“By the Daemonian Spires!” I swore. “The Shaitans of Eblis. We have dealt with them before, but the presence of The Al-Hazred Amulet could conceivably create a far more powerful manifestation of them -- in truth, a manifestation of the type unseen since prehistoric times.”
“But Daniel,” asked Millie Drake, “why was such a dangerous amulet to be found there at that mosque on Pacific Avenue, and how was it so easily stolen?”
We were at our secret headquarters, located as it is in the golden trapezoidal rooftop of a certain New York City skyscraper, and containing our laboratory and electronic equipment, along with many alien artefacts and mementos of our career across Space and Time. I was clad in my usual finery, including a frilled poet shirt, purple velvet suit, and jungle boots. My panama hat and opera cape hung from a near by hallstand.
My companion Millie is an exceedingly beautiful young lady; petite and perfect with luxurious chestnut hair, enchanting violet eyes, and sun-kissed skin. The hot pink dress she wore only served to highlight her wonderful adolescent figure.
Also with us was Kit-10, our mobile personal computer that resembles nothing more or less than a small mechanical cat.
“The imam of the mosque was unaware of the amulet’s true purpose,” I replied to Millie’s query. “He only saw it as an antiquity of medieval Arabian culture, not knowing that it had actually belonged to the infamous sorcerer known as Abdul al-Hazred. It was on display in a small glass case to the side of the mosque’s main sanctuary, so purloining it was not a difficulty, hmmm?”
“But the thief had to be aware of the amulet’s true origin, right?” returned my friend. “In order to even attempt such a thing, I mean. If the imam didn’t even know, who would?”
“That is indeed the question, love. The thief had to be someone of an high level of occult knowledge, familiar with the story of the Shaitans, those immensely powerful beings who ruled the ancient planet Eblis, at one time the fifth of the Solar System, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. They were beings of such incredible power that their mentalist abilities in time corroded the very structure of their planet, causing it to break up many millions of years before intelligent mammalian life even developed upon Earth. This is what created the asteroid belt, hmmm?”
“But even that didn’t kill the Shaitans, right?”
“Indeed not. With their physical forms gone, they then issued forth as beings of pure energy, wreaking havoc across myriad millennia, until they eventually settled on Earth, in the area of the Middle East -- becoming the very demonic spirits worshipped by the people of that region until the Islamic Prophet Mohammed converted the people to the worship of the God of Abraham.”
“So if someone has stolen The Al-Hazred Amulet, and intends to use it to summon the Shaitans, what will they… ?”
“Sensing danger, s--,” suddenly interrupted Kit-10 in her simulated yet pleasantly-feminine voice. “An unknown energy signature has entered the chamber.”
(It should be noted here that Kit-10, along with her other feline characteristics, is possessed of the total inability to openly show respect to anyone. In sooth, the closest she ever comes to it is by referring to me by a slight “s--” sound -- for “sir” -- and to Millie Drake by “m--” -- for “ma’am”.)
“Oh my goodness, Daniel!” cried Millie. “Look!”
I whirled around to see that which had so startled my companions, and beheld an horror indeed. At that very moment, forming in the air above us was a swirling cacophony of eldritch black and red energies; energies that, as we watched, began to coalesce into a face. It was a face as unto that of a man of middle years, his visage still showing signs of handsome distinction despite being marked with the results of lifetimes of extreme unadulterated evil. His hair was long and dark, and his countenance was decorated with a thin moustache and goatee. Most of all, his pale eyes shone with an absolute hypnotic glare.
Of course, I recognised this face immediately. I recognised it as belonging to my oldest and most bitter foe, the renegade Algolite who has become the most dangerous and prolific criminal in all the Cosmos.
It was the face of Don Wingus!! ...
My name is Doctor Daniel Rumanos. I carry within my blood the vastly superior genes of the mysterious Watchers of Algol, the most intellectually advanced race in all of the known galaxies, whose technology is so sophisticated it appears as magic to lesser beings.
