Chapter 68- Warlock Gets Noticed

  Earth- Outside of home, inside flying metal structure- (Date?)

  Him

  The first thing Him felt was the oddly comforting cool air outside, as the Cradle opened and started to dematerialize around him. He wasn't sure how he called it to him, but now that he was healed again, back away it went. Yet away it went as parts and components simply fading away from the corner of his eyes, as most of his attention was on the three men and the one woman standing a short distance from him, most of their weapons half raised to point at him.

  The woman spoke first, as she stated into a handheld device. “Captain, the Warlock is up and about, what do want us to do?”

  “Warlock? I thought we were calling him Adam, you know Adam and Eve.” One of the men muttered, the man’s ‘riffle’ rose to point first at him and then at the cocoon that was standing beside Him.

  Him looked at the cocoon then, ignoring them for the ck of threat that they posed. The sack had become more defined while he was regenerating, as its shape had changed into a clearly more hourgss shape of a female, than what he remembered. Additionally, the colors and patterns had all changed more to a mix of purples and reds and no longer glowed as bright.

  “What, no we stopped calling him that when command ID’d the girl in the cocoon.” Another man snapped at the first.

  Then the device in the woman's hand spoke, making them all fall silent. "Captain is sending someone down to attempt to talk to the man. We're also sending more men to aid you, so stay put, but don't start anything yet." Another woman's voice came out of it. While she spoke, Him located her elsewhere in the structure, a second ter a telepathic echo was standing over her shoulder as she finished. Then the echo swept over the minds of the others in this rather cramped room.

  Most of the minds were focused on their own minor tasks, but one mind in the center of the room was watching a feed of the cameras in the hall that his real body was standing in. This mind did not trust or want Him to be in this structure, and read in the man's thoughts that if he left then the cocooned woman would be destroyed as well.

  Him didn’t know why, but like with White Tiger, he felt as if the cocooned woman didn’t deserve to die.

  “Alight you heard her boys, we stay here and…” The woman started to say.

  Him realized that she wasn’t the same one that had helped him before, but regardless when he felt something in the room, he still felt the desire to protect them from whatever was coming. So he interrupted her and ordered. “You should back away, someone is coming and I do not think you will survive the fight if one should begin.”

  The st man, who had yet to say anything, didn't hesitate and grabbed the woman and jogged back to the entrance of the hall. The other two men took that as their cue and followed, albeit slower and with their rifles aimed near him. They only got about halfway when the dot of yellow light appeared where they had been standing.

  Him didn't know if others saw it as he did, but to him, as the dot widened to become a hole, it looked like a bucket of water filling and expanding, as the edges swished and whirled. In a handful of seconds, the hole was wide enough for a person to step through, unsurprisingly some men did. Three men, a fair-skinned man with red hair and beard, dressed in bck robes. A very dark-skinned man with a bck braid down his chest, dressed in grey robes, and stly a bald semi-dark-skinned man dressed in white robes.

  The first man through looked at the second, and stated. “Disciple Mordo, your trial starts now. Solve this dilemma.”

  “Who or what is that?” The dark-skinned man asked, his right hand going towards the hilt of a weapon over his shoulder on his back, his left hand pointed at Him.

  “Don’t worry about him, he and others will be dealt with shortly." The third man muttered, while pulling a metal coin from a pouch and tossing it into the air, the coin disappeared in a fsh of silvery fire. A second ter, a wave of energy washed over Him, the cameras, and the retreating guards.

  While Him only felt a shiver down his back, the small light on the camera went out, and the guards fell first to their knees and then onto their faces, asleep. The three robed men stared at Him surprised that he didn’t do as the guards did.

  “You’re here to do violence, against someone I deem as an innocent, so I ask you as a man not wanting to end more lives, please, walk away.” Him quietly and calmly requested the three men.

  “How do you…” The disciple, Mordo started to ask.

  Him interrupted the man. “Your thoughts betray you.”

  “He is a telepath.” The first man stated.

  “I am a lot of things.” Him admitted.

  “Who are you?” The third man asked.

