Friday, March 20, 2015

Hyde, An Argument of Darkness "An Invisible Man Story."



When you argue with darkness you end up in darkness -- Chartrough, a French Poet of the Renaissance.

The argument that it doesn't really matter what you do, because everything is preordained and you can't change anything, may, on the surface, be quite appealing to some. Specially those few who are desperate to dot the I of their life and bring it to a safe and easy conclusion. But if you truly face the circumstances and events of your life, you are too busy moving forward through the battlefield of life to consider any other options, and just rely on your instincts, and hopefully your own cleverness to distill the danger and delights of the life you pursue.

As Professor Langdon, also known as the Invisible Man, raced through the alleys of Whitehall, pursued by the deadly Hyde, all he could think of was how that energy monster could track him, when he was invisible to the naked eye. But no amount of intellectualizing could alter the fact that he was the pursued and that Hyde was the one gaining on him, and should he arrest Langdon's movements, they would be the last he ever made. As he would then lose all his life force to the vampiric creature and slide into the gentle oblivion of whatever lay beyond the worlds he knew of.
But at that critical moment, when Hyde appeared to be ready to close the gap between them, he made a life altering decision, and whether you believe it to be fate, an undeniable position he had to follow, or a whisk of luck, he took it. He leaped through a window to his right.

The glass was hard and he immediately realized cuts and bruises on his hands, arm and face as he plummeted through the thick double paned glass, but being a scientist he had understood the weak spot of the crystallized silicates and protected himself as best he could. He landed with a roll on the other side, and managed to launch himself back to his feet as Hyde shot past the broken window. Hyde would come back quickly. He always did.

Langdon quickly assessed his surroundings and realized he was in a vast warehouse of some kind. It was unusual in many ways, in that there were no creates or boxes or any kind, but a huge object, which loomed in the middle of the cavernous space, that had some kind of thick canvas drawn across it.

He didn't think about it long, however, as his clock was ticking down to doomsday if he didn't do something fast.

Without another thought he dashed headlong towards the shrouded object, plunged beneath the canvas cloak hiding its vast body, then struck something so hard and fast he almost lost consciousness. As he lay there seeing stars spin about his head from the impact, his eyes began to adjust. They swept along a vast curved surface that was made of some kind of golden metal of intricate and ornate design.

It reminded him of Captain Nemo's vessel, except that it would be impossible for that vast nautical device to find itself inland in a warehouse without any kind of water ingress or egress. He stood slowly, so he wouldn't strike something unseen again and realized that he had the lack of luck of running into some kind of unit that thrust from the side of the vast vehicle. 

His curiosity was piqued, but he dared not linger, for even at that very moment, he felt rather than heard the entrance of Hyde inside the warehouse. Hyde was silent to the vast majority, but ever since Professor Langdon had become the Invisible Man, he had also become attuned to radio and electrical frequencies of a higher vibration, hence his awareness of the kind of raw, grating sound of Hyde's presence.

He began scooting around the edge of the vast vehicle, for that is what it had to be, hoping to find a way into it, or at best a way out of the warehouse. Either was okay with him at that moment, as it meant survival.

He thought about how he had come to be in such a horrid position, and then for a flash saw himself along with Conan and Challenger edging towards a vast cylindrical device that had embedded itself in the canyon they were exploring at that time in Fairie. They often times took off on such searches to see what kind of history they could uncover. While Langdon was primarily as chemist before all else, he had a vast love for history.

He was one of the first men to rediscover the ancient continent of Atlantis, not the newer one that lay across the Atlantic, but the one that had dominated the planet at one time, and had built vessels of such power and grace that they could sail between the stars. 

He sighed as he remembered how that hope of another such find had instead turned into a flight of terror as they all realized upon viewing the vast container more closely, that it had the markings of the Queen upon it and skull and crossbones. The convicted were sometimes imprisoned in such chambers to exile them from humanity and protect the masses from further predations upon them.

Hyde had been caught numerous times by Holmes and the Baker Street companions, but each time he had managed to escape his doom and imprisonment. And so again he had, though no one at that time could figure out how as the container appeared to be completely sealed.

So thinking there was nothing to fear. They had journeyed back to London through the Fairie Portal and headed immediately to Holmes to report the discovery. He had sent Watson and Challenger off immediately to notify the Queen, so she could send in her Special Forces to contain the unit in Fairie and transport it out so that it could be launched once more to a more safe territory...probably in space.
But after all the others had left, leaving Langdon, Conan and Holmes alone, Holmes had suddenly acted peculiar. He had dashed to the window and looked out. At that same moment Hyde, who had followed them through the Portal, stood on the street below watching the window.

