The Immortal Part 2 (finished)

Walking away from the massacre; from the bodies that are piled up around my destroyed house, I was thinking, trying to find a way I could start over. The walk is long, I tried hitchhiking, but no cars would stop for me. I don't blame them; there are bullet holes all over my clothes, and blood all over my face (not mine of course.) I look like a serial killer. This walk is long, but I've walked longer and farther in my long life.

On September 10th, 480 BC, I was chosen to join Leonidas and his 300 Spartans to fight in the battle of Thermopylae. They thought that since I was Immortal, We would've had that battle in the bag. I was reluctant to fight because my wife was sick. But she told me to go, that Sparta needed me. King Leonidas gave me the same order everyone gave me, take out the cavalry first. When we met the Persians in the battlefield, we noticed how outnumbered we were. But Leonidas only took 300 because I was there. The self-proclaimed God of the Persians, Ahura-Mazda, was there throwing out his threats before the fight. He didn't have a sword or shield. His weapon of choice was a big sharp ring (which was said to be magical) he held in one hand. Leonidas quickly changed his orders for me. Now it was to kill Ahura Mazda the worst way I know how to. Of course, my self-esteem was at its highest, so I rushed after Mazda, without a care in the world. Every other Persian that tried to stop me was easily smacked out of the way. When I reached Mazda, We faced off, and every soldier from both sides stopped to watch the battle.

Mazda struck first, with his Ring, and he sliced my big Spartan shield clean in half. I tried to hack at him with my sword, but he cut it into pieces. I was now unarmed, just the way I like to fight. I swung at him, but he flipped high into the air, out of my reach, then he tried to stomp on my head. All he did was given me a chance to grab his leg, and swing him around in the air; I then proceeded to smash him against the ground several times. I then tossed him to the ground, where he was groaning and spitting out blood. This guy is pretty tough if he can take an attack like that, any other guy would've died. He got back up, and started doing fancy flips and spins, which were pretty hard to keep track of, he slashed me in my chest, and my breastplate was cut like butter, the blow also hurt with an unbearable pain. I fell to the floor, and grabbed my chest, checking for blood. I wasn't bleeding, but my chest felt a huge stinging pain. Mazda didn't stop their, He continued to slash at me with his Ring. I felt helpless as each slash hurt more than the last one did. The pain was unbearable,

I saw the look on Leonidas' face, as I was getting dominated by the flurry of Mazda's attacks. It wasn't fear I saw, it was acceptance. The Immortal was going to be slain, and we were going to lose this battle.

With every slash, of the Ring, I felt something I never felt before, Pain and fatigue. My body must be weak to magic. I found my Achilles Heel. Mazda was unrelenting, as he hit me with the final blow to the neck, and I blacked out, not before I heard the Persians yell, "The Immortal has been slain!"

I unexpectedly, woke up. My body still ached, but the pain was manageable. The battlefield was full of bodies, there were many Persian bodies. But there were exactly 299 Spartan corpses. My fallen comrades were all dead because of my inability to help them. The Spartans fought well, there were over 400 dead Persians, but in the end the numbers overwhelmed them. I didn't have time to grieve though, I had to make sure my wife, and the entire state of Sparta evacuated.

I finally reached Sparta, when I noticed it was completely empty. Except for the few Persian soldiers who were about to burn the place down. I ran at them with all my strength, and I punched one through a house.

"He's alive!" they exclaimed as they charged after me. One of them thrust his sword at my chest, but it was bent instantly. Then another tried to throw his spear at me, but it bounced off me.

I punched through one soldier's stomach, and shattered his spinal cord. I elbowed another, and he flew backwards and died of a crushed skull. The last guy tried to kick me, but I grabbed his leg, and bent it with my thumb. He fell to the ground and started screaming in pain, I grabbed him by the good leg, and tossed him as far as I could. I watched as he flew over a mountain, and then fall on his head.

I was surprised to find my house intact. The door was destroyed, and my house looked plundered. As I made my way to the bedroom, I found my wife, untouched on our bed. Her hands were folded, neatly on her lap. Her crystal eyes were still open, her hands were cold, and she wasn’t breathing. I grabbed one of her cold hands, and wept over her. I wasn’t even with her in her last moments; I was too busy getting beaten by a queer with a circle for a weapon. That was the moment, when I just wanted to die. I grabbed the nearest sword; maybe if I thrust hard enough, I can penetrate my heart. I gave myself one good thrust, but the sword bent and broke. I tried breaking my neck, but that didn’t work. I even tried to drink poison, but all I did was get a bitter taste in my mouth. So I gave up on suicide. I must now stop grieving, and extract my revenge on the whole Persian Empire, and I will start by killing Ahura Mazda, and King Xerxes.

