Ult. Hellblazer #6 - The Great Annihilator Pt. 1

[liquidsword34]

Ultimate Hellblazer #6
The Great Annihilator Part 1 of 2

The Royal Arms was quiet, with the barely working juke-box being the only thing breaking the constant silence sustained by the dozen or so occupants sat at the bar or one of the tables. At thirty-eight years old,John Constantine was still the youngest person in the place (aside from the owner's basset hound which slept under the bar), with Chas Chandler, the burly man in a tan coat sat next to John at the bar, coming in at a close second. The two sat in front of empty glasses in a sort of alcoholics Mexican stand-off, waiting for the other to break and buy the next round.

"Are we really going to do this?", Chas asked, looking down at his glass. "It's only a few quid, John".

"I left my wallet at home", John instantly replied, causing Chas to sigh and signal to the bar maid for two more drinks. "How's the wife doing?"

"About as good as ever", Chas took his pint in his large hand and downed a large fraction of the beer instantly. The two had known each other since they were kids, but the topics of conversation were still the same; drink, partner and then whatever it was they needed the others help getting out of that week. "What about Kit?"

"She's gone back to Ireland to see her family, I've got the flat to myself for a bit".

"You didn't go with her?"

"Her mum's still not happy she broke it off with her ex. Going from a nice Irish lad to somebody like me? Thought I'd sit that one out, thanks".

"Fair enough". The two drank in unison as the short bar maid walked out from a back area, waving a phone in John's direction.

"Some American lad wants you, says it's urgent", she drawled as she practically tossed the phone to John, not bothering to make eye contact.

"Your customer service is really the main reason I came here", John remarked as he put the phone up to his ear. "Hello?"

"J...John Constantine?", a timid voice stuttered down the phone in a southern accent which John recognised as originating from New Orleans.

"Yeah?"

"It's Benjamin. B...B...Benjamin Cox".

"Oh crap", John put his elbows up on the bar, pushing the phone into his ear.

"It...it's coming back".

"Are you sure".

"Y...yes, John".

"How do you know", John growled down the phone like an interrogator.

"I...I use their forums. I keep t...t...track of everything they do".

"Ben, I need you to be sure of this. Where? When?", John pulled out his wallet and yanked out a small scrap of paper and a pencil.

"F...Floydbank, in S..Scotland", Ben's voice began to quiver, going from a stutter towards a mental breakdown. "T...two days, t...they t...took over the town". John scrawled down the information as Ben spoke.

"Right. Ben, I'll get everybody else", John stood up, causing Chas to turn his head, his interest piqued. "You get a flight here an-"

"I c...can't. If...if i...it's back..."

"Ben, for Christ's sake, pull yourself together", John's demand was met with silence. He knew what had happened to Ben, but he also knew that for him to be like he was at that moment, he must have known there was a real threat.

"John. I...I...I'm sorry. I ca...n't face it again. Not again...", John knew what would happen before it did. He held the receiver away from his ear as the gunshot rang out before handing it back to the bar maid.

"Chas, we've got to go".

"What is it?", Chas downed most of his beer and stood up.

"That business in Newcastle, in ninety-three? It's happening again. Get on the phone and call everybody who's left. I'll drive, I haven't touched by second drink and the first one was so watered down I'd barely call it lager".

"Drive where?", Chas slammed a wad of money down on the bar before throwing John his car keys.

***

-Twenty Years Ago-

Chas's car stopped in front of the run-down steel mill with one last shudder, as if sighing from the relief of barely making the four hour journey without breaking down. "Right, off you go", Chas called to the occupants of the car.

"What, you're not even getting out?", John asked while lighting a silk cut cigarette with the cars lighter. Despite being eighteen, John could (and often did) pass for somebody in their twenties, what with standing at nearly six foot and giving off an air of confidence which very few his age could muster up.

"You asked me to watch the door so nobody walks in and interferes with whatever you're doing, and that's what I'm going to be doing. And I'll be doing it from the car", Chas turned on the car radio as John sighed and climbed out of the car, wrapping his brown long coat around his shoulders as he did so. From out of the back of the car climbed Gary Lester, the skinny on and off drummer in John's band; Kay Challis, a petite girl with curled black hair and matching dresses which seemed almost Gothic in their appearance; and Emma, John's at the time girlfriends, a tall, smiling woman with dark red hair and a denim coat wrapped around her. The air was thick with smog from the various nearby factories which made up one of the most industrial areas of Newcastle, and John's cigarette didn't help make the air easier to breathe for anybody.

