Doctor Fate

The plans were all coming together. Dr. Benjamin Stoner was very close to launching a new Era of Chaos. He had a core group to his Army of Chaos under his command, ready to die for the cause. He had Dr. Fate’s dead wife, who carried within her body a key instrument to the arrival of Typhon. He had Dr. Fate’s Helm of Nabu, melted as the power was drained from it. He had Dr. Fate’s Tower, and Dr. Fate was nowhere to be found. All he needed to do now was wait.

Finally having some downtime in his quest to release Typhon upon the world, Dr. Stoner decided to take the opportunity to get to know his underlings a little better. Henry King, the Brainwave, was the most recent addition to the Army and was by far the most dangerous. Perhaps the most powerful telepathic mind on the planet, he was a necessary cog in Stoner’s overall plot.

“Hello, Brainwave,” Dr. Stoner said as he entered the room. “I see no one has let you out of that straight jacket yet.” He walked around to Brainwave’s back and began to unfasten the jacket.

“You’re awfully quiet today,” he said. “You’ve barely said two words since we got you out of Arkham. Something on your mind?”

Brainwave stared forward in silent ignorance, unaware that Stoner was even speaking to him. The magnitude of his mental abilities made it impossible for him to think cohesively. He was the most powerful puppet in the world.

“Are you thinking about Jennie again?” Stoner asked, almost genuinely concerned. “You know she can’t be with you just yet. You have to be patient.”

Brainwave turned his head around to face Stoner. “Jennie?” he asked as drool dribbled from his mouth.

“Not yet, Henry,” Stoner replied. “First we’re going to visit your old friend, Hector. You remember Hector, don’t you?” Brainwave and Dr. Fate had served together as founding members of Infinity, Inc. back in the day when Hector Hall was the Silver Scarab.

“Hector?” Brainwave stuttered. He was almost making a connection with the name as he thought hard. “Not Jennie?”

Dr. Stoner smiled. “You can say something else! Good job, Henry!” He patted Brainwave on the back as he pulled the straight jacket off of him. “Do you know where Hector is, Henry?”

Brainwave rolled his eyes back in his head, making a dull grunt as he did so. Dr. Stoner watched as he began to get excited over the progress he was making with Brainwave.

Brainwave nodded his head. “Uh-huh,” he muttered. Dr. Stoner was very happy.

Before Caspar Ritchie was killed, he was a modest working architect that had serious problems remaining faithful to his wife. To an architect, the internal structure of Dr. Fate’s tower would prove to be an awesome sight to study, from the myriad dimensions of the walls and rooms to the impossible angles of the corners and doors. Now that Caspar Ritchie was dead, all he could do was wander around bumping into things.

If his brain functions were not so incredibly slowed by decomposition, he would have realized that he was lost. If he could think right, he would escape. If he could, he would cry.

As Ritchie shuffled around a corner in search of a chance at freedom, Dr. Stoner bumped into him. Brainwave was directly behind the doctor as they were in a hurry to get on with their plans. The impact sent Ritchie to the floor. As his head made contact with the stone floor, a meaty snap burst from his skull.

Dr. Stoner rushed to help Ritchie up and noticed that the fall had done severe damage to Ritchie’s skull. As a further result of the accident, Ritchie’s eyeballs had erupted from their sockets, replaced with a steady flow of infected pus.

“Oh, dear,” Stoner said. “Ritchie, you’ve lost your eyes.” He saw them on the floor and knew immediately that they were too advanced into decay to effectively reattach. “Sorry about that, chum.”

Dr. Stoner laughed. “No more time for dilly-dallying, Mr. Ritchie. We’ve got things to do. Follow us.” He headed onward down the corridor towards the main hall.

Brainwave had stopped to look at Ritchie as the man oozed from the eyes and tilted his head in concern. “You see?” Brainwave asked with difficulty. He was obviously concerned.

Ritchie began to bawl aloud, weeping uncontrollably. “It…” he cried, “hurts…”

Jack Small was never a climber. He could go up stairs but that was the extent of his ability to personally propel himself in a vertical direction. The old rusty fire escape alongside the apartment building was wet and dirty, two elements that Jack Small despised. He had managed to pull himself up to the third floor but still had nine levels before he reached his destination. He was going to break into an apartment and access the portal hidden within to travel to Dr. Fate’s secret tower.

