ALL-WINNERS SQUAD #16

A Year Of No Consequence, Part 2: The Flowers of Edo

By Jess Nevins

Stan Lee Presents : The greatest heroes of the post World War II era...Captain America, Sentinel of Liberty...The Whizzer, Fastest Man Alive...Miss America, Strong and Beautiful Heroine...Sub-Mariner, Prince of Atlantis...and the Human Torch, the fiery android...they are The All-Winners Squad!

What Has Come Before: The discontented peasants of 1764 Edo, pushed beyond their usual limits by hunger and decades of oppression and urged on by mysterious figures with agendas of their own, have risen up, burning several parts of Edo and turning a riot into a revolt. They charged into the Shogun's Castle, and were met at the doors of his personal quarters by two loyal samurai (one of whom is more than he seems). A standoff developed, to be interrupted by the sudden appearance of a familiar (to readers, but not to the participants) figure in yellow.

All dialogue is in Japanese unless otherwise noted.

The lead members of the crowd jumped forward, thrusting their spears and swords at Ooka and Mizoguchi (most avoiding the gaijin; his ugliness was fascinating to them, but who knew what it would mean to kill one of them - and given his sudden, strange appearance and outlandish garb, he could well have been a kami pretending to be a gaijin). As they landed, though, they felt a strong wind on their faces and found their hands empty, and themselves within easy reach of the samurai's swords. They scrambled backwards, noticing that somehow their weapons had been carefully stacked against the wall to the left of Mizoguchi.

The gaijin or kami pointed at the crowd and said, in loud, strangely-accented Japanese, "NOBODY MOVE." He then turned to the two samurai and said, "What's going on here?"

Ooka Tadayoshi, his expression reflecting his increasing confusion but his voice displaying his growing anger, said, "Who are you? Identify yourself - what are you doing here?"

Mizoguchi Sukeshige Kojiro's face was expressionless, but there was somehow an air of hesitation about him, and he opened his mouth to speak twice, and then shut it both times.

An spear flew out of the crowd, from somewhere behind the front line of rioters, straight at the yellow-clad gaijin. What happened next neither the crowd nor the samurai could follow; one moment the spear was headed straight at the gaijin's back, the next moment the gaijin was standing in front of the crowd, gesturing with the spear, and shouting, "I said, NOBODY MOVE! ON YOUR KNEES!" There was something in his voice, despite the strange accent with which he spoke, which said that to disobey would be a very bad idea, and the crowd, full of men and teenagers who had been taught all their lives to obey, found themselves kneeling almost without thinking. Those in the back still stood, but looked very unsure, and no longer held their weapons with such confidence. Mizoguchi noticed, at the far end of the hall, two samurai, wearing armor bearing the Tanuma clan crest, slipping away, into one of the side-rooms, but a quick glance to his left confirmed that Ooka Tadayoshi, staring intently at the American (for so Mizoguchi, far wiser in the ways of the world than Ooka, knew the gaijin to be), had not noticed the Tanuma men.

Then, suddenly, the gaijin was gesturing with the spear at Mizoguchi and Ooka, screaming in the face of Ooka and staring, most rudely, directly into his eyes, "I ASKED WHAT WAS GOING ON HERE? WHAT IS YOUR NAME? WHAT IS YOUR RANK?"

Ooka's head jerked backwards and shook slightly, and he opened his mouth to respond, then shut it and bowed his head, bringing his swords to his sides. "I...I apologize most humbly. I am Ooka Tadayoshi, head of the Ooka clan, and liaison between the Shogun and the Junior Councillors."

The gaijin turned towards Mizoguchi, then, seeming to hear or see or sense something that Ooka (carefully following the gaijin's motions with his peripheral vision) did not sense, whirled towards the crowd and shouted, "BE SILENT! DO NOT MOVE!" and then turned to Mizoguchi and said, "AND YOU? LOWER YOUR SWORDS AT ONCE!"

Mizoguchi said, in quiet English that sounded oddly-accented to the American's ears, "<Do not shout at me, sirrah. I will explain to you who I am and what I do here after this rabble is dispersed.>"

The American momentarily gaped at Mizoguchi, then nodded and turned to the crowd, who - like Ooka - were staring somewhat surprisedly at the strange language that Mizoguchi had just spoken. He said, "GO HOME. NOW."

