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6 VOLUME
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Sailor Moon Cyber - Volume Six - The Origin of CyberWarlock
"I have heard tales." she began. "Tales of how the elves have so few children of their own, they welcome those of other races into their fold? Tell me please sirs, is this true?" "Indeed it is fair maiden." spoke the guard to the left. "Have you brought this child into our care then?" "Yes." she said softly. "I fear that I can not raise him. He would be shunned by the others of my race, for his father is... or was... a vampire prince." The guards' eyes grew round for a moment, but they regained their composure as the young elemental handed the child over to them. As she turned to leave, she looked back over her shoulder. "His name, is Nhicodima. When he is grown, tell him... tell him I truly did love him. It just couldn't be." Tears in her eyes, she ran back into the forest and disappeared into the night. As the years went by, Nhicodima lived amongst the elves of Faerie, learning their ways, singing their songs, and most remarkably, studying their magick. By the time he was a teenager, he had learned everything his teacher could teach him. "You are my little sponge." his teacher used to say. "You take everything I tell you and just soak it up!" But his talent had a different effect on some of the others. Many times Nhicodima would wander through the streets of the village, his sensitive hearing picking up fragments of whispered conversations, the elves believed unheard. "Dangerous creature... and we taught him all we know." "One day his true nature will doom us, I'm sure." "How could the council ever condone taking him in?" Nhicodima walked proud and pretended that their comments did not hurt him, but inside he cried. He knew he did not fit in. He knew he learned faster than the other children, but he couldn't help it. From what the elders had told him when he was old enough to ask, his mother had been a Fire Elemental in human form, his father was a Vampire Lord of some sort, making him a creature of pure magick, and therefore, easily trained in its use. The only ones who really understood him were his teacher, and J'areele. J'areele was his best friend. She was beautiful, even by elven standards. (since most humans find even the least attractive of elven women to be gorgeous.) They would spend many hours, walking through the forest, talking, sitting in the trees, or just relaxing by a river. As each day passed, Nhicodima could feel his attraction for J'areele growing, but he lacked the courage to tell her. On one such day, Nhicodima knelt near the the river, using his magicks to make the water dance and jump about. Although his powers did effect the water, he was deathly afraid of the liquid. Being what he was, there were certain genetic fears of what the substance might do to him. J'areele smiled and leaned against a tree, watching him as the water danced about to his motions, like an orchestra follows its conductor. Laughter floated down from the trees above, and two elven teens jumped down, landing on either side of J'areele. One, a tall blond elf named T'linar, leaned against the tree and looked down at J'areele, then across at Nhicodima. "So." he said with a sneer. "Out in the woods with the freak again huh? You know people are starting to talk. I heard the elders are scared that you two might get married and there will be little freaks running around." Nhicodima looked down and pretended to be interested in the patterns in the grass. He was used to this kind of talk by now, and it was best to just ignore it, no matter what he felt inside. J'areele, on the other hand, was not going to listen to it and jumped up, standing nose to chin with T'linar. "You take that back this instant T'linar!" she growled and formed her hands into fists. "Oooh, J'arie's got a crush on freak boy!!" said the other youth, shorter than T'linar, with long black hair. J'areele swung her fist around, connecting with the shorter elf's nose and sending him crashing to the ground. She grinned in satisfaction as he groaned and tried to pick himself up from the ground. Her pre-occupation kept her from seeing T'linar's punch until it was too late. She looked up and tried to focus on the blurry form of the young elven male before her, but dizziness kept trying to pin her to the ground. She stared at his feet, trying to keep from being sick, and was quite surprised when his feet disappeared. Nhicodima held T'linar by the throat and had lifted him a foot off the ground. His eyes glowed bright red and his fangs had grown out an inch from his gums. He growled low in his throat as he increased the pressure on the elf's neck, cutting off his breathing. "You dare to strike a woman!! You do not deserve to breath the same air as one so fair!" "Nhico.. NO!!" J'areele shouted. Nhicodima turned and looked at her. She screamed in fright an horror at his appearance. Ashamed and hurt, he tossed T'linar against the tree and ran off into the woods. He hid in the forest for awhile, huddled by a tree, tears streaking down his face. He had ruined everything. In one stupid moment of anger, he had proved to them all that he was indeed, the monster, the freak that they all thought he was. Before too long her heard shouts in through the trees. The others had run back and told the village elders what had happened. A hunting party of warrior elves was now tracking him down. Nhicodima jumped up and ran as fast as he could, not knowing where he was going and what he could do. He