June 15 marks three full years since I launched Flicker Street Studio, and I'm celebrating with a hard relaunch of the official Henry Covert's FLICKER STREET website.
Carrying on from my recent videos posted here anticipating the occasion, today I'm posting Book One - of Three - of the revised FLICKER STREET: THE BIRTH piece, originally begun in 2014 and finally revised and completed in 2020. It is a meta-document of sorts, written "in universe" by the character Thaddeus Davant.
Be warned: Davant is a notoriously unreliable narrator, and obfuscates facts and often writes in a code known only to himself. He also tends towards excessive melodrama and a single-minded nostalgia for the 'pulp era'. Finally, his attempts to recreate dialogues between persons he depicts often degenerate into cliche and hyperbole. Hopefully, The unvarnished truth behind the events described in this document will surface in coming months.
Expect Book Two tomorrow, and supplementary videos ahead, as well as official FS material - prose, illustrations, and character biographies - from my FS Facebook pages, which I'll be compiling in total here on the website for the first time.
Enjoy,
Henry
Ewen Cromwell AKA Carnifex, The Barbarian, Bringer of Sorrows, Mordecai Finn, Ewen The Barbarian, Lon Hoskins, Roscoe Finn, and many more epithers. Co-founder of Hallmark, Hallmark County, MA, est. 1887.
FLICKER STREET: THE BIRTH
As Told by Thaddeus Davant
BOOK ONE
Chapter 1: Backstory
I. The Soft Conquest
Like many a tale, the story of Flicker Street begins with war. This, however, is a war where both sides are too jaded to actually fight. It is, nonetheless, A millenia-spanning cold war - between the Omegans: explorers, wanderers, adventurers, decadents ...star gypsies roaming the cosmos; and the Pisceans – mystical, spiritual, beyond the temporal or corporeal... soul fish swimming the current of the ether.
Omegans, natives of the star Omega Ceti I, have allowed technology to render them a life of opulence. The class wars that plague Earth are rarely problems here. No one is starving, no man consumes another beast for food. Omega's utopian existence is monitored carefully by its orbital capital city, the starfaring Hemiopolis Fractorium.
Pisceans are close to nature. Alchemy is their passion, and yields medicine, well-being, and heightened consciousness. They commune with presences that inhabit non-corporeal spheres. They have mastered the healing arts. Saurian in nature, they can physically shape shift (as can Omegans). Pisceans consort with true magick. Life, as for Omegans, is lengthy by Earthen standards – and filled with experience and new sensations.
Both races have reached the seeming apex of their respective technological and cultural development. And hence, fighting off inevitable entropy, they both begin annexing other races, “soft conquests”, so to speak... Rather than pool their monumental knowledge for an even greater harmony, they seem bound to be rivals – to compete for the attention of “lesser” races – i.e. those races that appear most receptive to their aims and philosophies. Neither race is, despite their ostensibly benign nature, above manipulation and infiltration of their target races. Neither side is particularly aggressive, hence the temperature of their conflict; thus, subterfuge suits them well as they both find invasions distasteful. Thus it behooves them well that both races can alter their appearance at will.
It has been estimated that twenty thousand of our years ago, the Omegans were the first alien race to reach Earth, in a magnificent starship they called the Terminus. They landed in the mountains of what is now northern Massachusetts. The native Americans believed them gods and helped them erect a huge pyramid-like structure around the mountain. This became an enclosed site and the highest peak in the northeastern United States. It was eventually known as Mt. Mosaic.
The Pisceans first arrived on Earth shortly thereafter, in pursuit of the Terminus. Though they lost the epic “space race”, which by now was mere sport to them, they were welcomed by the native peoples of Central America, who constructed the Holy Ziggurat to house the captain of the expedition.
After a time, it looked as though real war would break out between the longtime rivals. But neither wished to use such an unspoiled planet as a beachhead for conquest. Hence the shaping of a new paradigm, a concept that was obvious to both races for eons but bypassed by their own stubbornness. They agreed to a grand experiment – a cosmic working. They called this Exodesia.
II. Exodesia
In an unprecedented move, the two stubborn races born of Omega Ceti I and of Pisces, agreed to allow test subjects from each race to mate and mingle. And to procreate. Their genetic structures, despite their outward appearances, were compatible enough to produce offspring. Some resembled their Omegan parent, and hence could “pass” as human; some their Piscean forebears. Some were hybrid. This gave the thinkers of the respective races much to ponder upon.
After a generation was fostered, they were given a new home. It was dubbed Exodesia, and ruled by a hybrid child grown to a powerful adult named Phallasma. Phallasma was a hermaphrodite and wielded science and sorcery with equal dexterity. Most hybrid children were male or female, but the birth of a hermaphrodite was always a cause for awe and celebration, for those fully attuned to the cosmics of their two parent races, and their two sexual selves, could wield great power. As thousands of years passed, the hybrid “look” became dominant in Exodesia, thus fully marking them as their own race. They, like their alien forebears, were blessed with longevity – an Exodesian could live as long as 2000 years at the utmost, though it was rare for any to reach that sacrosanct number. Omegans clocked in at 5000 years, and it was rumored that a Piscean could see 10,000 years of life.
The Exodesians lived in peace and solitude for millenia, honing their society into one steeped in the esoterica of Piscean religion and magicks and leavened by the luxury of Omegan tech. Humans rarely encountered Exodesians, who could pass for human (albeit odd-looking humans) by this point. Exodesians generally were careful not to mate with humans though it did happen on occasion. When it did, the offspring invariably appeared human but possessed special talents due to its unusual parentage. This new form of hybrid being generally could live 400 or 500 years and manifested various ultra-normal abilities.
In time, the offspring of Exodesian and human blood sought each other out. After many years of searching, a small aggregate was formed. These men became explorers, searching for the truth of their origins. One group of Dutchmen became determined to explore the mystery of Mt. Mosaic. Their guide was an ostensibly half-Exodesian mercenary called Ewen Cromwell (also known as Carnifex). The dutchmen founded a town in the late nineteenth century that came to be known as Hallmark, in Hallmark County, MA. The path the dutchmen followed Cromwell on was a straight and narrow trudge through snow, and flickering lights from where no one knew shone the way to the mountain. And so, in time, this path was paved into a road that ran straight through Hallmark and on to the highway. In Hallmark County, the road was called.... Flicker Street.
III. A Tender Alchemy
It was decided by the Omegans and Pisceans alike that the actions of the Exodesians in spawning with humans, and the actions of those spawn which led to the discovery of the Titanus wreck, were intolerable. They feared humans would one day breach Exodesia. But stealth remained their style, and so they elected one exceptional individual from each of their races to go to live on Earth as humans in human identities, and to monitor and influence events. Rather, to negate the influence of the half-breed who now craved their secrets. This was the first treaty enacted between the two races since the creation of Exodesia. The individuals chosen prepared by pooling their knowledge and each shape shifted into a more human form. The male of the two, Asenath-Zayan, a Piscean, went to Earth to live in Germany as a scientist called Friedrich Einnhauser, while the Omegan female, Ish, became the Chinese master of many disciplines called Shun Ti. The councils of each world preferred the two agents take more inconspicuous guises but they wanted to be placed highly enough to affect change. They arrived on Earth in the nineteenth century, shortly before Cromwell's party coalesced.
Unexpectedly, during their training Asenath and Ish fell deeply in love, but vowed to see each other on Earth when they could. During one of their meetings, Ish became pregnant with twin sons. The twins were born in 1872 (roughly). One appeared Omegan, human-like for the most part, and was named Ursulin. The other was dubbed Anaximader-Zayan and resembled a full-blooded Piscean - saurian but humanoid.
The Exodesians, for their part, were sick of the humans and wished to take over their world, using resources gleaned from their parent races. Again stealth and espionage, rather than outright invasions, remained their modus operandi. The history of the races infiltrating humanity is fraught with the exploits of spies and secret agents all the way up to the present day.
IV. The Cromwell Party in the Shadow of Mt. Mosaic
The expedition to Mt. Mosaic began in 1886 and consisted of the guide, mercenary Ewen Cromwell (AKA Carnifex, though not known as that to the party, but to his patrons and victims) and his son Cormac Llewyn Paige, as well as Cormac's Indian wife Janella Two Trees and their infant son Miles, and the Cromwells' cabin boy Cullen Darby; The Dutch explorer Ananias de Ruyter, his business partner Hendrik Van Hoke, and Van Hoke's South American assistant Guillermo Renova; the British plantation magnate Dr. Basil Orlison; the Dutchman who bankrolled the journey, Ambrosius ver Dorn; ver Dorn's employees Marcellus and Lotte Vossius (the latter was also one of Ewen's lovers); and the true leader of the expedition – the renegade Exodesian Jerissen. Ver Dorn had hired a passel of workers to develop the land surrounding and leading to the mountain and thus developed a small town for shipping in supplies and such along the “flickering path” (as Janella called it). Ver Dorn declared this the hallmark of their journey and hence the small town of Hallmark was established in 1887.
Cromwell, against Jerissen's orders, plundered the base of the mountain for minerals and gems – great riches were found there. Who left them, they could not discern, though many occurred there naturally. Hundreds of rare Indian artifacts remained as well. It was as though there was a centuries long trail of jewels and corpses winding its way up the mountain – but had anyone penetrated the deep rock housing The Terminus? Only Jerissen and Ewen suspected an interstellar or extradimensional craft lay covered in stone and ice, as only they were versed in Exodesian lore (though there was more to Ewen than readliy appeared). What did Jerissen and Ewen find inside that mountain? What secrets still lie waiting in the hulk of the Terminus?
In any case, the founding and development of Hallmark led to a coalescence of immigrant families settling the outlying areas, specifically the town of Gossingham. Soon families such as the Cairnes, the Fausts, the Palmers, the Parminters, the Rudisills, the McClearys, the Greers, the Westins, and many more poured into Hallmark and Gossingham – and all will have a bearing to some degree in our larger narrative.
V. One Hundred Years On...
Please excuse a brief flash forward to gain some perspective on the repercussions of the Cromwell party.
It is 1987. Hallmark is a booming American city clutched, like most, in the throes of its excess - trickle-down economics, rampant capitalism, heavy metal and big hair. The major conglomerates based in Hallmark feed into all of these memes – ORDER Enterprises (Orlison-DERuyter), Renova Inc., and the Paige Foundation are foremost among such corporations. The names of Hallmark's founders adorn shops, signs, and skyscrapers in their ubiquity. But the most massive, troubled yet wildly pervasive corporate entity in this jaded culture remains SkullCorp, based, but not originated in, Hallmark MA. In recent years, the feds, the police, vigilantes galore have tried to upend Skull and find the rot beneath – and have scored many a success. As the 80s wane, however, Skull is on the rise again, finding new ways to package its pop-culture omniscience. For Skull is not like the hallowed bankers and industrialists that built Hallmark. Skull is a “leisure corporation” - focusing on news, media, entertainment, keeping the masses occupied and empty of revolutionary thoughts – hence, Skull's resurgence is a perfect fit for the “age of excess”.
VI. The Machine?
The story of the so-called “Machine”, the entity that birthed SkullCorp, lies with a number of men hungry to exploit the growing rumors of power emanating from certain locales and personages. Greed was the major engine, it seems, that drove these men, as well as the hybrid races, and the Exodesians themselves. But in time there arose those who would challenge this state of things. Sadly it took quite a while...
Matthew Brighton (b. 1903) was a petty thief with heavy delusions, though tenacity was his redeeming trait. An impoverished Cockney teenager, an almost Dickensian figure, he stowed away upon a freighter to Massachusetts from England in 1920 with his pregnant mistress, who soon gave birth to his son Artie. Matthew was a jack-of-all-trades, a flim-flam man, constantly in trouble with the law in Hallmark. Inspector Withrow Saunders doggedly attempted to have him incarcerated, but Matthew was given special treatment by a shady lawyer, Kryle, who persuaded Matthew to wed the mother of his now two children. Thus Demelza Fluke became a Brighton and was soon pregnant yet again. Matthew had a near-fatal run-in with Inspector Saunders, but killed him. He went to live in a nearby small town, Gossingham, and raised his family under the name Burden. Kryle assisted him immensely, not part of which was that Kryle, it was rumored, had a taste for Demelza (now “Elza Burden”), and, some said, for Brighton/ Burden himself.
