GENETIC GOBLINS
the thirty-first tale
written by Mark Bousquet
Midgard Standard Year 2200 / December (the present)
Asgard - Logan's Bar and Grill
Toomi blew a long strand of blonde hair that fell in front of her face to the side, thinking that this might just be the worst moment of her life. She looked down at her hands to see them buried in soapy dishwater, feeling them scrub away at the grime caused by thickly burnt potato rinds.
'This is all Angelica's fault,' she thought to herself, her face contorting into disgust as she was forced to scrape away at left-over, melted cheese.
"Builds character, it does," came the voice of Logan, the metallic barkeep from behind her. Toomi didn’t even bother to turn around as the synthezoid continued, "We all need to know that we're not better than anyone else. This is a good way to learn, Attumidunn."
At this, the suspended Valkyrie turned to glare daggers at Logan. "Thou doth speak a load of manure," she spat, trying to include as many Asgardian words in her speech as she could.
"Yer fancy words don't impress me, much," Logan replied, smiling.
"Maybe this will, then!" Toomi thundered, picking up the load of dishes on the counter and slamming them to the ground. Shooting daggers at Logan with her eyes, the young Inhuman-Atlantean stormed from the kitchen.
Logan watched her go, his smile widening, "Yep, I'd say that impressed me. Oh, Balder, what are you going to do with these Orphans. They are children no longer."
Midgard Standard Year 2200 / December (the present)
Asgard - The Forest of Earth
Deep inside the Forest of Earth, a fully transported expanse that lied outside the city of Asgard, a young man named K'Zan Strange lay where, once upon a time, many men had wished to idle away their hours.
In the bed of Amora, the Enchantress.
K'Zan wasn't sure exactly why he was here, other than he knew Amora had sought him out. In the days since Ragnarok, she had fled, resurfacing as a haunted flesh-spirit that roamed the woods, praying, legend had it, on any lost traveler. The young speedster/magician wasn't sure why Amora had chosen to reveal herself to him, he hadn't been lost - well, maybe just a little - and had, in fact, been on a quest to find Angelica Osborn, who'd fled to Midgard, when the Enchantress made herself known to him and bade him to follow her to her dwelling, which is just what he had done, and when he got there-
He shook his head; he was rambling again.
At that moment, Amora sauntered into the room. K'Zan was quite sure he'd never seen anyone saunter before, but, as the old jokes went, if you looked up 'saunter' in a dictionary, you'd find a vid of Amora walking into a room.
"Did you enjoy your nap?" she asked, her once long golden hair cropped short, but all revealed flesh still soft and perfect.
"IdidbutIwaswonderingwhatyoumeantwhenyousaidthatwhenIwokeup-"
"Shh," Amora commanded, coming to sit on the bed next to him. "You're a very excitable young man, aren't you, K'Zan. Do you know why I've brought you here?"
K'Zan stared at her blankly. "UmwellIthinkImeanits-"
"Slower," Amora flashed a smile.
"Er, well," K'Zan stammered, forcing himself to talk slowly, "I mean, uh, it has to do with, um, well, you know …"
"Sex?"
K'Zan blushed, turned his head away.
Amora laughed, and K'Zan felt a sinking in his stomach. "No, K'Zan, the Enchantress has not brought you here to devour your flesh and steal your soul, or whatever other lies are being spread about me in the Golden City. No," she brought her hand to his chin and gently directed his head to look at hers, "I have brought you here for another purpose."
"You're sure it can't be about sex?"
"No, K'Zan, I've brought you here to be my student. It's time someone began instructing you in the ways of magic."
"You're going to be my teacher? Yeahthat'sgoingtostopmefromthinkingabout-"
Amora smiled, "Our first lesson begins tomorrow. Do not disappoint me."
Midgard Standard Year 2200 / December (the present)
Earth
Attumidunn set her jaw as she stood in a towering canyon of filth, decay and grime.
New York City.
She walked the streets, her Valkyrior armor hidden beneath a brown robe she had borrowed from Skrull 4's quarters. If Balder suspended her from the ranks of the Valkyrior for simply failing to report Angelica's absence, she wondered if he'd toss her from Asgard itself for coming to Midgard without his permission. Midgard was strictly off-limits after the disappearance of the planet several years back.* As she stood here, looking at the filth that swelled around her, the tall metal buildings making her shiver in their ugliness, she realized, surprising herself, that she didn't care what Balder thought. King or not, she was no longer some child that needed to be hidden away.