ran out into a clearing and stopped short. Across the way, 4 elven warriors stood, blocking his escape. One of them blew a sharp note on his horn, signaling to the rest of the party, and Nhicodima could hear their footfalls getting closer. He looked around for a way to escape but knew that he was soon going to be surrounded. Closing his eyes and calling to the forces of nature, he cast a spell to escape. A dangerous spell that his teacher had been reluctant to show him. He opened a rift between time and space. As he prepared to step though the portal, into where he did not know, one of the elves recognized what he was trying to do and shot a blast of magickal energy at him. Nhicodima looked up in time to see the energy bolt as it struck him square in the face, and he fell backward through the portal, unconscious. When he awoke, pain clouded his mind. He could feel wetness on his face, and found he could no longer see from his left eye. He touched a hand gingerly to his face and found the reason. His eye, and most of the flesh around it, were no longer there. He lay stunned on the ground for a few moments, waiting for his natural healing ability to begin to repair the damage, but as the moments grew longer, he could not feel the magick working. The wounds remained. Dazed and reeling from shock, he slowly got to his feet and looked around him. To all sides, and as far as he could see, giant stone and metal buildings stretched up to touch the clouds. Strange lights of every color of the spectrum, twinkled on and off and shone through the night sky. He gasped back a ragged breath. "Where am I?" he said aloud. "This is the strangest place I have ever seen!" And indeed it was. His hastily cast portal spell had flung him over 5000 years into the future. By human standards of time, the year was now 2436. He pulled his cloak over his head to try and protect his wounded face from the strange mist that seemed to settle over everything about him. "Since I can not do it myself." he thought as he began walking down the strange, hard path. "I will have to find a healer somewhere." He walked for over an hour. Each time he saw someone on the street he would ask them the way to the nearest healer. Most looked at him strangely and kept walking, one or two ran away and still others shrugged and moved on. Finally, he met a young man with strange silver armor on his arms and head. "Do you know where I can find a healer? I fear the wounds I have taken are too severe for me to mend myself." The cyborg street-youth looked him over for a moment. "You want a street doc? I know a good one that will fix you up real nice, and keep it nice and quiet, if you know what I mean. As long as you have the cash!" "Cash?" asked Nhicodima "You know man... money!" "Oh. All I have is this!" he said as he reached a hand into his pocket and brought out a pile of gold coins. "Will this do?" The cyborg's human eye grew wide as he nodded his head vigorously. "Man! Don't be showing that around too much. You could by your own hospital with that kind of bread! Whoever was telling the media that gold was scare obviously hadn't talked to you!" Nhicodima nodded, and placed the money back in his belt pouch. He followed the youth through the city streets and down a back alley. The cyborg knocked softly on a door, and it opened a crack. "Yes?" asked a man who peered through the crack in the door. "Heya Surge! I brought you a customer. One that can pay!" The door opened and a pleasant looking old man stood before them. "Well, by all means, bring him in." Nhicodima walked into the door and sat down on the strange table Surge had pointed out for him to sit on. "Now," asked the doctor. "What can I do for you?" Nhicodmia pulled his cloak back to reveal what remained of the left side of his face. The doctor looked him over and made tsking sounds with his tongue. "That's nasty all right, but nothing I can't patch up. Skidder here says you can pay? You want top quality parts then? What can you afford?" Nhicodima dropped a handful of gold coins into the doctors palm. "Use whatever you feel will heal me best. Is that enough?" Surge choked slightly as he stared at the fortune in his hand. "Oh believe me sir, it is more than enough!" Nhicodima nodded and lay down on the table. Surge walked over to him with a strange pointed object. Nhicodima felt a sting on his arm and then blackness enveloped him. Several hours later, he awoke and opened his eyes. He gasped in wonderment as he noticed strange words floating in the air in front of his left eye. His left eye? He touched a hand to his face. It felt cold and hard. Turning his head, he caught a reflection of himself in a cabinet. He gasped again as he saw what he had become. His left eye was a strange glowing red light. What had been skin around it, and the side of his face was now shinny metal, with strange wires stretched across it in places. He looked much like Skidder now. Sitting up straight in the bed, he looked around the room in confusion. "Ah good." said Surge. "You are awake. Excellent. The implants have taken well to you and now that you are up I can load the final software upgrades." Nhicodima just stared at him, silent and confused. "Oh don't worry son. You will understand it all in a few minutes." The doctor took what looked like a small rectangular crystal from a tray and inserted it into the side of Nhicodima's head. The words in front of his eyes began changing and more words appeared by the second. Surprisingly, the more words that appeared, the more Nhicodima began to understand what they meant.
