RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Writer's Block Edulcore Cicciotto: An Odyssey.

Prelude: Ithaca (the same day the Vanguardians departed for London in issue 16)

Miss Victoria Xiang sats at the desk of her own office at the Vanguard International Complex at Puerta Mibela, la Perdita.

Behind her, her bodyguard and assistant, Nuriko.

In front of her, a new face for the island, a tall, blond American, dressed in a costly Armani suit.

"Mr. Rosetta..."

"Call me Simon, my dear..."

"Mr. Rosetta, I was saying... your references are impressive. Your power... transmutation of elements... as a living catalyzer... seems too good to be true. You would make an impressive addiction to our team..."

"Very well, then. I am ready to join, Miss Xiang."

"It's not so easy. We have procedures..."

"What? Since when? If there is one thing your team is famous for, is accepting whoever knock at your door!"

"Mr. Rosetta, that politic has created a few problems now and then. There are just a few formalities to carry out, and then we'll be ready to enlist you. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Miss X stood up, and walked toward Rosetta, lending him a hand to shake. Rosetta ignored her, his eyes fixed over a picture of a few men in circus costumes, right behind Xiang's chair.

"The founders of our company" observed Xiang. "Naecken, the blue giant. Danny Hearn, Mick Harrison, the one with the long hairs, and Tobias Cristopher, the one with the blue and silver costume. The Revolutionaries, as they were called then."

"And the fifth one? The one in red?" asked Simon Rosetta.

"What? What fifth?"

"Nothing. Just a joke." Simon Rosetta left the office, smiling.

Chapter 1: Leavin' Calypso

Certe notti la macchina e' calda
E dove ti porta lo decide lei
Certe notti la strada non conta
Che quello che che conta e' sentire che vai
Certe notti la radio che passa Neil Young
Sembra avere capito chi sei
Certe notti somigliano a un vizio
Che tu non vuoi smettere, smettere mai

Certe notti fai un po' di cagnara
Che sentano che non cambierai piu'
Quelle notti fra cosce e zanzare
E nebbia e locali a cui dai del tu
Certe notti c'hai qualche ferita
Che qualche tua amica disinfettera'
Certe notti coi bar che son chiusi
Al primo autogrill c'e' chi festeggera'

E si puo' restare soli
Certe notti qui
Che chi s'accontenta gode
Cosi' cosi'
Certe notti sei sveglio
O non sarai sveglio mai
Ci vediamo da Mario prima o poi

Certe notti ti senti padrone di un posto
Che tanto di giorno non c'e'
Certe notti se sei fortunato
Bussi alla porta di chi e' come te
C'e' la notte che ti tiene fra le sue tette
Un po' mamma un po' porca com'e'
Quelle notti da farci l'amore
Fin quando fa male fin quando ce n'e'

E si puo' restare soli
Certe notti qui
Che se ti accontenti godi
Cosi' cosi'
Certe notti son notti
O le regaliamo a voi
Tanto Mario riapre prima o poi

Certe notti sei solo
Piu' allegro, piu' ingordo,
piu' ingenuo e coglione che puoi
quelle notti son proprio quel vizio
che non voglio smettere, smettere mai

E si puo' restare soli
Certe notti qui
Che chi s'accontenta gode
Cosi' cosi'
Certe notti sei sveglio
O non sarai sveglio mai
Ci vediamo da Mario prima o poi

("Certe notti", by Ligabue)

(makeshift translation)

Some nights the car is warm
and she chooses where to go
Some nights the road doesn't matter
what matter is to feel that you go
Some nights the radio airing Neil Young
seems to know who you are
Some nights resemble a vice
that you don't want to quit, never to quit.

Some nights you do some uproar
so those will know you'll never change
those nights between thighs and mosquitos
and fog and clubs that are like friends.
Some nights you have some wounds
that a girl-friend of your will disinfect
Some nights, when the bars are closed,
at the first roadside cafe someone will celebrate.

Some nights you feel lord of a place
that by day it disappears
Some nights if you are lucky
you'll knock at the door or who is alike yourself
There is the night that keeps you between her tits,
part mommy and part whore like she is,
those nights to make love
till it hurt, till there's some.

And is possible to feel alone
some nights here
Who is satisfied with little is always delighted,
so-so,
Some nights you are awake,
or you will never be awake,
see you at Mario, sooner or later.

Some nights you are just
happier, hungrier
naive and jerk than usual,
those nights are the vice
that I don't want to quit, never to quit.

And is possible to feel alone
some nights here
Who is satisfied with little is always delighted,
so-so,
Some nights you are awake,
or you will never be awake,
see you at Mario, sooner or later.

Now...

Call me Edulcore Cicciotto.

I have been know by many names.
Eurostar, the Italian speedster, long before the name acquired a new meaning, like in superhero.
The Red Ghost, merry leader of a band of revolutionaries.
The Herald, fabled spoke-person of the servant of Time, the Time Trust Android.
Agent Cicciotto, reluctant and untrusty member of the secret organization called the EPS.
The Raptor, damned knight slave of an accursed sword.

Now nobody knows me.

The world has forgotten my names.

I don't know who or what is behind this, and why.
If is magic or science, if is the deed of gods or humans.
Or aliens.

Being the work of an enemy or a friend, at first it scared me, and then got me angry.

In the end, i found it to be the peace I have longed for for so much time.

Peace in the arms of a beautiful woman, pregnant with an unborn son of mine.

But I have another son.

Eddie.

He has been forgotten by the whole world, too.

And I must find him.

And so now I am driving on this road, the Via Emilia, leaving Bologna and heading to Milan, to the airport and the plane that will bring me back to la Perdita, the place where I left my son before the last mission I did along Vanguard.

The road is straight, cutting across meadows and vineyards, orchards and fields. Across industrial factories and cities with red houses made of bricks, and centuries old stone churches. And from the windows I see faces, peoples in bars looking at the Champions League final, young couples ready to go to the disco, tired workers returning home from the late shift.

And a river of cars, incessantly going on the two directions, thousands, millions of people on the move.

One time, most of them knew me.

The champion of the past, the shadow behind their doors of the present.

But now, I am nobody, like the surname on my fake passport, Nemo, tells. Nemo, my late comrade. God bless him.

Frank, Eduardo, Nemo, Gabriel... my comrades throughout my odissey. God bless them all.

The sky is black and moonless. The lights from the road, and from the whole Padana plain, full of cities and village, makes the sky not really black, but tinted of yellow, and no star perforates the gaze. The eagle in me feels caged.

Oh, how I would be like to soar above the madness, instead of being pressed into this tin family car.

Things have changed. I am so tired.

I would just sleep.

What! Shit... that van...

Chapter 4: Poseidon's wrath.

"You! I need you!"

Edulcore Cicciotto turned on his feet, the hawk-bill axe dripping blood of disgusting, slimy animals from the underground, summoned by Godbolt from forgotten realms. In front of him was standing the mage, Ghaelon, pointing his index finger at him.

"Me? What do you want from me, mage?"

"Your help. To turn the tide."

Euro frowned.

"Look!"The finger of the mage was pointing at the zombie forces, at all the undead things, men, animals and other beings, whose corpses rised at the call of Gaovulte. Or Grimm's. "They keep coming. Millions more, lying under the surface, can still awake. You must stop those things!"

"Me? You are mad, wizard?!"

"Those are mindless beings, answering to the call of the one which yells louder. Godbolt or Grimm, there would be no difference. Both seeks power. They are hungry for power. You must stop this. You who know that lust..."

Euro was hammering madly one of the crocodile, while listening at the mage. When the croc finally died, he turned red in face to Ghaleon. "How I can tell you! I don't know how I could command to those zombie! It's something I never did. In all my lifes!"

The mage shook his head. "I didn't ask you that. No one could overcome the call of those two. I want to give freedom of though to those zombie, so that they can choose to rebel to Godbolt. Or Grimm."

"What do you mean, mage?"

"We need to ask to the souls of those men to rejoin their bodies, and stop to answer the call."

"What do you mean? What I have to do? Speak wizard, stop with the riddles!"Euro was enraged, as the possible way to end that madness was beginning to surface in his mind.

"You went in the Land of the Dead so many time in your previous life. As Gilgamesh, Ulysses, Morpheus, Aeneas... so many others, so many times... return there, and bring back the souls!"