  The golden man didn’t answer right away, as he rubbed his chin. ‘While my creator named me Him, he also abandoned and decred me a failure… do I have to remain his simple creation?’ Him pondered, then his gaze went passed the three intruders to the sleeping humans that had given him new names while he recovered. He was slightly surprised that the men hadn’t used his distraction to attack. In the end, however, he answered them. "I am Warlock to my enemies, and Adam Warlock to my friends.”

  “Alright Adam, we detected a demon crossing over violently. Can we assume that was you’re doing?” The first man asked him.

  Adam waited to answer as he saw and felt the conflicted feeling from Disciple Mordo. When he didn't speak up right away, the golden man nodded at him. The two older men looked at the younger and the disciple reminded them. "This is supposed to be my trail, Master Bailey."

  “Are you sure? He complicates things.” The master sorcerer asked while pointing at Adam.

  “Trails are meant to be complicated.” The young dark-skinned man argued. The two ‘masters’ shared a look, before Bailey nodded. Mordo took a step forward and basically repeated the first man's question. "Our scryers detected a demon being sent back to hell was that you’re doing?”

  "There were two creatures simir to the woman in the cocoon, I did do battle with both of them, the stronger of the two said I sent the first back, meaning I must have actually killed the second," Adam admitted honestly.

  “How?” The still unnamed man asked, surprise written all over his face.

  "I was created in a b, blending the DNA from five alien beings and an unknown sample that my creator found here on Earth. While he did not know the source of the st sample, he believed that it would be very beneficial to me. I have since now learned that the unknown sample was from a race history regarded as the Magi." The golden man answered honestly, reading their thoughts as well as the thoughts of the other humans still awake aboard the flying metal structure.

  While he was not shocked by their robed men's thoughts of surprise and disbelief, they did reach a simir conclusion that he used magic to banish the demons. This was of course not accurate, as Adam didn't wish to risk others until he knew the rules for the mystical energies more, so he only used the 'mundane' energies in his arsenal. Still, he didn't correct them, as he was trying to subtly proud those humans still awake to make it to the structure's command room to stabilize the now falling structure.

  "So you gave a demon true death and banished another, is that what you're ciming, and yet you wish us to just ignore that demon half-blood over there, as she's actively trying to become more demonic?" Disciple Mordo asked for crification.

  “Because I do not feel the same sensations from her as I did from the other two creatures. And as for why I am letting her do what it is she is doing is because I am… I think the word is ‘jealous’ of her.” Adam admitted, before he crossed his arms reading the surprise in their thoughts. Reading their surprise and confusion, he added. “While I have felt incomplete since my first steps outside of the cradle, it has been confirmed that my creation was only partially successful. As both Nath’aniel and the creatures I fought here have observed, I have no soul.”

  The two older men share a look at his statement; meanwhile, the disciple takes a step forward and asks. "And that is enough justification to let her walk the path of a demon?"

  "Power is power, until we see her doing evil with hers. She should be allowed to live." The golden man argued.

  The dark-skinned disciple looked towards the two masters for further support or ideas. One just started back silent, while the other just shrugged once before looking back at Adam. In the end, Mordo offered a compromise, asking. “Can we at least pce a tracking spell on her, so should she turn into a monster we may be able to save people in time?”

  He read the young man’s mind and read some of the other things he could try to pce on her instead and quickly memorized the gestures or words that would be needed for him to cast them, before uncrossing his arms and waving for the disciple to proceed.

  The two masters stood back as the disciple closed the distance towards the cocoon. Yet when Mordo stared at it well within arm's reach he froze unsure of himself. Adam could read from the disciple that he wasn't debating mentally what action to take but rather he was unsure if doing anything to the cocoon would work on the woman inside.

  Yet it was the unnamed master that cured the man’s indecision, when he stated. “Unlike insects from our pne, a demon’s evolution cocoon will eventually merge with said demon. I would suggest a part of the red section, as that will more than likely be her hair once she is free.”

  The three of them watched as Mordo gestured, gathered the needed energy, and cast the tracking spell.