Whilst most Algolites live in elitist seclusion from the rest of the Universe, I am an operative for an organisation known as the KOSMIKOS. Assisted by the beautiful Miss Millie Drake, I protect Earth from all manner of menace. I am -- The Daemon-Star!!! …
“Don Wingus!” I uttered the damnable name of the one possessing the countenance manifesting before us. “I should have known. So he did escape from The Houdini Codex -- and it was he who sent the demon-possessed actor Jim Caviezel against is. Now he has continued his career of evil by stealing The Al-Hazred Amulet and utilising it to call forth the very power of the Shaitans!”
Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the unholy phantasm then vanished.
“Are you all right, Millie?” I enquired concernedly.
“Yes, I’m OK, Daniel,” she replied.
“And you, Kit-10?”
“All systems undamaged, s--,” replied the robotic kitten.
“So was that really Don Wingus?” queried Millie Drake. “Did he actually steal the amulet?”
“Quite so, love,” I replied, “and he has indeed used it to summon the powers of the Shaitans of Eblis. This manifestation was merely a display of bravado, but showing that he could invade the sacred space of our headquarters, even for a brief time, highlights the extreme power that he is now wielding.”
“Daniel, we have to stop him!”
“Quite so, and we must begin by ascertaining from where he is operating, hmmm? Kit-10, can you trace those energies to any starting point?”
“Accessing,” replied the robot. “Systems detect the origin point to be beneath the address at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard.”
“Interesting,” I said, accessing some information on one of the computer consoles. “That is a former church basement that was once used as a ‘soup kitchen’ for the city’s poor. The sufferings undergone at such a location would be conductive to the dire powers of the Shaitans, hmmm?”
“We need to get over there right away!” announced Millie Drake bravely.
“Quite so,” I agreed whilst fetching my hat and cloak. “Come along Mills, Kit-10. We have demons to fight.” …
A short time later on that overcast day, we arrived at the location, located as it was in an old shuttered church building on the corner of Pacific and MLK.
“Be aware,” I warned my companions. “Wingus shall not be here alone. There are likely agents of Spectral Paranormal already watching us.”
Millie, Kit-10, and I walked cautiously around the church to the small flight of steps leading to the basement. Strangely, a figure was walking up them to-wards us. He was an obese man of medium height, dressed in a sport shirt and shorts, his skin pale and eyes blue, and his face covered with a rather scruffy growth of beard.
“Is there something I can do for you?” he questioned, his voice humorously high-pitched. “My name is Dave Eddings, and I’m here to help people in need.”
“Pardon us for having to barge past, my good man,” I replied, “but you should be aware that this establishment is being utilised for something of extreme occult evil.”
“Oh, really,” he rejoined, scratching his beard. “Wait. Do you mean… what my master is doing?”
With this, the man who called himself Dave Eddings suddenly struck me in the face, a blow not of mere human strength -- a punch that set me careening across the pavement!
“Kit-10!” I heard Millie Drake call. “Blast that man!”
The robotic cat then sent a bolt of her nose-laser at Dave Eddings. The man then fell to the pavement with a resounding thud.
Quickly recovering from the blow, I ran over and inspected the man’s now-prostrate form.
“It is all right,” I said. “He is now quite unconscious. ‘Dave Eddings’, hmmm? Kit-10, do you have any information on this man?”
“Accessing database of known criminals, s--,” replied the computerised feline. “Located. David Eddings, former social worker. Forced to leave his employment with the state due to allegations of the sexual abuse of his own minor children. Narrowly escaped arrest due to assistance from former co-workers. Has survived on unemployment benefits since.”
“Daniel,” said Millie Drake, “do you think his guilt is what led him to join Spectral Paranormal?”
“More than likely,” I opined. “Such feelings are indeed known to lead humans into becoming operatives of evil. Nevertheless, we have no time for philosophising, hmmm?”
We then continued down the steps to the church basement. The door was unlocked, and we entered the partially-ruined cellar. It was quite dark, but we soon descried some black candles glowing at the far end of the subterranean chamber.
“Greetings, Rumanos and friends,” said the mocking voice of Don Wingus. "I have been expecting you. I do hope you have not hurt Dave Eddings too much. He has such a fun fat fundament.”
