Helios on the MoonPHANTACEA -- Story SynopsesThe Launching of the Cosmic Express |
Helios on the MoonPHANTACEA -- Story SynopsesThe Launching of the Cosmic Express |
Dare I say it? Guess I better, now that I've asked it anew. Plotwise, in terms of Moon anyway, it really doesn't matter if Aires and Thalassa D'Angelo are Aires and Thalassa Thanatos. The Parents Thanatos think they are and that's why they've been bending all their considerable ... towards the solitary goal of securely reuniting the fullness of their entire family beneath the Cathonic Dome, -- on devic Daddy Death's otherwise inviolable protectorate, the Frozen Isle of Lathakra.
For the sake of brevity (that is to say without providing any number of increasingly distracting, glowing web-links to previous chapters of the Launch cycle of story sequences), let's just acknowledge that Airealist and Demon Land, whom Tantal and Methandra consider their Fourth Generational devic sons, their Air (Aires) and their Earth (Antaeor) Elementals, are already on Lathakra. As well, at least until events detailed in the two immediately prior chapters of Moon, they (King Cold and his Crimson Queen, the Scarlet Empress, Sorceress or Seeress) seemed well on their way to retrieving the six who turned up on the Moon possessing such like Cosmicompanions as Nidaba Starrus and Anon Sassarian.
Let's further acknowledge that the last missing one has been on the Outer Earth ever since the events recounted in War's Damnation Island on Sunday, November 30, 1980 (it's now Tuesday, December 9, 1980 AD, in Outer Earth chronological parlance, or Demetray, Tantalar 9, 5980 YD, in Inner Earth dot-ditto) and that Mythland's Methandra has taken appropriate steps to see her safely to the Headworld. Simple really. Lure her to Centauri Island then guide her through the NAG Gap. Whereupon Myth's Meth would have no problem sorcelling (if that's a word) her home to the Frozen Isle via between-space.
First part, getting her to Centauri's Island, is about the extent of the no-problem bit thus far. (Not to mention for the balance of the Launch cycle of story sequences.) Give her, EIGHTEENTH's titular goddess, credit though. Unaware of anything altogether too much otherwise than, as recounted in War's first half, typically amiss in D-Brig experience, Sea makes her usual splashy entrance.
Having had breakfast, Alpha Centauri decided he needed a hot bath. As he was struggling to disrobe, cursing the fact that he let Yataghan leave his side to follow Sharpshooter, something, someone, came out of the steam.
"Jesus Christ, you!"
"Not Jesus Christ, -- but you're right, it is me."
"Thalassa D'Angelo!"
"Got a bathrobe?"
One of Thalassa-her's most endearing qualities, especially for most of the males in her entourage, is that Sea-she's never learned how to aquify (again if that's a word) her clothing when she aquifies herself. Consequently, once she returns to her solid state, essentially Norma-Normalwoman-self, she-Sea's, well, very much in need of a bathrobe. At the minimum!
Curiously (unless it's serendipitously) enough, over in the first part of 'Ringleader's Revenge' (which is set in December 1955) this time up, Abe Ryne thought-notes much the same thing.
Why they were called [the King's Own] Crimefighters, a strange sort of Americanism, was because the King [of England in 1945] was an admirer of American-produced colour comic books along the lines of Superman and Green Lantern. Couldn't call [KOC] costumed crimefighters, though, since they did not wear uniforms. As it was, it was hard to keep Sea clothed at all.
Unlike Air [Aires, maybe Thanatos] or Rainbow [Gloriella, definitely D'Angelo], when she changed states in order to go into action, Thalassa did not change what she was wearing into sea water. If she was not where she left her clothes when she changed back, well, that's why her comrades took to carrying spare sets of outfits for her whenever they joined her in the field.
(And if that isn't invitation enough to check out LSN, I don't know what would be. End-plug.)
In any event Hush Mannering, Pandora of Cabalarkon, Dorothy Dogdson etc., provides her with one thereupon, having known her-Goddess for literally decades, Hush-her becomes Sea-she's tour guide of Centauri Island. So, why do you suppose they can't find she-Sea's Breezy-Twin-Brother anywhere on the Island, -- especially as Sea-she followed Elemental-Airhead-him all the way from Encenada-Mexico to Centauri-Hawaii? Misty mite of a myth-tery that, eh-wot?