Jack looked down to Petey. “Dammit, Petey,” he yelled. “This sucks!” He attempted to reach out for another rung of the ladder but lost his grip. He panicked momentarily but quickly regained his lost balance.

Petey was on ground level below Jack making sure that Jack was going to live through the experience. “It’s okay, Jackie,” Petey replied in his high-pitched Yiddish accent. “You’ve only got nine floors left to climb!”

Jack cursed out loud as he looked around him. He peered into a nearby window and spied a woman in the shower. He stopped climbing and became instantly transfixed with the naked woman. He began to slobber with lust until an ear-piercing scream and a bottle of Herbal Essences smashed through the window and smacked him in the face.

The shampoo bottle, having been opened, squirted its contents into Jack’s eyes, effectively blinding him. The surprise attack by the showering woman caused Jack to lose his grip, his balance and his eyesight. He fell off of the fire escape and plummeted downward.

Inches before the certainly fatal impact, Jack’s body stopped falling. Had he been able to see, he would have seen his saviours. Instead, he resigned to screaming like a school girl.

“Can we help you two with something?” Blue Devil asked to Petey as the other Sentinels of Magic appeared from the nearby street. “You look lost.”

Petey chuckled innocently as he shrugged his shoulders. “Vould you believe ve lost our keys?”

Blue Devil smiled as Sebastian Faust, The Enchantress, Ragman and Madame Xanadu joined him in accosting the little demon and his momentarily blinded friend.

“Nope,” Blue Devil said. “But we do believe you’re looking for Dr. Fate. We can help you with that.”

Petey clapped his hands in jubilation. “Vow!” he exclaimed. “Hey, Jack! The Sentinels of Magic are going to help us find Dr. Fate! Isn’t that vonderful?”

Unfortunately, Jack Small could not hear what was going on around him over the screaming that he was currently occupied with producing.

Susan Jacobs was a fantastic assistant. She graduated with honors from U of I with a master’s in nursing and got a sweet job working for Dr. Stoner right after graduation. Her tendency to eat human flesh and various human body parts was a new addition to her lifestyle, manifesting itself only recently. Typhon’s influence had corrupted her soul as much as it had corrupted Dr. Stoner’s.

At first she resisted the urges of cannibalism but surrendered to the hand of Chaos late one night when her husband and two children became too unbearable to live. She ate her little boy first and shared her older son with the neighbor’s dogs, which she soon after killed and saved in a freezer for the winter. After her husband and children were missing for two months, they were officially declared dead. Parts of her husband ended up in the main course at the family’s funeral, where Susan played the sobbing widow at an Oscar caliber. She knew Typhon was watching her and that he was proud.

Her recent arrival into the Army of Chaos was a welcome change. She had long grown bored with pretending to be an innocent secretary. She had never dreamed of living a life so exciting and free. And once Dr. Stoner becomes the living receptacle for Typhon, she would be at his side as the new Queen of Chaos. Her once slight ambitions of becoming a nurse had grown since her youth to a more grand ambition of plunging the universe into chaotic ruin.

Her services were integral as she was recruited to harvest the metal that was until recently the Helm of Nabu from the dead body of Lyta Hall. The Helm had melted when Nabu was forced away by an assault from Typhon. Fortunately for Susan, the procedure need not be a careful one. The body was dead.

Covered in cold blood, Susan was successful in removing a majority of the metal, most still connected to chunks of ripped off flesh. She took the extracted pieces and dropped them into a nearby pot which simmered over an eldritch flame. Dr. Stoner had plans for the former Helmet and she was fully inclined to see those plans to their fruition.

“How goes the procedure, my dearest Susan?” Dr. Stoner asked as he entered the room. “I assume that you are enjoying yourself?”

Susan pulled down her surgical mask to uncover her mouth. Dr. Stoner examined it from afar and lusted to kiss it. “The helm is coming off nicely, if a little bit messily,” Susan replied with a smile.

“And the embryo?” Dr. Stoner asked. It was obvious that the embryo that grew inside of Lyta Hall’s skull was Stoner’s first priority. “It is nearing term?”