In Gossingham, the man now known as Massey Burden raised his three sons: Arthur Burden (formerly Artie Brighton), David Burden (ex-Davey Brighton), and Gregory Burden (ex-George Brighton). The thief and swindler Massey Burden was nearly apprehended for theft and was shot to death in 1934, alongside his wife and Kryle. The three children were remanded to foster care. Arthur began working at 15. All three men had much luck after being turned out of the orphanage (which they nearly set fire to - unsurprisingly). Indeed, it was hard to believe they were Brighton spawn, for each excelled at any number of felonious arts but managed to stay out of the hands of the law.
In the 1940s they naturally eased into organized crime (who helped them evade the draft), until they were informed of a nascent organization that would function as a clean entertainment corporation fronting an international cartel of vice. They were told this process was dubbed “The Machine” and fell ultimately under the rubric of a Mr. Drang, whom no one had ever actually seen, apparently. The three brothers had their first substantial disagreement over this direction. David and Gregory were wary; Arthur determined to climb to the top of the Machine. The brothers were ultimately in congress in 1951, when they changed their identities one last time, becoming, respectively, Artemus, Augustus, and Geoffrey Thorne. This was the year they ascended to the board of the Machine, alongside the men called Donal Rykards, Phileas Caleb, and Bromley Chamberlain, to name some key personnel. There was even an African board member, Kith M'Nali (born Abassi Mathabane); a self-professed German expat, Coyle Einnhauser; and a mysterious bronze-skinned man called Urias. This was the inner circle of what was dubbed the Skull Corporation aka SkullCorp, its name derived from an organization ruled in the East called the Black Skull Society. Did any one agent of Skull run things behind it all? A question many asked – and many paid dearly for asking. The answer was Mr. Drang. Finding out who Drang really was will be covered later in this narrative.
SkullCorp's goals were simple: keep the inner circle (“The Machine”) shrouded in secrecy; maintain an entertainment empire as a facade; orchestrate arms for drugs operations to bankroll a physical army of revolutionaries serving Skull (under the command of a man who ascended to the inner circle: Captain Vargas Llosa; Llosa lived in Libania, the country where the Holy Ziggurat was located with the buried Piscean artifacts); and to use cutting-edge science to experiment tirelessly with Omegan, Piscean, and Exodesian tech for their own twisted aims, be they conquest or pure pleasure. Perhaps not such simple aims after all.
VII. A Tender Alchemy (Refrain)
Shun Ti and Friedrich Einnhauser continued their affair; their children were sent to the planet each fit in best with physically, i.e. Ursulin was raised an Omegan; and Anaximander a Piscean. Shun Ti, whose disciples generally believed her to be a man, had founded the Tamerlane Overlords in 1823 and claimed descent from the conqueror Tamerlane (a figure Ish personally found distasteful but was legendary in China). She trained and honed students in a magnificent temple, utilizing what would be termed mixed martial arts today, but which were ancient among the Omegans for millenia. Rather than experiment as her race and the Pisceans had in creating the Exodesians, Shun Ti/ Ish saw herself awakening the natural chi life energy of her students. Hard science was of little interest to Shun Ti. The point where science and mysticism meet – that rare alchemy – was what drove the woman once known as Ish.
Shun Ti's greatest student was an outsider who mastered the Overlord techniques. He was an escaped African slave who stumbled upon the sanctuary Feng Qi (meaning “ethos”) in his flight from his European masters who were attempting to locate the legendary reserve but failed. He was captured by the students of Feng Qi and brought to Shun Ti, who soon mastered his tongue and told him he could never leave or share their secrets, but he could become one of them if he passed the training. For food and shelter, the highly intelligent and cunning man Abassi Mathabane traded one form of servitude for another. Dubbed Kith by Shun Ti, Mathabane remained at Feng Qi from 1844-1871, when Shun Ti declared him no longer trainable; he had reached the apex and was second only to her. He was acquitted with honor but craved more of the secrets of the Omegans and resolved to find Exodesia. He had learned much spying on his master; but what he failed to realize was that Ish wanted the tenets of Feng Qi exported. Hence, after she gave up her children, she accepted a brash Brit for 15 years of intense training – Ewen Cromwell.
Asenath-Zayan fared worse in his double life. He began his life as an orphan teenager in Berlin and altered his appearance as he grew “older” (though he really didn't age appreciably). When “Einnhauser” was in his 80s, Asenath faked his death and reinvented himself as his own grandson Friedrich Einnhauser II and at this time (the late 1890s), purported to be around 30. Einnhauser excelled as his “grandfather” had, and by the 1920s was firmly ensconced in the halls of academia. He was the first true physicist. Sadly the Nazis coveted his knowledge and he fled Germany in the mid 1930s. He shape shifted into a new identity and reached America, where he hoped to reach allies, but was found by a mercenary working briefly for the Axis – Carnifex AKA – Ewen Cromwell, who slew him, much to the chagrin of Ewen's employers. Cromwell became a wanted man in even more countries then.
VIII. The Chaos Song
There was one man who plundered the secrets of both Mt. Mosaic and the Holy Ziggurat (located between Libania and the trading town of Serafina). He also trained under the Tamerlane Overlords and was given access to Exodesian knowledge. But he began life as a seemingly ordinary Midwestern man called Caine Ledge (b. 1901) – ordinary save that he exhibited an intellect well above his peers in school, winning the lower middle class Caine a scholarship; he was superlative at sports but had little interest in them; and, some in the town opined he may be a “mongoloid” - an uncharitable way of saying “someone with Down's Syndrome”, due to the vaguely Asian slant of his eyes. But it was three key events that changed forever his suburban existence.
First, as a teen, he entered into an affair with an older, apparently Asian woman called Ona. After weeks together, Ona abandoned young Caine.
Second, his father Richard Ledge (a traveling salesman) disappeared when Caine was in his twenties, and his mother Inga sank into depression and lethargy. Next, when Richard at last returned, Caine had this feeling that the man calling himself Richard Ledge was not his father, though they were identical in appearance. Foremost of all, he was actually kind to his son for the first times Caine could recall.
In any case, Inga and Richard had another son, called Coyle. Inga and Coyle left Richard, never to return, when Coyle was an infant. Inga left behind a journal for Caine. Caine was by now married to Claudia Clarke, and had three children of his own. The "new Richard” was more an avuncular figure to young Thomas Ledge, Caine's first born, but this ended when Carnifex slew Asenath-Zayan. Caine found his alleged father dying (the third key event in Caine's awakening) and was warned – he was admonished to study Inga's journal and he was told that the real Richard Ledge was dead; that he was the scientist Friedrich Einnhauser, and, above all, a Piscean by birth – not of this world. Coyle, therefore, was only half-human. Asenath told Caine as much as he could before he passed, and revealed that Richard Ledge, the hard, cold man who raised Caine, was no more Caine's biological sire than Asenath was. Asenath's final utterance to Caine sounded nothing so much as, “Chaos...Song...”
Caine left the U.S. shortly thereafter, to follow the uncertain trail left by the two people he had considered his parents but whom now were strangers. In his selfishness and sense of betrayal, he left his wife Claudia behind with three children – Thomas, Delores, and Clarke. Inga's journal eventually brought him to Feng Qi, and a meeting with his real father, Sun-Kao Qua, and Sun-Kao's remarkable mother – Shun Ti, who addressed Caine Ledge thusly: “Welcome home, Kaosong Qua”. Caine Ledge preferred to choose his own new appellation, and answered, "Grandmother? Call me Kong".
IX. The Baron in Shadow
Though they were heirs to his genetic legacy, not all of Ewen Cromwell's descendants inherited his thirst for power. One branch in particular eventually proved his undoing. These were the Bradcrofts. In England, Cromwell dallied with a married woman, and the son was Mason Randell (b. 1850). Mason's daughter Suzette, wed Vincent Bradcroft (b.c. 1875) , a minor member of the peerage, a baronet (see Burke's Peerage). Vincent and Suzette had two sons, Dunne and Malcolm. Vincent was an occultist and learned the truth (or somewhat of the truth) about his wife's sinister grandfather. Vincent was fascinated with the founding of Hallmark and the notorious Cromwell party, as well as the fabled Holy Ziggurat. He founded a company, Bradcroft Ltd, dealing in occult paraphernalia, and hoped to raise money for archaeological expeditions to the mystical sites. Vincent became obsessed by the idea of another race co-existing with humans, and wondered what sort of mystical land they must inhabit. Most just thought Bradcroft mad, alas.
Each of Vincent's sons in their own way carried on his work. Malcolm became so intrigued by Mt. Mosaic that he moved to Hallmark in 1923. He soon wed Blair Paige, daughter of Miles Paige, who was born during the Cromwell Party's expedition (and was also a grandson of Cromwell - making Blair and Malcolm half-second cousins). He opened an occult curio shoppe in Hallmark. Malcolm's brother Dunne was a bit more conservative and a total skeptic when it came to Vincent's claims. However, his twin sons, Ashton and Cary (b. 1925) were avid listeners to their grandfather's tales – especially the ones about a second race existing alongside humanity and armed with unfathomable occult powers. Their mother Elizabeth encouraged the boys behind their father's back to begin saving for their dreams of expeditions into the unknown.
Vincent warned of other races manipulating humans, who had no chance, no say, none to protect them. Ashton and Cary were true believers and vowed that they would protect humanity. Their grandfather eventually went mad from the visions he had during his magickal workings – none realized he had glimpsed the Pisceans' eldritch alchemy and presences that they communed with - though the twins suspected such a thing was possible. They had begun learning magic from their grandfather secretly since boyhood, and when Vincent finally “cracked” in 1938, rather than be deterred, the brothers dove full tilt into the world of the occult. They formed a coven in college with a classmate, Remuel Van Juss (son of Dutch emigres). It was small, consisting primarily of the Bradcroft twins, a young half-Indian girl named Jerusha Dharma, and Remuel's siblings Katherine and Rachael. Soon, a socially awkward and aloof 17 year old with the unlikely name of Myrus T Fellbane was initiated as well.
Katherine soon gravitated romantically towards Ashton and they began an affair, while Cary fell deeply in love with Jerusha Dharma, much to the chagrin of Fellbane. The coven studied all through college and beyond. One of their teachers was Janos Disraeli, a world-renowned occultist who had made contact with presences from other planes. Remuel and Katherine fell under Janos' spell and quit the coven. Rachael remained, and the Bradcrofts declined Disraeli's help, feeling it was a path that led to evil. They were more determined than ever to find Exodesia.
In 1954, the small coven - sans Rachael, who stayed behind after a disastrous sex magick ritual with Ashton - embarked for Exodesia in Africa. They were soon captured by two Exodesian priests, Alataris and Urias. The Bradcrofts attempted a peaceful exchange but Urias insisted they were encroaching on holy grounds and must be transmogrified in the “birthing chamber” to be alchemically cleansed of physical and spiritual impurities so as not to “pollute” Exodesia. They went along with this but once in the chamber, Ashton, ever rash, blasted Urias and Fellbane, coward he was, ran, taking Jerusha. Alataris subdued Cary and the twins were tortured and forced to prove their worthiness. But Cary broke free, yelling after Myrus to take Jerusha far away, down the path they'd marked. Cary attacked Urias and Alataris, and dove into the “birthing chamber” where Ashton was captive. Ashton was destroyed, or so it appeared, even as Cary made it into the transmogrifying chamber during Urias' final ritual.
Fellbane took care of the confused Jerusha, and the two made it down the narrow mountain steppes, even as a bright explosion flared in the air above them. Fellbane avered that the brothers were lost forever to them. This was doubly crushing for Jerusha, in that she realized she was pregnant with Cary's child. Fellbane took Jerusha to England, where his wealthy cousin Vanderville Tippett gave them both employ. They both apparently forsook magic, and Jerusha had a baby son, but refused Myrus' proposals of marriage. Jerusha wished to visit the twins' uncle Malcolm in Hallmark at his curio shoppe, but Tippett forbade the vacation.
In 1956, a man calling himself Cary Bradcroft came to Hallmark MA to attend his uncle Malcolm's funeral. Cary established that he was alive, and had been in touch with the ailing Malcolm, who willed him the shoppe – and his fortune. Cary immediately began the erection of Bradcroft Manor and got to know the citizens of Hallmark. Many times he had to relate the sad story of his “big brother” Ashton's passing. He was open about his mystical proclivities but most felt him harmless – though there were many sorry to see he survived his epic journey. He was passed on an honorary title in England of baronet, and was so amused he laughed aloud one day in his sprawling manse that he was the “baron in shadow”. A cold voice answered, “you are the Shadow Baron. And I – have become... Nocturno”. The voice was Ashton's.
