7. The War of the Apocalyptics: "Damnation Disturbed"

It's now the first Wednesday in December 1980 and, after a couple of comparatively slow chapters, War's breakneck pace picks up again. Quite literally in one case. Various members of the Damnation Brigade are spotlighted, beginning with Blind Sundown and Raven's Head. The ultimate fate of the Conquering Christ is revealed for the first time, -- or is it?

Silver Signallers, seven of them, are introduced, though only hints as to their true origins are given. Saul Ryne, the Magnificent Psycho, still haunts these pages, albeit not for long, and Devil Wind returns, again not for long.

Ding~Dong, the Witch is dead! Well, not really. (When it comes to Wilderwitch, who ever knows what's real and what's illusion?) She's actually on Damnation Island seeking some degree of payback for what happened to her last night. Only Psycho isn't there any more.

Aranyani Nightingales's shown up while Sundown and Raven were out and about in the Grey putting Vayu Maelstrom out of his misery. Not as thoroughly as the Witch promptly does once they return him to Damnation though, -- the 'quite literally' crack made above refers directly to what happens to the Whirling Deva this time around!

As the Witch goes off through the Universal Substance in order to properly dispose of the demon-devil's severed head some thousand miles away from where the remainder of Vayu's corpse is left to rot, or freeze, or be eaten, Johnny and the Head head to Vancouver mostly via Shadowland. Which, thanks largely to Psycho, Raven has only recently learned she can get into and navigate through.

Meanwhile, on the Head Itself, Thrygragos Byron, he who is all head, finally realizes one of his Primary Nucleoids is altogether missing, -- not to mention bifurcated. With his other two top-drawer enforcement-offspring in tow, the long-bodiless Great God heads off-Head to do something about it. (Actually it would be be more correct to say in eye, as opposed to in toe. Plus, even in terms of Master Devas, Sedona Spellbinder and Chimaera Glimmenmare are a couple of very strange characters indeed.)

Messieurs Barry and Lapin (Sasquatch and Styx, for those who know their Signallers and/or read last month's newest PHANTACEA on the Web feature) have escaped from the Oakalla prison in Burnaby, British Columbia, Vancouver's next-door metropolis eastward. As Cerebrus David Ryne gleans thanks to his mental might, they have, possibly, been broken out of jail by the latest incarnation of the Emperor Mammalian himself. He and the Terrible Twins, Sea and Air, are on their way to investigate their disappearance when Cerebrus picks up the presence of Splendour Units, -- and some of System's Silver Signallers equally nearby!

The punkish, teenage Signaller called Sapphire, a daughter/great granddaughter of Sedon St. Synne, 'photostats' Cerebrus' soul into one of her artificial agates. Can't allow that, says still-young Ryne, can we? Have to get it back, don't we? Aires shows his stuff; Thalassa does too, and Cerebrus is at his Mister Mental best.

Jervis Murray tips a waiter for serving watered-down rum -- actually it's more tap than tip -- while, up top, underneath Grouse Mountain, Gloriella D'Angelo, who is both Sap's aunt and her niece, tells the Diver about 'The Garden of Heavenly Happiness.'

It's not Eden. Eden Nightingale was killed in 1939, along with Daughter Aranyani, who was born on the same day Gloriel was, Good Friday 1933, and of course turns out not to have been killled at all. No, this garden is Glory's own personal vision of perfection. Except it's now been soiled by their tortuous return from Limbo, by the horrendous, group-humiliating, Advent of the Apocalyptics -- of Plague in her particular case, given what Carcinogen the Leper did to her on Damnation Isle -- and, she thinks, by Wilderwitch, who covets her Rainbow Gratuities; her Big Angel, as it were.

As if the Witch doesn't have enough goodies in her bottomless bag already.

Sapphire's last name is Lancz, but she isn't the daughter of Simon Lancz, the Signallers' nominal Strategos. At least she doesn't think she is!

By the way, how could Donar Lancz, Simon's prohibitive father, have been killed in 1943 if he was killed on Salvation Island in 1953 -- the same as the King Conqueror, assuming Jesus Mandam was the Conqueror and not just the self-proclaimed Conquering Christ?

Answer to that's simple. Lancz had been cloned in the early Forties, late Thirties, -- which is what Sharpshooter, who may be a clone himself, thinks is how either Cerebrus or Psycho, plus the Elemental Twins, are seemingly back in action after being dead for a quarter century. They aren't the real thing; are Callion Clones, all of them. Ones with the Twin Angels and Psychic Siblings' abilities! (Misnomer that; check out 'Centauri Island' for clues as to the identities of the real Psychic Siblings.)

Has to do with the Man on the Moon, you see. That explains Mammalian too. The great man, Loxus Abraham Ryne, has been breaking his own rules; been trying to bring supranormals back to life, one way or another, in a misguided effort to fulfill SPACE's mandate, -- namely, to prevent alien control of the Earth. However, would aliens be worse than Advanced Men, supermen? Certainly System doesn't think so.

