by Barry Reese
Max floated upwards, looking down at Evelyn, feeling guilt as he saw the concern in her eyes. His body had sagged back, still sitting upright but no longer bearing any sense of being animate. Evelyn remained where she was, keeping a steady vigil on her lover.
The Peregrine allowed his spirit to move towards the Un-Earth, feeling its pull on him. There were so many spirits there, mostly just ‘ghosts’ of those existing in the real world. They were psychic twins, slowly leeching energy from their true bodies, slowly being reconstituted on this other world. But there were a number of ‘true’ souls there, as well, and Max bet that many of those were men and women working directly on the Un-Earth program.
The Un-Earth generated a telepathic force on Max that was not unlike that of a gravitation object, yanking the Peregrine into its psychic orbit. He felt himself about to cross over from world to the next…
And then he saw him.
Doctor Satan smashed through the skylight, having seen what was happening and understanding it perfectly: the Peregrine was physically helpless now and easy to slay.
Max screamed out but his words could not be heard by Evelyn. He saw Satan land amidst falling glass just in front of Evelyn.
She responded quickly, throwing off her shock fast enough to block a punch from Satan. She even managed to deliver a knee into his midsection, staggering him, before the master criminal recovered control of the situation. Doctor Satan pulled out a small bag and opened it, tossing its contents straight into Evelyn’s face. The greenish-brown powder flew into her eyes and blinded her. The burning she felt caused her to scream loudly, clawing at her own eyes as if willing to tear them out to escape the pain.
Doctor Satan laughed aloud as he saw Evelyn’s agony. He was not immune to the charms of attractive women but he found as much pleasure in their discomfort as he did in wooing them. Before Evelyn could hope to recover from the substance Satan called “the devil’s powder,” the villain finished her off by backhanding her across the face. The blow knocked her out, which was a blessing of sorts. She would be fine once the powder’s effects wore off, which would be twenty or thirty minutes from now. If God were kind, he’d let Evelyn sleep through it.
Doctor Satan then turned to the prone form of the Room, drawing a curved blade that gleamed in the lights. He was about to drive the knife straight through the Peregrine’s neck when a strange sound filled the warehouse and Doctor Satan’s cloak began whipping about in a sudden gust of wind. The villain looked up to see lightning streaming forth from the Un-Earth as a portal of pure psychic energy was ripped asunder. For a brief second, Satan had no idea what was happening…
And then he realized what it was. The Peregrine’s astral self had come plunging back to his body so quickly that it had torn open a rift in time and space.
Satan looked back just as Max Davies opened his eyes and clenched his fists. “You’re going to regret hitting my wife,” the Peregrine hissed with rising anger.
Doctor Satan stared upwards at the rift, through which several human forms seemed to be appearing. “I think,” the villain declared, “That we might have more pressing concerns…”
CHAPTER IX
The Deadly Trio
Un-Earth
Bane’s home was a small manor house located several miles outside London. A wrought iron fence protected the property, which was home to several large dogs who roamed freely, their eyes and ears showing constant alertness. A single black car was parked next to the carriage house and Nathaniel could see a few men moving about through the house windows.
“Can you—?” he began but Rachel seemed to know exactly what he was thinking… which was precisely the point of her powers, he realized.
“Bane is inside, in the basement. They’re waiting for us… but I can’t get much more than that out of their heads. Everyone inside has some sort of shielding around their minds. Maybe they’ve been trained to resist telepaths.”
Nathaniel nodded, holding his lover close. He was able to fly with her in his arms with no problem… though he wasn’t at all sure how he was managing to defy gravity. It was like the rest of his powers: the ability to speak to the dead, the strange flashes of energy he sometimes produced… they all just seemed to flow out of him, without him needing any special training as to how to use them.
Together, they descended slowly, coming to a soft landing in the grasses behind the house. Their arrival was immediately detected by the dogs, but the canines never alerted their masters to the invasion. Rachel silenced them both with a powerful mental burst, leaving the animals to whimper as they fell to the ground.
