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| Special #1 August 2010 |
"Gamma Cloud" Written By Ed Ainsworth |
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Nathan Grey, The Ex-Man, the Telepathic Shaman for the Mutant Race, sat in silence, contemplating, waiting and observing. Since the incident with the Meme Bomb, and creation of his own small group of Shaman's, Nate had been considering where to go next.
Nate was a leader now, a role he didn't necessarily think he believed in himself to achieve, although the other members of the group clearly looked to him for advice and guidance in their new roles. The majority of them hadn't returned to their normal plane of existence since their transformations in Shaman, not knowing how to cope with their new abilities, or manifestations in the Mind-Reef, let alone in the much more powerful physical realms.
Each of them had changed so much, Thor was no longer beholden to peoples beliefs, and was his own man. A quiet warrior, without the bluster and the anger that came from being perceived as a God of violence. His Hammer, the weapon that had been almost an extension of himself for so long, had become just that, another appendage attached to him, absorbed and manifest when it was required. He sat in silence, looking down over the other side of the large cliff they sat upon.
This was Nate's home, and their home by extension. A large spire of rock that he had created, to be home for his wife, and himself as well. Now it was home to a whole group, a host almost, that watched over humanity below them. From this vestige point, as well as from the higher branches of the newly grown ideas tree, formed from the destroyed and recreated remains of the rogue cosmic cube, Nate and his group could see any unwanted manifestations or problems within the unconscious mind of humanity.
“Honey?” Threnody, Nate's wife sat down next to him, letting her legs dangle off the edge of the cliff. A light wind blew her hair about her face, whipping threads against her lips. Nate smiled and took her hand.
“Why are these people still here?” She asked, a hint of irritation in her voice. Nate's face dropped a little, as a small smile broke through.
“Thren, they don't know what to do with themselves,” Nate answered, looking over his shoulder at Krang, who's Shamanic Manifestation meant that he was constantly crying to himself, “They need focus. They need some guidance, Thren, I can't just leave them.”
“You mean the way that everyone but me abandoned you after you turned into a Shaman?” Threnody asked, crossing her arms in a huff and pulling her hand from his.
“Come on, Thren, that's not fair,” Nate began before Threnody held up her hand to stop him talking.
“What's not fair, Nate, is that even your so called “Mother” and “Father” ignored you and left you to rot here in this Mind-Reef. They didn't even bother to look for you,” She spat, anger taking her voice.
Nate put his hand on her knee and smiled to her.
“That doesn't matter to me, Thren. I'm passed all that stuff now,” He said, taking her hand again. Her expression softened and she allowed herself a small smile at his touch, linking her fingers with his.
“There, better isn't it?” He asked, looking down at the various pools and mists below.
“We're going to have to map all of this one day, Thren,” He said, scratching the side of his head gently.
“I know, but can't we just enjoy each other's company before the next big adventure?” She asked, brushing some more hair from her face, and looking into his eyes.
“But we do enjoy each others comp..” Nate's words were cut off as Threnody kissed him, passionately. She grabbed his jacket and pulled him into her, pausing only to insult him.
“For a telepathic god, Nate, you're such an idiot sometimes,” She smiled, before kissing him again.
“Nate!” Came a yell from behind them. Threnody's eyes snapped open and shot over towards the source of the sound, as her Husband tried to pull away from her embrace.
“Nathan, if you dare leave me...” Threnody said, staring into her husbands eyes. He shot her a pleading look, before she rolled her eyes and released him.
“Don't you dare expect this treatment later, Nathan Grey,” Threnody said, annoyed to her core, and disappointed. She didn't like sharing her husband with the world.
“Sersi?” Nate asked, as he walked towards the woman, pointing down over the side of the cliff. Energy danced over her body, as the other Shaman's gathered around to watch whatever was happening below. Nate moved his vision from the electric form of Crystal, who's powers were constantly manifest, giving her the appearance of moving under water, even when she was not, to Ransak who was feeling his face, his hated features all the time. Nate would have to do something for him soon. Something to appease his paranoia and worries.