I acquired a map to Persia from the new king of Sparta, Pleistarchus, who asked me to charge over there, and extract revenge. As soon as the map was in my hands, I ran. I climbed every mountain, I ran through every valley, nonstop. Nothing was going to stop me from my quest for revenge. Not even Mazda.

It took a full day of nonstop running, to get to the castle. I finally made it to the castle, and I was far from exhausted. There were four guards, trying to stop me. Needless to say, I got through them. There was a big door, the only thing separating me, and a throne room full of people who are going to die. I pounded once, and it shook violently, and cracked in half.

As I got inside, two guards charged after me. I killed one, the other one ran away. Xerxes was sitting on his throne, and looked unamused.

“Ah look, if it isn’t The Immortal himself.” He said in a mocking voice. His governors were all standing near him, and they looked terrified. “I believed you dead; Looks like Ahura Mazda spared your life.”

“You’re going to wish I died in the battlefield.” I said with grinding teeth. “Today is the day you, Mazda, and all of Persia are going to pay for what you guys have done, Your Highness.” I mocked right back. “First, I’m going to slay your god Mazda, and then I’m going to cripple you. Then I’m going to kill your family, friends, governors, and servants, everything you love. As soon as you realize everything you’ve lost, I’m going to rip you in half, and let your pets eat your corpse.”

I guess I let my anger and arrogance get in the way, because as I was finishing my threat, I felt a slash in my back. I stumbled forward and turned around to see Ahura Mazda, with his ring drawn and an evil smile on his face.

“Come to die again Lippio?” He asked, as he slashed at me again.

“You’re the one that’s going to die,” I said as I ducked away from his attack. “But unlike me, you’re not going to get up after.”

With those words, he ran towards me, and did a series of flips, before slashing at me with his ring. I grabbed that same arm with the ring, and pulled him face first into my fist. The blow knocked him down, so I mounted him and overpowered him. With one arm I was holding down the hand with the ring, with the other, I was hammer fisting him in the face. I was hitting him so hard; that his head would bounce off the king’s marble floor, and make a crater. I then proceeded to lift him up by the armed hand, and slammed him against a pillar. I slammed him on the floor, and then tossed him through a wall. He limped back to the throne room, and tried to slash me again, but I ducked again, and rammed him against a wall. I was keeping his hand with the ring restrained, and continued to elbow his face until the wall behind him was dust.

Mazda was becoming weak, and didn’t fight back anymore. Seeing a chance to display my glory; I lifted him over my head and yelled “I SLAY GODS!” I threw Mazda at Xerxes’ direction, and they both stumbled to the floor. All I had to do now was give Mazda the final killing blow. I casually walked toward Mazda, but purple smoke started lifting off his body. I saw the smoke rise, and then shoot at me. I felt a surge of pain go through my whole body and I was paralyzed because of the pain. Xerxes and Mazda both got up, and looked at me with a menacing smile.

“Can you kill him?” Xerxes asked.

“No, this should have killed him.” Mazda replied, exhausted and confused. “it looks like he really is Immortal, but not immune.”

“Can we keep him in this state forever?”

“No, but I can make sure he feels it for a long time.” Mazda looked away to think. A second later, he had a menacing smile on his face, and started manipulating the purple smoke around him.

“From now on,” Mazda started. “Every year on this day, for the rest of your miserable, eternal life; you are going to feel all the pain, the 300 Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae suffered through. There will be no lapses; there will be no resting period, all day excruciating pain.”

With those words, the curse was cast, and it came through every year. I felt the pain of my fallen comrades. I have that day marked on my calendar. It is a day of lying in my bed, and taking the pain. There is no way to escape it, no way to embrace it. There is only taking it and surviving it. I wish the pain could just take my life, and I could be with my wife, but that wish could never be granted.

Detective Jane Dallas of the NYPD is on her way to respond to a bank robbery in progress.

