Dragon, Shield, and Spirits
1
Cameron's Rest was the largest cemetery in Church Hill. It spread out across acres of land, covered with gray markers and some statues. Private tombs were white block houses amidst the cultivated trees.
A man in a dark suit walked under the moonless sky, seemingly looking for one spot that seemed the best for whatever purpose he was pursuing. Finally he stopped with a full view of the city's lights below his aerie.
He smiled, satisfied he was in the perfect spot to carry out his mission.
He raised his hands to neck level, energy flowing from the ground into the center of his being. He took a deep breath, grass dying under his feet. The energy wrapped around his system, coiling like a ready snake.
He twisted reality in front of him, lines dancing in the air. The lines became shapes, that joined into one small body. He distorted the night air again, allowing the newly created thing to sink into the earth, diving like a fish in water. He wrote once more on the site to place his seal.
He wasn't quite ready yet. Soon he would be. Soon his legions would march through Church Hill adding to his power with each death they caused.
2
It floated along the streets, bodiless mind watching for things that needed to be taken care of by a temporary hero like it. It had become aware of another that stalked the night with it, but they hadn't met yet. Whatever the other thing was, it left broken bones in its wake when it descended on its victims.
People on the street were calling it the Fear, and the bodiless mind couldn't blame them for that.
Small lines appeared in the air. Some latched on the walking ghost. Energy wafted along those lines away from the invisible specter. It clutched at any thing or person to pull away from that awful sucking. Too much and it would fade away to nothingness.
A cloudy appendage passed into a wino, clutching his shattered mind with a will. The bum began to speak, chanting the words that would push his mind back and let the other take control. Blue fog wrapped around the man, forming another body with another mind at the controls.
Johnny Shield fell to a knee, before standing up and looking for the source of those threads.
3
Jack Dragon felt a line of cold slice through his arm. Luckily he had already caught the last sword he had been juggling as the last trick of his act. He bowed to the audience, hiding the nervous shaking the line had produced.
Jack stepped behind the dropping curtain, placing the swords in their rack. He knew the feeling had been produced by something major happening in the city.
Someone had grabbed a lot of energy in their hands and had flexed it.
Jack began packing his equipment up as he thought of the best options at his disposal. The audience would be leaving under the watchful eye of Wojohowitz, the manager of the Magic Hat. He worked the stage at the club to practice the skills he had, not what he could call up.
Jack gathered his boxes up and placed them in the van he used to drive from his place in the suburbs. He sealed the van with writing with his fingertips. The van would frustrate anyone who tried to break in it until he got back from looking into that surge.
Jack waved at Wojohowitz as he walked back through the building and out the front door. The blocky man knew that meant Jack would be back later to pick up his equipment van from the lot at the back of the place.
Jack pulled out a deck of cards as he walked along. A bus ran through the neighborhood at night and it would give him a small tour to help him locate the disturbance he had felt in the air. He shuffled the cards between his hands as he found the stop. A schedule posted under the metal sign told him he had missed the last run of the night.
Jack winced at the thought that he would have to ride the subway.
He looked around for the nearest station, and started walking. It wouldn't be as good as a bus but he had to take what he could get at the moment. He moved through the streets until he got to a station and proceeded down the steps, cards in hand.
Jack boarded the next train rolling into the station. He shuffled the cards in his hands as he took a seat and looked out a window. That first tug of power faded as he looked for it.
Jack frowned, wanting more for his trace. Someone had grabbed the reins and snapped them with glee. Now he had let his grip slacken.
Jack stood up at the downtown station, moving to the door. The cards flipped in his hand on their own as he stepped out on the platform. He headed for the wide exit as he flipped the top card over.
The king of spades pointed him north, beyond the Clock Tower.
Jack knew the city's biggest cemetery lay in that direction.
Obviously some magician had performed some kind of ritual there. The cards and Jack agreed on that. Something to do with spirit energy was the obvious guess.
The papers would start carrying reports of sacrificed house pets if Jack didn't stop this before it really got started.
Jack put the cards away as he walked down the sidewalk, alert for anything out of the ordinary. Sometimes ghosts would rise up, disturbed by the pull on their connection to the material plane.
Another side effect of what he had felt on the stage.
Something flew by overhead. Jack didn't get a good look. The shape had vanished behind a building before he could focus on it. It seemed to be heading in the same direction he was walking.
Jack started jogging, wishing he had gone home and gotten his car to carry out this hunt. He patted his pockets to make sure he had enough tools to use when he got wherever he was going.
A magician was only as good as his props.
