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?"
