#22
By Michael Sacal

cast of characters:

Ivar The Timewalker: Ivar, the Timewalker has experienced the passage of thousands of years, just like his immortal brothers, Gilad and Aram. Unlike them, or anyone else, Ivar has spent his years skipping around from one point in history to the next. Able to find natural "time arcs" that carry him from era to era, Ivar might be in the present one week, and in 41^st - Century North Am the next. This gets to be tricky for Ivar, who must take care to do nothing that could change history--even though this pledge of non-interference often leads to some difficult choices. But his time jumps aren't motivated by curiosity or adventure, Ivar only hopes that the next time arc will place him back in the arms of his one, great love--lost in another time.

Rebecca Simms: Rebecca Simms is the granddaughter of the Golden Age Dr Tomorrow, and daughter of the Silver Age Dr. Tomorrow. Rebecca lived in the Reality known as VH 2, till she was recruited by "The Director", the leader of the group known as The T.I.M.E. Vaulters, a group dedicated to maintain both temporal and dimensional order across the multiverse.

Magnus MotherGod Fighter: Son of Torque Torkelson and Kris Hathaway, Magnus was send into the future by Ivar after Geoff McHenry, Geomancer of The Late 20^th Century asked him to do so. Magnus was send into the 40^th Century to help mankind against the power of MotherGod Pierce and the devil incarnate, Master Darque.

Through The Looking Glass Part VII:

"Rai Part I"

September 10^th, 4001, 09:06 a.m. EST:

Central Am, Venazur Sector:

Inside a cave deep within The Gulf of Mexico we find Ivar Anni-Padda, along with Rebecca Simms, Doctor Tomorrow of an other dimensional reality known as VH 2, questioning Magnus, MotherGodFighter.

Magnus is floating 10 ft above the floor, held in place by a gravitational disk implanted on his back a few minutes ago by Rebecca.

"I'll tell you what you want to know as soon as you set me down!" screamed a furious Magnus.

"Just 2 minutes ago you threatened to "finish us with your bare hands", didn't you? *" asked a very worried Ivar, who just minutes ago was informed that his brother Aram, an immortal and quite an excellent hand-to-hand fighter, was dead.

*: Last Issue...Mike.

"I changed my mind. I recognize you now. You are Ivar, older brother of my mentor and teacher Aram Anni-Padda." said a very sad looking Magnus.

"Very well, I'll cut you down." said Rebecca as she pushed a button on her belt, and instantly Magnus came crashing down to the floor.

Magnus got up from the floor and sat down next to Ivar and Rebecca. "Thanks. Now please, if you'll let me I'll tell you about the last days ofAram, a year ago, and of how he was killed by the man he most trusted in the world, his brother, Gilad."

Ivar's face came "crashing" down to the floor when hearing this. He couldn't believe that his 2 brothers would ever be capable of killing the other, but by taking a look at Magnus's face he knew it was true. Gilad had killed Aram.

"It all began 1 year ago, give or take a month or two: "

A mountain deep within the highlands of what once was known as Scotland. Aram and Magnus are climbing to the top of a cliff, evading Master Darque's Darque Squads, revived corpses of all the people that died when Pierceville was destroyed years ago.

"Aramand I were on an scouting expedition inThe European Consortium, trying tofind others like just like us battledMotherGodmight be a torn onMaster Darque'sside. We had heard stories about a man from Asia, who had complete control over a strange form of energy, which could disrupt MotherGod, even kill her."

"Magnus, once we reach the top get ready to kick zombie butt!!" was heard from Aram's mouth.

"Don't worry Aram, I'm ready. I was born ready." said Magnus just as he reached the top. With one hand on the ledge of the cliff he pulled himself up, doing a 3 flip jump and landing on his feet.

Just as Magnus landed 4 zombies came up behind him. "So, that's how we're playing this game. Then get ready for a world of hurt boys!"

Magnus jumped and dropped a flying kick on one of the zombies. The other 3 started to jump Magnus, attacking him all at once. Using all his strength Magnus freed himself from the zombie onslaught. 2 of the 4 zombies went over the edge and fell down the cliff, just as Aram was coming up.

"Just make sure you clean after yourself boy. Nothing stinks worse than a tunic full of zombie brains, trust me on that.." said Aram while seating down to watch the fight. "This reminds me a lot of wresting. Damn I miss that show! Now if only I had a brew." thought Aram while 5 more zombies came out from behind him. "Didn't anyone tell you? No one likes a party booper." said Aram just as he jumped on his feet and punched 2 of the zombies right on the gut, breaking them to pieces. All kind of gore splashed on Aram's shirt.

"Damn! This is what I'm talking about! It'll take me days to get the stench out of this." said Aram with a smirk on his face, while watching Magnus out of the corner of his eye breaking 2 more zombies in two. "Don't complain teach, this is the easy part. Finding thisRai will be hard." said Magnus while crushing a zombie skull with his right fist.