The crowd somewhat confusedly started to rise, trying to avoid looking at anyone else. Then a voice from the back of the crowd, one most of the crowd remembered having spoken to them after Nana Sataro had been killed, said, with an imperious twist in his voice, "WHO ARE YOU TO COMMAND US, GAIJIN?"

The white man, his face twisting into a momentary confusion before smoothing itself out, said, "I am the Ambassador of the" and then he used a word none of those present had ever heard before; it was clearly Japanese, but it had no meaning for any of them. He said, "And you are all committing treason. Go home."

The gaijin instantly knew he'd made a mistake; the crowd's faces became sullen and resentful, and those behind the front rank, who still held their weapons, gripped them tighter. The voice at the back of the crowd said, "HE'S JUST LIKE THE OTHERS - HE CARES ONLY FOR THE TRAITOR IEHARU! HE WANTS TO HARM THE EMPRESS! KILL HIM!"

Then two figures in the crowd raised up muskets and fired them; Mizoguchi had a moment to realize that the two were the "money-lender" and the "fireman" from the streets of the Kyobashi district. Mizoguchi reflexively ducked, and one of the balls hit the stone just above his head. The American in yellow moved faster than eyes could follow, and the ball whizzed harmlessly by him, exploding into the wooden doors behind him, but everyone knew that he had in fact moved, and the voice from the back of the crowd said, "YOU SEE? HE FEARS THE MUSKET! HE IS NO KAMI, JUST A VERY FAST MAN! KILL HIM!"

The crowd surged forward again, and although the American moved in a super-fast blur, yanking weapons out of the hands of the crowd and shoving and punching and kicking its members back, he immediately found that there were too many of them, and the push from the back of the crowd was too strong, for him to have any real impact against them. He paused for a fraction of a second and saw that Ooka Tadayoshi and the other samurai, the one who'd spoken to him in English (albeit strangely accented - the American thought it had an almost Shakespearean accent), had jumped forward and were swinging their swords at the peasants closest to them.

The American kicked open the wooden doors behind them (although they'd been well-made, and crafted to withstand repeated battering, the strength in the American's legs was far beyond what the Japanese craftsmen had known about, and three kicks were sufficient to break the doors' locks and swing the doors open) and shoved the two samurai into the room, and then jumped in after them; he slammed the doors shut and slid the largest bar down into the sleeve across the doors moments before the lead members of the crowd reached it. As they began shouting and hammering on the door, he turned to say something to the English-speaking samurai when he saw him strike Ooka Tadayoshi on the back of the head with the haft of one of his swords. Tadayoshi dropped, instantly unconscious, and then the English-speaking samurai sheathed his swords and scooped Tadayoshi up under one arm with no more effort than a normal person would have expended picking up a piece of paper. The English-speaking samurai said to the American, "You must trust me for now; I will explain in a few minutes."

The American nodded after a moment, and the samurai grabbed him and tucked him under his other arm, again with no visible exertion, and then jumped through the room's windows and flew down to one of the many courtyards of the Castle. The guards had only a moment to gape at the sight of a samurai in full battle armor landing and gently dropping the liaison to the Junior Councillors on the ground before the samurai barked, "Spread the alarm - rioters are in the castle!" and jumped and flew away.

They landed on a rooftop, high above the ground and near the summit of the Castle. The samurai said, in that strange English of his, "Formal introductions are in order, I think. I am known here and in the settlement in Hokkaido as Mizoguchi Sukeshige Kojiro; among my brothers in Olympia I am called Kingo Sunen. I do not believe I have met you at any of our gatherings; are you from Polaria or Oceana?"

The American said, "I...uh...I'm pleased to meet you. I'm Bob Frank; people call me the Whizzer. I'm not...that is, I'm not from Polaria' or Oceana' - I've never heard of either of those places. I'm an American."

The Whizzer looked down at Edo, noticing the many fires burning and seeing the outlines of figures moving near and around the flames. He said, "This is Tokyo, I know, but...what year is this?"

Kingo Sunen was motionless for a moment, then slowly began nodding. "Ahhh. I see. That explains much. You are not one of us."

The Whizzer looked at him. "One of who?"

Kingo Sunen said, "Never mind. This is Meiwa 1...in your terms, 1764. You have...come back from the future?"

The Whizzer didn't gape, but he did look somewhat surprised, for a moment. He shook his head. "I figured out that Future Man somehow sent me into the past, but I had no idea it was this far back."

