The
Origin of Demon Jack
DJ
Wilde 2012
Carter Henderson grasped a fist full of weeds and
pulled them from the well churned earth of his garden. The pumpkins were
getting big and soon neighbors would be buying some of them from him. He grew
all sorts of vegetables in his garden and shared much of them. After long hours working for the post office,
Carter’s way to unwind was gardening.
After pulling a few more weeds he edged forward on
his muddy knees to reach some more. No weeds would be choking out his plants
this year. The next one was a thick weed. He grasped it and pulled. It
resisted. Thinking it must have a long root, Carter adjusted his grip and gave
a good hard pull.
In the first split second, his back felt like it was
hit with a sledgehammer. In the next split second he saw flames and the sound
of the explosion deafened him. With nearly instantaneous results he saw bright
fire and knew only searing agony, then darkness.
People around Carter’s block stepped out of their
homes wondering at the sound. The column of smoke could be seen for blocks.
“Hey, that’s Carter’s yard!” people exclaimed and
from deep in a dull state, Carter could hear them.
Carter moved a leg first, then an arm. He felt no
pain, but still saw flames. He also felt something else, something in his mind
that moved. It was the strangest sensation Carter had ever known.
Neighbors burst through the gate to the back yard
but came to a stumbling halt at the sight before them. The crater was nearly 20
feet across and the garden was gone. Something in the smoke was still burning,
and it moved toward them. As it came into view, the neighbors started to
scream. What Carter understood even less, was the eerie laugh that seemed to be
coming from his own mouth.
Miles away, in downtown, New York City, Larry Peters
entered a federal building with a package. He dressed in his usual black leather
jacket and jeans. His long blonde hair draped around his shoulders. The
receptionist smiled and buzzed him through the security doors. Larry was well
known in the offices of the FPA (Federal Protection Agency) as the member of an
special response team called PAC (Parahuman Activities Commission). He was
better known by the name Blacktide.
Blacktide rode the elevator, wishing they would
change the music and soon stepped onto the floor of his office. At his desk he
saw a large dark image that looked like a shadowy werewolf with great black
wings. Despite the muscular bulk of the creature called Nyhtwulf, he balanced
on the edge of a desk on the balls of bare though clawed feet.
Blacktide handed Nyhtwulf the package, “You really
need to use a chair,” he teased shadowy partner.
“Chairs and my wings don’t fit so well,” Nyhtwulf
said as he tore open the box, “Ah you got just the ones I like!” Nyhtwulf
pulled out a handful of foil wrapped cubes of cream cheese and popped them into
his wolfen mouth.
“I don’t care what you say,” Blacktide poured
himself a cup of coffee, “I am never eating anything with the wrapper still on
it; especially cream cheese.”
“But it’s so delicious that way!”
“And it’s all yours.”
 |
| Blacktide and Nyhtwulf |
“Blacktide and Nyhtwulf!” came the earshattering
shout of Commander Henry P. Larratus, “In my office!”
Though the shout was enough to make most people run
with conviction, the two put down their morning edibles and walked back to the
office of their manager.
The balding man at the desk in the large office
banged his smoldering cigar into an ash tray as they walked in. “Did I sound
like you should take your time? You both need to head to this are of Great Neck
right now! You’ve got a live one.”
Larratus tossed a paper across the desk that
Blacktide scooped up. As he did the paper disintegrated in his fingers
slightly. Blacktide controlled the power of his energy aura in time not to
destroy the whole paper.
“Isn’t the wolf in your head to help you restrain
that?” Larratus asked.
“Well, yeah, but things can still get singed, Boss.
That’s why I still don’t shake hands. We’ll get right on this. Looks like there’s
no time for my motorcycle. Nyhtwulf, you’ll have take us.”
Nyhtwulf put a clawed hand on his partner’s shoulder
and the two of them vanished like dissolving shadows.
“I hate it when they do that,” Larratus chomped his
cigar, “gives me the creeps.”
Back in Great Neck, the first police car screeched
to a halt before the haunting scene blocking their way. It stood tall with
humanoid arms and legs of green and had huge pumpkin enveloped in fire,
hovering over the body as its head. In the pumpkins face appeared a wide mouth
with natural and sharp looking teeth. Its eyes were angled in cruel rage but
its laughter echoed. Within the view of mouth, nose and eyes, all that could be
seen was fire. Unlike a jack-o-lantern, the features were disturbingly natural.
The two officers watched as long thorny vines
extended from where they were wrapped around the thing’s forearms. It drew back
and arm and sent the end of the vine at the car, like cracking a whip. The
impact crumpled the front of the police car and both officers leaped from the
vehicle for their lives. Right after that, a jet of fire came from the pumpkin’s
mouth and turned the car into an inferno.
From within, Carter watched it all in horror. This
was his body and he couldn’t understand how to make it stop. He screamed but
the only sound that made it outside was the despicable laughter.
“Geez, who ordered the salad flambé?” Blacktide
commented as he and Nyhtwulf appeared on the scene.
“I’ll come in from the air,” Nyhtwulf spread his
wings and jumped into flight.
“And I’ll take him from the ground. Let’s wipe that
smile off ol’ Jack’s face.” Blacktide couldn’t help but think of a
jack-o-lantern as he rushed forward. He could see that it noticed both of them.
“I don’t suppose you’d care to give up?” Blacktide
asked as the air around his fists darkened with disintegration energy.
In response, the fiend lashed out another vine that
hit a nearby telephone pole. The pole snapped like a toothpick and fell toward
Blacktide who just stood there. Blacktide carries an auro around his body that
disintegrates any solid object before it can touch him. In the past, it’s been
very useful against bullets and other weapons. The remains of the pole fell
around him on the ground.