Jane Dallas was a one of the few “workaholics” on the force. Everything she did was for the good of her job. In her 5 year career, she has booked and convicted 147 criminals. If she was assigned a case, you better believe she was going to solve it. When she received the call, she immediately stopped what she was doing, and made her way to the scene.

She pulled up in front of the bank; she got out of her car, and aimed her pistol at the entrance. There were 12 other police cars at the scene, and 14 officers waiting for the robbers to come out. They had orders not to infiltrate the building because it was a hostage situation. Jane grabbed her megaphone to give the robbers a warning.

“This is the Police. We have the building surrounded. Come out with your hands in the air.”

Jane expected two or three men with ski masks, to come out with hands raised and heads low, but what came out was far from her expectations. A tall man, dressed in a purple striped suit, dressy shoes, a bow tie, a top hat, and even a matching wand came out. The man had dark hair and a mustache with handlebars. Jane didn’t know whether to be open fire, or laugh. She grabbed the megaphone again, and tried her best to conceal her laughter.

“Get on the Pfft Ground, Drop the Wa-hahahahahahand!!!”

The man in the suit however looked un-amused. He lifted his hat and bowed, and began to speak.

“Allow me to introduce myself,” he began in a sophisticated voice. “My name is Artis-Magicae”

With that, Jane just started laughing louder and harder. She couldn’t control herself, she was laughing so loud, that Artis-Magicae heard her. He still had the sophisticated smile on his face and proceeded to talk again.

“Do you guys like card tri-”

“HE DOES TRICKS! BAHAHAHAHA!” Jane interrupted, in a burst of laughter. Artis-Magicae just looked away and sighed. He then made the cards glow purple, and levitate.

“Laugh at this, he said as the cards flew from his hands, and stabbed a few police officers. Jane saw one flying at her head, and ducked out of the way, the same card killed an officer behind her. Jane snapped out of her laughter and realized this wasn’t a laughing matter.

I finally made it to my destination: Brooklyn, New York. I was living in a wide open suburban side of Connecticut, so it must’ve seemed fine to launch a full on assault on a man with the strength of a god, because of the small collateral damage risk. But here in the rural surroundings of New York, I highly doubt they would take that chance of me destroying a city. I had a little money stashed away, which I used to rent a small apartment, and buy new clothes. I was hungry, so I decided to get groceries. On my way there, I saw a bank, and thought about how much I needed money. I knew I was never going to receive an AARP check again, because I'm a wanted criminal, so using my strength to rob that bank sounded really good. The only reason I didn’t was because I couldn’t risk getting caught by the government and starting another blood bath.

I was in the grocery store, checking out my items, when I noticed a crowd forming outside. They were all looking at the bank; some were recording with their phones. I forced my way through the crowd to get a closer look. Some people complained about me forcing my way through, but if they have a problem, they can try and do something about it.

When I looked toward the bank, I saw a guy in a purple tuxedo, robbing the bank. I saw him pull something out of his pockets, which then flew at the cops, and killed a few of them. The ones that survived opened fire at the guy in the tuxedo. He took off his hat and faced it toward them, all the bullets seemed to be missing him, and going directly into the hat. Two SWAT Armored trucks were approaching the scene, I saw him take out a wand, and flick it upwards, which somehow caused one of the trucks to blow up. The other truck swerved and crashed. The SWAT members inside, got out of the truck and opened fire as well. The bullets were still going into the hat, and he wasn’t getting hit. After a minute or so, the gunfire stopped. The “magician” flipped his hat down (like one would do in a magic show, to prove there is nothing in the hat) and then placed it back on his head. He then pointed his want at the police officers. And the wand started raining bullets at the officers. I saw the officers drop, one-by-one. I couldn’t just stand there and let this bloodbath go down, so I ran at the magician as fast as I could.

“Oh looks like somebody wants to play hero.” He said as he took out a fresh pack of cards, and shot them toward me.

I blocked my face with my hands, and the cards just bounced off me.

“What the-” the magician said as I pinned him to the ground. I put my elbow in his face, and was holding him down with my other arm.

“Who are you?” he said, but I was too furious to answer. He squeezed his arm into his jacket, and pulled out something that looked like confetti. He threw it against the ground, and he was gone. I looked all around that spot for him, but there wasn’t a trace. The police men that survived walked up to me and ordered me to put my hands on my head. I didn’t cooperate with them, only because if what happened the night before. I started running away, when a lady cop ran up to me and grabbed my arm.