Jack took a moment to hunt for a door facing in the direction he wanted to go. He wrote on the glass with his finger. One symbol for direction, one for distance, one for safety. He pressed against the glass store front, sinking into the glass like a man diving in water. He stepped out of a back door far and away from Downtown. He paused to get his bearings.
A flip of a card pointed him in the right direction.
4
Johnny Shield used the roof tops to cover the ground from his side of the city to where the spirit line called him. He was able to bounce across the face of buildings with ease. His possession enhanced his host, giving it strength and speed beyond a normal human. The hero was almost fast enough to catch a bullet in flight.
Physicality was all he had. The mystical skills he would need against a wizard was absent. He would have to be tricky and faster if things went to pot quicker than he wanted.
Johnny very rarely dealt with any magic, or mages in general. His focus was protecting the innocent, and seldom did a mage travel in the same circles as the mentality. They tended to stick to feuds with other mages who wished to interfere in their plans.
Johnny, as a rule, wasn't interested in a vendetta with someone stranger than he was.
Johnny began to descend to the street as buildings went from skyscrapers to small houses. He ran when he reached the sidewalk. It was easy for him to cross through yards, and through back alleys almost as fast as a car on the street.
Cameron's Rest stone walls gradually appeared as Johnny rushed forward. He bounced over the wide barrier easily, pausing to inspect things in the shadow of a stand of old oaks. He had to grab support from the trees as weakness wrapped around him, dragging him down.
Whatever was going on was drawing on his ability to grab bodies and stealing his strength. He would probably fade away if he were pulled out of his host.
Johnny pulled himself upright, staggering forward.
He had to deal with this one way or the other.
5
He liked to call himself the Spirit King. It suited the focus of his magic. He walked towards the gate, holding the lines he had written in the night inside of him. His store would grow as long as his seal funneled the powers he had gleaned from the grave yards across the city.
He still had his own personal collection of power, but that was not nearly as limitless as what his workings had accomplished. He could perform miracles on a grand scale before he exhausted his stolen spirit power.
Other wizards would bow to his command, or perish before his skill.
The Spirit King, supreme sorcerer of the Earth, had a nice ring.
A hint of glare pushed open the gate of the of the cemetery as he walked towards his card. An Oriental man in a dark suit stood in the glare, flipping cards in his hands. He might have had a smile on his lips, but the Spirit King only noticed the swirling vortex that drifted around the other mage. Symbols danced in a maddening stream, waiting to be drawn and used.
"Do you want to talk about whatever you have been doing up here?," the stranger asked, bringing the deck of cards to a stop in his hand. "I am sure every sensitive person in the city limits has felt what you have done."
"I must offer my excuses and take my leave," said the Spirit King. "I'm not quite ready to discuss means and methods with others of our line of work."
"I think you should stop doing whatever it is you are doing," said the man in the suit. "Then we can work on some other means than the one you have decided on."
"Surely you jest," said the Spirit King.
6
Johnny Shield staggered across the grave yard. Normally ten times stronger and faster than his host, he moved like a man who had drank too much. He used the tombstones to help him move forward.
He came across the two men facing off at the gate, and listened to their conversation. He pushed forward, deciding that he would take part in the coming confrontation. Neither man looked ready to back down from their positions.
The Spirit King gestured, lines flashing through the night air like the thread of a spider's web. Jack Dragon finger wrote on the card he was holding. It expanded into a wall. The line cracked the transformed card with an axe's stroke.
Johnny moved forward, feeling even more drained when the line weaver started using his magic.
It didn't take a genius to realize why. The Spirit King gathered his power from spirit energy the dead used to manifest themselves in the living world. And since Johnny was akin to being a ghost, his ability to fight back was also being drained into the thin, pale man.
Johnny picked up a rock as Jack wrote on a nine of diamonds. Little diamonds flew from the card, reflecting the star's light into tiny laser beams aimed at the necromancer. A quick hand gesture created a shield of crossed lines that trapped the attack in its folds.
Johnny flung the rock. In his condition, the gesture was nothing more than distraction. The stone would probably bounce lightly off the Spirit King's body. It hit the target on his collar bone, making him wince at the sudden stinging, throwing off his concentration for a few seconds. Jack wrote on another card and ten clubs exploded across the impromptu battlefield. The unexpected shower flung the Spirit King to the grass.
Johnny tried to rush forward, but found his weakness was making him stumble as he ran. He fell to his knees short of the ghoul. He flung himself forward to stop the fight with his right hook.
