2099UG Tales #3

RUN! It is all that Linda Madison can concentrate on. She has been running for several blocks, hoping to find shelter or a SHIELD officer to protect her from the floating dark longhaired man wearing a dark blue cloak. But in this part of New York, even SHIELD won't come down here, unless it would insure a promotion.

DOWNTOWN. Everyone who can't get a decent job lives here. The rainy weather only worsens Linda's ordeal. Luckily she finds an unlocked door and enters the building. She runs upstairs and leaves a watery trail the blue-cloaked man easily follows. He floats up after her.

The man hovers in the hallway terrifying Linda. She run into a locked door and is trapped in a corner. The man uncovers a silver dagger and Linda can see her reflection in it. She begins to cry, as he advances on her. As he glides toward her, Linda begs for her life. He laughs. His dagger penetrates Linda’s side between her ribs, puncturing a lung. Linda claws and tears at the man, she rips a small piece of his shirt as he stabs her repeatedly. Linda collapses to the ground, and a white glow washes over her murderer. He rips her shirt open and stabs her stomach. He inserts his hands in and pulls out an unborn fetus. He likes a little souvenir of his accomplishments, which he will add to his collection.

He floats out a shattered window laughing as the rain continues its downpour.

Downtown. Greenwich Village.

An old man hovers by a near by a window highlighted by moonlight. He has been here along time, once he was the student, now he’s the teacher. He’s been going by The Ancient One, moniker these days. He misses a lot from the old days, mostly his friends. He’s had a long time to adjust to his new position in life. The giant crystal orb behind him interrupts his little moments of solitude. He emerges from his trance, to see the orb glowing blue. With a wave of his hand it stops glowing. He comes near the orb and a look of relief washes over his face.

“Finally.” He says with great joy, as he turns from the crystal. Strange enters the room, fixing her bandana.

"What's up chief?"

Her mentor motions her closer.

"Come, young one, I have a task for you."

Strange watches as her mentor waves his hand over a crystal ball, conjuring images of an old foe. The image of baron mardo appears.

“After all the years, the other cloak of leviation has finally appeared. Mardo is the reason this and other objects have been lost for decades. I have been able to track it's location to Downtown."

Strange leaves and begins her quest to recover her mentors stolen goods. She reassures him that she will handle this, she then turns and levitates threw the skylight. Her mentor deeply wishes he could handle this himself, but that’s not how it’s meant to be for him.

UPTOWN

His name is William Glynis, son of Douglas Glynis an industrial plant owner. He is also a black cardholder, who like many other black cardholders, abuse their privilege.

William walks around his apartment carrying his latest trophy. He enters his closet to a back room and walks over to a table. He grabs an empty jar and places the fetus in it, and then he fills it up with a gel that solidifies the trophy. He puts the jar on a shelf next to others and exits the room.

He carelessly drops his clothes along the on the floor. He pours himself a drink and lies down in front of the video screen. He watches some old cartoons and falls asleep and dreams...

William walks alone in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly the ground shakes and opens up underneath him. He falls into the gorge, swallowed into the ground as it closes over him. He falls down a pit that seems to never end. Light and fire pierces through the darkness sporadically around him. Will hits the bottom, hard. He quickly picks himself up and looks around. In the near distance there’s a person sitting in front of a fire. William walks to the cloaked man asking questions but getting no reply. Annoyed by no response, he grabs the cloaked man by the shoulder and turns him around.

"Who are you? Where am I? Why am I here?" yells William as he shakes the person.

The cloaked old man raises a finger to William's mouth and hushes him. Will is unexpectedly flung across the fire. The old man is on top of Will the second he hits the ground. Will is silenced again by the old mans hand across his mouth. They stare at each other for a moment. He leans down to Wills ear and utters something Will can't quite make out...

"Release me!"

The cavern starts to crumble and suddenly, loud chiming rings threw out the place. He wakes up drenched in sweat, and looks around the room to make sure he's here alone. He jumps again when he hears the doorbell. He grabs his head and sighs in relief.

"Who is it?" he asks

"It's me, Helen. Let me in the boxes are heavy!"