“Who are you?” she asked.

When I looked at her, I saw the same look my wife gave me when she first found out about my strength. That look bought up so many memories that hurt me when I think about them. I just told her, “Don’t worry about it.” And I ran away before I had to fight a dozen cops and be on the same list as the magician.

Artis-Magicae was in his secret hideout, watching the police clean up his crime scene through a portal in his hat. He had only one sack of money to show for his performance at the bank. He lost two of them during his scuffle with the unknown man. How on earth was he able to get past his cards, which seemed to cut through the cops like butter? The fact that he was shortchanged and humiliated during his performance was seriously dissatisfying. He pondered this, while thinking of a plan for revenge. He came up with this brilliant idea. He will watch the unknown man’s every move through his portal. Then he will find out his weaknesses and exploit them. He just had to wait until the man shows his face again, then he will begin his plan.

“I will see you again soon.” He said, as he began scanning for the man.

Jane couldn’t stop thinking about the bank incident. Who was that man? How did he stop Artis-Magicae's attack? Why wouldn’t he cooperate with us? What is his name? All these questions were ringing in her head. So she made it her mission to find out more about this guy.

She questioned witnesses who were at the scene. None of them knew who he was, but one of the witnesses took a video on his phone, and was going to upload the video on the internet. She was able to retrieve this video, and called a few of her contacts who were able to ID the man. Demetrious Lippio was his name. He was a former soldier who served during WWII? According to these records, he should be 90 years old, but the man who stopped Artis-Magicae, looked to be in his mid-thirties. It didn’t fit at all, so she did a little more digging. She looked through the army’s enlistment files, and sure enough Demetrious Lippio was signed in, and he looks the same as he did back in 1939. She even found him enlisted in WWI, the Spanish-American War, The Civil War, and he was even mentioned in a Revolutionary-Era document. This was all too confusing to Jane. According to the evidence, Demetrious Lippio was over 200 years old. She decided to pay him a visit, and get answers.

“It was 10:00 PM; I was looking through the classified section of the newspaper, trying to find a decent job so I can support myself. Suddenly, I heard a knock at my door. I looked through the peephole, and saw the lady cop from the bank, at my doorway, I opened the door as wide as the chain-lock would let it open, and stuck my eye out.

“Demetrious Lippio?” she asked.

“Yes, can I help you?” I asked, knowing exactly what was going to happen next.

“Jane Dallas, NYPD. I’d like to ask you a few questions about your experience as a soldier.”

That sounded real familiar.

“Look lady, other people have asked me that question. They are dead now; I highly recommend you forget this ever happened, because it is a rode you definitely don’t want to take. With those words I shut the door in her face.

I know what you guys are thinking. “You just told a police detective, that you killed a few people.” What you guys don’t realize is, I DON’T CARE. I have no job, no money, a crappy apartment. If the police want to try and take me away, that’s there problem, I have nothing to lose and I'm not against defending myself and starting over again. This lady cop saw what I was capable of. If she’s smart, she will walk away.

Apparently, I'm dealing with an idiot.

She kicked my door, and it swung open. She broke the lock, and the door-posts.

“Wow lady, you have some balls.”

“Listen, I have no problem hauling your @$$ into custody. So if I were you, I would start talking” She stated.

“I don’t think that’s a great idea.” I replied. “Several other policemen, US army officials, CIA agents, NSA agents, Japanese warlords, Nazi generals, even Alexander the Freaking Great (and he had an elephant) all tried to ‘bring me into custody’. What makes you think a few tired Brooklyn cops will have better luck than they did.”

“I don’t think you want that completely. I know about the incident you and the CIA had. I have a video of you and if it goes viral, you better expect the CIA to put you as public enemy number one. Your whole life is going to be on the run, and a nonstop fight.” She checkmated me on that

I didn’t want to have to go through that. Not that I couldn’t handle it, I just didn’t want to handle it.

“Fine, what do you want to know? I asked sarcastically.

“Everything” She answered.

So I told her everything important: my birthdate, my army experiences, and my wife. She listened to every word. For some reason, I felt really comfortable with her. She was a cop who would go low enough to blackmail someone, but I felt a connection to her.

After the conversation, she got up and I walked her to my door.

“I’ll pay you for the… door.” She said.