“They’re alive,” Rachel said, answering Nat’s unanswered question. “But they’re going to sleep for a bloody long time.”
Nathaniel moved away from her, his eyes narrowing. As a police officer, he’d become used to trusting his instincts and right now every fiber of his being was screaming out that this was a trap.
The rear door of the house opened suddenly, allowing three men to step into the back yard. Each of them was dressed identically and their every movement was perfectly choreographed as they moved towards Nat and Rachel. The trio were all of the same height and build, a fact that made Nathaniel think at fist they might be triplets… but their uncanny resemblance seemed to go beyond that somehow. It was like they were one man, split three ways.
One of the men stopped a few feet in front of Nathaniel, staring at him with a glassy-eyed expression. When he spoke, his voice was monotone and eerily cold. “Are you the One?”
Nathaniel and Rachel exchanged glances, with the red-haired beauty shrugging slightly. She was unable to read anything at all from these three men, not even surface thoughts. It was like they weren’t even there.
“My name is Nathaniel Caine. I’m here to see Lamar Bane. Tell him I know about the Un-Earth project.”
The three men remained standing stock still for a moment and Nathaniel began to feel that familiar prickly sensation on the back of his neck: something was about to happen and it wasn’t going to be good.
The three men burst into action at the exact same second. Two of them moved towards Nathaniel while the third moved to engage Rachel. They didn’t bother running but instead launched into a series of flips and jumps that would have put Olympic level gymnasts to shame.
Rachel’s opponent flew through the air, catching her under the chin with a powerful kick. She fell backwards, landing hard on the ground. He was upon her then, straddling her chest so that he held her arms in place with his spread knees. He then began punching her repeatedly in the head, splitting her bottom lip and catching her hard in one eye. Rachel cried out, using her powers without thinking. She ‘shoved’ him away from her telekinetically, using every scrap of mental energy she possessed. The dark-garbed man flew high into the air and bounced off the roof before falling earthwards. He landed in a painful heap, his arms and legs twisted at frightening angles. Blood poured from his shattered body but never once did he utter a cry of agony or protest.
Meanwhile, the other two were attacking Nathaniel in unison, each striking whenever he seemed distracted by the other. One would kick Nat’s head while the other would pummel his lower body. Within seconds, Nat’s body ached from head to toe. He thought about taking flight but didn’t want to leave Rachel alone on the ground with them. Instead, he felt a rising surge of energy within him. Once again, the power seemed to be dictating his course of action and Nat relaxed, giving himself over to what seemed to come naturally.
Eldritch energy swirled around each of Nathaniel’s hands and he raised them both above his head, unleashing a green flame that enveloped the closer of the two men. His body writhed in the fiery embrace, the flames not damaging his skin but instead sinking down beneath the flesh, searing his very soul. When the flame had done its work and the man’s weakened body sagged to the ground, it looked as if the spark of life was completely burned away.
Nathaniel then turned to the remaining member of the villainous trio. Something in Nat�
�s demeanor was changed, Rachel noticed. Flickers of green energy were coming from his eyes and as he walked, his feet drifted several inches off the grass. A harsh wind began to blow, as well, the weather taking on elements of Nat’s mood.
“What are you?” Nathaniel demanded. “Are you even human?”
The dark figure stared at Nathaniel with no trace of fear. It was obvious that he was considering his options, having seen his companions dispatched so easily. “I am a simulacrum. A copy of a human being, animated by magic. My brothers were the same.”
“And you work for Bane?”
“All of us work for the greater good of the Third Reich.”
“So you’re all Nazi clones?”
“We are followers of the true faith… we believe that Hitler will lead all humanity to a better state of existence.”
“And is Lamar Bane inside this house?”
“He is.”
“Then that’s all I need to know.” Nathaniel reached out towards the man and clenched his hand into a fist. The motion was accompanied by a cracking sound as what passed for the Nazi’s soul was yanked from his body, dissipating into thin air.
