Order I

There was a man who walked with a cane. Why? He did not need it for balance, for his form was formidable and his stance good. Yet he walked with a cane, and suffered no fools. The man lived in a world of war, yet bore no armour save for electric blue gauntlets covering his arms. His clothing was plain, and his long red hair tied back in an ornate plait that reached right to his waist. He gazed through a single eye, the other covered by a patch and hiding it from view.

He strode into an enormous viridian room, lined with statues of ancient warriors and heavily ornamented. He approached a throne at the end of the hall bearing a seated woman, and on reaching it he knelt.

“Disorder marches, my Lady.”

“Rise.”

He did so. The Lady expected one to stand on ceremony, and at this time he was certainly not going to disappoint her. At this time.

“You are no messenger. What makes this news so important that you need attend me yourself?”

“They have power with them, Lady. The Jester and the Poison join the march, and a hundred other warriors.”

“A hundred?” she scoffed. “They cannot hope to take me here, in the Emerald Palace, with such a paltry few. My soldiers are legion, and my resolve is iron. They cannot hope to take me here.”

“Poison, my Lady. And Chaos himself, too.”

“Chaos never commits to a cause long enough to have any true impact.”

“Listen to me. They have already reached the Interchange. You know they have strength. A defence must be coordinated.”

“And once their backs are broken on my fortification, we counterattack and exterminate them all.”

“If you wish it.”

For the first time, the Lady smiled.

“Shock. Go to the Interchange. Find Poison. Find him and kill him.”

“My Lady?”

“You heard me. If he presents the threat you claim, he must be stopped before he gets within a thousand words of the Emerald Palace. Find him and kill him before he does.”

Shock nodded.

“If you wish it.”

The man who walked with a cane turned and left the hall, his gauntlets green in reflection. And as he walked, he allowed a determined smirk to creep across his lips.

>

Hillside became lakeside, and lakeside became forests of mammoth mushrooms, and the forests became fields of obsidian glass, and far in the distance the Interchange loomed. It had the smell of dismay about it, even at this range, and it made Shock sick. As the light faded and the fields transformed to a floor of chains punctuated by flaming geysers, a figure approached from the opposite direction. His face was covered by a mask bearing a twisted grin, and he too eschewed armour save for gauntlets. His were gold, and his chest was bare. As the newcomer approached, Shock halted in his stride and stood resolute.

“State your descriptor and business, mannequin.”

“I am no mannequin,” responded the advancing man, drawing a serrated crimson sword from a scabbard on his left hip. A second scabbard, its blade still concealed, rested on his right side.

“Your business, then.” Shock reiterated, eye narrowing.

“Justice.”

The man was not walking quickly, but as his sword became wreathed by his side in flames Shock faced inevitability. The incandescent sword struck Shock across the chest, sending the warrior flipping over backward with the force but he stabilised mid air and landed on his feet in time to see his assailant drawing his second sword and swinging both weapons wildly toward him.

The reason for the cane became apparent; Shock drew a thin blue blade from within and used both sword and stick to parry the adversary’s swings effortlessly, knocking the masked man to the floor from the impact. Shock’s sword crackled with pure lightning and he brought the strike down on his prone attacker, discharging the energy across his body but before he could deliver the killing blow his target rolled backwards and rose to his feet once more, cracking his neck from side to side.

Shock snarled as he wrapped his weapon in a cloak of flame, and charged forward. The justice-bringer dropped to the floor and in a flash he was gone from the scene, leaving Shock alone once more.

Who was that? Not a mannequin? A new arrival to the Interchange?

This could change the game magnificently…