“Don’t worry about it, I feel sorry for anybody who tries to rob my place.” She smiled, and leaned against the hallway wall. She was giving me the same look my wife used to give me. She was a really beautiful woman. She had the qualities I found attractive in a woman: Smart, determined, strong. I was starting to get a warm feeling in my chest, but then I quickly stopped myself.

“Have a nice night ma’am.” I said awkwardly, and then I closed the door in her face. The door slowly opened by itself, so I closed it again. I did this three more times until I finally put a chair against it to stop it from opening again.

“Smooth Demetrious…” I heard her say as she was walking away. “Real smooth.”

A couple of weeks later, I got a call from Jane telling me to turn on my TV. We’ve been talking for a while and becoming good friends. When I turned my TV on, I was directed to a live feed coming from Coney Island. Every channel had this same feed on. I saw a camera looking around the park from a high view. The camera turned around and revealed a man with slick black hair, and a familiar mustache with handlebars.

“So I hear we have a ‘hero’ in town.” Artis-Magicae said with his elegant, yet menacing smile. “I’ve even had the pleasure of meeting him. He just walked in one of my performances and ‘stole the show’. I'm doing this performance to redeem myself. Well Unnamed hero of New York, I challenge you to a live performance. If you show up, I will spare the audience their lives, if you don’t; well I think you can guess the rest.”

I called Jane as soon as possible and asked her drive me to Coney Island. If this Wannabe Houdini wants a performance, he’s going to get it.

As we approached Coney Island, I saw Artis-Magicae hanging on the wooden foundations of the famous Cyclone roller-coaster. He held his wand with one hand, and holding on with the other. I saw him point his wand arm at the car, and I knew whatever was coming next, was going to be bad. Jane was driving, so I pushed her out of the car, and the driver door broke off. She was skidding across the street on top of the door, and she seemed fine. I saw Artis-Magicae flick his wand at the car.

As Jane was skidding across the road, she thought: “Why on earth did he push me out of the car.” She finally stopped and was about to get up, when she saw the car blow up in front of her very eyes.

“NOOOOOO!” She screamed. The car was reduced to the metal frame, and it was in flames.

“HAHAHAHA!” Artis-Magicae laughed. “That was all I needed to do? Well looks like I have a little bit of time on my hands. I might as well kill off the audience now.” When he looked back at the car, he noticed something strange, the car was moving, and somebody was walking out of it. “You have got to be kidding me.” Artis-Magicae said, as Demetrious walked right out of the car.

“Is that all you got?” Demetrious yelled. He then picked up the remains of the car, and chucked them straight at Artis-Magicae.

Artis-Magicae grabbed some confetti from his suit, and threw teleported out of there, before the car could hit him; it did smash through some of the Cyclones foundations though.

Artis-Magicae teleported right in front of Demetrious, whose clothes were in rags. Artis-Magicae shot at Demetrious with a few purple beams, they hit Demetrious, and somewhat hurt him, but he showed no sign of it.

“Wow, you are one tough cookie.” Artis-Magicae complimented, “how about this?” he flicked his wand at Demetrious, and he was caught in a grenade like explosion. All it did was throw him off balance.

“Really? Nothing at all?” Artis-Magicae was starting to get frustrated. Nothing is working on this guy. He keeps resisting all Artis-Magicae’s attacks. He decided to try and restrain him.

He shot out handkerchief ropes from his sleeves, and tied him up from the chest down.

“Wow” Demetrious taunted, “You are going full stereotype with this magician thing, huh?”

“Silence” Magicae snapped, “You seem a little too… tied up at the moment to be wise-cracking.”

Demetrious lifted his arms, and the ropes broke. He grabbed the remaining bit of rope and swung Artis-Magicae around, and around, until he finally let go. Magicae was flying far away, but then he vanished and appeared right behind Demetrious.

“It’s time to end this.” Magicae said, as the end of his wand sharpened, and he thrust it at Demetrious’ chest. Artis-Magicae was expecting Demetrious to grab his chest, and fall to the ground in a pool of blood. All Demetrious did was smirk, grab the hand with the wand, and started crushing it. Magicae dropped the wand in pain, and Demetrious tossed him so hard, he crashed into a pole and bent it. Demetrious went up to the pole, and broke it with his bare hands. He then swatted Artis-Magicae around with it a couple of times, until it broke.