"I... I need the pass! Every time a pass is needed!"Euro was yelling like mad, scared and excited by the mission, as the different memories of hundred of different past lifes were mixing in his brain to create a cohesive vision of the way to the Elysean fields.

"I have the pass, Champion!"said Ghaleon, smiling. And from under his mantle produced a gleaming, long sword.

"LADNIKIA!"shouted Euro, at the sight of the sword. "But... that's impossible! It has been destroyed!"

"It has. It will be. It never have been... who knows? Where are we? The past, the future, another place... Ladnikia baffles these very concepts. She lives outside time and space. Living embodiment of weapon and of man's lust for power and war. She is every blade that has been forged. Sword of the champion AND of the adversary, enemy of herself, one, no one and one hundred thousands.
Take it, Eternal Champion!"

"It will be my damnation..."

"It will be the salvation of this land!"said firmly Ghaleon.

"I cant..."whispered Euro, but his hand, like moved by a proper will, went to the blade's phallic hilt.

And grasped it.

The Raptor spouted his feathers, and raised Ladnikia once again, like he raised a sword thousands of times for each of his thousands lives.

"Death to Godbolt!"he shouted.

And disappeared.

Ghaleon smiled, and then morphed back into the form of Califron, the cursed warlock of Godbolt!

Chapter 5: The storm

Call me Eurostar.

I have been known by other names... Edulcore Cicciotto, the Raptor, the Eternal Champion... but Eurostar is the only one of whom I am fond.

It's the name I was known by in simpler times... when there was the fun and the joy to live.

Now I am tired... tired of the battles, of the endless fights, of blood and cries, of tears and sorrow.

But that doesn't matter... there is another battle to fight, another war to win. Ladnikia, the damned sword, whose curse over me seems never to end, gleams in my hand.

The wizard, Ghaleon, has sent me in the Land of the dead, to call back the souls so that they could claim control over Godbolt's zombie.

Problem is, there are no souls around.

In fact, there is nothing.

Just a grey mist.

I hear the flaps of wings.

It's just Nip, my raven, that land over my right shoulder.

"What have you done!" he exclaims. And then the raven hops from my shoulder down over the ground. And there, he begins to change. Growing, morphing. At first I believe he is changing back into the leprechaun, but he keeps growing.

In front of me, shaking his head, stands a being that I have seen so many times in my dreams, the one I call the "dark dwarf".

"Who are you?"I ask. "I have been given different explanation by many, always different and always stranger. Who are you?"

I expect the being to talk backwards, like he always do. This time not.

"I am just a product of your mind. The part of your mind... wiser... smarter. The one that form the current events is able to foreshadow the events to come. The one that needed to be freed from chains. Instead, you... you that were freed by your friends... you have chosen the chains again!"

He points at Ladnikia.

"You have given credit to an evil warlock, without any though... without asking for advice to your leader, to your friends... The lust for power... the lust for blood has damned you!"

"I... have to free the souls!"I yell, looking around desperate.

"There are no souls here. Not the souls you are looking for, Eurostar. Just one. Yours!"

And with that words, the man changed back into the raven, and fled away.

I start to run, and to scream. Finally I give up, and begin to cry, kneeling over the featureless ground.

And then a laugh began, loud and wicked.

It's the sword.

It's Ladnikia.

"Welcome in Hell, Eternal Failure!"

The very same day, on Earth, from the Vanguard Complex, Edulcore Cicciotto's son disappeared. After endless searching, he was never found.

Chapter 6: The Cicons

Day one.

Hell. Could this possibly be really Hell?

I never believed in Hell. Even if I met demons.

And surely this place doesn't look like Hell. Like the Hell of Dante, at last.

A grey netherworld, full of nothing.

But there is a day/night cycle, even if it's just an alternation of light and darkness, without a sun or a moon to rise in the sky.

I feel no hunger, nor cold.

Ladnikia empower me.

But she is hungry.

Day two.

Another day of nothing. Is this death?

Day three.

I distinctly heard voices and laughs last night. Very distant.

I looked for people during the day, to no avail. There is nothing around.

The sword is loosing power. It's like she has not eat for long, and is devoid of energy. It has stopped to feed me. I am beginning to feel hungry. What I can eat here, in this total emptiness? Will I die of starvation? will this mean I am alive. and not dead? Can I be really in hell, if I am alive?

Day four.

This night I heard the laughs again. I stopped to sleep by night. I close my eyes only when the light return to this grey, misty world.

Day five.

They came, last night. Laughing, crying, a dozen of black demons, looking not unlike my old friend Naecken, attacked me. Ladnikia sang, and black blood soaked the grey ground. For the rest of the night I heard distant noise of drums. Hundreds of them. By day, there was nothing in the direction the noise came in the night.

Day six.

Again, a dozen of demons attacked me, and like the last night Ladnikia sang her song of death. Then, after the battle had ended, I vomited blood.

The excitement long time ago I felt during battle is gone. Ladnikia keeps me alive, but is this life? Grimm destroyed Ladnikia, my Ladnikia, months ago; I never even thanked him for that.

I don't want to be slave.

Day seven.

This night they came, but they didn't attack me. They were millions. They surrounded me, looking at my body, viciously, hungrily. I knew it was only Ladnikia, the fear for the blade, to stop them.

That sight was paralyzing. Nothing could be more fearsome. I don't want to go through that again. I don't want to become mad. If my life should be so, I don't want it.

Today I took Ladnikia between my hands, and broke it over my knee.

This night I will die, but I couldn't be more happy.

Day eight.

They came. They surrounded me. But when the fangs of the nearest one were closing over my neck, someone took me from above, and brought me away, flying. Below, the swarming mass of demons roared in vain. We landed over an high peak, immersed in the grey mist. The man who saved me was a tall, long haired man, with big, brown wings. There was a more than vague resemblance to myself in that man.

"It has been a wise move destroying that blade, son, but you are luck we were around". It was not the winged man to talk, it was a second one, appeared from behind a rock. Another tall man, this one much older, on his seventies, I'd say, with a long hook replacing one hand. Two others, one dressed like a priest, and a young in jeans, appeared behind me.

"My name is Nemo. The winged one is called Gabriel Goicoichea but prefer to be called El Buitre. The other are Father Eduardo Cavalli, and his greatgrandson Frank".

The face of the last told me something. I met him, but where?

He smiled, obliquely. "I shoot at you. In the United Nations Building, last year."

I remembered that moment. The peak of my possession by Ladnikia. A lifetime ago. I am free, now.

"Where are we? Who are you? What's happening?"

It was the one who presented himself as Nemo to talk: "This is Hell. Limbo, to be exact. The antechamber of the proper Hell. There has been turmoil in Hell last year. Naecken became prince of Hell, killing a lot of lords of the wastelands. Then he was cut away from the underlands. And it began the anarchy."

Then the priest continued: "One time I was the bearer of Ladnikia, Cicciotto, although discipline and the help of our blessed Lord lead me to master the sword instead of becoming shamefully slave like you were. I ended trapped alive in Hell by the trick of the cursed Azazel, more than one century ago. What I have seen lately is something hell never experienced before. No new Lords has risen, and is total war among the demons. Limbo has been taken over, the souls have taken refuge on this island, but the demons are closing the siege day after day. I found these valiant men among those souls, and they are helping me organizing a defense."

I turned toward Cavalli. "How did ended here?"

"Aurochs. I joined Vanguard; on the day of my first mission, in London, I stumbled upon Aurochs. I had just the time to recognize him, that he hit me with his magic. Then, I found myself here."

"And you?" I asked to the other two.

"Fighting the MBL on the occupied Manhattan" said El Buitre, cryptically.

"Cronal distortion" explained Nemo, even more laconically.

"And you?" asked Cavallli turning toward me.

"A strange warlock on a distant planet killed me... " I began, but Father Eduardo began to laugh.

"You are not dead, son. You have been just transported here. Like myself and our comrades here."

Day nine.

The night, the demon siege is like rising tide. And the only defense is the holocaust of thousands of souls that form an human barrier to the demons advance. Cavalli... the old Cavalli... command them with an iron fist... for the best of the most... but with total disregard of the sacrificed souls.