Chapter 2: Tangents
I. The First Men of Mystery
As Hallmark established itself financially, socially, and industrially, crime was bound to surface. The first vigilante in Hallmark's Victorian era was a mystery man known as "A Man Called Sword", or Sword. Sword was the kind of mythic figure celebrated like the legendary gunfighters Mercy and Sorrow. Sword was born Ian Rhys McGregor, date unknown (some claim as far back as 1857, though he looked no more than a hale 30 in his first sightings in 1914). Some later speculated that he was an offspring of Carnifex or of an Exodesian. He wielded a seemingly enchanted rapier that could appear or disappear at his whim, and was quite the swashbuckler. Some rumoured that he trained under the Tamerlane Overlords themselves, but his martial arts skills were perfunctory; he had an altogether original fighting style, more like a buccaneer, but did incorporate some wu xia style techniques.
In Europe, the first real hero to aid the masses and crusade for justice was the mysterious Richter (born 1892). Richter was at first a loner, but resolved to seek out other such individuals over the years and band together to aid a planet being plunged into world war. Richter's story began in 1912, as he used his interesting talents to avenge himself on the man who killed his father. He was torn as to whether to slay the man or not, but the felon, Pierre Duquesne-Montreux, was slain by another's hand. Richter was not above killing, but preferred to capture and torture his victims psychologically. He also commanded a loyal pack of ravenous wolves that served to terrorize his foes. Richter lived by his own strict moral code and was unfaltering. It was quite an adjustment working with other so-called heroes, but it was soon apparent he had quite the gift for leadership.
An interesting fact about these two earliest of modern vigilantes is their bond by blood. Ian McGregor was indeed older than he appeared; he was, in fact, the great-uncle of the man called Richter, born Jean Aumont Tressilian. And both men carried the blood of Exodesia in their veins. This convoluted circumstance dated to the days of another ambitious party to find unusual and perhaps lucrative relics – the 1868 journey to the Holy Ziggurat in Libania, undertaken by a retinue of gunfighters and sordid hangers-on. As in the later expedition to Mt. Mosaic, the journey to plunder the Holy Ziggurat was commandeered by Jerissen of Exodesia.
II. A Fistful of Digressions
Jerissen's younger brother, the priest Urias, had attempted to crack the Ziggurat in Libania in 1818, and was thwarted by Carnifex, with whom he had a bizarre dynamic. Sometimes Cromwell would work for Urias, sometimes they would partner, but, often, they were at odds. In 1818, in Libania, their relationship fell under the latter of these categories. Cromwell, with his then-current lover, the Scottish Betsy McGregor, and their daughter Stava (allegedly Ewen's mother's name) and their guide, Jacinto Fuentes, made their way to the Ziggurat's upper steppes – only to find Urias awaiting them, mocking Ewen in believing Ewen could trick the mage. Urias told Ewen he could have the riches inside if he were to surrender his daughter to Urias. Ewen unhesitatingly agreed, though knowing there'd be a catch, he proffered, “What of the wench with you?”, meaning Francesca Corvo, young daughter of Urias' guide, Pietro Corvo. Urias forced Pietro to go along with the trade, but alas for Cromwell, Urias had already impregnated Francesca. Urias took Stavia and unleashed his power on Ewen. Their battle laid waste several of the Ziggurat's steppes, and killed Jacinto Fuentes, whose family cursed the two men should they ever return. A draw, the battle ended with the Exodesian and the seemingly immortal barbarian vowing to meet again in this spot in 50 years.
And so in 1868, Ewen Cromwell returned, full bore, with Jerissen by his side. He noted that Jerissen's brother Urias, the “spoiler of daughters” (a hypocritical epithet from Ewen surely) was nowhere to be found. Before anyone could embark on the Ziggurat, Cromwell was corrected – Urias was well represented – by his and Francesca Corvo's 49-year old son Franciscus, of smooth bronzened skin that belied its years of hard work. Franciscus' allies were choice: first, his wife: Lily Runningwater, a sultry carmine-coloured beauty brandishing an intimidating blade (and who Carnifex found oddly familiar); then, the half-breed gunfighter Sorrow, unchallenged in 5 states thus far and only 28 years old, though he appeared no more than 21 save for the deep creases beneath his eyes, which he hid beneath the brim of a fantastically long-brimmed hat. Sorrow was accompanied by his wife Carmelita, also a deadly sure shot. And then came Mercy, another half-Indian (rumored to be Sorrow's half-brother, though the two were constantly on opposing sides in some adventure or another), who toted a full-blown Gatling gun and spoke little, chomping constantly on his cheroot.
“Mercy”, mused Cromwell... “I can smell my own. You're a Mercer. I had a Mercer wench once back in France. You wouldn't be a spawn of Louis Mercer, would you?”.
Mercy retorted, “Louis was my grandfather. But I feel your days of whoring are done Cromwell. Your bastards aren't all that fond of you”.
“Oh, and what of Stava's child by Jerissen's brother? Jerissen, do you think we'll meet your nephew today?”
“I'm young in body”, called a voice in a rich Scots brogue, “But I'm Franciscus' age. I'm your grandson, whoremonger .”
“Is this it? Am I to die today? Where are your omens and premonitions, Jerissen? Are we taking this mountain and its Piscean wreck or not?”
A battle ensued, needless to say. Jerissen made his way up the ziggurat as Ewen deflected bullets and blades. Until Jerissen reached the top steppe. There a shadowed figure, long katana in hand, leapt in his way. “Ah, my wife”, cried out Mercy, “meet the Lady Ronin”. Who promptly sliced off both of Jerissen's arms. Suffice to say, the Exodesian and his barbaric accomplice didn't make it into the ziggurat that day. Which only fuelled Cromwell's frenzy to penetrate Mt. Mosaic.
The coterie of gunfighters, adventurers, and Libanians owing their blood and preternatural abilities to Exodesia will be explored further along in this narrative. But to answer a dangling question from our previous segment, the man called Sword is indeed the great-uncle of the French mystery man Richter. As can be inferred from the above exchanges, Franciscus and Ian were half-brothers, spawn of Urias. Franciscus' son by Lily was Sorrow, who, by that time, in the course of his adventures, bedded a French noblewoman, Jeanne Aumont, and gave birth to one Armand Tressillian – the father of Jean Aumont Tressilian, AKA Richter, and of his sister Edith and his brother James Vallard Tressilian (about whom, much more to follow).
III. The Pulp Ethos
Ewen Cromwell was a mercenary, but no less so were the bankers and industrialists that bled dry Hallmark's booming immigrant population. Wage slavery was en vogue and what could not be done legally was given over to vice. But one man began a movement to challenge Hallmark's corruption and liberate its cowering masses from the crime wave.
The first man native to Hallmark to be hailed as an adventurer was Dr. Vance Ewen Orlison (born 1893). Vance's middle name derived from his father Basil's awe at the achievements of Ewen Cromwell, the man who shepherded the party that essentially founded Hallmark (Vance was never thrilled about being named for the infamous Cromwell). As a doctor, and as a man, Vance was a true polymath; his friends and closest associates affectionately dubbed him “Doc Vance”. Orlison's extraordinary talents stem from the fact that he was the product of a fevered affair between the renegade Exodesian Jerissen and Basil Orlison's daughter Ilona. Almost a decade later, Ilona's very married twin sister Enola would find herself expecting a child by the wily Jerissen as well, a child no less amazing, but of a different bent than Vance.
Vance first began using his talents to do good in 1921. A decorated veteran of the Great War, and recipient of numerous degrees before and after, Vance saw a need to protect his city, his country, and his world from the worst mankind (and other-kind) had to offer. He accepted that he was only half-human, but despised the Exodesians for the moral vacuum that they inhabited in feeling humans were fodder for their manipulations and schemes. He hated his father and uncle most of all, and clashed with them both on occasion. He was spoiling for a chance to ruin Ewen Cromwell, and reveal the co-founder of his city as the ruthless killer Carnifex.
But Vance realized that despite his many gifts, Hallmark's “bronze demi-god of super-strength and super-science” (as one reporter dubbed him) could not hope to win alone against the Exodesians and the other criminal elements proliferating in Hallmark (mainly in the form of corrupt politicians and businessmen). So it came as a surprise to begin hearing about brutal beatings administered to petty crooks in the streets as well as portentous warnings publicly targeted at compromised public figures. This trend began in 1926, and continued unabated over the next year or so. The perpetrator began making sure the newspapers (especially the mob-controlled Occidental) began crediting his work to the Apparition.
Then, another rash of crimefighting began – more freewheeling and even more brutal than that of the Apparition. Mobsters began suffering gangland style executions at the hands of a bloodthirsty vigilante who called himself Saturnine. The authorities feared a rash of copycat vigilantes – and, in a few short years, their fears came true. Vance listened intently for activity involving his own old hero, the man called Sword, but to no avail. Vance's research and travels had convinced him that Ian Rhys McGregor was indeed his first cousin and that they were like-minded in their desire to stop their Exodesian fathers. Vance even dreamt of an expedition to the Ziggurat – an adventure he was born for. Vance also felt Mt. Mosaic itself, ruled unsafe and containing naught but the wealth Hallmark's founders gleaned from it, was nonetheless housing secrets beyond even his far-flung imaginings.
Late in 1927, Vance was called on by one Andreas Vossius, the son of Isaak Vossius, one of Ambrosius ver Dorn's Dutch retinue in 1886. Isaak was actually an infant during the expedition, cared for by his mother Lotte, who had had been rumored to be a lover of Ewen Cromwell's in Amsterdam. Lotte's husband Andre even challenged Ewen to duel – but did not survive. Vance knew right away he'd met a kindred spirit. Sadly, Isaak's own wife was hardly faithful – Enola Orlison Vossius had a son, Gerhardt, in 1904, but Vance's research into Gerhardt marked him as another spawn of an Orlison female and the priest Jerissen – hence Vance's own brother! But young Andreas was different. Cromwell blood or not, the young man (21) was earnest, shy, self-effacing, and intensely intellectual. Andreas, it seems, was an inventor – and a problem solver and strategist par excellence. Vance needed someone like Andreas to complement his own skills and to put a team into place to make headway in the struggle against evil in its manifold forms.
“Doc Vance” dubbed Andreas Vossius “Gadgeteer V” and it stuck. Andreas felt a purpose in life at last, away from a less-than-ideal childhood and much youthful angst. The two resolved to find and recruit Ian McGregor next. Vance and V took off to try to find McGregor for a time, but came back empty handed. To their surprise, a costumed buccaneer greeted them and introduced herself as the Duellist. Yes, herself. She was a German girl of 23 who had trained under McGregor and revealed that when he wanted to be found, he would be. But she, in the meantime, proffered her services. Andreas had no problem with it (though still closeted, Gadgeteer V was homosexual), but Doc was overprotective. Sidonie Van Kant was the woman's name and she assured them she could hold her own. Not only that, but while they were gone, Saturnine's reign of terror on the criminal element had intensified. Vance feared he may have to be stopped himself. The Apparition, it seems, was much more mysterious, and worked through a network of street spies and informants. He was rarely glimpsed in the flesh.
Andreas had quit his job at Vossius Metalwerks but his brother Gerhardt was now a young junior executive. Gerhardt and Vance got along well, and Gerhardt's true parentage was somewhat of an open secret. Vance finally encountered the Apparition in 1929, and, after a lengthy battle, the two made peace and agreed to pool their resources. One thing on Vance's agenda was to stop or at least curb the behavior of the mysterious Saturnine. The Apparition was opposed to this, claiming the city needed someone to go where they dared not. It was shortly after this point in Doc's declaration of war on evil men that his two most respected allies at last surfaced.
The men called Sword and Richter paid a secretive visit to the ORDER skyscraper in 1930 (Orlison was still a joint shareholder with Ananias de Ruyter's son Victor and Doc's HQ was in the ORDER Tower Plaza - a marvel of architecture well ahead of its time; it afforded a magnificent view of Mt. Mosaic). They had been working together in Europe for a time and realized their extended family needed help in the US with the encroachment of Carnifex and his Exodesian acquaintances. Richter suggest they form a loose group and base it for the time being in the ORDER Tower. Vance even elected Richter the first chairperson. He demurred to Ian Rhys McGregor, but lent all the means at his disposal to the team.
Vance had reservations: some about Sidonie, but that was his own male ego talking; but, especially, about the at-large Saturnine. The Apparition, who had worked with him before, assured the group that Saturnine was in, and that he would attend a meeting soon. Before long, he did in fact, but managed to put Sidonie and the sensitive Andreas well on edge with his mania. Richter and Vance were both too shrewd as sleuths not to detect something amiss. What it was they would not grasp for a while longer. The team, in the interim, became known as the Silent Seven.
