Post by DocQuantum on Dec 2, 2018 12:35:16 GMT
Chapter 4: Family Secrets
by Doc Quantum
Ever since the incident at the studio, Dan Cassidy had been seeking any information he could find on what may be happening to him. He knew he had to be discreet, because to draw attention to yourself in Occupied California was never a good idea for any reason. After having no luck at the local library, Dan turned to his old friend Norm Paxton, who was particularly knowledgeable in the subject, being the owner of an old bookstore specializing in the occult called The Third Eye.
After pestering Norm with numerous questions, Dan was finally referred to an acquaintance of his who was one of his oldest customers -- an occult specialist named Dr. Stephen Zero, who was well known in certain circles as a ghost detective. (*) The only problem was that he'd have to wait a few days to meet this specialist, since Dr. Zero wasn't currently in California. Given that California -- or rather the Axis powers who'd conquered California -- was in a state of war against the United States of America, he wondered how likely it was that he'd ever meet Zero, Ghost Detective at all.
[(*) Editor's note: See Zero, Ghost Detective, Feature Comics #32 (May, 1940).]
Yet a mere three days later, Norm sent Dan a message telling him that the meeting was scheduled after closing hours at the bookstore.
Immediately after work, Dan Cassidy went to The Third Eye and waited in the attic until Norm closed for the day. Dan was sipping a cup of herbal tea and reading an old paperback when Dr. Zero arrived.
Only this wasn't the Dr. Zero that he'd been expecting. Dan had already read a great deal about various figures in the occult, and Dr. Zero's name kept popping up. But that Dr. Zero had been a male ghost detective active since the early 1940s, if not earlier, and the Dr. Zero before him was a youthful but frail-looking wisp of a woman with ghostly white, unblemished skin and blonde hair pulled back into a tight bun. She was certainly intelligent-looking, but with her thickly rimmed glasses and gray and white outfit, she seemed better suited to the environs of a library than supernatural warfare of the kind he'd read about.
"Norm, didn't you tell me I was gonna meet the legendary Dr. Zero?" Dan said to his friend. "This is a chick, and a young one, at that."
"An astute observation," she replied with a sigh.
Norm shrugged. "I didn't know it earlier, but the old guy's retired now. This here is his daughter, Dr. Drusilla Zero."
"Pleased to meet you, honey," Dan said, smiling as he offered his hand. "You sort of remind me of my cousin, Mary Frances."
Instead of reciprocating with a handshake, she turned her nose up at the gesture and took her seat across the table from him, where she peered at him over her lowered glasses as if she were sizing up a lab specimen. "I understand you have some questions for me, Mr. Cassidy," she stated, rather formally.
"That's right," said Dan, taken aback by her unfriendly attitude, "I--"
"I take it you had expected me to be a man," she interrupted. Before Dan could stammer a reply, she added, "My father was the Dr. Zero from all the stories you've undoubtedly heard. In recent years I have taken up his practice, and I have long since realized it will take me a great deal of time before my own name becomes as well known as that of my father's." (*)
[(*) Editor's note: See Hourgirl: The Haunting of Hedley Heights, Chapter 2: Dr. Drusilla Zero.]
"And how is dear old dad, anyway?" he asked.
"My father is as sharp and perceptive as ever, Mr. Cassidy, but I hardly believe you asked me to travel all the way here to chit-chat about my family," she said. "Would you not rather learn a few things about your own?"
"My family?" Dan's eyebrows raised involuntarily. He hadn't been expecting the conversation to go this way. "Well, I know my Uncle Seamus is a bit eccentric, but--"
"Exactly how much do you know about your mother's side of the family, Mr. Cassidy?" asked Dr. Zero. "I am, of course, referring to the Blackburns."
He shrugged. "Not too much, actually. My ma hardly spoke about her family. All I know is she had two older brothers, Harry and Bruce. When I was a kid, before she died, I remember she told me my Uncle Harry was in show business -- a stage magician, fairly famous in his day. Uncle Harry died around '68 or so. And Uncle Bruce died as a young man way back in 1940."