I told him. "Why I should care. They are all sinners!" he explained. I told him I knew Limbo is not for sinners, but for good people that happened to not be baptized.

"Isn't that a sin big enough for you?" he answered boldly.

Day twenty.

Ten days have passed on this rocks. We eat grey matter that seems to appear from the mist. It has no flavor of sort. It's the thing that has made cavalli to survive here for so many years. he say it's something provided by Heaven, to sustain the two of us in this place where no man alive should be. I wonder why Heaven did not simply pull us from here. What if demons are not spirits, but just a race... a different race of humans... or aliens...

I guess I am becoming mad...

Day thirty.

I have enough of this. I need to find a way to stop this daily holocaust, and get away.

Day thirty-one.

I exposed my intention to my four allies. They were supporting me, minus Father Eduardo, who got mad at me.

He doesn't want to stop this, that would take away all his power over these souls. He firmly believe these souls MUST suffer...

Day thirty-three.

Today I confronted Cavalli. I told him I know a way to get out of Hell. I am not sure it would work, but I didn't tell him that. Just that I know the way. He seemed tempted, but his discipline kicked in instantly. "If our Lord wanted me out of Hell, would have sent angels to take me out, not a disillusioned failure like you, Cicciotto."

I nodded, sarcastically. "Who do you want to fool, Cavalli? We both know perfectly that these demons are just humanoid beings... aliens of the Annunaki race, that revolted to their leader and have been banned to this dimension. They eat, sleep and die, like us. They may be long lived... maybe immortal... but they can be killed. They have forgotten who they are, from where came... yet they are nothing else that aliens."

"Blasphemy! Atheist communist! Vade retro!" shouted the priest, but I continued, pointing at all the evidence I gathered in my permanence on the rocks, near the priest himself, the other companions, the souls, and memories form all of my past lives, that have never been so clear in my mind as of now.

Right, the souls. The final blow.

I spoke again. "And these souls... mere recordings of the memories of dead peoples made by an advanced technology, for reasons forgotten even by the creators of such devices."

The priest attacked me. His bad.

He fell.

Day thirty-four.

The souls now follow me. Cavalli, the old Cavalli, the priest, sat disdainfully farther. I know he wanted to leave, but it was too dangerous even for him. He is forced to follow my plan, even if he doesn't like. And maybe he really want to. More then a century here would be enough even for a man with his willpower.

Day fourty-nine.

Me and El Buitre explored the limbo for fifteen days, in the direction of the noise of the drums I heard my first nights here. And we found it. The gate to the inner circles. The door from which the demons come by night. That's why by day the Limbo is empty. Now I have really a plan, as simple and probably stupid it is.

Day fifty.

This night, as the swarm of demons began to attack the rock, we five left, by flight. I brought the two Cavalli, hanging from my legs, El Buitre, who is free to use his arms, since he has whole wings over his back, brought Nemo.

We fled as fast as possible to the gate, reaching it by the end of the night, when the nightly siege to the rock was to end.

We got to the inner circle, and closed the gate from within. After less then one hour, the screams of the demon on the other side began. It took three more hours for them to stop. Millions of demons died by exposition to the light.

"It makes no sense" said Cavalli. Frank Cavalli, the younger one, the detective. "They are not vampire, and this is not true sunlight, it's just a glow coming from... nowhere, it seems."

"It's the light from Heaven" explained the priest. The souls of limbo lives between the light of Heaven and the darkness of Hell. That's why the demons came just by night. And when forced to see they light of our Lord, they died in agony." He paused, then looked at me. "It seems you are not atheist, after all."

"I believe in something higher than us, Cavalli. But don't count on me to believe all the legends you teach to your faithful. I have lived through those legends, I know what they are about. I have seen how the words of good will have been used by your kind to kill innocents that stood over your path."

The priest turned red, enraged at my words. he opened his mouth, but I stopped him with a gesture of my hand. "Not now, priest. we have to fortify this door, don't waste your breath."

Day fifty-one.

With the bodies of the demons, the souls of Limbo build a whole hill of flesh toward the gate to the inner circle. I don't know for how long it will last, but it should stop the incursions from Hell for some time.

"You promised us a way out, Euro" said El Buitre. Nemo frowned.

I nodded. "Yes, I did. Give me some time."

I walked a little farther, over the tip of the rock. I sit in a lotus position, and concentrated over the image of a lake, with an island in the middle and a tower built over the island itself.

"Psidon, I call you to fulfill my debt. Bring me there, me and my companions..."

Chapter seven: The Lotus eater

Psidon and the other dragons were standing in the vast chamber, housed in the blue spire, the tower in the underground island, that is a space-temporal nexus on the planet once called Darkworld.

Behind me, surprised, there were my four companions, looking in awe at the giant animals.

I kneeled in front of one of the dragon. "Thank you, oh great Psidon, to have brought us here." I turned to ward another dragon. I kneeled again. "Pyra, I came to fulfill my debt. It was not my will, to disappear during the battle".

"REALLY?" asked the female dragon.

I looked at her. And shook my head. "I was tricked by Ghaleon, although I suspect it was not really him."

"YOU SUSPECT WELL, DRAGONSLAYER. IT WAS NOT GHALEON THE ONE WHO TRICKED YOU. IT WAS THE ONE CALLED CALIFRON; AID OF GODBOLT; HE CAME FROM OUTSIDE THIS WORLD; AND AWAY HAS GONE SINCE GODBOLT IS NO MORE."

"Well, I am here to fulfill the promise I made you in exchange for your help. But this men had nothing to do with that, I beg you to let them going, and, if possible, to help them to return their place."

"DRAGONSLAYER, YOUR DESTINY HAS NOT YET DISCUSSED AMONG US. IN THE MEANTIME, YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS ARE OUR GUESTS. THE DESTINY OF YOU, OF OF YOUR FRIENDS, WILL BE REVEALED LATER."

Said that, all around us changed; the ample cavern disappeared, and we found ourselves on the shore of a still pond, with luscious vegetation, many fruits hanging from trees, ready to be picked and eaten. There were young girls ready to attend any of our request, and the sun always shine.

We lost count of the days that passed. After been in hell, nothing would have been more regarding than end in Eden.

El Buitre, Nemo and the two Cavalli, even the old priest, were throughly enjoying the stay, I couldn't help to think of what was expecting me. what punishment would have the dragon reserved me for my past as reincarnating dragonslayer.

I was trying to keep the though away trying to find a connection to the five of us, to why we ended alive in Limbo. I didn't found one. We were tied one to the other, but not to everyone of the five. The two Cavalli were relatives. The young Cavalli fought me. Nemo tried to capture me in Mandelovia. El Buitre, aside showing a similar genetic engineering to my own (more alike Brianna than me, to say the truth), had no contact at all with us.

And even their ending in Limbo was different. Cavalli the priest fell literally in Hell during an adventure he had in Mandelovia, tricked by Azazel (the one that possessed me through Ladnikia for long). The other Cavalli was sent in by Aurochs, the mage he helped to fight me one year ago. Nemo was taken by a temporal distortion during an experiment on time travel, with the daughter of Quantos. There are relations to my life, but nothing very clear. El Buitre, aside being a sort replica of myself, bear no relation whatsoever. He was hit by evil metahumans to death, and found himself in Limbo, alive.

The connection came much later, and again didn't regard all of us. The priest was excluded again, and Nemo. It came when I asked Cavalli how my son was, when he joined Vanguard.

He was drunk by then. Too much ambrosia. What told me, explained all. "The world has forgotten you, Ed! I joined Vanguard because Rose Biggles asked me to... I can't stop to love that bitch, damn me... I found a stupid excuse to have them enlisting me, because I had to discover why everyone forgotten you, excluding Rose and me... and the ones that are here with us... but your son is gone for real, Ed..."

I asked El Buitre. "Yes, it was strange. One time I was talking about you, about your talk in Chicago in 2002, with Iota of the Strikeforce. I found he... and everyone else was remembering your life as a champion, but it was like you died in Italy in October of that year, and never went to America. I found it strange, but I am no detective, nor I had much time free. It was strange, but I didn't want to pass for being strange myself... so I didn't talked to anyone other. when I saw you in Limbo, I was relieved, because that confirmed I wasn't wrong."

