Azuria had asked specifically for Dalghryn and Swiftsilver, not Captain Superior and Azure Noir, not Spandex Dreamer and Summer Daniels, or any other combination of SOLUS heroes.  She wanted Dalghryn and Swiftsilver. 

Actually, the request was anything but surprising, given that Dalghryn had been virtually kidnapped from his home on a peaceful alternate Earth by the arcane mages and Swiftsilver had dedicated her life to finding him among the millions of alternate realities he could have been taken to.  They’d pretty much made themselves arch-enemies of the Circle, and vice versa. 

But, Dalghryn and Swiftsilver were vacationing in Seattle, and Eric Moore wasn’t about to try to track them down.  Not only were they gone, but the SOLUS Foundation’s leaders, Cap and Azure, were off taking care of business in Azzie’s homeland of Valstrasse.  Guy and Summer would have worked pretty well, if she wasn’t on location in Hollywood with him in tow.  Jack Null was off on a computer somewhere and asked not to be disturbed unless it was a 'big caper."  Push was still in a coma.  Black Whirlwind and VanHero were helping the Phalanx with a mission in one of the Preatorian universes.

After running down the team roster, Azuria reluctantly modified her request and asked if Blastion Redux and Empathy’s Requiem could step in.  While both Winter Hawk and Raven Flame had a couple more security levels under their belt, Eric knew it was only because of their years of experience as Empathy and Energy Blastion that the M.A.G.I. boss felt at all comfortable with the idea of sending a couple of heroes with clearances as low as theirs on this kind of assignment. 

Even so, the Moore’s experience was only tactical; in their new incarnations, neither of them had nearly the kind of raw power necessary to taking on the threat Azuria had outlined.  So, she asked them if they could simply run reconnaissance until she could find some heavies.

Eric, better known as said Blastion Redux, tapped his com button and called his wife,  Nicole, said Empathy’s Requiem.  She’d taken the previous shift of monitor duty, and was now upstairs relaxing in the residential section of their headquarters.  His shift had lasted less than an hour before the M.A.G.I. Chief had called.  “Heya, gorgeous, up to a little recon in Orenbaga?

Nicole’s voice was laden with obviously feigned excitement.  “Oh, goody.  I can’t think of a thing I’d rather do, save get a bikini wax with battery acid.  When do we leave?”

Battery acid aside, the imagery of the bikini wax made him stutter-step.  “Ah… the folks at M.A.G.I. were pretty insistent – hostage situation and all.  They were looking for Dal and Kels, so they just want us to recon until they can find some bigger guns to send in.”

“Let me throw on the suit and I’ll be right down.”

“Why don’t you forget the suit and come down naked.  I’d start lookin’ forward to this a lot quicker.”

“I just bet you would, lover.  Suit.  Be down in five.”

Eric sighed dramatically.  “Can’t blame a guy for tryin’.  See you in a couple.”  He tapped the com channel closed and smiled.  He actually liked her new suit.  If he couldn’t have naked, skin-tight worked real well.  And if there was anyone that could make the caves of Orenbaga enjoyable, clothed or not, his wife was it. 

But, he thought as he let his imagination run wild, naked would have been better.

Eric flew just ahead of Nicole, listening to the muffled explosions that echoed through the caverns.  As usual, the Circle was carrying on some ritual or the other, and their hostage was likely floating in the center of it.  Both of the heroes were in their Nova forms – smaller and faster than human form, with a lot more firepower if they were spotted.   The idea was not to be spotted, of course, but he lived by the Boy Scout motto, even if he’d never been one.

He mentally keyed the telepathic com unit, switching to the coalition channel.  “Blastion Redux to Citizen Steel, got an ETA?  We’ve managed to sneak past a couple dozen of these robed looney-tunes, and most of ‘em could French fry us by sneezing.  I’d really rather not have to face off against whatever’s runnin’ this show.”

“Copy that, Blastion.  We’re still looking at a twenty minute ETA.  Just locate the cavern where the hostage is being held and mark it.  We’ll take it from there.”

“Gotcha.  Will do.  Blastion and Requiem out.”

He swiveled in mid-air, tentacles waving, then took the opportunity for a quick caress and brushed a couple of them against his wife. “Well, you heard the man.”  A louder explosion echoed through the caves.  “Sounds like it’s just around the corner there.”

