Beyond the Veil - part 4
A tale of a possible future of Freedom Force by Silver Age Fogey

Chapter 9 - "Your Reward Is Neither Here Nor There..."

Mentor, Shadow, Nick Craft, and Merry Mason were riding through New Patriot City, far beneath the original Patriot City, on the backs of gigantic ants led by one-time member of Freedom Force, the transformed Ant, now an insect in form as well as name.

They passed by buildings that had stood above ground in Patriot City before Shadow and Ant had begun drawing them underground again - but this time for protection, not to steal them. Along with the buildings were several hundred citizens of Patriot City - nearly all the humans left alive on Earth. With liquid from an underground lake and a fungus farm providing nutrition, it seemed that this city could last indefinitely in its present location - especially since Mentor had returned to Earth with another nuclear power supply to energize the Freedom Fortress. It would also serve to power New Patriot City and keep it running for nearly a century.

"Hopefully, by the time that this generator requires replacement, there will be some solution to the situation you've described to me," Mentor said to the two younger heroes. "If there is a way to retake the Earth's surface-"

Nick cut him off. "There isn't, and even if there were, we can't save the Earth, Mentor. It's a goner. And so are we..."

"I refuse to surrender, Nick," the Mentatic Myrmidon replied. "Tell me what happened. Let us see if there's some answer to this. You had mentioned that Bullet had something to do with this?"

"Oh, yes," Merry answered. "He started things happening..."

[Merry's tale] Bullet hadn't seemed to be affected by the Energy-X explosion, and of course as Earth's Fastest Man, he was everywhere helping out. He even defeated Ocean Master by himself once, and that was a close call.

But we should have known that sooner or later, something would happen - and something did. Just earlier this year, he was on a mercy mission delivering medical supplies to Great Britain and the New Round Table - the British super heroes who had assembled to fight crime.

Incredibly, some of the idiots in Russia still wanted to try to actually "win" whatever war they had been waging - as if the playing field hadn't changed so wildly that it wasn't even a contest anymore. But they tried to set a trap, and it worked.

After he had delivered the supplies, we had received an emergency request for assistance from the Kremlin. They had claimed that one of the Energy-X creatures was destroying Moscow and that they needed our help. They played on our sympathies, knowing that we couldn't turn them down. And we didn't.

While we assembled in the Freedom Flier, Bullet took off on a reconnaissance mission. He got to Moscow about the time we were just starting over the Atlantic Ocean. He did a super speed search around the city, but he couldn't find anything. He took nearly five minutes to try to find any of these so-called monsters, but none were there. At least, none in non-human form.

We contacted the Kremlin and told them that there was nothing there... or we tried to. They wouldn't answer. But we found out what happened.

Long range scanners showed that a huge energy field suddenly appeared completely around the city of Moscow. Our radio signals still got through, and so we were in contact with Bullet. He didn't know what was going on... until he tried to leave the city.

The force field held him in. He hit and bounced back nearly a mile. Luckily, his outfit is resistant to impact damage, and he wasn't hurt. He tried to get out, but found that the entire perimeter of the city was bounded - no way out.

Then we heard from the Russians again. They broke in on our frequency, and "invited" Bullet to remain in Russia as a guest, and as a resident super hero. They figured that his super speed powers would be able to generate enough energy to get their city back to full power again.

He turned them down, of course, and they said that it wasn't an offer that he could refuse. The force field would stay up and he was remaining in Moscow.

Something happened to him. I don't know why, but it made him really angry. REALLY mad. He shouted back at them that they would never see him as a slave to the commies. We told them the same thing, and we let him know we were heading toward Moscow to help him.

I don't know if we could have helped him or not... but we never made it. We never got close. As we passed over the North Atlantic, a sudden storm swept up. It was almost hurricane intensity, and we got tossed around like a leaf in a waterspout.

It was Ocean Master, of course. His powers let him hear radio signals, and I guess he'd been listening in, waiting to hear us on a mission so that he could get us. It was awful... if Nick hadn't managed to fly us back in the damaged Freedom Flyer, we'd be dead now. It was still nearly ruined, and that was when Microwave was so badly hurt too.

