#20 |
|
|
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 41st - 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.
The H.A.R.D. Corps: In response to the rise of Toyo Harada and his Harbinger Foundation, the international conglomerate known as the Omen Corporation created a paramilitary unit called The Harbinger Active Resistance Division. An assembly of candidates was begun: comatose patients, patriots with highly trained past, each of whom were clearly willing to die for their country. They were granted a second chance in the form of cybernetic brain implants which not only revived them, but could also mimic the psionic powers of Harbingers. Dubbed the H.A.R.D. Corps, these battle-hardened men and women have repeatedly challenged Harada's master plan to lead a superior race into the future. But once MotherGod Pierce came into control of the world a year ago, H.A.R.D. Corps' goal has change. Now they help all people, both normals and Harbingers alike to escape MotherGod's rule.
The H.A.R.D Corps are:
Gunslinger(a.k.a. Major Charles Palmer):Gunslinger
was a fighter pilot(he can fly virtually all forms of conventional aircraft)declared
MIA(missing in action),while really in a North Vietnamese prison camp.
Straight as an arrow, tucked in at the edges, follows everything by the
book---all describe Gunslinger. His integrity and values are built into
the fiber of the character.
Shakespeare(a.k.a. Captain Aaron Brillstein):Shakespeare
is the H.A.R.D. Corps' poet warrior, the team's heart & soul.
An intellectual who justifies what he does in battle, he has both the loyalty
and the artisan of a samurai. He serves to boost morale on the team, though
he usually seems to keep a respectable distance from the others.
Hammerhead(a.k.a. Captain Marion Virgil
Peeves):Hammerhead is a firm believer in the "any means necessary"
approach to accomplishing his team's goals. Foul-mouthed and hard-living,
he is not above perpetrating a scam to get ahead or forward a mission.
Hammerhead has an extremely high pain threshold. He has very little
regard for his body, and believes that every scar he bares is beautiful
and "tells a story".
All other H.A.R.D. Corps members have been killed, and all trainees
have been captured and are under the control of MotherGod Pierce.
Aric Dacia: In 408 A.D. , Aric,
one of a tribe of Visigoth warriors, was kidnapped by the Spider
Aliens and taken aboard a mother ship where he was studies and made
to work as a slave. Using a map etched into his had by the "Map Giver",(who
bore an uncanny resemblance to Elvis), Aric sought the ultimate
weapon---the X-O Armor--and used its power to destroy the alien
ship.
Shanhara, Aric's armor, adapted to Aric and brought
him safely back to a world in which many hundreds of years passed. The
armor helped
Aric learn English and slowly acclimated him to 20th
Century life.(March 1991). 6 months later, when MotherGod Pierce
obtained her powers, X-O Manowar, alongside others of the world
heroes, mounted an attack on Pierce's Rainbow Tower. Aric
was killed during the first attack, and the X-O Armor fell into
MotherGod's hands.(September 1991).
Angelo Mortalli: Angelo Mortalli was a Mafia wise guy, a cold and ruthless hitman who at times seemed less than human. Mortalli was advancing quickly within the Mob and was engaged to the daughter of powerful mobster Gino Canelli. But when Canelli found out that Mortalli was being unfaithful to his daughter, he decided to get rid of him. Mortalli was framed for the brutal slaying of a rival gang mobster, but before any legal proceedings began, MotherGod Pierce came into power. Pierce saw great potential in Mortalli, and turned him into the second in command of her SHOC Troop Squad.
Ninjak: Colin King lived a dual life. To most, he was one of Britain's idle rich--a playboy socialite with few cares. However, to a select few, he was also Ninjak, an espionage agent without equal. Much of Ninjak's history is unknown. He was at one time an agent for the Weaponeer Organization, now defunct. This organization combated the threat of Dr. Silk and Webnet, an illegal consortium of technical, industrial and financial institutions with holdings and interest worldwide. But all of this changed after MotherGod Pierce came into being. Now Ninjak is an independent agent, using his own means to defeat Pierce.