"Lazy bastard", Gary muttered in John's ear while looking at Chas, who didn't reply. John led his three companions through the mill's rusting iron gates, which had been left hanging ajar.

"He doesn't like magic, what do you want him to do?", Kay asked , putting her arm around Gary. Next to Gary, Kay seemed the size of a mouse, but made up for it with her larger than life personality.

"Come in and help us instead of sitting on his fat arse while we save the world".

"Wadda yah mean we?", Emma laughed as he caught up with John, turning back to face Gary. "Remember what happened in Bradford?"

"That was a fluke", Gary shook his head and sighed. "Never seen a vampire baby move that fast".

"It was just a normal baby, Gary", John said as they crossed the courtyard from the gates to the factory doors. "And it still made you shit yourself".

Sat on the steps in front of the factory were four huddled figures. Even from a great distance away, anybody could recognise the obese form of Frank North, dressed up in his biker leathers and smoking a cigarette (Lambert and butler, a constant point of tension between himself and John). Next to him, in contrast, sat the skinny, maybe five and a half foot tall Ben Cox. Despite being twenty-two, Ben looked maybe fifteen, at least partially in thanks to his bowl cut and wire frame glasses. Further along from the two men were a pair of women wearing almost identical outfits of jeans and linen tops.

"Do you two ever think of not dressed the exact bloody same for these things?", Frank asked in a thick Newcastle accent which was almost incomprehensible for Ben.

"It's buy one get one free on this sort of stuff", Judith, the shorter, blonde haired of the two explained. "You don't wear clothes you actually care about to this sort of stuff unless you enjoy washing blood eat of your clothes".

"And fuck doing that first thing when you get home", the second girl, Anne-Marie added. "All right?" she said to Emma as her and John reached the front steps.

"Doing about well enough. Bit nervous but other than that, right as rain. What about you?"

"Same as ever really", Anne replied.

"Right then, if we're through with the pleasantries", Gary stepped up. "What's the plan here?"

"The plan's pretty simple, all things considered", Ben piped up, pulling scraps of paper of of his pocket and handing them out. Each piece of paper had the same gibberish scrawled on it, almost a page full of a seemingly random assortment of letters. "We don't know much about this...thing. But what we do know is that it speaks the same language as the cultists we've all come across up and down the country".

"Speaks?", Frank laughed at Ben almost condescendingly. "How's that?"

"What, you think it just got all those turds to worship it through sign language? Even strange monsters from other dimensions need to communicate with us. So, I used what we know of the monster, and what we know of the language and wrote this", Ben pointed to the piece of paper he held in his hand. "It takes one of these things, like, a decade to get from its home universe to ours, and when it first enters, it's still...sleepy. We read this crap out, it gets confused and rushes home".

"Makes about as much sense as it needs to", Kay smiled as she looked over the paper. "What is this, a logical paradox? That sort of thing?"

"It's not a robot, Kay, it's nothing silly like that. The monster's a warrior in its own dimension, a destroyer of worlds and all that stuff. This is a call to arms. We read it out loud and clear, it runs home to defend its people, we're all home in time for dinner".

"Right, everybody read the gibberish poem, the strange monster goes home, easy enough", John announced as he stepped past the members of the group sat on the stairs and pushed the mill's front door open. The interior of the mill had been ripped out years ago, leaving only dust coating the metal walls and floors and cobwebs in every corner. The only light came from the holes in the walls, leaving the far corners of the mill a pitch black abyss. The party split off into four groups of two; John and Emma, Ben and Kay, Gary and Frank and Anne-Marie and Judith.

"What's this thing called again?", Kay asked as she and Ben heaved up a metal grille, propped it up with a nearby stool and crawled underneath into a darkened room.

"The Great Annihilator", Ben said as he walked blindly through the room to the far wall. He grabbed a wooden board, trying to pull it off the window it covered. "At least, that's what the geeks we've found worshipping it call it. ".

"But does it have, like, a real name", Kay started as she walked over to help Ben pull the board off the window, filling the room with light.

"It took me weeks to work out the chant we're going to use to trick it, and that's just working out some basic words using what we've found out from the people who worship it. A direct translation of words I don't have existing examples of? That'd take years". Ben and Kay threw down the board and surveyed the room. A small animal like a rat was burrowed into a hole into the floor and one of the industrial strip lights had fallen to the ground, but aside from that there was nothing of of the ordinary. "You were the one who found about all of this, weren't you?"