* Chronicled in AGC Giant-Size 1
None of the Orphans were, she realized, enlightenment seeming to dawn on her with each new building she glanced at. Yes, she thought, it was one thing to follow orders as a soldier, but quite another to follow orders as a child. In neither case was it acceptable to disobey the King, but at least a soldier was not hidden away in some protective cage, unable to effect the outcome of anything on their own.
With a sudden flash of inspiration, Attumidunn ceased her walk, and turned around. 'If Angelica wants to be here, on Midgard,' she thought, 'then who am I to come running after her?'
It was decided as suddenly as her decision to come. 'Angelica, though a few years younger than the rest of us, has been raised among us. She can certainly handle herself in a place-"
HEEEEEEEEEEEE-HEEEEEEEEEEE-HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
A chill ran through Toomi's body that not the coldest night in Niffleheim could match. The vagrant people around her ran for the cover of doorframes and alleyways; Toomi stood, her head looking left and right at the vanishing masses.
HAAAA-HA-HAAAAAAA!!!
A second chill ran through her and she saw, across the street, an aging mother stumble and fall. Her daughter, who looked to be Angelica's age, turned without stopping, and shouted, "Hurry, mama!" but did not go back to help.
"What deviltry is this?" Toomi asked, her right hand reaching inside her robe for her sword. She was caught unaware as bombs started falling from the sky. One exploded into the side of an old building near her, sending a hailstorm of bricks raining down on her. "Ah!" she yelled, diving to the side, managing to avoid only some of the falling debris.
As she lay on the ground, Toomi rolled over onto her back and, for the first time, looked up at the sky.
Her blood stopped dead; her heart, for several long moments, unable to pump the lifeblood.
Soaring through the sky was a maniacal, screeching banshee, silhouetted by the moon. Toomi watched as the banshee soared down the street away from her, then arced, turning to come back. As the banshee turned, the figure dropped low, allowing Toomi a sudden, hideous glance at the creature's grotesque, green face.
"Come quickly!" she heard a voice whisper, and a hand tug at her robe. She arced her head back to see the young girl from moments before pulling at her. To Toomi's surprise, the young girl easily pulled Toomi along the ground, and deep into a dark alleyway, seemingly without effort.
Struggling in her robe, and hating being pulled along like a sack of wheat, Toomi fought the young girl's grip, but she held the robe fast, and didn't stop pulling until they were hidden behind a dumpster three-quarters of the way down the alley. Finally, the girl released the grip and Toomi rolled over onto her feet, "What is the meaning-"
"Shush!" the girl hissed, and such was the intensity in her eyes that Toomi fell silent. "You don't want to attract her attention, do you?"
"Her?" Toomi asked, her voice a sharp whisper.
"The Green Gobliness," the girl replied, her eyes peeled to the end of the alleyway. Then, to someone behind her, who Toomi hadn't noticed, the young girl continued, "Told you she was a tourist. Looked as lost as we once did."
But Attumidunn's eyes were now locked on the end of the alleyway, too, and she felt the now familiar shiver run through her as the Green Gobliness roared by, pumpkin bombs falling to the street as she went by. "The Green Goblin …" she shook her head. "That creature out there is … is, Angelica's mother?"
Toomi reached behind her head, to grab the brown robe with one hand, and pull it over her body. Her jaw set, she unsheathed her sword. She could hear Angelica's plaintive wails from when she told them about her heritage, about how she could, one day, go insane and kill all of them. Toomi didn't believe it then, and now … now she was determined to prove that she was right all along.
"What do you think you're doing?" the young woman's mother asked.
Toomi turned and looked at the two dirty, pathetic - aye, she thought, pathetic is the word for them - humans and sneered, "I am going to kill the Green Gobliness."
The young woman shook her head, but reached out and forced Toomi to shake her hand, "My name's Ravyn, by the by. Thought I'd tell you that because I'm the last person you'll ever meet."
Toomi looked at the young, Asian girl and shook her head, "Thou art a coward."
The girl didn't blink, "Yeah, well, thou are a bitch. And soon to be a dead one. Come into the Tunnels with us. That way," she pointed back up the alley, "leads only to death. This way," she pointed to a whole in the bottom of the dumpster, "leads to a chance."
Toomi yanked her hand away from the woman that could not have been more than three years her younger, a young woman that was, like Toomi, raised in the conditions of the Eternal War. Toomi began to realize just how lucky she was that she'd been raised on Asgard, and not on this backwards planet.
Without another word, Attumidunn walked back up the alleyway.
"Ye dress like a tramp!" Ravyn called to her, mocking the Valkyrie armor, but Toomi, if she heard her at all, did not reply.