The Harbinger Kids: This team
of rogue Harbingers came into being 2 months before MotherGod
Pierce came into power. They are the backbone of The Resistance, fighting
alongside the H.A.R.D. Corps.
The Harbinger
Kids are:
Peter Stanchek:
The second most powerful Harbinger on the face of the planet, second
only to Toyo Harada.
Flamingo:
Charlene Dupre is a young Alabama girl gifted with flame
powers.
Zephyr:
Faith Herbert, often called Zeppelin because of her figure,
is the Heart & Soul of the team.
Torque Torkelson:
Torque is the teams muscle. He has a very short fuse. Flamingo
is interested in him, but he keeps rejecting her.
Kris Hathaway:
Kris is Pete's girlfriend. She has stood by him ever since
Toyo Harada killed Pete's best friend.
Jack Boniface: One of MotherGod'sTower
Slaves.
Gilad Anni-Padda: Born before
recorded history Gilad was the Fist & Steel of the Earth,
protector of the Geomancer line, but that changed the day MotherGod
Pierce came into power.
Now Gilad, under the control of Toyo Harada, is The
Warmaster, leader of MotherGod's SHOC Troop Squad.
Aram Anni-Padda: Brother of both Gilad and Ivar, Aram is now the strong man of the human resistance against MotherGod Pierce.
Obadiah Archer: Archer handles the underground Railroad out of MotherGod's Rainbow Tower.
Dr Hwen Mirage: Leader of The Human Resistance, along with his wife Carmen.
Geoff McHenry: The Geomancer, it's Geoff's job to tell others what the Earth wants of them. He is the only one who know that this reality is wrong, and he most reach Ivar to tell him so.
September
8th, 1997 13:05 p.m. EST:
Outside
of Pierceville , a small mining town built over the ashes of old Muskogee,
Oklahoma:
An old mine opening, 5 workers
coming out for the day. SHOCK
Troop Guards all over
the mine, just one more day in Pierceville, the citadel built by MotherGod
Erica Pierce 4 and
1/2 years ago, after the resistance last stand against her and her dominion
over the Earth *.
*:Last issue...Mike
Suddenly a familiar burst of
energy fills the sky over the mine shaft. The workers, thinking it to be MotherGod,
kneel in it's presence, while the guards, more accustomed to MotherGod's
appearance, know this not to be the energy signature of their sovereign.
Without warning a familiar figure,
dressed in a green coat, leaps out of the recently formed energy arc. It's Ivar, The
Timewalker, who has
just, thanks to the help of the resistance, escaped certain capture at
the hands of MotherGod
Pierce.
Ivar
lands infront of one of MotherGod's
SHOCK Troops guards.
"Get up whelp!", says the guard
to Ivar,
who spits a mouthful of sand out of his mouth. "When am I now?", answered
a disconcerted Ivar.
The guard hits Ivar
on the back with his energy rifle, but thanks to his inhumanly strong body, Ivar
doesn't feel it. "Now, did u really think that would hurt? Now this, this
will hurt!" said Ivar
right before he decked the guard on the face, dropping him to the ground
and breaking his jaw.
"I better hurry and find the
resistance, before Pierce
finds me.", thought Ivar to himself, just as a floating watchtower
approached him. "Stop slave, before we're forced to kill you!", said a
voice from inside the tower. The tower's energy guns were charged and ready
to fire, when suddenly a man, with skin white as snow, and with a red circle
on his chest and forehead, jumped from the floating tower, landing right
at Ivar's
feet. "I'll take care of this runt, the rest of you go back to your duties.",
said the white man. "Yes commander Mortalli,
sir!" responded one of the guards, who gave a hand signal to the rest of
the SHOCK
Troopers in the area,
ordering them far from there.
"Mortalli? Bloodshot!"
yelled Ivar
to himself. "BloodShot?
I like that, now come here runt, time for your medicine.", said the white
man *, grinding his teeth, and tensing his muscles, which were clearly
seen through his SHOCK
Troop uniform.