And the same was for Nemo, who perfectly remember our shared past, the runaway in Mandelovia, the killing of Lioness, the fireworks at Chicago Airport.

So, Aurochs has trapped myself in Limbo, and then has cancelled the memories of myself and my kid from the minds of the people, so that my friends can't come to try to rescue me. And also has trapped with me the few men that, for whatever reason, didn't fall under his spell. And kidnapped my son.

Why?

Revenge?

Or Aurochs obsession of believing one day I would become a world wide tyrant , and being in charge of avoiding that?

It doesn't matter. I must free Eddie.

I must come back.

Even if I have to kill the dragons.

************************************************

I called Pyra.

"I have lost the count of the days I have been waiting to know your decision about my sins. I want to know my destiny".

"DRAGONSLAYER, WE HAVE FOUND YOU GUILTY. FOR THE DRAGONS YOU HAVE SLAYED IN THE PAST, FOR THE ONES YOU WILL SLAY IN THE FUTURE. YET, YOU HAVE FOUGHT VALIANTLY ALONG US, AND WE RECOGNIZE YOU HAVE BEEN INSTRUMENTAL IN THE FREEING OF OUR WORLD FROM THE EVIL OF GODBOLT. SO YOUR POUNISHMENT IS THIS: WE WILL NOT KILL YOU, BUT WE CAN'T EITHER LET YOU GO. ENJOY THE PLEASURE OF EDEN, FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE".

Pyra went away, without even looking back.

But I knew that the lake on whose shores we were living, was the door to other dimensions, as the people of the Drakworld once told me. So I tried to persuade my companions to leave, but they were enjoying the place too much, and didn't want to leave. Just the priest agreed with me. We worked hard, for days, building a raft, hiding our work form the eyes of the girls. And one night, we had to knock out Frank, Nemo and El Buitre, brought them over the raft, and sail away. At the first lights of the artificial day that cyclically glows in the huge cavern, we arrived at another island, with a big castle, impossibly shaped, towering above.

The face of the priest looked amazed, but for reasons different from our common awe for the dimension and look of the building.

"I have heard of this place" he said. "It's the Castle of Crossed Destinies!"

Our comrades were finally coming back to their senses when we reached the shores of the island. We got inside the castle, and it was a marvel, like one of those etches by Escher, with stairs crossing the inside of the building at any possible (or impossible) angle and direction, like gravity, and even tridimensionality, was not a rule there.

"The Castle of Crossed Destiny" explained Father Cavalli "it's the nexus of all realities. That explain why you heard that the lake can bring to any place, Euro. The lake surround the castle, and it's just one of the door for which the castle let access dimensions."

"So, we can get back to Earth from here?" asked Nemo.

"Yes. But we don't have the map. It will be difficult."

"We got out from Hell. What can be more hard?"

Chapter eight: Polyphemus

We stepped over a stair, one of hundreds, as no one of us knew the right way. There were strange animals, similar to newts, walking in an endless line carrying boxes on the back. I tried to look in one of the box, but the priest stopped me. "It is said that inside those boxes is housed the destiny of every person living on Earth. You could find your own, and that would be bad".

I wasn't sure of the meaning of those words, but didn't look.

We walked along infinite corridors, opening and closing hundreds of world.

Until...

"Look who isss there! The accursssed Cicciotto!"

"Yes. Cicciotto and his mod squad, Zachary".

I could never forget that voice.

"We hate Cicciotto, right, Zachary?"

"Yes Zachary, we hate him. And we hate his friends"

But thessse are not the companionsss of Cicciotto that trapped usss here, aren't they?"

"No, they aren't. Does it matter? Isn't Cicciotto the one that started it all? The fool that gathered fools like him, instilled in them the notion that metahumans can be equal... can be superior... to true humans?"

"Yesss. It wasss alwaysss him to ruin all. he took down my tower... my labsss... He killed my marine serpent... he let Eddie been kidnapped... my beloved Eddie!"

Zachary Knell! The Doctor Clone! The man who discovered the metagene, ruined my career, and finally cloned me, creating a little replica of myself, gene crossed with a reptile!

He laughs at me, from behind the glass of a mirror, a big, person sized mirror with an elaborate frame, hanging from the wall.

But he is not alone. He is... two. One is the crocodile look-alike, that I met and fought in Thunder, two years ago. The other, is Knell, how I saw him in the picture Quantos showed me in Fall 2001, holding my newborn son... clone.

A trick of the castle?

"Little Edulcore is with me, monster!" I shout, grinning, just before the notion, revealed to me by Frank earlier, that Eddie was kidnapped, hit painfully my mind.

"Little Edulcore?" shout, surprised, the croc like one. "You still don't know what Eddie stand for? Ha ha ha ha!" The beast erupted in a big, wicked laugh.

I frowned.

"Eddie is short for Eduardo!"

Vile bastard.

"Eduardo Frederico. The one who got all of your medals back, when I exposed you as a meta". The smile on the face of the croc exposed all of his long, dirty teeth.

"And it doesn't look anymore you have the kid with you, Cicciotto. We have a favorable observatory here on the things of the world. Someone has kidnapped the kid again, and sell him for the highest bid among your enemies, Eurovision".

"Aurochs!" I shouted.

"Don't count on that, Eurotrash. Many hate you, and are happy with what happened to you. More than one has the power to cancel your image from the minds of people, and many were more than happy to pay for your so called son. We couldn't say our word on the subject... yet. But the kid is alive, and soon will back with me... us."

"Yes. Usss".

"Who is behind that?" I shout, but the two Knell just laughed.

"Does it matter? You and your friend will be dead, soon!" shouted the human Knell, while the big lizard got outside of the mirror, jumping among me and my comrades.

I jumped back, as Frank Cavalli unloaded his Beretta, with no avail, on the impervious rock hard skin of the reptile.

The monster whipped his tail across the room.

I tried to buy time, while my friends where running behind, seeking safety.

"I put you in the hand of Walker at the EPS, months ago!" I said. "How the hell you ended here?" I asked, flying fast around the beast.

"That mindlessss beassst me? You disssappoint me, Cicciotto. That was just one of my clonesss. Like the onesss you fought in Thunder!"

I should have known.

"But he isss not with the EPSSSS now. He isss ssstranded in the New York sewersss, poor him."

Even him did escaped with the PIT inmates?

I ducked down just an instant before the tail hit me. El Buitre had joined me into flying around the monster, and the thing was evidently annoying him.

Edoardo Cavalli, then, returned (I didn't notice he had left before) with long spears, and threw them at us. One for me, one for Buitre. "There are weapons hanging from the walls" he explained.

The spears were not of much use, but we were beginning to win some resistance from the monster. Flying, we were outside the reach of the whipping tail, while the spears sometime hit the few tender parts of the body of the Leviathan, not really harming him, but making him enraged.

And it was then that he jumped back inside one of the many mirrors lined along the corridor. And suddenly he attacked me from behind, jumping outside another mirror, one that was right behind me.

I rolled to the floor, while he was keeping doing that move, jumoing inside and outside the mirrors, each time coming out from an unexpected one. My four companions were trying to
keep him at bay, using the spears, but the tail broke all of them.

It was then that I asked to Frank Cavalli if he had a coin with him. he searched trough his pocket, and gave me a La Perditian penny.

Without taking aim, I threw it precisely in the left eye of the Leviathan, who screamed in pain, as the eyes exploded with a pop. He jumped, better, he fell inside one of the mirror, roaring, put I knew it won't keep him away for long, as I was sure lizard regenerating powers was a tract of the beast. As the beast was rolling back inside the mirror, I had one idea to stop him definitely, or at last for enough time for us to run away from him, but in the same instant the idea formed in my mind, I knew there wouldn't be time for put it in practice.

Instead, to my amazement, Nemo, Buitre, the two Cavalli ran to the mirrors, detaching them from the walls and putting each one to face another one. Suddenly a new scream of rage erupted from the assemble mirrors. for how much the beast was jumping, he was ending every time inside another mirror.

We ran away quickly, across corridors and along stairs intersecting at impossible angles. After a long, long time, we stopped. "How the hell you had my same idea at the same time?" I asked to my comrades.

Nemo stepped further. "I never revealed anyone, but I am a telepath. I saw your idea, and projected it in the mind of everyone."