"I've got a brother, he used to go out with Emma, he tried to get her involved in all of this, Emma wanted Frank to help her sort it all out, now we-", Kay was cut off by a blood curdling scream coming from another room in the factory, followed by loud banging.

"Come on!", Ben sprinted back towards the door, followed by Kay. The two slid back under the door, coating their clothes in dirt and dust on the way out of the room. In the distance the pair could hear the banging off feet against the floor, most likely from the rest of the group running towards the source of the sounds. Turning a corner, Ben and Kay came out into a locker room type of area, with tiled floors and walls. The areas where the benches and lockers used to be were still visible due to the lack of tiles, along with the site of Gary and Frank trading fists with a trio wearing long black robes which covered their face. Candles were set up in the corners of the room, providing the only source of light.

"Gedoffme!", Frank grunted as he pulled the hood over one of his attackers eyes and threw them against the wall, knocking them out cold with a gentle thud. Behind him Gary had been dragged down by one attacker while another raised a foot long ceremonial knife up to his stomach, ready to make an incision. Seeing the danger, Kay sprinted across the room and kicked the knife wielding attacker in the groin, sending him tumbling to the ground in a whimpering heap. Anne-Marie, Judith, John and Emma arrived seconds later, leaving the last hooded figure outnumbered and unarmed.

"I don't like people threatening my friends", Emma announced while rolling up her sleeves and grabbing the knife off the floor, "so tell us everything". Kay grabbed the attackers hood and pulled it back, revealing a red headed young man in his mid-twenties, his face dotted with freckles and acne.

"Jallakuntilliokan's return won't be stopped!", the cultist yelled out as he swung a punch at Emma and backed away, resulting in his fist only striking the air in front of his intended target. This punch was followed by one from Gary, which knocked the man to the floor.

"I think this tells us more than this guy can", Frank called over as he stepped through an archway into a shower room area. The rest of the group crowded around to see a masked woman laid in the centre of the shower room, prone on her back, occasionally squirming or letting out a moan of pain. The mask over the woman's head was curved and contorted to strange, almost impossible angles. The jagged metal started around her neck with a clamp of sorts, running up over her head to create a pyramid shape at least four feet high. The various indentations and twists in the metal made it seem like it couldn't possibly fit over a human's head without digging in and crushing it, and the screams coming out from under the mask sounded barely human. There were no visible straps on the mask, creating an impenetrable cocoon around the young woman's head. An inverted pentagram had been clearly carved into the metal, an oculist symbol marking the mask's wearer as a sacrifice, or possibly worse. The woman clutched her stomach, which had inflated up to enormous sizes, with stretch marks and scars lining her skin.

"Oh for fucks sake", John muttered as he stepped over to the woman. The gentle pitter patter from a leaking pipe was the only thing which broke the silence as John removed his coat and laid it over the naked woman, as if to lessen the horror of the sight in front of him.

"Well, everything we've read states that it'll be born into our dimension", Emma pondered, reluctantly keeping her eyes on the twitching woman in the mask. "I just...I didn't think it meant like this". Judith knelt down next to John and lifted his coat, examining her stomach. As the rest of the group crowded around, Judith ran her hands over the woman's belly, prompting a series of muffled screams. Judith's eyes crackled an electric blue as she muttered some words to herself, performing a spell to sense what was occurring within the woman's body.

"Something's definitely in there", Judith muttered as she pulled her hands back. "Not a monster, not a being, something stronger. Energy, like a gateway".

"You're taking the piss", John ran his hands through his hair while looking down at the woman.

"They've put a portal in her stomach, it's...I think the portal's feeding off of her. So if we kill her, the portal dies. I'm not a nurse or 'owt, but that's what my hands are telling me. It's already on its way here, we need to do something fast".

"John?", Emma muttered. "Do we...do it".

"We sort of have to. You still have that knife?"

Emma handed John the ceremonial dagger while averting her eyes. The steel was perfectly polished, and a series of snakes were engraved along the blade.

"So who's going to do it?", John asked, holding out the knife.

"I thought you were", Frank said accusingly.

"Why do I have to do it?"

"It was your idea!", Gary butted in.

