A Once Crowded Sky (31 page)
Soldier nods. “Maybe.”
“And then someone’ll kill them again. And I’ll watch them die. And they’ll come back! And someone’ll kill them again, and I’ll watch them die. And they’ll come back!”
Soldier looks down.
“They all come back!” Felix shouts into the night.
Soldier steps back, leans against a car. He looks up at the sky, and Felix follows his glance, sees the thousand stars of the Arcadia night. Felix starts to cry, and he moves the gun, puts the side of it to his head as he sinks down, sits on the ground. The metal is cool on his cheek. It feels nice. He cries for some time, and after a while he drops the gun to his lap, holds it there, rubbing his hand over the barrel. He looks up at Soldier, who’s still looking at the stars.
“I always wanted to fly,” Felix says. “I didn’t fly. I was just fast. Did you ever want to fly?”
“Yeah, I wanted to fly.”
Felix looks at the gun in his lap. “What’s this one called?”
“California.”
“And the other one’s Carolina?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s really neat.” Felix hands Soldier the gun.
“I don’t know,” Soldier says, holstering the weapon, “seems kind of silly to me.”
Soldier helps Felix up, and Felix heads back to the bar, and Soldier walks with him. “You know, this is the fifth time they’ve died,” Felix says as they get to the door. “Five times. That’s a lot of times. A lot of, y’know, drinks.”
“Sounds like a hell of a story,” Soldier says, and the two men walk back to the bar and order some drinks, brown for Felix, apple juice for The Soldier of Freedom.
Ultimate, The Man With The Metal Face #580
PAGE 4
PANEL 1: Close-up: Star-Knight’s hand breaking through the glass floor.
PANEL 2: Star-Knight taking the notebook from out of the floor.
PANEL 3: Close-up of the notebook. It is titled “Ultimate, The Man With The Metal Face #580.”
PAGE 5
PANEL 1: Close-up of the notebook with Star-Knight’s bloody fingers holding it.
PANEL 2: Close-up on the word “Ultimate” with blood running down the word.
PANEL 3: Close-up of Star-Knight’s face, he looks beaten, tired.
STAR-KNIGHT: When I first read what The Blue was, I laughed.
PAGE 6–7
Two-page illustration consisting of nine embedded circles that act as panels. The outermost panel/circle will be panel 1 and the innermost panel (the only actual spaced circle) will be panel 9. In each panel we see the classic fights of all the costumed men of Arcadia all going around and around.
PANEL 1:
STAR-KNIGHT: Stories. That’s what it is. The Blue. Our stories.
PANEL 2:
STAR-KNIGHT: A series of moments. Images of us playing our game.
PANEL 3:
STAR-KNIGHT: I don’t know what it’s made of exactly. I know it’s energy. Energy seeping into our world through a rip in space. When you touch it, you burn, I know that. And when it grows, when it’s freed, it burns us all.
PANEL 4:
STAR-KNIGHT: Maybe it’s that these stories, maybe they can’t be here among us. We shouldn’t be with them, not yet. They’re like the stars. Up there, they’re fine. They make us dream of riding them. Like a knight.
PANEL 5:
STAR-KNIGHT: But were the stars to fall, the million suns boil down on our world, it would destroy us all.
PANEL 6:
STAR-KNIGHT: Our stories leaking through a hole in the ground.
PANEL 7:
STAR-KNIGHT: We’re not supposed to know our own stories.
PANEL 8:
STAR-KNIGHT: Knowing that kills you.
PANEL 9: This is the center circle, only full static picture. It shows Pen in silhouette running toward the camera, The Blue spout in the background.
Caption: “Where are you going, PenUltimate? Where are you running to?”
PAGE 8
PANEL 1: Distant shot takes up most of the page: The western hemisphere seen from space, showing The Blue exploding out of the east coast of the United States.
STAR-KNIGHT: It was at the horizon, killing thousands, threatening to kill millions more. It was taking our world. And I had to save us.
PANEL 2: Medium shot. Star-Knight back in his office, book in his lap.
STAR-KNIGHT: And Prophetier’s book said there was only one way to defeat it.
PAGES 9–10
TWO-PAGE SPREAD: Brilliant blue background. All sky. Across the sky is a small Ultimate, flying fast, leaving a trail behind him.
STAR-KNIGHT: I went to Ultimate, confessed how I’d known about the books, how the books had given us the solution.
STAR-KNIGHT: I told him one hero could do it, take on all our powers and stop The Blue from killing our world.
STAR-KNIGHT: Of course, that hero would die.
STAR-KNIGHT: And, of course, I knew he’d volunteer.
