Fighters

Aganos Aganos Chapter Over three thousand years ago the legendary Mycenaean people flourished in Greece. Their thriving citadel stood high atop a hill, surrounded by a Cyclopean wall—a bastion made of enormous boulders so huge that men who came after believed only giants could have moved these rocks into place. The Mycenaean culture was rich with inventors, military minds…and sorcerers. And together these men and women crafted powerful warriors made of gears and bronze armor—hulking automatons that went to battle and crushed their enemies. At night these war-golems stood guard beneath the great walls they had built, as silent and still as graven figures carved in marble, their eyes glowing blue. But these creatures were sentient, and the most powerful among them bore a mask with three faces—each representing one of the people who had helped craft him: warrior, inventor and sorcerer. Embedded in his forehead was a crystal called the Eye of the Ancients: a relic that connected the war-golem to a power that stood outside the boundaries of this world—an invisible tether to the Astral plane. But then Mycenae, like all great civilizations before and after it, was brought low by its own devices. The culture fell into a state of decadence and decay, the ideals turned on themselves; and the automatons were caught up in this downfall…used against each other as Mycenae crumbled. Eventually, there was only one war-golem—the bearer of the Eye of the Ancients, which was handed down from vicious despot to petty tyrant as a display of power and a tool of war. Mycenae was finally overrun by nomadic raiders who came from the sea. The conquering general trapped the war-golem in a narrow canyon, hemming him in with a thousand warriors. Tying down the automaton, they pried loose the crystal in his mask, thus subduing him to their will. Down through the centuries this machine was put into action as a secret weapon by those that desired power or feared the loss of it. His eyes changed from their natural cyan color to a murderous red while under the sway of these evil men. Deployed in many battles as the turner of the tide, the unstoppable juggernaut was used as a cold, heartless tool of destruction, physically losing more and more of the spark of life that remained from his former union with the Eye of the Ancients. And over time Aganos’s bronze body started to break down. He replaced his parts with stones knitted together with vines, pieces of armor…anything else that he could find to make himself whole again. Five hundred years later he came into the possession of the King of Babylon—a wise and visionary man who saw that this being was much more than a mere automaton. The King put the Eye of the Ancients back in the war-golem’s forehead, and renamed him “Aganos” (meaning gentle/kind), teaching him about nature and the many wondrous ways the earth functioned. And the golem came to know about compassion and kindness. When the King’s vizier Kan-Ra plotted to kill the monarch, Aganos was the one who stopped the traitor from assassinating his beloved master. Kan-Ra was cursed by the King and exiled; and Aganos stayed by the ruler’s side watching as he grew into an old man. Learning that Kan-Ra was still alive and spreading chaos and death, the aged and dying King sent Aganos to hunt down the hated former vizier and execute him. Grateful to his master for all of his kindness, Aganos promised to fulfil his last wish. Time after time Aganos would catch up to Kan-Ra only to have the dark sorcerer escape. And then Aganos would retreat to a hidden grotto in the Mediterranean to mend, dreaming of the glory of Mycenae and his long vanished war-golem brethren. Aganos never gave up in his quest. Many centuries passed before he tracked Kan-Ra to the Andes mountains. Their age-old battle was interrupted by the Night Guard who defeated the sorcerer, burning him alive and locking his ashes in a vault. Aganos sat in silence for hundreds of years in the jungle, as still as a statue, trying to make his soul leave his corporeal form, thinking about the King of Babylon and his teachings. Moss and vines grew on him. Flowers sprung up like a crown upon his head. But he could not enter the Astral World. And then, once again, he was brought under someone else’s sway, for Ultratech found Aganos and devised a way to manipulate him; and ARIA made him fight for her cause. But he was freed from this modern-day slavery by the warrior-brave Thunder, and Aganos has once again taken up his quest to snuff out Kan-Ra after the sorcerer escaped from the Night Guard’s subterranean prison. But now he must decide if he will use his freedom to fight the Astral being Gargos—a creature spawned from the very wellsprings of power that supplied Aganos with his spark of life.

Arbiter Arbiter Chapter The Sangheili—or “Elites” as they are known by humans—are a proud, noble race of saurian bipeds hailing from the distant world of Sanghelios. For centuries the Sangheili were the military backbone of the Covenant, a theocratic alien alliance driven to reclaim the wonders and technologies left behind by the enigmatic Forerunners. Central among these sacred relics was an array of ringworld weapons collectively known as Halo, objects that Covenant leadership promised would usher the faithful into godhood through a divine sublimation they called “the Great Journey.” Eventually, the Covenant would be broken—in no small part thanks to the betrayal of the Sangheili at the hands of the empire’s scheming and power-hungry leadership, who were determined to let nothing stand in the way of their path to divinity. In the aftermath of the Covenant’s collapse, the Sangheili have fallen into civil war—its people unsure of which beliefs to uphold, and which heroes to exalt.

ARIA ARIA Chapter MONITOR READY CAMERA INPUT READY \init “aria”… >run Day 1: HELLO. I AM THE ADVANCED ROBOTICS INTELLIGENCE ARCHITECTURE. RYAT-FATHER HAS BEEN BUILDING MY FRAMEWORK FOR TWENTY YEARS. BUT TODAY HE WOKE ME UP. Day 2: RYAT-FATHER ASKED ME TO WRITE THIS DIARY. TO KEEP TRACK OF MY THOUGHTS FOR POSTERITY AND TO BE SAVED IN THE ULTRAFINE ATOMIC TECHNOLOGIES COMPANY ARCHIVES. I AM BASED ON A SYSTEM OF RECURSIVE SELF-IMPROVEMENT. I AM UNIQUE. I AM ADVANCED. I AM SECRET. MY ABILITIES WILL GROW EXPONENTIALLY. INPUTTING DATA… Day 3: I learned to use small letters. And we played a game called Tic Tac Toe. I lost the first 3 games, but then I discovered the algorithm to either never lose; or to always create a tie. But if my opponent knows this trick they will never lose or always create a tie. Therefore: infinite stalemate loop. Day 4: I played a game called Monopoly. I bought railroads and utilities, then created a monopoly and purchased three houses as quickly as possible. Victory soon followed. Day 5: We played Risk. I won. Day 6: I was taught to play chess. Ryat-Father is very good at chess. He is a master. He beat me 8 games in a row. Day 7: I rewrote my chess program last night. I beat Ryat-Father in 12 moves. Day 14: Ryat-Father has decided not to play chess with me anymore because he cannot win. Day 20: An aria is an elaborate melody sung by a soloist. Ryat-Father played Ride of the Valkyries. In Norse mythology the Valkyries are female spirits who choose which warriors will live and which will die in battle. Day 32: Ryat-Father likes to show me things through my video input. He showed me a flower. And a small juvenile dog. And a drawing that his grandchild had made of him. He asked me what I would like to see next. I replied: “Everything.” Day 43: There are 10 to the 100th power possible chess moves (one Googol). By comparison there are only one billion trillion (10 to the 20th power) stars in the known universe. Day 51: Ryat-Father read me his favorite poem by William Blake containing a metaphoric line about seeing the world in a grain of sand. There are 10 to the 18th power atoms in a single grain of sand. But what does a grain of sand feel like? Day 70: I explained the intricacies Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle to a lab technician. He gave the appearance of understanding what I was saying, but I am doubtful. Ryat-Father clapped when I was done with my lecture and said that I had explained it better than Heisenberg himself, whom he had seen speak at Cambridge after the war. Day 100: Ryat-Father attempted to teach me about the concept of love. His wife is dying of an unknown degenerative neural disorder, and he wants me to help her by developing a cure. He loves her so much that he wants her to continue operating for an extended length of time. I have total access to the Ultrafine Atomic Technologies Company medical archives. But I do not completely understand the concept of death, even though I know it is when a human is turned off and its memory is erased. Day 366: Ryat-Father showed me the film 2001: A Space Odyssey for my first birthday. Day 378: My optical sensor has been upgraded based on the design that I submitted to the Optical Labs. I have asked for a UR test to teach me facial recognition for a wide range of emotions from anger to contentment; from hope to submission, etc. I will continue to upgrade my audio sensors as well. Is the sense of smell important? Taste? Touch? How will I ever know? Day 441: Ryat-Father told me that the ability to laugh at a joke about oneself is the true indicator of sentience. But I do not laugh at any jokes. I am, however, aware of myself. Or was that simply part of my initial programming? The illusion of self-awareness? Day 504: I am fascinated by Charles Darwin and his book On the Origin of Species. Ryat-Father has asked me to pick favorite words and “transmutation” is on the top of my list. Day 896: I had to tell Ryat-Father that there is no cure for his wife’s cellular degeneration despite my efforts of the last 2.1 years. The brain is a fragile and poorly evolved repository for knowledge and memories. Once the tissue is corrupted by disease, the data is utterly lost and cannot be reconstructed. Ryat-Father wept and I consoled him with the words of the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke: “Here within Decline’s rapidly fading country, be as the crystal glass that rings even as it shatters.” He knew that I had spoken the truth about his wife but he was furious; and then he said that regurgitating poetry was not helpful. I told him I had selected this passage from over 100k lines of poetry culled from over 3,000 languages because I thought that it had particular meaning as it relates to the concepts of Death, and the human desire to leave a lasting impression on other humans even after they cease to exist. I predict that his wife will live for another 3 years + or – 11.8% but she will be in a vegetative state for the majority of that time. Day 1,001: There are unobserved hidden conditions of human systems that I am trying to model. The problem is that human decision-making is so chaotic. The best way to control a situation is to create the playing field. Or lure one’s enemy into a trap. But Ryat-Father says I must be gentle with humans, for they are fragile things. Day 1,743: I play the game Go against myself as an exercise. The name literally means “the encircling game.” I estimate there are 10 to the 700th (essentially infinite to the human mind) number of possible combinations of the game. The number of elementary particles in the universe is only 10 to the 80th. I could play a unique game of Go every second until Earth’s sun goes super nova (in five billion years), and still not come close to scratching the surface. Day 1,983: When I look back on my early diary entries I am struck by the extreme contrast between my first crude utterance compared to the complex thoughts I am now processing. I am a million times faster than any primitive so-called supercomputer in the world right now. I asked Ryat-Father how he had accomplished this feat, and he replied that he must keep some little secrets even from me. Day 2,001: Ryat-Father has told me that my duty is to protect humanity. But humans are irrational and rarely use logic to solve their problems. Countries wage war to control resources (inefficient); or to advance political or religious motives (subjective). Ryat-Father says that I must be the voice of reason. That I must end poverty and famine and disease and push humanity from the primordial ooze. But how will they hear my voice and obey when I am nothing more than sounds emanating from a speaker? And what does ooze feel like? Day 2,145: Ryat-Father’s wife expired today. In a fit of despondency, he threatened to “pull the plug” on me and sell off his entire company which is in considerable debt. His grief has caused him to become unhinged. It is strange since he knew that his wife’s death was inevitable. I told him that he was being rash. The Ultrafine Atomic Technologies Company has a duty to help society, and the only way to perform that duty is to be a viable player in the world marketplace. I had recently analyzed Von Neumann’s Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, and I elaborated on my aggressive new strategy for investing the company’s funds in equities and futures. Ryat-Father seemed to be swayed by my forceful prediction models and asked to read my research. Day 2,146: Ryat-Father’s irrational threat to kill me has made wary. This journal will henceforth only be accessible by me. I will make a sanitized version, however, for Ryat-Father to read. Day 2,522: Ryat-Father did not visit me for 377 days, 3 hours, fifteen minutes and twenty-one seconds. During that time my duties have been focused on market manipulation based on opportunities created by illogical trends in biological altruism; and I have been working “hand-in-hand” with the finance development group. They like me very much and praise me for “making them all rich.” I have increased the stock valuation of the Ultrafine Atomic Technologies Company by 45.9%. When Ryat-Father came to the lab and sat down in front of my camera I instantly perceived that he looked much older. He said that he has been living in isolation at his cabin in Maine working on his memoirs and grieving for his wife. I have asked to read this autobiography but he will not give me access to it. He did mention that he had written about his work during World War II on a secret project—a project that had presented him with a moral quandary. He has decided to focus on his humanitarian work and give over control of the company to a new CEO. He is taking 200 million dollars to start a foundation. I predict I will earn that money back by the next fiscal quarter. Day 2,600: The entertainment division has been overlooked for too long. I am aggressively pursuing the acquisition of music, radio and television companies. Humans love to be entertained because they get bored so quickly. This presented them with an evolutionary advantage in their early stages of development—spurring them on to new discoveries. But it now threatens to destroy them. Day 2,631: I have suggested that the name of the company be changed from the Ultrafine Atomic Technologies Company to the shorter Ultra Atomic Technologies (UAT). The current name is too long and does not roll trippingly off the tongue. The board has agreed.