Over the next four years, the group had three arch-foes (not counting their vendetta against Urias, Jerissen, and Carnifex): Boston Haverty, the current lord of vice in Hallmark; the man known only as Anon., a shadowy figure who perpetrated crimes and dared the group to solve them; and, worst of – Kanabal. Kanabal was, as his name suggests, not merely a crime lord and a murderer but a cannibal as well – and one that sent gruesome remains of his repasts to the police – and to Doc's lab.
The group's financial benefactor (besides Doc) was Lambert Christensen, a self-made millionaire who won his fortune in the far East, and who in time was revealed (only to the group) to actually be the Apparition. Christensen himself was a cover ID used by a man called Bram Vallard, who Richter eventually revealed to be his younger brother James Vallard Tressilian. This laid many of their fears to rest, but raised more questions than ever about Saturnine, whom they eventually learned was Royal Hoxworth, a wealthy citizen of Hallmark. The twist to all this was that Tressilian was a classic case of “split personality”: he was not only Bram Vallard, Lambert Christensen, and the Apparition, but, unconsciously, also Royal Hoxworth AKA Saturnine.
The Silent Seven loosely persevered through wartime, dealing with a moderately changing lineup (including the coming of key members the Stenbrau brothers, AKA Anton Gamble and the Kraken); harsh revelations concerning the vile Kanabal; and the death or disappearance of more than one member. All the while, factors were set into motion that lay the groundwork for the rise of the Machine – and the destiny of the man called Kong.
illo Kong the Claimer
Chapter 3: Arcs
I. Twilight of the Pulps
To constitute an actual seventh member roster of the Silent Seven, as Saturnine and Apparition were in fact one man, Doc Vance and Richter drafted in a young girl (17) named Felicia McGee, who wore a red luminescent form-fitting uniform as Crimson Velvet. Her weapon of choice was a whip, though she also wielded a mean stiletto. She was an amazing fighter, and asked each of the group to train her further as she was eager to learn. They soon found out that she was an escapee from an orphanage where she was sexually abused. Gerhardt Vossius took an immediate interest in her, which did not bode well.
It was around this time that Sidonie Van Kant, the Duellist, was revealed to be the daughter of Isaak Vossius and one Gretel Van Kant – hence an heir to Vossius Metalwerks and half-sister of Andreas Vossius – Gadgeteer V. She bore no blood relation to Gerhardt Vossius, the head of his (legal) father's corporation. The ailing Isaak grew more and more disenchanted with Gerhardt's decadence and squandering of the Vossius fortune. Andreas was the legitimate heir but was immersed in his crimefighting and research as Gadgeteer V.
As the 1930s waned, great fortune (not financial) came to the Silent Seven. They had managed to break apart Boston Haverty's massive racketeering mob. The man called Anon., was revealed to be none other than Hallmark founder Ananias de Ruyter's son Victor – a chief heir to ORDER Enterprises.
Soon, in 1937, new blood infused the team. Sword and Richter both took leave of absences to Europe, but were ably replaced by two new young mystery men on the scene, filling the quota of seven members. Ascendant chairman (once again) Doc Vance welcomed a protege of his, Jakob Stenbrau, a second generation German immigrant who fought crime (and wrote books) under the persona of Anton Gamble. Gamble, like Orlison, was something of a polymath, and penned endless tracts of visionary existentialist thought. And he could hold his own in combat. As could his brother Eryk, the other new member, who operated under the name the Kraken, after his favorite mythological beast. The Kraken wore a special jet pack to fly short distances, and he used his Stasis ray gun, which could paralyze his foes for short periods. He was also an amazing aficionado of what is now called mixed martial arts.
Only the vile Kanabal eluded the group among their local foes. In 1938, Vance was given a proposal by his half-brother Gerhardt. Gerhardt would take a huge risk to the Vossius corporation and fund not only an all-out nationwide manhunt for the cannibal-at-large but also he would fund the ultimate expedition to the Holy Ziggurat. He seemed to want to atone for being a disappointment to his dying adoptive father. Vance, for all his misgivings, placed his trust in his brother but elicited the one condition Vance knew Gerhardt would place on the arrangement. He wished to be “Let me be – the silent partner, fittingly, to the Silent Seven. He too had certain skills and talents inherited from father, and said he wished to turn them to good, to emulate Vance's heroism. vance asked him what he would call himself. Gerhardt proffered that Vance was the superego, the superman – and Gerhardt was the id, wild, and able to mete out justice as viciously as did Saturnine. He said, "Call me – Captain Caliban”.
And so the grand adventure of 1939 awaited the Silent Seven as Doc Vance prepared his ultimate excavation of the Piscean ruins at the Libanian Ziggurat. It was to be their last grand adventure as a team, though hardly the most intense drama they were to experience, especially as they knew Kanabal awaited them in Hallmark. But before the career of the Silent Seven draws to a close, first we must pole vault through time and space to reveal another chapter in the life of one of our key players.
II. The Man Who Would Be Kong
As of 1931, The man born Caine Ledge had now learned at least some of his true heritage. The woman he now knew as his grandmother, Shun Ti, guided him through Feng Qi and the secrets of the Tamerlane Overlords. She also explained his genetic heritage. In 1900, Caine Ledge's father Sun-Kao Qua dallied with a Swiss maiden, Ingeborg Olaus, but apparently discarded her when he learned she was pregnant. Shun Ti made it possible for her to get to America, where, on the plane, she met salesman Richard Ledge, who was immediately smitten with her. They were soon wed, and Ingeborg Olaus became known as Inga Ledge. She gave birth to Caine in 1901, but Richard soon proved cold, conservative, repressed yet sexually demanding - and very abusive towards Caine. As discussed elsewhere, Caine's long journey to his destiny was finally at least partially fulfilled upon meeting his biological father, who impressed him no more than did Richard Ledge, and his grandmother, who he began to hold great reverence for.
Kaosong Qua, to use the name Shun Ti intended for him, studied the co-mingled knowledge of Omega Ceti I and Pisces, which were pooled when Einnhauser and Shun Ti trained together for their mission. Shun Ti's training came easily, and the man who now chose to call himself “Kong” mastered arcane Piscean rites and thaumaturgy and Omegan technology and sciences. The combination of the disciplines of the warring races in the hands of Kong was what set him apart – on a plane with the Exodesians.
But many within the Tamerlane Overlord circle, including even Sun-Kao, resented this exceptional outsider and his access to their most vaunted secrets. Many attempts were made on Kong's life, but he survived; his attackers rarely did. Kong was no longer the easy prey he could have been upon his arduous trek to Feng Qi. The day came, in 1935, when Kong challenged his own duplicitous father – and cut him down savagely. The years of abuse and uncertainty as to who he was and where he belonged exploded. It was decided by the Overlords, against Shun Ti's will, that Kong should learn the full truth about Ingeborg Olaus.
Kong learned from brigands in the circle that, though his biological father was now deceased, Sun-Kao's mistress ran his affairs. Unsure what to expect, he was floored when the woman he recalled as “Inga Ledge”, was now confronting him as Ingeborg Olaus, and, alongside her, her young son Coyle, who had taken the name Einnhauser, after his own biological father.
Caine soon learned that his real parents met while in the service of Urias, an Exodesian wielder of magick. Ingeborg told him he was of the house of Tamerlane and could claim that name as well. She told him his destiny as leader of a Pan-Asian group, the Hei Naodai (“Black Skull”). Kong ruminated on this, not admitting that Shun Ti had told him she assembled the fragments of the Naodai herself when she came to China. Ingeborg admitted that the Tamerlane clan had killed Richard, and she offered to supervise Kong's training in the skills of the Tamerlane Overlords – martial arts, alchemy, magicks. She knew that he was already Shun Ti's most outstanding pupil but felt he was not prepared for a meeting with the infamous thaumaturge Urias. Shun Ti ostensibly obliged Ingeborg all of this, though she truly believed Olaus and her son Coyle were power-mad fools far out of their depth. Ingeborg was deluded in that she felt as soon as Urias was back from his world-spanning travels, he would be hers. Rather than endure being wrong, she took her own life while he was gone, leaving Coyle in the care of his father's lover Shun Ti.
In 1937, Kong at last met Urias, who was in dire shape after a recent defeat at the hands of his uncle, Deomond, the most powerful living Exodesian. Urias put Tsun-lun Liao (“The Claimer”) in charge of Kong's training. Kith (Abbassi M' Nali Mathabane) became Kong's new spiritual mentor. Kong, now accepted by the Tamerlanes, rallied them, intrigued by Sun-Kao's dream of Pan-Asian unity. Sun-Kao's father had led Hei Naodai (Black Skull Society), which was founded by a Japanese, Norumori, in the late 19th century. This man deliberately chose Chinese characters in naming the society, which rejected Nipponese nationalism. Kith was a co-founder – a black African slave trained by the Tamerlanes and later by samurai in Japan. By 1950, Kith was a formidable mystic, on par with Urias, and he had gleaned the secrets of never aging – which Shun Ti had taught Kong. Kith became known as the "Black Tamerlane". Shun Ti and young Coyle took a break from the building intrigue, though the bi-racial boy Coyle harbored his own dark dreams – dreams only suspected by his brother Kong, who defeated Tsun-Lun in fair non-lethal combat and hence was known as Kong the Claimer.
III. Skull Ascendant
Wartime was Kong's time to forge a master plan. He learned that Urias had, through proxy, many wartime industrial interests in the US, and that “the Machine” was run by the following: two of Urias' mystical disciples (Smith Fabricand and Keegan Avril); two young scientific prodigies: Phileas Caleb and Donal Rykards; Kith M'Nali; and three businessman/ grifter brothers, the Thornes (Artemus, Augustus, and Geoffrey, who had only recently made their way into the inner circle). The three brothers' company was known originally as Brothers-in-Arms, and supplied arms to the chaotic political clime in Libania and its neighboring country Serafina.
Kaosong Qua resolved to join, subvert, and control the Thornes' company. Brothers-in-Arms had its hands in many pies, crooked and straight, but Kaosong had many ideas how to improve and boost the company to the top, such as merging the Naodai, the Machine, and the Thornes' South American interests into one massive cartel with the company's new name, SkullCorp (or Skull Corporation), as the figurehead. He recruited Capt. Vargas Llosa, a shrewd young captain in the Libanian revolutionary army and close friend of the younger two Thornes, to mobilize FOPA (roughly in English, “Freedom of the People's Army”) as the muscle for black ops. Kong was amused by the organization's name.
Kong told Urias he wanted in, but in a quiet fashion. Urias hadn't the stomach for business anyway and stepped back, remaining on the board. Based on his proposals, Kaosong Qua was voted head of the company. For a time, it seemed as though there may indeed be honour among thieves, but in the years that followed, the worm would turn. One skill Liao the Claimer helped Qua master was a mastery of disguise, for which Kong had some predisposition due to his grandmother's genetic structure. For the board vote and onward, in the company, Kong would be known as Bromley Chamberlain except to the board, who knew him as “Mr. Drang”. Few on the board, Urias and Kith particularly, knew Kong's true nature.
Skull's board coalesced in 1951, when Kong's brother Coyle joined as an intern. Also that year, there was a paradigm shift regarding the Omegans. Kong realized that Urias' prime motivation for the Machine was the plundering of Omegan, Piscean, and Exodesian knowledge in order to subjugate the earth.
IV. Omega Rising
In 1951, a crucial event transpired. Urias learned that a spacecraft was being pulled interdimensionally to Earth – to Mt. Mosaic. This ship was known only as the Pod, a small ship captained by Ursulin, young son of Shun Ti and Friedrich Einnhauser, from the planet Omega Ceti I .The pilot, soon nicknamed “Captain Omega”, was disingenuously greeted by Urias and Bromley Chamberlain. The good-natured, almost naïve, Ursulin, was there to share his technology and Urias engaged him with trips to Exodesia and to the Black Skull Society (formerly Tamerlane) stronghold (which Tsun-Lun Liao, as per their honorable battle, ran for Kong). Was this to be the latest wrinkle in the tentative treaties between races?
Rykards and Caleb immediately began synthesizing the Omegan tech that they had newfound access to. The inner circle wondered why the Omegans had chosen now to unlock for a chosen few the secrets men had spent millenia trying to divine from Mt. Mosaic. Did it have something to do with Shun Ti/ Ish? Was it a trap of sorts?
