"The Return of Dr Kobal"
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dochermes"The Return of Dr Kobal"
12/3-12/5/2001
I.
Bane had not been in his office for almost a week, and he was entering the lobby when it was already dark outside. He stopped just inside the automatic glass doors as they slid shut and opened his mail box in the bank available for tenants of the building. There was enough in there that he had to tug it out. As he stood there for a moment, thumbing through the bills and legal forms and reports from his network of observers, something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. The Dire Wolf swung partly around to peer through the doors.
Outside on Third Avenue, a blue-topped cab had pulled up. Bane watched with his usual suspicion developed from being in the Midnight War all his life. He was always watchful. A strange bulky form, draped in a black topcoat and wearing a wide-brimmed slouch hat, struggled out of the back seat and handed the driver some money. The figure stood up, a few inches under six feet but broad and bent, leaning on a heavy cudgel of a walking stick. Nothing could be seen of the man himself, hidden between the downpulled hat and the scarf around the face and the heavy leather gloves. As the taxi eased back out into traffic, the stranger turned and faced the doors, then began limping toward them.
Dr Kobal. It had been years, but Bane was not likely to forget someone as bizarre and imposing as the Okali sorcerer. ( Collapse )
It looked as if he had aged badly but then he had been showing arthritis fifteen years earlier in the battle against Arem Kamende. Tucking the bundle of mail under one arm, the Dire Wolf went to meet his old ally as the doors opened.
"Ah. Jeremy. Good," came the deep guttural voice, only slightly weakened by time. "I took a chance. Need to see you, my boy. Urgent."
"Come right in my office, doctor," answered Bane. His instincts were to reach and touch the sorcerer, to offer assistance, but he knew better. Dr Kobal was proud and touchy at the best of times. He walked alongside the bent figure as they crossed the lobby, past EMERGENCY ONE clinic and past the staircase leading up to the second floor. At the end of a short hall made by the staircase and the far wall was a plain wooden door with a brass plaque DIRE WOLF AGENCY. Bane unlocked the outer door, ushered Dr Kobal through the tiny reception room and into the office itself. The air was chilly and he promptly spun the thermostat up to 75.
The Okali sorcerer made his way toward one of the straightback chairs in front of the desk, but Bane steered him toward the plush leather sofa that took up most of the wall facing the door. "Please make yourself comfortable, doctor," the Dire Wolf said with a gentleness that was unusual for him. "I haven't seen you in ten years.. maybe more."
The bulky form lowered itself slowly to the couch and sank down with a sight of relief. Dr Kobal wore all black. Heavy brogans, flannel trousers, a suit jacket with a long topcoat over it. As he leaned back, the sorcerer asked, "Door locked. Of course."
"Yes. We won't be disturbed," Bane said as he picked up one of the chairs and brought it over to sit facing his guest. As he watched, Dr Kobal leaned his cane up against one leg, removed the wide-brimmed hat and unwound the white silk scarf to reveal the head of a mountain gorilla.
The Dire Wolf didn't bat an eye. He had worked with Dr Kobal several times, he had been to Okali and seen the Talking Beasts. If anything, he was pleased that the sorcerer trusted him enough to reveal himself. "Are you thirsty, doctor? I don't have coffee but there is water and juice."
"No," said the ape. "Thank you, no." Dr Kobal had thick bristly black fur, dark tan skin and deepset green eyes under the brow ledge. He was not exactly identical to a true gorilla, since he lacked the sagittal crest and his chin was more pronounced. The Kobalim of Okali also had a different hip structure than true gorillas, allowing them to stand upright more easily, and their thumbs were long and dextrous as a Human's. Dr Kobal exhaled at being free of the burdensome disguise and leaned back against the cushions. "I come to to warn you."
Bane gave one of his faint, barely discernible smiles. People had to know him well to read his expressions. In the pale grey eyes was an interested gleam. "Danger?"
"One of my kind has come here. To the lands of Humans. He is a sorcerer as I am. More skilled perhaps. Young and ambitious and brutal. He leaves dead bodies wherever he goes."
"And he has come here?" Bane prompted.