Of course EIGHTEENTH doesn't just feature Thalassa (either surname'll do), the little trickster (any name'll do) and the fatman (both of them). There's Seventeen Signallers, fresh in from Vancouver on their Silver Streak jet, Doubleman Johann Schmidt, fresh in from Pearl Harbour, talk of the devaray, Strife's Miracle Key, dying or dead homos, and Callion-Clones. Is Jesus Mandam still alive, as apparently are two of Kadmon Heliopolis' Trigon Spartae, namely Echion Sangati (Shelter) and Thaddeus Hyperenor (Shooter)?
Myself, I'd say there's only one way to find out. I trust you agree!
Top of PageI couldn't remember exactly where Centauri Island ended, so I went back and looked it up. I'd recommend you do the same but, in case it's not out here in Cyberia any more, I thought I'd reprint it just to save time.
Crystallion shook-shoulder-shivered uncontrollably. Then her suit began to glow.
"Gloman!" someone shouted.
"Nuclear!" someone else shrieked.
"Sluts for nuts," the trickster nattered inanely, -- in frustration as much as horror.
And then it was over!
Well, as you no doubt realized a long time ago, not quite yet it isn't! By end-NINETEEN, however, it definitely is over for a few more of Island's featured characters. I'd list them off but that would spoil the fun of finding out for yourself. One whom it's not over for is Cromwell Necator, the apparently still-alive leader of the otherwise mostly walking dead Valhallans.
Protector's off to bomb the Prison Beach of Incain, beneath the Sedon Sphere on the Inner Earth. That's where All the Invincible dwells. The She-Sphinx is allied to the Thanatoids of Lathakra and the Frog Folks' Amphitrite, Quarter Queen of Shenon and the Summoning Aged mother of the duplicitious Lakshmi of Lemuria, who last appeared in SIXTEENTH-Moon. All's also the Mandroid Monster Moulder at least partially responsible for Sharkczar, Hell's Horsemen, and our chapter-titular character.
Since the tragic Crystal St Synne was a one-time Strife (not going to tell you which time, am I?), NINETEEN seems a pretty good place to dispose of her also. Oops, did I just give away something I shouldn't have? Oh, well, too late now. (Truth told, I give away a lot more than I should this chapter anyhow.) MOON's winding down, though, so it is safe to say we're starting to bid goodbye to many a character we've become familiar with over the course of the Launch cycle of story sequences. Some them look like they might even survive.
"Your wife and daughters are safe in Cabalarkon, Dr. Zeross," said King Cold, deigning to speak to him directly. "I see you have made your first down payment on our beneficence."
"Extortion, more like," Ringleader pointed out. Methandra handed the still stunned Thalassa to her husband then grabbed her forehead. Someone was communicating with her telepathically.
"It's Artist. Mirrors' found the others. By the Triplet Goddesses, they're on the Moon!"
"Bloody wonderful," muttered Harry, entirely exhausted from his exertions. "Oh well, at least I can't say it's the last place on the Whole Earth I want to go."
Guess you realized where Rings was going to end up a long time ago too. Next question is, -- will any of them come back?
Top of PageOnly three more moons to go and we begin TWENTIETH as we ended SEVENTEENTH, -- ie, with Doubleman Sean Smythe popping up in James 'Don't Call Me Captain Any More Either' Aremar's cabin on the UNES Liberty. In addition to the one in his forehead Smythe's got a handful of devic third eyes and Aremar tells him where he can stick them.
Before we find out where exactly that is, it's back to the tiny tri-peaked Hawaiian Islet off the coast of Maui for an almost literal mop up of Centauri Island. There's some clarification of the body count thus far, more speculation as to Callion-Clones of the original King Crimefighters, among others (including Jesus Mandam and the Trigon Spartae), and such like details but, as far as any of that goes, I'm inclined to agree with Abe Ryne in most respects.
"I bloody hate loose ends," complained the patriarch. "And there's enough of them left to keep a wig-maker in raw material for years. I suppose we can only do what we can. My main concern's still Helios on the Moon."
