Hero's Call

Chapter Six

Seven stepped onto the path and walked casually towards the dome. The metal was marred with dents, and in some places he had to teleport across great gaps in the bridge. Every hundred feet or so stood two identical statues of Czar Destructo along the guardrails of the bridge. Halfway down the path, one of the statues was decapitated, while its partner had been removed completely leaving nothing but a pair of stone feet.

The entrance to the dome was impressive. Well, would have been impressive if it hadn't been destroyed. It appeared to be wrought of pure gold. Etched into the gold was a mural of Czar Destructo standing atop the Earth with fist raised high. Each of the continents was carved out of thousands of people bowing and groveling at their new emperor. Seven knew Destructo had always thought very highly of himself, had the highest of goals: world domination.

Half of the golden doors were missing allowing Seven to enter freely. To the left and right of the doors on the inside were two turrets crushed into tin cans. Seven couldn't imagine that they even affected Captain Amazing before he destroyed them. A step or two past the turrets laid two crumbled security droids. One's arms were missing. The other has its partners arms jammed through his head and chest.

Even with the windows shattered on the dome, the air was stagnant. There were no footprints, so he knew Destructo hadn't been there since his escape, but it wouldn't hurt to look around. The entrance hall was small, made, presumably, out of the same metal as the path outside. Seven could tell it gleamed when it was built, but now it was lackluster and dirty. There was a retina scanner at the far end of the hall on the floor. About five feet above the twisted piece of metal, there was a small hole where the scanner would come out if it were still intact. The doors were pried open; the metal curled up like a cardboard box forced open on Christmas day.

Seven stepped over the threshold and found quite an interesting scene. A single pathway wound out in front of him like a great metal snake. To his immediate right of the path was a dense jungle. The leaves were withering, and he could see the bodies of giant ants decaying in the trees. To the left of the path was a vast desert wasteland. Several birds had swooped in and were perched on some of the cacti. A small colony of sand golems have hardened and turned to stone. The generators outside weren't actually for extra power supply. They were there to keep the eco systems stable. This wasn't just some lavish fortress to stroke Destructo's ego. It was an eco dome designed for breeding monster armies.

Acolyte Seven walked further along the path to find a large pool on one side. The water was crystal clear, and he could see leagues of coral and seaweed. Lying motionless at the bottom of the water were several skeletons of enormous fish with razor sharp teeth. On the other side was a meadow with hundreds of small mounds feeding into the ground. Next to one of the nearby burrows is what appears to be a dead prairie dog. It didn't appear to be anything special or formidable, but knowing Czar Destructo they were probably poisonous or at least had super strength enough to topple a skyscraper by burrowing. He was an evil madman, but, damn it, he was a genius.

The door at the end of the path slid open without any urging. Obviously the first two sets of security measures were enough to forgo security further into the dome. The doors lead to a large command center in the center of the artificial eco systems. The walls of the room were covered with computer screens. One showed the status of each environment. At the moment it read that each one of them was a catastrophic failure. Next to that was a large map of the world with several small lights that had gone out. Each light marked one of Destructo's hideouts. None of them were lit any longer.

Against the far wall of the room was a small cabinet with its door slightly ajar. A faint glow was emitting from the inside. Seven opened the door slowly, afraid that what was inside might be unstable and cause an explosion. He was wrong. Two small vials were sitting on the middle shelf glowing with a jelly-like substance. One was labeled 'T.S.'. The other was labeled 'Czar Destructo'. Seven's knowledge of human DNA wasn't sufficient, but he knew enough to recognize two phials of the substance when he saw them. He wasn't sure Destructo wasn't going to use these vials for some sort of cloning scheme, but he wasn't going to let him see it come to fruition if the Villain ever did come back looking for the sample. Seven grabbed the one that belonged to Destructo, and left the other. To his knowledge, there hadn't been any Hero or Villain in Earth's history to share the same initials as the ones on the vial. Well, not any that Czar Destructo would bother cloning. They wouldn't be powerful enough. Yet Destructo had the sample for a reason. He reached for the other vial, planning to take it just in case, but he stopped as a message came through the telepathic link The Council had created between their minds and Seven's.

"Urgent message for Acolyte Seven," a voice said. It was devoid of any emotion like a recording. "Visit 170 Mercury Cir, Buckland, Ohio. Matter of extreme urgency. Great haste needed. End transmission."

Acolyte Seven assumed it was a sighting of CzarDestructo, the news of which had come to The Council's attention. It was agrave omen that it came from Buckland, Ohio. A matter of extreme urgency,indeed. Acolyte Seven left the command center, and walked along the windingpath taking one last look at each of the dying artificial eco systems in thedome. He stepped outside the dome into the fresh New Zealand air. Just beforehe pressed the small button on his teleporter, he tossed the vial of CzarDestructo's DNA into the ocean and watched it sink like a stone. That shouldsave Earth some trouble in the future. The thought of the other vial had lefthis mind completely.