Dr Kobal lowered the huge shaggy head to stare down at the floor. "He is here. In this city tonight. With six of his followers!"
"That's something new," the Dire Wolf remarked as if to himself. "Seven Kobalim loose in Manhattan. Okay, this warlock from your realm, what's his name?"
"Yandere! You must know what a threat he is, Jeremy. I must reveal my own secrets. Have you never wondered how I came to be?"
"Sure. But you never volunteered the information and I got the feeling you wouldn't take questions well." Bane leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "Of course I'm curious. Who ARE you, Dr Kobal?"
II.
"My name is Ulamon. You may as well start to call me that. At this late stage, it doesn't matter. I am a Kobal of Okali. As you can plainly see. I was a member of the Hill Tribes. We mined gold and iron and smelted what few tools and weapons our kind needed. I myself was a blacksmith. I had reached the age where the council was pressing me to start a family. Ugh. That was when the Dartha appeared."
That made Bane sit up. "Dartha?"
"Not a full Kje, he told us. But even lesser Darthim know much sorcery. Delatinor he was named, hiding from former students on Maroch who wanted to bring him to the torture games. He thought they would not look for him in my realm." Kobal sighed again and studied his gnarled hands. "Nor did they. Delatinor lived in Okali for many years. He was killed by a Manticore that caught him offguard."
"What dealings did you have with this Dartha?" Bane asked carefully.
"Ah, he hired me as bodyguard. There are many dangerous beasts in my land, not to mention the Skullhunters. With a Kobal standing behind him, he felt safer. And gradually, without ever an agreement between us, he began teaching me bits of gralic sorcery." Dr Kobal glanced up at the Dire Wolf. "Not the vile aspects. Nothing of sacrifices to Draldros. Just how to tap gralir for effects. It was all I needed."
"I remember reading about your exploits," Bane said. "It was before my time. You kept a low profile and not much was known about you for certain."
"That was my hope," the sorcerer agreed. "In time, I returned to Okali. I was weary and wounded. Resting there, a young Kobal asked to be my disciple, and I thought this was wise, that someone would be ready to take my place when I crossed over. So I instructed him in what I had learned from the Dartha and what I had learned on my own in this world."
"Yandere?"
"Yes. I came back to this world for a second time. I fought Red Sect and the Sanguinarians. I fought Human criminals and warlords. I never met Kenneth Dred. But I knew of him. Eventually I met you. Now you are the best hope to stop Yandere." Dr Kobal struggled to rise from the soft couch, prying himself up with his walking stick. "Yandere has gone bad. Why could I not see the darkness in his heart? Ah well. Too late now."
The Dire Wolf stood as well, uncertain what his guest was going to do next. "This Yandere... what's his plan? What is he up to that I need to stop?"
"His goal is dominance. Behind the scenes. He wants to control Human society like a puppet master." Dr Kobal's voice grew even more guttural. "But first he must kill his old teacher. Me."
III.
Standing next the sorceror, Bane again resisted the temptation to offer assistance as Dr Kobal walked stiffly toward the door. "All right then. It sounds like I should have a little talk with your former student, right?"
"Do not be rash. We are stronger than you know. A Kobal can kill a Troll with his hands. Yandere would pull your arms off. And he is a warlock." Dr Kobal shook his grotesque head gruffly. "Do not face him alone."
Bane was having difficulty restraining his natural impatience. "Doctor.. Ulamon. Where is this Yandere right now?"
"He is near. I sense him." The sorcerer began rewinding the scarf around his face to conceal it, turning up the collar of his coat. "We must face him in open space. Not indoors."
"And he can sense where you are? Then he will come looking for you, Ulamon. We can pick our arena and be ready for him." The Dire Wolf opened the door to the reception room. "Do me a favor. Wait in the lobby for a few minutes."
"Very well," the sorcerer grumbled as he passed through the doorway out into the lobby. At nine o'clock, there was still two hours before the walk-in clinic closed and the front doors would be locked. Dr Kobal gingerly lowered himself to the hard plastic bench in the hallway and muttered angrily to himself.