"As to that," put in Schmidt, "I still can't shake the feeling Sean isn't dead."
"Then he probably isn't."
Thanks a stack, Abe, but we already know that, don't we? What we've been taking for granted up to now is the Dual Entities' assertion that Heliosophos, in his 100th lifetime, is possessed of a Lord Order leftover from his 99th (a Yajra and not a Yajur, please note), which took place at an unspecificied time far in the future. Simultaneously we've also been accepting her word that his Machine Memory is being humanized by an evolved Erebe (not Ereba).
Have we been misled? More to the plot-poignard-point, has he been conned? Helios is beginning to think so. Hence TWENTIETH's title.
"Recall, Strife said she was a deva. That she jettisoned the future Night. I don't think she did. I don't think there is, or isn't any more, a future Night. I don't think Mnemosyne was possessed by a deva at all. I think whatever was humanizing her left her yesterday. Left a vacuum that first Strife then, now, Ereba filled."
"Then what was it?" demanded Max.
"A demon!"
"What's the difference?" wondered Kinesis.
"Don't know precisely," granted Helios. "But I'll bet whatever she was, her name's Lilith!"
Who this Lilith may or may not be isn't so important right now as into whom Spring sticks his excess third eyes. Oh, -- and did I mention the Cosmicompanions, the likes of Nidaba Starrus and Anon Sasarian, aren't deva-possessed any more? Well, thanks to Max's No Name Thing (Multivoid? Boddhishatva?), they weren't at start-TWENTIETH anyhow. Of course neither was Doc Defiance.
Other thing about Helios is that, even if he has been having things relatively easy thus far, perhaps that's how it should be. Don't want to antagonize a Maddog Mad God, do you? Should you answer in the affirmative, best seek psychiatric help. As for the medical variety, even though that's where Sean and not just Sean's concentrating his Aspects of Amoebaman attributes, it seems it isn't going to be required in just Helios' Lunar Citadel.
In Ryne's suite on Centauri Island, Dolph Dulles suddenly shrieked, waking the Great Man in the process, and clutched at his chest. Blood spurted out between his fingers. Then he twirled, as if by a poltergeist, and went down in a heap. He was now bleeding from a head wound as well.
"Get a doctor," Ryne shouted to the guards standing outside his suite. In his early morning befuddlement, he'd momentarily forgotten that Connie Lindquist was apparently dead and that the other two, Paul Creel and Angus Skullian, were nerve-damaged, -- Creel now deaf. Nevertheless, his cry was answered almost instantly.
Dr. Aristotle Zeross stepped through a teleport-hole.
Hey, I didn't say Harry's going from the Frozen Isle straight to the Moon!
Top of PageIn TWENTIETH-Moon, mere moments after yet another major character from the Launch cycle of story sequences bites the proverbial on Centauri Island, Hush Mannering, Dorothy Dodgson, Pandora of Cabalarkon, Young Life, the little trickster, took her leave of Abe Ryne and the rest of those there with him at the time.
"Autopsy to your heart's content, any of you. The untouchables are all dead and you have the bodies to prove it. You'll never find out if they were the real things or not. Never learn anything more about Big Shelter either, at least from me, -- or from here; not now anyhow. Don't forget about Panharmonium, though. It's coming. Sooner than you think."
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So what, you might ask, if you don't already know, is this Panharmonium? Look no further than the beginning of TWENTY-FIRST for an answer to that.
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This particular she is of course yet another myrionymous one, Milady Mnesmosyne, Machine Memory, Memory of the Angels, of the Grey and, maybe, of the Demons as well. Turns out Helios isn't the only who has developed doubts about her. So too have this chapter's titular-characters, the Trigregos Sisters. Although I warned you they'd be back, they haven't appeared since FIFTH-Moon.