As we limped home, we still received the radio signals from Bullet. He said that he was still trying to escape, and that he was going to try to bore through the force field. Apparently, he started circling around the perimeter, trying to force it outward. And finally, the Energy-X transformation kicked in on him.

He suddenly got faster. A LOT faster. We were listening, and suddenly the rush of air we usually heard from his running became a roar. Then the radio went dead.

Our visual monitor from space showed us the rest. Bullet had become a blazing circle inside the force field, faster and faster. Although we couldn't hear them, we could see the sonic booms as he kept accelerating. He literally was running on the surface of the field, and buildings were starting to collapse, whether from the air pressure or the vibrations we couldn't tell.

I'm not sure he could stop... I guess we'll never know. We watched him continue to accelerate and finally break the field. At that point, he had started gouging a hole into the very Earth itself, the force of his speed compressing and driving everything into a cone. It was sort of like stirring a glass of tea very quickly... save that this was a mile down.

Bullet broke through, and the resultant release of pressure forced a gout of lava to burst up, like a volcano. It covered Moscow in minutes... and it kept spreading.

"Almost three quarters of the continent of Asia was covered," Nick continued, as Merry donned her water helmet again. "Not too many people - even enhanced by Energy-X - could stand that."

The quartet dismounted outside a large building. "Then Bullet perished in that inferno?" Mentor asked.

"No. No, come on in to our subheadquarters, and we'll show you." Nick Craft led them into the building, now fully lit since the power of nuclear energy was generating electricity for New Patriot City.

Although not nearly as fine as Freedom Fortress, the building did have a certain stateliness to it. Merry burbled, "It's the city hall. It was abandoned, and I thought we would eventually have to relocate here. We installed some of the monitor equipment, some of the first aid machinery, so on."

"And an admirable job you have done," Mentor observed. "I wish I had been at liberty to aid you in this endeavor."

"Where have you been, Mentor?" Shadow asked.

"I have been battling on my homeworld to defeat Lord Dominion. We managed to win, but at such a cost. And now is not the time for that discussion. Let us see what you were about to show me."

They walked to the top floor of the one-time Patriot City Hall, and the three heroes led Mentor to a bank of monitors. Merry adjusted one of them, and said, "Here, Mentor. Here is Bullet's final resting place."

The screen showed a gigantic crater... on the moon. Merry continued, "Once he broke out of that force field, he couldn't stop. He ran, accelerating faster and faster, gouging up the Earth's surface... until he hit escape velocity."

Nick continued, "His bad luck, he was aimed at the moon's orbit, at the exact right - or wrong - spot. His body pulverized it when it hit. He made a gigantic crater... here, you can just see it. Look."

Mentor studied the monitor as it replayed, and showed an object moving at a significant percentage of light speed, moving off the Earth as if shot from a gun. The figure approached Luna as it rose in the evening sky... until he hit.

Bullet's momentum contributed to his kinetic force, and all of it transferred to the moon when he hit. He created a crater over a mile wide, and the bottom could not be seen. It looked like a great pit had been dug on the face of the moon. "Somewhere in there, Mentor, is Bullet's grave," Nick said.

Shadow quietly continued, "And here is the legacy he left to us." She changed the monitor so that it was now pointing at Earth. "Look at Asia."

Mentor watched in horror as he saw that the gouge ripped open by Bullet's hyperaccelerated speed had not healed. Earth's life blood still poured out through a death wound where Russia had once been.

"It's affecting Earth's orbit," Merry said. "Our days are slowing down, and Earth will start begin to swing off its axis. Of course, we'll all be dead by then, between the gases in the atmosphere and the surges of temperature."

"Can nothing be done? Are there no other members of Freedom Force left alive?" Mentor asked.

"Two," Merry answered. "But they're out of touch. They were... changed, also."

Chapter 10 - "Conspire To Grasp This Sorry Scheme Of Things Entire..."