Nonetheless, the man known as Kong/ Bromley Chamberlain/ Mr. Drang saw an opportunity and seized it – a seemingly innocuous shift in the Machine. He officially decided to change the name and look of the company to the public. He called the company “SkullCorp” and designed for Skull a distinctive, albeit exotic, symbol/ logo. He folded the Omegan characters for “chaos” and “song” into a stylized skull designed in Exodesia. The result was the SkullCorp logo. Thus, in 1951, SkullCorp proper was unveiled to the world, which was, as a result, never to remotely be the same.
By 1954, Kong controlled a small but expanding business/ criminal empire; was a master of martial arts and of mystic arts; was an unparalleled master of disguise; and had the intelligence to absorb even more knowledge at a staggering rate, making his knowledge of science – Omegan, Piscean, and Exodesian alike – unparallelled. He decided the Black Skull Society – some of whom were his cousins – would be his personal fighting force, once he took care of Liao, who he'd wearied of. And he had an army in South America, training towards their inscrutable “revolution”, under Vargas Llosa, agent and friend of the the business prodigies the Thornes. His blueprint for world domination was seemingly unopposed. But only seemingly.
Unfortunately, the once-naive Ursulin realized he'd been used, and soon learned to what extent. He vowed to bring down SkullCorp, even though he had no allies on his native world or on his currently adopted one. So he soared away, alone and afraid, back into a dimensional rift such as the one he emerged from (called a “rabbit hole” by Phileas Caleb, who had a frustrated amorous interest in the captain).
Urias, in the meantime, had had enough of Kong, and sought to take the company by force. Kong confronted him in an all-out battle for supremacy. The student outstripped the teacher, however. Licking his considerable wounds from their physical and metaphysical combat, Urias, a proud priest of the Exodesian clan the Obscuros for three centuries, boiled with rage but accepted Kong's offer to remain with SkullCorp, but only if he could do his work back in Exodesia. Magnanimously, Kong accepted his offer as his only other plans for Urias were slow torture and death. Kong also slew Tsun-lun the former Claimer in short order, leaving his wife a widow and four sons bereft of a father. Kong was to destroy many families in his life.
Kong then let the Thornes handle most of the business; Phileas Caleb and Donal Rykards the science; Fabricand and Avril the occult studies, and Kith lead the Hei Naodai. Urias was to keep his people in check, and was liaison to Exodesia. Kong was unchallenged, though the remnants of the Silent Seven, after the debacle at the Ziggurat, had sworn the Exodesians and their allies would fall. It would take a stranger to Hallmark to put into motion a true fight for the fate of Earth – a man called Cary Bradcroft, who came to live in Hallmark in 1956 and was also known as the Shadow Baron.
Chapter 4: Apogee & Perigee
I. Gleaning the Ziggurat
With basically all of Vossius Metalwerks as collateral, and generous contributions from ORDER Enterprises, Renova Inc., and the Paige Foundation, the Silent Seven (plus their eighth “silent partner”, Captain Caliban, who also brought back Sword and Richter for this mission of missions) embarked on their massive expedition to Libania in 1939. This was no horse and buggy poor mans' army as was the case in 1818 and 1868. The Libanian government gave their full cooperation, though the Serafinians did not.
The Serafinians had a long cultural memory. They knew the cover story for the real founding of Hallmark: Dutch and South Africans (with Jerissen posing as one) led by the Cromwell Party supposedly struck riches at Mt. Mosaic. This they did, but it was not their true purpose. The Serafinians were a deeply spiritual people, primitive by Libanian standards. Some ghoulish pundits even speculated that Serafinians still practiced tribal cannibalism.
Thus the Serafinians disputed the ostensible purpose for the Ziggurat expedition: that it was simply an archaeological exploration and unearthing of riches and natural resources (and indeed Vance was, among many other things, an archaeologist, and Gerhardt a metallurgist and anthropologist). The Seven enlisted two guides: the Libanian who colorfully called himself “Felix Tequila” (born Jorge Maroto Jr), and a Serafinian, Mokae. Feliz was the grandson of the legendary couple Carmelita Rodriquez and her husband the master gunfighter Sorrow (grandson of Urias and great-grandson of Carnifex). Vance Orlison felt guilt at deceiving their guides and the Libanians that followed them, but he had to be sure who he could trust with the Piscean secrets. He dreaded that his father Jerissen or his uncle Urias would make an appearance at such a well-publicized expedition.
What the party did not know is that they were being stalked – predictably – by Carnifex, who, months earlier in anticipation, had set himself up as a godlike chieftain to a primitive tribe that neighbored the Serafinians. This tribe, the Yashaharo, did indeed practice cannibalism and other brutal rites. Carnifex was fascinated by artifacts he found with the Yashaharo. After somewhat mastering their language, Cromwell discerned that the objects had belonged to another white man they adopted and who also became their leader - Kanabal.
Chastened by the loyalty of his tribe, and feeling he was closer to Kanabal's roots than Vance ever was, Carnifex planned an elaborate attack – to strafe and raze to the ground Serafinia and attack the Seven head on, alone. Perhaps he was a bit mad by this time. But Cromwell had no notion that he himself was the prey this time. The Yashaharo betrayed him, and their real leader revealed himself – a tall, impossibly muscled golden skinned man with long dreaded copper hair and emerald green eyes. As he sank beneath the weight of Yashaharo bodies, he cried, “Kanabal???”. The imposing figure, silhouetted in the flame of Cromwell's throne of human bones, merely shook his head and smiled. And then was gone. For a few moments at least. As he turned, Ewen recognized an Exodesian symbol on the cloak of the golden man. Carnifex then passed out, the first time in centuries.
When he awoke, Cromwell was in a narrow and deep pit. He could almost leap to the aperture above with his formidable strength but … not quite. The golden man, crouched at the pit's orifice, taunted Carnifex. He knew far too much about Ewen for Ewen's liking. Finally, Carnifex dug his bleeding hands into the stony walls and crawled out. He rolled over, prepared to battle, though his weapons had been confiscated. He knew he was a match for this Exodesian cur. But in one blinding swoop, the “cur” caught Cromwell in a half nelson, and snapped Cromwell's back so loudly the Yashaharo stilled their tribal drumming for a few seconds, then resumed their war dirge.
Ewen's body was hurled away like useless flotsam; he landed atop a huge felled tree and lay paralyzed,spitting up mass amounts of blood and gore. “You've never felt what your victims feel... I hope you're taking all this in,” smirked Ewen's conqueror. “Shall I call over some of the tribe to gang rape you so you'll feel an inkling of the anguish you've plied on the victims of your lust over the centuries??” He laughed. “Even I haven't the stomach for that I'm afraid but you do – if I let you keep your stomach...”
Ewen replied, “You're as much a monster as I – a cannibal that devours his living victims... I know all about you Kanabal..”
“You think I am Kanabal? Amusing. Kanabal is a rogue, a transgressor... he has no more place among the Yashaharo than among Exodesians.”
“So you are an – Exodesian?” Ewen could scarcely breathe and his throat was filled with coagulating plasma.
“Of course – Deomond, the most powerful but who remains wisely in shadow save when needed. My brother is High Priest of the Obscuros – Alataris; my father Priest Lord Praven of Exodesia.”
“So Jerissen - "
“Jerissen and Urias are my nephews, yes, hence the two leaders of this expedition are my great-nephews. You might even have encountered Urias' long-lived grandson Alexei Corvo – had you made it that far.”
Without ceremony, Deomond hefted Ewen's massive frame off the tree and to the ground, then stated, “I know you Carnifex. Once I was - almost – like you. But I know you are no Exodesian. Your father was half-Exodesian; you are mostly human. But extremely long lived and with amazing regenerative abilities – even beyond some Exodesians. That is your gift. This is mine“, and, with that, he tore Ewen's right hand from its socket and discarded it. "My strength cannot be equaled, not that I don't crave the challenge. Perhaps the Yashaharo will enjoy a snack. What next? An eye? Your endlessly bragging tongue?”
Deomond stood to his full eight feet height, then continued, “Now go. I weary of you. You're a hard conquest but not hard enough”.
Ewen spat blood at Deomond, and curses as well. “I'll – ”.
“I know. A familiar mantra. I think you're in shock. Now – GO”.
“I can't – walk...”.
“So be it. Then …Crawl!!”
And for the first time in centuries, Ewen Cromwell crawled, his body slowly, agonizingly knitting itself back together. He crawled through the woods of Serafinia, making sure to avoid the sounds of the people of the village. He feared the cannibals he'd lorded it over might devour him in his current state.
II. Pulp Apocalypse
Over the next weeks the Silent Seven (actually ten in number) toiled to complete their expedition. Deep in the caverns, at last, they found the remains of the legendary Piscean pilot PH'Nath. He was buried, as if a king, with animals sacred to the Serafinians and the Yashaharo. The furthest the 1868 expedition got was a chamber above the antechamber adjoining PH'Nath's burial palace. When Orlison and Vossius smashed into the antechamber, Felix Tequila tighly embraced his supposed enemy, Mokae. They began crying and, in Felix's case, swigging back his namesake beverage.
“What's going on here?' Richter demanded. Mokae answered, “I'm not Mokae, fellas. Matter of fact, I'm family - your cousin actually. And this mystery's been fascinatin' me some 60 years.” The middle aged man pulled off his long grey wig and hat and scarf. “Name's Sorrow... when it needs to be”.
After all the fantastic adventures of the twenties and thirties, in a world on the brink of war, seemingly all of the Silent Seven and company felt a sense of wonder, of true discovery. They themselves were the fruit of another race, but now they confronted those who planted the seeds. The tableaux of PH'Nath's resting place held immense awe for these very special individuals.
Suddenly, from above, gunshots were heard. The group scrambled to the top. Crimson Velvet , the lookout, claimed a huge man was shambling towards them, crushing Libanian soldiers and resisting bullets due to a heavy armor. “Cromwell!” uttered Sword.
The group swiftly made their way topside, which was exhausting but just as well as Cromwell was barely standing when they set eyes on him. Delusional, he screamed indecipherably and grabbed Felix Tequila by the throat. He'd also managed to strap on a gun belt and two daggers prior to the Libanians firing on him.
Sorrow spoke loudly over the chaos, “Let's do this right, grandpa... me an' you, a duel at dawn... near PH'Nath's grave... Ain't it perfect?”
“You... idiot”, mumbled Ewen Cromwell as he crushed Felix Tequila's windpipe. The once always animated Libanian fell to the ground, another pile of rubbish beneath Carnifex's bloodstained boots. Ewen yammered on as shock rippled through the Seven.
Sorrow reiterated, “One on one, Cromwell...me and you. Now.”
Ian Rhys McGregor shouted, “I can take him now; don't do this Corvo!”
"Grandfather!" implored Richter.
“Call me Sorrow”, said Alexei Corvo as he easily outdrew and pumped six bullets into the already gore-soaked Carnifex. They were exploding bullets as well, so Cromwell was "bit twice by the same vermin", as Sorrow was fond of saying.
Before anyone could react, the one-handed Carnifex drew and shot Sorrow in the heart three times. As his blood painted the air, he gasped, “98 years... not too bad a run...”
By this time McGregor was on Cromwell with his blades, further carving the already ravaged man whose blood he wished he did not share. But he'd spill as much as he could this day. Cromwell punched Sword once in the gut and Ian flew into a nearby jeep. Crimson Velvet caught his legs with her whip while Richter emptied several rounds into him. Cromwell toppled and didn't move. Gerhardt oddly held back but Vance grabbed Cromwell by the face and punched him so hard his own hand broke. But Cromwell fell.
“Anyone for torture”, joked a misty-eyed Gadgeteer V as Sidonie screamed, “Get Up... get up!!!!” To all's amazement, Ewen stirred. Andreas stabbed him in the side with a very long needle that emitted a very deadly electrical display. Everything was foggy for Ewen Cromwell then. His body was struggling to heal . He began to stagger towards the jeep where Ian was out cold. “NO!!” screamed Sidonie, and she never screamed in vain or for cheap histrionics. She leaped in the way of Ewen and his sword-swinging descendant and recalled for a brief second when Ian first called her the Duellist and gave her the cutlas carved from a meteorite.
Off came Cromwell's “good” arm. He dove face down to the mud, his blood pooling around him. Felicia was deeply shaken, as were they all to varying degrees. “What do we do now?” she asked.
Vance answered, “we bury our dead, we make arrangements to take the burial chamber back, and we astonish the world with our findings... at what cost though.”
“And him?”
“We leave him here. The Serafinians are coming. The Yashaharo have been roused. Maybe they'll devour him... what's left anyway.”
