New Amalgam Universe: John Strange the Magician from Mars Part 2

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PrinceIMC

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#1  Edited By PrinceIMC

(Continued from New Amalgam Universe: John Strange the Magician from Mars Part 1)
 
Sanctum Sanctorum of John Strange, 177A Bleecker St, Greenwich Village

"You must clear your mind Daniel. It is difficult enough to read your mind given your...unique living status. But it is impossible with you blocking me." The Sorcerer Supreme tells the man sitting opposite him.

"By 'unique living status' do you mean 'undead'? I assure you I'm not trying to block you Doc, it's just hard to focus on remembering the moment you died. Y'know?" Danny responds.

Danny gets up from his cross-legged position on the floor of the meditation room and heads over to the window. John Strange in his mostly human but still green-skinned disguise who had been hovering in the air in front of Danny lets his feet touch the floor.

"I know it must be hard. But in my meditations I have sensed that your death is somehow connected to my brother's presence here on Earth. You came with me because you wished to solve your own murder, this is the first step." John steps over to Daniel with his hands clasped behind his back.

"I want to remember. You don't think I want to remember? But it happened so fast. I was climbing the mountain, it was cold and suddenly I was dead." Danny paces the room.

"I believe you don't wish to go through that pain again. I believe there is something hidden in those seconds that we can use to find your murderer. From there we can get you justice, but not vengeance." It was one of the promises that J'onn made Danny swear to. Justice, not vengeance.

"Okay, okay. Let's try this again." Danny sits at one side of the meditation circle. J'onn hovers at the other side of the circle and tries to enter Danny's mind. Both the physical Eye of Agamotto and the psychic one glow brightly filling the room.

Together they enter a landscape of the mind that appears to be the outskirts of the hidden city of Nanda-Lun. They see a path through the newly fallen snow and at the end of the trail they see Danny Brand as he was a year ago. He can see the mystical city in the distance but he doesn't know that he'll never reach it in this life.

Far behind him he is being stalked by a figure wearing some kind of animal fur. It leaves almost no tracks in the snow is definitely human or at least humanoid.

"Lets move closer to see his face." Danny says.

"I"m afraid that isn't how this works. If you didn't see them then, you won't be able to see it now." J'onn tells him.

"But how come we can see him at all in this vision?" Danny asks.

"You'd be amazed what your mind absorbs that you aren't consciously aware of Daniel." J'onn tells him and they move closer to the phantom image of Danny.

As they get closer the mysterious stalking figure gets closer as well. Just an instant before the figure reaches Danny he seems to sense something and turns. The kill is quick, with some kind of bladed weapon his heart is pierced. The killer turns and stalks away through the snow leaving almost no trace yet again. Through it all the attacker's face remains hidden. As the life bleeds away from Danny the image freezes.

"Are you okay Daniel?" J'onn asks his companion. Witnessing one's own death can of course be traumatic.

"I'm a little pissed, seeing this over again I didn't see anything new this time." Danny paces again but refuses to look at his body.

"Like I said you'd be amazed what your mind absorbs that you aren't consciously aware of Daniel." J'onn repeats. The whole scene 'rewinds' again to the moment before Danny is killed.

"This moment here. You sensed that something was behind you. You didn't hear them, you didn't smell them, you sensed their essence for just a moment." The rest of the psychic landscape falls away leaving only the two Danny's, J'onn and the killer.

"What first pops into your head when you see this figure. Don't think just speak." J'onn says.

"Logan." Danny blurts out. He didn't know the name, didn't think of the name but it seems right.

"We have a name. It is a start." J'onn says and instantly they are back in the meditation circle.

"Good.....remind me never to let you do that again." Danny says as he stands up. The psychic strain had its strain on him and he feels drained. In a sense he literally has been.

"You should rest. We will travel back to Tibet when you feel 100% again. Perhaps try meditation before sleeping, it will replenish your Chi faster." J'onn suggests.

"Oh sure, wasn't that just what we were doing there?" Pointing at the meditation circle. "I think I'd rather just sleep....if I can sleep after witnessing that."

Danny leaves the room and J'onn watches him go before he becomes invisible and intangible and goes to seek out some of his local informants.

--------------------------------------------

Lowtown, Madripoor

In the back room of a dingy bar a middle-aged man is beating on a heavy bag. He grunts as he hits the bag even though his mind is somewhere else. His workout is so automatic he uses the time to think of other things.

A winged figure descends through the opened skylight. The man hitting the bag stops and turns to the winged figure. He walks over to a waiting ashtray, picks up a waiting cigar and chomps on it.

"Got a light Worthington?" He asks.

The winged figure looks very much how an avenging angel should. His red and white costume is gilded with gold and there is a sword hanging at his hip. The middle-aged man knows that the sword catches fire when unsheathed.

"This is not a social call Logan. You've done it again. When you are contracted to assassinate a person you are expected to do it yourself, not by proxy."

"Listen bub, a blunt instrument like yourself might not understand how a precision instrument works. So don't tell me how to do something I've been doing since before you were born." David Logan turns away from the avenging angel and gets a beer from a small fridge.

Jean-Paul Worthington III does not take well to being ignored. A quick movement from his wings and he's crossed the room and has his sword pointed at David Logan's throat.

"Gonna take more than that to kill me Worthington. You know that." The assassin David Logan just takes a swig from his beer.

Worthington smacks the beer out of Logan's hand with his flaming sword. Logan just watches the bottle smash on the ground. "That was my last one, you owe me another case imported from Canada. Will your wings carry you that far?"

Worthington is frustrated and just slashes his sword through the heavy bag before re-sheathing it. "Our Lord is unhappy with you. If his displeasure continues then I will be the least of your worries. In the future keep in mind who you work for and the task at hand." Worthington's wings flap and he's gone again through the skylight.

Logan just looks at the open skylight and realizes he's going to have to make a move soon. What that move is....well he's got a few contingency plans.

--------------------------------------

Hidden Dojo, Somewhere in Tibet

A young girl holds two buckets of coal at arms length in a hot and smoky room. Her muscles quiver in the heat and her eyes itch at the smoke. She's still as a statue not letting any of it bother her no matter how many hours she has been doing it. Her mind is elsewhere, she is doing a training regimen in her mind, reviewing tactics and methods to kill. This is nothing to her.
 
(Continues in: New Amalgam Universe: John Strange the Magician from Mars Part 3)
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batkevin74

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#2  Edited By batkevin74

A mystery wrapped in a riddle coated in enigma and presented in a box! Nice story dude! I love Dark Azrael/Dark Angel (whatever his name is) you've given both original characters some BALLS and backbone! And who is this ninja girl holding coal????? Great story

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#3  Edited By TheCannon

Great story. Just added to the library.

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batkevin74

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#4  Edited By batkevin74

@PrinceIMC: Great story

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joshmightbe

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#5  Edited By joshmightbe

Great job

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Constantine

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#6  Edited By Constantine

good work

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PrinceIMC

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#7  Edited By PrinceIMC

This story will continue eventually. Just a little busy these days.

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batkevin74

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#8  Edited By batkevin74

@PrinceIMC said:

Hidden Dojo, Somewhere in Tibet

A young girl holds two buckets of coal at arms length in a hot and smoky room. Her muscles quiver in the heat and her eyes itch at the smoke. She's still as a statue not letting any of it bother her no matter how many hours she has been doing it. Her mind is elsewhere, she is doing a training regimen in her mind, reviewing tactics and methods to kill. This is nothing to her.

This is some excellent imagery, I must say. Good work

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