"All right," Nick growled, "I'll tell you what happened to Eve."

Merry said gently, "Nick, you shouldn't-"

"Hey, Merry, you got Ocean Master out of your system - you have to let me do the same. I need to tell someone, anyone. Or I'll go mad."

"Oh, Nick..." she sighed softly. "I just don't want to see you hurt."

"Too late for that, Merry. Way too late..."

[Nick's tale] This happened on what I guess would be called the Freedom Force's last mission. Merry wasn't along, so it was me, Eve, AlcheMiss, and Diablo. There was a catastrophe on what was left of the West Coast. The southern part of California was in flames, and the northern Pacific was freezing over. So we split up; Diablo and Alcehmiss went south and Eve and I went north to Washington state.

Later reports from California indicated that Diablo had a change triggered, almost certainly by Energy-X, and he became a fire giant, much as Man O'War became an ocean giant. No one ever went back out to find out for sure... we just ran out of members. No one left to do it, no one cared enough... it was simply all over. We know now that there's a flaming titan ruling the southwest of the United States, and we've seen an everburning corpse... it's awful. It has to be AlcheMiss. I only hope that she's dead, and not like Law and Order were...

But Eve and I ran into our disaster too. We went north to find out why things were freezing, but we had a really good idea - Nuclear Winter had come to Canada.

We had to take a charter aircraft, because the Flyer was still damaged from the encounter we'd had with Man O'War - I mean, Ocean Master - and so we were winging our way northward from Seattle far slower than we'd expected to be.

I don't know if they knew we were coming, or just taking down every single flight over their region, but we didn't get twenty miles into Canada before our wings became covered with frost... and then hail... and then a coating of ice.

I give our pilot credit, he tried to get us down... before he crashed into the frozen tundra.

When I awoke, I remember that I felt cold and numb. Eve was there, unconscious also, and I was barely able to crawl over to her. I couldn't see much around us save that I could tell we were inside - but we were still going to freeze in that temperature. I pulled the parkas we were both wearing over us, and held onto her, hoping that our combined body heats would keep us alive.

It must have worked - we lived - but it was still horrible. Eve finally came around a few hours later, and we managed to figure out that we were in an ice house of some nature. There wasn't much in the way of furniture, but I took my parka and a couple of hunks of debris that were in there, and I was able to start a fire. It wasn't going to last long, but somebody must have brought us in from the crash - they'd have to come by sooner or later.

And they did. Two of Nuclear Winter's frozen soldiers came for us. I found out that my leg was hurt, really badly, and Eve had to half-carry me along. We were taken through a frozen fortress to what looked like a throne room.

Sukhov had changed again. When once he had looked like a gigantic frozen human form, he now looked monstrous. Still two arms and legs, but his face looked like the muzzle of a wild animal, and he was huge, and white furred all over, with a large white sinewy tail. He looked something like a cross between a white wolf and an upright bear - but not pretty. And he smelled so bad...

Around his throne, as it were, were bones. Big ones. I didn't recognize them, but Eve looked at them and screamed in terror. In response, Sukhov gave a grunting laugh, and said, "Da, that is what you think. We have had some of the Canadian natives in... for a little bite!" He roared at his own twisted humor, and his ice queens and frozen soldiers laughed along with him.

"Now you find out what is our plan. Nuclear Winter shall take over Canada. Then United States. Then the world!"

Eve slowly said, "You... you've become.. a Windigo! You're a monster!"

Sukhov smiled, and with a vault was right at our sides. "Monster is ugly word. I am now just a fellow with good taste!" Again he laughed, and I looked at Eve again. She was still open mouthed in shock and horror.

Suddenly that white paw grabbed my head and swung it, and I was staring right into those horrible human eyes in that monster face. "You do not know what is Windigo, do you? Curse of the north. Happens to those who consume forbidden flesh."

Eve hissed "Cannibals."

"Da, da. Come, I show you our main supply of food." He grabbed both of us and dragged us along. My leg hurt terribly, as we were dragged to a rock bound prison.

