Wazad the Wonderful is sore and his body is bruised. It doesn’t show if you look at him, his thin coating of light brown fur hides the blue black wounds that he sustained as he tumbled through an asteroid, bouncing from one hard, rocky structure to the next. He landed hard on a small planetoid with enough atmosphere to sustain muddy brown vegetation that juts up like rock formations. The surface of the planetoid was beautiful and angular before Wazad crashed into it, then made a large crater and the force of his impact sent a wave all around the surface, reducing the uncratered surface to dust.
Wazad stands as the space around the planetoid begins to blackout, stars and their cosmic formations seemingly turning off until it seems that Wazad is the only thing left in the universe.
It’s a cheap intimidation tactic, Wazad thinks, designed to make the predator seem godly to its prey by seemingly removing it from existence into an isolation so dark that the death the predator brings is seen as a mercy. It’s a waste on Wazad, even if he is being overpowered, he won’t stop fighting, he won’t give up.
“You are very durable,” a voice says and it is like a swarm of many small voices speaking in unison and buzzing all around him. “We have not encountered one such as you so far in our scouting.”
“There is only one Wazad in all the universe,” he says. He readies himself on his large feet, his prehensile tail feeling the space behind him. He wears a golden body suit that wraps his frame up to his neck; he looks like a golden, muscly statue of an Earther kangaroo. His ears are perked on his head and they telescope, moving around to hear any sounds to indicate that his enemy is approaching. The fingers of his hands are folded into arcane positions and golden symbols seem to swirl around his hands.
“But that is not true of the multiverse,” the voice said. “Unless you are a singular being of the multiverse like the Only One. The odds of that are low. You have been assessed as the strongest opposition to the Only One’s consumption of this existence…”
The voice stops abruptly and while Wazad readies himself for an attack, the lights of the cosmos begin to reappear. Soon the dark swarm dissipates and Wazad stands confused.
“It left,” Wazad thinks aloud. “I shouldn’t let whatever it is get away.”
Wazad moves his hands and fingers into new positions and golden symbols explode from his hands to create an arrow in glittering gold that tracks the direction of the dark swarm’s energy. It was the same tracking spell that had led him to the swarm that had engulfed an entire planet and caused its inhabitants to let out a psychic shriek that pierced the magical ears that Wazad fixed over the universe in an effort to prevent the very planet-wide disasters that the swarm was apparently trying to enact. Wazad managed to interrupt whatever evil the swarm had planned for the planet, but not before hundreds of lives were lost. The swarm moved like insects through the void of space and Wazad assumed that it was moved by a sophisticated hivemind because it was able to coalesce into a solid form that was strong enough to batter him around space.
As Wazad flew like a golden streak through the cosmos following the energy signature of the dark swarm, he arrived at a galaxy that he recognized, and soon his arcane indicators showed that the swarm was coalescing at the planet Bludon that he knew well.
“Wazad calling Maxx, do you hear me?” Wazad says as he floats in space. He is able to speak in the void because he creates a bubble of atmosphere around his head, and he engages the emergency communicator that attaches to the base of his large ears. It is a gift from the Queen Rowen of Oin that she gave to all the members of the All Stars team that prevailed at the Arbitration of Hysteria that rebalanced the universe so that it wasn’t taken over by the Fonlands universe that spontaneously encroached into this universe. Wazad had not participated in the Arbitration because he was renewing his vow on another plane of existence at the time, but he was happy that Fonlanders wouldn’t be allowed to alter their universe at will, making planets and new species at the expense of the natives of the universe.
“Wazad?” he hears Maxx’s voice in his ears. “Are you on Bludon?”
“Maxx,” Wazad says earnestly, “ready your guardians. There is a mysterious swarm of great power coalescing around your planet. I have yet to identify it, but it has proven to be very aggressive…”
“The Needy has identified it and has trapped it in orbit. Meet me at the coordinates I am sending you on Bludon. We can discuss this, and I can introduce you to another being who uses the name Wazad.”
“But there is only one Wazad in all the universe” he says as he flies to the surface of Bludon.
