the visor of her helm. With sudden clarity, she realised that the recollections that filled her mind were not of her own experience. Her heart leapt in her chest, her eyes flickering as she felt the machines about her awaken in alarm and somewhere very, very, weakly, the anxious presence of her friend, Fait Accompli. ‘Please, don’t be alarmed,’ a voice cut through her panic, ‘whilst the JumpCrystal heals you there’s bound to be a slight overlap in memory.’ BloodRayne movie download Thou Shalt Not Kill… Except the movie
Her lips parted, dry words rasping in her throat. “J-JumpCrystal?” ‘The JumpCrystal is the source of my powers. Just in case you hadn’t guessed from that, I’m JumpMan – like my father before me and his father before him. I’m a detective inspector for the Next Mages; I don’t believe we’ve had much contact with your Earth.’ Magenta’s mind swam as she tried to come to terms with the information imparted by the voice. ‘I know this is a lot to ask of you, Haruka…’ Her blood froze, her thoughts turning cold as she retreated from the healing light that filled her head. There was a pause and then she felt a wave of horror as the alien detective realised the significance of what he had done. The joining of their minds, a technique common to all initiates of the Next Mages, and the use of the JumpCrystal – what little remained of it – to heal another’s wounds had never before placed him in a situation where he had transgressed the cultural law of another. Her head filled with his forming thoughts but swiftly she dispelled them, her eyes snapping open and her healed body sitting upright. “Magenta!” she heard Fait cry out in an urgent voice. The young magician turned to look at her, tears streaming down her cheeks. “The alien knows my name,” she whispered in horror, “he knows my real Civic Duty release Modesty Blaise ipod name!” Artifice Albion tome #2: Leave a Reply |
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