Inside a cell, we saw a cowering figure. There was a torch, but the flickering shadows made it difficult to see well. Two guards stood outside the chamber, both ice soldiers, and from inside piped a high toned voice, hysterical.

"Oh no, not dinner time again!

"This has to end someday, but when?"

Eve and I looked at each other - a rhyme... And we got it just as Sukhov shoved a torch into the cell.

Chained to a wall was Herbert Hooving... Déjà Vu. He was babbling to himself in that annoying voice, and still wearing that doltish blue and violet costume. But it was obvious that he'd been a captive for a long time. Nuclear Winter entered the cell and towered over the horrified man.

"Deja? Deja, it's Sukhov," the monster purred, poking a claw on the top of his head. "Time for you to be making the dinner."

The rhymer responded, "Please, I can't, don't make me try it!

"And anyway, you should be on a diet-"

Before he could finish speaking, Sukhov ducked his head toward the trapped man's arm. We heard a ripping sound, and Deja shrieked in pain. Sukhov stood up again, chewing on something, and Déjà Vu's left arm was gone from the elbow down, blood pouring out.

Eve turned and was sick, as I stared in horror. But the worst was yet to come. Sukhov made a loud gulping sound, and with a reddened muzzle and fangs, said, "Now time to grow back, Deja boy. C'mon, you know you got no choice. Here, you two, watch this trick. Very neat."

As I looked, I saw the bleeding staunch itself. Eve looked back and we were both dumbstruck as we watched Hooving's arm growing back... at a fantastically accelerated rate. In a matter of minutes, the arm was back.

"Plenty good, eh?" Nuclear Winter asked. "Endless supply - he grows back fast - like super clone. After second dose of Energy-X, Déjà Vu is like continuously full warehouse!" The guards and Sukhov roared in laughter at this comment.

"Now, Deja, time for making dinners! NOW!" The white furred monster slapped at Hooving's head, and suddenly a copy burst into appearance. And another. And yet a third.

Being free, they immediately ran for the exit of the cell - until that white furred monster grabbed them and clutched them under his arm like so much firewood. "Good boy, Vu, good boy. We will be sending dinner back soon....HEE HA HA!" he howled.

Eve asked, "And so, what need have you of us, vile one?" while her off hand started slipping toward her bow.

He turned and smiled the most vile look I've ever seen. "You come looking for us...? You find us. We run away until we catch you, eh?"

With lightning speed, a white paw lashed out and snagged Eve by the arm. "We want little change of taste. I am thinking that leg of hero be good treat!"

"Let her go!" I yelled, and dove at his hand, to try to free Eve from its grip. But he must have been waiting for that, because he flung her into the wall, stunning her.

I was pretty strong after the transfusion, but I was no match for this monster. He lifted me up and slapped me across the face three or four times... it was like being hit with a frozen sledge hammer, and I couldn't focus after the first hit.

He growled, "No hurry for the girl. Plenty to go around. You are volunteering, eh?" And he grabbed my injured leg. It hurt so bad that I passed out.

When I woke up finally, my leg was agonized, and Eve was holding my head in her lap. She whispered, "Nick, are you awake? Can you hear me?"

"Oh... yeah, I'm awake, Eve. What happened?"

She turned my head up toward her eyes and said, "I stopped the bleeding, but that's only a stopgap for now. Nick, he's going to... to..."

"I know, Eve. We have to find some way to stop him." I tried to rise, but she held me back.

"Nick, don't move. You're very badly hurt. Only by Gaea's grace are you still alive. No, don't look down. You don't want to see what happened."

So, of course, I had to look down. I found... I found that I would only need left shoes from then on. My stomach felt full of cold lead, and I slumped back.

Eve began crying, and said, "Nick, I have to do something about this... I have to stop this..."

I mumbled, "What? What can we do?"

She shook her beautiful head and sobbed, "Not we. Me. Nick, if this doesn't work... please, please forgive me."

She took a deep breath, and stared right into my eyes. "I have to cast a spell, Nick, but it requires... well, it requires your participation."