Chapter nine: Aeolus

We wandered for countless hours across the vast chambers of the castle, until, opening another door, we found a man sitting on an armchair, seemingly waiting for us in the darkness.

"Come in" he said, and I recognized instantly the metallic voice. The lights went on, and the face of the Time Trust android opened in a broad, yet artificial smile. "Please, take your seat, you and your friends".

I stepped in the room, slowly sitting down in the chair, while my friends did the same.

"I'm happy to see you again, old friend" I said, although I have no true memories of the time I spent at his services.

He simply nodded. Apparently cold, I knew the complex emotional patterns of his positronic brain.

He stood up.

"Edulcore, how I can help you?" he asked.

"I need to know who kidnapped my son and let thew world to forgot me!" I asked. My friends began to murmur, dismayed by the fact that I didn't ask for a way back to Earth.

"I can't tell you, that would harm the continuum, as you should be aware of. But I can tell you this: the answers are awaiting you in La Perdita. But be aware: don't wander away from the island, as many dangers await you across the world" said the android.

“Bullshit!” exclaimed Nemo. “I’ve got some experience of time travel myself, lately. There’s no way to harm the continuum, as you said. There is no such a thing as time paradoxes. Because each time we seems to create a temporal inconsistency, we just jump from one timeline to another, leaving the previous one intact. That is what I discovered. So, let us know all what YOU know!”

The android raised one eyebrow, in his distinctive way of showing amusement. “Such boldness form one that has just started to peer across the keyhole of time travel!” He shook his head. “No, earthling, it’s not so simple. Timelines are not parallel universe whose time-flows run parallel one next to the other. They are neither interwoven branches that join and separates randomly, putting selected events into contact across dimensions. The truth behind the fourth dimension is that each living being has his own timeline, synchronised at best to the ones of the people living around him. But that is never perfect, and that is why reality seems different for each of you humans. That’s why what seems a simple, evident truth for one is an obvious lie for another. That’s why magic works for selected persons, that live in a world dominated by spells and demons, while for others there is nothing else that science, that can explains everything. This is why you, Edulcore, can fight alongside a fallen angel, while at the same time you believe to have the proof that angels and demons are just aliens that invaded Earth thousands of years ago. That’s why for you the metagene was discovered in 1996, while people around you had their metagene studied and altered long before that. That’s why your comrade Cavalli’s power drain over concepts that’s just myth for others… even for you. No thing is the proof of undebatable truth… because what’s is true for one is wrong for the other.”

I frowned: “That’s impossible. That would bring madness to humanity. Everyone could claim rightfully to doing the good, and that it’s the other to be wrong…” Said that I saw the meaning of the Time Trust. “Oh… that’s exactly the condition of humanity…”

“Philosophy, religion, beliefs, myths… all is build over the fundamental notion that the world around us, is different for each one of us… And people are naturally scared by the intimate inconsistency of reality, so they gather together on the basis of how they see the world. And in this particular moment of Earth, with growing masses of people exposed to the multiple truth of others, this fear is increasing… leading people to be less inclined to hear the truth of the other, and to cling to his own.
That’s Nemo, why I can’t reveal anything more about what is happening to Euro, why you are involved, or where is Euro’s clone. You have to find for yourself. I can just give you the means to return. This is the map that will lead to the right door. Go, now, and farewell!"

Chapter ten: Circe

I woke up in a dim lit place. It took me a few second to recognize I was inside a cave. Next to me, sleeping, was El Buitre.

I jumped on my feet, shouting "Where are we? Is this La Perdita?"

The Spanish hero suddenly awoke, looking surprised at me. "Oh, finally you get up!" And then, standing up himself: "We are in Rome. Father Cavalli has triked us into coming here, and then has caged us in his old lair... in the catacombs."

"How did he managed that?" I asked.

"He imposed his will to Nemo" he began to explain.

"Is he a telepath too?"

"No, he isn't. His will get in contact with Nemo's telepathic peering, and through his powers he got control of us. You were simply knocked out, knowing your mind is shielded" responded El Buitre.

"And why he did such a stupid thing?"

"Nemo knows it, he has seen inside his mind."
ot out of the shadows. "He wanted to report to the Pope his mission in Mandelovia, more than a century ago, and his subsequent life in Hell."

In that moment the young Cavalli arrived from another direction. "This tunnel is closed, too. There are really no exits at all."

"There are no open doors?" I asked.

"No, no entrance at all!"

"But Cavalli has not density control powers... nor he is a teletransporter... it must be a door."

We explored the place for the rest of the day... or what we though it was the day. There was no way to know if it was day or night. The light was produced by a few torches.

The only opening, in the end, resulted to be the well at the center of the floor. The lair had all the comforts, from an XIX century point of view.

I throw a rock inside. a few seconds, and a splash.

"There is water. But there could be a later tunnel. I can't see any other possibility for an exit from this place" I said. "I am going. With my wings, I am the only one that could return here from down there." El Buitre's wings, much more majestic than mine, were also too much wide for the narrow well."

I dove down. There were three openings on the curved wall of the well, leading to small, circular tunnel. I explored each one, just to find closures at each end. The well was not the way out.

When I returned above, I found the exit. It was right on the wall of the cavern, where before we didn't found anything. I don't know what sort of technology (otr was it magic) could be responsible of it. But there was no trace of my friends, just blood and bullets on the floor. Something... someone... had found them.

I run outside. There was one armed person on the tunnel departing from the opening, he raised his rifle as he saw me, but a rock I threw at his knee made him fall.

I was on him all of a sudden, and brought him back inside the lair.

"Chi sei? Dove sono i miei amici?" I asked. "who are you? where are my friends?"

The man, choking, as I was pressing my hands on his neck, explained he was one of the legionary of the Milizia, the special anti-meta troops of the italian Political Police. He said that the Centurion, Arturoi Ghirzo, the head of the Milizia, had captured a man flying toward Vatican City just the night before... and that after a day of torture he revealed our existence. So they came, equipped with special anti-ESP equipment, to capture us... and were surprised I was not here. So they left him to guard the place in case of my return, while bringing my comrades to the Militia Headquarter in Palazzo Venezia for interrogatory.

I caged the guard in the liar, closing the "magic" door behind him. It becomes as one as the wall, and there was no way to detect it.

I ran across the catacombs for a lot of time, until I get out on the surface in the middle of the Doria- Pamphili park. I climbed a tall cedrus and waited, on top, that the night came, to fly above the city. Just a party of tits came to disturb me, mobbing me like a perched owl.

When the night fell, I fled over the park, and then over Rome. The streets were uncannily empty, but a quick glance to the papers on a newsstand revealed to me that the Italian national football team was playing in Portugal for the European Championship, giving me an unexpected help to soars over the city without many eyes to spot me.

I landed on the roof of Palazzo Venezia without much hassle. I was trying to bring into consideration every thing I knew about the Milizia, Ghiorzo and Rome.

Ghiorzo was a companion of mine, from elementary school up to the university, when I became a track champion and lost tracks of him. He was to me like black is to white. The perfect opposite. I was with the FIGC, the federation of young communists, he was with the FAN, the federation of universitary neo-fascist; I was versed into sports, he was always over books; I was a womanizer, he was considered virgin even at the last year of University, when we were both 24. I was going to manifestations to oppose USA involvement in Somalia and Lebanon, he began take parts in rounds of neo-nazi to beat and burn bums and north african immigrants.
I lost trace of him, luckily, until I returned to Italy last year, in search of my roots, after Grimm saved me from Ladnikia influx. He gave me the welcome back in Italy, blowing up my restaurant in Bologna.
He was now the leader of the new fascistic anti-meta force, created by Berlusconi to make his bud George W. happy. He wanted to capture me. I escaped, and he followed me to Thunder, where he killed my friend, Father Sean.

And now he is here, standing in front of me, as he has just arrived on the roof, with at the least thirty armed guards behind him. He was waiting for me.

"Report of memories of myself being erased from people of the planet were evidently much exaggerated" I said, coldly.

The Centurion smiled, a wicked, contorted smile. "Not really. Just, whoever has done this had to undid it for the one he hoped interested into buying your son!"

I loose my hard worked artificial coldness all of a sudden at the mention of Eddie. He noticed, and a triumphant expression appeared on his face.