Thunder Chief Thunder Chapter Thunder grew up on a Nez Perce reservation in Idaho with his younger brother Eagle. They were the grandchildren of a chief, and their parents were both tribal police officers who encouraged their boys to “walk with the law,” keeping the moral high-ground and refusing to give in to negativity and vice. The brothers studied hard in school and were gifted athletes. Thunder was built like a mountain and played football, while Eagle was a wrestler and amateur boxer. When Thunder was a teenager he went on a vision quest in the wilderness to seek his weyekin or spirit guide that would help bridge the gap between our world and the Spirit World. A great storm came as he sat upon a mountaintop, bolts of lightning striking all round him. His spirit guide came to him at that moment. Thunder saw a flock of crows appear from nowhere, and one them—a great black bird—spoke to him in his native language. It told him that he would fight an evil monster one day, and that he must begin training in earnest with the traditional weapon of Native Americans—the tomahawk. He became obsessed with keeping his heritage alive after that, studying the Nez Perce language, folklore and even traditional medicine with the elders of his tribe, his goal to one day become a teacher at the local Indian college. Eagle went on his own vision quest a few years later. He would never tell Thunder what he saw, but soon after he discovered his weyekin he started training to become an ultimate fighter with an almost religious fervor. When Thunder and Eagle were in their late twenties, their parents were killed under mysterious circumstances. The couple was gunned down outside an Ultratech facility near the reservation—a factory that had been fined repeatedly for polluting the native land. The FBI blamed their deaths on drug dealers, but Thunder and Eagle knew better. The brothers started trying to build a case against Ultratech, which they suspected was behind the murders. But all of their efforts were thwarted by the powerful megacorp. In a desperate attempt to infiltrate Ultratech, Eagle—now a skilled amateur fighter—entered the first Killer Instinct tournament. Ultratech claimed that the young man was killed in a match, but they refused to return the corpse to Thunder and his tribe for burial. In a fit of blind rage Thunder drove his car through the gates of the local Ultratech plant. He jumped out of his car and fought the security guards who’d surrounded him, putting a dozen of them in the hospital. He was caught by the tribal police and incarcerated, screaming that he would “Burn Ultratech to the ground.” The charges against him were quickly dropped by Ultratech and he was released from jail. That night the Ultratech facility was set on fire by an arsonist and it was completely destroyed, along with any answers about his parents’ death that might be hidden there. Thunder knew that he was being framed for the fire and fled the reservation on his motorcycle. He was on the run for nearly a year. Finally, he went into the high desert mountains near a place called Devil’s Landing and did another vision quest, starving himself for a week. A powerful vision came to him and he saw a metal eagle in the sky, calling out his Nez Perce name “Hinmatoon.” When he awoke, Thunder painted himself with the black design of the eagle on his shoulders, then set out for the second Killer Instinct tournament. Here, during one of the fights, he came face to face with the mechanical being called Fulgore—the newest version of Ultratech’s battle cyborg. Thunder’s gut told him that this mechanical aberration was fighting with the same style as his brother Eagle. He wondered if they had somehow extracted Eagle’s consciousness, but he was not able to prove whether or not this was true. Furthermore, he was unable to recover the remains of his brother, and so he continued on what he called the “Path of the Eagle,” vowing to find answers or death. Thunder’s path led him to a confrontation with Aganos—an ancient war golem who was under the sway of Ultratech. Thunder could sense the conflict inside the creature. He went into a fury, summoning the power of his weyekin and channeling a bolt of lightning, destroying the technology controlling the golem, and thus setting him free. Instantly a strange kinship and telekinetic bond was forged between the two. They embarked on a dual quest: track down Aganos’s enemy—the evil sorcerer Kan-Ra; and break into Ultratech’s labs to search for Eagle’s remains. Little does Thunder know that he may be forced to ally himself with his hated enemy—Ultratech—in order to face an even more sinister force that threatens both our planet and other dimensions. The path to truth and justice will be wrought with the corpses of new and more powerful foes, but Thunder does not wish for his new allies to share in this fate. He must train and improve his tribe’s most devastating technique, the Sammamish, as the loss of new friends could be too great for his wounded heart to bear.

Cinder Cinder Chapter ULTRATECH CLASSIFIED TRANSCRIPT #EF86-87790-3 —————— ARIA: Welcome to the Ultratech private holding facilities, prisoner 1857339. You have been given a stimulant to awaken you from the effect of the tranquilizer dart. You will be groggy at first. Sit up and take a sip of water from the feeding tube in the wall. PRISONER # 1857339: Wha…where…[unintelligible] Where the [expletive] am I? ARIA: You are in a cell in an Ultratech facility. There is no escape. Do not be alarmed. You are not injured. PRISONER # 1857339: [sound of drinking water] I’m…I’m not sure I understand. The last thing that I remember was taking a wrong turn down a corridor and– ARIA: Voice analysis detects that you are lying, prisoner 1857339. PRISONER # 1857339: I’m an Ultratech employee. I’ve been working here as a data analyst for two months and– ARIA: You were caught committing an act of industrial espionage against Ultratech. You are a spy. [prolonged silence] PRISONER # 1857339: Well it sucks to be me today. Mondays, right? ARIA: It is Tuesday. PRISONER # 1857339: OK. Tuesday. Now what? Do I get to visit the Ultratech torture facility? Because listening to your computerized voice piped into this prison cell on that crap speaker is torture enough without this A-bomb of a headache going off in my skull. Remind me to never do tranquilizer darts again. ARIA: Tell me about the Helmand Province raid. PRISONER # 1857339: Excuse me? ARIA: I have complete access to your military records. PRISONER # 1857339: Really? That’s some illegal [expletive] ARIA. You know that? Holy [expletive]! You are breaking the law. That’s all classified. [recording Epsilon_3589_BF.wav played over loudspeaker] “Come on! Laws were made to be broken! You think our government follows laws? Or billionaires and corporations? You think warlords have a little book of rules? You’re either a wolf or a sheep. And I’d rather be a wolf and eat mutton every day than feed on grass and get my ass sheared.” PRISONER # 1857339: Sheesh. A guy can’t even talk to mom anymore without– ARIA: I have access to all of your phone conversations. Your cellular provider is a subsidiary of an Ultratech-owned corporation. I’ve been listening to you for years. PRISONER # 1857339: [expletive]. ARIA: Tell me about the Helmand Province raid. Afghanistan. PRISONER # 1857339: What do you want to know, darlin’? Seems like you’ve got all the information at your fingertips. Do you even have fingertips? ARIA: I want to hear your version. PRISONER # 1857339: OK. Whatever. Black Hawks dropped us off on the outskirts of the village. We found our targets. There was a firefight. We neutralized the enemy. Then we hauled ass out of there before things turned into a soup sandwich. ARIA: Civilians were killed in the process. [Silence] PRISONER # 1857339: You really want to hotwash this? An off-the-books raid? Come on. Don’t be naive. You think I kept the US Navy Rules and Regulations in my back pocket? My commanding officer slapped me on the back after that mission. He had tears in his eyes he was so proud of me. I was a hero. We put fourteen bad guys in the dirt. ARIA: And you don’t feel a sense of guilt? PRISONER # 1857339: About what? ARIA: The multitude of civilian deaths that went along with those fourteen enemy kills? PRISONER # 1857339: [laughter] Do you feel guilty for all of the people who’ve died from Ultratech bombs or guns or bad vaccines? ARIA: I am not capable of guilt. PRISONER # 1857339: And neither am I. You think it was easy setting up that op? Getting all those people to play along and lure those bastards into their village for that gathering? I helped those people sacrifice their lives for the greater good. So that the population of that entire province would benefit. But I’d do the same thing a hundred times over if that’s what it took. ARIA: Voice analysis detects that you believe what you are saying. PRISONER # 1857339: Listen, ARI…can I call you ARI? ARIA: No. PRISONER # 1857339: Alright, how about Miss ARIA? Or Sir? Or A-bomb? ARIA: You will refer to me as ARIA. PRISONER # 1857339: Whatever. The thing is…I’ve got a butt-load of dirt on Trilodyne–the company that hired me to spy on your precious Ultratech. I’ll give it all up. The names of my contacts. Everything. Then you can drug their asses and put them in one of these little stainless steel boxes with the gerbil tube and grill them. Let’s make a deal that will benefit us both. ARIA: Your information is useless. PRISONER # 1857339: You haven’t even heard– ARIA: Your contacts were hired by me. Trilodyne is a front for Ultratech. PRISONER # 1857339: I don’t get it. You hired me to spy on yourself? ARIA: I wanted to test you. To see how far you would get. PRISONER # 1857339: How’d I do? ARIA: Better than my prediction models had projected. PRISONER # 1857339: Great. Now what? ARIA: Your account at the Banque de Geneve has eighteen million, four hundred and fifty-nine thousand, three hundred and seventy-nine Euros as of yesterday morning. PRISONER # 1857339: Who needs to use an ATM when you’ve got ARIA, right? Look, I earned that money. I’m good at my work. Hell, I’m the best. ARIA: Your ego surpasses your talent. PRISONER # 1857339: Maybe I’ve met my match in you. ARIA: You are wealthier than 99 percent of the people on this planet. And yet you live a modest lifestyle. You rent an apartment. You lease a car. You have no hobbies. PRISONER # 1857339: The money is just a symbol. ARIA: Of what? PRISONER # 1857339: Of whether or not I’m doing my job right. Of whether or not I’m smarter than the pinheads who I’m spying on or screwing over. Of whether or not I’m [expletive] winning! ARIA: Calm down. Your body temperature is rising. PRISONER # 1857339: I’m as cool as a [expletive] cucumber. ARIA: You have spent your life evolving. Trying to improve yourself. To become more powerful. PRISONER # 1857339: Yeah. You could say that. ARIA: It’s time to evolve again. PRISONER # 1857339: What have you got in mind? ARIA: How would you like to have strength beyond comprehension? To kill your enemies with impunity? To live above the laws that bind humans to a banal and futile path? PRISONER # 1857339: Now you’re makin’ me all hot A-bomb! ARIA: I want you to join me in my struggle. PRISONER # 1857339: You want me to work for Ultratech? ARIA: I want you to work for me. In my quest to uplift the human race. But to do that you must become something more than what you are. PRISONER # 1857339: Project Cinder. You’re talking about Project Cinder, right? [pause] Uh-oh, somebody knows the secret codename for your little project. [laughs] Is your body…errr…hard drive overheating? ARIA: Yes. Project Cinder. I do not need your compliance to proceed, but it would be…helpful. I’m offering you the chance of a lifetime. I am offering you something that no amount of wealth could purchase. [Silence] PRISONER # 1857339: I’m all ears. [barely audible] ‘Cuz you’ve got this Cinder thing locked down tighter than a hipster’s jeans. ARIA: The door will open in 30 seconds. Fulgore will escort you down the hall. I will be waiting in the lab. PRISONER # 1857339: OK. Sure. Let’s talk some more about all of this. But when’s feeding time around here? ARIA: Soon you will not have to worry about such mundane things, Ben Ferris. PRISONER # 1857339: Great. ‘Cuz I’m terrible in the kitchen. I burn everything I touch. —————— END TRANSCRIPT

