Post by redsycorax on Jul 1, 2024 2:33:50 GMT
On Earth-313, every story told about "monsters" on less moon-soaked alternate Earths was the literal truth, with a twist. The consequence was that these creatures served the purpose of virtue, justice and fighting crime. The "Monstrous Era" began when Dr Victor Frankenstein constructed his homunculus in the mountains above the Swiss village of Chamonix- and then escaped with his Bride, to protect the vulnerable and innocent in the Swiss cantons. It continued when Count Dracula reformed from his bloodlusting ways when he converted to gnostic Catharism. The Gorgon Medusa, immortal, survived the demise of Ancient Greece and obeyed the wishes of the Goddess Astraea to remain on that world and protect the weak and vulnerable. Lucius was a werewolf. But where, might one ask, are the habitual denizens of worlds like these, the heroes and heroines?
++
TECHNOPOLIS:
"Trouble, Meddy?"
The snakehaired Gorgon sighed beneath her mask, worn to render her petrifying gaze harmless to baseline humans:
"The Amazon M@lice, Minerva Tyrannos Vasilissa. She attacked another Federated States naval detachment and we only just repelled it. How's your day been, Vladimir?"
"I have been doing the standard Penance for my Blood-Sins, my friend. Sometimes, it feels as if the blood will never be washed from my hands, as if absolution will never be mine."
"Given the number of times you've saved the Earth from Myriaman and his cousin, I beg to differ. Surely that must count for something."
"Ach, given the centuries that I have lived, I sometimes wonder if the sun itself will be exhausted before I can make atonement."
"Vladimir, my colleague these many years, such as us should realise constraint and moderation in the use of our gifts. I can never love a mortal man, because if I were to lift my mask, he would be transformed into dead stone. You are prudent, wise and virtuous. Never doubt that."
"Lucius! Over here!" The youngest of the Monster Society, Lucius Anthony looked exhausted:
"Good night hunting, young one?"
Now transformed back into his human form, the lycanthrope sighed:
"Sorry to spoil the atmosphere, but I think those twisted mirror images of ourselves are back."
"The so-called "Monster League of Evil", you mean? How? I thought we'd used the Eye of Anekhaton to imprison them in an interdimensional bubble."
"Nevertheless, while wolfsided, I caught Lykaios' scent. And where he is, Victorstein, Atropula and Akhenuton can't be far behind."
"What nuisances. I can think of better ways to spend a summer afternoon." Medusa exclaimed.
"As if we didn't had enough problems with that loosely constituted "Vice Syndicate" of Myriaman and Minervas, too." Lucius commiserated.
"So I wonder how they did it? I thought Anekhaton's Eye cancelled out any ancient Egyptian sorcery his evil doppleganger pharaonic brother might have used to escape the bubble."
"What about Atropula, though? I'm sorry, Vladmir, I know it still hurts."
"I think it will forever, Lucius. I thought he had reformed, I trained him with the assumption that he had and then he betrayed us. "
"He doesn't share your faith, Vladimir. You are a good being who saw the error of his ways and lives a moral and ethical existence. Atropula doesn't have that certainty and restraint. If anything, you should pity him."
"I would, Medusa, were it not for the fact that he believes he has an absolute "right " to hunt baseline humans as though they were his inferiors, carrion and prey. And for that malignancy, he must be halted and brought to account for his bloodshed."
"I'm lucky, I guess. At least lycos do have a community and careful constraints on when and what we hunt."
"Do you know what unsettles me, my companions? The possibility that our uncanny quartet of enemies will uncover another whose heart is as charcoal and inert as theirs."
MOONPIT:
The Vice Syndicate. As he trimmed his beard with his heat vision, Myriaman looked up to see his lover M@lice (Princess Minerva of Neoscythia) casting a covetous eye over him:
"Minerva. Any progress on those anomalies our Panopticon Satellite Network picked up?"
"I think it might be those interlopers from the Monster League, Kel-Al, my dear."