Susan shook her head. She was unable to discern the condition of the embryo without bashing in Lyta’s head in order to check. “I don’t know, Dr. Stoner. It’s not safe for me to check through my conventional methods.”

“We need that embryo safe,” Stoner said. “If we lose it then it’s all over for us. Typhon will never take us as his Army.”

Susan wasn’t quite sure of the significance of the embryo. Was it a new body for Typhon? Stoner had remained vague on the details and Susan was beginning to become suspicious.

“Where are the others?” Susan asked. “I’d imagine that it’s just about time to go.” She looked at her watch.

Dr. Stoner turned around to look at Brainwave and Ritchie but they were not there. “Hmmm,” Stoner pondered. “I could have sworn they were right behind me.”

Bloodwynd found it hard to think. His mind had been erased and replaced with something else. A small trace of who Bloodwynd once was still remained and it struggled relentlessly to regain control of his devastated psyche.

He remembered the destruction of the Blood Gem, and the death of Lyta Hall. He remembered Dr. Stoner’s attack and being powerless to stop it. He remembered the ghastly assault that rendered him thoughtless. He looked through his mortal eyes and saw that he was still in the tower.

He made an attempt to move his head but soon discovered that he could not. He tried to move his arms but was unable. His body started moving on its own and he could only watch as he approached a nearby mirror. As he stared at his own reflection in the mirror, he knew that he was not alone inside of his head.

His reflection was unlike as he recalled himself. His eyes that he was currently looking from were glowing red and squinted into an expression of pure hatred. Then his mouth began to speak.

“Welcome back, Bloodwynd,” his voice said. “As you can tell, I have taken up residence here for the immediate future. Struggle as you will but you are now an Agent of Chaos. You will kill Dr. Fate with your own hands.”

Bloodwynd struggled to talk. He had no control over his mouth. All he could do was watch.

“I am called Gorrum,” his mouth said. “I am the first Lord of Order to arrive to this plane. Your body suits my needs nicely. Dr. Fate will never expect his friend will be the one ripping out his heart.”

Bloodwynd watched in terror as his body began to laugh maniacally. “I will enjoy your presence within this head as you are forced to watch it all happen.”

Dr. Stoner was ready with a mallet and chisel. “There’s only one way in there and it looks like it’s up to me to do it.”

Susan was watching with an anticipating smile. Stoner was at the head of Lyta Hall’s gurney. Lyta’s body had been totally defiled from the removal of Fate’s melted helmet, making any attempts at a future resuscitation impossible. Dr. Stoner intended to break open her skull and harvest the Chaos Embryo that was growing from Lyta’s dead brain.

“You volunteered, Dr. Stoner,” Susan said. “You jumped at the opportunity to crack open her head.”

Stoner glanced at Susan with a condescending stare. “I just don’t want her brain eaten just yet, Susan. I can’t trust you with such delicate material.”

Susan scoffed in anger. “Yeah, right,” she said. “Like I’m going to eat a brain that has an embryo growing out of it. Absolutely disgusting!”

Dr. Stoner diverted his attention to the doorway where Brainwave and Ritchie were finally making their entrance. Brainwave was helping an eyeless Ritchie into the room.

“Speaking of absolutely disgusting,” Stoner said, “it’s about damn time you two got here. Now take that bucket and mold me a new helmet!” He pointed Brainwave to the bucket that held the remains of Dr. Fate’s helmet. The bucket had been heated and the liquefied helmet was boiling.

Brainwave stared at Stoner in confusion. “Tools?” Brainwave asked.

Stoner waved his hands around dismissively. “We don’t have any,” he said. “Use your Brainwave mojo on it or something. Just get to it quickly. We’re leaving soon.”

As Dr. Stoner returned his concentration to Lyta’s head and what he was about to do to it, Susan was pretty sure that she saw Brainwave flip Stoner the bird. She was positive that there was more going on in Brainwave’s head than he was leading them to believe.

Dr. Stoner stared at the mallet in his hand with intense concentration. He looked to the chisel. He shifted his concentration to the ‘x’ that he had drawn on Lyta’s forehead. He looked back to the mallet. He was beginning to sweat.