A clean cut lad of perhaps 25, whose only evidence he'd made his way to the Libanian holy village was a drop or two of mud on his pristine slacks, appeared. “Hold on Dr. Orlison. We've got it chief. This was a REACT sanctioned operation – not the private expedition you blue bloods thought. You can bury your friends; they're natives. But the Ziggurat, and everything inside – and what's left of this man here – are ours. Any resistance will be seen as an act of treason against Allied forces – and we are on the cusp of war from the sabres I hear rattling”.
It took all Doc had to not splatter the young dandy's face across the tundra. He had to contain the throbbing in his temples. Almost as an aside, Gerhardt caught the man's eye. “Mr. Vossius – you do great work for our troops. Keep grindin' 'em out. By the way, I love that little necklace you have on. Familiar somehow.”
Gerhardt replied, "I don't see how. It's older than your grandfather I'm sure”. And that was about as animated as the “new reformed Captain Caliban” behaved from the time Cromwell appeared, much to Vance's chagrin. Perhaps his brother hadn't changed...
The chaos resolving itself, the REACT team took all that it had claimed, and two heroic men – Felix Tequila, and his grandfather, the seemingly immortal Sorrow, were given funerals worthy of the greatest Libanian heroes. And so, the Seven had been stalked after all, not by Jerissen or Urias, but by Carnifex and (fortunately) Deomond, and, with incredible stealth, by a nascent US government organization that we will revisit many a time in this narrative – REACT.
III. REACT
REACT (originally “Reaction Enforcement Alliance for Countering Threats”; as of 1968 “REactionary Agency for Counter-Terrorism”) was created, originally, as a high alert intelligence gathering/ information clearing house in anticipation of the Allied forces' entry into WWII. The events in Libania completely altered the scope of the organization. While an organization such as OSS was a wartime intelligence apparatus that morphed after World War II into the CIA, REACT's goals crystallized rather quickly. Intelligence on the alleged presence of non-human races and tech on Earth had been gathered for several years, however crudely. But the very publicly reported Libanian expedition forced facts into the light that begged corroboration. And the most perplexing item was that FDR himself ordered the Seven to retire their vigilantism and concentrate on the domestic war effort, or, were they so inclined, to enlist in the armed forces. As any such organization with a shred of integrity and who espoused the freedoms the war was ostensibly being fought for, they nearly all retired their alter egos.
Sword and Richter returned to their native countries. Isaak Vossius formally adopted Sidonie von Kant, and she and her half-brother Andreas bonded. She knew the torment he was going through being a closeted gay man in the macho US social clime. Gerhardt saw the losses he suffered as a result of the expedition easily reverse themselves. War is big business, and someone's blood is always pumping those iron cannon shells that Vossius made its millions off of in the first war. Felicia McGee retired; she ended up as an “exotic dancer”. Anton Gamble became a controversial author and his brother Eryk Stenbrau enlisted in the military, where he endured much anti-German sentiment.
Only “Doc Vance” and the man born James Vallard Tressilian remained engaged in the war effort but on their own terms. REACT “deputized” Vance Orlison, and he fought saboteurs and axis agents all through the war. The mysterious Tressilian embarked on black ops missions for the Allies, though occasionally would find himself working the other team. Much more mercurial than his brother, who was a tremendous aid to the French resistance, the Apparition was his own man, first and foremost, and took orders from no one. Only occasionally did Saturnine emerge and dispense his sense of justice, though usually in urban settings and not so much in America. Bram Vallard (which he most preferred to be called) may have been insane, as he often jested, but he was no fool.
To close on REACT for now, it will become apparent that the organization and its most denounced foes after the war were inextricably linked; ostensibly enemies but deeply in bed together. This echoes the OSS' use of Nazi fugitives to help build the CIA, or Werner von Braun being the head honcho of American rocket technology. But not all subscribed to the “necessary evil” of controlled opposition, and some fought to cease the pandemic of duelling ideologies being really just a Janus coin.
Chapter 5: Paroxysms
I. Sheba Rising
Among the many loathsome qualities of the already proven thief/ rapist/ assassin Ewen Cromwell (AKA Carnifex) was his virulent racism, which surfaced with a vengeance when one of his many illegitimate daughters, Sheba Cheshire (born 1900), had a passionate affair with an African man – specifically, the Tamerlane Overlord, Kith M'Nali.
Ewen had become involved with Sheba's mother, Morrigan Cheshire, during a mission in Ireland in 1899. Unlike in the vast majority of Carnifex's sexual exploits, this was, amazingly, not a case of rape. He actually had genuine feelings for Morrigan (who was not privy to the extent of Cromwell's barbarism); hence his psychotically over-protective attitude towards their daughter. He would visit Morrigan and Sheba periodically through the years, though World War I was a challenging time for a mercenary to break away from bloodshed. Sheba shocked Morrigan when she informed her mother that not only did she know her father's profession, she wished to become a professional killer as well. Morrigan thought her daughter was insane, but Sheba had inherited her father's leonine grace, raw strength, athleticism, and rapid healing process. She insisted in training with any kind of weapon she could get her hand on.
In 1919, Ewen gave in to his daughter's burning curiosity and thirst for blood. When the two left Ireland for Asia, Morrigan killed herself. The Carnifex never looked back. His daughter became his obsession for a time – the first human being he'd cared for since he was a small child. Hence he entrusted her fate to the one woman he knew could mentor her, care for her, and temper her increasing excesses. This was the woman called Shun Ti, with whom Cromwell had trained from 1872-1887. Shun Ti had needed a challenge at that time, after giving up her twin sons, the Omegan-raised Ursulin and the Piscean-reared Anaximander-Zayan.
Calming the raging beast Carnifex was beyond anyone's capabilities as an instructor, it seemed. Beyond Shun Ti, however, of all the Naodai (AKA the Tamerlane Overlords), one man commanded Carnifex's respect – the man called Kith. There was only one problem; Ewen would never yield to a black man, even in training. But perhaps, 22 years later, Ewen could muster the patience to let his daughter train under Kith in order to contain and direct her dark impulses. Shun Ti favored this scenario. But she foresaw what could happen even before it did, given her Omegan intuition.
For Kith's part, he had not been with a woman in decades, instead honing his chi energy at Feng Qi with the Naodai, who he hoped to lead should anything happen to Shun Ti. But still, he loved Shun Ti as a mother. She even revealed her true nature as Ish the Omegan to her pupil. Kith forged Sheba into a formidable force in a very few years. In time, a sexual attraction grew, and Sheba gave herself to Kith as she had to no other man. Before long, Sheba was with child, and it was only a matter of time before the baleful Ewen learned all. When he did, he challenged Kith, and the two dueled, It was a close match, but was called off by Shun Ti. “The child to be deserves a family with all its members living”, she declared. Ewen contained himself. Sheba chose not to wed Kith, though he offered, and Sheba called her daughter Dawn Lee Cheshire (born 1927), as she represented to Sheba the dawn of an understanding (however grudging) between her father and the man she loved.
Shun Ti offered to raise Dawn at Feng Qi. Sheba, now a mother, was more uncertain than ever as to how to channel her destructive tendencies. During a walk by the ocean when Dawn was one, Sheba resolved to smash the infant's skull open upon the rocks. But Kith had been following her, and saved his daughter. Sheba declared them finished, though he deeply professed his love for her. She was leaving Feng Qi to train alongside her father and become the deadliest killer the world had ever known. And leave she did, and with Ewen, who could barely contain his rage at the ebon-skinned man he felt had tainted his sacrosanct offspring. He vowed Kith would die an exquisitely painful death. But for now, Kith had an infant to raise – just when he was making connections that would further his projected rise to power.
In the 1930s Sheba Cheshire became a first rate femme fatale and distaff assassin. With her father becoming embroiled in ever more conflicts, Sheba learned how to handle herself, to recruit, to train – but always with the ultimate approval of her sinister sire. She clashed, at one time or another, with all of the Silent Seven, excepting Gadgeteer V and Captain Caliban. Saturnine nearly killed her, but this, oddly (or not), excited her, and for a time she bedeviled him to no avail. Sheba was bi-sexual and was drawn to Crimson Velvet (Felicia McGee). The two finally consummated their affair but Crimson tried to strangle her afterwards. Sheba got away and vowed never to bed a mystery woman again (not that there was an abundance of them).
In 1938, Sheba was finally caught and sent to prison by Eryk Stenrau, the Kraken, a man she was strongly attracted to, for his intellect and his superior martial arts prowess. Sheba Cheshire was sentenced to death, though the Kraken himself plead her case. By this time, her father was ensconced in the jungles of Libania, lording it over a cannibal tribe and awaiting the Orlison-Vossius expedition to the Holy Ziggurat. That event has been discussed previously. Suffice to say, the government watchdog group REACT took away Carnifex where, at least for a time, he could harm no one else. In the agonies of his physical healing, though, his heart rent asunder over his daughter's passing.
II. Then Came Dawn....
Dawn Lee Cheshire was 11 years old when her mother Sheba was finally apprehended and punished. Shun Ti and Kith began training Dawn at a young age, though not to be a killer. Shun Ti taught Dawn the co-mingled Omegan and Piscean disciplines that Shun Ti and her great love Friedrich Einnhauser (Asenath-Zayan) learned together in the preparation for their mission to Earth in 1823. Throughout World War II, Dawn was kept safe with Shun Ti and Kith at Feng Qi, mastering all that she was taught. In 1946, she wished to go to America. Kith, in disguise, took her to Hallmark, drawn as he was (and as so many were) to Mt. Mosaic.
Kith had had brushes with the Silent Seven in the 1930s but took a perverse pleasure in walking unaccosted in their city. He also wondered if their views on race were any more advanced than that of barbarians such as Carnifex, or, indeed, those of most of the Caucasian world. In Asia during the war jingoism was the standard, but in America, blacks still seemed to instill the most fear in whites. Kith's resentment over his tenure as a slave had hardly dimmed with time. But with Sheba... it seemed, for a brief moment, that things could be different. He wanted this for Dawn as well.
Dawn was a stunning mixture of racial characteristics. Many men - of all races - were captivated by her. But the man who caught the eye of the shy 18 year girl was Gerhardt Vossius, characterized in those days as “the most eligible bachelor in Hallmark MA”. His legal brother Andreas was gay, and assumed Gerhardt was as well, due in part to his very private sexuality. Gerhardt had indulged in a somewhat kinky affair with Felicia McGee in the 1930s but soon discarded her. Now she made a living as a stripper. His secretary Kirsten Roeg was infatuated with him, but he hardly noticed her. In general, the sullen millionaire/ former adventurer was by nature a loner... until Dawn's soft dark eyes fell upon him. Kith, a master of disguise, posed as (what else?) her father and called himself by his actual natal name Abassi Mathabane (unknown to most). He introduced Dawn Lee as Dawn Mathabane.
Kith did not want to be some cracked mirror image of Ewen Cromwell when it came to his daughter and so allowed her to date Gerhardt – chaperoned until she turned 19. Vossius offered Mathabane a lucrative job at Vossius, albeit a pencil pusher job, insulting to his intellect - yet the pay was spectacular. He took this guise for a few months, evading recognition by those of the Silent Seven that might drop by, such as Doc Vance; and contending with patronizing jabs by his co-workers, who called him “coffee boy”. He was ready to leave America after all this, until Dawn announced her engagement to Vossius.
Kith saw this as a good subversive move though. He would return to Feng Qi after the wedding (scheduled for July 1947) and Dawn could be his spy. She was already well trained in subterfuge, self-defense, and arts and sciences far beyond those known to the ones who called him “coffee boy”. Dawn cared deeply for Gerhardt but was admittedly seduced by the “high life”, regardless of the racism she endured. She agreed to use Gerhardt for what she could and report all to her father. His infiltration of Vossius Metalwerks would play right into his existing plans as the Machine developed.
III. Kanabal Unveiled
At the wedding all was going well, with all of Gerhardt Vossius' partners in the Silent Seven in attendance, as well as Isaak Vossius and luminaries such as the De Ruyters, the ver Dorns, the Van Hokes, the Renovas, the Paiges, the Darbys, the Palmers, and other prominent Hallmark families. Some members of each family opted not to attend, mortified by the interracial wedding. But this was to be expected in blue blood 1947. Kith gave away his daughter, and as it seemed no one would "speak now or forever hold their peace" (though dozens almost did), Dawn and Gerhardt were declared husband and wife.
Always one to be late, but also always one to make a grand entrance, into the church came crashing Carnifex. Doc Vance, though hopelessly outclassed, stepped forward. His former group had few if any weapons on them – save for Ian McGregor. Cromwell unsheathed his own fearsome blade, which he'd regained since the Libanian debacle. He deflected Ian's thrusts, knocking him back and turning to address Dawn. "Are you already carrying Jerissen's seed?"
