Raiders Of Point Dread: Battle In The Clouds
By T. F. Cooper with Kirk Trigon (Based On "The Power of Point Dread" by Gary Cohn)
Far below
the clouds where Lord Adam, in his Sy-Klone Raider,
searched for the elusive Talon Fighter, word quickly traveled of the warriors,
who lost their lives in battle with Skeletor’s
forces. Fires flagged in the bravest hearts, and just when the enemy’s wild
onslaught of bloodthirsty orcs, giant ants and
bizarre machines seemed insurmountable, ..another army
of mechanical monsters roared over the horizon.
From a
cloud of dust, two gargantuan drills as thick as tree-trunks emerged, and a
large, tank-like vehicle of grayish metal with huge treads and a turret styled
like an elephant's head rumbled over the North Wall and into the fray beyond
it! A great cannon, resembling an elephant's trunk,
extended from the head of this metal monster, and its engine seemed to roar
with the primal power of a prehistoric beast! Targeting one of the giant,
mutant ants brought to life by Evil-Lyn’s magic, it sent a dozen bursts of
sky-colored light, photon missiles,
into the air over Eternos. As the proud fighting men of King Randor looked on, the gargantuan insect disappeared under a
blinding explosion of heat and light, and they laughed out loud, ..as the fire-backed orcs
marching beneath the big bug scattered for cover!
Ten
thousand more of these weird tanks joined
the fight, and among the King’s Royal Guard and the allied nations assembled at
his command, the sight of Man-At-Arms’
monstrous inventions charging into war on every continent filled their souls
with desperate hope!
From the
clouds above, slipped silver and gold!
Aye, it
was silver and gold ..and bronze flesh! Bared white
teeth and a hunter's keen glare from steely, blue eyes! From realms beyond, in armor of shining
metal, struck a golden-haired she-devil, who slaughtered her enemies with an
angel's smile!
Using the Sy-Klone Raider’s strange telepathic link, Lord Adam willed
his thoughts into the mind of the amazon ..and found himself filled with the wise dragon Gharycon’s wisdom. "The fire in your own Freenorn blood has guided you
here, sister! That blue stone in your
blade tells you so!”
“Not even
Death itself could keep me from your side, now that I know the truth, Vulnarian!”
Readying her lightning arrows, the wild She-Ra, once known as Temathys, leaned into the winds. “And you will
call me, Adora!"
War had
made this big Vulnarian’s heart as steel, until this moment, ..humbled by his newfound sister’s devotion! “Then, obey me, Adora,
and lead your sisters back to Etheria! Take Randor and Marlena—save
yourselves!"
"My
sisters are dead!" the Princess Adora screamed
over the howling winds, shrugging off the weird intrusion of her twin brother’s
voice inside her head. "On our pegacorns, we
charged the fort on the Harmonic Coasts, together, hoping to route out the
Priest-kings of Infinitias, ..when another
Point Dread appeared, and—I’m the last
of the She-Ishteu’Ra! I’ll kill, until the blood of our enemies drowns the Sun itself! Lead on, ..or get out of my head!"
Spying the
icy clouds for signs of the possessed Talon Fighter, He-Man guided his
aircraft, painted in the blue, grey and yellow of a fallen ally’s standard,
through the clouds. “Get as close to the Fighter, as you can, She-Ra! Disable
its peripheral weaponry, if possible, ..and leave the
rest to me! I have a plan!”
In a mad
dance through the winds, the wild Vulnarian in his Sy-Klone Raider and the last of the She-Ra hurdled past one
another, ..and the shadow of the hawk-headed Talon
Fighter fell upon their faces! For one shared moment, this marvel of the
Ancients, its golden face blackened with cosmic ash, filled them with awe, ..and the ground below seemed a hundred miles away.
Death
seemed much closer.
Black death with metal wings and the power of a god. The skull-faced Enemy of Man at its controls.
Cosmic
fire rained from clouds above He-Man and his allies! Weaving in and out of the
icy mist ..and between the bursts of golden energy,
the warriors sped downward, driven faster and faster to the ground by the sheer
ferocity of the Talon Fighter's attack. Caged by a successive deployment of
deadly rays, He-Man struggled to free the Sy-Klone
Raider, ..when two bursts of blue-white fire tumbled
the metal monster down into the clouds below! To his astonishment, he looked
over his shoulder to find the Holy Warrior’s red-feathered falcon flying at his
port side.
“Perilous situation, He-Man,” the Warrior Bird observed, “—even
with the She-Ra and I entering the lists!”