“Your head wound is healing pretty well, doctor,” Susan distracted him. “You can barely see the brain tissue.” She was playing with him in her own sick way, pulling his attention away from the task. A majority of Stoner’s skull had miraculously regrown to prevent the loss of further brain matter and precious liquids. The initial injury had had no effect on Stoner whatsoever but he was bothered by the constant bleeding.

“Shut your hole, Susan!” Stoner yelled. Ritchie jumped at the sudden sound of yelling. “This is a difficult procedure that must be executed with pinpoint accuracy!” He put the tip of the chisel on the ‘x’ and lined the mallet up to the head of the chisel. He reverted back into his state of intense concentration.

Susan began to chuckle at him. “You can’t do it can you?” she laughed. “You can throw the entire world into Chaos but you can’t crack open a dead woman’s head with a hammer!”

Stoner threw the mallet to the floor in furious anger. He was sweating profusely. “Dammit, I can’t,” he screamed. “Just grab the damn body and we’ll take it with us. Ritchie, go find Bloodwynd and we’ll go.”

Dr. Stoner stomped out of the room muttering obscenities. Susan smiled as he left. She could get used to this Chaos-bitch routine.

“So ve saw the ghost voman and decided to come here,” Petey explained. “This is vhere ve used to live. There’s a portal to Fate’s Tower inside but we can’t get in.”

Petey stood among the Sentinels of Magic as he told his story. Jack had stopped screaming and was currently occupying his time staring at the Enchantress’s ample cleavage. Although she was aware of this and was slightly uncomfortable with it, she let him stare because it kept him from screaming.

Faust was listening to Petey’s story. “The woman you saw was Lyta Hall. She’s Fate’s missing wife.”

Madame Xanadu was nearby and had something to add. “The cards revealed that she is among the dead but has yet to die,” she said cryptically. “She is the key to the prevention of what the cards reveal about the future.”

Petey scratched his bald head with his elongated demon fingers. “I don’t know vhat you just said, lady, but that sounds about right. So ve have to find the voman, this Lyta person? Does any-vone know how?”

Blue Devil smiled and laughed egotistically. It was obvious that he was very proud to be amongst the Sentinels and spread his cockiness whenever possible. “Of course we know. We’re the Sentinels of Magic!”

Faust held out his hand. Within his palm was a small golden medallion. “We’ll get there using this,” he said in his thick British accent. “The Amulet of Anubis.”

The Enchantress spoke up. Jack tittered with glee as she moved. “The amulet is essential to reaching Dr. Fate. We believe that Fate is actually currently inside of the amulet. It was recovered from Fate’s Tower an hour ago after it was seized by the Army of Chaos.”

“If the tower is under Chaos’ control, then how did you get the amulet?” Petey asked.

Faust grinned at the question. “We have an inside man,” he said. “We are the Sentinels of Magic, you know.”

Dr. Benjamin Stoner held his new helmet above his head. It was a duplicate of Dr. Fate’s helmet but was blackened from being burned and had traces of red swirls on its surface. Lyta Hall’s blood was a primary component along with the melted Helm of Nabu.

“Ah, Brainwave,” Stoner announced, “You sure know how to make a helmet.” He put the helmet on his head. It was a perfect fit. His medallion that rested on his chest shimmered with dark light as it slightly changed its coloring to reflect the color of the helmet.

“I am now complete,” Stoner said. “I am once again the Anti-Fate!”

Susan, Ritchie, Brainwave and Bloodwynd stood around him as he grew a dark cloak from his back that enveloped his torso. Dr. Stoner had become a black reflection of Dr. Fate. He laughed like a maniac s his powers expanded.

A door appeared before them and slowly creaked open. The doorway led to a mountainous region, capped with snow and beautiful cloud formations. Amid the rocky terrain was an elaborate city, hidden from the world.

Dr. Stoner, the Anti-Fate, approached the doorway. “Our next stop is the lost city of Feithera,” he called out. “Typhon awaits us there.”

He entered the door followed closely by his quartet of minions.

“Thirty minutes until the new Age of Chaos,” the Anti-Fate muttered as the sky above Feithera began to darken with foreboding shadow.

To Be Continued...

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