*: From now on I'll refer to
him as Mortalli...Mike.
Mortalli
concentrated, and an spike made out of energy formed in his hands. "This,
will DEFINITELY hurt!"
Mortalli
charged in Ivar's
direction, and hit him in the gut with the spike, causing Ivar
to fall to the floor, bleeding. "Gods!" said Ivar
in a hurting voice, blood running out of his mouth and down his chin.
"MotherGod
has been expecting you Timewalker,
and she asked me to give you this in her name!" said Mortalli
seconds before ramming the spike through Ivar's
back and out his front. Ivar
passed out do to blood loss. Mortalli
lifted his right hand and made the V symbol with his fingers, indicating
the tower guards to teleport the bruised body of Ivar
to MotherGod'sRainbow
Tower.
Inside
one of MotherGod's mines:
The mine was damp, and very
dark. A few hundred workers coming in and out. The guards are equipped
with electro-whips, as well as with stun guns, to quell any riots and keep
the men working. To the far side of the mine we see Bloodshot
enter the mine, accompanied by 5 guards, carrying Ivar
in their arms. The guards dropped Ivar
into a ditch in the floor, full of other slaves.
Suddenly MotherGod
entered the cave, in her floating throne. 5 chains are attached to the
throne, and at the end of the chains we see a broken, bleeding Pete
Stanchek, his mouth
covered and his hands cut of from his arms, HwenMirage,
his legs cut off and his mouth filled with a red ball, and each time he
moves the ball goes deeper into him, Obadiah
Archer, all his limbs
cut off, having to rely on Jack
Boniface, one of Erica's
servants for all basics necessities, and finally a woman Ivar
doesn't recognize, dressed in a white jumpsuit. The woman is beaten and
bleeding, her mouth dripping saliva and blood. The woman was a beautiful
20's green eyed red head, who's beauty was obvious even after all the bruises
on her face.
"Finally you arrive Timewalker.
The resistance--what survived of it--told me you "jumped" 5 years into
the future." said Erica,
now looking 10 years younger than before, with Blonde Hair and a perkier
body, obviously having used her power over energy to alter herself, make
herself more attractive and more appealing to the men of the world, her
slaves.
"Fuck you! You'll loose Erica,
it's already happened before, and it'll happen again, just wait!" said
a still hurting Ivar,
who's body already started to heal after BloodShot's
attack a few hrs before.
"How nice, you still believe
in that "good will always triumph over evil" shit. We'll, in this world,
there is no good, not anymore! Guards!!" yelled Erica,
togging at one of the chains attached to her throne. The woman in the white
jumpsuit came forth.
"Yes mistress?" quickly responded
one of the guards. "Bring The
Warmaster, tell him
his brother has come to visit, and take the Simms
woman to level 5, I want her to "guide" the workers to the proverbial X
in the ground" said Erica,
while caressing the woman's chin. ">pew" , was heard as the woman spited
in Erica's
face. "I will never help you, you bitch! You'll have to find it by yourself."
"My dear Rebecca,
if I could find it by myself you'd be dead already." said Erica
in a mocking voice, while togging on Pete's
chain. "Now my dear boy, if you know what's good for you, you'll do what
mommy wants.".
Pete
looked into Rebecca's
eyes and concentrated "Agghhhh!!!" screamed Rebecca
while blood came out of her nose. "Please, stop!" screamed Rebecca
before dropping to her knees. "Fine. Pete dear, pull back for mommy." said
a smiling Erica.
"I have to do something, I can't let her continue this." thought Ivar,
right before he jumped out of the ditch and kicked Pete
in the face with his feet. "Forgive me friend, but I have to do this."
said Ivar,
who was still hurting because of his still-healing wound. "Bravo Ivar,
but let's see how good you do against 2 combatants." said Erica
just as The
Warmaster, sans X-O
Armor*
came into the mine.