“Some thing's happening?” She said, her finger directing his vision towards the turmoil below.
Within the mind reef, something was floating just off the surface. The pool for humanity was vast, a huge ocean of grey liquid that contained the slumbering minds of the entire race. It was larger than any ocean on the planet, perhaps larger than them all combined, yet it was more fragile than any of those ecosystems.
“What in Gods name is that?” Blackheath asked, vines dropping from his wrists and inching down the side of the cliff. Nate mentally lifted them off and dropped them back onto his body.
“None of that, thank you,” Nate said, pointing a finger at Smithers. The Plantman looked away for a moment, and offered a weak smile.
“Apologies. Sometimes they get out of hand,” He said, with a shrug.
“Now what are we dealing with?” Nate asked, his abilities lifting him into the air, and gently lowering him down the side of the cliff. He moved slowly, he didn't want to disturb whatever it was. At this point it could be anything – A sentient entity that became lost or removed from it's own mind-reef, or something far more sinister. Nate wasn't entirely sure what he'd do if it was another Cosmic Cube level threat.
“Are you hurt? Are you sentient? Can you understand?” Nate asked, in slow, deep tones. He waited for a response. After a minute or two there was nothing. No single response. Nate looked up at the others on the cliff-side and began to ascend through the air, as the mist began to follow him.
He moved towards it, hearing a Guttrural roar as he approached the cloud, which resembled thick, green smoke. As he approached it, it parted around him, his body cutting a swath down the centre of it. He struggled for a moment, trying to understand what it was around him, as he heard another scream of anger. Something was being changed within the centre of this cloud – Something was being born into it, that much Nate recognised. It's screams weren't just of anger, they were the sounds of transformation, spiritual and emotional alchemy, as well as physical manifestations. In the silence within the cloud, Nate could hear murmurings as well as the sounds of twisted bones and flesh, creaking and splintering with exertions and expansions.
“Something's in here,” he said to himself, reaching into the Mist. His hand instantly stung, the pain making him retract it immediately. It was unbearable. He stifled a scream, as he held his hand at the wrist, looking at the melting flesh that was starting to drip off his fingers. He winced and willed his skin back into place, creating a telekinetic bandage over it's surface. He looked up at the Cliff-face, as a huge Green hand tore through the smog and gripped hold of his throat.
Nate knew exactly what this was.
“GAK!” he gasped, as the huge hand hurled him into the surface of the Mind-Reef, shooting him through the Shamanic realms and under the higher states of consciousness back into reality.
He skipped off the surface of the sand, a Beach in Sydney had come down with a sudden case of Gamma Power.
Getting to his feet slowly, he wiped some of the sand from his jacket and observed the monster before him. They weren't any Hulk he recognised, and he had fought the Hulk before. Steeling himself, he remember their battle and how difficult it had been – After all, one of these creatures, these mutated humans had pulled him from the Higher planes of the Mind Reef and exited him violently into the World.
A green fist shot towards him, it's velocity clearly enough on it's own to take his head off. Dropping to a knee, and thrusting his hands upwards, Nate formed a Telekinetic ram that shot into the the Hulk's armpits and lifted it off the air.
“Tactical Telekinesis, Hulkling,” He said with a smile, as a femine hand slapped him across the face, twisting him through the air, and sending him into a trough in the sand. He shook his head and tried to get to his feet as a foot slammed itself into his stomach, lifting him off the air, as an elbow to the lower back shot him back down into the dirt again.
He spat blood into the sand, and expanded a 360 degree Telekinetic shield around himself, wiping some of the blood from his jaw. He allowed himself a smile. It wasn't often he got to cut loose with his powers. He whirled around, augmenting his own strength with his will, as a Telekinetic field flooded over his body, like a translucent sheath. The fist came again from the She-Hulk, but Nate was ready this time. Grabbing her wrist, he twisted her and threw her over his shoulder, forcing her with his mind into the sand with a loud boom.
He wasn't done, however, the first Hulk was back, and three more where heading towards him. This was going to be some evening.