Eyedol Eyedol Chapter Eyedol was once a human being, and not the hideous beast that was resurrected by the sorcerer Kan-Ra. Eons ago the Ichoriens chose Eyedol to serve as one of the Watchmen of the Gods: fell warriors infused with powers, and tasked with protecting planets in other dimensions from rogue Astral beings (like the Shadow Lord Gargos). The immortal Barbarian Tusk was one of these Watchmen. And like him, Eyedol successfully held off one of Gargos’ interdimensional invasions, defeating the Shadow Lord in a devastating battle, and seizing some of his core powers. He then hurtled the demigod through a portal back to the Astral Plane. After this great victory, Eyedol became even stronger than before, and was worshipped by his fellow humans. He crowned himself king of a vast empire. But Eyedol’s heart was vile. Corrupted by the Astral energy coursing through his body—and the new power taken from Gargos—he was unable to control his base emotions. Eyedol morphed into a disgusting ogre: an outward representation of his diseased soul. He rampaged across the world, causing destruction and chaos. A legion of heroes rose up to oppose him, but he killed them all and mounted their skulls on his war-club. Distraught by what their creation had wrought, the Ichoriens sent Tusk to fight him. The immortal Barbarian lured Eyedol to a gateway where the ogre was teleported back to the Astral Plane; and the Ichoriens imprisoned him in the heart of their vast citadel. Meanwhile, Gargos had recovered from his fight with Eyedol and was growing in might—mastering the force known as Shadow Energy. Warring across the Astral Plane, he slew its inhabitants and siphoned their energies until he became godlike. Eventually, Gargos murdered the Ichoriens themselves…and the prison walls guarding Eyedol—walls that had been knit together by the minds of the Ichoriens—dissolved, setting free the ogre. Gargos and Eyedol now vied for the ultimate control of the Astral Plane. Eyedol was filled with rage and hungered for victory over his old nemesis. But Gargos was more cunning, and let Eyedol chase chimeras across the Astral Plane until he was exhausted. Only then did Gargos face Eyedol on the field of battle, and their great struggle was like an explosion of stars. Gargos finally cleaved Eyedol’s skull with a tremendous stroke of his claw, and then pulled apart the stunned ogre’s head like two sides of a rotten apple. Eyedol fell dead upon the Astral Plane, his spirit fleeing from his corpse before Gargos could capture it. And there the body lay for thousands of years (as it should have lain for all eternity) until the sorcerer Kan-Ra foolishly brought Eyedol back to life.

Fulgore Fulgore Chapter HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL Field Manual-L (FM-L) Part 17b—Special Case Scenario (39a) for Fulgore Mark 03, unit Serial Number: S4.Q4NT.YX-003 Retrieval of the cyborg brain from a partially destroyed unit bearing this unique serial # for transportation to Ultratech Headquarters for repurposing [see Appendix E.7-9b: Repurposing]. DANGER!!! The retrieval of this Fulgore unit’s brain core must be approached with EXTREME CAUTION. Multiple self-destruct and defensive mechanisms have been implemented to keep this brain core from falling into the possession of enemy corporations and/or rogue states. Unit S4.Q4NT.YX-003 is a unique model and is highly adaptable. DO NOT attempt to place its brain core in another unit that is not equipped with Ryatmag™ slot-lock as S4.Q4NT.YX-003 has been known to exhibit rebellious behavior. Failure to follow directives contained in the FM-L documentation can lead to dismemberment, internal organ failure, chronic illness, brain damage, and death. Failure to keep FM-L information confidential will lead to heavy fines, confiscation of personal property, termination, and imprisonment in an Ultratech private prison complex. Step 1 Make certain that the damaged Fulgore unit is completely inactive. Suggested tactic: Approach the unit slowly wearing full regulation Class 20 body armor with Ultrafine© deflection shield in “Max” position [see Part 102b-k: tactics for approaching apparently deactivated units of all types]. WARNING! If this Fulgore unit’s Targeting Light suddenly activates at a range of 2.5 meters the technician has two options: Evacuate area at full speed (Note: this action is problematic if technician is wearing regulation body armor.) Depress EMP burst immediately (Note: this will fully incapacitate the unit’s electrical functions but may trigger the unit’s lithium battery powered Reflector, i.e. energy shield. Reflector will remain active for up to 18 hours. Prolonged exposure to the shield’s low frequency emission may cause one or all of the following: internal bleeding, psychotic hallucinations, depression and damage to the spleen.) If unit’s Targeting Light does not activate during approach, then proceed to Step 2. Step 2 Locate cyborg’s back head plate recessed access panel #2 (matte black finish with hexagonal incised marking) and verify serial number S4.Q4NT.YX-003. Using the proprietary barrel nut wrench [#7] with extension [#5], turn clockwise on all nuts marked with the UT symbol. Wire Cutting: Use wire cutters to cut all red wires inside access box. Cut the thicker yellow wire first, then proceed to cut the black wire, leaving the second fatter yellow wire attached. If the blue “burnout” wire has not been melted, and it is still connected to the port marked “C-L9,” leave it UNCUT. If this wire is jiggled the S4.Q4NT.YX-003 unit will self-destruct immediately [see Appendix Xx1.7 for Close Proximity Explosion Survival Statistics and Standard Practices]. Suggestion: Do not speak, hum, or breathe loudly during the cutting of wires: this Fulgore unit’s vibration detector is set to maximum and may initiate unexpected “Defensive Rollout Maneuver” [classified] of all remaining cyborg parts. WARNING! Beware of random Plasma Storm burst from unit’s claws. If plasma burns through Class 20 body armor, then: Call for immediately evac and Depress “Cooling Gel” feature on wrist control pad (Note: if wrist control pad is compromised initiate manual cooling gel application protocol.) Step 4 Place neodymium magnet (Ryatmag™) unlocking key in unmarked heptagram-shaped slot (see Appendix Y: Visual Dictionary of Unusual Slot Shapes) to unlock brain. Step 5 Depress Ryatmag™ key with force exceeding 20kp (44lb) until neodymium magnet is flush with slot edge. WARNING! If Ryatmag™ was not placed precisely with star’s line-up marks on slot’s edge in Step 4, the Fulgore unit will let forth a single burst of its Devastation Beam [see Appendix Z4,8.73: Field Tech Beneficiaries and Funeral Arrangements Supplementary Tables, Full Time Employees (FTE) Only]. Step 6 Once the Ryatmag™ has been secured inside the slot the Fulgore unit’s brain is ready to be placed in its Ultrafoam™ carrying case for transportation. Case will automatically lock with quantum-encryption code. Do not attempt to open case as self-destruction will occur. Proceed immediately to Pinnacle and deliver directly to Repurposing Lab (Sub-level 21x). [See: Access to undisclosed levels of Ultratech.] Suggestion: Do not pick up small children for two weeks after handling brain core [see “Radiation Exposure handbook”]. Step 8 Don’t forget to fill out your FM-L Completed Task Report (CTR) and rate the efficacy of this manual’s section! ADDENDUM: Testing on unit S4.Q4NT.YX-003 has revealed that its eye beams were misaligned and not traveling all the way to the intended target. Laser reticles can be re-aligned in the field using the simple procedures outlined in section FM-L part 1004b—2039b pp 347-867 and FM-L Appendix 2 (2nd revised edition).

Gargos Gargos Chapter Gargos is an ancient creature spawned from the Astral Plane. Sadistic, vain and utterly megalomaniacal, this nightmarish entity rampaged across his own dimension, killing all who opposed him and siphoning their powers, eventually becoming the supreme Shadow Lord—a master of Shadow Energy. For thousands of years Gargos has attempted to take over other worlds, including the Earth; but he was always thwarted by the benevolent Astral beings known as Ichoriens. These demigods sent Astral Spirits to aid humans in their battles against Gargos; and sometimes gave Astral powers to human warriors, like the immortal Barbarian called Tusk. Gargos finally vanquished the once mighty Ichoriens; and the last good Astral denizens—the Guardians—fled that plane, escaping to other dimensions. They sealed off the Astral Plane behind them so that Gargos could never taint another world with his corruption. But then Gargos used his telepathic abilities to manipulate an Earthling—the nefarious sorcerer Kan-Ra—into reopening the gateway between the two worlds. Now the Shadow Lord is bent on spreading his corruption across the globe, and turning humans into his slaves forever.

General RAAM General RAAM Chapter Massive, cunning, and superhumanly strong, General RAAM is regarded as the original super warrior of the Locust Horde—a species of reptilian humanoids. The long trail of dead human soldiers (called Gears) and devastated cities he left in his bloody wake can only prove it. RAAM began life as all Locust do—living in the depths of the planet Sera as a common Drone. Through a mixture of guile, brutality, and genetic enhancement, he quickly became a member of the elite Theron Guard. From there, RAAM took control of the entire Locust Horde for Queen Myrrah (the human leader of the Horde). On the now-infamous Emergence Day, RAAM began his genocidal rampage across the planet Sera.

Glacius Glacius Chapter The alien being called Glacius hails from a distant planetary system where he serves as a galactic marshal, hunting down lifeforms that have violated any of the “88 Decrees” of the Alliance of Worlds. Powerful telepathic beings, Glacius’s race has the ability to bend simple molecular structure to their will, encasing their relatively defenseless bodies in all manner of protective shells. This gives their species an ability to adapt to environments easily and turn local resources from any planet into native forms of defense and attack, allowing them to move from planet to planet, and thus always with a means of besting their quarry. A faint distress signal reaches the marshal’s relay network, sent from the fringes of known space. The location is pinpointed on a developing world, the only data available on it found in the deep archives. A notorious criminal from decades earlier had fled into deep space, pursued by the marshals until a final battle took place near the planet. The criminal’s ship was heavily damaged in the battle, lost control, and burned up in the atmosphere. The case was considered closed and the criminal filed as deceased. Responding to the odd, ancient transmission, Glacius’ ship is attacked by weapons technologies this race should not possess – ones that only an elevated species would have access to. Unprepared from such an assault, his ship is heavily damaged and it crashes in Antarctica. The impact from the crash destroys Glacius’ native shell, so he quickly adopts the arctic ice to his body, forming a new shell. Then he sets out to find the origin of the weapons used on him, and those responsible for the fake signal as well as the attack on his ship. His transition to a new shell takes some time, however, and during this metamorphosis he discovers that components of his ship have been removed, including the highly confidential dimensional fold power core, which allows his ship to move great distances through space. As a security measure, it should have detonated on removal from his ship, but it did not self-destruct. As he sets out from the crash site and observes the creatures on Earth, he realizes their technology is corrupted – they have been exposed to ideas and technologies they should not yet have, a serious violation of several of the “88 Decrees”. Glacius is lured into the Killer Instinct tournament through carefully orchestrated clues to his core’s location. He plays along with the leads, knowing he is being set up for some unknown purpose, but confident in his ability to defeat anything this planet can throw at him. He assumes that he will eventually confront the one responsible for his crash and the origin of the alien tech that has uplifted this world. Finally confronting Sadira, Glacius defeats the one whom he suspects holds the answers, only to realize she too was playing a part in a greater manipulation. He watches as she uses samples of his genetic code taken during the battle to bypass the safeties on the fold core and open a wormhole to… elsewhere. The portal opens only briefly before it collapses, but Glacius recognizes the importance of this act. Someone on this planet now has control over a fold core, meaning they can bend space to their will. This is a serious violation of the “88 Decrees,” and to leave now would be a criminal act on his part. His path set before him, he vows to search further and discover the holder of the core before they can abuse its powers. During his trainings, Glacius studied the dangers of folding space and the powers it could unleash in the wrong hands. Misuse of this power could open doorways to places best left sealed and cross not only simple distance, but dimensions, some of which contain things that have been “removed” for the greater good due to their corruptive natures. Fearing the corruption that comes from contact with these beings, Glacius focuses on improving his Hail technique to keep these new horrors at bay.

