The Comet - Stupid Questions in the Dark.

"Wait, what were you doing?"

The slinking figure clad in white stooped over the rocky outcropping, not turning to face Max or his question. A low sighing sound escaped the sloop hood that hid the wraith-like form from view. After a second, a masked face turned to Max, blue eyes giving off an eerie glow.

"I was in Berlin."

Max stepped down from the stony path, placing a hand on the cavern wall to steady himself.

"In 1942?"

"Yes." The responding voice was hollow and metallic, and sounded like a small chorus of voices all speaking in unison. The White Cloak moved like a wisp of fog as he navigated the cavern path, seemingly floating down the unlit grotto.

"Why?"

"Because. Hitler was after three devices of extradimensional origin, and I was sent to stop him."

Max blinked. His eyes struggled to make out anything in the darkness - he could only see in the dark if there was something or someone warm-blooded to give off heat, but the White Cloak was the only other being present, and whatever he was...warm was not it.

"No, that's bullshit. The Thule Society thing was a myth, Hitler wasn't really into the occult. He was Catholic."

"He was. He was also a pragmatic bastard eager to rule the world. Do you really think he'd turn away a super weapon just because it flew in the face of Vatican doctrine?"

Max thought for a second, slipping on moldy rocks grunting to catch himself.

"Shit....why can't I turn on a light again?"

Max heard only the rustling of cloth and the same sighing hiss.

"Because it will see the light. Watch out, the next step is sheer for forty meters."

Max staggered blindly along the path, feeling for a way down. He bit his tongue when his fingers squeezed what he hoped was a cave salamander and not a rock.

"Okay...Berlin. What was he after, though? I heard the Lance of Longinus-"

"Yes, a megalomaniacal tyrant living in a new age of technological warfare is going to conquer the world with a pointy stick. If you must know, he was after two weapons. One was an energy source that would have powered his entire war machine through extradimensional quantum fission. The other was a philter containing a cell-regenerating solution, would have granted him immunity from natural cell-death."

"Jesus..."

"The Thule myth came about because to mortal eyes, weapons from my dimension tend to take on a more...humble appearance. The energy cell looked like a simple gilded stone chest, the filter...like a simple wooden goblet."

"Well, you obviously stopped him, so thanks for that."

Max grunted as he touched down at the bottom of the path, running right into the White Cloak's solid form.

"To be fair, I only aided in his defeat. I was forbidden from actively interfering. The credit for actually securing the devices goes to an archaeologist I had met."

The White Cloak floated on. Max followed as closely as he could in the blackness.

"Uh-huh. Okay, very fucking funny. Haha, pull on over on the Comet. Come on, an archaeologist? Jesus, Cloaky, you could have at least tried that on someone who wasn't born within the last forty years."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"The Ark of the Covenant? The Holy Grail? Have you never seen an Indiana Jones movie?"

"Indiana-?" The White Cloak was silent for a while. "Ah. Tom Selleck. Yes, my human host is familiar with the films. I find human fiction so...quaint. Like watching a quilting bee. You ever watch a quilting bee? Boring as hell. Same thing with human movies."

"Right. So, you just happened to have some wacky adventures that coincidentally mirror the Indy flicks?"

"There is no coincidence, only confluence. The man I knew was one Mitchell Kearney. To my understanding, however, he had a sister who married a man named Lucas. Perhaps the connection is there?"

Max stepped back, thinking.

"Hold on...human host? What was that about you having a human host?"

Another sigh in the dark. "I bond to humans when visiting your plane."

"Huh...okay. So who were you back then, with this Kearney guy?"

A low growl send a chill up Max' spine, resonating from far below, as if something large were stirring awake.

"Back then my host was a girl. Wu Pei Shan."

In a flutter of cloth, a cold void replaced the White Cloak, and the growl grew in pitch.

"A Chinese--you were Short Round?"

The cave exploded into a pale yellow light, startling Max and nearly causing him to fall backwards. Faint silhouettes danced against the light, some large and misshapen, and one, ghost-like and cloaked. After a few blinking seconds, Max saw the light's source, and stared up, watching the black slit at the center contract into a near-invisible sliver, as the eye focused on him.

The growl became an angry, incoherent roar, shaking the cavern.