"No sweat kid. If my old bud Archer thought me anything it was that he who waits achieves everything." said Aram while taking his shirt off. "What are you doing? It's freezing at this height!"

"Kid, I'll take freezing temperatures over zombie stench any day. Now quit your yapping and move your butt, we already lost too much time with this morning workout." said Aram while taking Magnus by the tunic and pulling him east.

November 15, 4000, 5:40 p.m. EST:

Ched Boniface, descendant of Jack Boniface, one time servant of MotherGod, was serving Master Darque a cup of an ancient Tibetan drink.

"Very well Ched, you may leave now, I'll call you if I need you later."

"Yes master." said Ched as he left the throne room.

Master Darque approached a closet and went inside it. When he came out he was holding the head of his sister Sandria. Darque started to talk to it.

"Dear Sandria. Once long ago I thought I couldn't live without you, literally, but after Pierce took over I knew that I could find a way over that little...fault in my system. If it hadn't been for that fool Mirage and his little rebellion 2000 years ago I would have never found The Heart Of Darkness, the most powerful Necromantic artifact ever created. With it I was able to wrestle control of half of the world from that pathetic demigod Pierce, not to mention killed you, and freeing me from that pathetic bond that held us together.."

Suddenly Sandria's eyes opened.

"You forget brother, that according to prophecy I still have till the end of the first 5 milleniums to get back at you." said Sandria, looking into Darque's eyes.

"Bah! Your petty prophecies never did you any good. You spend half your life telling me about "The One", a being who was supposed to, how did you put it: "Destroy me and take away all the necromantic energy in the world, to make sure I wouldn't return", some stupid thing like that. Well, listen to me little sis, I won, you lost. There is no one, and there never will be a "One", EVER!!"

Meanwhile back with Aram and Magnus.

Magnus and Aram arrived at an abandoned space port.

"What is this place Aram?"

"Well kid, according to what I read before coming here this place used to be an air base for the French military. It was almost destroyed by Darque's when he took over the place."

"According to the database I took out of that A1 bot last year this place still has some functioning air crafts. All we need to do is find one and we are on out way to Japan, to find this mystery man you mentioned." said Aram while sniffing his arm pits ">spew< I need a bath!"

" Aram, that's disgusting!" said Magnus laughing at Aram. "This is nothing kid, you should have met me when I was living in France back in the 16 hundreds. Now that was disgusting!"

Aram and Magnus, laughing at each other, entered the abandoned command center.

"Now, if my memory serves right, this old equipment was voice activated. Magnus, grab the power pack out of my back pack and attach it to the power cufflinks outside will you?"

"Sure Aram."

"Good boy. The best since Archer. Boy I miss that guy!"

"After a few hrsAramgot the computers working and he and I boarded a shuttle and left Scotland and headed towards Japan, to find thisRaiwe had heard about a few years earlier."

"It took us a day to reachJapanbecause we had to stop quite often to refuel the shuttle andAramfound a case of cryogenically preserved beer, so we had to stop for bathroom breaks . Once we got there we saw the island nation ofJapan, the last free port on Earth. Because of it's defenderRaiMotherGod was never able to extended her rule over it, andMaster Darquenever expressed any interest in it...till that day."

"Once we arrived at theJapanspace port we were received there by an army of men dressed in ancient samurai armor. They claimed they were the protectorate of the city state ofJapan, under the rule of their leader, GodMother, a free will computer who gained sentient the same dayMotherGoddestroyedPierceville. Some believe that it was random energy released byMotherGodthatday that allowedGodmotherto become freewill."

One of the samurais approached Aram and Magnus. Aram saluted him in Japanese, which surprised the entire squad of samurais, because since MotherGod had been in control of the world of the world since the late 20^th Century Japanhad severed contact with the rest of the world, trying to escape her notice, so in 200 years no outsider had ever talked back in this language.

"Don't be afraid of me because I speak your language. Be afraid of me because I'm over 7'366 years old." said Aram while putting his arm around the samurais neck " Now what do you say you take me over to meet this Rai I've heard so much about, and maybe I'll tell you about the time me and my bros. played musketeers in France and saved it from a rotten cardinal."

The samurai slipped from Aram's friendly grasp and took out his katana. "I do not know how it is that you speak my tongue, or how you know of the mighty Rai, but know this outsider: You will never leave Japan alive!"

"Damn, I heard that 5000 years ago. Don't you get tired of repeating yourself? I bet your last name is Hoshi. That was the name of the guy who threatened me the last time I was here."

"Why yes, yes it is. How did you..." before the samurai could finish talking Magnus leaped out of the shuttle and landed feet first on top of the other samurais. "Aram, I'm tired of this "yapping". If we want to find Rai we need to get his attention. So what do you say we get cracking?"