The Out of Time Dimension (the present)
The Cathedral, Headquarters to the Saviors
Angelica and Spider sat in the monitor room of the Cathedral alongside Princess Sand, a member of the Saviors, Earth's supergroup; what had started out as Angelica seeking information about her mother, then as a history lesson on the Ascension (what the Earthers called the Abandonment), including a tour of the Cathedral, had turned into something of a vacation for Angelica.
"Angel, look at this," Princess Sand laughed, motioning to one of the images to their right. Though Princess Sand was her superhero moniker, it was also an accurate description of the young woman; Sand was the Princess of the small, but wealthy, Egyptian Province of Adalama. She wore an elegant white costume that Angelica thought was completely impractical for battle.
The monitor room was a long, oval shaped room; every panel on its walls was a monitor, able to depict literally millions of broadcasts from around the world, be they over-the-air, cable, satellite, internet, supernet, radio, anything. Angel smiled at the Princess, and looked to the image she pointed to; Spider, as was his norm, hung back, saying little.
Angelica smiled, "What am I looking at?"
"It's an illegal auction down on Isla Juarez," Princess Sand explained. "They specialize in First Age memorabilia, ohmigod, look at that!"
"What is it?" Angelica asked, curious as to how something so small could generate such frenzy in the Princess.
"It's a 20th century, mint condition, Hank Pym Russian Doll!" Sand squealed in delight. "I must have it!"
"Um?" Angel asked, still wondering why a foot-high doll could send a Princess into such a tizzy.
"Don't ask the Princess any questions when she gets like this," Spider said, stepping towards them, his voice somber. Hiding something? Angelica wondered idly. "It's a Russian Doll. See? It looks like Giant Man, right? Then you open it up and it looks like Goliath. Open that up and it looks like Dr. Pym, then Yellowjacket and finally Ant-Man. Guy must've been schizophrenic to have that many identities."
Angelica looked at his Spider suit, a modern version of the original Spider-Man's black-and-white suit, and, frighteningly, Angelica thought, it was also the symbiote known as Venom. He'd told her he'd only bonded with Venom because of the death of another, but-
"Sand, keep Angelica here," Spider said suddenly. "I've got to go."
"What?" Angel asked. "Why?"
Spider pointed to a screen down at the far end, "Your mother is battling with some new hero downtown. I better get there before-"
"That's not a new hero!" Angelica blurted. "That's Toomi!"
"What's a Toomi?" Sand asked.
Manhattan
The X-Men Memorial
At a solitary, giant concrete 'X,' in a small, grassy open area inside a plaza, Attumidunn came face-to-face with a living nightmare. Consumed by her anger, by her confusion at her role in the Eternal War, Toomi went off, as Dani would say, 'half-cocked.' She saw now that challenging the Green Gobliness was a bad idea; without an Asgardian steed to give her position in the sky, Toomi could do nothing but dodge falling pumpkin bombs and plasma bursts, fired from the Gobliness' glider.
The Goblin screeched through the air, her glider wailing with every movement, her body alive with laughter as she bore down on Toomi again and again. The glider dipped as it approached, and Toomi stood her ground for as long as she could, hoping for just one chance to gut the glider down the middle and bring the Goblin to her level.
'Stupidity,' Toomi thought. 'Why did I think that this Gobliness would meet my challenge for single, unarmed combat? Midgard is too backwards to ever believe in such an honor system. I should have-"
"Unnngh!" Toomi blurted as her body was knocked backwards from a pumpkin bomb explosion to her left. Shaking her head, she tried to stand and fell back.
"The time for games is at its end!" the Gobliness called down to Toomi as she brought her glider in low to hover above the fallen body. "Tell me, child of the aqua skin, what is your name? Are you from off-world? You do not look like any hero I have come across."
Toomi again tried to stand, but a shooting pain in her shoulder prevented her from pushing her body up and she was too disoriented to rise otherwise. "My name is Attumidunn," she coughed, tasting her own blood. "I am of Attilan born, and Asgard raised."
"Attilan born?" the Green Gobliness asked, surprised. "Impossible! Attilan has been shut away for centuries."
"My mother was Luna, the Celestial Messiah, herself!" Toomi challenged from the ground. "I claim Attilan as the home of my birth-"
"But you never have been there, have you?" the Gobliness asked, laughing. "Luna, Luna, Luna! You are the escaped one, then, aren't you?" the Gobliness leered down. "The child of Atlantis that got away when the rest of the city and its people were completely destroyed! I remember Luna promising me that one day her daughter would make vengeance for her death." The Gobliness let her glider drop suddenly, now only a foot above Toomi's prone body and when she spoke it was so low that Toomi had to strain to hear it over the humming of the glider's engines. "I still hear the screams of the Atlanteans as they burned, child. Hundreds tasted my fire that day." The Gobliness laughed, "At long last, the last Atlantean shall perish!"