*: which was
stolen and send into the future last issue...Mike.
A few workers stared into the
site of the battle, but were soon forced to keep moving by the guards and
their electro-whips. "Brother, good to have you back!" said Gilad
as he ran into Ivar,
knocking him back into the ditch, and rolling with him.
"Leave some for me Commander."
said BloodShot
as he jumped in after them. "Let's sit and watch the fight kiddies." said Erica
to her guards, who pressed the 5 prisoners backs with their guns and rifles,
forcing those that could to sit and watch.
"That man tried to help me,
could he be the one I was send to look for?" thought Rebecca,
while being forced to sit back down. "I know you can read minds Stanchek,
I was told you could. You can also free us, help us escape from here, why
don't you?" thought Rebecca,
while looking into Pete's
eyes. A few tears ran down Pete's
check, as he shacked his head, trying to fight Toyo's
control over him.
Meanwhile in the ditch Ivar
was being punched and kicked by both BloodShot
and Gilad.
"You should visit more bro, the time we spend apart makes me very...very...angry!!"
said Gilad,
while kicking Ivar
in the ribs.
BloodShot
smiled as Ivar
feel to the floor. "May I Commander?" he asked Gilad,
who cleaned the sweet on his forehead with his sleeve. "Go right ahead
captain, but make sure not to kill him...yet."
BloodShot
created a katana sword in his right hand, and cut Ivar's
left arm. "Arrrrrggggggghhhhhh!!!" yelled Ivar,
blood bursting out of his shoulder. "No, he most not die." Thought a wide-eyed Rebecca.
"Stanchek, you have to help him, he's out only hope." thought Rebecca
inPete's
direction. Pete
fell to the floor, trying to screaming as a battle between him and Toyo
was being fought in his mind. The mental battle was so fierce and straining
that it required all of Toyo's
concentration, which left him incapable of contacting Erica
telepathically to warn her about Pete's resistance. After a few minutes Toyo,
who was inside the throne chamber, suddenly fell to the floor, his eyes
white as snow, and his mouth dripping blood.
Back in the mine Pete
got up and shattered his and his friends chains. At the same time Gilad,
still in the ditch, shacked his head, recovering from Toyo's
mind control. "What...what have I done?" yelled Gilad
as he jumped into BloodShot's
arms, pushing him to the floor. "You sadistic bastard, leave my brother
alone!!" said Gilad
as he started to hit BloodShot
in the face. "Gil...gilly?"
said a bleeding Ivar,
getting up from the floor. "What is this?!? Guards!! Stop them!!" screamed Erica
as loudly as she could, making the workers on the mine stop, and the guards
run to her, as if there was nothing else they could do but to go to her
side.
Ivar
started to get out of the ditch, his arm already beginning to heal, but
his right arms wasn't enough to help him get out...until Rebecca
grabbed him and pulled him out. "Who...?" asked Ivar,
closed to passing out. "Rebecca
Simms, pleased to meet
you, now let's get out of here." answered Rebecca,
grabbing Ivar
and carrying him unto her back and running to the nearest exit.
Behind them Pete
and the rest of the workers started to fight against the guards, while
inside the ditch Gilad
and BloodShot
were killing each other. MotherGod
teleported herself out of the mine.
"Are you Ivar
Anni-Padda, also known
as The
Timewalker?" asked
a heavy-breeding Rebecca,
who was running as fast as she could and as far away as her legs would
take her with Ivar on her back. "Ye...yes, that's me, who are you?" asked
a near-unconsciousness Timewalker.
"Lieutenant
Commander RebeccaSimms,
Second in command of The
T.I.M.E. Vaulters of Reality
VH 2." said Rebecca
right before entering a nearby mine shaft. "Now hold on, this will be bumpy."
said Rebecca
as she jumped into the shaft.
Rebecca
pulled and unconscious Ivar
out of the water and into a nearby cave. "Thank MOTA
that Stanchek
guy finally snapped out of it." Thought Rebecca
as she entered the cave.