"You have Eddie?" I blabbed. "No, the bid was to high. I couldn't have justified expending that sum for something my superior wouldn't even remember. Someone other has bought your son, Cicciotto"

"Who was him?" I asked.

Ghiorzo shook his head. "I don't know. I haven't seen him. Nor I know who were the other interested into the kid. I must admit that I am surprised to see you here. It was said that not only the memories of you were erased, but you as well".

"As you see, it was wrong." An advantage for me. I quickly resumed my coldness. "I came back from Hell, Ghiorzo. Nothing can't stop me."

"That is to see. My men are torturing your comrades too know what really happened and where you were. This story is strange, I want to know what is behind it".

"Those men don't know anything. They didn't mean anything to you. Leave them, and take me in exchange!" As those words left my mouth, I was the first to be surprised. What I was playing? The martyr role never suited me!

"Or else?" asked inquisitive Ghirozo.

"You are under my aim, Ghiorzo. I could kill you anytime!"

He laughed. "And how, Cicciotto".

I simply kicked one of the roof-tiles under my feet. The roof tiles hit the knee of one of the armed guards behind the Centurion, that fell crying. The others raised their weapons toward me, but Ghiorzo stopped them with a gesture.

"Ok. I give you my word. I am sending your friends to the hospital, from which they will be free to go when they will be better. You trust my word, Cicciotto?"

"No. Give me your phone."

The man threw his cellular to myself. I took it, and first called the informations to get a number of the Vatican.
Then I called it, and the name Eduardo Cavalli, Mandelovia and Hell opened a lot of gates, as I was passed from secretary to secretary until I arrived just a rank under the pope himself. A few moment later, an ambulance from Vatican City arrived in front of the main gate of Palazzo Venezia. Looking down the roof, thanks to my eagle sight, I saw my four friends, badly beaten, being transported into the ambulance. When the ambulance was far, I surrendered.

The guards tied me up. Then, Ghiorzo made a simple sign with his hands, and all the guard went away, leaving just the two of us on the roofs. Was he going to push me down?

"Look!" he said. "Rome! Caput mundi! Head of the world. How many centuries... how many millenia that is not true anymore? One thousand, six hundreds years. It's time to rectify it, Cicciotto! Look at this city. At her lights, at her buildings, at her monuments... how great she is, and how great are... were... the people that inhabited her. Now look at her peoples... can you see one? No, they are all refuged inside their burrows to look at a stupid game of football. The son and daugheters of the peoples that conquered and civilized the world now are hypnotized like fools in front of a magic box with twentytwo fools like them running behind a ball!"

Ghiorzo eyes where big and white, while the pupils now where small, point-like. Only the lack of a cithara and of fire on the roofs made the scene incomplete.

"I want to rectify it. I want to bring Rome back to her role of capital of the world! WE could do that, Cicciotto!"

"We?" I asked.

He turned. To my complete surprise, he had unzipped his pants and now was holding his member in one hand, rubbing it.

"We. Yes, we? You never realized that, eh, Cicciotto? I love you, fool! I have always loved you, since we were just a kid. But you never looked at me. I was the fat kid, the nerd, the one to mock, to make fun at. I dreamed of you, of your records, you forgot me at all. But now... now I have you... join me, my love, to fulfill my dream, the dream of the Roman Empire. Enjoy my love..."

"You're dreaming, fool" I whispered, and he slammed me, sending me on the roof. He took his knife, and began to shred my pants. I felt his hands grasping my bottom, and then...

THUD!

His body fell over myself, lifeless.

I was helped to get back on my feet. Turning, I saw a young man... a kid, to say the truth... levitating at mid-air in front of me. I saw that boy before. In the E.P.S' P.I.T... the agent nicknamed Insomnia Boy. The one that see the world like a comics.

"Mr. Hawkman, General Merlin would be pleased to meet you."

Chapter eleven: The sirens

"General... Merlin?" I started to laugh out madly. That moron was now going by the title of General?

"Excuse me, sir, what is so funny?" asked the kid, so I recompose myself.

"Nothing, nothing. What Merlin wants from me?2

"I don't know Sir. He sent me here telling you were in danger, and asking to bring you with me."

Merlin. Could he be the one that have paid for Eddie?

"I would be pleased to come, but first I have to attend to my impaired friends. That ambulance is bringing them to the hospital... they are Falcon, Aquaman... Lt. Colombo and... and... another one". I couldn't come up with a fictional super-priest. Why there aren't in the comics?

The kid looked pensive. How the hell did he end in the hands of Merlin?

He looked at me. "Very well, Mr. Hawkman. I will check on you again in a week" he said.

"How will you find me?" I asked, while he was taking flight.

"The Strikeforce has its own means" he said, without even turning back.

I joined my friends in an infirmary of Vatican City. They were sleeping, while some high prelate carefully interrogated myself to know the story. he was not at all surprised to hear me that we where coming from Hell, neither the mention of the Castle of Crossed Destinies was found any more strange. We were in the Secret Library of the Vatican. Every now and then, when I was talking about aspect of Hell, of the Castle, of the Dark World, the priest (Bishop? Cardinal?) went to one book or another, ancients tomes with thick, leathery covers.

We passed six days like that. My friends were in a lot better shape, but one thing became evident: we were prisoners in Vatican City. The war in Hell, the lack of lordship there was something the Vatican was highly interested at, so we were very precious. And Cavalli seemed to gain a lot of support among the cardinals that were interested by that matters.

But us others were just thinking how to escape. I knew the best occasion would have been the return of Natchman, "Insomnia Boy", and that to pay a visit to Merlin was a small fee to pay for a free ticket to La Perdita. But I knew also that Merlin, his power of persuasion, his charisma, was something dangerous. I always resisted to his proposals, at the time of the war of Hood and Capes, thanks to Ladnikia, to the strong bond I had with the magical sword.

Now that Ladnikia, thanks God, was gone, I knew I needed some other anchor not to fall. And the strong will of Edoardo Cavalli was the key.

So, the night Natchman came, we were prepared. When Father Cavalli fell asleep, Nemo seized his mind, and then the mind of the kid, so that all the five of us walked trough the worm-hole behind Insomnia Boy.

We got out in the Sahara base of the Strikeforce, a big, hi-tech fortress in the middle of nothing. Merlin was there, waiting for me, and was not able to hide his surprise to see my comrades, especially his agent, El Buitre. Tall, dressed in an elaborate uniform, instead of his usual long black overcoat, with many medals on his chest. "I must talk with you, Cicciotto. Alone. Your friends can wait here".

Here was what seemed his office. Leathery armchairs, mahogany desk, big window toward the desert, white under the moon-light.

"Come with me" he said, giving one last look at the Spanish meta.

I walked behind him on an infinite spiral staircase, until we got out on the top of the metal dome. The desert was all around us, the star filled night above.

"It's beautiful, here" he said, sitting down on the metal tiles.

I stood next to him. "Since when you got tele-transportation tech, Merlin?" I asked.

He turned toward me, somewhat surprised by that question. "Since when? It's just an application of the probability engine of the Hoods saucers. we had it all the time. we just have implemented it to be small enough to be carried by people."

"The EPS has at the least three years of advantage over you" I noted, nonchalantly.

He just snorted. "Do you guess why I sent Natchman to literally save your ass, Cicciotto?"

"So that it stayed intact for you, Jack?"

Merlin snickered. "I like ass, but not of hairy men, Edulcore".

"Yes, only that of your half sister, bastard". The memories of his rape of Crasher, as told me by Jackie, were still burning in my mind.

The white haired man jumped on his feet, enraged. "Leave Crasher out of this, meta!" he shouted.

I jumped back, spreading my feathers not to fall down the dome. "What do you want, Merlin?"

His expression lost the boldness all at once. "Help. I need help".

"Help?" The request left me speechless. I never saw Merlin asking for help, before. Then something hit my mind. "help in exchange of Eddie, eh, you bastard?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Eddie? No, I haven't Eddie. I tried to buy him, to be able to give it back to you, whenever I would have found you, but someone else did."

Lies. But surely he has not the kid, else it would have told as the first thing. "So, that's why you remember me. Because Eddie was offered to you. Do you know who else has been?"