A line of force cracked against Johnny's head. He fell back, as the whip split the air with a white slash. The hero landed in a heap, grass and dirt clinging to his shoulders.
Jack threw one of the cards in his hand. A knight with a shining sword leapt from the card. It brought the blade down hard. A web wrapped around the apparition. It burst into flames in a sudden rush.
Jack Dragon pulled another card as he ran forward. He had seen the new arrival on the news, knew the silver haired hero was in weakened by the drain on the spirit energy. He wrote on the card with a finger tip as he threw it at the Spirit King. A cascade of card shaped blades sliced through the air at the leech. The villain swept his improvised whip into a scribbled shield. The daggers shattered on impact.
"Enough of this," the Spirit King said. "I don't have the time."
He pulled his shield around him. It collapsed like a dropped cloth. When the line shrank to a point, the necromancer had vanished with it.
Jack put the rest of his cards away. He wrote in the air, scenting for his enemy. Unfortunately the man had covered his tracks with the remains of the teleport spell.
Johnny Shield staggered to his feet. He pulled himself deeper into the cemetery. Hands on tombstones were his crutches.
Jack followed behind the silent stranger. He wrote on his forehead. Invisible things became visible when the sign was finished. Instantly he knew that two creatures were leading him. One was a withered man who had consumed too much alcohol in the last fifty or sixty years. The other was a mind who had taken control of the other, like a man riding a horse.
The double man paused where he felt the strongest drain on his strength. The ground looked ordinary to him. Still lines of force held the place, draining him out of existence.
Jack paused at his side. His spell on his sight showed him where the lines were locked in place by the chains of the Spirit King's will. Unused life force coursed in the lines, draining the corpses in the ground and the spirits that roamed loose in Church Hill.
Jack had a solution for that at least.
He pulled out a pen, writing symbols along the side. The writing instrument transformed into a glowing katana in his hands. He brought the blade across the lines. The severed spell whipped away like a wounded serpent before burning away in an invisible fire. He brushed the symbols away to bring back his pen.
"I am going to the Magic Hat to get my props," said Jack. "Then I am going home. Meet me there, and we'll see what we can do about our elusive friend."
Shield nodded, looking and moving quicker and stronger.
Jack gave him the address before walking to the front gate. He wrote the travel symbols on the bars before stepping through. A kanji appeared on the door of the magic club. He stepped out on the street, straightening his jacket. He circled the building to where his van was parked.
7
Jack drove carefully home from the magic club. He and Johnny Shield had forced their new enemy away from the battlefield, severed his draining spell at Cameron's Rest, but an angry necromancer would just think of some other way to attain his goals.
A lot more energy could be stolen from the recent dead, than those at rest for months, even years.
Jack pulled into his driveway, parking over the decorative etching he had done one day. He slid out of the van. The driveway flipped over. The van was now stored in its own little universe until he needed it again.
His uncle had shown him how to do similar spells with smaller spaces when he was a boy. He had just expanded the size of the door when he had cast the working.
The blue garbed Johnny Shield dropped over the fence. Red and white stripes glittered under his jacket as he moved toward where the magician waited. A lone white star flashed on his chest from a street light.
Descriptions of the silent stalker always varied. He was a man, or a woman. He had different hair colors and styles. His height seemed to range along the human extremes. Jack had just thought the witnesses were in error.
Now he knew that his new ally changed bodies. It was an explanation that very few would believe unless they saw it themselves. The real Shield was simply energy floating in the air until it hijacked someone to use for its purposes.
"I think it is safe to say that this Spirit King will continue despite encountering us," said Jack, standing by his front door. "Do you want to join me in stopping him?"
Shield nodded, waiting silently.
"Right," said Jack, opening the door with a scratch of his fingernail. "Let's get started."
Jack led the way into his house, not commenting on the foyer being bigger than it should. He moved to the library he maintained off the hall. It was wall to wall books to the high ceiling. A chandelier that could have been from Disney's Beauty and the Beast hung over a circular table. Jack pulled out a swivel chair that went with the table. He pushed it over to his guest, before beginning his search with a book called 'Atlas of the Planes'.
Jack flipped the pages until he reached a section on non-physical environments. He wrote a glowing symbol in the air over the pages. The yellowed paper turned on its own volition to a page marked Ghost Land. The entry symbols were marked beside a picture of a mountain surrounded by clouds.
Jack smiled.
"Let me grab a sandwich to refuel," said Jack. "Then we can go calling."
Johnny Shield nodded.