Kingo Sunen put his hand on his chin and looked contemplatively at the Whizzer. "Is there anything you can tell me about the future? That is...let me ask you this: have you, perhaps, met a man named Ike Harris' or a woman named Sersi'?"

The Whizzer stared at Sunen with a peculiar expression. "Yes - how did you--"

Kingo Sunen, brows furrowed, said, "How did you...meet them?"

The Whizzer said, "Ike fought with us during the war. He--"

Sunen shook his head. "Never mind. That you knew him is enough for me."

The Whizzer said, "But...what's going on? How do you know him?"

Sunen said, "He is...one of my brothers. Do not tell me any more about him; you are from my future, and if you tell me the wrong thing it could have disastrous consequences. That he lives and fights on is all I need to know; the important part is that the future of my brothers and our goals is safe."

The Whizzer said nothing, but his confusion was evident. Sunen said, "Do not think any more of it."

The Whizzer finally shrugged and said, "If you say so. So...what's going on here? And what would you rather I called you? And why are all those people trying to kill you and...the Shogun?"

Sunen opened his mouth twice, closing it both times, and then finally sat down, cross-legged. He gestured, and the Whizzer sat down beside him. Sunen said, "How much do you know of Japanese history?"

The Whizzer said, "Nothing, really. History was never one of my strong points in school."

Sunen said, "Really. Well...all you really need to know is that there is a peasant uprising going on now; they think the Shogun is the cause of all their woes, and they believe that killing him will solve their problems. They are fools, of course. But they are also fools being controlled by someone else, and if the mobs succeed in killing the Shogun and kidnaping the Empress, the whole of Japan will fall under the control of...someone."

The Whizzer said, " Someone'?"

Sunen glanced at the Castle, spread out below him and the Whizzer and illuminated from several fires sprouting from it, and shook his head. "I am not sure who. The puppet-master who pulls the strings of the mob, and who is behind Tanuma Okitsugu. I must find him soon, before he succeeds in his plans."

The Whizzer said, "I...okay, I can see that, I guess. That doesn't explain why I'm here, though. I wonder why..." His voice trailed away as he looked down at the city.

Sunen looked at him for a moment. "You are an American, you said?"

The Whizzer looked up at Sunen. "Yes. Why?"

Sunen said, "Your Japanese is good; you speak it somewhat strangely, but it is still much better than I've heard from any other white man. Even the priests who came here before Ieyasu took power never mastered it; even Will Adams was never as fluent as you. How is that possible?"

The Whizzer smiled, pleased, and said, "My father was an explorer, and took me everywhere with him when I was a kid. We went to Hokkaido for a couple of months on a dig when I was 7, and I picked up some Japanese there. And I was in Japan...here, I mean...after the war, during the first months of the Occupation. I was one of the Liberators they chose to make sure the Japanese obeyed the surrender. It's not that hard for someone who lives as fast as I do to pick up languages and customs. Y'know, Sunen, your English is pretty good, too; sounds kinda funny to me, though."

Sunen said, "I...have a facility for languages. And many of my brothers speak English. If it sounds strange to you, though, it may be because the English I know is different from the English you know. Languages change over time."

The Whizzer nodded slowly. "Yeah, that makes sense to me. So...Sunen, what do you want to do about this? I mean...you're obviously powerful...wait. You've probably got the same powers as Ike had, don't you?"

Sunen said, finally, "Yes."

The Whizzer, seeing Sunen's reluctance to say anything further, said, "Okay, you don't wanna talk about it. Fine. But even if you are as powerful as he is...was...is...will be...whatever. Even if you've got his power, we still can't stop the mob. How do you wanna handle this?"

Sunen opened his mouth, but before he could speak a voice from above them said, "Don't bother to answer him, Sunen.' You'll have other questions to concern yourself with soon enough."

Both Sunen and the Whizzer looked up, leaping to their feet. They saw, on a rooftop above theirs a dozen yards away, a man in a beaten yellow kosode, holding a staff in one hand. Beside him on the rooftop were a number of other figures, all armed and wearing a variety of clothes - some dressed as samurai, in robes and armor bearing a variety of crests, some dressed as peasants, wearing little more than loincloths, and some wearing loose black tights and face masks. Both the Whizzer and Sunen noticed that a number of figures, also wearing the black tights and masks, were looking at them from over the edge of the rooftop on which they were standing.