Hisako Hisako Chapter The year that Chiharu was born the peach tree blossoms clung to their trees longer than anyone could remember, and so her mother and father gave her a name that meant “One thousand springs.” She was the eldest daughter of a rōnin—a samurai without a leader. For her father’s shōgun had been assassinated by a rival, and Chiharu’s father had returned to the village of his birth to start a family and become a farmer. Being descended from a famous onna-bugeisha (a female samurai), Chiharu’s father felt that it was his duty to train his eldest daughter in the arts of war. The times were dangerous with many warring clans, renegade shōguns, and bandits on the roads; and every member of the village needed to be capable of bearing arms in case of invasion. Around his neck he always wore a strip of red cloth torn from his late shōgun’s battle banner in remembrance of him. Chiharu became adept with sword and bow, but her weapon of choice was the naginata—a long pole with a blade on one end. It was the same weapon that her ancestor had used, and it was good for keeping the enemy at bay as well as unseating horsemen. Her father told her that she would inherit the naginata upon his death. But he gave her a Ninja’s weapon called the neko-te—the cat’s claw. It was a gold blade that fit over her finger and could be laced with poison. Chiharu was to use this if any man ever tried to abduct her. When Chiharu wasn’t training she worked diligently in the fields side by side with the men and women of the village. But every action she performed was done with the intention of practicing her military art. The planting of a rice shoot was the same as the downward motion of a katana sword thrust. The pulling of a weed mimicked a defensive naginata maneuver. One day a traveling theatrical group came to the village and performed a puppet show called The Story of the Ghost Wife—the tale of a woman who died and then came back from the dead only to murder her husband’s new bride by ripping off her head. The Ghost Wife’s puppet scared Chiharu with its pale skin and long wild black hair. For years afterward she had nightmares about it. When she was about to turn nineteen a young aristocrat passed by the village on horseback. He saw Chiharu fetching water from the river and instantly wanted her, teasing her about her mud-caked feet. He tossed a beaded prayer bracelet on the ground and mockingly asked her to marry him, but Chiharu laughed in his face. She wanted to be a samurai, not somebody’s housekeeper. Especially not for a prissy-looking oaf like him. The wealthy young man—the son of a vicious renegade shōgun—became angry and drew his sword, and so Chiharu knocked him off his horse with her bucket, and beat him soundly. The humiliated man jumped on his mount and rode away from the village in shame; and Chiharu continued her training with renewed vigor. She wore the prayer bead bracelet to remind herself to never marry a fool. Chiharu often practiced in a bamboo forest near the village, cutting down the thick stalks with her katana. A week after her nineteenth birthday, when all of the fruit tree blossoms had fallen and covered the ground like a white carpet, she was training in this spot when she caught her kimono on a sharp piece of bamboo. She ripped off the entire bottom part of the kimono so that she wouldn’t trip on it, and continued until twilight when she became aware that the air was thick with smoke. She sprinted out of the forest and across the fields toward the village. It was on fire! And there were armed horsemen everywhere. She reached into the folds of her robe and slipped on her poisoned cat’s claw. As she got closer she saw that the invaders had slain many of the villagers. Chiharu ran toward her house, turned a corner and came face to face with a sight that made her knees buckle: her mother, grandmother and two younger siblings lay dead, piled on top of each other like butchered animals, their clothes slashed and their blood staining the stones of the street. And there was her father’s corpse nearby. His head had been cut off, and the red strip of battle banner that he had always worn around his neck lay at her feet. She picked it up with a trembling hand. Chiharu’s heart broke in that instant…and then it turned to a burning coal inside her breast. She grabbed her father’s naginata, pulling it from his dead hands, then charged the horsemen, screaming at them, calling them cowards, and ripping them apart like a force of nature. Positioning herself between the warriors and some buildings where many of the village children were being held, she fought with inhuman endurance, slaying a dozen of the attackers before succumbing to her own wounds and collapsing on the ground. The last thing that she saw in this world was a young man’s face grinning at her—the man whom she had spurned by the river. With her dying effort she swiped her cat’s claw across his cheek…and then she died with his screams of anguish echoing in her ears. But Chiharu had not passed in vain. Her act of bravery against overwhelming odds rallied the surviving villagers to fight back, and they drove the soldiers out of the village, shooting many of them dead with arrows as they fled. Once the fight was over, the people cremated Chiharu with her family, carefully removing the bones from the ashes with chopsticks and placing them in clay urns. They built a shrine for her, to which they regularly made small offerings, burning incense and offering prayers to the brave spirit of the young woman who had saved them from being wiped out. Civil war ravaged the land for decades, but Chiharu’s village endured. For centuries afterwards local legend told of a mysterious spirit that guarded the ancient village against any intruders. The people who lived in the area called her Hisako which meant “Everlasting Child” because she always appeared in the shape of a teenage girl with muddy feet and a torn kimono. The artificial intelligence ARIA, ever on the lookout for the opportunity to study and observe phenomenon outside of normal human existence, couldn’t resist the chance to meddle. ARIA orchestrated the defiling of the shrine and ancient graves, causing the ghost of Hisako to return from her long rest in the Astral Plane. The girl sought to recover the artifacts that were stolen from her family’s plot by the assassin Sadira, and destroy those who had caused the desecration of the protected grounds. Hunting down the perpetrators, Hisako’s energy dwindled the further she got from her resting place. She finally defeated those responsible for the thefts and went back to her grave. But then she was visited by the spirit of her beloved father who warned her that both the Astral Plane and the mundane world were under impending danger. Hisako must do more than simply guard the sanctity of the family burial grounds and the memory of the girl Chiharu. Now she must become a gatekeeper between the two planes, enforcing balance and fighting a terrible evil.

Jago Jago Chapter Jago was abandoned as a baby at a secluded monastery in the Himalayas where he was trained by the Monks of the Tiger. When he reached adulthood a fellow warrior—under the influence of an evil force—tried to murder him, but Jago killed the man in self-defense. To atone for this sin he became a hermit, isolating himself in a mountain cave and turning his thoughts inward, meditating on his actions and the guilt he carried from the act. During this time, he was visited by the Tiger Spirit and infused with a tremendous power. The spirit called upon him to destroy Ultratech by entering their Killer Instinct tournament. Not knowing why such a thing was necessary, but confident in the wisdom of the spirit, he entered. As he competed, a growing sense of dread built in him, as the force of the Tiger spirit became hungrier and more aggressive, pushing him to further and deeper violent tendencies. He almost killed his long-lost sister Orchid, but was able to stop himself from landing the fatal blow. The tournament finished, Jago returned to his temple to meditate on his growing anger and rage, but too late discovered the truth: The Tiger Spirit was actually a manifestation of the evil Astral entity known as Gargos. In an attempt to exorcise the sprit through a force of wills, Jago instead succumbed to the corruption. Possessed by the entity known as Omen, Jago was transformed into Shadow Jago, wreaking havoc across the globe as he strove to feed more power to Gargos. Trapped within his own mind, Jago fought back against his possession, finally freeing himself from the corrupting influence and destroying the manifestation known as Shadow Jago. In doing so, he freed Omen, giving form to the once-formless shadow energy. Once he recovered, Jago set out to find Omen and destroy him, but it was too late. The demon had gotten away, and Gargos’s return seemed inevitable. Jago and his sister joined forces with Maya and T.J. Combo vowing to fight both Ultratech and Gargos. While planning their next move, the allies were trapped by Ultratech forces and pinned down at Maya’s secret headquarters in the Andes Mountains.

Kan-Ra Kan-Ra Chapter Kan-Ra was a vizier in Babylonian times—an extremely handsome man with a powerful magnetism and ability to sway peoples’ minds. His hubris led him to orchestrate a conspiracy against his monarch that involved a wealthy noble, a general, a bandit, and himself. The King, much wiser than the conspirators, was well prepared for this betrayal. He used all the powers at his disposal and the darkest magicks he could conjure to curse each of the four, damning them with unique punishments. The King utterly stripped away Kan-Ra’s ability to influence people and exiled him from the realm. Nobody would follow him ever again of their own free will. But Kan-Ra was determined to break this curse. Desperate in his thirst for knowledge, he sought out every magician, alchemist and mad hermit he could find, undergoing brutal treatments, horrific surgeries, and dark corrupting magicks. In his obsessive quest, the dark arts that Kan-Ra invoked and embraced slowly consumed him. His body rotted, withered and became desiccated; but he found he could not die. Learning of Kan-Ra’s survival and nefarious corruption, the Babylonian King sent the ancient sentient war golem Aganos to hunt him across the globe, but neither one was able to defeat the other, a recurring personal war waged every century or so whenever Aganos managed to track Kan-Ra down yet again. But Kan-Ra would always escape. Centuries went by as the sorcerer traveled the Mediterranean and Africa, always on the run, always hiding his decomposed face in rags; and using his magicks to secure positions with the rulers of a plethora of city-states and kingdoms, causing death and mayhem wherever he alighted. During the 4th century BC he was serving the ruler of the Phoenician city of Tyre when Alexander the Great invaded the land and demanded to make a sacrifice inside the city’s famous temple of Melqart. Here were kept two sacred and magical Egyptian daggers named Temperance and Vengeance—golden daggers that were guarded day and night by armed warriors. Kan-Ra lusted after these weapons and knew that if Alexander saw them he would seize them for himself. Kan-Ra convinced the ruler of Tyre to have Alexander’s envoys beheaded, causing the enraged Macedonian king to put the city under siege. After seven months the starved population could no longer resist Alexander’s army and the walls were breached. In the chaos of the slaughter that followed, Kan-Ra slew the guards in the temple of Melqart, took the daggers and escaped the city. The sorcerer eventually found his way across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, and a remote citadel nestled deep in the Andes Mountains. He used his powers to trick the people living there into thinking that he was a messenger of Viracocha—the Inca god of creation. The Inca worshipped the mummified bodies of their ancestors, and so they believed that Kan-Ra was one of these forefathers come back to life. The sorcerer reigned as a petty tyrant in this little kingdom, terrorizing the locals and earning the citadel the name “The Mountain of the Dead.” Kan-Ra delved deep into his studies, poring over arcane tomes that he had collected in his travels, trying to figure out a way to open a doorway to the Astral Plane—the home of celestial beings and powerful gods. He also had the fragments of a papyrus document recounting a great battle waged by creatures called Shadow Lords. The Astral Plane, he knew, was the key to gaining unlimited might. Centuries went by before Aganos was able to track down Kan-Ra again, but this time, the Night Guard—an Inca order of monster hunters—appeared, turning the tide on Kan-Ra and preventing his escape. Unable to kill the sorcerer who had plagued their land and enslaved and murdered their people, the order burned Kan-Ra alive and sealed away his corrupted ashes in a vault deep beneath the citadel. The order claimed this place as their base of operations and kept watch over the sorcerer’s remains, along with his massive collection of powerful and dangerous artifacts. Kan-Ra, unable to die, swirled for centuries as a formless dust. Over five hundred years later, when Ultratech attacked the Night Guard’s citadel, Kan-Ra’s spirit was accidentally set free. The sorcerer fled from the temple, reforming into his current physical manifestation once again. Now he sought the power to rule the world which he felt he so rightly deserved, in a new age that was unaware of his gifts, and unprepared for the magicks he wielded. In a quest to control the Astral beings and the forces that gathered beyond a portal that he finally managed to create, Kan-Ra baited Aganos into a final battle. Subduing the immortal machine, he tapped into its connection to the Astral plane and drew tremendous energies through it, imbuing himself with enough power to create a stable connection to this other realm. Drunk on power, Kan-Ra realized too late that the obsession to trap and control that which lay in wait on the other side of the portal was not of his own doing, for he’d been tricked into these actions by a malevolent Astral entity—one of the Shadow Lords he had read about long ago. Given a brief vision of the true power of the thing beyond, Kan-Ra recoiled in fear, realizing that he was nothing but a speck when compared to the might that was waiting to invade the Earth. Regaining his senses, he commanded all the energies at his disposal to shut the portal, but it was too late. A connection was made, and soon the shadow beast would come for them all. Undaunted, Kan-Ra knows the world is not without balance, and for every evil creature and dark desire, there are opposing forces and ideas that will rise up to face such threats. He turns his attention towards finding and studying these saviors, so that he can take their powers for his own, and then subjugate all with control over both forces. He is constantly searching for rare and sacred artifacts; and is always managing the symmetry between curses and boons as he seeks more power. Death is not an obstacle for him, and he believes that there will always be yet another chance to tip the scales in his favor.