“You’re one scary bloke,” Rachel said, though there was no fear lacing her words. When Nathaniel looked at her, she was gazing at him with near adoration, as if she were greatly impressed with him. “I’d imagine Bane knows we’re here by now.”
Nathaniel nodded and resumed moving towards the house. “We’ll question him first… maybe he’ll play soft with us once he realizes how we dealt with the bodyguards.” Nat paused when he saw the blood oozing from Rachel’s lip. “Let me help.”
Rachel allowed him to rub a gloved hand across her wounds. She felt a strong tingling as he healed her, the healing power spreading across her face until all the various bruises and injuries were gone. “I didn’t know you could do that,” she whispered, kissing his hand.
“I don’t get the chance very often,” he admitted. “Most of the people I come across lately are dead.”
“Sorry, luv,” Rachel whispered, reaching out to squeeze his hand. “This damned war just never seems to end, does it?”
“There’s always another one even if we do win this one,” Nat muttered.
Together, they strode into the house, which had been plunged into darkness. Rachel used her telepathy to detect only two more people in the house: a man and woman, both with shielded minds. “There’s a man a few rooms up ahead. It’s got to be Bane.”
Nathaniel nodded, finding a series of words in his mind that came tumbling from his lips: “Illuminatus evictum immedioso!”
Rachel looked at him questioningly as a soft green glow surrounded them, lighting their path. The house was immaculately furnished, with paintings of semi-nude women dominating the walls. Rachel found them lacking in any seductive qualities: these were disgustingly smarmy in their presentation, the women on display looking garishly made-up. She couldn’t help but assume all this was very telling about the man who owned the house.
Nathaniel suddenly stumbled, reaching out blindly to cling to the wall. The room around him swayed in time to the beating of his heart and sweat suddenly broke out on his forehead.
Rachel felt it, too, but she was able to hold her own a bit better. Having lived with the constant agony of having her psychic energy drained these past few months had steeled her resolve somewhat.
“What’s happening to us?” Nathaniel asked, gritting his teeth around every word.
“No idea,” Rachel answered. She fell against him, clinging to him like he was a raft that could protect her from a raging sea. Together, they vanished in a flash of emerald energy.
* * *
Theodora Sturm and Lamar Bane paced through the empty room that had once contained both Nathaniel Caine and Rachel Winters. Sturm seemed vary disturbed by their absence. “I don’t understand… I heard them from the other room—they were just as surprised as I was!”
Bane, dressed in a trim suit with swastika cufflinks, sniffed the air, as if he could somehow trace their movements like a bloodhound. “I think they’re back on the other Earth. The real one.”
“But how did they travel without using a gate?”
“Perhaps the boy opened one without realizing it,” Bane considered. The girl—Rachel—might have wrongly assumed that she was the only ‘battery’ the Third Reich had been using but she wasn’t. Nearly a dozen other men and women around England were plugged into similar tanks, their powers being drained and then transmitted through the ether to the Un-Earth. Rachel just happened to be the most powerful, and thus the one they kept closest to the Un-Earth globe. Using any of the batteries, travel back and forth between the two worlds was possible… but so far as Bane knew, it required the mechanical workings of the Nazi equipment to take place. “Or perhaps,” he mused aloud, “They were summoned back.”
CHAPTER X
The Gifted
Nathaniel and Rachel saw their surroundings slowly come into view and both of them gasped aloud. The two garishly garbed men in front of them were recognizable enough, for both had been featured in numerous newspapers: the Peregrine and Doctor Satan, though both of them were typically found in the United States.
Satan, still gripping his knife, was the first to speak. He studied the green uniforms worn by the new arrivals and abruptly decided to sheathe his blade. His tone was decidedly wary as he asked “You’re the Gifted, aren’t you?”