The villain was standing before an ebon-draped altar on which was the silver form of The Al-Hazred Amulet itself, its Arabic letters glowing with a blood-red effulgence.
“Don Wingus, you unholy fiend!” I charged. “Stop this madness immediately. You cannot control the powers of the Shaitans at the level this will evoke them. They are pure chaos, true evil in its most unforgiving form, they are…”
“Just stop it, Rumanos, you old hypocrite,” returned Wingus, evilly resplendent in his black vestment robe. “I already have total control of the Shaitans of Eblis through the influence of the amulet. It is by them that I shall establish Spectral Paranormal as the dominant religion on planet Earth, with myself as its supreme high priest! Through this, it is actually you who shall be remembered as the ultimate force of evil; the creepy alien exile who opposed me. The power is now mine, and you shall now die for your ‘wicked wicked ways’!”
With this, there suddenly burst forth from the altar area a seething force of darksome demonic energies, blacker than black can be; an unholy maelstrom of deviltry that then surged forth directly to-wards Millie Drake, Kit-10, and me!
Is it really at all possible, my dear friends and most appreciated readers, that you can even begin to fathom the extreme satanic horror, forsooth the complete unhallowed terror and total demoniacal fear of the situation in which my companions and I then found ourselves? There we were, the lovely Miss Millie Drake, the robotic Kit-10, and me -- Doctor Daniel Rumanos. There we were, facing the evil intergalactic villain known to eternal damnation as Magister Don Wingus. There we were -- with the very powers he had now summoned, the swirling cacophony of red and black supernatural terror, the dread horror of the horridly ancient Shaitans of Eblis -- bursting forth from the very void of darkness directly to-wards us!!
“You will now die, Rumanos and friends,” reiterated Wingus. “You will now die, and I -- Don Wingus -- shall use the powers of the Shaitans to take my rightful place as supreme ruler of worlds!”
Then, before the Shaitan energies would have reached us, a most unusual incident occurred. For it is now that Dave Eddings, having recovered from Kit-10’s stun-ray, blundered into the room.
“Master Wingus!” he bellowed. “Master Wingus! I failed! I failed to keep your enemies away! Oh please forgive me, master!”
Dave Eddings kneeled and grasped the legs of Don Wingus as a form of grotesque supplication.
“Eddings, you pathetic fool!” shouted Wingus. “Unhand me! Your interference is causing a reversal of… !”
Indeed, at that very time, the energies of the demonic Shaitans of Eblis had reversed away from their course to-wards my friends and me, and had instead charged directly at the black-clad form of Magister Don Wingus!
“No! No!” he screamed as the demonic powers surrounded him. “You cannot do this to me! I am Don Wingus! I am the one who summoned you! I am the rightful master of all! I am… I am… !”
It was then that the voice of Don Wingus was suddenly cut off. It was then that he suddenly ceased to be seen within that underground chamber. For it was then that the very forces of the Shaitans suddenly blinked out of existence -- taking with them both Dave Eddings and his villainous master!
“Are you all right, my dear Millie?” I enquired concernedly.
“Yes, I’m OK,” she replied, taking my hand.
“And you, Kit-10?”
“Systems undamaged, s--,” replied the little robot, as always.
“So what happened?” queried Millie Drake. “I know that Don Wingus lost control of the Shaitans, but where did they go?”
“The Shaitans have been banished to another dimension -- a sort of ‘hell’, hmmm? -- and have taken Wingus with them.”
“So what about The Al-Hazred Amulet?”
“We can return it to the mosque,” said I, taking the now seemingly harmless object from the altar. “I am certain the imam can look up some suitable prayers against evil from the works of their Prophet. An interesting man, old Mohammed. Did you know he originally had wanted to convert to Judaism?”
“What happened to change his mind?” asked Millie as we exited the old church basement.
“Not being familiar with rabbinical tradition, he found some of the arguments of the Torah scholars a bit insulting. A shame, really. If the ‘Sons of Abraham’ had stayed united, the history and modern state of the Middle East would be quite different.”