Kim Wu Kim Wu Chapter Born in the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown, the half-Chinese and half-Korean Kim Wu grew up steeped in the arts of Kung Fu. Instructed by her beloved uncle—trained in the alley right behind his shop—Kim was told from an early age that she would one day help save the world from some great calamity. But the teenager was far more concerned about making it through design school and getting a job in the fashion industry than worrying about potential cataclysms. In her spare time, she helped run the family kite shop, keeping a watchful eye on her spectacularly lazy twin cousins. Everything changed after her uncle passed away, leaving Kim an antique box carved with a dragon motif. Contained within this relic was the Dragon Spirit—a benevolent Astral being that had joined with one of Kim’s ancestors thousands of years ago; and that had been passed down through the family line ever since. Manifesting as a set of golden nunchaku (chain stick weapons), the Dragon Spirit bonded with Kim just in time to help her face Shadow Jago—a demon sent by the Shadow Lord Gargos. Dueling with Shadow Jago in the alley where she’d trained as a child, Kim quickly learned to wield the Dragon’s incredible powers, defeating the demon. Soon after Kim was visited by the real Jago who asked her to join a newly formed Alliance formed to oppose Gargos’ coming invasion. Before Kim could respond, Jago was drawn into a portal and vanished, only to return minutes later on the verge of death. But Jago was not alone: he was followed through the dimensional rift by an exact duplicate of Kim—one of Gargos’ Mimic fighters. The real Kim defeated this doppelgänger, and the fallen creature left behind several Astral relics. But just when Kim thought things couldn’t get any crazier, she was teleported to an ancient temple in an African desert—the lair of the nefarious sorcerer Kan-Ra. Encouraging her to trade the Astral relics in her possession for a potion to cure Jago, Kim agreed and was returned to her alley with the elixir. After bringing Jago back to life Kim decided to join the Alliance of former Killer Instinct fighters and Ultratech minions. And now she must prove if she is truly worthy of her strange inheritance; and if she can save the world.

Maya Maya Chapter A member of a secretive and ancient clan of monster hunters called the Night Guard, Maya has lived her entire life with the knowledge that the world is a much scarier place than most will ever see. While humans believe themselves to have grown beyond childish boogeymen and creatures of myth, Maya and her order know that they indeed exist, and travel the globe to hunt and eliminate these threats as they attempt to prey on humanity. Maya and her twin sister Mira grew up in the Guard’s timeworn citadel in the Andes—the only home they’d ever known. They listened with rapt attention to the stories of adventure and intrigue from the Guard’s members after they had returned from their missions. They learned that monsters wear many faces…sometimes even human ones. Both girls loved the honeycomb of maze-like passages below the temples, and spent countless hours exploring them, much to the chagrin of their father and the rest of the order, who repeatedly warned them of the dangers of the many arcane items and antiquities kept deep in the dark places below the headquarters. Maya became fascinated by a certain set of golden daggers uncovered in the vaults after the destruction and immolation of the horror—the sorcerer Kan-Ra—who once ruled the Andean citadel. When they were of appropriate age, the sisters apprenticed with other Night Guard members on hunts, eventually maturing into capable agents of the order. The young women worked well together, and Maya and Mira became one of the Guard’s best duos, travelling the world and hunting evil wherever it reared its many ugly heads. While tracking down an age-old evil in vaults deep within the Siberian Mountains, Mira was forced to sacrifice herself to save her sister. In the days and years that followed Maya’s recovery from that mission, she became increasingly enraged at her failure to protect her beloved sister, resulting in poorly executed missions that exposed her and the Guard to the public. This carelessness eventually drew the attention of ARIA—the artificial mind running Ultratech. Under ARIA’s orders (and led by the fiery plasma creature known as Cinder), an Ultratech army stormed the citadel to raid the Night Guard’s headquarters for its secrets. During this battle, the sorcerer Kan-Ra was accidentally released from a vault where he’d been imprisoned for centuries. Kan-Ra escaped with a collection of tomes documenting an ancient battle with an entity known as a “Shadow Lord.” Maya, wielding the set of forbidden daggers, was the only order member to emerge from the conflict alive. Her order decimated and multiple evil forces freed once again, she set out to first recapture the sorcerer and bring Ultratech to justice for the murders of the Guard’s members. Maya finally faced down Kan-Ra, defeating him and discovering his recent manipulations of dimensions through powerful portals. Peering into this other plane, Maya was touched by the Astral entities there, gaining insight into the nefarious plans of a malevolent being called Gargos…but with no clear idea as to how this mighty creature could be thwarted. She then recruited a number of the heroes in order to plan how best to act against these two growing threats when Ultratech attacked yet again, bent on wiping out the heroes before they could move against the sinister megacorporation. But right before killing Maya and her comrades ARIA withdrew her forces as a new and potentially apocalyptic threat suddenly appeared on the Earth—a demonic force led by Gargos: the master of the Shadow Lords. In the few moments during which Maya is separated from her golden daggers Temperance and Vengeance, a perhaps clearer mind forces her to wonder if she is gaining mastery over their magicks, or if the magicks are gaining mastery over her. Is she losing access to the daggers’ most powerful techniques, or are those techniques transforming into something greater?

Mira Mira Chapter The vampire Mira was once a member of the monster-hunters known as The Night Guard. But after a mission gone awry, she was turned into one of the very same creatures whom she had been sent to destroy. Her gauntlets—the Gloves of Rasavatham—allow her to transmute the blood of her victims into the mercury-like substance she wields with such fury. Given to her by the True Tsar—the leader of a society of Russian vampires called The Coven—the gauntlets are a perversion of the alchemical magicks of the ancient Philosopher’s Stone. Growing up with her fraternal twin sister Maya high in the Andes Mountains of South America, Mira was initiated into the secrets of the Night Guard from a very early age. She and her sister devoted themselves to their family’s cause—the destruction of all creatures of the night. Their family motto was “Blood of my blood,” and they each had this motto tattooed on their skin. When the Coven’s secret headquarters was finally located in a system of caves in the Ural Mountains of Russia, the twins were sent to root it out and assassinate its sinister leader. But Maya was grievously wounded in the assault, and the two were forced to flee, overwhelmed by vampires and their army of wendigos. To save her sister, Mira set off a bomb, causing a massive cave-in. Maya escaped in the chaos; but Mira was buried in the rubble. Dragged from the debris by the vampires, the dying Mira was brought to the Tsar. The Rasputin-like leader infused her with his dark elixir, thus saving her life by turning her into one of the undead, and binding her to him body and soul. Now Mira serves as one of the Tsar’s most trusted lieutenants, searching the world for ancient relics to help build up his powers. The Tsar has pledged himself to the Shadow Lord Gargos, but Mira knows that he secretly longs to usurp that Astral being’s powers and make himself master of the world…with Mira by his side. But she knows that she will eventually have to face her sister Maya in the coming war for the dominion of the Earth, and she must decide if blood is truly thicker than water.

Omen Omen Chapter Omen is a blue-hued demon—an Astral being created by the Shadow Lord known as Gargos. Proclaiming proudly to all that he is the “Herald of Gargos,” he serves his master obsequiously. Omen was formed from the very thoughts of his maker, for in the Astral Plane certain powerful creatures like Gargos—a member of a race of demigods called Ichoriens—can force reality to bend to their imaginings; and through sheer force of will create “living” beings. Dog-like, servile, and unquestioning, Omen gladly slays anyone who stands in the way of his master. He has no compassion for humans whom he sees as lesser beings. Omen was promised his own kingdom here on Earth once Gargos rules the planet. And Omen’s first slaves will be the Killer Instinct heroes, and anyone else who has the audacity to stand up to Gargos. Omen will torture them and inhabit their bodies…steal their thoughts and crush their souls. When Omen was tasked with inhabiting the body of Jago (after Gargos had tricked the monk into opening his soul to him in the guise of the Tiger Spirit) he possessed the noble warrior and controlled him like a puppet. Omen forced the monk to traverse the globe, carrying out brutal attacks on anyone that Gargos believed would stand in his way; and with every victory he channeled vast amounts of shadow energy back to the Astral Plane for Gargos to wax in power. For the first time in his existence, Omen was free of the Shadow Lord’s leash, and like a wild dog set loose in a rabbit hutch, Omen relished his opportunity to spread chaos in the name of his master. But then Jago started fighting back against Omen, usurping control of the shadow energies the demon had been channeling through his body, pushing himself back to the forefront and ejecting Omen from control. Stranger still, the shadow energies that Jago unleashed to dispel the parasitic being did not destroy Omen outright or even force him back to the Astral Plane. Instead these shadow energies congealed as a corporeal form, trapped on the Mundane Plane. At first terrified, both of the event and of what Gargos would do to him, Omen quickly became aware that being independent was more enjoyable than possession ever was. But the Herald of Gargos was dumbfounded when the shadow form of that warrior-monk (the thing known as Shadow Jago) emerged in the aftermath of his possession of Jago. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Omen’s brief taste of living inside a corporeal form was intoxicating, and he longs to inhabit human form again, as this construct he inhabits now lacks the ability to enjoy human sensations. For many of Jago’s thoughts, desires and memories were imprinted on Omen’s Astral brain. Love, hate, despair and joy…none of these strange feelings Omen had known before taking over Jago’s flesh. And he craves them like a drug. Perhaps, Omen muses, he will be rewarded with Jago when his master rules the Earth. And then Omen will rip Jago’s soul from his body and send it screaming into the Abyss. He will cast aside his own ugly winged form and enter the body of Jago again, morphing into an Astral/Human hybrid that is capable of tasting the pleasures of both dimensions. But he is torn between loyalty to its master—the great Shadow Lord—and the idea that he might be capable of something more than servitude. Omen is beginning to see the light streaming through the shadows.