Nate looked up at the sky, as rain began to fall from the heavens, soaking the Hulks in it's torrential downpour, but leaving Nate unaffected thanks to his field. No sooner had the rain started, the Hulks began to shrink down to normal size again. Seemingly normal people dropping to the floor, their bodies twisting around in their skin, dropping to their knees and sweating out the difference in mass.
Nate knelt down next to one of them, a young blonde man in his early twenties, putting a hand on his forehead and pushing his own mind into his, to see what was happening within the Mind-Reef.
Immediately thrown back into Shamanic country, Nate looked around. The Green Smoke was heading away from this particular area of the Mind-Reef, snaking along and pausing every now and then, looking for something.
“Odd,” Nate said to himself, watching the Cloud move away, before casting his attention back to the man who had been turned into a Hulk. His mind was returned to the Reef correctly, his body had been returned to it's original form as well – All that remained of his five minutes of being a Hulk, was a lingering tendril of Green floating around his personal mind-scape. Nate made a mental note of this – He would need to keep an eye on those people in the future.
~X-49?~ Nate asked, before clicking his fingers and sighing to himself.
~Sersi? Can you get a message to X-49?~ He asked, telepathically reaching out to his “team-mate”.
~He wants to know what you want, amongst other expletives...~ Sersi responded. Nate smiled, as he flew higher into the sky of the mind-reef.
~I need him to meet me. I've got something to discuss with him and I need him to store some information,~ Nate continued, waiting for Sersi's response.
~His response is a fairly harsh way of saying no,~ Sersi added, her own voice somewhat annoyed. Probably more with the way X-49 spoke to her than Nate. He sighed.
~Just...do whatever it is you can to get him to meet me,~ Nate said, as he telepathically broad casted his co-ordinates to Sersi.
~I'll try,~ Was her final response before their contact was broken.
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Nearly an hour later, X-49 glided into position next to Nate, his mechanical face without emotion.
“What is it, Fleshie? Where are the dying human pus-bags that you need to be exterminated,” It asked. Nate sighed, and rubbed his temple gently. He was getting a headache.
“I need your help, X-49,” Nate began. The robot scoffed and began to bank away. Nate erected a telekinetic shield to bring him back in his direction, “And I'm not taking no for an answer.”
The robot crossed it's arms, and turned it's face away from Nate's upturned, pleading features.
“No, last time I helped you, to made me go to participate in a a senseless war between Deviants and Atlanteans. Do you not know that even a Robot can cry?”
Nate was dumbfounded for a moment, his face turning to genuine sympathy and empathy.
“49 I'm So sorry...” Nate's sentence trailed off as he remembered back to those events, “Wait a minute, you enjoyed every second of that. You loved killing those people.”
“How can a robot love, Nathan Grey?” 49 was toying with him. Playing with his emotions, and his responses.
“Damnit,” Nate shot him an ashamed smile, “You had me there, 49. You had me.”
“I'll have you again when the war of the Fleshies begins,” He stared into Nate's eyes, as Nate locked his vision onto the Androids.
“You can try,” He said. 49 let loose the equivalent of an electronic laugh.
“What do you want, Shaman? What is it that requires my assistance that isn't consuming huge amounts of beer, and watching people kill each other.”
“It's this Cloud...Here's what I'm thinking here, something has created this...bridge,” Nate began, gesturing towards the Green Cloud that undulated across the surface of the waters of the Mind-Reef, “Something new has brought a chance to the dynamics of this, what I am going to start calling the Gamma Cloud.”
“You can call it whatever you like, Fleshie. It looks like it's death to organics,” X-49 joked, “I'm not entirely convinced that I care.”
“It probably is. I think it's the Hulk's Mind-Reef. I would imagine that it doesn't normally go floating around creating Hulk's for no reason,” Nate added, banking to the left to avoid a trailing tendril of smoke, and ignoring the automatons lack of emotion.
“If you have all the answers – Why do you need me?” X-49 asked. Nate nodded for a moment.
“I can't travel into the cloud, like you said, it's death to organics. It's already melted some of the flesh on my hands,” Nate held up his semi-decomposed hand, although it was already beginning to heal.