He shook his head. "No. I tried to investigate, but it was like all the world has forgotten you. Nothing has gone... all the tapes of the speech in Chicago, the images of the airport, secret recordings of you stopping the meteor in Mandelovia... it's all intact, but the people don't see them. Like they are transparent".

"Who contacted you, for the offer of Eddie?"

He shook his head. "A simple recording, that self destroyed after being played. The image was that of your kid, and a voice made the offer. I had to tell loudly my offer, and nothing happened. I guess someone other had done a bigger bid."

But who?

Like he read my mind, he continued: "I tried to localize who could be interested into your kid. The one you have defeated along the years... Knell and Rothman are in Manhattan with the MBL, and Eddie is not there. I don't know if they still remember you. D'Goon is dead, but you never even came in contact with him. The Scorpion Brothers have not been contacted, I have checked, they don't remember you. Who remains? Aurochs, and he is the only one that could have done the cancellation of your memories from the people's mind., so he is the one who sold the kid. And just one could be the buyer..."

"Walker?"

Merlin shrugged, and nodded. "The EPS is the only agency I have never been able to hack. You know where it is. I offer you my help into fighting Walker and Aurochs, if you agree with my request" said loudly, looking away to the first lights of down.

"Speak" I said.

"The MBL... the ones that impersonate your old Revolutionaries... while you were away have taken control of Manhattan, expelling the original population and replacing it with metahumans coming from all the country. They want to build an Utopia for the metas..." whispered Merlin, hissing the words with anger.

"...and you want me to fight them?" I asked.

"No!" he shout, like he was alarmed. "They have destroyed my Strikeforce 2, which I send to liberate the island. My biggest mistake" he was shaking his head, his eyes lost away. "No, they can keep their damned island, and bite the dust there when the time will come. But..." and he turned to me... "but I don't want any one of them to set feet outside Manhattan again. AGAIN!" By then, he was shouting madly. The memories of his defeat made him furious.

"I don't see how I would..." I started, but he continued his speech, uncaring for what I was saying.

"You will be the one on which I will build my new strategy. They claimed to be you and your friends. Frist we have to find Aurochs, and let the meories of the past return to all people. Then, I will show the world that you are not the one that claims to be yourself in the ranks of the MBL. There is no need anymore to create a climate of fear toward the metas. Now we should expose those metas as the criminals... as the impostors... Fight them on their same level... create a whole army of metas... freedom for every metas in the world, among the norms... so that the ones in Manhattan will feel to be the ones in prison. Ludlow will be deposed by his own people! Ahahahahah!!!"

Merlin was laughing madly, but his strategy was not stupid. And, more than else, was working in the direction of freedom for the metas of all the world. It was going to rehabilitate my name, the name of my friends at the Circus... with an organization like the Strikeforce, the founding of the UN, young powerful metas like Natchman, experienced ones like Buitre, maybe my friends at Vanguard, that would have surely helped me... all my dreams would have been fulfilled. Freedom for the metas, leadership for me, a world in peace...

"Ok, Merlin, I am with you!" I shouted, enthusiast.

In that moment, my four friend arrived on the roof, and Merlin was knocked down mentally by Nemo before he could react. Behind them, guards and cadets were firing at us, but El Buitre had one of the teleporters in his hands, and we disappeared from the fortress before any of us could get captured. Luckily, the plan I though did not fail. I knew Merlin was going to persuade me, but I had to listen to him to be able to find where Eddie was. So I asked Nemo to keep scanning the mind of Merlin, and whenever I would have fallen for his words, to retrieve me. And thanks to the will of Cavalli, whose mind was connected to nemo, he would have not fallen for Merlin words himself.

"To La Perdita?" asked El Buitre.

"No. Chicago!"

Chapter twelve: The cattle-herd of the Sun

We reappeared on the roof of a tall building in Chicago. It was still afternoon, and I found I was copiously bleeding from one leg. One of the guards had hit me, and I didn't notice in the pressure of the run.

My friends create a sheltered place on the roof for me, bandaged and cured me at best. Chicago was the place of birth of the young Cavalli, so he left to find a better place for us to eat and rest.

Something later, he returned, and managed to let us in the room, entering from the windows helped by Buitre.

I was lying on the bed, the others chewing hamburgers and asking me what I wanted to do.

"Merlin thinks Eddie is in the hand of walker. Could be. In fact, more I think of it, more it seems obvious. without me around, why Walker would not trying to get Eddie back? He seemed a very precious thing for him."

"So, what are we waiting?" said the old Cavalli. "Your wounds are not profound. we can help you to get there. I need to come back to Rome as soon as possible! The Pope is waiting for me!"

I shook my head. "We can't try to sneak in or attack the EPS fortress. we couldn't come out alive. Nor we can go to the door and sing the bell, as there is no entrance to the underground headquarter. All we can do is going around the city, by night, like vigilantes, to made walker or his men to come out of their lair. I don't know how much it will take, but there is no other way".

"It could take days! Weeks!" shouted enraged the priest.

I simply shrugged.

The following morning, I awoke at the first light of the day, that came in the room by the open window. getting to sit on the bed, I was taken by surprise by the the face of the people that occupied the chairs in the room: Walker and Turner.

I shook my head, unable to say anything, too big was the surprise.

Charles Walker stood up. "Cicciotto, I am sorry to inform you that four metahumans that we suppose to be connected to you have found death trying to enter unauthorized into our headquarters".

I frozen up at the words. Those fools. If they would have followed my advice. And Cavalli, the most stupid of all.

I stood up, all naked, and went to the window, to inhale fresh air.

The air of the Sahara was a lot fresher. How is it that though so out of contest come in moment so dramatic?

"I didn't tell them the location of the Headquarter. And my brain is shielded, Nemo couldn't have read my mind" I said, still looking outside. Slowly, I turned toward Walker.

"The young Cavalli. He took part in our mission in Antarctica. Knew our smell. He has traced us by odor. As incredible it seems. Probably not this night, but in the months between that mission and his return to la Perdita, that he passed here in Chicago" explained Walker.

I nodded. "Do you have Eddie?" I asked. "You remember me. You must have been contacted by the seller."

Walker nodded. "I was. But my offer was not enough, evidently."

I gave a look at Turner, this man which I fought hard, that nearly killed me and that became my best friend. His eyes, so cold, confirmed that he did not remember anything about me.

Walker came near the window. "This story concern me as much as you. The fact that there is someone or something able to wipe the memories of a person from humankind... and selectively giving it back... is a threat to the people that I can't permit to exist. And I am concerned about the well being of Eddie as much as you, although you wouldn't accept it. Myself, and my organization, are better suited to investigate this than you, alone and forgotten my nearly all. Go away, find a place to hide, and don't came out until the world will recognize you again. You would just interfere with my investigation, Cicciotto."

I frowned. "And the kid?"

"I will give it to you, rest assured. But only when I will have the assurance he is safe and well".

"And if I don't get out of the way?"

"I took my precautions that you will" he said, cryptically. Then he handled me a small case. "Here. A fake passport, moneys, some clothes, all you need to stay for months in some rented house on the mountains. Here, or in Europe, or wherever you want to hide."

I nodded. I was thinking of doing my investigations, but there was no need to make Walker nervous. I began to roll up my sleeve, when I noticed the watch at my wrist.

"I haven't a wrist-watch. I can't use one..." I began.

"Now you can" started Walker, when I saw the date on the watch.

"It's wrong" I said. "Today is Friday, not Saturday" I observed.

"YOU're wrong. It IS Saturday" affirmed Walker.

Enough with the charade, I though, resolute not to fall for Walker usual tricks. I went to the window, ready to fly away.

"Use the door, not the window" said Walker, standing next to me, still, with Turner right behind.

The phrase made me chilling along my spine. I pushed forward my feathers out of my arms, but what I got was just big, inhuman goose-bumps.

"I removed your feathers, Cicciotto. As I said, I can't let you interfere with my investigations. Anyway, they were a byproduct of my previous operation, something unexpected for which I had to remedy" said Walker, as it was all perfectly lecit.

"I can't fly! I can't fly, Walker! Flying is my life!" It was like the worst of nightmares.

"No. Your life must be Eddie. And being a super-hero don't suit it. One day you will thank me. Like always. And, by the way, I just removed your feathers, you still got the sight and the aim." Said that, the two EPS members disappeared, teleporting away.