"Whatever I can do," I said. "We have to stop Sukhov."

Eve nodded slowly, and asked, "Then tell me something, and this is very important. Do you like me, Nick?"

"Excuse me? I sure do!"

"No. No, that's not what I mean. Not as a teammate. I mean-"

I interrupted her, "I know what you mean, Eve. You said it's important. Then I have to tell you, honestly, that I've had a crush on you as big as Mount Rushmore since we met."

She nodded and said, "Then I'm sorry about this." And she leaned over and kissed me.

I had really had a crush on he since she first showed up, but I knew it would never come to anything. So I never expected this to happen, especially that place, that time.

I was in a daze as she was kissing me - I didn't feel anything, I couldn't think... just a pleasant warm haze.

When I opened my eyes, Eve had set me down on the ground, and I saw that she had grabbed my... my leg. Her hand was all covered in blood, and she began stripping off her leaf and stick costume. "Eve, what are you-" I started.

But she ignored me, and kneeling down, began to chant in Greek, or some language - I think it was Greek but I can't be sure. But I heard the English part...

"In the name of a love betrayed,

By life made dead-" She dropped her costume.

"And by blood of an innocent-" She dipped her blood hand into the leaves and sticks.

I call to Earth the... the presence of... of ..."

I suddenly realized what she was doing, and tried to stop her - but I couldn't stand, couldn't move, as she finished...

"Of Pan."

The demigod took no time in appearing. Eve had scarcely stood up and turned back to me when a vortex of greenery suddenly formed in the cell. She turned back to it, in all her glory, head bowed, looking as if she were awaiting the return eagerly. Maybe she was.

When the whirling ceased, he stood there, almost triumphantly. In that horridly cloying accent, he said, "Hello, my dear. I see that you have found your true nature finally, and I could not be happier."

He turned his attention to me. "Well, well, this must be the sacrifice, eh?"

"No you don't!" I answered. I started pulling myself up against the wall. "I may be hurt but you're not taking me without a fight, monster!"

He laughed then, a terrible sound. It sounded almost like a tornado or a hurricane. "You have already been sacrificed. There is no more we need from you, boy. Isn't that right, my love?"

Eve answered slowly, "Yes, my love..." Her voice had that double harmonic it had had when she had been enthralled by Pan the first time we fought him.

"Well! On to business! Where are all my new worshippers?" he asked brightly.

"What... did you... DO TO HER?" I managed to say. Things were getting dark and I was getting dizzy, but I wasn't going to just give up to him.

"Oh, dear, you are going to be a nuisance, aren't you? I told you; your part is done. On your way."

"No, my love," Eve said hesitatingly. "He is hurt..."

"Oh, so he is. Well, you can heal him, my dear. You have achieved your full powers by summoning me again."

Then he looked at me. "Did you never wonder where your Eve came from? I made her. She is to be my true love. But I had to temper her first, build her a spirit, a soul. I have enough slaves. I need an equal. And how wonderfully you in Freedom Force forged her! Like a sword in a flame, tempered and hard and ready to stand at my side!" He laughed again and brushed his hand across her forehead. "My perfect mate! All thanks to you and yours, lad."

"Silence!" a Russian accented alto bellowed. "What goes on in here?" Two of Nuclear Winter's Ice Queens came striding up to the door of the cell. "Where did HE come from?"

I moaned as Pan said, "That won't be any matter to you in a moment..." And then he started that weird singing. I remembered what happened when he did that, and as I watched, the two ice queens began shaking and transforming. They finally fell to the floor, and I saw a flare of silver light through the small window in the wooden door.

When the door opened, they were garbed in those short shirt and tights outfits that Pan's female sylphs had been wearing. They spoke in unison, their voices with the same harmonic as Eve's. "Welcome back, Lord Pan. Command us."

"Let us go recruit more worshippers! Come, come!" He gamboled out of the cell with that strange gait that his goat legs gave him, and as we encountered any resistance - male or female - he simply sang them into slaves. Women into sylphs, men into those horrible minotaurs. As bad as it was that Nuclear Winter had converted them, they were changed again, and still with as little choice in the affair.