  Then the disciple quickly rejoined the two masters, they began talking softly among themselves, and while Adam could have listened in, instead his attention was on the quickly waking minds around him. ‘It appears that whatever they had cast was fading.’ He thought.

  Then he frowned as newer and sharper minds entered the range of his scanning.

  "…Mr. Warlock?" Master Bailey repeated. The golden-man blinked before gesturing for the man to repeat himself. "Well Adam, we should really get going, our Order really prefers it if we let the masses think that magic is only a myth or a tale found in books, and the crew of this airship seemed to be stirring."

  "But we would be more than eager to hear about how your use of magic may differ from ours." The unnamed master added, while he swung his arms around to open a portal.

  “I fear my method of magic usage will be much more akin to those practiced by mages rather than yours.” Adam admitted while he was surprised at how quickly the new minds were approaching the flying ‘ship’ the sorcerers called it. He tilted his head surprised when he started to feel the minds of other men and women through the open portal.

  Feeling the ship much more stable, Adam gnced back at the cocoon one more time as the magic users left through their portal. His mind was not on the woman, but rather on the powers the people that lived in the metal tower that he loitered around in have. Especially the young boy with short white hair, thinking about how the young human moved about the world the golden-skinned man realized what it was he had done to the doors and wall when he boarded the ship.

  He looked back at the now-closing portal and waited for it to close completely, before using that same energy on himself instead of the things around him. And like the young boy, he seamlessly moved through the now stirring and rising humans that lived aboard the ship. He did, however, have to stop at two hatches and will them into an open state before reaching the top deck.

  There he waited for an approaching deckhand to open the door, before stepping out forcing the deckhand to wait before entering after him. Once out in the not-so-breezy outdoors, Adam turned his attention towards the approaching minds.

  A mostly white wingless vehicle flew towards the slowly stabilizing airship, its multiple engines pushing the craft quickly with its blue fmes. On the front of this vehicle was a blue '4'. In this vehicle, he could feel the passengers' minds. One was quickly processing information from the craft's sensors while also formatting theories as to the origin of the readings he had received earlier, while the second focused on operating the vehicle. Lastly, the third was trying to get the fourth to take their mission more seriously.

  Adam took one st look at the now slowly rising airship. He didn't feel it was right for these new minds to combat these humans, so he flew as he did before. He did not use the trick he mimicked on the airship and just willed himself forward away from the ship.

  One of the four minds noticed his departure and warned the others, Adam was surprised when the fourth suddenly got excited and left the others quickly flying towards him faster than their craft could. The golden-skinned man thought of pces where he could safely lead these strangers, but before he could settle on a destination, a ball of fire hit him and exploded.

  The sudden attack caused Adam to slow, allowing the fourth mind, a man bathed in fmes, to approach him. "Where do you think you're going, buddy?" The burning man asked him once he was closer.

  "To my friend's house," Adam admitted, before employing both his normal method of flying and the trick of using time energy to increase his speed. The golden-skinned man passed one of the smaller flying craft, he had seen strapped on the deck of the airship, before he saw the fields of snow, he stopped using the time trick as soon as he saw the green of the Savage Lands.

  His eyes still slid over the illusion that the tower emitted, but the brilliant mind of the Citadel was strong enough for him to find it again. As he passed through the tower's defenses the buildings it hid came clearly in view. In front of the central tower, two of the younger residents were packing a bag. It was the young blue boy who had a tail and could just be somewhere else. Adam still wasn't sure how he did it. Beside him was one of his 'sisters, who looked nothing like the boy.

  “Welcome back Him.” Nightcrawler greeted him.

  "I am back," Adam admitted, and then he added. "I have decided on a new name for myself."

  “Oh, what brought this on?” His sister Murmur asked.

  "I almost lost a fight." He admitted but left out a lot of what happened.

  The blue boy slipped the bag over his arms so that it would sit on his back, as he asked. "You shouldn't start fights that you can lose, at least that's what our moms taught us. So what is it, your name?"

  “Adam Warlock.” He said with a smile.