"Give it us here", Anne-Marie had been silent for some time at the back of the group, so it took everybody by surprise when she pushed her way past Frank to grab the blade from John's hands. Anne-Marie knelt down next to the woman and put her head up to the mask, prompting a slight migraine in the back of her head. "I'm not sure if you can hear me through that thing, but if you can, I just want you to know that if this lot made you do all this, I'm really sorry we can't help you", Anne-Marie said as her vision became blurry. She grabbed her head and had to steady herself, distracting her from the increased rate of the woman's convulsions, becoming quick and sharp spasms. "I wish we could get that mask off you and just use magic to stop this, but we can't take that risk, for everybody's sake. And if you went through all this willingly, then I want you to know that you're a messed up pi-", Anne-Marie dropped the knife in shock as John's coat flew into the air in a flash of white light. The mask shot across the room, revealing a wrinkled, shrunken head, about the size of an orange, perched on the woman's shoulders.

"Anne!", Gary dove in to push Anne-Marie away from the woman as her chest opened up, revealing an endless sea of white light which filled the room, throwing the much smaller woman across the room like a rag doll. As the white light hit each wall, it seemed to restore the showers, causing them to turn on and flood the floor with water. Frank dove in and grabbed the dagger from the floor as a hurricane of flesh rose out of the portal, creating a tapestry of tentacles, eyeballs and other, harder to identify things.

"THE FUCKING PAPER!", John yelled as he fumbled through his jacket pocket, his hands going numb and his vision blurry as the strange monstrosity seemed to grow, engulfing the woman's body and sucking them in.

"I'VE GOT IT!", Judith yelled as he pulled out her scrap of paper, trying to read it through her blurred vision. "Direc...nonara...seme", Judith stuttered. A strange smog rose from the monstrosity, spreading out around the room. The air became thicker, and breathing in dragged hot, toxic fumes which stung the lungs of anybody forced to inhale it.

"Olesosaw ren ololef bi pat", Emma continued as she grabbed her scrap of paper out of her pocket. She held it close to her face as the strange gas became so thick she couldn't see more than a few metres away. "Zenidol rosob ralol lebena ebem piruras pibenox", Emma read confidently, as around her she heard other members of the group trying to do the same. "Otiva ya yivig epeme!", Emma completed the text, but nothing seemed to change. "Direc no-"

"EMMA!", before she could react Emma was dragged down by her ankle. Her hand fell into John's as he tried to pull her back from whatever was wrapped around her, trying to drag her under the now knee high water.

"JOHN, YOU NEED TO READ THE FULL NOTE!", Emma screamed, thrashing about in the water like a wounded animal as her boyfriend tugged at her arm. "LET ME GO!"

"NO!", John kept tugging, sinking down into the water as his eyes started to sting and water. Even shouting, John's words were barely audible, like the sound itself was being sucked in by The Great Annihilator. "IT'S AFFECTING YOUR MIND, STAY WITH ME!". Emma responded by tugging away, allowing herself to be pulled free into the murky depths of the water. "FUCK!", John slammed his hands down into the water and grabbed his piece of paper from his pocket. Blindly, he waded towards the monster, stepping over the now unconscious Judith and past Frank, who was using the dagger to stab at something wrapped around his leg.

"DIREC NONARA SEME, ZENIDOL ROSOB RALOL LEBENA EBEM PIRURAS PIBENOX!", John bellowed as he got closer to the light. His words seemed to effect the smoke around him as his throat stopped burning. The creature definitely understood him but continued its mindless attacking by causing a burnt, charred hand to rise up from the water. In seconds the hand was as big as a car, baring down on John from above while leaking blood.

"FINISH IT OFF!", Gary called to John as he dove at the putrid mess which poised to attack John, grappling with the creature in a suicidal last ditch effort.

"OTIVA YA YIVIG!", John almost stuttered as the hand clamped closed around Gary, reducing him to dust like it was nothing. "EPEME!"

The last word echoed through the room and knocked the toxic gas from the air, replacing it with clean air. The monster retreated back into the portal where the woman had been laid, bringing with it the pitch black water, and the strange dizzying sensation in the head of every member of the group. Just as soon as it had appeared, the monster had disappeared.

"It...it's gone?", Anne-Marie sat curled up in the corner of the shower, alive but trembling.