Inside the cave was completely
empty, except for a few marks on the floor. "T-Minus 5...4...3...2...1...0!"
counted Rebecca,
and suddenly a flash of energy enveloped the entire cave, and when it was
over a T.I.M.E.
gateway, with the universal symbol for MOTA,
appeared infront of them.
"L.C.
Simms reporting in.
I have found the Timewalker
of Reality
VH 1, permission to
take him to The
Vault." Rebecca
yelled into the gateway. "Permission denied L.C.
Simms. No one except
for natives to our reality may gaze upon The
Vault, and you know
it." said a voice that came out from the gateway. "But The
'walker is badly injured
sir, he needs medical attention A.S.A.P." said Rebecca,
while pointing at an awaking Ivar.
"Permission Denied commander.
The target is capable of recovering on his own, as his bio says. If you
had bothered to read it..." said the voice, before being interrupted. "Should
have , would have sir. I didn't have time to read it, it was 50'000 pages
long!" said Rebecca
before she noticed that Ivar
was standing behind her. "What's going on here? Who are you?" said Ivar,
his arm half regenerated.
Rebecca
wakes up from her sleep. The
T.I.M.E. Gateway is
long gone, and Ivar's
bed is empty. Rebecca
runs out of the cave, and finds Ivar
standing next to the lake from where they came out last night, all his
injuries completely healed.
" You know what's funny? For
awhile there I thought I had seen it and done it all, but now...now I know
that I hadn't even scratched the surface of it all." said Ivar,
looking to the morning sun.
"Please come inside the cave Ivar,
it's safe there." said Rebecca,
while retreating back into the safety of the cave. "Sure, safe, that's
what I thought I was before last night." said a pensive Ivar,
who remembered the events that occurred in the cave the night before as
he got up from his unconscious dream land.
"Who are you?" Ivar
asked Rebecca,
who was standing infront of The
T.I.M.E. Gateway. "I
told you, I'm Lieutenant
Commander Simms, Second...."
"Yes, you told me that, but what does it mean?" interrupted Ivar.
">Sigh
As far as we can tell, in the
year 1991
a rupture in the fabric of the universe occurred, brought upon by the man
called Phil
Seleski, or as you know
him better Solar, Man
of The Atom. The universal
rupture split what once was a universe into a multiverse, populated by
an incalculable number of realities.
I came from the reality known
as VH
2--we don't know where
the name come from, only that it is--In that reality, and from the time
I come from, Solar
is revered as a god, and known as MOTA.
From what we can gather you
come from the reality we know as VH
1--which as far as we
have been able to gather, it's the reality from where our creator came
from.
The reality where we are in
right now is known as VH,
the original reality from where the original Solar
came from. The reality from where the reality rupture originated. But you
changed that Ivar,
when you prevented Phil
from jumping into the reactor, all those years ago."
Ivar
fell to his knees, and puked everything he could from his gut to his stomach
and out his mouth.
"This...this is impossible.
How...how..." asked Ivar,
wiping the puke with his sleeve.
"We don't know. We know of only
one Timewalker
with the ability to jump realities, the one from mine, and even then he
does it using a device he calls a fold
map. We have no idea
how you were able to jump from your reality to the VH
reality. From your time point, whenever that was, if you traveled to 1991,
and to that particular place in space-time *
you would have arrived just as the Phil
from VH
and the Phil
from VH
1 were merging into
one, not the event you arrived at." said Rebecca,
while helping Ivar
up.
*: The Edgewater
Nuclear Research Center...Mike.
Suddenly 2 beds came rolling
out from The
T.I.M.E. Gateway. "Use
this and rest
L.C.,you
have a very tough mission tomorrow." said the voice from The
T.I.M.E. Gateway seconds
before it disappeared.
Rebecca
helped Ivar
into the bed. "You should rest, tomorrow I'll give you all the answers
you want, before we go back."
"Back? Back where?" asked a
tired Ivar.