Blacktide could see his partner was ready to swoop
in on their opponent. Blacktide held back a fist and threw a shadowy projectile
at the beast, hitting it in the chest. It staggered backwards slightly with
what seemed to be a cry of pain. Nyhtwulf flew intangibly through the creature’s
body. Normally, when Nyhtwulf does this, he can scramble brain waves and life
force of any living being. This time, he found himself thrown down the street.
Nyhtwulf regain his footing with natural agility and
shook his head to ward off the effects of the severe dizziness this attack gave
him.
Blacktide watched in amazement as the hole in the
creature’s chest sealed up and that distraction cost him. A thorny vine wrapped
around his throat and the thorns bit into his skin. They smouldered, but did
not disintegrate as most things did. It
pulled Blacktide toward it and spoke.
“Must pull the weeds,” Its voice crackled with the
roaring flame around its head.
Nyhtwulf flew into the air to rescue his partner and
the pumpkin head spun in the flames to face him.
 |
| Fighting Demon Jack |
“Yes, come closer, I’m going to kill him anyway,” it
rasped.
Nyhtwulf veered to his partner and grabbed him.
Nyhtwulf made his friend intangible just like him and flew him to a rooftop.
Blacktide knelt on the roof choking as Nyhtwulf used his supernatural abilities
to heal his friend’s neck.
“I think those thorns were poison,” Blacktide said, “I
was blacking out. Thanks, partner.”
“My pleasure, you are healed, but there is bad news.”
“About healing me or the Mr. Halloween party?”
“The second one. There are two minds in this
creature, one is human and filled with terror. The other is demon.”
“Demon? You mean like you?” Blacktide asked.
“Not like me, but demon all the same. When I tried
to fly through it, the combination of life energies repelled me.”
“Great, so we can call him Demon Jack and he has
multiple personality disorder.”
“Come back weeds!” Demon Jack called from the street
as he lashed away at buildings and parked cars. Thorns flew like bullets and
even stuck into brick walls and metal. “Weeeeds!”
“Well, I can’t disintegrate an innocent person, we
have to do something else.”
“I don’t think I can separate them, but if you can
distract it, I may be able to switch the minds that are in control.”
“Distract it,” Blacktide said, “Great, my favorite
part of the job.”
The roof they stood on shook.
“Okay, I’m going to drop through the roof and come
out the front. I’ll get Jack’s attention. You do what you can do.” Blacktide
increased his disintegration aura so that he dropped through the roof and into
the pharmacy below. He rushed past toward the front of the store and noted the
fire extinguisher on the wall. He grabbed it on the way out.
Most of the area was evacuated except for a small
shop across the street with a crowd of onlookers inside. Blacktide hated it
when people didn’t follow emergency proceedures, but he didn’t have time to
worry about them now. He ran into the street and came up behind Demon Jack.
“Hey!”
It spun to face him with vines reaching like thorny
tentacles. “Ahhhh, there you are, weed.”
Blacktide aimed the canister like a fat magic wand
instead of bothering with the hose. “Careful, contents under pressure!” With
his disintegration ability, Blacktide swiped a hand across the top of the fire
extinguisher, releasing everything in it at Demon Jack’s head. It was a direct
hit and Demon Jack’s vines flailed in all directions as he fought to get the
fire retardant off of him.
Nyhtwulf swooped in and hovered behind Demon Jack.
In his intangible form, the vines couldn’t touch him. Nyhtwulf thrust both of
his hands into the back of the flaming pumpkin and endured a shock like
grabbing a live powerline. He held on and could feel the two minds within.
Thanks to the distraction of the fire retardant, the mind of the demon was
preoccupied and unprepared to deal with Nyhtwulf’s intrusion. As mystical fire
mixed with extinguisher filled the street with smoke. Blacktide had to back up
in order to breath. He covered his face with part of his leather jacket.
After agonizing moments, Blacktide heard the
wingbeats of his partner, forcing the smoke away to reveal the more humble
looking, Carter Henderson. Nyhtwulf had ahold of Carter by either shoulder.
“Oh, help me,” Carter cried, “It’s still in me. It
wants to come back.”
“We know of a hospital that might be able to help
you, but we have to know what happened.” Blacktide said.
“I don’t know. I just pulled a weed and it exploded
in my back yard,” Carter looked around at all the damage, “I couldn’t stop it.”
“Yeah we know, where’s your yard?” Blacktide
pressed.
“We don’t have much time,” Nyhtwulf said, “What I
managed was temporary.”
Carter hadn’t gone far from his home and led them to
his yard quickly. They surveyed the scene of the crater that used to be Carter’s
garden.
“I just pulled a weed right here.”
Nyhtwulf flew into the crater that was easily ten
feet deep, “It was no weed that did this.”
“What you got?” Blacktide called after his partner.
Nyhtwulf held up a chunk of half glowing stone. “A
meteorite. It must have struck just as he pulled that weed. He never knew what
hit him. I sense traces of the other mind on it.”
“Oh no!” Carter stumbled backward, “he’s coming!”
Quickly, Nyhtwulf jumped out of the crater and
phased a hand through Carter’s forehead. Carter trembled with a few spasms and
fell over. “We have to get him somewhere, quickly. I scrambled his brain waves
but he will recover soon and change.”
Blacktide nodded. “Take him to the hospital.”
The Powers University Hospital was the place to take
people with powers that needed help in anyway. Blacktide had once committed
himself there to keep his powers from hurting others. But that was before
meeting Nyhtwulf. Now the University
took in Carter Henderson and worked quickly to see if they could hold Demon Jack
at bay. As for if they did, that is another story.
