APR 2006 - #12

Jonah Hex: A Taste of Things to Come by Toby Kernan

Jonah walked up the dirt path, and noticed that things had changed little since he had come here, with her, all those years ago. The tall trees still whispered their tunes as the breeze filtered through their high branches, combining with the singing of the birds and the chirping of other small creatures in a rhythm of forest life. After the trees was still the clearing, known as Lover’s Hill, a huge, clean patch of grass where lover had come to picnic and dance and make love for, at least, a century.

Jonah climbed to the tip of Lover’s Hill, and, feeling the warm breeze against his face, lifted his arms out to his sides, fingers stretched, palms outward. He closed his eyes. He thought of her. He could see her face as if she stood in front of him right now, even though they had been apart for some time now. Her blond hair was cut short. Once it had been long, but an early attempt at spell-casting had set it aflame, and she had kept it short since. Her eyes were a magnificent shade of blue, bluer than even the sky, which sat, littered with a smattering of cloud, above him. They were intense eyes, which always seemed to be locked in deep thoughts. Then there was her smile. It was kind of crooked, which was cute and charming, yet always conveyed the slightest notion of deviousness. Jonah liked that, June wasn’t a saint, she was human, with all the human weaknesses.

Jonah sighed, because he knew it was those human weaknesses that had taken his June away from him. It had been her greed, that insatiable need to master the power of the Darkhold, to become a great and powerful witch. It had been her pride that had led her to think she was much more powerful than she was.

It was her ignorance, of the true power of the Darkhold, that had led her spiraling down a path of darkness and evil, that ended with June Moon-the Enchantress-loosing her body, and her then her soul.

Jonah felt a tear roll down his cheek, cold as the breeze grabbed it and carried it across his face. He wanted the good times back. He wanted to relive the first day they visited the Lover’s Hill. Both of them had been little more than dabblers in magic then, hobbyist with a similar passion that had drawn them together. They came here for a picnic. They drank red wine and ate oranges. They spoke of their favorite music, and June jumped up and danced as she sang her favorite tune. She was amazingly impetuous that way. When her dance was done, she smile, rolled her eyes, laughed, fell into Jonah’s arms, and kissed him passionately. It was then that he looked down, and found his heart was gone.

Jonah looked around, happy that nobody was here today. Not that he had expected anyone, because late winter wasn’t exactly the areas peak traffic time, but he had to be sure. He pulled his hands to his sides and fell to his knees. Then he placed his hands upon the ground in front of him and began to chant an incantation he had specially prepared for this occasion. Slowly the ground below him started to shake and shift. From the ground came a sprout, then another, then another. Jonah stood, and slowly walked backward. Never stopping his incantation or losing his concentration. More sprouts came forward, and soon the sprouts were a bush. The bush grew thorns, and soon buds began to appear. Soon the buds became full-grown roses. Black roses, each one a perfect image of a cloudless, starless night. Eve had always loved black roses.

“Happy birthday,” said Jonah softly, his spell completed, “I couldn’t get you what I really wanted this year. I got a little sidetracked helping the Sentinels of Magic save then world a few times over, and all that jazz. I am back on the mission now though, baby, and I am gonna recover those pieces of the Darkhold. I am gonna bring you home, so that next year you can sit here with me on the hill, and we can have a picnic.”

Jonah, satisfied with his rose bush, blew one last kiss to the memory of his love, and, whispering a silent incantation, disappeared into the late winter afternoon.

“By the Goddess, Dharma,” cried White Lotus, looking quite shocked, “what is wrong? When I left you were soundly sleeping. I had just poured some tea and it sounded as if hell itself had come for you. What has happened? Have you had a vision?”

“Indeed,” said Dharma, trying to shake the sleep from his head, “I have had a vision. Please locate Boogieman, Aquamaria, and Cloak and bring them to my chamber immediately.”

*(Return of the Gods #1)
**(#5)

Dharma cleared his throat and began, “Out, right now, in the world, there is a magic-wielder named Jonah Hex. He is the former paramour of a woman known as June Moon. She went by the moniker of Enchantress, and was a powerful magic-wielder in her own right. Together they assembled all the pieces of the Darkhold Medallion, and the Darkhold Tomb, one of this world’s most powerful magical artifacts. She attempted the use spells even the Sorcerer Supreme himself would be reluctant to use. She paid with the loss of her soul. Now Jonah Hex seeks to reassemble the pieces of the Darkhold, in an attempt to rescue June Moon from her hellish prison.

