#19 - A Storm Within

By Gary Dreslinski

When he looked at his lifeline, it always bothered him how many intersecting lines there were. Those were places of great change. He followed one of the them back along the basin of his palm, wondering which one it was. There were so many changes taking place in such a short period of time.

Dane Whitman stared at his reflection on the pond. He had lost his youth, but he had lost much more. He had lost his friends, having to stand against one of them who had gone mad. Brian Braddock was a good man, who had lost that sense of right and wrong. Hopefully the death of his insane brother had shattered the pattern, with the chest wound he had received kicking the point home that he needed to change.

Water sprites danced along the top of the water, twirling for anyone who happened to stop to watch. Tiny naked women with wings glowing even under the full sun. He watched them splash each other for a while.

He had lost his Sersi. She had left him for his doppelganger Proctor. One of those "I’m not in love with you, I’m in love with a alternate universe version of you" kind of things. He wanted to stop her, to tell her that she was clearly under some sort of spell. Or that she was making some sort of terrible mistake. But when it came time for him to open up his mouth to speak, the words wouldn’t come. In the end, Sersi was another woman that he had loved, who left.

Maybe someday she’d come back.

He had lost his team. The Pendragons would never accept him back. He had gone against them. If they realized that they had been duped, if the brainwashing had been broken, and Brian’s lies exposed, then they would cheer his return. As things were though, they blamed him for everything that happened. He had gone to help, and they blamed him for it. He shook his head. Sometimes life just didn’t make sense. He had saved them, and the universe. But all they saw was that he had opposed them. It didn’t seem to matter that he was right.

He’d lost his other team as well - his new one. Ultraforce had been formed by Roma to counter the Pendragons. When they returned from their mission, he had assumed that they would either start looking for a headquarters where he could coordinate team activities, or disband. Instead, they thanked him for his help, and went on their way, Proctor leading the pack, with Sersi on his arm.

Even Asp had gone with them, saying that she could use their resources. It was always the bottom line with her, who could she use to gain as much control as possible. When it had been him… but now, all he had left was himself. And the resources he pulled in from his job with the Sycorp corporation. Which reminded him that he needed to file a report soon.

Perhaps on the strange storms in Germany of which he had been hearing reports. Ultraforce had mentioned checking out the disturbance, hopefully before either Doom or his puppet super-team "The Commonwealth" could.

If he could get to it faster than the others… which had led him to the edge of the pond, and the gazing at the Dane that everyone else saw. It wasn’t much to look at, but it was what he had to give.

That, and a little magic in the form of a word. "Avalon!’ he proclaimed, watching as the sprites jumped beneath the waves as he transformed. The power of the name was enough to turn him back into the young man he still saw when closed his eyes. It was enough to turn him into the Black Knight.

He reached his hand out over the water.

A slender feminine hand reached out of the reflective pool, and grabbed onto it, firmly, yanking him off his feet and into the pond.

The storm was getting worse. Even the creatures no one could name, the ones who lived in the very hearts of normal storms, had chosen to flee from it. It was not natural. That much they had known. Eventually though they had come to the conclusion that it was not good either. It was a bad storm, one full of anger and torment. One that would destroy them all if they got too close.

Proctor had heard all the warnings during the approach, but he wasn’t ready for what he saw. Grown trees were spinning in the eddys. Buildings were being leveled, and the people… he had seen, in many different dimensions, a power mad Sersi rip friends and family into pieces with a blink of an eye. He had thought it was all behind him, but as they followed in the wake of the storm, trying to figure out what to do next, he knew that Ultraforce was seeing something far worse.

The Blue Marvel had stopped several times to vomit, before catching up to the others. Most of the others just kept an eye on the thing moving away from them, wondering what they could possibly do to stop it. Or, as Roma had hinted, harness it.

She didn’t pick sides. Dane had wondered about that. But one look at the Lady of the Lake had been enough to let him know it was true. Her eyes were sad though.

She put a calming hand on his chest, feeling his heart beat. Her hand was warm. "You have been through much". He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. As her champion, he would go through far more in her name. She knew it without the words ever needing to escape his lips. "I am sorry for what you will go through next."

He raised an eyebrow. The Lady, although gracious in her gifts, did not often give her sympathies. He started to ask a question, but her fingers tenderly brushed against his cheek, "Know that you are in my heart, and within my sight. Always. When all seems lost, remember that."

He nodded, and felt the world rush out from under him. "She transported me away," he muttered, as he looked around his new location, ready for anything.

He felt something cold and metal beneath him, his legs wrapped around its torso. Dane didn’t need to look. He was on his flying atomic steed. It wasn’t as good as a winged horse, but it was the best that modern science could provide.

Dane checked his flight path, looking for any signs of where he had been sent. Or why. It didn’t take long. The architecture was a dead give-away. The huge storm barreling down on him was another. He was in Germany, in the path of the storm he had been wanting to see.

Now he was seeing it. As it continued to pick up speed in his direction, Dane was starting to wish that he hadn’t.