He scrambles quickly to hide his work tools from his fiancée who's making an unannounced visit. In the rush he drops the dagger on the table. He dashes into the bedroom as Helen comes into the apartment. Her arms are full with packages and she doesn't notice the on dagger on the table. Will runs back into the living room and scoops up the dagger as she puts the packages down. He hides the dagger behind his back and kisses Helen. Breathlessly he tells her...

"W-wwhy don't you get us something to drink?"

"Okay."

"So, what are you doing here?" he asks.

"Why, I came to tell you that I've picked out a wedding dress and your mother has paid for our honeymoon in the islands. And..."

"And?"

"I'm late."

"Your what??"

Helen sits there and tells him she’s pregnant and wants to keep it. Will just stands in shock as she tells him that she was cleared to have a license. Will have no clue how to react, he wants to lash out but he hugs her instead.

"Isn't it great!"

"Hey it’s, uh, it's great. Just great," he says very reluctantly. Tears start running down his cheek and he holds Helen tighter.

Strange flies unnoticed threw the Downtown skies, until now. As she flies overhead, she doesn’t notice a woman pushing a cart, watches her. Within minutes Strange finds herself drawn magically to this decaying building. The woman watches as Strange lands in an alley and floats into the building where the latest murder happened. The woman, grabs a communicator out of her pocket.

"Hello? This is Claire, reporting in."

"This is Raff, go ahead. What d'ya see?"

"Well I saw something strange, all right. This woman entered the building where that chick was killed."

"All right, we'll be down there in a little while."

"Oh by the way, she came into through the 5th floor window."

"Like I said, we'll be down there with really big guns," Remarked Raff.

INSIDE THE BUILDING...

"This place stinks," is all Strange can think about as she goes down the empty halls.

Strange fashions a make shift torch out of a broken piece of wood. She follows her new torch threw the building by room until she pinpoints the residual effects of the magic. She searched every area of the floor except the area where they found the body. Strange reluctantly examines the walls and the floor. Finally she finds something, she castes a time spell and a wave of images of the past engulfs the room. She sees everything that has happened to the few days, she has seen enough. As she walks down to the third floor, a rat crosses her path. She freaks out and falls down the rest of the stairs.

"Damn I hate rats! If I ever see another one it'll be too soon, so..."

"Don't move!" shouts Raff.

"...on," finishes Strange.

Strange stands up surrounded by men and women pointing guns at her head.

"Look guys...can't we talk this over?"

"Sure," Raff says, as he motions a woman behind Strange.
"When you wake up!"

The redheaded woman behind Strange fires a tazer gun into her back. Strange collapses to the ground.

"That was too easy!" one of the men says.

"Stop yer complainin', Phil, and lock her up. We might have caught the killer we've been looking for," Raff says.

"For her sake I hope she's not the killer, because theere is gonna be hell to pay," Says the redhead.

TWO HOURS OR SO LATER...

Strange awakens up to a sea of voices swimming in her head and chained to a chair. She has no clue to who these people are. But before she can say anything a bright light blinds her and a woman asks...

"Who are you?"

"I'm Strange."

"...And whacked out, what's your point?" asks Raff.

Strange sighes. "Strange is my name, you troll."

"Oh."

"We're the Throwbacks. I'm Raff. Now why don't you tell us what you where looking for in that building?"

"I heard the rent was cheap there." Strange says, as she casts a spell which makes the chains age.

"Oh really? And you expect us to believe that?"

"Yes, that's my story," Strange pleads.

"Well, did you find a place there?” asks Raff.

"As a matter of fact!"

Strange jumps up, sending fragments of the rusted chain everywhere. She encases everyone present in a red connecting band that circles the room. While this happens, Kasey Nash walks into the room unaware of what’s going on. Kasey charges Strange in hopes of protecting her friends.

"Hey, there are my friends you're messin' with!" Kasey yells.

Kasey and Strange tumble to the ground and the red band is broken and everyone falls to the ground. Kasey punches Strange in the face while Strange kicks Kasey in the stomach. Kasey recovers quickly and flings Strange near a window and before she can think, Kasey comes charging.

"Look, I don't wanna fight you," Strange yells at Kasey.

"You should have thought about that before you attacked me and my friends!" Kasey yells back.

Strange’s fist land on Kasey’ s jaw as the rest of The Throwbacks watch. Strange, staggers as she turns to Kasey who blindly jumps up and knocks both of them back and out a ten-story window.

To Be Continued...