I was alone, in a world that forget me, with no place to go, and without powers. What should I have done?

Chapter thirteen: Calypso

It was her to find me. Rose Biggles. The woman I met one day of months before on the beach of La Perdita, and whom I made love with. The same woman a year before I fought, and that nearly killed me. The woman that Frank Cavalli considered his girlfriend. The Strikeforce member known as Blue Fairy.

She was sitting next to me on the flight back to Italy. Evidently pregnant.

"Frank is dead" was the only thing I was able to say, saying her sitting there.

"I know" she simply said. I weeped for long, endless minutes on her shoulder.

I didn't ask her for what coincidence she was there. I knew she was waiting for me. Her mind was not fogged, but it was just because she was an esper of the same league of Aurochs. Not as versed in magic as him, but with enough mental powers to be able to not be affected by the global wide illusion.

She brought me to Florence, to a medicean Villa surrounded by olive trees, overlooking the city and the Arno river. I lived with her for a month, happy of that life of peace and love. I cooked for her, I cared for her, I made her happy.

One day, a single phrases destroyed the paradise. "It's so sad to think your baby will never known his father" I said, stroking gently her big belly after having made love in the heat of the afternoon.

"His father? She's not Frank's daughter! She's yours, Ed!"

The world collapsed upon me. Another son! A daughter, to be precise! Other responsibilities... for me, the one that forgot his first son!

I couldn't leave the task of finding Eddie all to Walker. it was my son, I had to find him.

So, with death in my heart, I gave a last kiss to Rose, and to my unborn baby, to go back to America to find Eddie, starting form La Perdita, as the Time Trust suggest me.

I booked a seat on the first flight to La Perdita, departing from Milan the same night, rented a car, and left Florence on the highway. Then, there was a big accident after Bologna, we had to exit the highway to get on the Via Emilia. And there, a stupid van crossed the road when I was arriving..."

Chapter fourteen: Nausicaa

"... van that you didn't crashed upon, because you disappeared into the wormhole I opened up just in time" concluded my phrase Jackie Munro, the Ameristar.

I was sitting on the porch of a small house, under big locust trees. Just like the ones growing near my house, when I was a child.

Not far, sitting on a swing, a young girl was singing a children song.

"How's her?" I asked.

"Crasher? She is improving. Day after day. But it will take a lot of time to heal her inner wounds."

"How did you know I had to be saved? Where you spying on me?"

"Just from the moment you left Rose. She told Myrrdin, and him gave the duty to me. I was monitoring your drive, and I can tell you a thing: there was no car one moment before it appeared on the road!" exclaimed Jackie.

I jumped on my feet. "I knew! I was sure it appeared form nowhere!"

"It seems that whoever want you forgotten, knows that you have returned" observed somewhat obviously Ameristar.

I nodded. "Can you let me return to our Earth directly on La Perdita?"

"Yes. But before you leave, there is someone that want to meet you..." she said, smiling mischievously.

it was Nip, the raven. The big, black bird landed on my shoulder. "I am happy to see you finally got some sense, Euro!" he said, with the words Only I was able to understand.

I smiled. "It's good to see you again, Nip! Come on, we have a baddie to beat up!"

Chapter fifteen: Ithaca again (the same day of the attack to the Complex in issue 16, earlier in the morning).

It was one of those stormy day during the rain season, when the wind is so fierce it rains horizontally. I strolled to the Complex, the umbrella closed, as it would simply fly away opening it. My long black overcoat repaired me at best, while Nip was grasping my shoulder with his claws, trying to resist to the fierceness of the storm.

I arrived in front of the main gate of the Headquarter. I was hoping in one thing, that revealed to be true: the automatic fingerprint and iris scanner recognized me, and let me to enter.

The reception desk was empty, as evidently Shirley was not yet replaced, after she left with Mick.

I went quickly to the elevator, and pushed the button for Miss X office level.

Coming out the elevator, Nuriko, which was standing outside Xiang's door, noticed me and raised her katana.

I looked at her with a false expression of surprise, and then run across the corner of the corridor.

When she arrived to investigate, Nip attacked her from behind; she turned, and I kicked her behind her legs, taking her sword as she was falling. One hand on her mouth, I excused me for the rush, then tied her up, putting tape over her lips. "I hope to be back soon" I whispered, closing her in that level bathroom.

I opened the door of X's office, to see a tall, blonde man in the act of signing a paper on the desk. The tip of the pen had not yet reached the paper, that my entrance caused X's to stand over, and the blonde man to jump at me, a long, narrow steel blade pointing toward my chest.

I raised Nuriko's katana, in defense, while Nip grabbed away a silver gun from the hand of Miss X.

"Let me show how I handle any intruder!" shouted the blond man. "No one escape Simon Rosetta!"

And then we fought. The man was good, very good. In fact, he was perfect in his handle of the sword. At any of my hit, he answered masterly, and I was always defending his attacks just at the last instant.

"This time you have not Ladnikia!" he grimaced, during one of his attack.

"How?..." Then, all it become clear. That words... that style of dueling... the whole reason for such a complex scheme...

"OMICRON!" I shouted, making his sword flying away with a last full blow of my katana.

As the blond fighter stood still for an instant, I grabbed his face, throwing away a lattice mask, revealing the unmistakable features of Johnny Omicron, the man I killed in the Lost City of the Dragons.

X was amazed. "Johhny Omicron? How? And you... who you are?"

I faced Johnny. "Total, complete revenge, eh, Johnny? Banning me alive to Hell... erasing any memory of me from the humankind... and enlisting in my team... to be able to buy it and becoming it's leader... stealing my team like I stole your from you."

Omicron was simply growing, like a caged wolf.

"Just, I can't get how did you survived. I saw you dead. And how you enlisted Aurochs to help you... how did you find him?"

In that moment, it was like a mist dissipated, and the form of a tall man appeared near us in the corridors. A man with oriental features, and a turban covering the head.

"The Sheik!" I whispered, at the sight of the man. One of the old employee of Omicron, the wizard.

"Yes, me. Your Aurochs is not the one responsible for this illusion. As for Omicron resurrection, sadly that's not my merit. when Ladnikia was destroyed, every soul she contained was released. Everyone was sucked into the astral planes, minus Johnny's because his body, after you killed him, fell in the Lake of Eternal Youth, near the Lost City of the Dragon. The body healed his wounds, and did not decay... and it was ready to receive the soul when it was released." Then, looking to Johnny: "With Cicciotto on the continuum, soon the memories about him will return, and you don't seem in the condition of killing him, now. I suggest we leave immediately".

"Wait!" I yelled. "Where's my son in this?"

The Arab looked at me. "An idea of Johnny, to make some quick cash: selling him to the highest bidder. We contacted all the one that we tough would be interested... Knell, Rothman, Walker, Merlin, Aurochs himself... strangely enough, it was another, mysterious man to make the highest bidding, someone that we don't know how possibly remembered you. Anyway, the amount of money was incredible, so we didn't ask anything and gave him the kid." And with that words, the Sheik and Johnny Omicron disappeared.

Miss X was smiling at me. "Euro... it's... it's incredible what happened!"

I snorted. "I must find Eddie, I can't stay a moment more..."

"Wait for the guys, they will help you..."

"No, I must look for him. I don't want to imagine what whoever bought him is doing by now!"

I took one of the cars from the garage, and drove up the side of the vulcan to the abandoned hotel shaped like a castle. It ruined a lot more since the last time I have been there. There was just the main stone tower left. I entered. I needed a shelter, a refuge from which to make my investigations, The Complex didn't suit me anymore, I wouldn't be involved on anything until my kid would be back.

I was looking at the sea from the top of the tower, when a being, tall as two man and with long, curly black hairs, appeared in front of me.

EN.KI, the Sumerian god that I, and later the Vanguardians, fought under the name of Saros. He was holding Eddie between his arms.

"Cicciotto. I am giving back you your son. I was the one to claim it from the hands of Omicron. As I told you in Antarctica, I will never let anything bad happening to him... until the day I WILL stole him from you, as I will stole everything from your life!"

And with that words, he gave me Eddie and disappeared.

And the kid, once in my hands, began to cry.

Some things never change.

THE END