"It is", John replied as he surveyed the scene. Gary and Emma had disappeared without a trace, not even leaving behind a scrap of evidence that they had been there in the first place. Frank had won his battle with whatever was wrapped around his foot, at the cost of his left leg below his shin. Ben sat next to him, creating a make shift bandage around the bloody stump, which did nothing to silence Frank's bellows of pain. Judith was rocking herself awake, having barely survived being pulled beneath the water. And in the centre of the room, Kay stood perfectly still, staring into empty space.

"I saw it", Kay grinned like a Cheshire cat, soaked from head to toe. "We all saw it".

***

-The Present-

"She's in the seat by the window", a nurse muttered into John's ear. John stepped across the sterile, lime green room, to stand by a recliner chair set up so its occupant can easily see out of the window into the garden below. The room was deathly silent, and despite the decent amount of furniture, the woman sat in the chair was the only person other than Constantine inside.

"It's been a while", John pulled a stool up next to the chair and sat down. "Sorry about that, Kay".

"I'm not Kay, silly", the woman giggled. She was pale, with unkept jet black hair, but looked to be in her mid-twenties at most. "It's Jane".

"My mistake", John sighed. Every time, he thought it might not go like this. And every time, he ended up wrong. "Jane. How is...everyone".

"I'm great", Jane sat up in her chair, straightening out her black dress. "Most of us are. Baby Doll finished a jigsaw puzzle yesterday, Rain Brain is half way through her newest book, and Spinning Jenny hasn't had an incident in weeks".

"Sounds great", John leaned forwards and put his hands on his face, staring out at the great oak tree which had grown dangerously close to the hospital's window while settling in to listen to Jane listing off how her different personalities were doing.

"Black Annis got out a few weeks ago, sadly. One of the orderlies had to go to the hospital. And I found out Scarlet Harlot was sleeping with another one of the patients behind our backs! Penny Farthing had words with her, of course. She's a bit of a prude, Penny. I won't bore you with all of the details, but suffice to say at least fifty of us are happy. What about you?"

"Just peachy. Fucking peachy".

"Oh, it's like that? Just tell me who you want to talk to".

"It's not like that, Jane".

"Do you need Mama Pentecost to solve a puzzle for you again?"

"Jane, I need you".

"Oh?", Jane seemed taken aback. "You always have something strange going on, I'd forgotten you'd have use for mundane Crazy Jane".

"Yeah, you're mundane", John muttered under his breath.

"I have multiple personality disorder, John, not deafness", Jane said.

"The Great Annihilator's coming back".

"Jallakuntilliokan?", Jane raised her eye brows.

"You remember its proper name?"

"I don't, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter does. She keeps trying to draw it; almost every day. How do you know it's coming back?"

"Ben Cox called me".

"Oh, poor Ben. Him and I still speak on the phone for hours every so often. He hasn't left his mum's house since he got back there, after we sent it back, but he's a nice lad. How's he doing?"

"Dead. He told me about it coming back and then...yeah".

"Yeah", Jane leaned back into the chair, exhaling. "He...he never got over what happened, did he?"

"I don't think any of us did. Anne-Marie became a nun like a week after, Christ's sake".

"Hey, I did", Jane raised her eyebrows at John and almost seemed to glare at him. the two locked eyes for a few seconds until Jane burst out laughing.

"I'm serious, Jane. We said we'd all get together to stop it if it came back, every single one of us. So are you going to help or not?"

"I will, but I can't speak for everybody".

"Fine, come on then". Accepting her excuse for an answer, John grabbed Jane by the arm and pulled her up. "You're allowed to leave, right?"

"You think I've been here for two decades by choice?"

"Point taken. Can you run fast?", John said as he walked Jane across the lounge, opening the door and stepping out into a hallway. The nurse who led John in was stood just down the hall, not taking her eyes off her phone despite the sound of the door slamming closed.

"One second", Jane closed her eyes and leaned on John for a few seconds, like she'd fallen completely asleep. She then straightened back up. "Hey baby, I'm Flit", 'Flit' smiled from ear to ear, flashing her teeth like an actor in a cheesy 80's commercial. "Jane's a bit of a slow poke, so she asked me to step in. That OK with you, daddy-o?"

"Fine, fine", John started power walking down and the hall, with Flit in pursuit.

"Kay, you know you're not allowed to leave the lo-", the nurse started to say, but her words were drowned out by John and Flit sprinting down the hallway past her, their feet slamming against the hard, hospital floor.

-To Be Continued