Rachel blinked in surprise. She felt her natural inclination to enter the minds of the two men would be failures, for both seemed to radiate the kind of shielding she’d associated with trained telepaths. As the Peregrine knelt to examine a fallen woman on the floor, Rachel stared into the eyes of Doctor Satan. “Are you working with Bane?” she asked, refusing to answer his question. She would be in control here, she decided, not him.
Satan, however, merely answered her with a laugh. He turned his attention to Nathaniel and said, “I don’t know why I bothered with the girl. You’re obviously the important one around here. That uniform you’re in… that hasn’t been seen in quite some time. The last Catalyst was killed just after the turn of the century, I believe.”
Nathaniel stared hard at the madman. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You’re both Gifted,” Satan answered, mockingly taking on the tone of a professor addressing a classroom full of dullard students. “Humans with the capacity to sense and manipulate magic. But only once a century does a true Catalyst emerge… a High Mage. A man or woman with the natural ability to tap into the most primal forces in existence. That’s why you’re wearing that uniform. It takes different forms, depending on the era… but it’s always the same basic look. Very recognizable.”
Despite herself, Rachel felt curiosity overwhelming her. “Why do my clothes look like his?”
“You’re his mate, you stupid little cow.”
Rachel nearly lunged for the villain but Nat caught her by the arm. “You insulting little git!” she barked. “How dare you…?”
“No insult was intended,” Satan answered with apparent sincerity. “But it’s true. Surely the two of you have noticed. Every Catalyst has a designated genetic mate, one that he can recognize instantly. Your children, should any of them live to maturity, will be great forces for change in the world.” Satan pointed a red-gloved finger at Nathaniel. “Some people think that all Gifted ones are evolutionary shifters for humanity, the next stage. That’s not true. You are. And you,” he gestured to Rachel, “the only woman on Earth who can bear the kind of children you’ll need to truly introduce new stock into the cattle that is humanity. A pity that no Catalyst in centuries has managed to do that… either they or their mates end up dead first—or their children.”
“Don’t listen to him. Everything he says might be a lie.” The Peregrine had pulled his wife to safety and was now approaching Doctor Satan, fury still etched on his features. “This madman killed one of my best friends and just attacked my wife. He’s wanted for mo
re crimes than I can count and—”
“I know,” Nathaniel said, stopping the Peregrine. Max noted that the one dubbed Catalyst was regarding him with nearly as much distaste as Max himself had directed at Satan. “I know who he is. And I know who you are. Both of you are preening fools who don’t care that innocent people get caught in the line of fire! You dress up like mystery men and fight your little wars and it’s the rest of us who have to clean up the mess!”
Rachel flinched at the anger in her lover’s words. She’d caught glimpses of his past when their minds had mingled and she felt his pain now, knowing what it meant. She reached out for Nathaniel’s hand but he pulled away from her, taking a step towards Satan and the Peregrine, green fire dancing around the corners of his eyes.
“Someone needs to teach all the people like you,” Nathaniel warned, “That humanity isn’t going to take it anymore.”
Before either Doctor Satan or the Peregrine could react, a wall of pure psionic force slammed into both of them, knocking them back so hard that they tore right through the walls of the warehouse. Both men landed hard in the street, bones crunching as they struck the ground.
Rachel moved in front of Nathaniel, blocking his path. “Calm down. You’re doing exactly what you accused them of.”
“What do you mean?” Nat demanded, looking past her at the colorfully garbed figures who were slowly rising from their backs.
Rachel reached up and gripped his face in her hands, turning him to see Evelyn, laying amidst the debris cast off by the wall’s destruction. “You could have killed her, Nat.”
“I… You’re right. I’m acting like a bloody idiot.” Nathaniel looked down at his cloak and uniform, tears welling up in his eyes. “And now I’m one of them.”
While Rachel tried to soothe her lover, Doctor Satan was back on his feet. He wasn’t badly hurt from the attack but he was too light-headed to encounter combat with the young man. The Catalyst was a powerful, if untrained foe, and Satan wanted to be at the top of his game if it came to battle. The villain felt a hand firmly grip his arm and turned to see the Peregrine facing him.