Baron Zemo's Lair. - Chapter Seven

Baron Zemo's Lair

Chapter Seven
Sunday, 04-Jul-1999 15:21:57
24.64.71.35 writes:

Chapter seven- The Shaper of Worlds

"You! You are doing this!" Zemo shouted accusingly at the half-narcotized Sersi, pointing his finger threateningly at her.

"NO, ZEMO, IT IS I!" Zemo and Sersi both turned at the sound of the stentorian voice, which seemed to fill the entire chamber. An incandescene brighter than a thousand suns filled the room, emanating from the hermetically sealed tube where The Shaper of Worlds was held. It was a scene Baron Zemo and Sersi would both remember for the rest of their lives. The Shaper's energy-bonds dissolved around him, and his eyes became twin stars that pierced the windows into Baron Zemo and Sersi's souls. The Shaper's countenance was almost too terrible to bear, although they were deer caught in those twin headlights, unable to move or even blink. And the Shaper opened his mouth and spake.

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The Legion's radiation-shielded jet-craft flew low in the sky over what had heretofore been The New Soviet Union of Mother Russia, now a desolate, blasted, and radioactive wasteland. For miles around, there was no trace of life or habitation whatsoever. A grey pallor hung over the land and fallout, a dirty snow, still fell upon the dead earth below, as if it was manna from heaven itself.

Inside, Jarvis stared out the window at the desolation below of which he knew he had been the cause. Russia had been totally levelled by the blast, of which the megatonnage had been incalculable. China, Japan, and much of Eastern Europe had all been irradiated to the point of being unfit for human life. Those places were now the domain of fallout and cockroaches. And it had all been his fault.

"Jarvis!" a voice dispelled his reverie.

"Yes?"

"We're here."

Everyone in the craft looked up at the wonderous tableau presented to them. A being seemingly comprised entirely of energy levitated high in the stratosphere above them. The Legionnaires strained their eyes and brains attempting to identify any recognizable features, but their efforts were in vain since it defied the contours of Euclidean geometry. The being called itself The Great and Terrible One, and from the reports of world authorities already on the scene, it had arrived, drawn by the massive amounts of energy released in the destruction of the NSUMR, to judge the earth. Suffice it to say, he had found the earth to be unworthy and was preparing to eradicate its existence from the cosmos. The Terrible One had to be stopped now before his rampage could further destroy the earth. He had already systematically razed the capitals of many of the world's nations, including Washington. However, as always, the turgid Lair Legion had come to the world's rescue--but would even they be effective?

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"The Legionnaires never stood a chance, did they, Chronicler?"

"They did not."

"Indeed."

The Chronicler of Stories and The Shaper of Worlds reclined in Chronicler's interdimensional library as Chronicler watched the events currently happening on Earth through the eyes of his all-seeing ravens, and recorded notable events in his august Book of Time.

"Events arrive at a conjunction," the being of pure knowledge spoke softly as a raven appeared and alighted on what passed for his shoulder.

"Yes, the time has come to rectify the mistakes of years gone by. The One who escaped to Earth has reawakened and is preparing to wreak havoc once again, just as he did those many years ago. It appears, my good Chronicler, that it is high time for me to involve myself in human affairs again to atone for my part in the world's current situation."

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The battle had been short and fierce. Every attack thrust of the Lair Legion had been repulsed by The Great and Terrible One, not to mention the fact that the ubiquitous radiation required many of the Legionnaires to wear protective rad-suits. The Legion had suffered heavy casualties before NTU-150 divined the psionic nature of The Terrible One's cosmic powers. It had only taken him and Jarvis moments to concoct a plan where Tina, channelling the mental energy of everyone on Earth, would obtrude that psychic energy into The Terrible One's form, disrupting the entity's energy matrix and dissipating his energy across Earth's electromagnetic spectrum. To make a long story short, the plan had worked--but at a price. In the resultant explosion, The Shaper of Worlds (M-body), The Chronicler of Stories (M-body), Fin Fang Foom, Banjooooo, Donar, Visionary, Cheryl, NTU-150, Roscoe, Markooooo, Elsqueevio, Yo, Starseed, Space Ghost, DarkHwk, Zip Mark 50, Falcon, GR, and Tina had all disappeared, and the survivors had been scattered across the face of the Earth by the tremendous release of eldritch energies.

Jarvis had awoken on a freighter in the Indian Ocean, where the crew told him he had been found floating in the sea, clinging to a piece of metal. It had been a miracle, they said, that they had discovered him when they did. And as Jarvis had looked up into the fading light, he fancied he could still see the outline of The Terrible One, etched across the starry sky...

