The Peregrine Omnibus, Volume Two (54 page)

Vincent, as always, concurred with Sally. “I agree. Let’s just focus on stopping the rest of these monsters from waking up.”

The Peregrine and Stone were about to lead the way into the tomb when the roof of the building suddenly shattered, sending chunks of rock flying into the air. As the dust settled, the heroes coughed and blinked in hopes of restoring their eyesight. What they saw as they looked upwards froze the blood in their veins: Cthulhu was awake and looking about him. A strange sound came from the Great Old One, and it was answered from a half dozen other places throughout the great city.

“He’s calling to the others,” Stone murmured. “He’s waking them up.”

Cthulhu stepped from the tomb, his massive feet passing over the heads of the Claws team. He stood nearby, continuing his bizarre calling noises, which were now being answered by several more entities.

Catalyst and Esper both lifted off the ground, propelled by magic and telekinesis. Revenant and the Peregrine both moved back a bit, drawing their pistols and opening fire at Cthulhu’s legs and feet. Vincent and Stone both began pummeling the great monster’s ankles, though it was like striking a brick wall.

Up above, Catalyst was flying directly into the visual path of Cthulhu. More than anyone else, he knew how perilously close humanity stood to the edge of disaster. Cthulhu alone was powerful enough to wipe out entire nations—if his evil brood was reawakened alongside him, civilization could be doomed.

Despite the fact his powers were somewhat restricted in this chaos-rich environment, Catalyst summoned what power he could and unleashed it in a frontal assault. The magical energy slammed full force into Cthulhu’s face, and the tentacled features recoiled in shock.

Esper pressed the assault, but was too afraid to use her telepathy on the beast. One brush against Cthulhu’s mind would have driven her far past the edge of sanity. Instead, she used her telekinesis to punch the Great Old One with all the mental force she could muster.

Cthulhu turned his gaze upon Catalyst and opened his cavernous mouth, which peeked into view behind the tentacles that drooped downwards from his nose and over his chin. A dark green cloud rushed forward from the depths of his gullet and enveloped Nathaniel. Catalyst screamed in agony, and his pain was so great that it surged through the mental link he had with his wife, causing her to lose control of her own body. She flailed in the air before suddenly dropping like a stone.

It was Vincent who caught sight of her, looking like a gorgeous female shooting star. She was going to be killed by the fall’s impact unless something was done. The monster with the heart of a poet sprinted forward, working his strong legs as hard as he could. He jumped up and grabbed hold of an overhang on a nearby building, scaling the side of the structure with incredible speed. His fingers punched into the stone with each upwards thrust of his hands, literally pulling his bulk towards the rooftop. In all, he scaled thirty feet in the blink of an eye and was now directly underneath the falling Esper. He braced himself and caught her in his arms, cradling her as gently as he could. He gave a quick check to make sure that her neck hadn’t broken from the impact, but she seemed fine, though completely out of it. Her eyes were rolled up into her head, and a thin line of drool ran from the corner of her mouth.

Meanwhile, Professor Stone had caught sight of Catalyst’s predicament. The mage was still wrapped up in the ebony cloud and his screams continued to echo throughout the city. Cthulhu was beginning to march once more, ignoring the pitiful attempts of the Claws team to stop him.

“We have to do something or Nathaniel is going to die,” Stone declared.

The Peregrine looked up and wished that his own powers, lost years before in battle with Doctor Satan, were still available to him. Like Rachel, he’d had a variety of often unreliable mental abilities, but he was a normal man at present and that meant bad things for Catalyst.

Revenant’s voice brought both men’s attentions to something streaking through the sky. “Look at that! Is that a man?”

Stone’s keen eyesight did indeed catch the tell-tale signs that it was a human figure, but the entity wore some sort of bizarre mask and outfit, complete with wooden wings that spread out from his mask. The wings were not flapping but they still seemed to somehow propel him through the air. As the heroes watched, the unknown figure flew through the black cloud and emerged on the other side, the limp form of Catalyst in his arms.