8
Jack ate his thrown together meal slowly, trying to enjoy the taste of each bite as it went down. He concentrated on the sandwich, not thinking about what he was going to do when he passed through the dimensional veil. He hoped his back brain would come up with a plan and tell him what he needed to know before he and Johnny Shield left.
Until then he would enjoy the food on its plate and the milk in its glass.
He put the empty plate and glass in the sink for later washing. He made sure that everything was back in the refrigerator. He cut the lights as he went back to his library. Johnny Shield stood by the table, waiting silently, arms crossed over his manufactured chest.
"The first thing on the agenda is protection for you," said Jack. "If our friend is active, you will probably start losing your strength again."
Johnny nodded.
Jack went to a small cabinet in the corner. He pulled out a bottle of ink and a brush. He placed the bottle on the table, taking off the lid. He dipped the brush in, collecting the ink in its stiff bristles. He let most of the ink drip back in the bottle.
"Hold still while I put this on," Jack said.
Jack began to write on his comrade with the ink. The brush left behind glowing kanji in its wake. Jack stepped back to examine his handiwork. He nodded. He put the brush and ink back after cleaning the one and sealing the other.
The symbols should keep Johnny together as long as they remained in existence.
Jack had no doubt a simple counterspell would try to be used to clear his wards. That's why he had placed a trap in one of the symbols. That would give Jack some kind of opening.
Jack gathered together some props to use. They would help his spellcasting in the coming duel. He could work wonders in a confined space, but speed was essential against a wizard of comparable power.
So his game plan was transformations to keep his foe off balance, hoping to restrain the line workings of the Spirit King until a definite blow could be landed.
"Let's get on with it," Jack said.
Jack wrote on the library table's top with his finger. The drawing covered the wooden surface with glowing lines. He stepped on the table, waiting for his new comrade to follow, before signing the activation symbol.
The duo vanished into the symbol on the table.
9
Jack Dragon and Johnny Shield wrote themselves out of thin air on a cloud covered plain. A bloody moon seemed to be the only source of light. The two intruders took a moment to get their bearings before trying to decide which direction to go.
Jack used a card to point the way. The mist wrapped around the adventurers as they walked. The card led them to a small castle parting the fog like the bow of a ship at sea.
A wide moat full of twisting things surrounded the place. Lambent eyes flickered in and out, glaring yellow venom at the pair.
Jack wrote on the card he held. He flipped it across the gap with a flick of his wrist. Tentacle- like tongues grabbed for the rotating piece of paper. It slipped by, dropping to the narrow walk on the other side of the moat. A glowing door opened in the wall as the card activated.
"Now all we have to is get across," Jack said, eyeing the moat monsters glaring at him. He didn't want a major display of power at the gates of his enemy.
Johnny grabbed the magician, throwing him over a shoulder. He leaped from their vantage point. His booted feet stepped on monsters as he rushed across the danger point fearlessly. Tongues reached for him. He stepped out of the way, stomping down on the improvised platforms as he jumped from one animal to the other. He landed on the other side of the moat, long worms rolling in his wake. He ran into the improvised door, dropping his burden as soon as it was safe. The door closed on the irate guardians.
"That solves that problem," said Jack, voice shaking with the effort of controlling it. He brushed off his suit with his hands. He started looking for the lord of the manor with another drawn card.
Jack led the way, light flapping in front of him from the playing card. He overwrote the line wards with his own symbology. His glowing kanji sparked as it covered the lines. The card pointed them to a set of stairs that seemed to lead up into a central tower.
Jack eased up the stairs. His light beat against the walls as he walked. He erased the trip wires on the steps with finger writing. There was no telling if the Spirit King knew they were on his territory. The magician just wanted to try to keep as much of a surprise advantage as he could.
Invading another's sanctuary was a really dangerous thing compared to a duel on neutral ground. Jack had some surprises hidden in his own place in case another wizard tried to take him down.
Jack paused at a wooden door at the top of the stairs. He doused the light by rubbing the symbol off the back of the card. He put the card in his jacket pocket. He wrote on the back of his hands before touching the door. The spell he had cast opened the door quietly.
The space beyond the door was wide and tall. A red carpet ran to the door. A platform rose at the other end of the hall. A wide chair was welded to that platform. The Spirit King stood up, black suit replaced by a scarlet robe with a hooded cloak.
"I should have expected you, I suppose," the necromancer said, chopping his hand through the air. A whip-like line appeared at the end of the motion. "I guess I shall have to deal with you before resetting my design."
"You could stop draining the dead for your personal power source," said Jack.
"I don't think so," said the Spirit King.