When we finally returned to the throne room, Sukhov was gone, but about half a dozen of his ice warriors were there, firing their frozen guns. It was awful. The minotaurs tore into them, the sylphs fired acid and fire, and Pan just stood and laughed, as if he were enjoying a potent drink. He literally looked drunk by the time the carnage was finished.

"He has run off! We have won, my children! We have won!" the demigod cried, and all his converted followers roared their approval. "Tonight we celebrate the return of the God of Nature to the material world! Pan is returned! Let all rejoice!"

"Wait a minute," I said. "What about Déjà vu?"

Pan smiled. "That rhyming fool? He is an abomination. I don't know where he is... I suppose that ice fellow took him along. I don't care right now - I have to prepare the land for my return!"

He led everyone outside, and with a wave of his hand, caused an oak tree to begin to grow from under Nuclear Winter's frost covered ground. And another. And another still. While he labored, the ice and snow began to withdraw, and the clouds broke, with the sun shining through.

In three hours, he had reestablished at least a small section of the great forests of the Pacific Northwest. "How delightful! How lovely! We shall have a task before us, my children! We shall restore this world to greatness!"

Again, a roar of approval met him, and he gloried in it. He turned to Eve and took her by the hands. "And you, my pet, shall be my queen beside me. You shall be... the Shining One!"

"I live for it, my lord Pan," Eve answered.

Then he spun and leapt in front of me. "And now, for your fate, boy!" And again, that horrific laughter washed over me like a polluted tide...

Mentor asked, "And then what happened?"

"He let me go," Nick answered slowly, still pained by the memories. "Sukhov had frozen the coast where Pan and the Shining One now make their home. Outside the manor they claimed was a seaplane. It had been of no use frozen into the outlet into the Pacific, but once Pan returned, everything thawed, and it was freed.

"Pan claimed that I was immune to his power because it had been my life force used to summon him back to this world. That and the care that I had taken of his ‘beloved' - he said he owed me a gift. So he let me go and I flew back. When I got back to the Freedom Fortress, Merry was the only one left.

"That was about two years ago. Since then, we've just been trying to keep New Patriot City operating, keeping alive what survivors we could, and waiting for the end." He got up and slowly walked over to the table and sat down. "There just isn't any more Freedom Force."

Mentor asked, "Nick pardon my curiosity, but what happened to your leg? I have been with you for over a day now, and I see that you walk fairly well. Have you a prosthetic?"

"Oh, no. No, it's real It was her doing - Eve. Now ‘the Shining One', as she and Pan call her. Yes, Pan was right - she had the power to heal me. In a way."

Nick leaned over and started pulling up the leg of his trousers. Mentor watched in awe as he saw, not skin, but wood. About mid thigh, the oak merged into the flesh of Nick's leg. "She literally grew me a new leg. It's part of me. Somehow, it interacts with my body - blood flows, I can feel it, anything that a normal leg could do. Oh, it can't take the stress of jumping from the ground to the roof of a twenty story building. So I've stopped being able to leap or run very well. I still get around, of course. But I have a real wooden leg...

"Pan and the Shining One are still in the Pacific Northwest, reestablishing the forests and battling off Sukhov. He moved his base eastward, and now the northwest is overgrown, and the northeast is frozen."

Mentor asked, "And did you ever find out what happened to Déjà vu?"

Merry shrugged. "We assume that Sukhov still has him and is still torturing him, making him replicate himself to keep them going."

"There was more..." Nick said slowly. Merry and Amber turned to him as he said, "I never told you the rest of the story. Before I left, one of Pan's followers found... something... that he said he didn't want. ‘Here you go, lad', he told me. ‘This will mean more to you than to me, and I don't need it cluttering up my plantopia - hee hee hee hee!'"

"And what did he give you?" Merry asked.

Nick took several deep breaths, trying to regain self-control. Finally, he lifted his head, and in a voice flat as a desert, replied, "MinuteMan's dead body."

To be continued...