The Whizzer said, through clenched teeth, "Ninja." Sunen shot him a brief, somewhat surprised glance, but the Whizzer didn't notice it and went on. "I had enough of you scum to last me a lifetime during the war. You got something to say, pal, say it before I loosen your teeth for you."

The figure in yellow smiled humorlessly and said to Sunen, "My...master...will be most eager to speak with you, Mizoguchi. And your gaijin companion, as well."

Sunen drew both swords, brought them to a basic defensive position, and said, "Let him come to me, then, rather then sending his catamites to fetch me."

The man in yellow frowned angrily and said, "Take them!"

In seconds the Whizzer and Sunen were surrounded by figures in black, jumping at them and thrusting various bladed and blunt weapons at them. Although there was only a small amount of room on the roof, and thus the Whizzer couldn't maneuver the way he was accustomed to, the ninja attacking him were still moving in slow-motion relative to him, and the combat skills he'd learned during the war came back to him in a hurry; Mercury, before he'd died, had taught him and the Hurricane and Spitfire and Super Sabre and Marvel Boy much about the best way to fight large numbers of opponents at superspeed. Although Mercury had been perhaps the most conceited and egotistical individual that the Whizzer had ever met - and definitely the most insufferable - he'd been indisputably knowledgeable about superspeed, and obviously had a great deal of experience in using it. The Whizzer had never been quite sure whether Mercury really was the god he claimed to be, and the Vision and Monako would never say "yes" or "no" as to what Mercury had been...and the Whizzer had to admit he'd never cottoned to him...but he'd died saving the other Liberators and the world, and so the Whizzer had to give him that. And he'd taught the Whizzer some good combat tricks.

The Whizzer ran forward and yanked a staff out of the hands of the nearest ninja, and then, whirling it in a circle over his head, used it to clear his side of the roof of ninja, sweeping them off their feet, using its sides and ends to knock them off the roof, and catching and breaking blades and arms. When he had a moment to catch a breath, he looked to his left and saw that Sunen was still standing in the same spot, and his two swords were still in the same position, low by his side, but that both blades were covered with blood, his robes were spattered with it, and there were eight dead and dying ninja at his feet.

The ninja in yellow, who'd used the opportunity to observe both Mizoguchi (whose swordsmanship was even better than he'd thought; the ninja still believed he could take him, but conceded that it might be more difficult than he'd previously anticipated) and the gaijin in yellow (whose speed was something that the ninja hadn't anticipated at all, and which posed some problems), nodded at the figures beside him, and in seconds they were firing arrows and throwing shuriken and bags and barbed nets at the pair.

Sunen tensed and summoned his energies up to his eyes, preparing to fry the projectiles with his heat vision, but saw that the Whizzer was already in motion, breaking the arrows as they reached the roof, plucking the shuriken from the air in mid-flight and laying them down at his feet, catching the bags of blinding sand and redirecting them at the ninja, and shredding the nets with his hands. Sunen smiled and made a come-hither gesture with his swords to the ninja in yellow, saying, "We await the pleasure of your company...ninja."

The ninja in yellow squinted, obviously angered, then shrugged and nodded at something or someone below the Whizzer and Sunen. He waited a few seconds, then said, "I regret, Kojiro, that I have appointments elsewhere. My master will simply have to content himself with your corpses. Know this, though, as you die: that I will be delivering the Empire to my master as you perish." He then slipped over the side of the roof he stood on, and disappeared.

The Whizzer looked quizzically at Sunen, who thought for a moment, jammed his swords into their scabbards, and then leapt forward, grabbed the Whizzer, and dove straight down, towards the ground, several flowers below. They had only descended 20 feet, barely avoiding the arrows of the ninja who'd been hanging on the side of the building, when the roof on which they'd stood exploded. Although they were moving quickly, they were still caught in the shockwave and sprayed with shrapnel, and their landing, in a small garden not far from the walls of the hommaru, was a rough one. The Whizzer winced and probed at his back, his hand coming away bloody. Sunen's breathing was heavy, and he had a generally stunned look about him. The Whizzer said, "You okay?"

Sunen shook his head. "It is...nothing."

The Whizzer said, "We gotta get help - where's the Shogun?"