"Haven't they got the picture yet? They're no match for the MSJ and we don't want the competition. Actually, that term dignifies them too much. They're a hokey set of kitsch old movie creatures from the fifties made flesh, even if it's falling off them. I would say that it's time we killed them once and for all, but this damned inhibitor spell Drak forced on me means I can't. Not even use overwhelming force."
"I know. Unfortunately, given our universe's quirks, their monstrosity status is tolerated by the laws that govern chemistry, physics and biology here. And it imposes limitations on those, like us, who would have prodigal strength, invulnerability and deadly effectiveness elsewhere in the Ouekumeine of Universes. I wish we could send them back to their universe of origin, but that idiot Atropula massacred most of our world's mages as an 'insurance policy' when they inflicted themselves on our Earth."
"Don't remind me," Myriaman groaned, "but at least they don't have that advantage over us either."
"At the moment, our numbers are decimated. The only other VS member who's still alive is Scarlet Pulse, and that last battle slowed down his hyperspeed capabilities. The problem is, the MSJ have no such constraints."
FIRST NATIONAL AMERICAN BANK, ARNOLDIA:
As Atropula and Lykaios' strength tore the vault off its hinges, the avaricious members of the Monster League of Evil had an unwelcome surprise.
Medusa gazed at the others levelly beneath her protective mask:
"Cease and desist at once. You have no counterpart to me within your ranks and I can calcify you with a single gaze."
"Have you forgotten me, godling? I am already a revenant. Your abilities only work on those who are enfleshed."
"Yes, Akhenuton. I am under no illusions about the threat you pose and I will not tolerate it. Very well, then. Combat it is."
Elsewhere in the expanse, Lykaios faced Lucius:
"We meet again, stripling. Do you really think you are a match for experience of our lycanthropic gift that stretches back millennia? I will best you."
"Yeah, here's the thing, Lykai. We don't do ancient Greek tyrannies and absolute rulers in this century. And ageing's slowed you down, although your ego prevents you from admitting it."
"You were lucky last time, whelp. Enough idle foolish dialogue."
"Now you're right there, Lykai. Have at you!"
Circling above, Atropula and Dracula eyed one another:
"Mentor."
"Do not call me that, Atropula. You abandoned the holy ways of the Cathar faith and disavowed our relationship of instruction. You betrayed a sibling vampire."
Victorstein lurched forward, only to be unexpectedly felled by an incoming source. It was an ignominious end to years of villainy, but given his composite body composition, in many ways he had always been the weakest member of the Monster League, given the ataxic and unreliable nature of his neuronic and synaptic connections. Franz Victor had been a brilliant if unethical physiologist and anatomist, but he hadn't been able to get everything right when he reassembled his 'post-human' amalgam. Myriaman settled down on the floor of the vault as the Monster League and Monster Society baulked:
"That was cold blooded murder!" Dracula hissed in revulsion.
"For once, mentor, you and I are in complete agreement."
"Where's the Amazon, Kryptonian?"
Myriaman smiled: "Are you so eager to renew the acquaintance of your sworn adversary, Gorgon Medusa?"
"She cold-bloodedly butchered my Gorgon sisters Sthenno and Euryale and their children, babes in arms. So yes, I am."
"Careful, that riposte has an edge to it. Moral ambiguity much?" Akhenuton taunted.
"Only in the rotting mind of a putrid walking cadaver like you, Akhy." Lucius sneered.
"Kryptonian, why are you here? Many of our abilities are magical in provenance and we could easily defeat you as a consequence."
From the shattered ceiling of the bank vault, Minerva Tyrannos Vasilissa glided down to join her alien paramour:
"That would be telling, you serpentine night-hag."
"Such facile abuse, Amazon. Your soul is more hideous and cankered within you than my physiognomy could ever be in the daylight. You are a true barbarian princess, living only for the thrill of combat, without moral quarter or inhibition. You eat human flesh and conduct human sacrifice."
"Go, Med!" Lucius whistled.
Atropula frowned: "Are you here to frustrate us or trying to supplant us, you and your 'Vice Syndicate?"
