Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. It’s time once again for a trip to Eternia, where the endless battle between good and evil continues. Join Ibentmyman-thing and Matthew K as they bring you a brand new story featuring some of your favorite Masters of the Universe characters. Welcome to Eternia…
Fisto slid the Wind Raider down through the narrow Shatter Valley, the wings whispering at the sheer stony walls from barely half a foot away. Below them lay a craggy shelf of rock and certain death. He peered over the edge and grunted at the drop.
“Cutting it close, ain’t ya?” A voice barked in his ear, and Fisto jerked. The tip of a wing scraped stone. He kept the Raider level and then muttered a curse back at the noise in his ear.
“Hey, hey, watch yer language,” Ram Man said in his ear, his thick voice a bass rumble over the comm-link.
Fisto shook his head and pulled up on the throttle. The raider began to elevate. The valley widened a bit, giving him a full foot of clearance on either side. “Mind not yelling in my ear?”
“Who’s yellin’?”
Fisto chewed his tongue and remained focused on keeping the Raider straight. The cliff seemed to shove in further, until there was barely any distance between the edge of the wings and the rock.
“Yer breathin’ hard, Fisty. Too much for you?”
“I wouldn’t think you’d be so quick to joke in your position,” Fisto said.
The Wind Raider winced as Ram Man gave it a short backhand.
“Watch it!” Fisto yelled.
He heard Ram Man laugh. Fisto was angry enough to bail out of the Raider and let the big ape fend for himself, but the mission was more important.
Ram Man, strapped to the bottom of the Wind Raider like a human missile, chuckled and offered up an apology. “I’ll be quiet from here on, Fisty.”
Fisto glanced at his oversized silver fist. He wondered if it would have any effect on Rammy’s armored head. He could almost hear the sweet clang. Ah well, as he said, the mission was more important.
Fisto checked the scanners. “I’ve got one sign of life ahead. Faint though through the rock. Looks pretty thick.”
“That’s why you’ve got me hanging around,” Ram Man said.
The Flare event (that was what they were calling it in the Kingdom) had seemed harmless, initially. Fisto had been warming a bar seat with his hindquarters and regaling some of the locals with a handful of his brave deeds when suddenly the bar had vanished in an eye-melting glare that had rendered everything inside into a pure white void. As quickly as it had come, it faded, and Fisto had blinked spots from his eyes for the better part of a minute. When his vision cleared, nothing seemed to have changed. The rest of the patrons were confused and mumbling to each other but unharmed, and Fisto felt no ill effects. In fact, there didn’t seem to be any harm to come from the light at all.
None, that was, until he received an urgent communication from Duncan.
“Eternos, as quick as you can,” was all the kingdom’s Man-At-Arms had managed before ending the communication. Fisto had gruffly stared at the silent receiver as if there would be more information forthcoming, but there wasn’t.
“Apparently I’m done for the day,” he told the confused barkeep, leaving behind a stack of empty glasses. He wasn’t even tipsy.
Though Duncan had been less than forthcoming with his demands, Fisto learned he had not been the only one whose presence was requested.
“Know why we’re here?” Ram Man said when they met at the front gate of Eternos.
“I know why I’m here,” Fisto said, nodding to the guard that opened the gate. “I’m Eternia’s greatest warrior, and the kingdom should be proud to have me in its service. But you… maybe they have a particularly tough nut that needs cracking?”
“Riot,” Ram Man said, but neither of them were laughing when Man-At-Arms met them before they could get inside.
“Hangar,” he said, not stopping.
Duncan filled them in on the way. The light–the Flare Event–had somehow robbed Eternia of magic. All magic, everywhere. And that meant Orko was trapped behind a solid wall of stone, unable to teleport his way out.
Once every three months, in payment for a dish that Chef Allen had been preparing for a Royal event that Orko had — accidentally — turned into a smog monster, Orko had to apparate inside the Unreachable Tunnel for a rare mushroom that only grew in the absolute darkness behind the dense stone walls. The Flare Event had occurred after Orko had teleported himself into the Tunnel, and without his magic… he was trapped.
“Sounds like this would be a job for He-Man,” Fisto said.
“He-Man is…unavailable,” Duncan said without looking him in the eyes, which had sparked Fisto’s curiosity. Was He-Man’s power based in magic? He didn’t know. Nobody knew, to be honest. Somehow the thought of Eternia without He-Man made the planet seem a bit colder.
Fisto sped the wind Raider faster. “You ready for this? Looks pretty hard.”
“You forget my name or sumthin?” Ram Man said. Fisto nodded and shut the communicator off. “OK, big guy, let’s see if you can live up to it then.”
He depressed the button that ordinarily would fire a missile, but this time launched a very different cargo. A second later he was bringing the Raider up and aiming for the blue sky above.
He glanced over the edge and Ram Man hurtled into the solid sheet of rock. He flinched as the rock exploded in a cloud of dust and pebble, and doubted the plan immediately. Ram Man was a tough one but he had the sinking feeling he had just launched his buddy to his death.
He set the Raider down, strapped on the Raider Glider and leapt over the edge. He angled himself towards the rubble, trying to catch sight of Ram Man laying motionless in the rock.
“Come on, big guy, be as good as your name,” he muttered.
A boulder shifted and Ram Man stepped into the clearing, carrying Orko’s body delicately in his powerful hands. “He’s breathin’, but faintly,” Ram Man said, and coughed up a plume of dust. “I think the Chef’s gonna have to do without those mushrooms.”
A world without magic, Fisto thought. What next?