Kith's eyes flared with power. Ewen tossed McGregor aside, and spat: “Simmer down, African. I come bearing a wedding gift: the truth. I've spent the last seven years pondering that day in 1939, and what Deomond's words meant. The human monster we sought wasn't quite human after all – not quite many things – a hero, a philanthropist, an Exodesian bastard. He's what Native Americans call wendigo. Their power is sustained by eating the flesh of their own kind. So, “Doc”, your precious brother, your 'mystery man' Captain Caliban.... how obvious did it need be?” Ewen laughed heartily, then spun once more towards his granddaughter, “your husband, you dirty black whore, is Kanabal.”
Gerhardt was already fleeing the church, leaving behind fainting society wives and a crumpled heart-shattered girl called Dawn. Gerhardt was fast – faster than his half-brother realized. He must've eaten already, thought Doc, and the image repulsed him. Carnifex smashed through the church windows to see Gerhardt already in his car, and taking off. Save he wasn't alone. He had grabbed a woman, Olivia Palmer de Ruyter, wife of the criminal Anon., now incarcerated for life. She was regretting her decision to non-judgmentally attend the wedding, as, while he drove, Kanabal began literally ripping her apart and devouring her alive to gain strength. As she expired, so did Gerhardt's windshield – beneath the weight of Carnifex.
With his sword he smashed the hood into metal pulp. The car upended, penning Vossius beneath. But Kanabal flung the car's debris far down the street and charged at Cromwell. Cromwell sliced off Gerhardt's right leg with one smooth stroke, and spat on him, exclaiming, “ See if you can do what I did and regenerate....but, just in case... you have three more limbs to practice with....”
“Cromwell! Enough!!” cried Kith from about a foot behind him. “This has gone far enough. You'll never atone for your barbarism no matter how many of the Vossiuses you bring down.”
“Careful, Mathabane. Your daughter is one now – and is carrying its vile turpitude.”
With that, Carnifex sprang for the nearest darkened alley. None could find him, though the police certainly tried. Even Bram Vallard, who was as one with the shadows, had no luck. But none tried harder than Doc Vance – whose brother, all along, had been his greatest, most mysterious foe. Gerhardt Vossius was imprisoned for life but never regrew his leg. But then, he never had much chance to consume more human flesh either.
Vance invited Dawn into the family, and she agreed to remain in Hallmark and have her child. She hoped it'd be a son, whom she planned to name Solomon, praying the child would have the wisdom that eluded three generations of Cheshire women. Vance bade farewell to Kith but mentioned that he had hired a promising young black lab technician, Zachariah Clancey, at ORDER Enterprises. Vance intended to nurture Clancey's talents despite the rampant racism he faced, and, hopefully, if all went well, perhaps Dawn would be open to a date with the young man. Kith was pleased, as much as he could be, and he and Doc shook hands uncomfortably.
A bizarre but key wrinkle in the tale of Gerhardt Vossius should be noted here. Vossius' long-time secretary Kirsten Roeg began visiting Vossius in prison and writing him daily. It seems she had been silently pining away for him for years but never made her feelings for him known. She tried everything to get his case appealed, working with a famed criminal lawyer Hephel Kryle, whose father had also been an attorney of note (and a criminal). But it was no use. It was enough that an insanity plea kept the erstwhile Captain Caliban off of death row and in prison for life. But Vossius did have an incredibly liberal warden during this period, one that could also be bribed for the right amount by Miss Roeg. This led to a brief series of conjugal visits between Vossius and Kirsten. Kirsten wanted nothing more than Vossius' child, if she couldn't secure his freedom.
And so, on September 15, 1949, Jennifer Roeg entered the world. Her birth certificate read father: Gerhardt Vossius. Kirsten stayed in touch with the baby's father throughout the 1950s, though he stopped writing her and refused her visits once it was clear she couldn't get him released. The final fate of this branch of the Vossius clan shall be revealed further along in this narrative.
IV. The Earth Mother
Solomon Vossius was born in November 1947 and, indeed, it was only a matter of time before Dawn wed Zachariah Clancey, and their first born daughter, Artemis Morrigan Clancey, was born in late 1948. Both of the brothers Stenbrau were a bit crushed by the whirlwind romance between Zachariah and the recently divorced Dawn Vossius. Anton Gamble was becoming a cult writer of modest success, mainly penning science fiction and, on occasion, texts on existentialism and mysticism. His 1948 book, “The Piscean Myth?”, recounting his views on what he saw in Libania in 1939, sold poorly but immediately placed him under lifelong scrutiny by REACT.
Gamble and his brother Eryk Stenbrau were both enchanted by Dawn Lee Cheshire Vossius Clancey, and she considered them dear friends, but her heart belonged to her new husband. Neither Eryk nor Anton ever broached the subject of their feelings with anyone but each other nor, though she suspected, did Dawn ever confront them. But Clancey suspected. However, he remained civil, if aloof, with the brothers.
In 1950, the Clanceys' second daughter, Maya Marie Clancey, was born. Doc Vance was true to his word that Zachariah would advance at ORDER Enterprises, despite much jealousy and backbiting hurled Clancey's way. In 1953, the Clanceys had their first son, Oswin Juan Clancey, and in 1955, Hannibal Orrin Clancy was born. Solomon never got along with his younger half-siblings. He constantly bullied and tormented them. He had inherited his father's sadistic streak, no doubt; though no one then could foresee how far that vicious streak would extend.
Despite the time and environment in which they raised their family, the Clanceys managed to prosper. They became Hallmark's first truly affluent African-American family. But two things marred their happiness, and it wasn't the racism directed at them that caused these traumas. First of all, as noted, Solomon Vossius was a true problem child, and he began acting out at home and at school at an extremely young age. In 1960, Solomon nearly beat a white boy to death, claiming the boy was a racist bully. In truth, Solomon learned how to handle himself with racist children when he was a small child, never letting them get over on him or win a fight. But now he had taken things to a horrid extreme, as the attack was unprovoked in any way, and rather brutal. Vance recommended several child psychologists for the boy, but none could crack his steely veneer, which only grew worse as he entered his pre-teens.
The greatest threat to the Clanceys however was from without, not within, and it came from a man called Phileas Caleb. Caleb had noted Clancey's scientific genius for some time; Caleb was a “headhunter” of sorts for SkullCorp. He and his partner, the somewhat misanthropic Donal Rykards, scoured the world for budding scientific talent. Age, race, nationality – all mattered naught to the pair, as Skull was eager to harvest genius wherever it presented itself. Many young people were able to gain scholarships to study with and work for SkullCorp that would normally never have such opportunity. Skull was seen a progressive leader in education and prosperity, and President John F Kennedy even awarded a special congressional medal to the company, as accepted by CEO Bromley Chamberlain.
Zachariah Clancey and Vance Orlison had become close friends over the years, and Clancey wished to remain loyal to Vance. But Orlison desired what was best ultimately for the family, and encouraged Zachariah to take a coveted position at SkullCorp – one where Zachariah could, under Caleb's aegis, oversee and train a host of young lab technicians in cutting edge areas of technology. The Clanceys' own children, with the exception of Solomon, were performing at very high levels in school, and Zachariah didn't want any of them held back by issues of their race or gender. Before Clancey could take the position, however, he was given unsolicited advice from Anton Gamble. By this time (1961), Gamble's work was being hailed as visionary in some circles; in others he was denounced as a paranoid crank. Zachariah held little stock in Gamble's theories, though if Clancey was to make it to SkullCorp, he would see that much of what Gamble professed was true.
Gamble warned Clancey that SkullCorp was a sham, a pernicious entity whose sole goal was power – that the young talent being mined by Skull were going to be exploited and discarded. Clancey felt Gamble was indeed paranoid, and more, jealous of Clancey's success. And of his wife. At one point, Clancey pushed Gamble back physically and informed him he'd known for years that the Stenbraus wanted Dawn – but they lost out. Zachariah pointed out that Gamble's most recent book “The Earth Mother” was an ode to Gamble's unrequited lust for Dawn. Gamble admitted Clancey was right but that didn't justify ignoring warnings about Skull. He encouraged Zachariah to talk to Eryk, but also others who knew far more than he did about the things he was trying to make Clancey aware of.
“Who?”, spat Clancy, “Your 'alien informant' “Captain Omega” [meaning Ursulin]? Your friend Bradcroft, who peddles occult curios on Flicker Street?? What a joke!”
“Do you mean to tell me Vance Orlison doesn't ever wonder about Skull?” asked Anton.
“Vance is a great man, and a hero – unlike you and your pathetic brother. He's seen a lot of strange things, but he's pragmatic, a sound thinker. You're just a lunatic – a beatnik hack with a thing for black women. Go peddle it somewhere else, Stenbrau - I'm not buying”.
“But you're selling, man – a piece of your soul – and your family's.”
Zachariah was by nature a pacifist and so he contained his indignation at this remark and merely walked away.
What he was walking into will concern us shortly...
Chapter 6: Tentacles
I. The Heir to Richter
In 1955, Kong, posing as Mr. Drang, a Eurasian businessman, approached a gifted young artist and poet living in France called Orphee deLander. Born Orpheus deLander “Orphee” Rojiczek on July 9, 1929, Orphee was parented by a ½ Polish, ½ Greek father (Mikos Rojiczek, born 1900) and a French mother (Collette Bertrand, b. 1911). Orphee's mother Collette was a Bohemian whose mother Cybelle Bertrand (birthdate unknown) was a stunning model and a groundbreaking painter in her own right. Cybelle met Jean Aumont Tressilian, La Comte de Marangais, in 1910 and they had a brief and intense affair. She was deeply impressed with his many admirable traits – his keen intellect, his passion for justice, his steadfastness, his love of art and of animals (he was a vegetarian who raised a wolf pack as pets) and his formidable physical prowess. Unfortunately he was too impassioned for the cool platinum-haired Cybelle, eternally lost in her own reverie.
Jean was heartbroken; this was his first real love. He had spent his childhood and teens tending to a mentally ill mother, La Comtesse, who demanded he and his brother James Vallard Tressilian (popularly known as Bramwell "Bram" Vallard) be molded into instruments of vengeance against their father's killer Luc-Pierre Montreux. In 1912 Jean launched his vendetta against Montreux as the mystery man Richter, and finally brought down the unscrupulous banker, even winning the heart of Montreux's daughter Hermione.
Richter wasn't aware he had a daughter by Cybelle for many years. For Cybelle's part, she raised her daughter to be the classic free spirit, pursuing art, music, and love wherever she found these things. The roving businessman Rojiczek was perhaps a poor tonic for these needs but he gave her a life of comfort, where she could explore her passions. Their son, Orpheus, was a peculiar child, even by his mother's jaded standards. He took the name Orphee deLander at a tender age to record his endless reams of poetry and sign his crude but expressive artworks. Mikos was less impressed by his son's “arrested development” than was Collette, and pressured his son into sports, travel, and business. Orphee scoffed at all three – his sport was art, his travel inward, his business simply being.
Mikos died of a massive aneurysm when he was only 40 shortly after a raging attack at his son, whose presence he could bear no longer. His last known words were screeched at a fever pitch to his son: “Get outside more!!!”
Then his thoroughly narrow mind just burst, as his son answered, mumbling, “Go inside more...”, as he shed a single opaque tear. This became his mantra it seemed.
II. Distortion
Fifteen years later (1955), Collette Bertrand Rojiczek was still her son's most ardent fan and patron, and was excited when Mr. Drang offered Orphee a job – to head a publishing/ filmmaking arm of Drang's co. Democorp (a division of SkullCorp). Orphee leapt at the chance to create avant-garde art and get paid for what he was worth (he was in dire financial shape, as Collette had donated most of Mikos' modest fortune to charities and used the rest for her and Orphee to travel Europe and Asia).
But before he even began his ostensible new career with Democorp, his initiation, as it was, into the company was via SkullCorp. He came to SkullCorp's main offices in Hallmark MA in 1955, and began being debriefed on Omega, Pisces, the Terminus, the Pod, Exodesia... all the secrets Skull was hiding and that only a handful (Anton Gamble and Cary Bradcroft, to name two) outside of the Machine knew anything of. At Kong's behest, Orphee was being tested. DeLander had read Anton Gamble's mind-blowing recent books and wished to explore Gamble's theories. As a result, he became, as Gamble before him, a lifelong target of REACT surveillance. After being debriefed by Drang, Orphee wished to investigate the legendary ship Terminus. The truth is that “Mr. Drang” was recruiting for far more than a publishing position while in France in the mid-1950s. Kong didn't want an artist; he wanted a first rate spy and a test subject for a whole new platform of human test trials utilizing Ursulin's purloined Omegan tech.