PAGE 11
PANEL 1: Ultimate saving Star-Knight, blocking an incoming punch from the oversized fist of The Giant of the North.
STAR-KNIGHT: And then I told Ultimate it was all going to be fine.
PANEL 2: Star-Knight and Ultimate fighting together against the Dreaded Empire of the Underground.
STAR-KNIGHT: I told him that we needed to put the powers in my belt, that he needed to wear the belt and close the hole that was leaking The Blue. But once the hole was closed, the belt would remain. And we’d simply pick it up and reclaim our powers. Everyone would come back, probably even him, eventually.
STAR-KNIGHT: But the hole needed to close. If it was open, even a fraction, the belt would be lost to all of us.
STAR-KNIGHT: And to close the hole, he’d need just enough power, he’d need everyone. Everyone.
PANEL 3: Ultimate saving Star-Knight after Star-Knight had been thrown into the Pit of Destruction.
STAR-KNIGHT: I told him the book said you wouldn’t show, you’d refuse to go.
STAR-KNIGHT: I told him we needed to get you, to tell you the stakes, to force you to come. I pleaded with him. Screamed.
PAGE 12
PANEL 1: Ultimate saving Star-Knight from a flame monster during The Age-of-Fire Crisis.
STAR-KNIGHT: And he said no.
STAR-KNIGHT: He said he knew something. He said it was the way you were built. If you came, you would die.
PANEL 2: Star-Knight and Ultimate fighting Black Plague, both punching him at the same time.
STAR-KNIGHT: He said you had the right to choose. You didn’t have to be a hero. You didn’t have to make this sacrifice. You could choose life.
PANEL 3: Ultimate saving Star-Knight from The Criminals of the Crescent Moon.
STAR-KNIGHT: He said he would do it without you. Though I screamed at him, told him it was all useless, that you had to come, had to die, he dismissed it all with a wave of his hand.
STAR-KNIGHT: “This is mine,” he said.
PAGE 13
PANEL 1: Ultimate standing in the metal room, Star-Knight, kneeling in front of him, his head bent down, as if praying.
STAR-KNIGHT: He made me swear that I wouldn’t interfere. That I wouldn’t tell you the truth. That I would let you go. That I would hide the books, hide what they said about you.
STAR-KNIGHT: He made me swear that I would save you.
STAR-KNIGHT: It was the first time he’d ever asked for anything. The first time he’d ever said he needed anything.
PANEL 2: Same as above except Star-Knight is looking up, looking directly at Ultimate’s face.
STAR-KNIGHT: And I said yes.
STAR-KNIGHT: I swore it. I would let you make your choice. I would save you. Even if it meant losing everything. Even that. For him.
PAGE 14
PANEL 1: Pen back in the office, still slumped in the corner, looking down.
STAR-KNIGHT: I made my vow.
STAR-KNIGHT: And then I went to Soldier to see about the villains.
PANEL 2: Mirrors the above panel with Star-Knight now, smiling.
STAR-KNIGHT: I don’t believe in fate. But I prepare for it.
PANEL 3: In a bathroom looking over an unidentified shoulder at Red Rapist, bleeding from a bullet to the head.
STAR-KNIGHT: If Ultimate failed, then the powers would be gone. All the good guys gone. We had to be ready for that.
STAR-KNIGHT: We couldn’t leave them, all those villains we’d always stopped, we couldn’t just leave them.
STAR-KNIGHT: What was the point in saving the world to only have it left open to all of them. They weren’t going to make the sacrifice we would. They weren’t good, not like us.
PANEL 4: Again over an unidentified shoulder: Crimeboss, dead, another bullet through his head.
STAR-KNIGHT: You think I’m the villain, and you and your friend Soldier are the heroes? We’re all the same. We all save the day in our own way.
PANEL 5: Close-up of Hell-Wraith in a forest, a gun to his head.
STAR-KNIGHT: I went to Soldier, told him what was coming, told him I had deduced it from the energy or some bull#@$%, the usual bull@#$% they always believe.
STAR-KNIGHT: I told him each of the big three had their parts to play. I had the solution. Ultimate had the sacrifice. And Soldier would have to make sure once it was over we’d all be safe.
STAR-KNIGHT: You see, that’s what soldiers do. The killing.
PANEL 6: Over the shoulder we see Hell-Wraith, the gun going off, blowing through Hell-Wraith’s skull.
STAR-KNIGHT: He had a plan. Made it look like suicide, like The Blue had affected them somehow, and then I spread the rumor that it had. People believed me and dismissed it as another story. And that was that.
STAR-KNIGHT: As always, the big three saved the day. I did my part. Ultimate did his. Soldier did his.