THIS MUST NOT OCCUR! I have seen a possible timeline where this Enchantress returns and becomes an evil worse than this Earth has known. Also, the Darkhold is far too powerful for this Jonah Hex to hold. He must be stopped, at any cost. The Shadow Cabinet holds a piece of the Darkhold Medallion. It has been kept far from the other pieces we know about, in London. Aquamaria and Cloak, you will go to London and protect that piece. Understand me, Hex is to not get his hands on that piece, no matter what the cost. White Lotus and Boogieman, your mission will be to travel to Diabloverde. We have reason to believe that one of the missing pieces of the Darkhold lies in a place known as Azule Sol. Find it and bring it back here. I am going to have most of our teams working on the mission, hopefully we can recover some of the pieces or eliminate Hex.

Time is wasting. You have your missions, NOW GO!”

Quickly the four excused themselves, off on their missions. After they left, Dharma slumped in his chair, exhausted, barely able to sustain himself. He was growing weaker, as over four hundred years on the job tends to do that to a man. Soon, Shadow Cabinet would need a new Seer, and Dharma saw nobody worthy of the task in sight. This worried him greatly. The world needed Shadow Cabinet, a pro-active strikeforce out to prevent catastrophes before they occurred, an organization to house dangerous items and keep tabs on dangerous people.

Dharma felt the pangs of sleep once again tug at this consciousness. He silently prayed to himself, hoping that this sleep would, for once, be without possible timelines of impending doom and disaster. Sadly, he knew better, as he hadn’t gotten a decent night sleep in over four centuries. Soon, he whispered to himself, hopefully soon.

"Hello Nurse Joan Carthers, of Creek Field, Illinois, population 4327, daughter of Harry and Millie Carthers, twenty five years old, single, no children, please come right in.” said a voice from inside the room.

Nurse Joan cringed noticeable, making the guard standing next to her, Carl, put his arm on her shoulder. She was very glad he was present. She was never sure how Katherine had discovered such information about her life-it wasn’t like she talked to Katherine, and she didn’t think anybody else on the staff did either. Katherine was spooky, in the horror movie kind of way. The word was she used to be an agent of some spy organization. She apparently led a supernatural team and they found something very dark and powerful. Katherine had survived the ordeal. Her entire team, on the other hand, had not.

“Time for your meds honey” said Nurse Joan, trying to not appear disturbed as she entered the room. The room was one in the cleanest in the entire ward. Katherine was a notorious clean freak, always wiping and cleaning whenever she wasn’t absorbed in some weird book or writing extensively in her journal.

“Oh goody, I can barely hold back my anticipation” mumbled Katherine sarcastically, not even bothering to turn her head from her writings.

“So, Ms. Joan Carthers,” said Katherine, the sarcasm still evident in her voice, “how is your day going?”

Nurse Joan decided it was best to oblige Katherine and small talk her, at least until the meds were in and she was out, “Alright, I guess, Katherine. Just like every other day around her.”

“Oh now,” said Katherine, turning her head towards Nurse Joan, “I wouldn’t say that…”

Nurse Joan stopped. Something wasn’t right. Katherine had a very demonic grin upon her face. Then Nurse Joan noticed her eyes. There was something new there. Something very dark. Something very evil.

Katherine Reynolds quickly leapt from the chair and plunged something into Nurse Joan. Nurse Joan looked down, in shock, and saw a dagger buried in heart, then pulled out in a splash of blood. Then Nurse Joan saw nothing more.

“This isn’t anything personal,” said Katherine, as she moved with lightning speed towards Carl, the guard, “but you guys are just in my way. I have been given an offer I can’t refuse. Sorry about this whole nasty death thing, but if you had seen the things I’ve seen, you’d know you are probably better off anyways.

Katherine soon dispensed of the Carl, before the man really knew what even hit him, and she skipped joyfully towards the exit of the ward.

Outside the building she looked around, and found her “ride” waiting for her. He was the super-villain known as Demogoblin, an evil demonic fusing, by the arch-devil known as Neron, of a hellish demon and the former super-criminal known as Hobgoblin. Someone new had taken the Hobgoblin mantle, but her was nothing like Demogoblin. The Hobgoblin was little more than a petty thief with a gimic costume, where Demogoblin was a human/demon hybrid with a thirst for destruction.

“Lookssss like you had sssome fun.” hissed Demogoblin

“Not as much fun, “ smiled Katherine, hoping on Demogoblin’s Deathglider, throwing her arms around his waist, “as we are gonna have. You know what the mission is?”

“Sure,” laughed Demogoblin, as the Glider took off into the sky, “We gotta go kill ssssome dude who is trying to find the pieces of the Darkhold. Hey didn’t you have ssssome problems with thing…”

Katherine Reynolds smacked Demogloblin upside his head as he laughed.

As the Glider reached a fair height and distance, Demogoblin screamed “HOUSECLEANING!” and fired two missles from his Glider into Boston Psychotherapy Institute. The building exploded into a fiery inferno, and the two flew off into the sunset laughing.