“HA! Serves you right for interfering, Grey,” X-49 laughed. Nathan's eye flared blue for a moment, which halted the Robots laughter. Sometimes even androids could be scared.
“It's looking for something, 49. I want you to go in there and find out what it is,” Nate ordered.
“You expect me to just float in there and ask it?” X-49 asked, his translucent face barely containing his incredulity at the expectation.
“Essentially, yes. It's searching for something, 49. It's not where it's supposed to be. There are so few Gamma mutates out there, that it couldn't reach this size without converting a fairly large number of people along the way – and the only reason for something to...reproduce like that is...Well, actually..” Nate trailed off, his train of thought deviating. Could he be wrong, is it simply to reproduce and nothing more, is the movement that appeared to be searching little more than seeding and reaping the benefits.
“Couldn't hurt to ask, could it?” Nate asked. 49 shook his head and made his way towards the Cloud.
“Soon, when it comes to my Mind-Reef, all the Fleshies are going to die,” 49 shot into the Cloud. As Nate floated silently outside of it's borders. It was motionless now, moving up into a spire, folding backwards on itself as it became more and more insular, like it was moving to envelope the Synthezoid.
“49?” Nate whispered to himself, knowing that the Android couldn't hear him. He sighed, rubbing his chin gently. He hoped that he was alright.
A few moments later, 49 moved out of the Smoke, waving a hand in front of his plastic face.
“That was a dead loss,” He said to Nate, who shook his head.
“What did you learn?” The Shaman asked.
“Nothing. It's looking for something,” X-49 continued, casting a glance back over to the Green Mist, which appeared to be waiting now.
“Who?” Nate asked, “Did it say?”
“Yeah.”
“Well?” Nate asked again after a couple of minutes.
“Well what?” 49 replied, looking at it's fingers in the light.
“Damnit! Just tell me who it's after. It would make this so much easier.”
“I know it would,” 49 was enjoying this. He didn't have many pleasures, but irritating Nate was one of them.
“For Goodness...” Nate turned away from 49 and began to fly away, “I'll find out myself.”
“Fine fine. Spoil sport – Her name is Keegan. Rikki, or Rachel or something. Keegan. She's related to the Hulk in some way, like, a friend or something. It wants her.”
Nate looked over his shoulder at 49, and shook his head.
“Thank you. Was that so hard?”
49 said nothing, and turned around, gliding away from Nathan.
“You were the one that wanted me, Grey.”
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Rikki sat in silence at her laptop. The soft purring of her Cat was the only noise that filled her ears. She tapped away slowly at the keys of her computer. Another paper on the manifestation of Gamma Ray's with potentially mutagenic properties. Her life had become about the Hulk, in some form or another since her unfortunate transformation at the hands of Sterns. She was elated when te moment came where her head returned to it's normal size, despite the increased intelligence and abilities that came with it.
As she ran a hand through her hair slowly, she smiled remembering that it was that exact moment when she realised that this was her calling. Banner had been her friend in College, although he didn't say much, he was brilliant. She had liked him for the longest time, but he had only eyes for one girl.
She touched her lips gently, remembering. Then Stern's came and after that she was returned to normal life – Almost normal. She wanted to study Gamma Mutations. Fortunately, there are a large number of government funded departments that are very interested in that particular area. She'd made a large amount of money, and a fair amount of infamy within the scientific circle.
“Hulk Doctor” they called her. She had dissected mutated Dogs, and analysed the DNA in blood samples and hairs found at the scenes of battles. She'd spent years of her life following the Hulk, and experimenting on his blood, his skin and his DNA. Sometimes with little effect and sometimes with terrifying effect – Not that the military knew of those few times when the reaction was potent.
“Rikki Keegan?” A voice said from the shadows spoke, softly. She jumped to her feet, almost knocking her computer off her table, scrambling for something to use as a weapons.
“If that's you Sterns, I won't let you do what you did to me before!” She screamed.
