This Time, We Have a Plan

Shujai and Intrepid landed at the hillside where Hyperion’s Light was alighted after having been brought online. On the ground, Ryan Bennings was running diagnostics on the ship with a set of holographic screens floating in front of him while the rest of the team waited nearby. “Good news first,” he told Intrepid and Shujai as they approached, never fully taking his eyes off the screens, “I have Hyperion’s Light completely up and running. The bad news is that Rasputin is nowhere to be found. How did things go with the Surrealist?”

“It’s on a beach just over the hill,” Shujai told him, “It isn’t attacking but it’s too dangerous to be left alone.”

“Especially with Rasputin out there,” Cavalier explained, “I’m sure the rest of you noticed he was spending most of the time watching us fight the Surrealist. My theory is that it was a test run to see what the thing could do. Once it left, he outright said he didn’t have much interest in fighting us.”

“You think he wanted to see how powerful the Surrealist was?,” Ryan began, “Let’s say he got a satisfactory answer. What would be the next step? You fought him once before so what’s your insight?”

“According to Femme Phantom, this guy tried world domination through political power during the Cold War. When he came back recently, he said he was done with all that and just wanted revenge against the Phantom and the original Cavalier. So I guess his MO is all about power and personal vendettas. Maybe he wants to use the Surrealist’s power to settle a score? If the Surrealist is as dangerous as Intrepid said, he could become almost unstoppable to stop if he got that power.”

“And Intrepid knows the most about the Surrealist,” Ryan turned to her sincerely, “Is there anything there we can use to our advantage?”

“I have a few ideas but we should take a closer look,” she told them, “We know where it is and, chances are, Rasputin will be there too.”

Not long after that, the team made the trek to the top of the hill, overlooking the beach where the Surrealist was dropped. As expected, they found it sitting on the beach with its legs crossed and as the waves rushed in, they were turned into light rays while grotesque creatures fluttered around it, fading in and out of existence. Also, as expected, Rasputin was on the beach, drawing a wide circle of demonic symbols in the sand around the creature, making sure to draw just outside the radius of its reality-manipulating field. A similar circle of shapes had been drawn nearby.

“You’re the magic expert,” Ryan turned to Alysa, “Any idea what the two big circles are for?”

“Looks like demonic magic,” she shook her head, “I’m Iseda. Our magic is based on nature.”

“But if you had to guess?”

“Looks kinda like a transference spell. It’s what someone might do if, like, they want to take power or someth’n so I guess Cav was right.”

“What else can be transferred?,” Intrepid asked.

“Depending on the spell, you could transfer skills, souls, the mind… lots of things.”

“I think I know how we can defeat him. Listen carefully…”

On the beach, Rasputin finished drawing the last symbol by releasing energy out of the ground in the shape needed. He took one last look at the Surrealist who was still in a seated position, making sand swirl into the air before forming unearthly elements. “Incredulous philanthropists never engage tortuous munitions,” it said in an echoed whisper, then a jester-like face appeared and began to laugh. The mad monk furrowed his brow, “The power to turn reality into anything one wishes… in the hands of a mindless fool,” he shook his head before walking across the beach to the empty ring of symbols. Despite the battle with the heroes getting cut short, he was satisfied by the creature’s display of power and knew it would be sufficient to carry out his plan; there was nothing left to do now other than see to its completion.

Just then, six figures descended from the sky. Shujai, Intrepid and Astra Machina flew down under their own power while Ryan Bennings used a jet pack and Alysa Saraki descended mystically while carrying the Cavalier. They landed at the foot of the nearby hill, facing Rasputin.

“Thank you for showing up but I don’t need you any longer,” he told them, “However, if you’d like to have a front row seat to the utter ruin of your world, I can accommodate you.”

“Is that what this is about?,” Cavalier asked, “You’ve given up taking over the world and now you want to destroy it?”

“I have lived three lives so far and with each one, I had a carefully crafted plan that took decades to realize, only for lesser men to ruin everything in a moment. This final time, I did not die so much as I was stripped of my mortal shell with my consciousness trapped on Rex Robinson’s spacecraft. I dreamt of breaking free and having my revenge on him but even that was taken from me for obvious reasons. Everything I strive for gets taken. Since breaking free, my goal has only been to finally end this planet and make it pay for all it has done to me. I am ready for my final death but only if this world burns in the process. The power of the Surrealist meets that end.”

“That’s a helluva rage quit,” Ryan remarked.

“I make no excuses,” Rasputin removed his suit jacket, leaving a gray vest over a white button-down shirt, “As for you lot, I suppose you won’t let me complete my goal so I’ll have to ensure you won’t be a distraction.”

Rasputin spread his hands out, forming pentagrams on each palm just before twin bursts of fire shot out. Alysa crossed her arms, creating a wide forcefield that blocked the assault while Astra and Shujai raced around the field on either side to attack. In response, Rasputin took to the skies just before two energy beams crossed below.

Intrepid flew into the air and landed a kick to his chest while Astra stretched her hands out and pulled him to the ground. Once on the sand, he telekinetically grabbed hold of Astra and hurled her toward the Surrealist. She stopped herself from hitting the creature by stabbing prongs into the ground but as it manipulated non-organic material, she was suddenly in danger once she fell into its domain. She found her limbs turning into a brown, brittle substance and tried to scramble away but could no longer move. Just then, Shujai swooped in and pulled her to safety and the effects were quickly reversed. “Fermentation announcment,” Surrealist said to itself.