"What do you think, revenant? We are tired of your pretentious "Monster League" and its faded antique plywood and fibreglass impersonation of 'monstrosity.' It ends here!" Myriaman's pyrovision stabbed forth, blindingly scarlet, from his eyes and upward at the vampire. As Minerva sprinted forward to kill Lykaois with her silver blade, Medusa removed her mask and the petrifying aspect of her unveiled face shone forth like a terrible inverted sun. Minerva was directly in its path and tried to cry out as she felt her body stiffen and calcify. She was reduced to a stone statue before it could happen:
"MINERVA!!!" Myriaman cried, sweeping his pyrovision around the chamber wildly as his self-discipline broke down. Atropula took advantage of his chaos and hysteria to swoop down and fasten himself against the Kryptonian's neck, moments before an incoming sonic boom shook the vault and a crimson blur tore the vampire away from its quarry:
"Thanks, Benny."
The Scarlet Pulse's form was clearly visible as it made for Lykaios and Lucius. As enhanced as their lycosenses were, they could not withstand a dual onslaught as Myriaman, his face contorted with rage, grief and fury, joined the action against them. But now it was Dracula that stood in his way, and he had the combat experience of centuries and magically ascribed abilities. He collided with the Kryptonian, forcing him back against the vault wall. As for the Scarlet Pulse, distraction cost him dearly, as Lykaios leapt toward him, as the speedster slowed momentarily. But this would not be a repeat of his Amazon colleague's downfall, given that his hand thrust forward like a deadly whirring blade and through the werewolf's lungs, grasping his heart and tearing it out. Scarlet Pulse raised his blood and gore splattered face upward and smiled at Lucius:
"You next, freak."
"Not if I have anything to do with it, psychopath!" Atropula launched himself at the oncoming speedster, sinking his fangs deeply into his legs. The Scarlet Pulse cried out as he felt the blood and muscular carriage of his enhanced body begin to desert him. He knew he was dying, but there was one way out of this that would take this haemophage nightmare astride his body with him. He shattered the bank vault and burst into the daylight, and then his body disintegrated- but in the process, Atropula's own ancient body was exposed to its own inexorable nemesis and combusted.
Now only one member apiece was left of the Vice Syndicate and... but the mummified pharoah Akhenuton was nowhere to be seen. He had made good his plan to desert his twice-deceased Monster League colleagues before this battle and made for his own, advanced preparation sarcophagus. As he sank into its comforting Waters of Oblivion, the animated cadaver resolved that when he next awoke, it would not be in an arena where either of his mortal enemies awaited him. That left Myriaman and Dracula in mortal combat. But although Dracula had the strength of countless mortal men, he was still a creature of Earth, despite his tacit immortality and his own invulnerability. And thus it was that Myriaman broke his hold, and shot into the heavens above, wounded inside, on course for his lunar redoubt, his Fortress of Desolation. Into this forelorn scene lurched the Lone Voyager Victor the Uncanny, his sepulchural face grieving at what he saw.
The Monster Society of Justice had prevailed. As Lucius and the Lone Voyager Victor the Uncanny cleared away the remnants of their counterparts, arranging to give what passed for decent burials within their traditions. Medusa stepped past the petrified statue of Minerva Tyrannos Vasilissa, her face still contorted into rage and hatred, even if she no longer lived and was no longer able to enforce the bodily expression of her barbaric fury and malice. She touched Dracula's face: "Are you well within, my love?"
"It was all such a waste, Medusa. If only we could have reasoned with them, both of their sides."
"I am afraid that in the case of Minerva here, she would never have been swayed by reason, only her atavistic barbarian culture with its imperatives of bloodshed, conquest and enslavement. I think Lykaios and Atropula redeemed themselves in the end, sacrificing themselves for the common good. It may have been that the shared lycanthropy and vampirism that bonded you with Atropula and Lucius with Lykaios prevailed at the very end."
"Myriaman and Akhenuton have eluded us, however."
"I think we can discount the revenant pharaoh, Vladimir. He's probably in that ensorcelled Egyptian sarcophagus of his and might slumber therein for centuries. But the Kryptonian? Doom may come from the skies. I hope we are ready to face it and repel it when it does arrive, whenever that might be."