Sunen opened his mouth, then whirled around and looked up into the night sky, drawing his swords. Something was descending, blocking out the stars as it came. It landed and sneered down at them. It was man-shaped, and generally appeared to be a man, but what seemed from a distance to be purple armor revealed itself, up close, to be the body of the figure. It stood nine feet tall, looming over the both, with grotesquely outsized muscles. Its face held a sneer, and it had an odd design of makeup or something about its mouth and jaw. It looked, to Sunen, almost like a living statue of purple metal.

Sunen heard the Whizzer say, grimly, "Apocalypse."

The figure's head turned a pleased, malevolent smile on the Whizzer. "So - a mouse who knows the name of the owl swooping down upon it. And thus, perhaps, a mouse who would desire to be an owl, instead."

Apocalypse looked at both the Whizzer and Sunen and said, "I have this night set a fire which will burn away this little kingdom, which will purify the dross and leave only the strongest. Who will serve me, for I am stronger still. I have observed you both, and I find in you a strength which I would have serve me, rather than be wasted in attempting to oppose me. Join me; become my Horsemen. You will know long life and great power - I will grant you both - and you will assist in the fruition of the greatest of any goals imaginable: the destruction of all inferiors and the triumph of the one who Destiny has chosen as the strongest. Me."

The Whizzer, teeth clenched, said, "I got a glimpse of your goals' near the M'Krann, Apocalypse. No deal." He looked at Sunen and said, "This is a murdering bastard who'd wipe out the world just to hear it scream, Sunen. Don't listen to him."

Sunen looked Apocalypse in the eye and said, "I serve the Space Gods, Apocalypse, and they are greater by far than you. And it is they, not Destiny and not you, that controls Man's evolution. I reject your offer."

Apocalypse sighed with a sound of grinding metal. "It is always the same; your misguided principles addle your brains, and guarantee your lives will be brief candles snuffed out too early." He nodded at something behind Sunen and the Whizzer, and said, "You could be strong, but you chose to be weak. Let that be your epitaph."

The ninja in yellow leapt from the doorway, staff extended, and struck at the back of Sunen's head. Sunen, no fool, had instantly known the meaning of Apocalypse's nod, and listened and waited until the last moment, then ducked and whirled around, his katana making a horizontal cut. The ninja, having already seen Sunen fight, was ready, and brought the end of the staff down in time, blocking the blow. Sunen thrust forward with his wakizashi, but the ninja whirled the staff in a circle, blocking the thrust, and spun backwards on his left foot, so that only his left side faced Sunen. The ninja moved the staff into a general defensive posture, and then said, "You are Mizoguchi Sukeshige Kojiro?"

Sunen, poised to attack, stopped and said, "I am."

The ninja said, "I am Ogun. I cannot die. Join us, Mizoguchi; your skill and power would be welcome in the service of my...master. You would be second only to me. It would...pain me to have to kill you."

Sunen said, "Ogun...I know that name. Ogun who captured Go-Horikawa and Go-Shirakawa?"

Ogun inclined his head slightly, his face expressionless.

Sunen said, "Musashi spoke of you." He spun and decapitated the massive, red-robed figure that had silently (Ogun had thought) run up behind the samurai as Ogun had spoken to him. Sunen turned around in one smooth motion, swords still ready. "He said you were a treacherous snake, with the morals of a rabid dog and ignorant of no honor."

Ogun, shocked, said, "You...you killed Kirigi!"

Sunen, ignoring Ogun's words, said, "He told me, before he died, that if ever I encountered you, I should inform you that, had you crossed the bridge that day, he would have struck you down with no more difficulty than chopping wood."

Ogun snarled incoherently and leapt forward again, jabbing and then swinging his staff first at Sunen's head and then at his right arm.

Sunen effortlessly blocked the blows with his swords and said, in a calm voice, "Your Kirigi may be a threatening specter to ninja, a ghost story to frighten each other with at night, but to a trained samurai he is just another clumsy peasant."

Ogun spun the stuff; a blade appeared from one end, and he feinted and then stabbed at Sunen's breast with it. Sunen used his wakizashi to block the blow and drew blood with a quick slice across Ogun's waist. Sunen said, over the sound of the blades meeting, "You are without honor; you left your clan to become a ninja. You use any tactics to win, no matter how vile or dishonorable. And you are a fool, to think that I or any samurai would abandon his lord to join your master."