“I'm not Samuel Sterns,” The voice said, as Nate moved from the shadows. His arms were crossed over his chest as he floated off the ground, a show of power to let her know that the butter knife she wielded in her hands, was not going to hurt him.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Nathan Grey. I'm the Ex-Man, I'm here to offer you...something,” He said, his hands sliding from their positions, nestled in the crooks of his arms to his sides.
“Something is looking for you, but it isn't Sterns. I come from a place called the Mind-Reef, a realm where the unconscious minds of humanity go when they sleep. It represents different reefs for different aspects of humanity, Rikki, and one of them is looking for you,”
Rikki held her hand up, bidding Nate to stop. She sighed, looking through her fingers at him.
“You're now standing here, in my home, telling me that something from the...what was it, Mind-Reefer?”
“Mind-Reef.”
“Mind-Reef wants me, for what purpose?” She asked, dropping her hand and edging away from the Shaman.
“Imagine it as a child, Doctor Keegan,” Nate began.
“Oh, it's Doctor now is it? I know your type. You're trying to sweet talk me into submission, the way Stern's did, until you realise that you can't do that,”
“Doctor Keegan, I'm trying to ex..”
“That's just about enough, alright?” She aimed the gun level at his head, and pulled the safety off.
“I've had enough people breaking into my house, and my offices trying to get at me and my research. They want to know about the Hulk. They want to be the Hulk. Their mother never loved them, they want revenge against the world – Whatever. I don't care any more. I want to do my science and not get hands over my mouth when I am sleeping, or knives pushed into my back to get my laptop. Whatever it is that you want, you cannot have It.”
Nate stared at the gun defiantly, taking a step forwards. His mind reached out, and the front of the gun collapsed in on itself, before exploding outwards, like a Banana skin.
“I don't want your research, Doctor Keegan. I don't want you either. It has nothing to do with me, but it has everything to do with you – Something, out there, wants you because of your genetics and your connection to the Hulk.”
She looked at the gun and then to Nate, taking a few more steps back until she reached the wall.
“I don't want to hurt you, for Goodness sakes. I'm trying to help you understand your purpose in life more – You are the Hulk Doctor, how would it be for your work if you understood Hulk's at not just a genetic level, but a Cultural level. If you were all Hulks, and knew of their connections and their manifestations. What would it take for you to achieve that without what I am offering you?”
“What are you offering me?” She asked, her eyebrow arching.
“An opportunity to meet your destiny before it meets you,” Nate said, out-stretching a hand towards her.
“And if I go with you? What happens?”
“Observation, Doctor Keegan. Think of this as an exercise in pure observation,” He smiled, as she noticed the scar on his chest.
“What's that?” She asked, taking his hand gently.
“It's my right to be a Shaman, Doctor Keegan. It's my price for being able to understand the things that I do.”
“A Shaman?” She asked, looking up at him with incredulity, “You realise how hard it is for someone like me to take that at face value. I feel as though I've just taken the hand of an insane Peter Pan.”
Nate smiled. He liked her already.
“Perhaps this is the first taste of sanity you'll receive in your life,” Nate said looking down at her as they began to ascend outside of the physical plane of existance.
“Perhaps you'd be best to stop saying Psuedo-philsophical things and actually get on with it.”
“This thing, this Cloud. It wanted to be found, it wants someone, like you to guide it,” He said, as Rikki lost her breath. They were in the Mind-Reef now, gliding over the top of the human unconsciousness.
“What...Wha?” She asked, looking up at him dumbfounded.
“I know, It's intense isn't it? This is where every human mind goes when it sleeps, and where some go when they're awake. This is the Mind-Reef.”
“I was confused before,” he said, admitting too her, “I thought it was looking to reproduce. I thought it was looking for some form of mate.”
“Thought what was looking for a mate? Are you bringing me into some drugged up state here?” She asked. Nate stifled a laugh.
“This isn't drugs, Doctor Keegan. This is the human mind amplified to a point where it's not just a pulsating mass of flesh. It's a metaphysical architecture for the transcription and transformation of thoughts, feelings and ideas into reality.”
“That is what's looking for you,” He said, pointing towards the Green Cloud before them. It instantly reacted knowing she was close by, changing it's direction, and twisting around with a blur of mist.