“Good, because I can think of a few things I’d really like to do to you later, and these fanatics are getting in the way.”

Eric’s voice trilled an amused note.  “Well, I guess I can wait.  Naked’s better late than never.”

“Of course you could just entertain yourself,” she pointedly replied.

He turned and flew down the cave.  “OK, fanatics are history.  I’m on it.”

Seconds later, they rounded a corner and quietly nudged a wood slat door open.  The cave floor bowed upward just ahead of them, and a large, natural pillar blocked most of the remaining view.  All they could see was the green glow of one of the Circle’s sacrificial ceremonies lighting the cavern’s vaulted ceiling.

They both flew high and then hovered toward the middle of the chamber, using the pillar to cover their movement.  When they got close enough to see the festivities, Eric stopped short and keyed the telepathic communicator so Nicole could hear.  “Hell, I thought this was gonna be huge.  I guess they kept all their big guns back in the entry caverns.”

Requiem’s tentacles waved a bit more energetically than his, more in confusion than concern.  “It’s really odd. Hostage Girl’s just floating there with a Thorn Wielder and a couple of Spectral Knights.  They don’t even look all that tough.”

“Wanna secure her and let Steel and his crew wrap up?”

Requiem would have shrugged if she were in the right form.  “Sure, I don’t see why not.”

Blastion moved forward and concentrated, readying a blast that would knock the three Circle minions flat.

“This is quite disappointing.  I was assured that Dalghyn and Swiftsilver would be the ones joining us.”

As both of the heroes stopped in mid-flight, looking for the source of the booming voice, an agonizing mind blast scrambled their thoughts.  Their lightforms dissolved in an instant, and their human bodies dropped like rocks.  Eric thought he felt his left wrist break when he hit.  Before he could react, stalagmites sprung up around him, pinning him in place like a rock cage.  He struggled to turn, managing only to see still more rocky teeth caging Nicole. 

He looked around while trying to regroup.  They were surrounded, not only on the ground, but in the air.   Rather than attack, the small army that had rushed in from Lord knew where parted, letting a huge, leather-winged, Behemoth Lord pass by.  It towered over them, its brimstone breath singeing Blastion’s skin.   Behind him were four Spectral Lords with wingspans that looked impossibly wide inside the cavern.  They all looked like they could eat Cap for lunch, let alone a couple of semi-rookie Kheldian hosts.

Realizing that fighting was out, Blastion decided that stalling was in.  He activated his tele-com.  “Ah, Steel, you might wanna step it up.  We’re in real deep crap here.  Yesterday would really be good.”  Leaving the com on so that the cavalry could hear what was happening, he looked up at the horned demon.  “You know, I can get Dalghryn and Swiftsilver.  You guys just let us go, and Requiem and I’ll have ‘em here in two shakes.”

“No, I do not think that will happen.  Though, perhaps they will come to recover your crushed bones.”

Eric felt himself sweating, not just from the heat generated by the demon’s huge body, but from fear – and anger.   He could handle the crushed bones thing for himself, he’d already died once, after all, but he’d be damned if he’d let it happen to Nicole. 

He met the demon’s eyes with his own, letting the most devastating blast of pure light energy he could muster blast from them.  His wife wasted no time in joining with a purple-tinged energy attack of her own.  The great winged fiend flailed at his eyes with taloned fingers and staggered back a step.  Then his lips twisted into a slow, terrible, humorless smile.

“Yes, I believe your bones will suffice.”

The last thing Eric Moore saw was a sudden flare of hellish red energy, then everything went black.

Kyrbykr opened his eyes to the sight of heroes and villains fighting feverishly just feet in front of him.  Jack Null had apparently decided the situation qualified as an emergency, as heTechno-9, Winter Hawk, Raven Flame and the young lady he recognized from files as Stephanie Hart battled side-by-side with Citizen Steel and members of the Champions of Justice against the Behemoth Lord and his minions.

Kyr tried to move, but there was nothing he could do.  The human body he shared was writhing, trapped in a green, smoky mist that he recognized as being the trademark of the mystical villain organization known as the Circle of Thorns.  Since he wasn’t the one causing the writhing, he assumed it had something to do with the ceremony itself.  He’d always assumed it was the victim doing the moving.