Chapter 10

I had this guy right where I wanted him, he was obviously defeated, (and unlike Ahura Mazda) none of his magic attacks could do me much harm. Unfortunately, this guy wasn’t finished yet.

“Try stopping this.” He said as I saw him lift his wand. The Cyclone rollercoaster full of civilians started glowing purple. He then magically lifted it out of its place, and chucked it at me. It hit me and winded me. He did this three more times. I was on the ground, after those good shots from this lunatic. He was too fast for me, causing all this chaos; I can't stop him, not with this obvious weakness of mine. These people were innocent, and he was endangering many. Jane was firing at him with her pistol, but to no avail. He was levitating the roller-coaster with about a hundred people screaming, crying, and praying for their lives. I see him pull it back and was going to throw it at me one more time. He was still smiling like a gentlemen, a midst all the chaos he was causing, like he had no soul. In a split second, the roller-coaster full of civilians was hurled in my direction, I have to save them, but can I take the hit from the magic coated Roller-coaster flying toward me at high speed? I have no time to think, I have to save them, no matter what it does to me.

I remembered when I was wrestling back in Greece; nobody could move me when I got into the wrestling stance. So that’s what I did. I got into position and braced for the coaster to hit me. It was stopped, and I felt nothing. I then grabbed the coaster as Artis-Magicae was trying to pull it back with his wand.

“Guys, you have to get out of this thing now!” I commanded, as I felt the tug of the coaster. My hands bent this thing as I was gripping it. It wasn't going anywhere.

After the last person climbed out of the rollercoaster, I tugged with all my might and Artis-Magicae lost his magical grip on it. I then spun it around, and hit him with the end of it. He was moved with the coaster, as I smashed it against a wall.

“You… may steal this performance… Hero.” He said as he was trying to get up, “But I still have one last trick.”

He stuck his hand in his hat, and pulled out a bomb with bunny ears.

“I never was good at pulling rabbits out of my hat, but a bomb with a payload big enough to take out the entire island will have to do.”

He chucked it at my direction, and then pulled out some more confetti.

“Taw-taw” he said as he disappeared from sight.

Ok now my big problem is this bomb. What do I do? Do I throw it out of here? No its just going to blow up somewhere else and kill people. Do I run away with it? No there is not enough time. 30 seconds left. I panicked and just laid on top of the bomb.

“Get back!” I yelled. And I braced for the coming explosion. I have taken cannon shells, tank shots, small bombs, but never an island sinking bomb.

When the bomb exploded, the force was nothing I've ever felt before. I had to crush the concrete with my fingers, and hold on to the ground so I wouldn't fly off. Flames were escaping from my sides, but they weren’t going far. It was the longest 20 seconds of my life, taking the entire explosion, but it was done. It left a huge hole on the ground under me. There was even a pile of would-be shrapnel in the hole. I looked around to make sure everyone was ok. They all cheered.

“He saved us!” I heard them scream. “We are saved!” I heard another say.

They formed a crowd around me, and I saw Jane from a distance. Her arms were crossed, and she was smiling at me. At this moment, I felt different. I didn’t feel like a soldier, I didn’t feel like a criminal, I didn’t even feel like a failure. That very moment, I felt like a hero.

Out of nowhere, Artis-Magicae appeared behind Jane and grabbed her.

“Meet me at the abandoned warehouse on Park Avenue, Hero. If you’re late, she dies.” He said, and then they both disappeared.

After Artis-Magicae left the “hero” with the bomb, he disappeared into his secret lair. He looked into his portal on his hat, to see the explosion while he was magically healing his wounds from his fight. When Artis-Magicae saw the “hero” absorb the entire blast, he was dumbfounded.

“Who is that guy?” he said to himself as he looked around the whole scene, and saw Jane and the “hero” smiling at each other.

“Hmm” he thought. “Maybe I can use her as leverage.” He teleported to her location and grabbed her from behind. He gave the “Hero” the directions, and then disappeared with her in the warehouse.

“Let go of me you creep.” She ordered.

“I don’t think so; I have a date with your boyfriend. If you’re not here, he most likely won’t show up. And I don’t like it when I get stood up.”

Artis-Magicae hung her upside down from a chain. He then took his hat and reached into it.

“I still haven’t mastered pulling rabbits out. But a mutant man-eating bear might do. He pulled out a big, green, vicious bear from his hat. It started jumping, trying to claw at Jane.