"Kids! Magnus, I'm too old for this kind of "hero vs. hero" fights you know? I'll let you do it while my friends Hoshi here and me grab some brews." and with that said Aram took Hoshi and pulled him inside the shuttle. "Brew? No? Suit yourself, more for me. Now, the story started when my friend and I were in this pub in France. Then my 2 brothers came in, Ivar and Gilad * "

*: For more on this story check the Eternal Warrior/Archer & Armstrong #8 flip book adventure... Mike.

The 5 samurais got off the floor and ran towards Magnus, katanas in hand. "This is what I needed, a good old style fight. This will get Rai's attention soon."

"I had no problem disposing of the 5 samurais, years of training underAram'sguidance hadprepared me for worse fights than this. And it didn't take long forRaito get there, but he wasn'twhatAramor I had expected."

"While I was fighting with the samurais andAramwas relating his tale to poorHoshi, 4 shurikensmade of energy stabbed me on the back. Thanks to my energy absorption tunic I didn't fell the bashing blow, I was only knocked off my feet by the hit. When I got up and looked up I sawRai, but like I said he wasn't what I was expecting. In fact he wasn't a he, he was a she!"

"Before me stand a 6 feet tall, white as teeth woman, holding a katana above my chin."

"Who are you and why did you attack the protectorate of Japan?" asked Rai while staring at Magnus, with wonder in her eyes. She had never seen an outsider before, except for the occasional SHOCK Troop soldiers send by MotherGod every once in awhile.

"I am Magnus, defender of North Am and enemy of MotherGod Pierce. My companion, Aram and I have come to ask you to join us in our crusade to stop MotherGod and Master Darque and return the reigns of the world to the humans."

"And you think that by attacking my guards I'll listen to you?"

"Mistress." said Hoshi.

"What is it General?"

"After...talking with the stranger named Aram I think it is safe to say that we can trust them."

"Raitook a look at me and after a few seconds helped to my feet. In the background we could hear Aramclapping, yelling "this is better than Wrestlemania 86."

"Raitook us to her bed chamber so we could talk."

"So you came all the way here to Japan because you heard that my energy can be used as a weapon against MotherGod huh?"

"Yes, and we won't leave without you. The Earth needs people like you, me and Aram if we ever hope to free it from MotherGod. It won't help anyone if you refuse to join us, it'll simply give MotherGod more targets to focus her attention on, instead of a force capable of defeating her."

"Suddenly the alarm went off. The city was under attack byMotherGod's SHOCK Troop squad."

"Rai,Aramand me went up on the roof of her home, which is a metallic ball outside the city, and we had a perfect look atPierce'sapproaching army."

"Dear.Rai.It.is.time.for.you.to.join.your.new.friends.and.fight.against.this.evil.being.known.as.MotheGod."said a voice coming from within the walls of Rai's bedchamber. It was GodMother.

"I'll.take.care.of.our.people.while.you.take.care.of.me.child.Don't.worry.your.precious.little.head.about.me.and.just.go.out.there." said the voice coming from inside the chamber.

"As you wish mother. Magnus, Aram, come with me, we haven't a moment to loose, those SHOCK Troops are less than one km away from here."

Rai concentrated and formed a katana of pure energy in her hands.

"I just hope she didn't send him this time." said Rai.

"Him? Him who?"

"AskedAram, but beforeRaicould answer he was hit in the back with an energy blast that ripped him in two.Raiand I looked up and saw HIM:Gilad,The Warmaster,Aram'sbrother."

"He was wearing hisX-O Armor, which he had taken fromAramin a previous fight some years back, when I was still very young."

"We meet again pup, but this time you wont' get away." said The Warmaster while lifting Aram's upper half body from the floor.

"Gi...gilad, brother, you can't do this, please."

"Don't beg to me, I don't listen to dead men." And with that Gilad ripped open Aram's chest and pulled out his heart, which he then dropped on the floor and stepped on it with his foot, squashing it all over the hull of the city.

"Noooooooooooooo!" yelled Magnus. "You bastard, you killed him!"

"And that's only the beginning pup, you're next!"

Magnus stood infront of the Warmaster, Aram's dead body at his feet and his blood dripping from his fingers.

The Warmaster's ion cannon was energized and ready to fire.

To Be Continued:

Next Issue: The Warmaster(with his X-O Armor) Vs. Magnus, MotherGod Fighter( in his energy absorption tunic). Place your bets! Next Issue also begins the final 3 part adventure of " Through The Looking Glass", taking us into the double sized celebratory issue, Timewalker 25.

Be here to witness Ivar's greatest moment when he confronts MotherGod and Warmaster, and learn the secrets of The T.I.M.E. Vaulters, and The Heart of Darkness.

Be here for Timewalker 23: The Trip Home, Part I of III.

Any comments & questions in general can be send to:

Michael Sacal.

Thursday, March 2, 2000