And thus, once more, the Monster Society of Justice had prevailed over its enemies. But they took no pleasure in the vanquishment of those who had uncanny parallels to their abilities, and two hundred thousand miles above, a wounded and insane alien behemoth licked his wounds and bided his time. Passion, rage, remorse and grief can make us do cruel and perverse things. This Last Son of Krypton was no different.
THE END [10.55 AM, JULY 23, 2024]
++
TECHNOPOLIS:
"Trouble, Meddy?"
The snakehaired Gorgon sighed beneath her mask, worn to render her petrifying gaze harmless to baseline humans:
"The Amazon M@lice, Minerva Tyrannos Vasilissa. She attacked another Federated States naval detachment and we only just repelled it. How's your day been, Vladimir?"
"I have been doing the standard Penance for my Blood-Sins, my friend. Sometimes, it feels as if the blood will never be washed from my hands, as if absolution will never be mine."
"Given the number of times you've saved the Earth from Myriaman and his cousin, I beg to differ. Surely that must count for something."
"Ach, given the centuries that I have lived, I sometimes wonder if the sun itself will be exhausted before I can make atonement."
"Vladimir, my colleague these many years, such as us should realise constraint and moderation in the use of our gifts. I can never love a mortal man, because if I were to lift my mask, he would be transformed into dead stone. You are prudent, wise and virtuous. Never doubt that."
"Lucius! Over here!" The youngest of the Monster Society, Lucius Anthony looked exhausted:
"Good night hunting, young one?"
Now transformed back into his human form, the lycanthrope sighed:
"Sorry to spoil the atmosphere, but I think those twisted mirror images of ourselves are back."
"The so-called "Monster League of Evil", you mean? How? I thought we'd used the Eye of Anekhaton to imprison them in an interdimensional bubble."
"Nevertheless, while wolfsided, I caught Lykaios' scent. And where he is, Victorstein, Atropula and Akhenuton can't be far behind."
"What nuisances. I can think of better ways to spend a summer afternoon." Medusa exclaimed.
"As if we didn't had enough problems with that loosely constituted "Vice Syndicate" of Myriaman and Minervas, too." Lucius commiserated.
"So I wonder how they did it? I thought Anekhaton's Eye cancelled out any ancient Egyptian sorcery his evil doppleganger pharaonic brother might have used to escape the bubble."
"What about Atropula, though? I'm sorry, Vladmir, I know it still hurts."
"I think it will forever, Lucius. I thought he had reformed, I trained him with the assumption that he had and then he betrayed us. "
"He doesn't share your faith, Vladimir. You are a good being who saw the error of his ways and lives a moral and ethical existence. Atropula doesn't have that certainty and restraint. If anything, you should pity him."
"I would, Medusa, were it not for the fact that he believes he has an absolute "right " to hunt baseline humans as though they were his inferiors, carrion and prey. And for that malignancy, he must be halted and brought to account for his bloodshed."
"I'm lucky, I guess. At least lycos do have a community and careful constraints on when and what we hunt."
"Do you know what unsettles me, my companions? The possibility that our uncanny quartet of enemies will uncover another whose heart is as charcoal and inert as theirs."
MOONPIT:
The Vice Syndicate. As he trimmed his beard with his heat vision, Myriaman looked up to see his lover M@lice (Princess Minerva of Neoscythia) casting a covetous eye over him:
"Minerva. Any progress on those anomalies our Panopticon Satellite Network picked up?"
"I think it might be those interlopers from the Monster League, Kel-Al, my dear."
"Haven't they got the picture yet? They're no match for the MSJ and we don't want the competition. Actually, that term dignifies them too much. They're a hokey set of kitsch old movie creatures from the fifties made flesh, even if it's falling off them. I would say that it's time we killed them once and for all, but this damned inhibitor spell Drak forced on me means I can't. Not even use overwhelming force."