Nhicodima smiled slightly and switch his sight configuration to normal vision. The retina projected readouts blinked off and he looked around with his new eye and knowledge. "Thank you doctor. This is just what I needed." "Thank you!" replied Surge. "Your generous payment will allow me to purchase many things I have needed for some time now." Nhicodima nodded and hopped down from the table. Picking up his cloak, he smiled once more at the doctor and walked out the door. Once outside and down the street, he decided he needed a place to stay. Calling out to the forces of nature he cast a spell to conjure up more gold as payment for lodgings somewhere. He was quite surprised when only a single coin appeared. Closing his eyes, he reached out to touch the magick of the earth. The response he received was weak. Barely noticeable. It was as if the earth itself was dying. "This can't be? This 'technology' of theirs... they have destroyed the earth's magick!" He knew what this meant. If he did not find a way back soon, the little remaining magick in this world would not be able to sustain him for long. Being wholly a magickal being, he would die in a world where magick did not exist. Concentrating as hard as he could, he pulled in small threads of energy from around him. Drawing small bits of life force from the people in the immediate area, and what few trees stood dying by the roadsides. After several minutes of intense concentration, he managed to gather enough energy to open a small portal, backwards in time. He knew that he did not have enough energy to return to when he came from, but hopefully he could travel back far enough so that magick was still around. Sweat dripping from his forehead as he struggled to keep the portal open, he stepped into the blackness and re-appeared on the streets of Tokyo Japan. The year was 1990. Stretching out with his consciousness he quickly felt the earth's magick's flowing into him. "Good!" he thought. "I am safe!" Suddenly, a scream echoed through the streets. Then another, followed by shouts of "My God what is that?" "Don't look dear, just keep walking." Nhicodima looked around and say the people on the street. They stared at him, pointed at him. Some even ran in fear from him. He touched his hand again to his cyborg face. He had done it again. Left the only home he knew because they thought he was a freak, only to come to another world where it could happen all over again. Growling in rage and frustration he screamed at the people around him. "What are you looking at? Do I offend your eyes? THEN STOP STARING!" he raised his hands and bolts of dark energy shot from them, exploding into the streets and buildings. Chunks of cement and glass flew this way and that. The people screamed in fright and ran every which way. Nhicodima sneered and shook his head. "It seems I shall never fit in anywhere I am to go. So I shall just have to make myself a place in this society." Calling on his magicks, he summoned his battle armor. He created a black mask to cover the cybernetic implants on his face. "I shall make these pitiful creatures pay for my pain. I shall rule over them as master. Or they shall die trying to escape." Nhicodima opened a portal between dimensions. He would return soon and put his plan into action. As he was blinking from the streets of Tokyo, he heard voices behind him. "What was that? Some kind of magician?" "A wizard maybe?" "It was a Warlock! One of those male witches." "Yes," thought Nhicodima as the portal closed behind him. He created a throne of silver in this pocket between time and space and sat down on it. "I am a Warlock. A creature of Science and Magick. Fear me people of earth. Fear your new master. The CyberWarlock!" The End of Part Six |
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