Rasputin released Jackie Estacado and Ian Nottingham from their confinement.

"Hecate feels that you've learned your lesson. She needs you to be prepared for action. Just remember, if you feel a need to be defiant, we have the means to return you to your imprisonment." Rasputin took a moment to bask in his superior position, gloating.

"I'd like you to meet someone." Where upon Rasputin introduced them to Torquemada. "He is next in command after me. You will obey his orders as if they had come from Hecate or me. Is that clearly understood?"

The two nodded and eyed the newcomer warily.

Torquemada eyed Ian Nottingham suspiciously and asked if he might be "tainted" with inferior blood.

"I have British and Cherokee blood, if that's what you mean." Nottingham replied.

"Yes, Cherokee. A tame indian, no?" Torquemada asked.

Nottingham glared at him. "Meet me in a one in one contest and I'll show you how tame the Cherokee are."

Torquemada chuckled and walked away.

Yukio delivered the news of the newcomer to Bron. In a fit of rage, Bron grabbed a hapless servant who was cleaning near him and throttled him nearly to death.

Bron's ego had suffered a tremendous blow when he was defeated in such a humiliating manner by Hecate. Now to learn that he had to follow the orders of some peasant newcomer? It was an outrage. Yukio tried to soothe him, using everything she had at her disposal. After several hours of ego massaging, Yukio and Bron began to plot their own secret course of action.

Hecate intercepted the remaining Stix Brothers. The men had expended nearly all of their ammunition and one had been mauled nearly to death in a savage encounter with a black bear.

They eyed the snake woman suspiciously.

Hecate addressed them. "I am Hecate. Perhaps if you have a modicum of an education, you have heard of me." She paused for a reaction but got none. "If you haven't, let me inform you. I am an elder god. I have been here since nearly the beginning. I invented magic. I am the queen of the witches. All who practice witchcraft must bow to me. Do you understand?"

She received several blank looks. "What the bloody "ell; do we lot care about your bleedin' lies, eh snake lady?" One of them called.

Hecate said, "Let me quell your disbelief." And with a gesture she transported them all to her Greek headquarters.

Great ongoin story, surely this COSMIC RUMBLE must be the longest running FAN-FICTION on these here REALMS

Day 5: Alternate Earth, The Everglades Mid afternoon.

Samandahl Rey was flexing and testing his Sigil given powers. He was testing how fast he could fly when a bizarre rip in the fabric of space opened and he found himself plunging through it before he could check his momentum.

Appalled, he came to a halt and turned to see if he could return. The rift had disappeared.

He looked around to see where he was. He didn't recognize anything. Some kind of swamp or marshland evidently. But what planet? He couldn't place it. He'd travelled extensively through space but couldn't remember any planet that had this environment.

He heard a commotion. Investigating he saw a lone figure in peculiar armor besieged by several large lizardmen armed with primitive weapons like spears and javelins.

His first thought was to fly to the man's aid but he noticed an odd thing.
To defend himself, the man would merely lift his visor and the beast before fell to an apparent death! Although Sam couldn't be sure, but the lizardmen seemed to be literally frightened to death!

He drew closer and heard sounds of gloating and maniacal laughter from the being who he no longer was certain was a man after all. Were there any other interstellar races that had technology of that sort?

Sam didn't recognize the what race the lizardmen might be or why they might have a beef with the odd entity that was slaying them simply with a look, but he felt he may have to reassess who needed rescuing here.

He approached the single entity from above and telikinetically clamped the visor shut. If the visor needed to be open to inflict harm, it would stay shut.

The being seemed surprised when it couldn't raise the visor and looked around desparately. After a short interval; during which, the surviving lizard men took the opportunity to flee, the being looked up and spotted Sam.

Apparently enraged, the being began promising the darkest death for Sam in a sibilant tirade. This sealed the deal for Sam as to who the bad guy was and he leveled his lazer rifle at the oddly loathsome being and kept firing until there was no trace of the entity.

When he was finished, there was no sign of any combatants save himself.

Samandahl Rey was left only with questions and confusion.

Hecate arrived with her cadre of surviving Stix Brothers and called for Rasputin. The mauled Stix Brother didn't seem to survive the trip. His brothers didn't seem very broken up about it.