Locking the inner door, Bane moved quickly. He swung the waist high bookcase around on its hidden casters to reveal a pit he had chiseled himself in the concrete floor. Getting out of his street clothes to reveal the silk-thin suit of Trom armor he always wore, the Dire Wolf got into the full field suit with a speed that came from long practice. The heavy steel-capped boots, tough pants and waist-length jacket with its own inner layer of Trom armor were on in seconds. In addition to the matched silver daggers sheathed under his sleeves and the long barrelled Smith & Wesson .38 revolver, he now had a dozen concealed weapons and gadgets on him.
As he swung the bookcase back over the pit, the Dire Wolf stood up with the visored helmet in the crook of one arm. Now he felt better prepared to face the situation. He turned off the lights as he left the office and joined the sullen Dr Kobal in the lobby. "I'm all set. I think I know the best place to confront Yandere. We'll need my car."
"So be it," the sorcerer growled as he levered himself to his feet, using his cudgel for support. "I am not what I once was. I must yield to time."
"Maybe you should wait here. I'll get my car and meet you at the curb." Bane strode through the glass doors, swung left on Third Avenue and almost ran down to IMPERIAL GARAGE on 40th Street. His dark green Mustang was in its slot, and the blue and green security lights on the driver's visor blinked steadily to show no one had touched it. The Dire Wolf drove back up the four-story yellow brick building where the bundled form of the Okali warlock leaned on his staff.
Bane unlocked the passenger seat and felt the Mustang settle as Dr Kobal's weight pressed down on that side.
"We don't have far to go," Bane said. He headed up to East 38th Street and turned left, finding against all odds an open parking spot on the same block as the old ten-story building that had been the closest to a real home he had ever known.
"KDF headquarters," Dr Kobal muttered. "Why here, Jeremy?"
"It's a good place for a brawl." Bane got out, waited until the Okali sorcerer was on the sidewalk beside him, then went up the steps to the front door with the small bronze plate that read KENNETH DRED FOUNDATION and unlocked it. He knew there was no one in the building, since Sable had told him that morning that the team would be in Brazil on a new case. As they stepped into the foyer, faint clicks and buzzes were the only signs they were being probed and identified by Trom sensors more advanced than any MRI. They were cleared. He opened the inner door and ushered Dr Kobal into the warm, dimly front hall.
For a second, the sorcerer seemed to struggle to enter. His feet dragged inside the door, but Bane finally gave in and took the elderly warlock by one arm. "Over here," he said and pressed the button that summoned the elevator. The cage was regulation size with nothing obviously unusual about it. They rode up in silence to the ninth floor, then had to climb steep concrete steps to emerge through a trapdoor onto the roof.
IV.
It was a bitter December night with a breeze that brought the wind chill into play. All around them, the skyscrapers and towers of Manhattan were brilliantly lit, many with red and green tints for the holiday season. A chest-high barrier ran the perimeter of the roof, and Bane walked slowly over to gaze up at the Empire State Building a few blocks away.
"I assume Yandere can fly to some extent, since you can," the Dire Wolf said.
Behind him, Dr Kobal answered in a barely audible voice, "Yes."
In another second, the apelike hands would crashed down on the back of his head, but Jeremy Bane already had drawn a silver dagger and its sharp point jabbed against Dr Kobal's chest, stopping him short. "No, you don't," the Dire Wolf snapped.
The Okali warlock remained frozen in place, gnarled hands still open to grasp. "You.. knew?"
"I had suspicions," Bane answered, holding the silver blade completely steady. He still held the helmet in his other hand. "Darthan magick has never been used for good purposes for too long. It's malevolent by nature. But when you had trouble entering this building, I knew for sure. The Yellow Shield is under the floor inside the front door. It's a potent protective talisman and you would not have been able to pass it if I hadn't tugged you past it."
Dr Kobal growled deep in his massive chest, unable to defy that ensorcelled silver blade.
"You were a genuine hero for decades," Bane went on. "Mr Dred trusted you. I wasn't so sure but you seemed to be one of the good guys. What's the deal, Ulamor? Is it because of your disciple?"