“Who the hell
is
that?” the Peregrine wondered aloud.

“That would be Mr. James Imada.”

The Peregrine turned to see Holmes emerging from the tomb. The famous detective’s manner was so different now that one would have been hard-pressed to still see Moriarty in his visage.

“Mr. Holmes?”

Holmes nodded curtly, gesturing towards the winged figure, who was landing nearby. The Peregrine recognized the Mask of Nyarlathotep over Jimmy’s face, but the rest of the garb was unknown to him—he wore dark midnight blue pants and a chest harness with the image of a bird’s claw in the center. The wings on Jimmy’s back were delicately carved and very realistic. “And, as I said, this is your former compatriot, though he is currently calling himself Jackdaw.”

Jackdaw set Catalyst gently to the ground and nodded. “It’s me. I put on the mask and it gave me this… outfit.”

“I believe it took his inner desire for heroism and created a model inspired by your own bird-like incarnation,” Holmes said to Max.

“This is all fascinating,” Revenant said, interrupting them. “But Cthulhu isn’t alone anymore.”

Off in the distance, another massive figure was rising from the city’s inner bowels. It was too dim for them to make out many details, but it was nearly equal to Cthulhu in size, if not in power.

“Jackdaw, if you please,” Holmes said.

“I’ll be right back,” Jimmy said, taking flight. He flew as quickly as he could towards the yacht, ignoring the frightened stares of the women on board as he landed. Rushing below decks, he found Holmes’s room and quickly knelt to look under the bed. There it was: a five-foot-long cylinder carved of metal. Within it was a bomb of incredible destructive ability, and Jackdaw was extra careful as he lifted the heavy object into his arms.

Back in the heart of the risen city, the heroes were all together again. Catalyst and Rachel were being carried, by Stone and Vincent, respectively. The group was slowly making their way towards the yacht, even as Jackdaw flew back to them, landing nearby.

Stone recognized what it was immediately, though it was still in the experimental stage. “We’ll need to get several miles away before that bomb is detonated, and even then I won’t feel comfortable about this.”

“If Nathaniel were able to cast his spells, it wouldn’t be issue,” Vincent said. He looked over at Catalyst, who was still twitching in pain.

Revenant touched Holmes on the arm. “Why do you think this bomb will kill them? I find it hard to believe that any manmade weapon can do that.”

“There’s a spell on this city,” Holmes explained. “If it sinks beneath the waves, the Great Old Ones
must
sleep. My calculations are that this bomb will cause a fracture in the city itself, driving it beneath the waves. At that point, Cthulhu and the others will enter their hibernation state once more.”

Holmes took the bomb from Jackdaw and set it down on the ground. He quickly armed it and a counter on the side began counting down, the seconds ticking by. Revenant saw it was set to go off in less than five minutes.

“We’ll never get far enough away—” she began, but Holmes took her by the hand and began rapidly moving towards the yacht.

“The most important thing is that these creatures don’t escape the island city. All of our lives are worth surrendering if we save the rest of the world from the fate that awaits them!”

The heroes found that their way back to the yacht was not unopposed. From the shadows emerged a plethora of bizarre and dangerous creatures. Had Holmes been alone, the great detective would have been overwhelmed, but with the Claws of the Peregrine at his side, he felt confident that they would reach their goal.

The Peregrine used the Knife of Elohim to great effect, and Revenant kept up a line of strafing fire on their enemies, allowing Stone and Vincent to concentrate on carrying the injured Catalyst and Esper.

The Claws team, along with Jackdaw, Stone, and Holmes, eventually ascended the ramp onto the moored yacht and quickly drew up anchor. The women on board said nothing, recognizing that their master was no longer among them. Some still felt loyalty to him, but it was obvious from looking at the likes of Vincent that none of them could stop these men and women from taking the vessel.