Rasputin responded and was only momentarily taken aback by the many identical individuals in Hecate's company.

When it was clear that there was no hope for the sixth Stix Brother, Rasputin ordered Ian Nottingham to remove the remains and led the other Stix Brothers to rooms where they could be questioned, briefed and assimilated.

Before long it was ascertained that the scientific gear that had appeared earlier in the day, was in fact cloning equipment and the clones they would get from it; would in all likelihood, be more Stix Brothers.

Hecate smiled at the thought of an army of these thugs.

Judge Fear was stunned. What had happened? One minute he was toying with a bunch of primitive mutant crocodiles and the next he was disembodied!

Who wass that flying man? He wass dressed sso sstrangely!

He wass Judge Fear! A ssimple gaze into his face brought ssweet ssucculent death to his victimss. How dare that mysstery man interfere with his just cause? And how? How? How had he been able to prevent Judge Fear from ssuch a ssimple tassk ### lifting his visor? What ssorcery was this?

And Now! Now! He, Judge Fear, was left a dissembodied sspirit with no clear means to resstore himself. Thiss, thiss wass an outrage! Thiss would not sstand!

It was several hours of angry tirades before Judge Fear realized that there were traces of both Judge Death and Judge Fire lingering. His forlorn disembodied spirit set out to locate one or both of them.

Judge Fear musst assuage his humiliation. He musst reincorporate and extract revenge againsst thiss

As Natalia Kassle waited, another guard did come by. One who had been lulled into a false sense of security by the repitition of the mundanity of day to day routine. The guard walked in and stopped short when she almost literally stumbled across the body of her colleague, completely dressed, except for a curious lack of shoes.

The guard had to think before she remembered her training and that short hesitation cost her her life.

The guard's uniform wasn't ideal; and Natalia worried about her hair possibly giving things away, but Natalya would have to make do.

She hid both bodies where they would hopefully not be discovered anytime soon.

Natalia finally was able to start breathing again when she had passed from the prison walls without incident.

Ukiko looked at her companions. Shi and Boon had both demonstrated their friendship, but so had Tiger Lily and Siamese. She knew well that Siamese and Tiger Lilly had agreed to the contract to eliminate Ukiko that was put out when Ukiko was no longer expedient to her employer's purposes.

Scarab had as well. The odd thing was that Ukiko had slain Scarab. Yet, Scarab was here, alive and well, under the thumb of the ogre magi along with her friends and the rest of her former colleagues.

Somehow, Ukiko had shaken the hold the Ogre Magi had on her, but it was too late to reunite her with her only reason to cling to life, her adored son. Whatever Ukiko did, she must, first and foremost, reunite with her child. No one must stand in her way.

She was overwhelmed with shame that she had somehow failed her son and he was her sole focus. Whatever happened, she must find a way to return to her offspring.

Bajounte Ka and his crew finally arrived at their homeworld Tcharun. When they arrived, they discovered that the planet had been in disarray for the past few days. They immediately reported to Prince Tchlusarud.

They found themselves confronted with confusing and conflicting stories where the Imperial elite claimed that the lower classes disappeared for a few days and when they reappeared, had mounted a rebellion.

The lower classes were claiming that the upper and middle classes had disappeared leaving the lower classes to fend for themselves.

The middle classes remembered the lower classes having disappeared one day, leaving them to do the drudge work to satisfy the upper echelon. The next day they found an absent upper class and were forced to contend with a rebellious lower class without the guidance of their leadership who suddenly reappeared the next day.

All the conflicting stories were too bizarre and confusing to make sense to the returning warriors so after introducing the Lizard Men emmissaries to their prince, Bajounte Ka joined the military to rout the rebellion.

Ukiko decided to assess her surroundings. She was clearly in Japan but not the Japan she knew. This was a mythical Japan, where demons and dragons, ninjas and samurais were prominent.

Her abductor was clearly a demon of some sort and it appalled her that this creature knew so much about her. He insisted that she remain in her Kabuki garb all the time.

Her former colleagues in the Noh as well as Shi and Boon were also restricted to their specific action gear. Boon had been supplied with a set of katanas with which he proved to be as equally adept as he was with his Bo staff.