There was so much still missing from their information, but the data that they did have indicated that the source of the storm was humanoid. Something extremely powerful was at the middle of it, and that was of interest of the European Union to obtain, regardless of the price. Which meant, the Red Guardian mused, sending in their taskforce, the Commonwealth.

There appeared to be some other group of super powered individuals coming in from the south, following in its wake. No doubt there were other powers who wanted to gain control of the power source as well.

He signaled Blitzkrieg and the others. Whoever these newcomers were, if they got any closer to the storm, they would be dealt with.

Everything was still so strange. But he was getting used to it.

He had come to see the one called Brian Braddock, but he was not as interesting as one might have thought he would be. No, the one called Dane Whitman, the Black Knight… that was the one worth following…and so he did.

The storm had caught him. Dane closed his eyes, and muttered a prayer to anyone who might be listening. After all, when your friends and ex-teammates happened to be gods and god-like beings, you might just get lucky.

The winds swept him up into the air, he used to his knees to try to hold onto the atomic steed, but it didn’t help. The steed was torn out from under him and sucked deeper into the tempest.

"Dane"

The wind made the strangest sounds… it was as if someone were calling his name.

"Help me Dane.."

There it was again. It was coming from inside the storm itself.

He went limp. There was more of a chance of surviving that way. There was also a good chance of the winds taking him closer to whoever was calling his name. Or at least end his audio hallucinations. The winds grabbed onto him, bringing him into the dead center. In one piece no less.

Something was definitely not kosher.

Dane didn’t know what it was until he looked at the focal point of the tempest that had cut such death and destruction through Germany. He didn’t know just how wrong the situation was until he saw that the center was one man… screaming as if he was being torn apart by unseen forces.

The man didn’t have on his signature tall hat, but it was pretty clear from a glance who it was. Dane had been with the Avengers long enough, and studied all of the case files to the point that he knew Immortus, the Master of Limbo, and Lord of Time, by sight.

"Well," Oracle said with a sigh, "There goes Dane…" Hugo Danner stared at him for a moment, "What do you mean?" "The Black Knight just got sucked into the storm. He’s gone…" Proctor, hearing the name, looked over at his teammates. "Why would Dane be anywhere near here? Didn’t we tell him that Ultraforce could handle things fine without him." "Why would Dane be here…" Oracle allowed his eyes to wander as he stared with mock-naivete at Sersi who was busy getting a read on the nature of the storm, "I have no idea…"

Immortus stopped screaming, and stared at Dane for what seemed like forever, "So, you finally came."

"What is this all about?"

"It’s about survival. Mine. I came here, to find the secrets of the one true timeline… using you as my cats-pawn. But when I got here, I was almost killed by a device created by your friend Brian Braddock, to keep time travelers out. I barely survived… I don’t even remember how I ended up in this storm… only that at some point I became aware of it, and of you. You were what got me into this Dane Whitman… and you’re the one who’s going to get me out."

"What are you talking about? What did Brian do? When was I your cats-pawn? If you don’t start making sense… " Dane draw the Sword of Light, pointing it toward Immortus, "I’m going to start getting some different answers. Of course, I’ll have to learn to decipher your final screams… but I’m sure I can manage."

Immortus smile grew as wide as it was wild, "Good… good… that’s the spirit… Come at me. If you think you can manage that much without screwing up."

Dane rushed forward. Immortus made a move as if he was going to stop him, but feigned away at the last possible second. "He wanted me to think he was counter attacking," Dane thought for a moment as the Sword of Light connected with Immortus. The Lord of Time did not scream, or grasp for his chest as the blade sunk into it. He simply smiled, and dropped to the ground. "But why? Unless…"

Dane stared at his fallen foe for a moment, realizing as his features smoothed out… that he still seemed to be breathing, but he was no longer in pain… and the storm all around them… was subsiding.

The storm was going to pass over him. Dane stared down at Immortus, who still hadn’t moved or made a sound. There had been something about the Sword of Light that had put him into a comatose state. He still wasn’t sure what had happened, but there didn’t seem to be any physical damage done to his opponent. He knelt down to see if there was anything that could be done. He could hear the sounds of people outside. More than one group in fact. It sounded like Ultraforce. Which meant that the other group was probably the Commonwealth. If they were to find Immortus, things could get ugly really fast. There had to be a way to hide him… to manage to…

The world spun out from underneath him…

it was if he had hit a stray thread of time, and it had wrapped around his arm, dragging him with it.

He had just enough time to look down, and see a thin smile form on the face of Immortus… before the world around him changed completely.

THEN

Nathan Garrett, the Black Knight, had never been more nervous in his life. He had fought Giant Man before. But this was different. He was facing the Avengers, workng alongside the feared Doctor Zemo. Everything had to go to plan… or he was a dead man. Nothing could go wrong…

The world spin out from underneath him.

Dane Whitman, in his uncle’s armor, had just enough time to get out of the way of Thor’s hammer… and just enough time to wonder what the hell was going on.

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