Realizing the Xuthrodites' octogenarian patriarch's senile follies for what they are, System brought Signallers into existence not just to neutralize supras but to exterminate them, once and for all time. So, Shooter contacts Shelter. Not Big Shelter; not even the Witch's Shelter. No, this Shelter, -- well, just as Shoot may be Thaddeus Hyperenor, the only son of the late Thirties', early Forties' Silver Arrow Assassins, Sagittarius and Sagitta, Shelter could be Echion Sangati.

Who could this Echion Sangati be, you might ask? You'd be best reading 'The Moloch Manoeuvres' for a likely answer to that. As for more on the Magnificent Psycho, Aranyani Nightingale, Moe III, and the Silver Signallers, you definitely should be reading 'Centauri Island' , especially for the fullness of Signal System's saga. Most of it anyhow.

And who is the Kronokronos Supreme? What's Wilderwitch doing with the Crimson Corona? What's Corona Power's long-estranged mate, Obadiah Melvin Power, doing to his regalia but for his Homeworld Sceptre? What exactly are they, what exactly is it, and why is OMP wandering around naked in the 'sweet house' atop Hideaway Damnation?

Isn't that's why you're reading 'The War of the Apocalyptics'?

Top of Page

9. The War of the Apocalyptics: "The Byronic Nucleus"

"WHAT ARE DOING HERE, DAUGHTER OF BYRON? YOU FAIL YOUR DUTY. BEGONE AND BE THANKFUL I'VE NO HANKERING FOR YOU. I'VE BECOME USED TO QUIET THIS LAST WEEK!"

Needless to say, given the title, we've the fullness of the Byronic Nucleus back with us. Also, as should be clear from the typeset of the blockquote, the Moloch Sedon, Demon King of the Headworld that bears his name, returns this time up. But he's not the only Sedon featured in this chapter. There's Sedona Spellbinder, the 'daughter' Eye-Mouth refers to above, for one. Our old friend, Sedon St. Synne, is another. In fact, this is about the closest that decrepit semi-still-living fossil comes to actually appearing in any of the three sequences currently appearing on the Web!

Recall, earlier on in the 'Launching' serials, that Salvatore Dis L'Orca accused a certain baleful, three-eyed wraith of being the telepathic old corpse? He's back too, that one, but he still isn't that Sedon. In fact, Daemonicus says he isn't any Sedon. What is he then? Best be keeping an eye on War's sister story sequence, 'Centauri Island' , for an answer to that perchance of perplexity.

So, is this the end of the Damnation Brigade? It certainly is! Lots of good stuff before it goes the way of Doc Defiance and the Indescribable Mr. No Name over in Centauri though. Shelter shows up, -- with a different helmet than he's sporting next door. Bunch of other Silver Signallers come in on mop-up detail toward chapter-end. Full batch of Angelics as well, prior to endgame. Even Papa and Mama D'Angelo make an appearance, -- albeit slightly over fifty years older than they appear in'The Moloch Manoeuvres'.

It's now Friday, December 5, 1980, two days event depicted in 'Centauri Island' this time up. Murray and the Witch, then Air and Sea, have some good old-fashioned slap/whack sessions. Baron Justice II -- remember him from the Comic Books? -- pops in just after Thalassa pops off. At her lover, Cerebrus David Ryne, as it happens. Then 'Lassa catches a plane for Los Angeles. With Erech Avar-Ryne, the great man's son by Strife/Lady Guillotine, sitting beside her! Which is the last we'll see her in Apocalyptics.

There's disco-dancing and Star Dark, in the proverbial flesh. Lot of it too! There's a nearly full contingent of current-day (for 1980) Angelics at the airport. There's Sundown and Raven showing off some new abilities, -- the Diver does too, in his own way. There's a rainbow-fist though a big old display-window; a roof being ripped off, and lots of smoke. Sort of goes without saying when Sedona gets busy. And, of course, where there's smoke there's fire. Oh yes, as for the Silver Signaller code-named Spherus, his reappearance, sort of, has been presaged for quite a while now.

Best of all, there's Chimaera Glimmenmare!

... A demon-winged, naked humanoid male with a long, armoured tail, front and back, and a face that never quite resolved itself, but usually featured a beak-like nose and exaggerated ears that looked as if they could start flapping at any minute.

His brother was still having trouble synchronizing his thoughts with reality. Something wasn't connecting properly, -- probably his neck, smirked Glimmenmare.

Did I say this was it for the Damnation Brigade? What I meant was this was it for the first half of 'The War of the Apocalyptics'. Where are they, -- War, Death, Disease, and heedless, heartless, Headless Disaster? Where are Demon Land and the monstrous, two-headed, six-eyed Vultyrie?

What's become of Old Man Power? Why exactly did Lakshmi of Lemuria croak? And, by the way, did I mention Chimaera?

"Idiot!" Sedona Spellbinder yelled at Chimaera in their father's voice. "There was no need for that!"

Glimmenmare was taller than the house, a bat-winged gorilla with the head and multi-striped tail of an iguana. "Power persuades, sister. Let's see what these so-called supras are made out of!"

Actually, what I really mean is: Is this it for the Damnation Brigade?

Top of Page