Johnny Shield dodged around his comrade. He pulled a lit torch off the wall and threw it across the large space. It flipped end over end as it headed to the target in a blur. The whip hurled the projectile away with a crack.
The Spirit King directed his line of force at the adventurers. The one wrapped in the American flag jumped over the whip faster than he had back at Cameron's Rest.
10
The Spirit King glared at his opponents. The magician had his letters swirling close by his hands. The double man was charging across the space at breakneck speed. He had to deal with both of them as fast as possible so he could get back to his designs.
He swept his whip into a net, hurling it at the magician. The energy flew across the space, spreading like a hand. He summoned another line as a staff as his physical foe leaped at him. He spread the line as a shield, reflecting the double man over his head.
He turned as the flag waver landed on his feet like a cat. This one was much faster and more graceful than he had been at the cemetery.
A flurry of white exploded around the King. He flew over his throne. Fire flared from his suit as he hit the hard floor.
He had put too much faith in his net. The other magician had shredded it easily with his symbols. He had do something to keep one of them busy while he dealt with the other one.
He wrapped a line around his chair with one swing of his wrist.
Johnny Shield was as fast as he should be. It looked like his protection was keeping him from being drained as planned. Now he wanted to grab his enemy and break his face. He paused as the throne came to life, roaring from a sudden mouth across its front.
It leaped at him, claws sprouting from the base of its legs. He ignored the snarl as he braced himself. His gloved hands caught the forelegs. He spun in place. He released the makeshift lion at the end of his arc. It slammed against the floor. The animated chair sprung to its feet like a cat.
Johnny flexed his hands. He knew he had deal with this distraction quickly so he could help deal with the Spirit King. Maybe he could use the King's distraction as a distraction of his own.
Johnny and the lion chair rushed at each other with blinding speed. He slid underneath the moving furniture on his back. He kicked up, bouncing the chair straight up. His featureless mask shifted with the strain.
The stone was a lot heavier than he had thought.
Johnny took aim as the lion fell toward his feet. He thrust with all his strength, kicking as hard as he could against the bottom of the chair. It flew across the hall, slamming into the wall. The stone block fell toward the Spirit King. He converted a line into a dome to bounce the creation away before it did anything to him.
Johnny leaped to his feet. He charged across the room. His move had shifted the duel slightly in their favor. He had to follow through to take advantage of his action.
Otherwise, they would have to keep chasing this guy down to stop his pilfering.
Jack Dragon pulled a bouquet of paper flowers from his sleeve. He wrote on the stem. The kanji letter changed the flowers into a fence. The Spirit King's net splashed against the barrier as Jack readied his next move.
Jack pulled the rest of his cards from his jacket pocket as the stone chair came to life. He wrote on each one as the King flung a lance against his temporary wall. The wood split under the terrible blow. The magician readied another lance to fling, but used it for a protective dome as Johnny Shield hurled his creation back at him.
Jack flung the deck of cards in a swirling storm that filled the air. Half fell on the protective cover, changing it to his purposes. Some fell on the lion chair, stopping its temporary life in brief ribbons of light. Some fell on the floor, against the ceiling, and the walls.
The Spirit King threw his magical might against the cards sticking to his dome. The wards smoked but refused to allow him to exit. He tried to change the protective spell to something else. He was balked again. He tried to form a doorway inside the makeshift trap. That spell rebounded against the curved walls, slicing his right arm and leg.
"What have you done?," he demanded, holding a line between his hands like a garotte.
"A good magician never reveals his secrets," said Jack. "Don't worry. You won't starve, or suffer any mundane pains while inside there."
"I'll pay you back for this," the King said.
"Sleep," Jack said. He placed one last card against the dome with a light that wrote on the air.
"I think we have temporarily taken care of this problem," he said.
Johnny Shield nodded silently.
Epilogue
Jack Dragon helped people for pay. Needless to say he didn't demand anything as mundane as money. He kept his trophies on a series of shelves in a room off his library.
He had weapons in cases, a toy tiger, jewelry of all types including a wedding ring, photos, and a small number of other items he had received.
On one top shelf, a castle stood by itself in a glass dome. A sculpted moat circled the base of the model with plastic water filled with serpentine life squirming forever in frozen time. A small light glowed inside a tower room.
A star and two downward stripes decorated the glass dome. If the cover was moved, its clearness would shift to red and blue, with the star a glowing white.
Jack had brought the model to his trophy room inside a top hat when he had returned from his trip across the planes with Johnny Shield. The faceless avenger had released his host and vanished into the city with a silent nod.