“We’re three against one, but, the Talon
Fighter’s might can’t be denied!” growled the half-naked barbarian behind the
bulky controls of this strange, living fighter-craft, ..a
war-machine possessed by the spirit of his slain android ally. “Sy-Klone Raider has returned manual command to me! Thinking
independently, while attacking the Fighter as
one, may give us an advantage! Keep the Fighter off-balance! Keep wearing
down its peripheral defenses, ..but, keep your
distance and wait for my signal!”
Spurring
fierce Swiftwind
roughly forward, with her powerful arms holding firm to his reins, the She-Ra’s
winged steed rushed over the winds and higher into the thick, icy clouds,
overhead. “I’ll lead Zoar into the clouds and attack
the Fighter from there, ..but, I won’t stand down, brother! Not against him! Not ever!”
At the
hawk-faced Fighter’s controls and hurtling through the clouds at unmatched
speeds, the Snake Mountain King kept deft pace with his speeding prey—his
ancient mind measuring how quickly he might overtake him. “I control the wind-raider technology Sy-Klone foolishly plugged into your brain, He-Man, ..and, soon, I will control you!”
Bronze
muscles trained in the deadliest jungles—coursing with the savage strength of fifty-thousand men—swelled and sprung,
as the Vulnarian struggled to control the Raider’s
flight, ..barely escaping flashes of fiery death
pumped from the guns of the Talon Fighter. A sharp pain tore through He-Man’s
skull, even as invading electrical impulses, like the sharpened heads of flying
arrows, stabbed into his brain! He felt
the Sy-Klone Raider lurch to the right, ..and then, down toward the
With a
grunt and a shrug of intense concentration, He-Man regained control of the
flying weapon. “Lord of the Wastes—Master of Nothing!
The will of man is stronger than you know, ..and the Sy-Klone Raider still answers to mine!”
The
ancient Talon Fighter tumbled through the air, locking into position behind the
Sy-Klone Raider, as the Talon Fighter’s sleek, golden
replicants filled the air above and behind him, such
that their number blotted out the sun! In
the shade of their swarm, the black-hooded Lord of the Wastes cackled
aloud. “Space refraction, witless
fool—the same I once used to clone
the Warrior Goddess Teela! Look at the world below us
and know that Skeletor will win this battle! Finally,
in death, will the Most Powerful Man
in the Universe kneel before me!”
The
maniacal laughter of the Snake Mountain King rattling the clouds, powerful guns
that fired stripped photons faster than the speed of sound clicked offline, ..Sy-Klone Raider rushed
downward again, toward Eternia! Smaller and less powerful, it was more maneuverable than the deadly Talon
Fighter, and the big Vulnarian would press that
advantage to the edge. “Stoneless
devil! Man fights here, in me, ..and I don’t
need guns and machines to destroy you!”
With
heaving chest and burning lungs therein, the big man pitched himself out into
the wild howl of the winds all around him, ..and, with
his hoary Sword of Ancients, struck the Talon Fighter with a fierce and swift
blow! Its ancient machinery bellowed and
groaned, like an injured beast, as the
right wing and the large gun mounted upon it came roughly off!
High over
the battle-torn Fertile Plains, the golden-haired barbarian leapt back onto his
flying machine. “Zoar, Adora—now!”
Red-feathered
Zoar and the last of the She-Ra descended from the
clouds, pounding the Talon Fighter with a deadly array of lightning arrows and demi-photon missiles, ..destroying
the machine’s space refraction capabilities. As the Fighter’s guns whirred into
position to repel the assault, the grotesque, rotting thing at its controls
turned to the terrible chill at his back ..and the sound
of screaming winds that filled his ancient heart with terror!
The two
ships plummeted toward Eternia, as the dawn winds howled
around them.
Below
them, on every battlefield and deep into the shadowed bunkers, where they hid
like rats, the Evil One’s outrage rattled the minds of his generals with the
force of an earthquake! Beast Man of the
Jungle Gorr, Tri-Klops of
the
From the
benighted cage of the hawk-headed Talon Fighter, the Lord of Destruction,
closer to claiming godhood eternal over humankind than ever before, locked his
aircraft’s targeting systems on the fleeing Sy-Klone
Raider one final time, ..even as he saw the ancient,
stony surface of the Rock of War rushing up to meet them! “The full power of
Point Dread, the ultimate weapon, is mine to command, He-Man! Grayskull will be next, ..when
I’ve destroyed you!”
Through
the empty sockets beneath his black hood and golden, skull-like Mask of
Oblivion, he watched the sleek Sy-Klone Raider twist
abruptly, impossibly upwards
..and into the blue skies overhead!
With armies on every shore, laying waste to all, who dared stand against
him, he cursed the half-naked savage at the Raider’s controls…
“I am eternal, barbarian! By the Dark Gods, ..what have you done?!”
Before the craggy face of Point Dread eclipsed all
else…
He-Man, Skeletor,
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