Hyde launched himself at the window.

Holmes struck the window shut violently, and then with urgency beyond belief, had swept the two men hurriedly down the stairs. They had reached the street level the same time as Hyde who had managed to enter 221B came inside, discovered them gone, and then relaunched itself back onto the street. 

Hyde had three choices.

Sherlock gave him one. He ran off to the right.

Conan looked at Langdon. "See you on the other side, brother." He ran the opposite direction.
Langdon swallowed. Nobler friends he had never had. But Hyde didn't take either of the baits, instead it moved towards him.

So he had run like the devil was after him, because it was.

Hyde never slowed down, except for the occasional pedestrian it would slam through, ripping off a portion of their energies to sustain it then hurriedly pursue him again. 

As he had run in terror, he had run his great mind through all possibilities. Why had it chosen him to follow? Why?

Langdon saw a ramp before him and hurried up it. As he reached the top, another man was descending. Jules Verne.

"You!" Verne cried out in shock.

"Hurry." Langdon cried out. "We must get inside. Our very souls depend on it!" He shouted.

The two men rushed back up the ramp, just as Hyde reached its base, its hideous glowing red eyes searching the ramp's base, and then spotting them above. It launched itself.

Verne palmed a switch beside the entrance at the top of the ramp and a huge metallic door slammed shut, nearly taking Langdon with it, but he managed to dive beneath it to safety. Verne hurriedly picked him up.

He struck another switch and a loud humming sound came to life. "That will trap it for precious seconds. But we must launch immediately."

Verne rushed Langdon to the cockpit where he thrust the Master of the World into immediate life, giving its vast thrusters power and life. The ship shook from stem to stern, and then began to lift.
"Good-bye warehouse." Verne whispered as the ship crashed through the warehouse roof, and the vast structure began to collapse inwards as its support structures were broken by the massive ship.
Verne checked his readouts, and then punched the String Engines, giving them full power. The Master of the World hurtled towards deep space, and soon its vast body lit up like the sun as the heat and friction of the atmosphere struck against it.

They saw Hyde making its way across the vast structure towards the cockpit as if space, heat and matter were no obstruction to it.

"It looks as if we must sacrifice ourselves for the good of our friends." Verne commented, his face grim.

Langdon shook his head. "No, keep going."

Verne took his hand away from the switch that would have plummeted them deep into the String Spaces where he could have exploded the ship, thus stranding Hyde forever.

The ship continued to rise and as it did so, they came into view of a long line of capsules all orbiting towards the moon.

Langdon pointed towards the tail capsule. "Aim for that one."

Verne adjusted the controls and they closed in on the capsule, the same time as Hyde closed in on the cockpit. It would be close. Very close.

"When we are within thirty meters of the capsule veer off as sharply as you can." Langdon ordered.
Verne counted down the distance and at the same moment as Hyde was about to enter the cockpit through its shielded glass, the ship veered off. As it did so the last capsule lit up very weirdly and Hyde was sucked towards it and vanished inside. The scream of its voice penetrated the ship, even through space, for it was concentrated with fury and anger and hatred of such magnitude and power that only magic could have contained it.

Which it had. The capsules were all powered by a magic of Elvis kind that magnetized any creature of evil intent and held them fast. They could not escape its grasp on their own.

"Safe." Langdon sighed with relief.

"Not yet." Verne cried out, accelerating the Master of the World to avoid an incoming capsule that was closing in on the others. They narrowly missed it, and then shot away.

Verne wiped at the sweat on his brow, and then motioned to Langdon to sit beside him. "Now, tell me how this all happened."

Langdon did and later when he and Verne found Sherlock, Conan and Challenger back at 221B and Watson returned from the Queen's, they all sat there solemnly a long time in silence. This had been a narrow escape for all of them.

"We must find a way to stop that monster forever." Challenger growled.

"Good luck on that one." Watson grunted.

Sherlock looked up from his steepled fingers, an annoyed look on his face. "I think we are missing the bigger picture here."

Verne gave him a surprised look. "Which is?"

"How is this linked to the Legions of Doom?"

The men all stiffened. Death was nearing faster and faster. Would they be ready to stop it when the time cam

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