"I know. Unfortunately, given our universe's quirks, their monstrosity status is tolerated by the laws that govern chemistry, physics and biology here. And it imposes limitations on those, like us, who would have prodigal strength, invulnerability and deadly effectiveness elsewhere in the Ouekumeine of Universes. I wish we could send them back to their universe of origin, but that idiot Atropula massacred most of our world's mages as an 'insurance policy' when they inflicted themselves on our Earth."
"Don't remind me," Myriaman groaned, "but at least they don't have that advantage over us either."
"At the moment, our numbers are decimated. The only other VS member who's still alive is Scarlet Pulse, and that last battle slowed down his hyperspeed capabilities. The problem is, the MSJ have no such constraints."
FIRST NATIONAL AMERICAN BANK, ARNOLDIA:
As Atropula and Lykaios' strength tore the vault off its hinges, the avaricious members of the Monster League of Evil had an unwelcome surprise.
Medusa gazed at the others levelly beneath her protective mask:
"Cease and desist at once. You have no counterpart to me within your ranks and I can calcify you with a single gaze."
"Have you forgotten me, godling? I am already a revenant. Your abilities only work on those who are enfleshed."
"Yes, Akhenuton. I am under no illusions about the threat you pose and I will not tolerate it. Very well, then. Combat it is."
Elsewhere in the expanse, Lykaios faced Lucius:
"We meet again, stripling. Do you really think you are a match for experience of our lycanthropic gift that stretches back millennia? I will best you."
"Yeah, here's the thing, Lykai. We don't do ancient Greek tyrannies and absolute rulers in this century. And ageing's slowed you down, although your ego prevents you from admitting it."
"You were lucky last time, whelp. Enough idle foolish dialogue."
"Now you're right there, Lykai. Have at you!"
Circling above, Atropula and Dracula eyed one another:
"Mentor."
"Do not call me that, Atropula. You abandoned the holy ways of the Cathar faith and disavowed our relationship of instruction. You betrayed a sibling vampire."
Victorstein lurched forward, only to be unexpectedly felled by an incoming source. It was an ignominious end to years of villainy, but given his composite body composition, in many ways he had always been the weakest member of the Monster League, given the ataxic and unreliable nature of his neuronic and synaptic connections. Franz Victor had been a brilliant if unethical physiologist and anatomist, but he hadn't been able to get everything right when he reassembled his 'post-human' amalgam. Myriaman settled down on the floor of the vault as the Monster League and Monster Society baulked:
"That was cold blooded murder!" Dracula hissed in revulsion.
"For once, mentor, you and I are in complete agreement."
"Where's the Amazon, Kryptonian?"
Myriaman smiled: "Are you so eager to renew the acquaintance of your sworn adversary, Gorgon Medusa?"
"She cold-bloodedly butchered my Gorgon sisters Sthenno and Euryale and their children, babes in arms. So yes, I am."
"Careful, that riposte has an edge to it. Moral ambiguity much?" Akhenuton taunted.
"Only in the rotting mind of a putrid walking cadaver like you, Akhy." Lucius sneered.
"Kryptonian, why are you here? Many of our abilities are magical in provenance and we could easily defeat you as a consequence."
From the shattered ceiling of the bank vault, Minerva Tyrannos Vasilissa glided down to join her alien paramour:
"That would be telling, you serpentine night-hag."
"Such facile abuse, Amazon. Your soul is more hideous and cankered within you than my physiognomy could ever be in the daylight. You are a true barbarian princess, living only for the thrill of combat, without moral quarter or inhibition. You eat human flesh and conduct human sacrifice."
"Go, Med!" Lucius whistled.
Atropula frowned: "Are you here to frustrate us or trying to supplant us, you and your 'Vice Syndicate?"
"What do you think, revenant? We are tired of your pretentious "Monster League" and its faded antique plywood and fibreglass impersonation of 'monstrosity.' It ends here!" Myriaman's pyrovision stabbed forth, blindingly scarlet, from his eyes and upward at the vampire. As Minerva sprinted forward to kill Lykaois with her silver blade, Medusa removed her mask and the petrifying aspect of her unveiled face shone forth like a terrible inverted sun. Minerva was directly in its path and tried to cry out as she felt her body stiffen and calcify. She was reduced to a stone statue before it could happen:
"MINERVA!!!" Myriaman cried, sweeping his pyrovision around the chamber wildly as his self-discipline broke down. Atropula took advantage of his chaos and hysteria to swoop down and fasten himself against the Kryptonian's neck, moments before an incoming sonic boom shook the vault and a crimson blur tore the vampire away from its quarry:
"Thanks, Benny."