Ogun thrust the other end of the staff at Sunen; a cloud of blinding sand flew at him. Sunen whirled his swords in a defensive arc and closed his eyes, and when he felt the sand stop hitting his face he opened his eyes again and said, "A fool, without honor, serving an insane and evil master for pay; your death will do us all a favor."

Ogun was no longer standing in front of Sunen. Sunen did not move his swords, but closed his eyes again. Ogun, crouched behind a stone bench some feet away, silently leapt and thrust the blade at Sunen; Sunen, eyes still closed, blocked the thrust and stabbed with his short sword, wounding Ogun along the ribs. Sunen opened his eyes again and said, "Your ninja tricks are formidable if one is not expecting them, but--" Ogun threw a flash pellet and then somersaulted over Sunen. Sunen blinked twice and turned about and said, "--but a trained samurai is a match for any ten or a hundred ninja."

Ogun had disappeared again. Sunen waited. From off to his side Ogun's staff, now converted into a spear, flew at him. Sunen cut it down in mid-air, and then deflected the poisoned shuriken that followed it. Ogun threw another flash pellet, and before the explosion of light faded away threw the working end of a chain at Sunen's legs, partially entangling them. He pulled, but the samurai was surprisingly strong and heavy, and didn't budge. Sunen sheathed his wakizashi and reached down and yanked on the chain, saying, "And an intelligent man will always defeat a stupid one...neh?"

Ogun, the chain wrapped around left his hand so he'd have better leverage, could not free himself of the chain in time and was pulled forward. He swung his sickle in mid-air, but Ogun's katana blurred forward, cutting the sickle in two and chopping through Ogun's ribcage. Ogun landed and tried to roll away, but found his muscles and nerves would not obey him, and he lay, facedown, bleeding.

Sunen pulled the chain off his legs and picked up Ogun, whose face had gone pale and who was hovering on the edge of unconsciousness, mumbling to himself, "A ninja's duty in life is death...get up...a ninja's duty in life is death.." Sunen brought his face close to Ogun's and said, "You do not even merit a warrior's burial; all you deserve is to be dumped in the river with the rest of the trash." And with that he threw Ogun high into the air, towards the harbor.

As Ogun had jumped and struck from behind at Sunen, the Whizzer said to Apocalypse. "That leaves me and you, you big blue freak. You've had this coming since the M'Krann."

Apocalypse said, "Twice now you have used that word, and threatened me with a vengeance that I do not fear but have not earned from you. Explain yourself."

The Whizzer blurred for a moment, then solidified. His anger seemingly vanished, he said, "Never mind. It wouldn't mean anything to you, and I shouldn't tell you anyhow."

Apocalypse clenched his fists, his muscles bunching up quite impressively, and he grew up to twelve feet tall. Towering over the Whizzer, he growled, "You have chosen to oppose History and Destiny, and to pit your little power against that of En Sabah Nur, the Scythe That Cuts Lives. Your death may be easy or excruciating; which you choose depends on how you answer me. What...is...the M'Krann?"

The Whizzer blurred again for a moment, then solidified. He said nonchalantly, "I suppose it can't hurt to tell you. You won't be there for another two hundred years, and you won't win when you get there anyhow. It's a big crystal on an alien world; it controls the universe."

Apocalypse raised one massive, clenched fist and said, "You have done me a service, little human, and for that I will kill you quickly."

The Whizzer's image blurred as the fist came down; the blow swept through the image and shattered the stones beneath the Whizzer's image. From all around Apocalypse came the Whizzer's voice. "You'll try."

Apocalypse whirled around, ignoring the fight between Ogun and Sunen and searching for the source of the Whizzer's voice. No matter in which direction Apocalypse turned, however, he couldn't locate the Whizzer, who kept speaking to him from behind him. "You'll be something to see in a couple of centuries, Apocalypse, but right now I don't think you've ever fought someone as fast as me."

Apocalypse felt something brush his back, and whirled and fired beams of raw energy from his hands. They blew through the rear wall of the garden and set several of the plants and trees on fire. He felt a hand on his back, and spun around, raising his arms to fire. As his arms came up a large metal ball appeared in his face and then exploded, knocking him back three steps and embedding dozens of shards of metal in his body.

The Whizzer's voice echoed off the walls of the garden, over the dim sounds of shouts and fighting from other parts of the castle. "See, me, I think as fast as I run. In the time it takes you to finish one of your sentences, I've already run through a dozen ways to beat you. When you paused to let me respond, I ran off and put together that little bomb. Lucky for me there's lots of black powder in the Castle."