“You know what, why not two?” he said as he pulled out another one. “Hell, three is a crowd.” And he pulled out another one. “Well four is a party so… lets party.” He pulled out one more. All four of the mutant bears started jumping at Jane and tried to reach her.

“Enjoy your party, princess.” He snickered, and then he exited the room. Jane was screaming in fear. She was hoping that Demetrious will show up and save her.

I ran as fast as I could to the warehouse. When I finally reached it, I tried to open the door, but it was locked. It only took one punch to open the metal door. I ran inside and I heard Jane screaming. I followed her voice to the 5^th floor. I smashed my way through the door, and I saw 4 big green bears, who were trying to kill Jane.

I tacked one to the ground, and crushed its neck. Another one clawed at me, and tried biting down on my neck. I felt the bear struggling to pierce my skin with his teeth. I punched it twice in the ribs, and it died. I grabbed its dead corpse, and threw it at another bear. It tried to claw at me, but I punched straight through its body. The last one attacked me but I punched its skull to dust.

I helped Jane down by crushing the chains; she fell straight into my arms. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and pressed her head against mine.

“Are you ok?” I asked her. She just nodded, and started leaning in. I had to stop her, mostly because I felt it as disrespect to my wife. And I had to stop Artis-Magicae.

“Stay here, I'm going to finish this.” I said as I let her down, and looked for Artis-Magicae.

I looked all over the abandoned warehouse for the “Now You See Me” reject. I finally found him on the roof, waiting for me.

“I thought you weren’t going to show up.” He snickered. “Is your girlfriend porridge yet?”

“She’s fine.” I replied. “You’re not going to be.”

I ran up to him as fast as I could, but then he slipped between my legs, and kicked me in the back. The hit didn't even budge me. He tried levitating large objects from the roof and throwing them at me, but I swatted them out of the way. I punched him in the stomach, and he was pushed back violently. He got back up and tried to fight me with his fists. I let him get a few punches in, to show they don’t hurt. He tried hitting me one more time, this time his hand was glowing purple, and it managed to knock me off balance. He tried this a second time, but I grabbed his arm, and squeezed it. He again, let go of his wand. He tried to fight back, but his punches could do nothing to me. I punched him twice in the torso, and once in the face. This made him dizzy and gassed.

Police cars surrounded the area, and a helicopter was flying above, it shined its light on us. I looked into Magicae’s cold, purple eyes; he was still smiling like a gentleman.

“Who are you?” he asked one last time.

“Who am I? I AM THE IMMORTAL!” I yelled as I tossed him off the roof so hard, he didn’t even have time to react. In a split second, he already hit the floor, and cracked his skull. A pool of blood was forming around him.

“I AM THE IMMORTAL. LET ALL EVIL ANSWER TO ME, THE UNKILLABLE, THE UNBEATABLE, IMMORTAL!”

I guess you can say, I got a little carried away, but I wanted to make a statement. There is a new hero in town, and his name is Demetrious Lippio.

The whole incident sparked an explosion of controversy. Good thing I had Jane to testify for me, or I would’ve had to fight for my freedom. She is a good friend, and I'm starting to feel a familiar feeling for her: love. Something I haven’t felt in a very long time. But I don’t want to act on it; I feel that it is wrong, that I just move on from the first love of my life. One day when I walked Jane home, she tried to kiss me. I stopped her and looked away.

“I don’t think I should do that.” I told her.

“Is it your wife?” she asked “Come on, it’s been thousands of years, you have to move on. You have thousands of more years ahead of you.”

“I don’t think its right, to go from wife to wife as the years go by.”

She looked at me with an understanding face.

“I don’t think your wife would want you to spend all of eternity alone. I know I wouldn’t.”

Those words stuck with me, even after she got inside and closed the door. Could she be right?

At the local morgue, they were preparing Artis-Magicae’s body for cremation. He was to be cremated the very next day. When they closed the place down, Artis-Magicae’s body started twitching, then shaking, and finally, one purple eye just shot open, and he breathed. He got up from his death bed, and looked for his clothes. He found them and walked outside casually.

“Are you ok?” someone asked

“I'm fine master, but I couldn’t defeat him. He’s a lot tougher than I thought.”

“Don’t worry about that” the person replied “I might have the answer right here.” He handed Artis-Magicae a new wand.

“What does it do?” Artis-Magicae asked?

“Defeat him.” Ahura Mazda said.