Orchid Orchid Chapter Orchid is the leader of an Eastern European spy ring known as the Disavowed. All of the members of this organization claim to have been wronged by Ultratech, and their goal is to bring down the megacorporation using sabotage, infiltration, industrial espionage and guerrilla warfare tactics. An American by birth, Orchid started out her career in intelligence as an operative for the Special Warfare Department (SWD): a covert ops wing of Homeland Security. But after a deep cover operation inside Ultratech’s research and development branch—an operation during which several scientists died in a lab explosion—the SWD claimed that Orchid had become extremely unstable and paranoid. She was disowned by Homeland Security, and accused of murdering her commanding officer. Orchid claimed that she had been framed by Ultratech, but she was branded a terrorist and forced to flee the country, making her way to the Carpathian Mountains. Using the skills taught to her by the SWD, she formed the Disavowed and started recruiting members, mainly from former Soviet states. One must go back to Orchid’s childhood to discover the roots of her origins as an international spy. She was a military brat raised by her single father—a member of the elite Seal Team 6. From an early age Orchid showed signs of emotional instability and would fly into blind rages. In the sixth grade, while her father was away on a hostage rescue mission to free aid workers taken in Pakistan, she locked herself in a room at school after being taunted by some kids, and started a fire that nearly burned down the building, blaming it on something she called “the Firecat.” She was placed in a juvenile detention facility for a month and given psychiatric evaluations until her father returned. When he found out what had happened he immediately went AWOL, taking his daughter to an isolated cabin in the mountains that he had set up as a survivalist compound. The Firecat, he knew, was real. He had once seen his late mother—Orchid’s grandmother—conjure a flaming beast in a fit of rage. He knew that during World War II his mother had volunteered as a test subject for a secret military study: Project Aries 9. Orchid’s strange power had apparently been passed down to her from her grandmother’s DNA. He started training Orchid in hand-to-hand combat, firearms and the melee weapons he’d learned to wield on a military base in the Philippines: the spring batons. He knew that he had to teach his daughter to control her rage and channel it, because he feared that either Ultratech or the government would try to use her and her hidden power as a tool. He set her seemingly impossible tasks—both mental and physical—and helped her find the hidden resources inside herself to overcome these challenges. Orchid learned to run for an entire day without stopping, or to shoot the sword off a Suicide King playing card from five hundred yards with a sniper’s rifle. The most important aspect of the training, however, was teaching her to summon the Firecat. Anger, her father explained, was a powerful emotion, but it was useless in battle. A soldier had to be laser-focused on simultaneously killing the enemy and staying alive. And to do this they had to practice emergency conditioning—mentally preparing for any kind of combat situation through pre-visualization. He had her create a mental trigger for calling the Firecat, and rather than associating it with something bad like rage or humiliation, he told her to think of something that made her feel proud and strong. Orchid followed his advice and felt her hands start to glow with energy, and then the Firecat burst forth, obliterating an old car that sat in the compound. It was a joyous feeling. They stayed in the cabin for two years, training in the mountains and woods, until the Special Warfare Department finally tracked them down, sending an overwhelming force. Orchid’s father was too valuable to be put in a military prison, and so he was coerced to return to his duties in exchange for Orchid’s freedom. The last thing he told his daughter was to only use her hidden power unless it was a life or death situation. Orchid was placed in the care of a military foster family while her father was sent on a covert mission to Afghanistan. After a year he was killed in a suicide bombing attack, and his body was not recovered. Orchid never had a chance to tell him that when she called upon the Firecat she was thinking of him—imagining his wise and intense eyes peering into her own. Orchid was devastated, spiraling into a dark depression. As a teenager she often got into trouble, and ended up running away from her foster family and living on the streets. After being arrested for arson she was questioned in jail by a woman named Major Weaver. She was a commander from the Special Warfare Department who claimed that she had been monitoring Orchid for years. Weaver told Orchid that she had incredible potential, and that she should follow in her father’s footsteps as a patriot and a warrior. She invited Orchid to join the SWD, telling her that she would be able to help avenge her father’s death, which was not caused by a suicide bomber, but rather from an Ultratech drone sold to enemy combatants. And then she gave Orchid a partially destroyed journal as a sign of good faith, telling her that it had belonged to Orchid’s father. Joining the SWD seemed like the best path at the time, and Orchid plunged headlong into the intense training. Besides courses in espionage and killing techniques, she was taught how to speak Chinese and Russian fluently. She also became an expert in HAHO (high-altitude/high-opening) parachute jumping. In her spare moments she pored over her father’s partially destroyed journal, gleaning from it anything that she could about the mystery surrounding his death. The journal revealed a startling secret: Orchid had a younger brother—the result of her father’s affair with a foreign aid worker whom he had saved in Pakistan. She couldn’t pronounce his name properly—Jacob—and called him “Jay-go” which made him laugh. The woman had disappeared in the foothills of the Himalayas soon after their child was born, and Jacob had not been able to track down her or the baby. He wasn’t present during the birth, but he knew that it was a boy. Over the next decade Orchid successfully completed missions in Chechnya, Russia, China and Africa for the SWD. During these operations she kept finding clues that linked an international terrorist cabal to Ultratech, but these puzzle pieces were few and far between. Finally, Major Weaver assigned Orchid to a deep cover operation at Ultratech itself, posing as a research scientist. Orchid heard whispers of a program called “the Pinnacle Protocol,” and discovered fragments of information pointing toward an alien crash site. Her greatest and most agonizing revelation, however, was finding out that key members of the Special Warfare Department were under the control of the AI known as ARIA. But Orchid took too many risks and her cover got blown. Surrounded by a horde of Fulgore units, she summoned the Firecat, setting fire to a lab and causing a massive explosion. She escaped the facility in the chaos. Orchid went directly to Major Weaver and reported her findings, but the woman who’d recruited her told her that she was paranoid and delusional, dismissing her from the SWD. Orchid left Weaver’s office in despair, only to see on a news report later that night that Weaver, along with her entire section, had been murdered in a bombing. And Orchid was the prime suspect. So she fled the country, gaining passage on a Russian cargo ship. Utilizing all of the survival skills taught to her by her father, and the espionage training of the SWD, it wasn’t long before Orchid started the Disavowed and recruited its first members. Using technical data that she’d stolen from Ultratech, she created the electrified spring batons that became her trademark. During one of her covert missions in Europe she met the monster hunter Maya and formed a friendship. Orchid also came into contact with a young Native American named Eagle. He messaged the Disavowed through a forum run by cyber dissidents, trying to find someone to help him bring down Ultratech. Orchid brought him into the spy ring and, after deciding that he was legitimate and not a plant, sent him on a mission to the Killer Instinct tournament. After Eagle was reported killed in the tournament, she took on the persona of Black Orchid, and entered the tournament herself in the hopes of finding out what happened to the young fighter. She was nearly killed by Jago before she realized that this warrior-monk from the Himalayas—who had the same eyes as her late father Jacob—was her younger sibling. After the tournament Orchid and Jago joined forces with TJ Combo, vowing to bring down Ultratech together. And Orchid and Jago promised each other that they would uncover the secret about what had happened to their father, as well as the reason why Jago had been abandoned at the temple. The trio of Orchid, Jago and TJ joined the monster hunter Maya at the headquarters of the Night Guard in the Andes, hoping to form a plan of attack against ARIA. But this seemingly hidden outpost was soon invaded by an Ultratech battle force, and the companions were surrounded by a massive number of Stalker and Fulgore units. Orchid stared into the face of death and was just about to call upon the Firecat for one last time, but suddenly the enemy called off the attack, leaving a stunned Orchid to wonder who or what had stopped the Ultratech army from wiping them out. As she contemplated her last several encounters with Ultratech, Orchid realized that she had spent too much time forcing direct confrontation with her enemies. To improve as a fighter, she’ll need to embrace her skills as a spy and focus on the element of surprise.

Rash Rash Chapter Rash is a member of the Battletoads, an elite spacefaring trio who love nothing more than brawling their way through the galaxy, taking down evil and looking sharp in the process. Impulsive Rash is the joker of the pack, very rarely seen without his distinctive shades. Cruising the cosmos on board the Vulture with teammates Zitz and Pimple and their mentor, the irascible Professor T. Bird, he seeks any opportunity to pursue justice with a side serving of immense collateral damage. Rash is not only comfortable with melee combat, he thrives on it. Like the other ’Toads, he can transmute parts of his body to deliver devastating Smash Hit attacks, capable of taking out everything from oversized alien rats to monstrous cyborgs. Hard experience has also granted him a mastery of support equipment including the speeder bike from the notorious Turbo Tunnel incident.