In any case, being trapped caused him no concern.  He’d grown quite confident in Eric Moore’s abilities, and when those failed, the humans’ emergency teleportation system had proven very effective.  What did cause him concern, great concern, was the fact that he had almost no sense of Eric Moore at all.

Since joining with the human host, Kyr had been content to let him control their actions.  The Kheldian had shared dozens of bodies in his long span, and was quite happy with enjoying the ride, as Eric would say.  Finding himself suddenly in control, and in the situation he was in, was disconcerting at best.  But centuries of life had given him plenty of opportunity to learn patience and calm.  He applied both, letting the battle wage as he accessed his surroundings.  The first thing he saw was the female, Nicole Moore.  She was bound in mystical mists the same as he, her body twisting and turning, struggling for a way out.  He had grown somewhat fond of the young creature, probably more due to his host’s attachment than anything else, but seeing her reacting in such a manner disturbed him.

In previous incarnations, he had been telepathic.  But, he hadn’t the power to recreate one of those forms, even had he not been trapped.  The thought triggered a memory, however, and he tentatively reached out with his mind until he successfully triggered the primitive technical telepathic link the humans had established between themselves.

He tried to emulate Eric’s speech patterns.  “Nicole?”

“No!”

Kyr blinked, the communication shattered.  But the brief connection told him all he needed to know.  Not only had something happened to the human known as Eric Moore, something similar had happened to the female as well.  And the Warshade, Apihelion, was not taking the knowledge with the same sense of calm.  Were he to admit such things, that knowledge alone almost shook his calm.  But age had made him a bit curmudgeonly, and he never admitted anything that made him look weak.

He surveyed the battle again, and once satisfied that it appeared that the heroes would win, turned his attention back to the telepathic link he’d tried to establish.  Both he and the Warshade had agreed to let the humans guide their directions, an easy out to avoid the uneasy truce that her kind had with his.  Without that buffer, Kyr wasn’t at all certain how things might go.  Seeing no other option, he reached out.  “Apihelion?”

“She’s gone!”

He decided to stick with Eric’s syntax and speech patterns, hoping it would provide some familiarity.  “We don’t know that, Api.  We don’t know what these… what was his term? …robed looney tunes… have done.  Their trap was set for Dalghryn ab’Hurst and Swiftsilver.  Even the Circle may not know.” 

He waited, the mental silence an odd contrast to the din of battle. 

Several moment’s later, she replied, her voice far calmer.  “You’re right, of course.  One tends to get attached.  I recommend trying to free ourselves so we can assist and then trying to determine what has happened.”

“I understand the attached part.  These humans are rather fun.  In any case…”

Before he could finish, a wash of mottled purple and blue exploded from inside the green mist holding Requiem, obliterating it.  A second blast, much more tightly focused, struck the demon – the only enemy still standing – on the left side of the head, obliterating a horn.  For only a moment, the other heroes paused and gaped as the Warshade dove into the fray.  The next blast of mottled energy shredded a wing.  The Behemoth dropped to a knee, and the other heroes swarmed it.

Kyr knew the monster was unconscious the second the mystical field that held him collapsed and he dropped to the ground, rather unceremoniously, on his behind.  While the other heroes started a protective sweep of the area, the Warshade dropped to her feet in front of him, reaching down with a human hand to help him to his up. 

Kyr took it and forced a smile.  “That was quite impressive.”

She closed her eyes for several moments, apparently trying to contact her host, frowning when she finally opened them again.  “It was necessary.”

She seemed ready to get down to business.  He didn’t blame her.  He still had no sense of Eric Moore, either.  “So, until we find our hosts, how would you prefer I address you?”

The Warshade thought for only a moment.  “We’re known as Empathy’s Requiem and Blastion Redux.  That would be the most appropriate.”

Kyr nodded slowly.  “Yes, I guess it would.”  Realizing he hadn’t let go of her hand, he did so, watching as it dropped to her side.  “So…”  He glanced at the chamber entrance as the hero known as Citizen Steel passed the hostage off to another hero and arcane agents from Hero Corps swarmed in and took custody of the demon.  He looked at the Behemoth Lord, then back at the Warshade. Requiem, he’d have to remember to call her that.  He thought about what Eric might say under the circumstances, and gestured at the monster as it was being levitated out of the chamber. “Looks like our best lead’s floating out of the cave.  Shall we?”

Empathy’s Requiem nodded and started walking that way.  “Let’s.” 

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