"Yandere will slay me as his final rite of passage," the Okali brute answered. "But I can buy his mercy with a sacrifice. Someone worthy."
"Me." Bane let out a deep breath. "You were going to kill me to save your own hide."
"As I still--" Dr Kobal lunged forward, trying to reach Bane's throat but the finely-honed dagger sank easily to the hilt in his heart. As the sorcerer sagged to his knees, choking and wheezing his last, Bane tugged the blade free and watched.
"I'm sorry," he said to the body. "I never thought I would have to do that. You were so much help against Arem Kamende. And you fought alongside us in the invasion from Ulgor." The Dire Wolf knelt and wiped his weapon carefully on the inner lining of the warlock's topcoat. "I'm not happy about all this."
Looming up over the corpse, wind ruffling his short hair, Bane waited. He felt suddenly weary and sick of the Midnight War. Half an hour dragged by, then a dark bulky form swooped down out of the darkness to crouch on the barrier which ran around the roof. Wrapped in a black cloak, head concealed by a wide-brimmed hat, he was a menacing figure even staying motionless.
"You're Yandere, I guess." Bane had turned to face the newcomer squarely. In the gloom, the silver dagger gleamed with a faint shimmer of its own.
"Dire Wolf! We have never met, yet what child of the night does not know you?" The massive warlock pointed at the body at Bane's feet. "I see my old teacher has failed."
"Yes. Are you going to take a shot at me next?"
The Okali beast snorted with laughter. "Hah! No, I am not such a fool. I will be as he was in his prime, choosing my enemies carefully. I have no student. I will not be forced to try so desperate a betrayal as he did." The warlock stood erect, balancing easily on the parapet despite the wind whipping his cloak about.
The Dire Wolf did not speak or move. After a moment, Yandere raised a gloved hand in a sardonic salute. "We shall have the same foes, Bane. We might as well be allies." He leaped upward and was lost from sight in an instant.
Finally sheathing the dagger beneath his sleeve, feeling exhausted now that the tension had been broken, Bane peered into the night sky. "The new Dr Kobal," he said to himself.
8/11/2015
12/3-12/5/2001
I.
Bane had not been in his office for almost a week, and he was entering the lobby when it was already dark outside. He stopped just inside the automatic glass doors as they slid shut and opened his mail box in the bank available for tenants of the building. There was enough in there that he had to tug it out. As he stood there for a moment, thumbing through the bills and legal forms and reports from his network of observers, something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. The Dire Wolf swung partly around to peer through the doors.
Outside on Third Avenue, a blue-topped cab had pulled up. Bane watched with his usual suspicion developed from being in the Midnight War all his life. He was always watchful. A strange bulky form, draped in a black topcoat and wearing a wide-brimmed slouch hat, struggled out of the back seat and handed the driver some money. The figure stood up, a few inches under six feet but broad and bent, leaning on a heavy cudgel of a walking stick. Nothing could be seen of the man himself, hidden between the downpulled hat and the scarf around the face and the heavy leather gloves. As the taxi eased back out into traffic, the stranger turned and faced the doors, then began limping toward them.
Dr Kobal. It had been years, but Bane was not likely to forget someone as bizarre and imposing as the Okali sorcerer. ( Collapse )
It looked as if he had aged badly but then he had been showing arthritis fifteen years earlier in the battle against Arem Kamende. Tucking the bundle of mail under one arm, the Dire Wolf went to meet his old ally as the doors opened.
"Ah. Jeremy. Good," came the deep guttural voice, only slightly weakened by time. "I took a chance. Need to see you, my boy. Urgent."
"Come right in my office, doctor," answered Bane. His instincts were to reach and touch the sorcerer, to offer assistance, but he knew better. Dr Kobal was proud and touchy at the best of times. He walked alongside the bent figure as they crossed the lobby, past EMERGENCY ONE clinic and past the staircase leading up to the second floor. At the end of a short hall made by the staircase and the far wall was a plain wooden door with a brass plaque DIRE WOLF AGENCY. Bane unlocked the outer door, ushered Dr Kobal through the tiny reception room and into the office itself. The air was chilly and he promptly spun the thermostat up to 75.
