by Chewy Walrus, T5 and The Eurostar
Elsewhere:
Dr. Zachary "the Leviathan" Knell watched in horror as the Red Scorpion fell to the ground, his brother's sword protruding from his gut, covered in his own blood. The gasping, confused look on the dying man's face, to Knell, signified the possible end of the revenge he had so long craved.
"You IDIOT! What the hell are you doing?" Knell bellowed, turning to the Blue Scorpion, who stood defiantly with a sickeningly satisfied smirk on his face.
"What must be done. Now stay away from the Revolutionaries... unless you want to be next."
Saying these words, the remaining Scorpion pulled his bloody sword from his brother's collapsed form and smiled sadistically at Knell.
"Smith is not as he seems," the Scorpion said, enunciating every syllable perfectly. "Nothing here is as it seems, Knell! Don't you see? Smith is using us to accomplish his goals. He could care less for our needs and desires! We are but pawns in his grand design! Do you honestly think you'll be allowed to live once you've outlived your usefulness to Smith?"
"I think, little Ssscorpion," the Leviathan said, licking his lips with his long reptilian tongue, "that it isss YOU that hasss outlived hisss usssefulnesss..."
At those words, a scaly taloned hand battered the Blue Scorpion, caught totally unaware, across the arena. Smiling, Knell reached down, pulling the Red Scorpion's club from his side.
A blue blur suddenly whisked by Knell, leaving a slash across his chest. Roaring in pain, Knell brought down his new weapon, hitting the ground with such force as to cause a mild tremor to creep across the arena, knocking the Blue Scorpion down.
Another ear-splitting roar erupted as the revenge-ravaged reptile hurled the dead Scorpion's club through the air, causing it to connect squarely with the Blue Scorpion's jaw, rendering the man slightly dazed. A quick shake of his head and the Blue Scorpion was back on his feet, spinning his sword in his right hand at about eighty miles per hour. While Knell focused on the man's spinning sword, the Scorpion's left hand slowly reached down, picking up his fallen brother's weapon.
"You have been a worthy opponent, Knell," the Blue Scorpion quipped, his cocky smirk returning to his face. "However, the time has come for you to meet your maker."
"Fool!" Knell shot back, popping the bones in his massive neck as the wound on his chest closed itself due to his advanced reptilian healing factor. "I am a ssscientisss! We have no makersss!"
"Then prepare to face your inevitable end," the Blue Scorpion responded. "Whatever belief you hold cannot save you from that which I will bestow upon you."
"You are far from invincccible, little arachnid," Knell bellowed, taking a step closer to his prey.
"Is that so?" the Scorpion rebutted. "While you are undoubtedly stronger than I, a fact which I cannot deny, I am vastly superior to you in sheer velocity. After all, one cannot kill what one cannot catch, correct?"
"For a man who claimsss to hate and fear hisss employer," Knell observed, smiling maniacally, "you cccertainly placcce great faith in hisss giftsss..."
"You simply don't understand, do you?" Scorpion sneered, his sword ceasing its spin and pointing directly at Knell. "Smith unwillingly gave each of us the ability to destroy him! Join me, Knell, or so help me, you will suffer the same fate as my poor, foolish brother..."
"I think not..." the giant lizard said, spitting a large ball of saliva from his mouth, which hit the Blue Scorpion directly in the face. The hissing sound that followed was only masked by the Scorpion's screaming as he dropped his weapons and brought his hands to his face, clawing frantically at Knell's spit.
"One of the advantagesss to being a hideousss mutant," Knell smiled, watching the remaining Scorpion with mild elation, "isss the venomousssly acccidic sssaliva that one carriesss within hisss mandiblesss..."
As the Scorpion continued to paw his face, only succeeding in getting the slobber onto his hands, Knell drew ever closer. He noted the skull that took the place of his former ally's visage as screams of terror still poured from his gaping jaw. Reaching down slowly, Knell's tremendous hand seized the Scorpion's head, twisting violently. A ferocious SNAP! resounded throughout the arena as the perpetual scream of the last Scorpion brother finally ceased.
A twisted smile spun upon Knell's lips as he started toward the group of Revolutionaries, intent upon punishing them for their multiple crimes against him. One in particular, the one with the skull for a head, the Biker from Hell. Yes, that one would pay dearly.
Looking at the assembled metas, Knell was quickly overcome with disappointment. He saw those that the media and his allies had dubbed the Speedster, the Wraith, the Gentleman, the Monk, the Animal Man, the Shifter, the Gunslinger, the Chimp, and the Demon... but not the Biker from Hell.
"Damn..." Knell muttered, pounding a large fist into an equally large palm. "He mussst have essscaped to another part of the Cassstle!"
A brief pause ensued as Knell stewed, eyeing the Revolutionaries, the corpses of the Scorpions, and the door to the arena.
"No matter," the beast hissed finally. "He ssshall be hunted, dissscovered, and killed... there will be blood thisss day!"
With that, the lumbering Leviathan left the assembled Revolutionaries to hunt his prey -- Grimm.
The sound of whispering souls reached Naecken as he flew across the sunlit clouds of North America. He knew he had done the right thing asking the President for permission to be the Earth's official protector against extraterrestial and extradimensional threats.
As a government operative, he had better resources to work with and a broader network for communication. His plans to recruit metas as a global strike force was under consideration. He was happy; he had a purpose.
The sound of a whispering darkness reached the near-dead Naecken on the trident. He woke up and saw reality for what it was, and his energies were flowing out of him.
Kalunga sensed his awakening and sent a bolt of pure lightning through his body. "You will stay where you are, little demon."
She refocused on her other teammates and saw the freshly dead bodies of the Red Scorpion and Blue Scorpion. And with her awesome energies, she reanimated them and rebuilt their bodies into scorpion centaurs. Their souls, granted to her by the beautiful Zveidi as a gift, re-enter their bodies.
"Aaauuuugh!" they both scream as their bodies twist and conform to the wishes of the now-powerful Kalunga.
She whispered, "Seek revenge, my sons. Seek the heroes who put you in this situation, and seek the snake that offended you."
With that, they howled and ran off in the direction of the Castle of Crossed Destinies.
Aurochs, now alone, was still deep in singing the enchantment to keep the Castle subdued to his will. Yet, he couldn't keep himself from feeling a sense of impending doom. It could be a reaction of the Castle, he thought, but what he had witnessed was far from good.
Just when the MBL Consulting heroes seemed lost in their own fears, just when victory was ripe to be picked, rivalry and jealousy was born among his comrades. How would Mr. Smith react?
Aurochs kept chanting, but in his mind a plan to safely escape began to take form. The old nerd within himself struggled to assure him a future, like it has always done.