SW10/HCC: Time of the Crossovers #1: The Coming of the Super-Mage

[Scott Eiler]

On 5 August 2011, the instruments of The Combine detect a reality shift 
out by the glowing orb of Jupiter.  Waves from there are pushing its 
moons out of their new orbits.  There's some kind of power object out 
there.  After it moves the moons, it heads toward Earth.  This gets the 
attention of the U.S. Government.

Naturally, they suspect the return of the Infrared Sunbreaker Choir, 
which is what ignited Jupiter and changed the Earth's orbit almost two 
years ago.  They've been meaning to prepare a military option in case 
the Sunbreakers come back.  But for now, all they have is one 
spacefaring superhuman:  Stephen Wolcott, Ellipsis.

Ellipsis hates government and all forms of servitude to others.  Now he 
serves The Combine which is increasingly hard to distinguish from U.S. 
Government.  Increasingly he is in bondage.  Even from West Australia 
he's been called back, because there is *still* none like him on Earth. 
  But he's accustomed to that.

Ellipsis flies into space, then teleports.  He comes upon the intruder 
in the asteroid belt, approaching the Earth.  The intruder is in male 
human form, moving under its own power, and towing a giant circular 
metal shield, the size of a mountain.  The shield and the intruder both 
emanate power.  The shield has enough power to have moved Jupiter's 
moons.  And the intruder's thoughts are unshielded but completely alien, 
even to Ellipsis who knows the six major alien species of the Galaxy. 
But Ellipsis is a supergenius and learns very quickly.

Ellipsis sends the thought, Stop.  The intruder stops, and looks around 
curiously.  But then it resumes.

Ellipsis sends the feeling, Sleep.  The intruder stops again.  Ellipsis 
can feel it wants sleep.  But it has other obligations.  It resumes.

So Ellipsis sends the command:  Shutdown.  The intruder stops again. 
Its brain shuts down.  But it has crown-shaped headgear that shocks it 
awake!

Curse me for a fool, Ellipsis thinks.  He tries to shut down the 
headgear.  But it's not electronic!  Some kind of magic.  Ellipsis 
usually shuns magic because it follows chaotic principles his logical 
mind avoids.  He *could* probably master this gear, but this is not the 
time.

The mage (for so he must be) awakens.  He speaks (even in space) and he 
thinks:  You Dare!?

Ellipsis responds by thought:  I Dare.  I Defend.  You Halt.

You Do Not Command Me!  The mage glows with power, and whips a spike of 
the power at Ellipsis.

Ellipsis notices, the power comes from suns.  He absorbs it, and 
converts it into a cloud of water.

He thinks to himself, Presumably the intruder can withstand such power 
as he emits.   My matter transmutation powers cannot exceed that, here 
beyond atmosphere.  So I shall avoid escalation... this time.  Instead 
he thinks out loud:  You shall not move me from your way.

The mage says, I can not turn back.  They lock gazes.  Then he summons a 
fireball, one thousand miles wide!

Over the many years Ellipsis has learned teleportation.  He slips out 
from within the mini-sun.  But the mage has departed too!  Ellipsis can 
see his energy trail, like a gash through space - toward the Earth!

Ellipsis casts his thoughts back to the Earth, to his wife Morningstar 
Julie via telepathic link.  "Failure.  Incoming."

---

Ellipsis cracks the sky over Tibet.  The super-mage has brought his 
giant shield down to the Earth.  It now hangs edge down over the Mekong 
river valley, between two mountains.  The mage hovers near its center.

But the allies of Ellipsis have arrived!  The Combine has sent out its 
strongest battle squad:  Morningstar Julie, telekinetic.  Mighty Tim, 
flame-spouting teleporter.  Senhora Valkyrie, giant-woman with the 
Thunder Chain of environmental control.  Alien Beast, undeterrable 
hunter - and his two children, mighty powerhouses.  Bride of Darkness 
and her Best Man, channelers of Ultimate Darkness.  And leading them, 
the hulking Vice-President Crusher Joe Corrigan himself.  But with all 
their power they are barely distracting the mage from activating his 
shield-shaped engine.

More power...  Ellipsis is back in atmosphere, with a near-unlimited 
supply of matter to turn into energy.  But the most readily-available 
matter is air.  Tibet needs its air more than Ellipsis does.  But 
there's another source of matter:  the giant floating shield-engine.

Ellipsis comes down crackling with energy, to the other side of the 
shield from the mage.  Then he sticks his hands through the center of 
the shield...  No, he doesn't!  This shield is unearthly matter, and 
resists his touch!  But he *shall* master it...

The intruder says, NO!  He puts his own hands upon the shield.  His will 
against Ellipsis.  And even as Ellipsis increases his will power, it 
only matches the mage's.

Then Morningstar Julie says mentally, "Stephen!  Let go!"  Ellipsis 
trusts his wife.  As he shoots away from the shield, a finger of 
Ultimate Darkness as wide as the Mekong Valley smashes down on it!

The Darkness dissolves.  The shield and the mage are gone, swallowed by 
Darkness.

Stephen hears Crusher Joe think, Good Enough.

---

The evil mages of Earth notice new magic power in their sky and on their 
planet.  The source has disappeared, but the residual power remains. 
They start to gather it.

---

Author's Notes:

Oh, my.  This is like Superhuman World 1991 all over again.  The 
original adventures of Ellipsis, that is.  I wrote his adventures from 
1983 to about 1990.  I eventually declared all those adventures to start 
in 1990 as the basis of a superhero role-playing campaign.

After 1990, Wyatt Ferguson started taking over the stories.  That is to 
say, I went from power drama to silliness.  But in my world(s), no 
concept goes to waste.  Ellipsis therefore showed up as a supporting 
character.

For this adventure I am preserving my original writing style.  It's 
easy, it's nostalgic, and it fits Ellipsis.

In the flush of his youth, Ellipsis would have grimly escalated to 
overwhelm any opponent in a power duel.  But this is twenty years on. 
He's older, sadder, and a bit wiser.  He's settled down to science and 
power politics, as have most of the heroes he works with.  But it's good 
to remember, there are things worth fighting for.

This is August 2011 in SW10.  We last saw an SW10 story in May 2011.  A 
*lot* of stuff has happened between May and August.  For one thing, in 
May the Superhuman World was still cut off from other universes, unless 
people made a huge effort to pierce the barricade.  So how is a wizard 
from another universe making it there, without even wanting to?  There 
*is* a good reason; I just have to write it.  The way I write things now 
for the pleasure of actual readers, that story deserves a novel, or at 
least a story cycle.  I'm planning one, under the working title "The 
Summer of Discontent".  I've tried to make that stuff independent of 
this episode, though.  I'm rushing this one into publication because it 
might be important to other writers, thanks to my *own* damn idea about 
crossovers...  Writing is haaard.  8{C>

But the results are fun.  8{D>

--
---------- Scott Eiler  8{D>  ----  http://www.eilertech.com --------