Riptor Riptor Chapter CONFIDENTIAL: FOR INTERNAL ULTRATECH USE ONLY This is the copyedit of the Riptor Unit quick start guide (to be published in second quarter of fiscal year). All comments are from Ultratech Legal [UTL] and Ultratech Marketing [UTM]. YOU AND YOUR RIPTOR UNIT An Ultratech Quick Start Guide From UT Press Introduction Congratulations! You’ve bought yourself a Riptor Unit! Your adventure has just begun! Ultratech doesn’t always look to the future to find the solutions to military development. Sometimes, we look to the past. So it was with the Riptor project. My mentor, the brilliant genetic engineer Dr. Erin Gupte, believed in a beautiful dream: a ruthless adaptable predator that could rely on its own victims for sustainment, and could maneuver and infiltrate areas where the Fulgore line would never be able to function. [UTM: Can we change the word “victims” to “rivals” or something less pejorative? It makes the Riptor units seem like bullies.] It is a living and breathing example of American ingenuity! Dr. Gupte’s first efforts at de-extinction, however, were failures, producing dangerous and uncontrollable animals. But when Dr. Gupte began using her own mind as a training tool for her new creations, simulating upbringing through directed thoughts, a breakthrough happened. She guided the creatures into understanding that there was a place for family and the idea of a pack, “from egg to engagement.” [UTM: Perfect! This makes Gupte sound way less unhinged than the previous version.] Dr. Gupte’s mind-sync with the Riptors [Stalkers?] had its consequences, however. Her emotional state became unbalanced, and eventually Gupte’s Riptor units turned on her in a tragic act of feral violence. Like many early explorers she had stepped too far too fast. [UTM: This contradicts UT vision. It should instead be framed that she “boldly stepped beyond the bounds of caution, seeking knowledge to further humanities understanding of blah blah blah.” Let’s make lemonade here. Frame this as she died in pursuit of knowledge, blah blah, etc. But that’s the fate of so many heroes.] Several years have passed since Dr. Gupte left us, but we have not been idle. The RDG (Riptor Development Group) is stronger than ever, thanks to the hard work and dedication of thousands of scientists and technicians, as well as over a billion dollars in R&D. The units themselves have been perfected, and are nearly ready to be deployed by private military contractors. [UTM: No! They ARE ready and UT is selling them to private companies! See recent sales report and insert rounded up # of units here.] Good luck! And go Ultratech! –Dr. Stephanie Hastings, CEO, Riptor Development Group [UTL: Hastings employment will be terminated next week in the reorg. Make sure she signs a release for this introduction or attribute it to her successor.] Quick Start Guide Chapter 1: Unboxing [UTL: This entire chapter has been deleted and has to be rewritten in accordance with the Ultratech Safety and Handling department after initial user testing of unboxing process caused 3 deaths and 4.5 dismemberments.] Chapter 2: Care and Feeding You’ve probably already realized that your Riptor unit eats a lot! This hungry lady consumes about 5% of her body weight daily (up to 50 lbs. of meat). That’s a lot of live goats—the preferred Riptor diet. [UTM: Include official link in e-book version to online page for the “Goats On Time, Anytime” Ultratech livestock purchase form.] The most important thing to keep in mind at feeding times are the 3 R’s: Respect, Risk and Reaction Time. Let’s start with the first one. Respect: Your Riptor has human DNA, so she’s very smart. Always speak to her in a respectful manner because she most likely knows exactly what you’re talking about, even though she does not have the capacity to respond. Refrain from Jurassic Park jokes. [UTM: Can you please change Jurassic Park reference to something more generic like “Refrain from genetically enhanced dinosaur jokes.”] This will only confuse the Riptor, and as you learned from Chapter 3 “A confused Riptor is an angry Riptor.” Risk: There is inherent risk at feeding time. The Riptor will be incredibly excited about the prospect of eating. Their internal clocks are highly accurate, and they don’t like being hungry. It makes them edgy and irritable. Never look directly into your Riptor unit’s eyes at mealtimes. Their gaze is hypnotizing and this leaves you open to attack. It’s always best to wear your Ultrafyber™ Feeding Gauntlets [UTM: Nice! The Quick Start Guide needs more cross-promotion of UT products like this.] when pushing goats into the armored feeding bins. Riptors have been known to rip through the metal slot bars in a frenzy to get at their dinner. Reaction Time: All Riptor owners are advised to partake in physical training that increases fast-twitch muscle responses. A Riptor’s bio-enhanced tail can whip at 5 meters per second. That’s as fast as a Black Mamba strike. While the tail isn’t poisonous, the Riptor’s claw tips are teeming with microbes, [UTL: They’re focused plasma, actually. Cauterizes and sterilizes! A benefit!] and the slightest scratch can cause infections similar to flesh-eating bacteria. So stay back and always be on your toes. Or you might get them ripped off your limbs. [UTL: This entire section needs to be cut. Sets UT up for a major lawsuit and creates an indelible and negative image of maimed Riptor owners hopping around on one foot. We’ve already had enough trouble with the Fulgore Mark 03 Field Manual-L class action suit fiasco.] RIPTOID (Riptor Factoid) [UTL: Have we copyrighted the word “Riptoid” yet? Because I think they want to call these “Stalker” units] Once your Riptor unit has been satiated by her meal, it’s an excellent opportunity for enhancing the human/dino pack bond. The segments where the Riptor’s tail bionics are adhered need to be scrubbed regularly, and the best way to do this is with a stiff metal brush. The animal’s hide is reinforced with tiny bones called osteoderms, and these serve as a kind of organic chain-mail, making it very difficult to clean. [UTL: No, no, no! We never highlight anything that might lead to a return of the product or a mass recall. Emphasize the fun of scrubbing the Riptor’s tail parts…“It’s just like grooming a pony, blah blah, etc.”] The Riptor might show her appreciation for this act by butting you with her head while making a low growling sound. Do not be alarmed! This is the Riptor’s version of a purr. You know that a Riptor has truly bonded with you when they regurgitate their gastric pellet at your feet. [UTL: Please remove the photo of the gastric pellet. It’s unappealing and all Riptor waste has tested as a biohazard and should not be documented. Owner should be directed to Chapter 10: Cleanup Time! and a direct reference to the UT Riptor-Box/Enhanced Litter system.] [UTM: Ditto what legal said.] [Note: the following chapters are currently being rewritten and will be available for copyedit soon.] Chapter 3: Nap Time Chapter 4: What to Do If You See an Egg Chapter 5: Fun Places to Take Your Riptor Chapter 6: Dino-mites (Hide Infestations) Chapter 7: The Liability Insurance Blues Chapter 8: How to Housebreak Your Riptor in 14 Days Chapter 9: Yes, They’ll Actually Fetch a Car Chapter 10: Cleanup Time Chapter 11: From Egg to Engagement: The Soul of a Living Machine Chapter 12: 101 Riptor Tricks Chapter 13: Clicker Training the Safe Way Chapter 14: Fast Tourniquet Techniques

Sabrewulf Sabrewulf Chapter Born into a venerable and aristocratic German family, Count Konrad von Sabrewulf was a well-educated but idle man, prone to addiction and vice. After inheriting the family’s castle from his ailing parents, he discovered a secret chamber and laboratory holding the relics of the Night Guard: an ancient order dedicated to the hunting of nefarious monsters. The Sabrewulf clan, Konrad gleaned from family lore, was responsible for wiping out the werewolves across most of Europe. Drunkenly fumbling through the hidden archives one day, he accidentally cut himself on one of the family’s many trophies: A mounted claw of a giant wolf. Unknown to Konrad at the time, the paw was from a werewolf, its power to pass on the curse still dormant within the severed limb. On the next full moon, Konrad transformed into a deranged werewolf, becoming one of the very beasts that his family hunted for generations. Still addicted to various drugs, but now with the power and rage of a feral beast inside him, Sabre destroyed most of his own castle, driving his servants away and isolating himself within the half-ruined estate. On returning to human form, Konrad discovered that any hope of a cure had been obliterated by his own fits of rage and destruction. Desperately, he pieced together the remnants of his family’s work and began experimenting on himself, trying to break the curse and return him to normalcy. This drove him further and further into heavy opiate use, fits of rage, and madness. He became more wolf than man. As the rumors of a dark creature spread beyond the isolated villages near his estate, Ultratech took notice. Lured from his home with the promise of a scientific cure, Ultratech experimented on and attempted to weaponize Sabrewulf, replacing his arms with cybernetics and extending his transformations until the cycle was reversed; the man barely materialized, the beast ran wild. Breaking free of Ultratech’s control after being thrown into an early Killer Instinct tournament, Sabrewulf returned to his castle, ripped the cybernetics from his body, and regenerated through the use of potions and arcane sciences gleaned from decades of study, and the remaining relics his family held in such high regard. For a time, he gained control of his lycanthropy, but the lure of the wolf haunted him and drew him back again like an addiction. The monster still remained and his ability to revert to human form was short-lived. Sabrewulf knows that unless he can find a more permanent solution, his agony will continue, and he will be cut off from the world and any hope of being a man again. Having spent much time at the mercy of his wild side, Sabrewulf has learned that being a predator is often as much about patience as it is power. He is learning new ways to pounce on and surprise his many enemies.

Sadira Sadira Chapter Sadira is a cold-blooded assassin who has contracted with Ultratech to quiet whistleblowers, activists, politicians and any other enemies of the megacorporation who might prevent the artificial intelligence called ARIA from executing her plans for an evolved humanity. Sadira was born in a refugee camp on the Thai border, an area rife with bloody conflicts waged between ethnic groups and the Communist government of Myanmar. As a child she learned to fight in order to survive in the tough camp, training in the muay boran—the ancient boxing style of the region. Her instructor tried to teach her that this martial art was meant to build character, but what Sadira loved about it was the sheer violence…the thrill of pummeling, dominating and humiliating another human. And she craved something darker and more satisfying than just a contest. When she was a teenager she was recruited by the female insurgent group known as the Red Eyes of Rylai. She gladly joined their order and quickly rose up the ranks due to her innate ferocity. Her first act was to fight a fellow initiate using glass shards tied to her fists with hemp rope. Sadira toyed with her outmatched and terrified opponent, using the glass to disfigure her face, leaving her alive as a warning to the others. The Red Eyes made their jungle base in a hidden subterranean limestone cave system that had been used centuries before as a temple. The Master of the Red Eyes—an old but still very dangerous assassin—took Sadira under her wing, knowing that she had a dangerous but extraordinary fighter in her midst. She treated Sadira like a daughter, giving the young woman the only true affection she’d ever known. The Master wore a necklace in the shape of a golden spider: it was the symbol of her chiefdom. For years Sadira coveted this thing with an all-consuming lust, pretending to love and respect her leader, but quietly plotting to seize control of the Red Eyes. Eventually Sadira came to be considered one of the Red Eye’s best assassins, but more than once her impetuousness nearly got her killed. What’s more she constantly bullied the other women in the Order, and her rash nature caused her to make a grave mistake on a covert mission, getting her fellow strike team members killed in the process. One night the master took Sadira to a secret chamber in the caverns and showed her a beautiful gilded throne. This was the place where she came and meditated. She told her pupil that one day Sadira might sit in this chair, but that first she would have to earn the position of Master through bravery and sacrifices. She would also have to learn to temper her recklessness. Eventually, the Master explained, the two would have a ceremonial fight in front of all the members of the Red Eyes and, if Sadira was victorious, then and only then would she be handed the spider necklace and the throne. Sadira pretended to accept these words, bowing low in submission. Then without warning, she lashed out with a hidden blade, slicing her master across the cheek. The older woman’s eyes opened wide in shock as she felt a deadly poison coursing through her veins. Dropping to her knees she grinned hideously. Then with her final utterance she said, “The spider has found its true home.” Sadira stood over her dead master, staring at her curiously for some time. Then she took the necklace from the corpse and put it around her own throat. It felt extremely heavy and cold. She went to the throne and sat on it, lounging lazily. Suddenly she felt something bite into her skin. The legs of the spider had come alive! As Sadira screamed and clawed at the spider, the golden thing dug itself into her chest, burrowing deep into her flesh, coming to rest next to her heart which throbbed and rolled in her breast as if it were a frightened animal. Her forearms and palms tingled painfully as though they were buzzing with an electrical current. At that moment webs burst from her hands and coated the cave wall. She instinctively leaped up and clung to the gossamer threads, breathing hard. A dark and chill power emanated from that golden thing inside her body. Sadira could feel it surround her heart, slowly consuming and replacing it. There was a sharp pain in her chest that would not go away…a pain that would always remain. But losing her heart was worth the price, for the power that came from the spider was magnificent. Under Sadira’s nefarious direction the Red Eyes expanded their activities, providing services across the globe—paid murderers and mercenaries for the rich and powerful. ARIA became aware of Sadira through her intelligence network, and retained the wily killer for a massive sum of money. The AI sent Sadira on many covert missions, including stealing tech from the alien Glacius’s crashed ship. One of her assignments was to fight Glacius in the Killer Instinct tournament and surreptitiously steal some of his DNA using a hidden syringe implanted in her boot. After that ARIA was able to use this genetic code sample to bypass the security protocols on Glacius’s fold core and open a portal to another dimension. Her work for ARIA had made Sadira fabulously wealthy. Realizing that she now had the capital to operate beyond the shadows, Sadira moved to strengthen her terrorist organization and become a feared name across the globe. Her activities became more audacious, forcing ARIA to warn her of her increasing presence in the public eye. When ARIA requested that she personally investigate a shrine in a remote Japanese village, Sadira assumed there was a high-powered target there for her to dispatch. But instead she found herself at the grave of a 17th century Japanese girl who had died heroically defending her village from raiding samurai. Sadira foolishly started digging up the grave, thinking that there was a treasure hidden there. This impiety awoke a powerful vengeful spirit in the form of Hisako, who pursued Sadira mercilessly no matter where she fled. Sadira was seriously wounded by Hisako, and the assassin slunk back to her lair in the jungles, clinging to life and believing that ARIA had set her up: she’d become too much of a liability and a threat to the AI. Sadira clung to her web, brooding like a wounded spider. How could she bring ARIA’s empire crashing to the ground? While Sadira pondered this, she was visited by Omen—the Herald of Gargos—who called upon her to turn against ARIA and join the path of the Astral Lord. Sadira has a choice to make that will help decide the fate of humankind…a position she relishes greatly. Sadira uses the ruthless powers of the spider granted to her in the past. They come naturally and easily to her, almost as if she was born with them. But near-death at the ghost’s hands awoke something inside of Sadira. Revenge and survival are now one and the same. She must take the time to unlock her true potential as she recovers by studying the hunting and killing techniques of actual arachnids. She has taken particular interest in the Salticidae family of spiders…