The Okali sorcerer made his way toward one of the straightback chairs in front of the desk, but Bane steered him toward the plush leather sofa that took up most of the wall facing the door. "Please make yourself comfortable, doctor," the Dire Wolf said with a gentleness that was unusual for him. "I haven't seen you in ten years.. maybe more."
The bulky form lowered itself slowly to the couch and sank down with a sight of relief. Dr Kobal wore all black. Heavy brogans, flannel trousers, a suit jacket with a long topcoat over it. As he leaned back, the sorcerer asked, "Door locked. Of course."
"Yes. We won't be disturbed," Bane said as he picked up one of the chairs and brought it over to sit facing his guest. As he watched, Dr Kobal leaned his cane up against one leg, removed the wide-brimmed hat and unwound the white silk scarf to reveal the head of a mountain gorilla.
The Dire Wolf didn't bat an eye. He had worked with Dr Kobal several times, he had been to Okali and seen the Talking Beasts. If anything, he was pleased that the sorcerer trusted him enough to reveal himself. "Are you thirsty, doctor? I don't have coffee but there is water and juice."
"No," said the ape. "Thank you, no." Dr Kobal had thick bristly black fur, dark tan skin and deepset green eyes under the brow ledge. He was not exactly identical to a true gorilla, since he lacked the sagittal crest and his chin was more pronounced. The Kobalim of Okali also had a different hip structure than true gorillas, allowing them to stand upright more easily, and their thumbs were long and dextrous as a Human's. Dr Kobal exhaled at being free of the burdensome disguise and leaned back against the cushions. "I come to to warn you."
Bane gave one of his faint, barely discernible smiles. People had to know him well to read his expressions. In the pale grey eyes was an interested gleam. "Danger?"
"One of my kind has come here. To the lands of Humans. He is a sorcerer as I am. More skilled perhaps. Young and ambitious and brutal. He leaves dead bodies wherever he goes."
"And he has come here?" Bane prompted.
Dr Kobal lowered the huge shaggy head to stare down at the floor. "He is here. In this city tonight. With six of his followers!"
"That's something new," the Dire Wolf remarked as if to himself. "Seven Kobalim loose in Manhattan. Okay, this warlock from your realm, what's his name?"
"Yandere! You must know what a threat he is, Jeremy. I must reveal my own secrets. Have you never wondered how I came to be?"
"Sure. But you never volunteered the information and I got the feeling you wouldn't take questions well." Bane leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "Of course I'm curious. Who ARE you, Dr Kobal?"
II.
"My name is Ulamon. You may as well start to call me that. At this late stage, it doesn't matter. I am a Kobal of Okali. As you can plainly see. I was a member of the Hill Tribes. We mined gold and iron and smelted what few tools and weapons our kind needed. I myself was a blacksmith. I had reached the age where the council was pressing me to start a family. Ugh. That was when the Dartha appeared."
That made Bane sit up. "Dartha?"
"Not a full Kje, he told us. But even lesser Darthim know much sorcery. Delatinor he was named, hiding from former students on Maroch who wanted to bring him to the torture games. He thought they would not look for him in my realm." Kobal sighed again and studied his gnarled hands. "Nor did they. Delatinor lived in Okali for many years. He was killed by a Manticore that caught him offguard."
"What dealings did you have with this Dartha?" Bane asked carefully.
"Ah, he hired me as bodyguard. There are many dangerous beasts in my land, not to mention the Skullhunters. With a Kobal standing behind him, he felt safer. And gradually, without ever an agreement between us, he began teaching me bits of gralic sorcery." Dr Kobal glanced up at the Dire Wolf. "Not the vile aspects. Nothing of sacrifices to Draldros. Just how to tap gralir for effects. It was all I needed."
"I remember reading about your exploits," Bane said. "It was before my time. You kept a low profile and not much was known about you for certain."
"That was my hope," the sorcerer agreed. "In time, I returned to Okali. I was weary and wounded. Resting there, a young Kobal asked to be my disciple, and I thought this was wise, that someone would be ready to take my place when I crossed over. So I instructed him in what I had learned from the Dartha and what I had learned on my own in this world."