So it's back to New Weirworld, which also means we've at least one Visionary, Utopian Scientocrats, Ubi (but not his spousal and kiddie units, they've already made their escape) and, perhaps surprisingly, Cosmicaptain Mikelangelo Starrus. Not Lord Yajur, though. Not really anyhow, for as the Visionary tells the Triplet Goddesses towards the end of TWENTY-FIRST:
"This Yajur of yours is not what he once was. I believe he is much like a shade, one dead yet risen, more spirit [being] again than anywhere near as whole as he had been. He was weakened by his five centuries' containment within what we must call the Cathonic Dome, -- probably permanently so. He needs to possess a shell but, once dispossessed and now repossessed, it is he who is the possessed. Starrus is dominant and Starrus is a deva-slayer. Care to try him out? On yourselves!"
Naturally enough they decline. They wouldn't mind finding a way to prevent Moon's Angel Black-Holing any more unwelcome visitors, though, -- including herself. There's a problem with that, they tell the Visionary. Then there's a solution, he tells them.
'Even if we were suicidal, which we're not, we couldn't do as you suggest. We can get rid of the Galactic Gap but we can't seem to destroy it. The Wisdom or Memory Entities could just reattach it to Weir World.'
"Then you must eliminate them. You know how that is done. Before he slays his first deva, Starrus must slay Memory's mate!"
So, how did TWENTIETH end? Allow me to refresh your, um, memory.
Nidaba Starrus, the only one of the cosmicompanions left with two eyes, was running across the room to embrace a similarly-dressed newcomer. He glowed like the Lightray Lunatic and had a third eye. Neither Max nor the professor needed to hear her cry her husband's name to know who he was.
Last night there was a full moon in Vancouver. Next time up, I promise you, there'll be a LAST-Moon!
Top of PageAt long last, some twenty-plus years after it should have happened in PHANTACEA - The Comic Books, it happens in PHANTACEA on the Web. LAST-Moon has finally arrived. But, wait a minute, -- what was that I said howsoever long ago it was now? (Can't remember? All right, here it is again[.] Don't say I've never done you any favours[!])
When Heliosophos dies so too goes Trigon, -- back into the timestream. He is a time-tumbler after all. And with Trans-Time Trigon goes Machine Memory, right? That's certainly what happens ordinarily. [Has for upwards to a 100-Lifetimes apparently.] Will it this time? That is to say, will it if Helios doesn't survive whomever, not to mention whatever, he has to face in LAST-Moon?
Wasn't that a pretty strong hint that this chapter's title's somewhat of an exaggeration? Maybe it was, -- and maybe it wasn't. Maybe I should have entitled LAST-Moon: "Helios 'Possibly' Dies Again". Except, -- how else could you interpret a sequence like this?
The Mnemosyne Machine's face was in the computer wall. It was dimming, though, and Yajur-Helios was too stunned to realize his, their, danger. Starrus had just enough of the power he had sucked out of the computerized mandroid thing left to cause a stellar sword. It sliced off the Unity's head at the neck then he, Cosmicaptain Two that he now was again, toppled to the floor, barely conscious.
O.J. Maxwell scooted out from underneath the table and grabbed Starrus by the collar of his uniform. Composite Orderly Anarchist Yajur's body clawed towards his ex-head. Kinesis wasn't as fast as Maxwell but he was quick enough to kick said-head down the room then go after it.
"Put it back," commanded Machine Memory's computer self out of the wall. "I warned you what happens when Helios dies."
"Better to die a man than live as a devil!"
"Then we're out of here, boys. Just remember you brought this on yourselves." Mnemosyne vanished from the computer wall. The Lunar Citadel began to collapse in on itself.
Gut-bustingly funny stuff, eh? Let's see, Mik Starrus comes back from New Weirworld, and his close encounter with the Trigregos Sisters, possessing as opposed to possessed by Lord Yajur, the Unity of Order. Helios wasn't possessed by anyone until ... Well, you get the picture. The man who was called the Trigon Terminator, when the term referred to Aegean Trigon, is about to become Trans-Time Trigon's Terminator as well.
Hold on though. Devas are immortal, right? They can't be killed, at least not with any certainty. So, what would you do if you were an ever-conniving Moon's Angel who's as tired of time-tumbling as you are of being lorded over by your inviolable computer programmer? What the Mnemosyne Machine did, obviously. Get her Male Entity counterpart possessed, then get the devil who possesses Her Herr Hel Him decapitated, thereby rendering both of them, two-in-one him-them, essentially non-functional.
