Hero's Call

Chapter Thirty Five

A single tear ran down Maiden's cheek as she looked at Xander's prostrate body lying on the cold concrete floor of the warehouse.

"Don't cry for me, Calliope," a voice said from behind them.

Maiden, Cobalt, and Pulsar all whirled around to see Xander standing behind them. He looked exactly as he did the first day they had met them. His eye was no longer bruised and swollen. The blood that was running down his face from an unseen wound was gone. He was smiling, but Pulsar didn't see any joy or humor in that smile. He saw malevolence, hatred...Evil.

"Xander," Maiden gasped. "What's going –"

"Quiet," he commanded her, and the words died in her mouth. "I don't want to hear you speak again."

Pulsar looked down at the body on the floor. It was cooling at an unnatural rate. Something was deeply unsettling about the whole situation and not just because Xander had managed to be alive and dead at the same time.

Marvelous Maiden looked wounded by Xander's words. She opened her mouth to speak again, but Pulsar could tell she was unable by the look of terror that crossed her face when she found the words wouldn't come.

"I grow tired of this charade," Xander announced. "It may just be Destructo's thoughts that have been implanted into my mind, but I feel the need to reveal the whole truth to the three of you before the end."

He lifted his hands ceremoniously and clapped twice slowly. Around them, the world began to shift. The walls and ground of the warehouse faded into smoke before rearranging themselves. The whole scene was changing drastically before their very eyes. The living Xander's dead counterpart slowly faded to smoke and disappeared. Number 1's incapacitated form followed suit. Everything, all the destruction and mayhem that had taken place over the better part of the last hour was disappearing. From chaos came order. Even the gaping hole in the ceiling that Captain Amazing had created was repaired in perfect order.

Not only had the warehouse repaired itself, but it had changed itself. They weren't in the same warehouse from moments before, the same warehouse they had infiltrated to put an end to Destructo's plans for world domination. This new warehouse was smaller by far, and emptier. There were no additional doors, no upper floor. The door to the control room had disappeared, replaced with nothing but a solid wall. Pulsar, Cobalt, and Marvelous Maiden stood motionless, struck in horror and shock, as the reality of the situation crashed into them.

"No doubt you are having a difficult time wrapping your heads around what is happening," Xander said airily. "Well it's quite simple really. You see –" he cut himself off and rolled his eyes. "Hold on a moment. I'm being rude. We have other guests that should be here for this. Number 1, bring them out."

From somewhere in the darkness, the sound of an opening door cut through the quiet warehouse. Moments later four figures emerged from the shadows. Captain Amazing and Czar Destructo were in front. Both were gagged and had their hands bound. Signs of assault were visible on both of them, but Destructo's appearance was truly shocking. He was no longer the young Villain that they had faced only minutes before. He now looked just as old as Captain Amazing, if not older. He wasn't in his uniform and his helmet was nowhere to be seen. Pulsar locked eyes with him and felt a chill creep up his spine at the look of desperation in the Villains eyes.

"Now that we're all here," Xander said in good humor. "I'd like to start by saying that you'll all find it quite difficult to do anything even remotely violent towards me. It's something of talent of mine."

As much as he would have loved to, Pulsar could not even begin to remember how to use his optic blasts when he thought of Xander. When Destructo entered his mind, his power became second nature again, instinct at its basest form. The thought of how easily the clone has manipulated his mind was terrifying.