"Yandere?"
"Yes. I came back to this world for a second time. I fought Red Sect and the Sanguinarians. I fought Human criminals and warlords. I never met Kenneth Dred. But I knew of him. Eventually I met you. Now you are the best hope to stop Yandere." Dr Kobal struggled to rise from the soft couch, prying himself up with his walking stick. "Yandere has gone bad. Why could I not see the darkness in his heart? Ah well. Too late now."
The Dire Wolf stood as well, uncertain what his guest was going to do next. "This Yandere... what's his plan? What is he up to that I need to stop?"
"His goal is dominance. Behind the scenes. He wants to control Human society like a puppet master." Dr Kobal's voice grew even more guttural. "But first he must kill his old teacher. Me."
III.
Standing next the sorceror, Bane again resisted the temptation to offer assistance as Dr Kobal walked stiffly toward the door. "All right then. It sounds like I should have a little talk with your former student, right?"
"Do not be rash. We are stronger than you know. A Kobal can kill a Troll with his hands. Yandere would pull your arms off. And he is a warlock." Dr Kobal shook his grotesque head gruffly. "Do not face him alone."
Bane was having difficulty restraining his natural impatience. "Doctor.. Ulamon. Where is this Yandere right now?"
"He is near. I sense him." The sorcerer began rewinding the scarf around his face to conceal it, turning up the collar of his coat. "We must face him in open space. Not indoors."
"And he can sense where you are? Then he will come looking for you, Ulamon. We can pick our arena and be ready for him." The Dire Wolf opened the door to the reception room. "Do me a favor. Wait in the lobby for a few minutes."
"Very well," the sorcerer grumbled as he passed through the doorway out into the lobby. At nine o'clock, there was still two hours before the walk-in clinic closed and the front doors would be locked. Dr Kobal gingerly lowered himself to the hard plastic bench in the hallway and muttered angrily to himself.
Locking the inner door, Bane moved quickly. He swung the waist high bookcase around on its hidden casters to reveal a pit he had chiseled himself in the concrete floor. Getting out of his street clothes to reveal the silk-thin suit of Trom armor he always wore, the Dire Wolf got into the full field suit with a speed that came from long practice. The heavy steel-capped boots, tough pants and waist-length jacket with its own inner layer of Trom armor were on in seconds. In addition to the matched silver daggers sheathed under his sleeves and the long barrelled Smith & Wesson .38 revolver, he now had a dozen concealed weapons and gadgets on him.
As he swung the bookcase back over the pit, the Dire Wolf stood up with the visored helmet in the crook of one arm. Now he felt better prepared to face the situation. He turned off the lights as he left the office and joined the sullen Dr Kobal in the lobby. "I'm all set. I think I know the best place to confront Yandere. We'll need my car."
"So be it," the sorcerer growled as he levered himself to his feet, using his cudgel for support. "I am not what I once was. I must yield to time."
"Maybe you should wait here. I'll get my car and meet you at the curb." Bane strode through the glass doors, swung left on Third Avenue and almost ran down to IMPERIAL GARAGE on 40th Street. His dark green Mustang was in its slot, and the blue and green security lights on the driver's visor blinked steadily to show no one had touched it. The Dire Wolf drove back up the four-story yellow brick building where the bundled form of the Okali warlock leaned on his staff.
Bane unlocked the passenger seat and felt the Mustang settle as Dr Kobal's weight pressed down on that side.
"We don't have far to go," Bane said. He headed up to East 38th Street and turned left, finding against all odds an open parking spot on the same block as the old ten-story building that had been the closest to a real home he had ever known.
"KDF headquarters," Dr Kobal muttered. "Why here, Jeremy?"
"It's a good place for a brawl." Bane got out, waited until the Okali sorcerer was on the sidewalk beside him, then went up the steps to the front door with the small bronze plate that read KENNETH DRED FOUNDATION and unlocked it. He knew there was no one in the building, since Sable had told him that morning that the team would be in Brazil on a new case. As they stepped into the foyer, faint clicks and buzzes were the only signs they were being probed and identified by Trom sensors more advanced than any MRI. They were cleared. He opened the inner door and ushered Dr Kobal into the warm, dimly front hall.