Ukiko studied the others. She sensed nothing unusual from her Noh colleagues and she wondered if they were still under an obligation to assassinate her. Likely they were and Ukiko would have to be on her guard.

The really unsettling thing was Scarab. Scarab was the one that found her and Ukiko had been forced to kill her to avoid dying. Yet Scarab was here and very much alive. How could that be?

Scarab behaved as if there was nothing between them. Could it be that someone else was in the Scarab guise? None of the Noh assassins ever really knew each other's true identity's. Tiger Lily and Scarab always seemed to be close and they seemed to be close now. What did that mean?

Ukiko had always got on well with the Siamese girls --- at least the one that liked to talk. She wondered how that affected her standing now. Obviously they were under orders to kill her. She'd been close more or less with Tiger Lily too.

For now all of them seemed to be in the thrall of the Ogre Magi and as long as that were the case they were unlikely to be an immediate threat.

Ukiko looked at Shi and Boon. They too seemed to still be under the spell of the Ogre mage. Ukiko decided to try to isolate them to free them from their subservience.

The Ogre Mage ordered Shi, Ukiko and the Siamese twins on an errand. he seemed to be canny about their past somehow and never allowed Ukiko to be unchaperoned by at least one of her former Noh colleagues.

Ukiko needed to find an excuse to get Ana and herself away from the twins.

Lobster Johnson finally realized, there was nothing he alone could do to aid the slaves of the Githyanki. In the ethereal plane it was as if he were a mere mortal. On the material plane he had his otherworldly powers; but in this alternate reality, he had more autonomy. He was not restricted by the arcane limitations imposed on him as a ghost in his own reality.

He had complete freedom to behave as if he was still alive, yet he retained his ghostly powers!

So Lobster Johnson decided to reveal himself fully to Judge Anderson and her associates.

But first he would begin with Judge Anderson and then ease himself into contact with the others. He didn't want to create unnecessary shock or excitement.

After Judge Fire returned to the alternate reality that seemed to be nothing but swampland, he sensed a kindred spirit. This body he'd usurped was still getting broken in, but Judge Fire couldn't give in to hesitation if another Dark Judge was about. He hurried to intercept his comrade.

He found Judge Fear in a sad state. The living were playing rough!

He gathered Judge Fear to him and guided him to the Mega City One reality so that Judge Fear could reincorporate himself. While he'd been in the other reality, he sensed an astonishingly powerful undead presence for a fleeting instance. This was enough to convince Judge Fire to remain in the Mega City One reality and take his chances with the Judges once he'd helped Judge Fear reincorporate.

Samandahl Rey shouldered his laser rifle and flew up. For several miles in any direction he saw swampland. This did little to orient him as to his location. He had absolutely no idea where he was.

He flew down closer to the Earth yet stayed above the trees. He was still amazed at the powers that were imparted to him by the Sigil on his chest.

Flying was so much fun. Any opportunity he got, he spent flying. Who else could fly unaided like this?

He had other powers too, some he was still discovering. He couldn't believe his physical strength! It took all his willpower to resist uprooting trees to test it. Instead, he satisfied himself with lifting and shattering boulders with his fists.

He could do things with his mind too. Telekinesis, Force Fields, but what was most amazing was his ability to transform matter. He was still astonished by that.

He resisted any and all temptation to try that power on a living subject. No matter how bad a fight would get, he refused to mess with the molecular makeup of a living creature. He didn't think he would be able to live with himself if he tried that.

Luckily, his other powers and his laser rifle were adequate to most threats.

Whatever else, he could always rely on the tried and true methods of soldiering.

He looked for signs of Saurian occupation.

The Stix Brothers did not know what to make of their current situation. They were now apparently taking orders from a giant snake lady who had tremendous magic powers. Before this, they'd never even believed in magic.

There was a creature known as the Death Demon who seemed to be completely at the snake lady's beck and call, another creature that seemed to be Death warmed over called Judge Death (that name seemed familiar)

Another that they were expected to obey that claimed to be the historical Rasputin. (Didn't that bloody bloke have a bunch of creepy prophecies?)

The third was the one they warmed up to the most, Torquemada spoke their language. That bloke was right up their alley. They looked forward to working for him.