Toomi's eyes lit up, "Thou art responsible for the death of my family! Thou art-"
The Gobliness raised a pumpkin bomb threateningly, and Toomi quieted. "Your fool father thought he was aiding us all along, but he was nothing more than a simple tool to bring about Atlantis' destruction."
Toomi felt her heart skip, "My father? You know of my father? What would any farmer have to do with you?"
It was the Gobliness' turn to be surprised, "You don't know of your own father! This is too good to be true!" The Gobliness - Angelica's mother, Toomi reminded herself - laughed hysterically into the night, " Have you never been told? Have you never guessed? A farmer! Oh, this is too much!"
"Tell me," Toomi leveled her voice despite her shaking body, and somehow rose to her feet. She was eye-level with the front of the glider, angry and curious. The truth was she'd never given her father much thought; her mother had told her that her father, an Atlantean, had died soon after she was born, and she had always left it at that.
"Your name, child," the Gobliness smiled down maniacally at Toomi, "is Attumidunn, correct? The escaped daughter of Atlantis?"
"It is," Toomi answered, setting her jaw.
"Attumi," the Gobliness cut her name short. "Attumi, daughter of Attuma, warlord of Atlantis and would-be conqueror. The man who tried so many times to control his birthland that he eventually joined with us who sought the death of his people in a plan to wrest control of the city-state, only to die when we betrayed him." The Gobliness chuckled behind her mask, and lifted her wild eyes to the sky, "Ah, fond memories."
The words caused Toomi's mouth to run dry, "My father was … Attuma? It can not be. My mother would never have joined in union with him."
The Green Gobliness locked her large, wild eyes onto Attumidunn's, her grin seeming to stretch from one large, goblin ear to the other. "Your mother didn't have a choice."
Ten minutes later
When Angelica, Spider and Princess Sand burst into the clearing by the X-Men Memorial, they found Toomi sitting with her back against a tree, and her head slumped forward onto her chest. She was in silhouette, lit by a large, rising moon in the background. Angelica's first thought was that Toomi was dead, that her mother had killed her best friend, that the Goblin Curse had claimed another victim, but as they approached, she saw Toomi's head slowly moving up and down and a hand reached up to wipe across her face.
"Stay here," Angelica whispered to Spider and Princess Sand.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Spider whispered back, not stopping.
"Then scout for my mother," Angelica answered, pulling away from them.
Spider turned to look at Sand, who simply shook her head, "Let her go, but be prepared. If this is a trap, the Green Goblin won't wait long to spring it."
Angelica walked cautiously towards Toomi, trying to remind herself that her mother could be waiting right behind the giant 'X' memorial, waiting for her, using her friend as bait, but she found she couldn't take her eyes from the still dark form of Toomi.
At ten steps, she could hear that Toomi was crying. Never, in their entire life, could Angelica remember such a thing happening as these heavy sobs. She said nothing as she came to stand close, waiting for Toomi to acknowledge her.
"It's all a mistake," Toomi choked out, not bothering to hide her tears.
"What is, Toomi?" Angel asked, kneeling down beside her.
"My life," Toomi shook her head. "It's all … I don't know." She looked to Angelica, who could see the tear-stained cheeks and the bloodshot eyes. "I wasn't ever supposed to be here."
Angelica wanted to place a hand on Toomi's shoulder, but didn't know how far from her normally ice-cold front Toomi was willing to go. "I don't understand."
"Your mother," Toomi said, staring off into the distance. "I was fighting your mother and … and she told me who my real father was."
Angelica frowned, not completely understanding. She never heard Toomi say much about her father growing up; Toomi had told them that he was a simple Atlantean scientist of little regard and that's why Angel thought she never talked about him. For someone who so wanted to be royalty, to be the lead Valkyrie someday, to walk amongst the heroes in Valhalla, a father of no heroics was of no use.
Toomi continued, "She told me that my mother was … was raped, Angelica. By Attuma, the warrior, would-be ruler of Atlantis. I was never supposed to happen. I only exist because someone decided to rape my mother and impregnate her with a child that they could use to overthrow Atlantis and shame the Celestial Messiah."
Angelica wanted to reach out to Attumidunn, wanted to say something, anything to bring her friend comfort, but no words came.
For a long time the two Orphans of War sat near a memorial to heroes of the First Age and simply let time roll past, wishing that they were as close in spirit as they were currently in proximity, but knowing that neither of them had ever made much of an effort to be anything close to friends.
END GENETIC GOBLINS
"Yeah, well, thou are a bitch. And soon to be a dead one."
-- Mark Bousquet … 5 August 2001
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