For a second, the sorcerer seemed to struggle to enter. His feet dragged inside the door, but Bane finally gave in and took the elderly warlock by one arm. "Over here," he said and pressed the button that summoned the elevator. The cage was regulation size with nothing obviously unusual about it. They rode up in silence to the ninth floor, then had to climb steep concrete steps to emerge through a trapdoor onto the roof.
IV.
It was a bitter December night with a breeze that brought the wind chill into play. All around them, the skyscrapers and towers of Manhattan were brilliantly lit, many with red and green tints for the holiday season. A chest-high barrier ran the perimeter of the roof, and Bane walked slowly over to gaze up at the Empire State Building a few blocks away.
"I assume Yandere can fly to some extent, since you can," the Dire Wolf said.
Behind him, Dr Kobal answered in a barely audible voice, "Yes."
In another second, the apelike hands would crashed down on the back of his head, but Jeremy Bane already had drawn a silver dagger and its sharp point jabbed against Dr Kobal's chest, stopping him short. "No, you don't," the Dire Wolf snapped.
The Okali warlock remained frozen in place, gnarled hands still open to grasp. "You.. knew?"
"I had suspicions," Bane answered, holding the silver blade completely steady. He still held the helmet in his other hand. "Darthan magick has never been used for good purposes for too long. It's malevolent by nature. But when you had trouble entering this building, I knew for sure. The Yellow Shield is under the floor inside the front door. It's a potent protective talisman and you would not have been able to pass it if I hadn't tugged you past it."
Dr Kobal growled deep in his massive chest, unable to defy that ensorcelled silver blade.
"You were a genuine hero for decades," Bane went on. "Mr Dred trusted you. I wasn't so sure but you seemed to be one of the good guys. What's the deal, Ulamor? Is it because of your disciple?"
"Yandere will slay me as his final rite of passage," the Okali brute answered. "But I can buy his mercy with a sacrifice. Someone worthy."
"Me." Bane let out a deep breath. "You were going to kill me to save your own hide."
"As I still--" Dr Kobal lunged forward, trying to reach Bane's throat but the finely-honed dagger sank easily to the hilt in his heart. As the sorcerer sagged to his knees, choking and wheezing his last, Bane tugged the blade free and watched.
"I'm sorry," he said to the body. "I never thought I would have to do that. You were so much help against Arem Kamende. And you fought alongside us in the invasion from Ulgor." The Dire Wolf knelt and wiped his weapon carefully on the inner lining of the warlock's topcoat. "I'm not happy about all this."
Looming up over the corpse, wind ruffling his short hair, Bane waited. He felt suddenly weary and sick of the Midnight War. Half an hour dragged by, then a dark bulky form swooped down out of the darkness to crouch on the barrier which ran around the roof. Wrapped in a black cloak, head concealed by a wide-brimmed hat, he was a menacing figure even staying motionless.
"You're Yandere, I guess." Bane had turned to face the newcomer squarely. In the gloom, the silver dagger gleamed with a faint shimmer of its own.
"Dire Wolf! We have never met, yet what child of the night does not know you?" The massive warlock pointed at the body at Bane's feet. "I see my old teacher has failed."
"Yes. Are you going to take a shot at me next?"
The Okali beast snorted with laughter. "Hah! No, I am not such a fool. I will be as he was in his prime, choosing my enemies carefully. I have no student. I will not be forced to try so desperate a betrayal as he did." The warlock stood erect, balancing easily on the parapet despite the wind whipping his cloak about.
The Dire Wolf did not speak or move. After a moment, Yandere raised a gloved hand in a sardonic salute. "We shall have the same foes, Bane. We might as well be allies." He leaped upward and was lost from sight in an instant.
Finally sheathing the dagger beneath his sleeve, feeling exhausted now that the tension had been broken, Bane peered into the night sky. "The new Dr Kobal," he said to himself.
8/11/2015