Laying eyes on him disorients Maria. If she had seen this universe’s version of herself, she may have been this discombobulated, but it isn’t the same experience. Seeing the Wazad of this universe wasn’t like looking into a mirror at a reflection that could move independent of her movements. It was feeling the amazing power that filled her mind and coursed through her body in another person and this challenged her fundamental understanding of the title she wielded. Since the Wazad Set first appeared to her deep in the stacks of the university library where her mother worked, and she had the opportunity to read it so many times that she can recite it to this day, Maria has understood that there can only be one Wazad the Wonderful in the universe. The powers are singular and the Set that grants them only appear to one person deemed worthy of the chance to study for the position. There was a Wazad before her and there would be one after her, but to stand in front of another with the same power is truly mind boggling. The bizarre circumstances that brought her to this universe hadn’t disoriented her as much as this experience does.
“I am Maria,” she introduces herself to the man in his golden uniform that makes him look like a superhero kangaroo. They are inside of the large, ground floor commonspace of the Guardian dormitory on Fumarole. The commonspace is like a large living room; there are monitors broadcasting programming for entertainment, comfortable couches for lounging and watching, and many tables with Smiting grids painted on top. They both stand across from each other, Maria’s long broad sword pinging against the metal floor at each of her subtle movements.
“You use your civilian name,” Wazad says with puzzlement. “And you wield that sword instead of wearing the power as I do.”
“The pieces of my outfit manifest from my powers, but yes, I chose to wield most of the uniform as this sword because the skintight gets claustrophobic. The chestplate and skirt have been sufficient so far. What is your name?”
“I have been Wazad for long enough that it does not matter,” he says flippantly.
“I think it does now that there are two of us here,” Maria says. She doesn’t like that he is dismissive of the man he is without the powers.
He thinks on this and nods slowly. “Perhaps you are correct, but how long do you plan to be here? I presume you will want to return to your own universe since you are essentially here against your will.”
“My companions and I have decided to stay here in light of the dark swarm that Zacchaeus and the Needy are preventing from invading Bludon.”
“It is fortuitous that you all are here, indeed,” he says. “I am Sao-Reyne. Are you all able to determine what exactly the black swarm is?”
“Zacchaeus and the Master are in space now working on it. They will meet us here once they have finished their assessment. You are Sao-Reyne?” Maria asks and she half bows. “I did not realize that I was in the presence of Fhetatian royalty.”
“There are no Fhetatian royals,” Sao-Reyne says gravely. “I presume that there are in your universe.”
“Pardon me. In my universe you are one of six Kings of Fhetat, the longest serving and the most respected.”
Sao-Reyne shakes his head slowly. “The Fhetat has been in shambles for centuries and the best thing that ever happened to it was the banishing of the corrupt Kings. The King who rules it now has done his best to restore order, but most view him as a despot because he refuses to let old divisions develop to fracture the people.”
Maria nods silently. It is surreal to think that everything in this universe is so different.
“I am worried, Maria,” Sao-Reyne says to change the subject. “I have worked to protect this universe from arcane threats for a long time, and you and your friends are the first visitors from a universe that isn’t the Fonlands that I have ever encountered. And I learn of your presence here after the arrival of this mysterious dark swarm that has an energy signature that feels out of sync with this universe. It spoke to me. It said I was the greatest power of this universe before it came here. This is all very curious, and very concerning.”
“I believe we have a mystery to unravel,” Maria says. “Do you know the being known as Omega?”
Sao-Reyne looks angry and shakes his head. “Omega can’t be real. I have been Wazad for over two hundred years and I have never encountered any evidence that Omega actually exists.”
“Which is why it is such a nefarious villain,” Maria says. “In our universe, Omega rarely shows its face, but it is behind all of the darkness that characterizes our home. Its goal is very simple, it only wants to end life to the benefit of its supreme God, Past.”
“Past?” Sao-Reyne asks, having never heard the past referred to as a being, or a god.
“I am only aware of the metaphysics because of Issac,” Maria explained. “Wazad is not on the same level as the Master of Universal Arcana who can speak to abstracts like Time and Space, the Aether, the Quintessence. Since I was made aware of it, I have been able to see it, but that stuff isn’t part of Wazad’s explicit duties. We fight against Omega on a more abstract level.”
“If it does truly exist, then I should know more. What exactly is Omega? Where is it?”
To answer this question, Maria gestured for Sao-Reyne to sit.
“I will tell you of my first encounter with Omega, it should answer many of your questions.”
PRL Serials 