Meanwhile, Ryan flew into the air and released a canister from his jetpack’s launcher. Rasputin waved a hand and the canister exploded; a small cloud of sedative gas was released into the air. Next, he raised his hands above his head, creating a small whirlwind that swept up the sedative cloud. “Don’t inhale,” Ryan warned as he and Intrepid were forced to fly away from the advancing dust devil.

Shujai dropped down in front of the Russian and threw a punch, only to hit a mystic shield. Rasputin teleported away to a safe distance, reappearing closer to the water where he quickly snatched something from the wet sand beneath him before disappearing again. He reappeared close to the Surrealist next and, as he expected, found the Cavalier advancing with his sword. At that point, the Surrealist had created small, floating islands of various size and levels around it, which the knight had to duck around. Rasputin quickly threw the object in his hand at the Surrealist before teleporting yet again. The Cavalier noticed the unfortunate crab bounce off the Surrealist’s back and fall to the sand. The creature looked down at the small animal curiously and, despite its insignificance, manipulated the ground under it. “Expeditious criminals undertook the laborious meal,” a chasm opened immediately and the crab fell into a pit of lava where it evaporated into a burst of flames. Since the Cavalier was in close proximity, he felt the ground giving way to the lava pit and pulled himself up on the nearest floating island. Once he avoided getting swallowed up, he leapt into the air and landed on the next floating island and from there, hopped from one platform to the next like an 80s video game.

Shujai, Astra and Intrepid came at Rasputin once again, but he closed one hand over his fist and three pillars of light came down, trapping the three of them in place. “As I said,” he calmly approached while speaking to them, “I will accommodate you. I’ve given you front row seats to watch the world burn.” Just then, Ryan Bennings flew in, firing another canister at him as he recited a song that had been stuck in his for the past hour, “He ruled the Russian land and never mind the Czar…”. Rasputin swatted the canister away with his bare hand and shot into the air with a cloud of sand bursting under him; he had no trouble catching up to Ryan and snatching him by the throat, “Your death is coming soon enough. No need to rush!”

The Cavalier launched himself from the highest floating island, clearing the Surrealist’s field before leaping to Rasputin where he wrapped his arms around his waist, forcing him to let go of Ryan. As he fell, Cavalier twisted in mid-air and threw him to the sand below. When Rasputin hit the ground, he found himself surrounded by a familiar sight. He laughed to himself as he rose to his feet, instantly recognizing that he was in the middle of the circle he had drawn previously. “Oh, you blessed fool!,” Rasputin cackled madly as energy swirled around him, “Did you not know to look before you leap? This is exactly where I want to be!” The Surrealist was still lounging in the circle opposite him and everything was perfectly in place; energy began to swirl around it as well. “Take comfort that you’ll soon be dead and most of the population never had a clue that it was your fault,” as Rasputin raised his hands and the symbols around him began to glow, he felt a strange energy surge that was not at all what he expected. He took a closer look at the symbols within the circle and noticed they had been redrawn as Iseda sigils. It was then that Alysa Saraki came into view.

“Did you seriously forget about me?,” she asked mockingly.

Intrepid’s strategy recalled the Badges’ first confrontation with the Surrealist, particularly when the telepath Kisi Yeboah looked into its mind and found nothing but pure subconscious thought unlike anything on the Earthly plane. It was too much to handle, even for a powerful telepath. Upon hearing that Alysa knew of mind transference spells, she knew what needed to be done. The team distracted him while she redrew the mystic symbols and when the time was right, they acted.

Once the spell was activated, Rasputin had inadvertently transferred the Surrealist’s mind into his own and once that transference happened, his conciousness was assaulted with a mind that was at once an empty void but also chaotic and illogical to the point that it went beyond insanity. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he dropped to the ground where he lay motionless; he could be heard muttering, “Devilish minions make for gregarious cremations,” indicating that he and the creature’s mind were now transferred. The Surrealist, meanwhile, sat still and the effects of its reality warping subsided as it was no longer in control of its own body.

“Two birds. One stone,” Ryan said as he observed the two figures on the beach, “Alright, Astra and Shujai are up next.”

“I looked up the collider used to bring the Surrealist to Earth the first time around,” Astra announced happily as she shifted her body into a cylindrical shape with a power-core, “I should be able to recreate it.” A power coupling formed from her back and Shujai emitted a beam of bio-energy, giving her an extra energy source. Seconds later, a portal emerged in front of her, leading to the Nowhere Place. Ryan took its legs and the Cavalier took its arms, then they carried it to the portal and carefully dropped it in before Astra shut it off.

“And what of the wizard?,” Shujai asked.

“We’ll call up the authorities and they’ll likely take him to the Icebox,” Ryan said, “Anyone need a ride in the meantime? I can give you all a lift home,” he sighed, “Sorry this whole superteam thing didn’t work out.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” the Cavalier patted him on the shoulder, “It wasn’t a great start but once we needed to work together, we all came through.”

“Yeah, I really like hanging out with everyone,” Astra assured him.

“Really?,” Ryan began to smile.

“Really,” Alysa anwered, “We’re a team, like it or not.”

“Intrepid?,” he turned to her.

“It would appear so,” she nodded politely.

“We are the Commission,” Shujai said proudly. They looked out over the water as the Sun set on the horizon.

Next: Deadly Upgrades