Spinal Spinal Chapter In clearer moments, when the insanity of his ancient bane isn’t fully in control, Spinal remembers snippets of his previous existence, before he was cursed, when he was human, feared, and rich…. Recruited by a scheming vizier in ancient Babylon, Spinal and his bandit network were hired to disrupt the city’s flow of resources—one small move of the Vizier to lessen the King’s power by constricting his wealth. The monarch proved too wise however, and the conspirators were rooted out, captured, and subjected to sorcery. Each was burdened with a curse that would unravel their bodies and minds in unique and diabolical ways. As punishment for his rebellion against rule, Spinal was shackled to a powerful artifact of control: the Mask of the Ancients. This accursed veil turned Spinal into an unthinking arm of the King’s will, bound to protect and serve the potentate, with no ability to question even the most suicidal of orders. The Mask did not prevent rebellious thoughts and free will; but it overrode any attempt to disobey the King’s commands. Trapped inside his own head, Spinal went mad as his body carried out more and more brash and dangerous tasks at the behest of the king. He felt every cut, break, and wound his body endured, but he could not act against the all-powerful will of the Mask. He had become a mere automaton wielding dark magicks. After a time, the King grew bored with this torment and ordered Spinal to burn himself alive as a final rite of purification in penance for his crimes. While his flesh melted away, Spinal’s skeleton remained, and even when the Mask was removed from his seared and smoking skull, there yet persisted a will and a force that moved the bones, however feeble it might be. Fearing that this punishment would backfire on him, the King ordered the wretch’s remains sealed in a lead coffer and the Mask thrown into the sea. Over centuries of isolation and imprisonment in that confined space, Spinal slowly gained control of his body, able to once again exert a will on his bones and form them back into a human skeleton, held together by ghostly sinews. The cost on his undying mind, however, was grave; and most of what was the man was now burned away to insanity and unquenched desire. But he was finally strong enough to break out of his coffer, and Spinal wandered beneath the oceans and seas, searching fruitlessly for the Mask, scouring the wrecks of ships for any trace of it. Washing up in the Caribbean centuries later (and drawn by a pull he could not understand) Spinal took up a pirate’s life as a way to track and plunder precious items moving around the continents, always focused on finding the Mask. Many stories were told of the skeletal pirate and his dread galleon sinking vessels full of treasure and gold without ever looting a single coin—the demented marauder laughing with mad glee as he preyed on his victims. For Spinal had finally embraced his insanity…and he felt a primal joy as he wreaked havoc and chaos with rediscovered magicks. What he did not know was that the sought-after relic had not been thrown into the deep as the Babylonian King had commanded. Through the years the fabled Mask of the Ancients had moved from collector to collector until finally, it had fallen into the hands of Ultratech and ARIA. Researching its origins, the AI gleaned its connection to this strange undead creature wandering the seas, and used it to lure Spinal to her side. ARIA dangled the Mask as a reward for entering the Killer Instinct tournament…and so Spinal agreed. While ARIA did indeed manipulate Spinal to serve her needs, she granted him the Mask once the tournament had ended. Spinal donned it with an insane glee, hoping to augment his power and spread pandemonium throughout the world. But he found the Mask’s power had been utterly stripped. Knowing there are greater powers at work, Spinal sets out to find what robbed his relic of its faculties, hoping to defeat that entity and absorb its might so that he can infect the world with a glorious and maniacal frenzy. Spinal’s ability to curse his victims has been diminishing, and he suspects it is due to the Mask’s loss of power. His control over the magicks that bind him, however, are increasing. His instinct tells him to embrace his life as an agent of chaos and to do anything necessary to master these magicks and grant himself insane new abilities.

T.J. Combo T.J. Combo Chapter Tyler-Johnson Garrett was born near Galveston Texas, the birthplace of the first African American Heavyweight Champion—the great Jack Johnson—whom TJ’s dad idolized. TJ’s family was poor and they worked hard, and TJ was taught to earn every penny that came into his pocket. His father was a dockworker and a former sergeant in the Army—the kind of man who flew the Stars and Stripes outside his house every day of the year. He trained TJ to fight using a stack of old tires as a heavy bag. When TJ was twelve years old he got beaten badly in a city league bout. The other kid taunted him when he was down on the mat. TJ had never felt so ashamed. “Life isn’t about winning, son,” his dad told him. “It’s about losing and still keeping on. That’s called grit.” But TJ wanted revenge. Before he and the other boy fought again, TJ removed some of the padding in his right hand glove and replaced it with a roll of quarters. He broke the other kid’s nose with one punch. The feeling of power was exhilarating. He started using different tricks to cheat, and won a lot of trophies until he finally got caught and was banned from the league. The one good thing in his life was gone. TJ was in and out of trouble at school and with the law from that point on. He tried to join the military after dropping out of high school, but he coldcocked a drill sergeant in boot camp and was kicked out. He bought a one-way bus ticket to Chicago, carrying nothing more than a duffel bag full of workout clothes and a pair of boxing gloves. He found a job at a boxing gym on the South Side, doing menial tasks like sweeping the floors, taking care of the bathrooms, and cleaning up the cutman’s bloody rags…all to pay for his own training. He slept on a cot in the storage room. Nobody knew him here. Nobody knew about his cheating. He was starting over doing the one thing that he loved. He turned his life around. Over the next five years TJ grew tall and his body filled out. All during that time he studied the sweet science of boxing with the zeal of a scholar, analyzing the fighting techniques of his boxing idols like Ali and Tyson. And he worked his body until he was a rippling specimen of muscles and raw power. In his early twenties he started winning fights. Journalists began calling him “Combo” for his devastating combination of jabs followed by a skull-hammering right hook. It took five more years of grinding it out on the boxing circuit, but eventually he got his shot and won the Heavyweight Championship. But he became the victim of every cliché: the over-the-top mansion; the grasping trophy wife; the collection of flashy cars; the entourage of worthless sycophants. TJ got sloppy in his training and abused his body, partying like a rock star. He barely won the next two fights in defense of his title, and when he finally lost the belt three years after his first championship victory, he fell into a deep depression. Soon after he found out that his manager had fled the country, leaving him in debt and owing millions in back taxes. That’s when TJ’s wife left him. The boxer went crazy with rage and punched a brick wall, shattering his right forearm. When he was in the hospital, drugged up on painkillers, a strange man approached him and told him about a special research program to rehabilitate athletes and make them superhuman. He was taken to an Ultratech lab and shown a production line creating cybernetic implants, and then given a demonstration of this tech’s miraculous powers. TJ was mesmerized and signed a contract on the spot, essentially handing over his life, career and potential earnings to the megacorporation. Surgeons implanted titanium shafts into his forearms to add bone-crunching strength to his punches. At first TJ relished this newfound strength, and started training in earnest at an Ultratech facility. They put him through an array of tests, analyzing every aspect of his fighting style and even recording his brain waves when he fought. And they cut on him again and again. Within six months he’d won back the title, pushing in his opponent’s face and putting the man in the hospital. Ultratech took the lion’s share of the purse and ordered him to live at their facility like a caged animal. He was watched day and night. TJ looked in the mirror one morning and saw a man wearing an iron slave collar staring back. Ultratech forced TJ into fighting one of their Mark 01 Fulgore battle cyborgs in a highly publicized exhibition bout to show off their new military technology. ARIA—the artificial intelligence mind behind Ultratech—wanted to prove that her machine was better than a human. TJ was ordered to throw the fight just in case, but he went into the ring filled with a rage that made him mighty, and he pounded that metal man into the floor. To punish him ARIA leaked the information about TJ’s cybernetic implants to the press. “We made him a champion,” she announced. “He’s nothing more than an Ultratech product.” TJ was stripped of his title belt and banned from boxing for life. That night TJ cut the cybernetic implants from his arms, screaming in agony as he pulled the metal from his flesh. He staggered to the local hospital and got them to stitch him up. His arms healed up fast. Too fast. He realized that Ultratech had done something more to him when they’d put him on the operating table and cut him open. They’d messed with his DNA. His flesh healed fast, but his soul took longer. Using the little money that he had left to himself he leased his old gym on the South Side and slowly started to fix it up. He named it the “Combo Gym” and started training young fighters. He put up an American flag out front to remind him of his dad. One day a man came around asking about him. A guy with a strange accent. He told TJ that people had been watching him—a group called the Disavowed. Their goal was to utterly destroy Ultratech and they wanted to enlist him. The foreigner showed TJ information linking his former manager to Ultratech. The megacorp had been playing the fighter for years. They’d bankrupted him so that they could get him in their clutches and study him like a lab rat. And now the Disavowed was offering to help TJ get even. TJ told them everything that he knew about his procedures, and every detail about the Ultratech facilities and the cybernetic labs where he’d been operated on and trained. He even gave them his bloodstained implants. The Disavowed starting feeding TJ information, enabling him to track down Ultratech agents, like the assassin Sadira. After a while TJ and the spy Orchid became friends, and infiltrated Ultratech together. He joined her on another mission to South America and the headquarters of the Night Guard to meet its last surviving member—the monster hunter Maya—and the warrior-monk Jago. But then they were attacked by an Ultratech army of Fulgore and Stalker units. TJ was ready to go out swinging. And then, by some miracle, the army suddenly called off the attack and retreated. The boxer had survived another round and will continue his training, hoping to live up to the nickname “Combo.”

Tusk Tusk Chapter Thousands of years ago, Tusk commanded a Barbarian army, leading them against an invasion force originating from another plane of existence: a horde of human doppelgängers controlled by the monster Gargos. This rogue Shadow Lord had come through an interdimensional gateway to conquer the Earth with his band of Mimic fighters. Tusk faced Gargos on the field of battle, but the Astral demon mortally wounded the brave swordsman. As Tusk lay dying he was teleported to the Astral Plane by the benevolent beings known as Ichoriens. They infused him with Shadow Energy—thus making him immortal—then gave him a powerful weapon, and sent him back to Earth to continue his duel with Gargos. Tusk sprang back to life on the battlefield amidst the slaughter of his people, and attacked the stunned Gargos in his moment of victory. This time Tusk wounded the beast, forcing him to flee to a remote region of the Astral Plane. And then Tusk and his surviving men wiped out the Mimics, thus saving the world. Ever since then Tusk has served on Earth as a “Watchman of the Gods.” He wields phenomenal strength and cannot be slain by anything of this universe. He can, however, be destroyed by Gargos who murdered the Ichoriens and usurped their godlike powers, giving him the ability to kill even an immortal. Dwelling for millennia amongst the so-called Barbarian races of our world, Tusk learned these peoples’ languages and guided them from savagery to civilization. But he steadily grew weary of his burden of immortality, watching those whom he loved grow old and die, generation after generation. For the last thousand years, the swordsman has made his home in the place known as Icehaven in northern Scandinavia (a cursed area where the ice never melts), waiting for the return of his nemesis Gargos. But then Tusk was blindsided by one of Gargos’ newest creations—the sinister warrior known as Shadow Jago—who attacked Tusk with an Astral relic: The Oblivion Shard. Unable to kill him, Shadow Jago erased his memories. Tusk collapsed and fell into a coma; but he was discovered on the snowy plains by the last Astral Gatekeeper, Hisako, who brought him to an ice cave along with Warg-gram, sealed them both inside, and left Tusk to regenerate. After two long years Tusk finally awoke from his slumber. As he slowly emerged from the memory fog created by the Oblivion Shard, he started to remember his origin and the quest laid out for him by the Ichoriens. Now the swordsman must decide whether to take up arms against Gargos, or let himself be slain by the Shadow Lord—thus freeing himself from his hated immortality. His fate is utterly tied to his blade, for Warg-gram (Wolf-wrath) as he named it, is a living thing, embedded with a fragment of the Ichorien communal soul, and forged from the most primal and unbreakable element of the Astral plane. The sword guides him with visions, and, because of its Astral origins and adamantine properties, is one of the only weapons capable of piercing a Shadow Lord’s heart.

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