Presumably therefore, by End-Moon, and mostly as a result of Mnemosyne Machinations, Sophos the Wise's seemingly still sort of alive. Consequently, the Female Entity doesn't necessarily end Moon by having to bebop back into the timestream with He-Helios and thereafter have to commence Lifetime 101 either with or without him. Pretty clever, Mammary Memory. Maybe you are 'of the Demons' after all!
While that might be it for the Dual Entities on the Moon, it definitely isn't all there is to LAST-Moon. Isn't its end and neither is it its beginning, truth told. Is more like its late middle age, sooth said. Never fear, though, LAST won't leave you in the lunar lurch with regard to any of our other protagonists, -- Starrus, Kinesis, and Big Max, in particular.
Rest assured, even if it might leave them resting in pieces, it won't leave them playing football with Anarchy-Order's head and racing for a Cosmicar Two Touchdown with Hel-Yaj's decapitated body in hot pursuit. (Moderately tepid pursuit anyhow, -- without a head on his shoulders even someone as near-omnipotent as the Unity's not exactly lightning fast any more.) You'll find out if they score; that is say whether, by accessing Mik Starrus's leftover cosmicar, they manage to escape the collapsing Lunar Citadel and make it to anticipated safety on the UNES Liberty.
In LAST, at last, you'll also find out if Ringleader, Harry Zeross, successfully honours his admittedly non-dervish devilish contract with the Master Deva Parents Thanatos and rescues their six missing, albeit fourth generational, devilish children from the Moon. You'll even find out if the cosmicompanions (including Mik's wife, Nidaba Starrus) said devilish children were, when last seen, possessing yet again survive to die another day.
Want more endings? Make some [boxes] and, after I fill them in for you, check them off. (Want to fill some in for yourself, try your hand at [-] over in 'Revenge'.)
The Psychic Siblings (Johann Schmidt, Sean Smythe) and semi-sibling, semi-son, semi-nephew (Dolph Dulles)? Box them. Lilith, firstmate of Alorus Ptah, the Biblical Adam and an earlier on, unless it's in a latter lifetime, avatar of Herr Hel? Yep. (Turns out she isn't why Machine Memory might be 'of the Demons', however.)
Harmonia,
the devic Unity of Balance and second lifetime wife of Heliosophos,
back when he was King Cadmus of Thebes and she was, for lack of more details,
um, Har-Memory I guess?
Box her too. (Of course, since she spent most of her time in Gambit
being Freespirit Nihila, you might want to
interlink all three of their boxes first!)
Am I missing someone, -- some ones? You bet I am! Hush Mannering, Loxus Ryne, Alpha Centauri, Jordan Tethys, Alastor Molorchus, Cromwell Necator, Yataghan Sentalli, Connie Lindquist, George Hannibal, Sharkczar, All of Incain, the to devas otherwise unnameable Demogorgon, Auguste Moirnoir, -- they're all here. And a great many of them will survive to die another day as well. Reckon that means we'll be seeing most of them again, somewhere, sometime? Reckon it does!
I'm not deliberately forgetting to mention anyone, -- any ones, rather. I am deliberating not mentioning ten-ones, however. Those ten? Want to know how LAST-Moon really does end? Your Witch-wish is my command!
The Untouchable Diver, -- Yama Nergal, the Devic Grim Reaper, beside him --, led the Glorious Dead against the Weirdom of Cabalarkon. Yehudi Cohen was wearing the Crimson Corona, had the Amateramirror strapped to his arm like a shield and was brandishing the Susasword. Fortunately it was just the Master's dream becoming something everyone could see. What Wilderwitch was experiencing at that very moment, in that very bed, was real.
'Yes. You'll do just fine.'
She began to scream!
In LAST-Moon there'll be old endings. Will also, as always, be new beginnings. As for the identity of the fellow who always talks in big-print, he doesn't appear all that much in PHANTACEA. Wouldn't be an on the Web without him though. After all, he's a Headworld named after him!
Top of PageNext: 'DAMNATION -- MONTH ONE -- AFTER LIMBO!'
Unless it's 'DIVER -- THE OUTER EARTHLINGS!'