Apocalypse felt something sharp jab into his back, and whirled around and fired bolts of plasma from his hands and eyes. They went through the hole in the garden walls that he'd just created and destroyed three more layers of walls. He stretched and removed a short sword from his back, and then turned and snarled as he heard the Whizzer's voice again. " course, I didn't expect that to kill you; I know you're too tough for that. But it..."

The Whizzer's voice cut off suddenly, and Apocalypse, tensing as he listened, paused to wait for the Whizzer to finish his sentence.

The Whizzer, having prodded Apocalypse into destroying several layers of walls in the Castle, used the space created to build up speed as he ran forward. Although he only had a little over a hundred feet, he was still doing 150 mph when he reached Apocalypse, and the momentum he'd built up drove the spear through Apocalypse's body, and carried him into the far wall of the garden, embedding the spear a foot deep into the stone and leaving the impaled Apocalypse limply hanging there, twitching and jerking.

The Whizzer stood some feet away from Apocalypse's body, arms crossed, and said, "...did set you up for that. Your type always expects my type to finish their sentences, don't you? Stupid, really. Sets you up for too many things. Of course, you always expect that folks like me won't go for the killshot. That's stupid, too. I was a soldier, and I know what you plan for the rest of the world. Killing you will mean saving millions; I don't know if I can do it here, since you're alive in the future, but I'm going to try."

Apocalypse's body stopped twitching, and his head came up, grinning a ghastly smile. He reached down and broke the spear and freed himself from the stone wall, ignoring the green fluid leaking from his body. He said, "And you will fail. Your type is always doomed to failure; only the strong will triumph and survive, and I...kack" He stopped and spat, a thick blob of the green fuild.

The Whizzer smiled nastily and said, "You were saying?"

The smile on Apocalypse's face disappeared, and he abruptly leapt into the air and hovered ten feet over the Whizzer's body, his eyes and hands glowing. He shouted, "AND I AM STRONG, AND YOU ARE NOT, HUMAN!" He pointed one glowing hand at the Whizzer and said, "Your words have given me the future, human. Know that as you die. Or have you discovered a way to fly?"

A pair of yellow beams struck him in the face, and he gave a small cry and jetted to the side some feet in the air. Kingo Sunen kept the beams focused on Apocalypse's face as he walked forward and said, "He won't need to. Your plans are a failure, Deviant."

Apocalypse, blinded by the beams, which bore into his head despite his attempts to shield his face with his left arm, shot without looking at Sunen, who jumped and avoided the blasts. Sunen said, "The Shogun is not in the Castle, foul mutate! The Empress is not in her shrine! I saw that they were safely taken away several hours ago! Your rioters will be trapped and die in the Castle, and your pawns will be exposed and executed! The Castle burns now, but you have failed, Deviant - Nihon will always be ruled by the Japanese, and never by anyone else!"

Apocalypse snarled and fired again, but Sunen levitated and began flying quick, tight circles around Apocalypse's body, raining super-strong punches and concussive eye-beams on him and deftly avoiding Apocalypse's return blows. Apocalypse growled, "You...are strong...but you too...will die."

The Whizzer's voice came from somewhere above Apocalypse. "I don't think so." The Whizzer, having built up a lengthy head start by dashing across the walls and rooftops of the Castle, ran off the roof closest to Apocalypse and threw himself at the levitating purple figure. The Whizzer was moving at almost 250 mph and carrying three large katanas, which he was holding in both hands. He swung them at Apocalypse and sheared right through his body, the katanas splintering as they ground through his body.

Apocalypse screamed in agony and instinctively dropped his arms and clutched his sides, whereupon Sunen increased the energy from his eyes. Apocalypse's head came apart with a wet sound, and he threw both hands over the stump of his neck and shot away into the sky.

The Whizzer trotted up to Sunen and said, "Good work, pal."

Sunen smiled a small but genuine smile and bowed his head. "You are a fierce warrior, Whizzer. I am honored to have fought with you."

The Whizzer grinned and clapped Sunen on the shoulder. "The pleasure was all mine, amigo. Tell me, were you serious about the Shogun and the Empress?"

Sunen said, "Oh, yes. I knew last night...two nights ago...that this was no ordinary peasant riot, so I made sure that, whatever else might happen, Tokugawa Ieharu and Go-Sakuramachi would be safe. I..."