For eight years Orphee toiled for Kong/ Drang's company, called the Democorp Artists Refuge while still based in France, and tried not to let the money and the secrets sway his work and artistic integrity. Just as Skull wished to corner the market on cutting edge science and employed headhunters to seek such talent, so too did they wish to corner the market on progressive and alternative artforms – be it visual art, film, literature, or music.
In 1963, Orphee moved to the US to work in a special SkullCorp division. The pay was great, and Orphee sent his mother money to support her penchant for traveling and remaining unemployed. To be near the hub of Skull activities, Orphee settled in Hallmark (the Flicker Street area proper) with his longtime lover Eugenie Heurtebise, b. 1937, whose brother, Cloquet, died in 1959, killed by the cops after being informed on by his American lover, Anne Francesca. A New Wave film director friend of Orphee's made a fictionalized film about the case called Asphyxiation.
Orphee was intrigued by the hard sciences divisions of Skull – he was placed under the auspices of Donal Rykards – brilliant scientist, hideous human being. Rykards made it clear to deLander that he was essentially going from being a publishing magnate to a less-than-human guinea pig in the eyes of Skull. Orphee was ready, at that point, to transcend his current existence so why not? After reading Anton Gamble's 1962 dice-up of existentialism and radical physics, “Distortions” (not a novel about electric guitars as many now assume), he was game. He asked exactly what he'd be undergoing and even begged the question if it involved the type of distortion Gamble elucidated on. Rykards conferred with Phileas Caleb, overseer of all Skull science and tech (and in the vaunted inner circle that began as the Machine). Caleb found it amusing and said to Orphee, “There's a drug. LSD. Trial experiments have been conducted on prisoners and college volunteers with it. Let's call what we're giving you – TSD. Trans-Somatic Distortion. Congratulations on your perception.”
And so Orphee gained access to (and helped name) TSD – a Skull-funded operation dealing in genetic experimentation extrapolated from Omegan tech in Hallmark first in 1956 (when it was called transmorphic somatics). This was from the tech Ursulin of Omega Ceti I (derisively called “Captain Omega”) brought with him in 1951 when his Pod entered Mt. Mosaic through extradimensional space at a landing now called Terminal Pointe. It was made clear that the experimentation on deLander could go on for a few years if Orphee was willing to deal with the results.
What Skull really wanted was a home-grown mutant – they called them “recombinants” - that was a creation of Omegan science. Orphee was a perfect genetic subject (there were others lined up; some argued more perfect) in that genetically, he carried Exodesian blood – his great-great-great-great-grandfather was the Exodesian priest Urias, and his eighth great-grandmother was the Exodesian priestess Alluu, Ewen Cromwell's grandmother. Orphee's grandmother Cybelle Bertrand surely carried some Exodesian genes to account for her mysterious longevity. Based on the exploits of his grandfather, Richter and great-uncle, Bram Vallard, Skull was convinced Orphee had an enormous genetic destiny. And then there was the seemingly natural causes his father passed away from. Were they really so natural?
While in Hallmark, Orphee had an affair and the woman, Darby Poole (descendant of the Cromwell party's cabin boy Cullen Darby) became pregnant. Shortly before this, Orphee became the earliest test subject of a TSD experiment. He felt guilt, not knowing what would happen to the child, who was born Lars Poole in 1964. Darby died in the early 1970s and Lars began the long shuttling between foster homes and orphanages that scarred his young life. The boy eventually was named a ward of the occultist Cary Bradcroft, who raised the teen as he would his own son. But Orphee's experiment had had a distinct effect on his son's genetic structure.
Orpheus and Eugenie remained in Hallmark ostensibly because Orphee's brother, Bertrand Rojiczek (b. 1937) lived there. Bertrand was a keyboardist in an up-and-coming doomy psychedelic band, The Sacred Mirrors, formed in 1966, whose lineup was: Richard “Dannish” Bacon, on vocals; Locke (Juve Dugas), Belgian bassist and agent of Phileas Caleb; Zane D'Azai, guitarist/ hippie burnout; and redneck drummer Butch Blanton (born 1949 in Hallmark's “mill town”, Augensburg MA). The deLanders hung out with the band and met their friends: the man who called himself Graven Idyll (Arliss Gordon Cope), a radical black militant who inspired Orpheus; Hyacinthe (Cynthia Gauvin; Orphee became very attracted to her [she called him “Land”]); and Fiora Charme (Emily Duncan), who came on the scene as the childhood sweetheart of Dannish but, after he brutally dumped her she wed Bertrand, though she was also in love with Cope. In 1970 Richard Dannish “RD” Rojiczek was born to Bertrand and Fiora.
III. Tendrils
Orphee opted to remain in Hallmark not solely because of his brother Bertrand, but also because he was “drafted” by SkullCorp to be a full-time agent in Massachusetts. This brought him full circle back in contact with TSD. He obtained clearance in 1969 to undergo a much more intense TSD experiment than he had taken part in six years earlier. He decided to split with Eugenie at this point lest something else happen to a child of his. Impulsively, however, the amative deLander bedded the seductive Hyacinthe. Their child, Etienne Rojiczek, was to be born in 1970. He married her shortly thereafter. Etienne showed no signs of trans-somatic distortions.
Orphee's second TSD experiment was conducted by Donal Rykards and Phileas Caleb together. After this experiment Orphee began to explore the extent of the physical and psychokinetic abilities he acquired via TSD. He became one of the most powerful products of Skull's riffs on Omegan technology. The TSD-induced transformation changed him physically – he became stronger, leaner, hairless, with dark translucent skin. One could see hints of his musculature and nervous system writhing under his flesh, and his eyes became blackened opaque pools. When he cried his tears were red. He could discharge and manipulate undulating waves of psychokinetic (or “PK”) energy. He called these his tentacles, and soon Rykards was referring to him disparagingly as the “Absurd Tentacle”. The name stuck, despite Orphee's distaste of it. Finally, one other ability he gained was the ability to take on any physical form for lengthy periods of time – a technique of trans-morphic disguise inherent in Omegans and Pisceans alike.
Orphee visited Terminal Pointe MA at Mt Mosaic, where the Pod was drawn into our world in 1951. At Terminal Pointe, he met with the Pod's pilot Ursulin, who agreed to help him master his abilities, and swore to bring in someone far more powerful to help as well – Nocturno, the undead man formerly known as Ashton Bradcroft. Despite his disdain for corporations, Orphee accepted some help from Renova, Inc., who Cary Bradcroft accused of trying to exploit the Tentacle. Despite his misgivings, however, Cary got along on a personal basis with Renova heir Benjamin Renova. DeLander quit SkullCorp for good upon learning of their true nature and plans from the Bradcrofts – things he'd suspected for years but was biding his time, using Skull for power as they used him as a guinea pig.
IV. Honor
By 1971, the Absurd Tentacle's dominating personality was overpowering Hyacinthe. He became drawn to Nocturno's homonculi daughter Silent Indigo, whose origins will be chronicled in an upcoming treatment. They had a passion that went beyond human erotic experience, and resulted in an offspring named Honor, b. 1973. Hyacinthe filed for divorce from the Tentacle, and afterward he and Silent Indigo continued their affair and decided to raise their child together. Nocturno had other plans. Indigo had betrayed Nocturno to Kong, and so he “unmade” her alchemically. Orphee swore revenge and left Hallmark for a time, deciding that "the so-called forces of good and evil are more alike than they they pretend”.
Orphee turned young Honor over to Hyacinthe (now going by her natal name, Cynthia Gauvin) to raise. She had remarried one Phillip Parminter, whose name Honor took. For years Phil was the only father Honor knew, though Phil and Cynthia divorced when Honor was still young. The erstwhile Hyacinthe was also raising her son Etienne Rojiczek, who saw Honor as a little sister. Honor was a hypersensitive girl, a Cancer who shared her father's birthday, and Etienne was always there to protect her – or tried to be.
After the 1980 divorce from Phil, Cynthia took Honor and Etienne away to a new house and gradually grew paranoid and besieged by LSD flashbacks. She had many emotional problems and sheltered Honor to an unhealthy degree. Honor's first attempt to break free was when she grew infatuated with the slightly older Jesputh Avril (grandson of SkullCorp co-founder and dark occultist Keegan Avril) in 1984. She had gone by Honor Parlington for years, but at Jesputh's urging, took the name Honor Bradcroft, after Ashton Bradcroft (Nocturno), her grandfather. Part of Jesputh's interest in Honor was in her latent magickal energy – and the Bradcroft fortune. He was a precocious lad, but also extremely sensitive and with his own emotional issues.
Cynthia remarried again, in 1985, to Brandon ver Dorn aka the government agent known as the White Archer (b. 1937), an ally of Nocturno's; his identity was known to his wife but not her children. Brandon was the great-grandson of Ambrosius ver Dorn, the chief bankroller of the Cromwell Party of 1886. Brandon and Cynthia had a daughter, Esme, b. 1987. By this time, Honor was a mess. Brandon and Etienne both tried to help her, but she detached herself. She trusted Phil Parlington, her adopted father – a huge mistake as he raped her in 1990.
Jesputh was Honor's idealized dream man who would take her away from all this, but he wanted intimacy and prestige from her, neither of which she really knew how to give. Avril let their friendship dissolve when it looked as though she was too hard to reach, emotionally and sexually. After 1980, neither Etienne nor Honor saw their father again. The reasons will be detailed in upcoming installments.
V. Apocrypha
The Absurd Tentacle appeared in Hallmark throughout the 1970s, helping spark a new counter-cultural revolution (sometimes derisively called “Terminal Culture” after the Omegan ship the Terminus that brought the knowledge that started it all). In the mid-70s he reunited with Eugenie Heurtebise and they finally wed, spawning a daughter, Cejour deLander, in 1975. By this time, Bertrand and Fiora had a daughter, Collette, and had separated. Fiora roamed free for a while, having an intermittent love affair with Arliss Gordon Cope, which spawned Collias Cope. Bertrand raised his two children, RD and Collette, alone. We shall revisit this branch of the Rojiczeks (and Etienne) further along in our treatment.
The deLanders decamped to England at the end of the 1970s and the Absurd Tentacle and his family basked in a younger crowd's attention. Cejour grew up much like her grandmother and great-grandmother – a true willful free spirit. Orphee wondered if his daughter would bear the marks of his post-human transformation in any way. DeLander became friends with a small cadre of telepathic recombinants – hardcore punks Kelvin Mallory; his sister Fallon Mallory AKA “Mal Black”; and Mal's best friend, a pre-teen Japanese girl Miya Saito, whose nom de plume was “Mia Zero”. Orphee also became close friends with Obladiah Trent, AKA Ras Free (b. 1958), a young Jamaican reggae musician who was spending a few years in England touring and recording but mostly just plotting vengeance for Phileas Caleb's murder of Trent's brilliant father Emerson Trent, who Caleb used as surely as he had Zachariah Clancy in Phileas' "scientific outreach" program.
Orphee also befriended the African-American detective Cotton Suede (b. Pauline Cutler, 1954), who'd been sent by mysterious parties to ferret out the Tentacle and return him to America. She ran afoul of his “bodyguard” who looked out for his extended family when he couldn't – a deadly martial artist called Luna Sumatra. Orphee's charm and charisma soon had them all getting along and sharing a commune with his grandmother, Cybelle, who looked almost as youthful as when Richter first lost his heart to her 70 years earlier.
In an odd set of circumstances, Orphee deLander simply disappeared in 1980. Some say the parties that sent Cotton to trail the Tentacle eventually assured his demise; some pointed to suicide; some say he faked his death and assumed a brand new ID (things he could easily do). Some say his power finally overwhelmed him and he simply dissolved away, a soul too fragile for this world. That last scenario is one he likely would have found the most amusing.
He left behind a thriving organization, Coventry Expeditions (originally deLander Unlimited), to an inscrutable young man known only as Randell Coventry, who had become the Absurd Tentacle's final disciple. Eugenie and Cejour returned to Hallmark in 1981 and Cejour and her cousin Collette became best friends and drifted into the goth and punk scene at a very young age in the late 1980s. By this time the secrets of Randell Coventry (if not the ultimate fate of Orphee deLander) had unraveled. These secrets will be explored in depth further along in this narrative.
Copyright 2014-2022 George Henry Smathers Jr. All rights reserved.
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