The Scarlet Pulse's form was clearly visible as it made for Lykaios and Lucius. As enhanced as their lycosenses were, they could not withstand a dual onslaught as Myriaman, his face contorted with rage, grief and fury, joined the action against them. But now it was Dracula that stood in his way, and he had the combat experience of centuries and magically ascribed abilities. He collided with the Kryptonian, forcing him back against the vault wall. As for the Scarlet Pulse, distraction cost him dearly, as Lykaios leapt toward him, as the speedster slowed momentarily. But this would not be a repeat of his Amazon colleague's downfall, given that his hand thrust forward like a deadly whirring blade and through the werewolf's lungs, grasping his heart and tearing it out. Scarlet Pulse raised his blood and gore splattered face upward and smiled at Lucius:
"You next, freak."
"Not if I have anything to do with it, psychopath!" Atropula launched himself at the oncoming speedster, sinking his fangs deeply into his legs. The Scarlet Pulse cried out as he felt the blood and muscular carriage of his enhanced body begin to desert him. He knew he was dying, but there was one way out of this that would take this haemophage nightmare astride his body with him. He shattered the bank vault and burst into the daylight, and then his body disintegrated- but in the process, Atropula's own ancient body was exposed to its own inexorable nemesis and combusted.
Now only one member apiece was left of the Vice Syndicate and... but the mummified pharoah Akhenuton was nowhere to be seen. He had made good his plan to desert his twice-deceased Monster League colleagues before this battle and made for his own, advanced preparation sarcophagus. As he sank into its comforting Waters of Oblivion, the animated cadaver resolved that when he next awoke, it would not be in an arena where either of his mortal enemies awaited him. That left Myriaman and Dracula in mortal combat. But although Dracula had the strength of countless mortal men, he was still a creature of Earth, despite his tacit immortality and his own invulnerability. And thus it was that Myriaman broke his hold, and shot into the heavens above, wounded inside, on course for his lunar redoubt, his Fortress of Desolation. Into this forelorn scene lurched the Lone Voyager Victor the Uncanny, his sepulchural face grieving at what he saw.
The Monster Society of Justice had prevailed. As Lucius and the Lone Voyager Victor the Uncanny cleared away the remnants of their counterparts, arranging to give what passed for decent burials within their traditions. Medusa stepped past the petrified statue of Minerva Tyrannos Vasilissa, her face still contorted into rage and hatred, even if she no longer lived and was no longer able to enforce the bodily expression of her barbaric fury and malice. She touched Dracula's face: "Are you well within, my love?"
"It was all such a waste, Medusa. If only we could have reasoned with them, both of their sides."
"I am afraid that in the case of Minerva here, she would never have been swayed by reason, only her atavistic barbarian culture with its imperatives of bloodshed, conquest and enslavement. I think Lykaios and Atropula redeemed themselves in the end, sacrificing themselves for the common good. It may have been that the shared lycanthropy and vampirism that bonded you with Atropula and Lucius with Lykaios prevailed at the very end."
"Myriaman and Akhenuton have eluded us, however."
"I think we can discount the revenant pharaoh, Vladimir. He's probably in that ensorcelled Egyptian sarcophagus of his and might slumber therein for centuries. But the Kryptonian? Doom may come from the skies. I hope we are ready to face it and repel it when it does arrive, whenever that might be."
And thus, once more, the Monster Society of Justice had prevailed over its enemies. But they took no pleasure in the vanquishment of those who had uncanny parallels to their abilities, and two hundred thousand miles above, a wounded and insane alien behemoth licked his wounds and bided his time. Passion, rage, remorse and grief can make us do cruel and perverse things. This Last Son of Krypton was no different.
THE END [10.55 AM, JULY 23, 2024]