His voice trailed off as the Whizzer's form became indistinct and vanished. He heard a ghostly, chilling, echoey voice say, in that strange English that the Whizzer had used, "You are needed at home, Robert." And then Sunen was left alone in the garden.

Author's Notes

My explanation for the Whizzer's actions at the beginning of this issue is simple: he was in Japan after the war, and learned that acting like you're in charge, and brazenly ordering people around, will lead to many "ordinary" Japanese doing what you tell them to.

Kingo Sunen, though immersed in Japanese culture and pretending to be one of them - and having been one of them, really, for who knows how long - is still an Eternal, with a city of his own in Hokkaido (as per Eternals v1 n11), and so would be aware of the great wide world and what's going on in it. Which is how he knows how to speak English, and what the year is, and other things - he's been in contact with the other Eternals and knows what they know. If he doesn't act like a (stereo)typical samurai around the Whizzer, it's because the Whizzer isn't Japanese, and so Sunen doesn't need to put on that act.

"Ike Harris" is, of course, the Eternal Ikaris. The Whizzer's experiences with him occurred during WW2, while the Whizzer was a member of the Liberators, in adventures that will one day be chronicled in the pages of Liberators. (What, you thought I'd ignore the Eternals during WW2? Trust me - everybody who is around in continuity during WW2 will make an appearance in Liberators, sooner or later)

Will Adams was a real-life figure who was the model for John Blackthorne in Clavell's wonderful novel Shogun. Adams was an English pilot who, as in Shogun, reached Japan by mishap in 1600, befriended Tokugawa Ieyasu (at this point the Shogun) nad eventually became his commercial agent, informant, pilot, shipbuilder, and interpreter. Until the Meiji Restoration, Adams was the most fluent white speaker of Japanese.

I suppose I should explain about the duel between Ogun and Mizoguchi Sukeshige Kojiro, aka Kingo Sunen. Yeah, yeah, Ogun's supposed to be the best swordsman in the world and the equal, as a martial artist, of anyone; he's supposed to be some all-powerful ninja. My butt, he is. Kingo Sunen, as an Eternal, has had centuries longer to train, at this point, in swordsmanship and martial arts and everything else than Ogun. There's no way Ogun is better than Kingo Sunen - unless you're Chris Claremont, of course, and so in love with your own creations that you'll warp established precedent and character in favor of your own pet characters (see: Invisible Girl versus Iron Fist). Claremont, like Roy "Hack" Thomas, needs to be slapped. Hard.

A criticism might be raised that the Whizzer, according to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, could only run around 100 mph. His speed during the Golden Age, however, was clearly much faster, around that of the GA Flash. Marvel has always seemed to keep its characters' power levels lower than DC's, which is both good and bad, but I think it's a bad idea when you depower someone - especially if you do it capriciously, as Roy "Hack" Thomas did. But then, "Hack" Thomas did it to Miss America, too. One more example of "Hack" taking a perfectly good Golden Age character and messing him or her or it up. So I'm going to stick with the Whizzer's original portrayal, rather than the later one.

Yes, I blew up Apocalypse's head. No, he's not dead. Someone who can change shape, as Apocalypse can, is not going to be stopped by losing a body part; I figure he has great control over his molecules, and that his entire figure is genetically encoded into his DNA, so that he can revert to his original form whenever wants. Which means that where his head is is not where his brain or mind is, which is why blowing up his head is not lethal to him. A shame Kingo Sunen didn't know that.

Glossary

Hommaru - the main enclosure of Edo Castle.

Go-Shirakawa - Emperor of Japan who retired in 1158. In the 12th month of 1159 Go-Shirakawa and Go-Horikawa, the reigning Emperor, were captured by Minamoto no Yoshitomo and Fujiwara no Nobuyori, who used them (unsuccessfully) as hostages against Taira no Kiyomori. The Emperor & Go-Shirakawa escaped (the Emperor dressed up as a woman) and Nobuyori was executed, while Yoshitomo was exiled to Izu. Needless to say, the capture of the Emperor was not seen as an honorable deed.

Kami - a magical spirit.

Katana - the basic sword of the samurai.

Shuriken - metal throwing stars. The weapon everyone associates with ninja.

Wakizashi - the short sword of the samurai; every samurai owned a katana and wakizashi, which were emblems of his social status.

Next issue: The Fall of The Light Of The World