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As the strange entity before him opened its terrible embrace to suck him into it, Baron Zemo's mind flashed back to the day shortly after "The Incident," when he had discovered this being who he had thought to be the Shaper...

The boots of Zemo and Dr. Moo's rad-suits left thick prints in the radioactive cesium and strontium metal coating the dead, blasted plain. Zemo had witnessed the entire exchange between the Lair Legion and the cosmic "Great and Terrible One" from a safe distance. After the battle had ended and the sky lit with the fire of ten-thousand suns, the ever opportunistic Zemo had witnessed a new type of fallout drifting down to the warm earth below.

"It's the Shaper of Worlds," Zemo had said.

"It appears so, Baron. What are we gonna do with him?" Moo replied.

"Simple, my dear Doktor Moo. We are going to use the Shaper as our own personal power source..."

And now, as The Great and Terrible One advanced upon him Zemo rued that day, that seemingly auspicious day, that great and terrible day.

"What--what is--the meaning of this?"

"You know perfectly well, Zemo! You erroneously believed that your rudimentary technologies could possibly contain ME? I am the one responsible for the current situation! I was the one who congregated you and the Lair Legion so that I could exact my righteous vengeance upon those responsible on THAT DAY! After my defeat, I fashioned myself after my...creator, The Shaper of Worlds! Thus, I knew you would attempt to utilize my cosmic powers in your schemes! And now, the seed which I planted those many years ago bears fruit..."

"But--but I am in control of the situation here!"

"No, Zemo! Once again, you are in error! The Great and Terrible One has returned, and his righteous fury WILL NOT BE DENIED."

As The Great and Terrible One approached Baron Zemo and Sersi, the omnipresent conflagration of energy began to flare ever brighter, until even not by shutting tight their eyelids could the two block out the light. So too, a rumbling, that ever increased until the tower of Oceania was quivering down to its very foundations. In the jail cell where they were being held prisoner, Jarvis, Lisa, Hal Vanderbilt, Fin Fang Foom, Visionary, Dr. Moo, Banjooo, and NTU-150 were all tossed about as the prison's walls played table tennis with their bodies. And that's when it happened.

The Terrible One advanced on Zemo and Sersi, but found himself checked by a sudden surge of cosmic energy as The Shaper of Worlds materialized.

"It would seem that I have arrived at the proper time."

"No! You...can't...stop...me!" Cosmic energy flared as The Great and Terrible One struggled against his creator's hold.

"Yes, I will stop you. I know not, nor do I care to know why you have been altering and twisting reality, but it ends now. Events must be set back upon their proper course."

The Shaper's eyes glared harshly for a moment, and then an all-consuming whiteness spread from every point of his form. Soon, the tower of Oceania and everyone in it were torn apart by a wild storm of elemental fury that rendered the tower...nonexistant. Afterwards, it was said that the light of the storm could be seen for miles around...

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Hal Vanderbilt, CEO of the Parody Comics Emporium, lounged in his commodious office and gazed into his magical crystal ball, yet another souvenir from his long centuries of existence. In it was framed the ruined tower of Oceania.

Vanderbilt smiled. So Zemo's plan had backfired on him. The incompetent fool...

"Who is more the fool, Vanderbilt? You or Zemo?" Vanderbilt turned at the sudden voice.

"What are YOU doing here?"

THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE stepped from the shadows of the dimly-lit room.

"I've just come to inform you that THOSE WHO SIT ABOVE IN SHADOW are very disappointed with you, Vanderbilt..."

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It was raining. Again. The tears of heaven poured down, as if to signify heaven's grief for the current deplorable state of the world. The rain poured down, creating rivulets of water through the deserted streets, as Jarvis and Lisa lurked outside Vanderbilt Tower, looking for a way in. Understandably, they were a bit confused. One moment, they had been in Oceania, imprisoned by Baron Zemo, the next, they were somewhere...else. They had come to Vanderbilt Tower, looking for answers, both as to what the hell just happened, and, at the behest of Fleabot and Zip-150, what the hell happened to spiffy, former leader of the Canadian resistance.

On roughly the other side of the North American continent, NTU-150 and the Departed, amazingly recovered, were searching for the two known only as Baron Zemo and Sersi--if they were still alive...

And from somewhere in the Ozarks, the ever inscrutable Apostate watched it all...

Continued...

by The Shaper of Worlds