“What is it doing?” She asked, looking up at Nate, worriedly.
“It's coming for you.” He said, throwing a Shield up around the pair of them.
“I don't want it to come for me! I want to go back!” She said, squeezing his hand tightly.
“It won't get you, Doctor, I've erected a Telekinetic shield around us. We should be quite safe,” He looked down at her. Her teeth were chattering in fear.
“I'm not good in situations like this! I want to go home!” She yelled up at him. Nate closed his eyes. Sometimes it was difficult to be this hard and indifferent. He wouldn't allow her to return home until what needed to be done, was done.
“I'm afraid I can't allow that, Doctor Keegan,” he said, looking down at her.
“You son of a bitch! You said this was an observation!” She screamed back up at him. He sighed, the shame on his features almost palpable.
“It is. But you're not the only one observing,” He said, watching the movements of the Green Mist.
“It won't hurt you,” he said, looking down at her. Her struggling stopped suddenly, as though she knew that she wasn't going to be hurt. As though she knew this would be over soon.
“Can you hear that?” She whispered up to him, fear shaking her voice.
“Hear what?” He asked. She shook her head.
“Nothing. Nothing Just...let me go, Okay?” She said, looking up at him. Pleading in her voice.
“Let you go...What, into the mist?” He asked.
“Yes. Just let me go,” It wasn't until she spoke that Nate noticed her eyes. They were glowing. Green in hue, as though there were an iridescent light source behind her eyes, pushing it's way out. His grip relaxed, and he let her drop. She fell through the sky towards the mist, enveloped immediately in it's embrace. Nate's heart stopped for a moment.
Had he just sent her to her death? He continued to wait. Nearly half an hour went by before he decided to try and move, sure in his heart that Rikki had died inside the cloud. That she'd been melted away the way his hand had been. As he moved away, the Mist rose up into spire, holding Rikki atop of it.
Her meek body from before had been melted away into a new form. She looked stronger. Not overly muscled, but just a stronger appearance. A stronger definition. Nate cocked his head to one side.
“Rikki?” He asked, she smiled, her teeth glowing green through her lips.
“Thank you.”
“For what?” He asked, looking at her.
“For this. This transformation. I didn't understand you at first, what this was, what this could be but now I am here...I don't think I'll ever want anything again,” She said barely able to contain the glee in her voice. She reached a hand up to him.
“It needs me to try and find it a place to...just be,” She said, as Nate took her hand.
“Why does it need to move from where it was before?” Nate asked, curious as to it's sudden nomadic nature.
“Something's been introduced. Forcefully. It's not supposed to be a Gamma Mutate, it's supposed to be just a man, but...it's introduction into the “Gamma Cloud” has caused it to become unhinged. It lost it's place in the greater scheme of things, and it needed someone to guide it.”
“That person is you, I take it?” Nate asked, releasing her hand.
“Yes.”
“And the form you now inhabit?” He questioned. She ran her hands down the side of her body, and across her front, looking up at him with pleasure.
“I didn't know it before but...because of my contact with the Gamma mutation under the hands of the Leader, I was forced to take that form. Now that I can choose It myself, and let myself out of my own mind...I can become my own person, choose my own form...or all the forms,” She gestured, her hand growing in size and covering in scales, before melting down again, her excess mass shed in plumes of Green smoke.
“I imagine you'll be joining the rest of my Shamans then?” He asked, looking back at the huge cliff in the distance.
Rikki shook her head.
“Not really, no. I'm here for a task, to help find a place for the Gamma Cloud to settle, without transforming any more innocent people into Hulks, the way it did in Australia.”
“Oh,” Nate said, looking at her as she began to move away from him, “So, you're leaving then?”
“For the time being. I guess once I've finished what I'm here for I can come and hit you up?” She said with a shrug, “Be seeing you.”
With that, she melted back into the Green Mist, which slowly made it's way into the distance, weaving around the slumbering minds of humanity, to find itself a deserted area of unconsciousness to take root.
NEXT TIME: EX-MAN VOLUME TWO – TIME FLIES