"Back there, to MotherGod's
stronghold, The
Rainbow Tower." said Rebecca,
looking outside the cave, at The
Rainbow Tower.
"Now rest, you need to heal.",
and with that Rebecca
got into the other bed.
"Gods, what have I done?" thought Ivar,
still hurting from his wounds.
Now to a few comments,
from Phil Seleski and Barry Reese, our stemmed editor: (I know that this
comments are a few months old, I just forgot to add them to previous issues.
I promise that from now on any and all upcoming letters will be published
here.)
Regarding Timewalker
16:
And
Mr. Sacal comes out swinging!
Nice debut tale--the only complaint I have is that it had to end. And
what a
Michael, the only thing I can point out is that during the Harbinger
Wars
But that's an opinion for your postscript, not the tale itself. Welcome
Anthony
tease for the next issue.
arc in TIMEWALKER, Ivar created just such problems & alternate
Earths,
so--as "our" time has progressed--Ivar HAS mucked with the timestream
before.
aboard!
Thanks
for the praise ‘tony. Timewalker 16 was my first crack at both a comic
book title and at Ivar, so I thought that he deserved the best adventure
I could possible give him.
And
you're right about those Harbinger Wars issues. I guess that by the time
I wrote issue 16 I had completely forgotten(blocked?) the entire run of
Timewalker issues from my head.
Mike.
RegardingThe
Timewalker17-22
Preview Edition
Sounds good, Michael.
Glad to see a version of Dr. Tomorrow popping up here (even if it's an
alternate reality one) -- Magnus MotherGod Fighter? Lol. I love that one.
I'm looking forward to the actual stories, Michael! :-)
Barry
Glad
you liked the preview. I hope you liked this issues appearance of Dr. Tomorrow,
which I'm SURE no one was expecting it to be this way. As far as Magnus
MotherGod Fighter, I think he'll be in issue 22 instead of 21 as originally
previewed.
Mike.
Regarding Timewalker
16
and 17:
"Through the Looking Glass" parts one and two kick off
Michael Sacal's run on TIMEWALKER with a bang. I like
the look at an alternate Valiant reality and the stuff
involving Gilad in part two was especially nice. The
only real flaw to the storyline, to me, is the quasi
script format it's written in. It feels kind of odd --
I think I'd enjoy seeing the story told in a straight
prose fashion better. I can understand would-be comic
writers wanting to experiment with the comics-style
script but I still prefer prose.
Overall, it's an interesting beginning to the
storyline. I'm curious where Michael is going with it.
Barry
I hope you like the way this issue was written, more like the other issues on the site.
I liked writing this issue, had more fun that writing the previous issue.
Mike.
Regarding Various Requests:
AS ONE WHO PREFERS TO WRITE FULL-FLEDGED SCRIPT (SORRY, ALEX) I DON'T
HAVE A
PROBLEM WITH SCRIPT, BUT IT'S HARD FOR ME TO GET INTO THE "QUASI-SCRIPT."
IS
IT PROSE? IS IT SCRIPT? WELL, IT'S BOTH. MICHAEL, DO WHAT YOU GOTTA
DO, MAN!
I'LL KEEP READIN' 'EM.
PART
3 (WHICH I JUST FINISHED) KEEPS IT GOING.
You
got your wish. Angelo Mortalli made an appearance last issue and this issue
we met this reality's BloodShot.
And
yes, The SHOC Troops did make their original appearance in Deathmate. I
got the name confused with Erica's Battle Robs from Unity.
We
saw The VH Phil in issue 16. The Phil in that issue wasn't the one from
Solar 1-4, he was the one from Alpha & Omega.
As
far as "how" the VH 1 Ivar was capable to leaping from his reality into
the past of the reality that Phil "ate" in Alpha & Omega, will be revealed
in issue 25, the double sized finale of "Through The Looking Glass".
I'm
glad u liked the way the first 3 chapters were written. Let me know how
u liked the last 2 please.
Mike.
Monday,
December 20, 1999.