The yacht’s motor exploded to life as the Peregrine found his way into the control booth, and he quickly began aiming the ship away from R’leyh. He pushed the engine as hard as it would go, knowing that every second counted.

The rest of the team crowded around their fallen members and stared back at the island. Four massive figures could now be seen, Cthulhu largest amongst them. Each bore the same awful signs of being unfit for existence in this world—they were abominations, blights to the human senses.

“Everyone should look away,” Holmes said, though he himself continued to stare at the risen city of R’leyh. The bomb detonated, creating a massive mushroom cloud that sent the seas into a churning frenzy, and which illuminated the skyline, casting everything into hazy shades of orange and red. Holmes calculated how far they needed to be to avoid the full effects of the bomb and thought that they would be close, if not past, the outer limits of the bomb blast. Indeed, as a wave of hot wind finally assaulted them, knocking Revenant to the floor and even making Vincent stagger back, Holmes knew they were safe. He reached out and grabbed hold of the ship’s railing.

R’leyh was sinking back beneath the waves, carrying the corpses of both Doctor Satan and the Warlike Manchu with them.

“So it’s over?” Jackdaw asked, looking back at the cloud of smoke and fire that loomed over the water.

“For now,” Stone said. “At least until the next monster decides he wants to try and resurrect the Great Old Ones.”

Revenant knelt at Nathaniel’s side, reaching out to take his hand. “Nat… can you hear me?”

Catalyst nodded, looking deathly pale. “I’m going to be okay… and I think Rachel will be, too. It just… it hurt.”

“The understatement of century, I bet.” Sally laughed as Nathaniel grinned. She dropped his hand and stood up, facing the others. Even the Peregrine had joined them now. “We need to talk to the crew aboard the ship. Make sure they understand that the Manchu is dead. Once we’re back at the Aerie, we can sort out everything else. Professor, you’re welcome to join us, if you’d like.”

Stone smiled but shook his head. “I appreciate the offer, but I was here only to hunt down the killers of poor Captain Hazzard. Now that he’s been avenged, I have pressing affairs of my own to consider.”

“Well, you’ll always have a place with the team, if you change your mind.” Sally looked towards Holmes, who suddenly looked as ancient as he truly was. “Mr. Holmes, are you going to be okay?”

The detective pursed his lips and nodded thoughtfully. “I am, indeed. Today is an auspicious occasion, my friends. We have witnessed the demise of two of the world’s greatest criminals, and I was proud to be present at the birth of a new hero.”

At this, all eyes turned towards Jimmy, who had remained silent, hiding himself in the background.

The Peregrine placed a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “That offer that Sally made to Stone applies to you, too. We could help you learn more about that Mask of yours.”

Jackdaw considered it for a moment and then reached up, removing the covering from his face. Instantly, he was back in his Ten Fingers garments, looking sweaty and tired. “I just might take you up on that.”

Revenant noticed that Vincent was at her side. She leaned against him, grateful that he was willing to support her weight. “We did it, Vincent. We saved the world.”

“Are you surprised?”

“Not any more. It’s starting to seem like old hat, really.”

Vincent’s scarred face broke into a grin. “Looking for more excitement, are you?”

Revenant looked up at the stars in the sky and laughed merrily. “No, I don’t think my heart could take it. Want to see a movie when we get back?”

“I’d like that. What do you want to see?”

“Something light and funny. With no death in it all.”

“That can be arranged.”

“Good.” Sally turned and looked at him. “It’s a date.”

* * *

In the lost city of R’leyh, the Great Old Ones slumbered anew. Their time had not yet come, but it would… for they had all the time in the world to wait.

THE END

THE DEVIL’S SPEAR

An Adventure Starring the Peregrine

Written by Barry Reese

Prologue

January 8, 1946

His breathing was ragged, and there was a burning in his legs that threatened to overwhelm him. How had he come to this? he wondered. To achieve such incredible heights, only to be lain so low only a few years later… if it were the stuff of fiction, no one would have believed it.