"You may think you know the general basics of your family history, but I suspect you've barely managed to scratch the surface," said Dr. Zero. "Tell me, does the name 'Nebiros' ring a bell?"
"Why, yes it does!" replied Dan with surprise. "How did you--?"
"The matter of the demon Nebiros is precisely why I took pains to travel all the way here, Mr. Cassidy, despite the difficulties in doing so. But please, allow me to continue. There are a few things you need to know about the Blackburns, and I'm happy to oblige."
"Dan has always been a bit of a weirdness magnet," Norm said with a chuckle. "Remind me to tell you about that Blue Devil character who appeared at the Verner Brothers Studio last August, on the eve of the invasion. He looked and sounded so much like Dan in a costume that everyone naturally assumed he'd tried to play a practical joke, and instead got himself in hot water with his boss."
"Yeah, thanks for bringing that up, Norm," said Dan. "I nearly lost my job over that. They still don't trust me other there, especially when I didn't end up joining the Nazi Party like everyone else did. Still can't believe how everyone just caved under peer pressure like that."
"I think there's more to it than we might think," said Norm, his voice hushed as he continued. "That mind-control ray was operational for five years, indoctrinating everyone around the world into the Nazi philosophy. A lot of you were kids back then, too, with developing brains that didn't know how to counteract the propaganda. You can't just shrug something like that off. It's terrifying to think about, but I think people just feel more drawn to the familiar, and what's familiar to them isn't freedom, but being under Axis control."
"Loose lips sink ships, Norm," said Dan, making a motion of zipping his lips. "Never know who's listening, right? Anyway, the lady was just about to tell me something I don't know about my family. Care to continue, Doc?"
"Thank you," Dr. Zero said, accepting a cup of Earl Grey tea with milk and sugar from Norm. Taking a sip of it, she continued. "Mr. Cassidy, your uncle, Bruce Blackburn, was a counter-espionage agent for the United States Army Intelligence Corps. He was a contemporary of my father, in fact, and worked with him on a few occasions over the years. His missions largely remain classified to this day. Known as America's greatest counterspy, he operated from the mid-1930s until 1963, when he died."
"Wait a second," Dan interrupted. "I happen to know that my Uncle Bruce died in 1940, when my mom was just a little girl. She even attended his funeral!"
"That was merely a ruse," explained Dr. Zero. "The nature of his work necessitated that he falsify his own demise, then obtain plastic surgery so that he couldn't be recognized even by his own family. His compatriot Lieutenant Jackson, who was also believed to have died, was made to look like his twin so that they could switch places at a moment's notice." (*)
[(*) Editor's note: See "Living Dead Men," Feature Comics #32 (May, 1940).]
"Wow," Dan said, taken aback. "That's just cold. My mom lived through the rest of her childhood and all of her adult life believing that her big brother was dead."
"As I explained, it was seen as a necessity," she continued with a shrug. "Blackburn proved to be even more successful at catching spies as a supposed dead man than he'd been when he was known to be alive. Yet for a brief time he also joined the ranks of the costumed mystery-men so prevalent in those days, and donned a yellow acrobatic outfit paired with a red cape and red-horned cowl, along with a false mustache and goatee, to become -- the Destroying Demon."
"You don't say..." replied Dan with a frown. "So what connection did he have with this Nebiros, anyway?"
"Absolutely nothing," said Dr. Zero. "The Destroying Demon was merely a short-lived role modeled after a popular comic-book hero of the time, Colossal Guy. Blackburn used his devilish alter ego to frighten superstitious foreign spies, making himself appear to fly by the use of a rock-climbing apparatus hidden beneath his cape. As the Destroying Demon he was able to save the entire city of New York from being poisoned by cyanide. He abandoned the costumed identity shortly afterward." (*)
[(*) Editor's note: See "The Demon of Destruction," Feature Comics #39 (December, 1940).]
"Then I don't understand what that has to do with anything," Dan said, frustrated. "So Uncle Bruce used Hollywood-type stunts to become a super-hero from the comic-books? So what? I was hoping you'd be able to fill me in on this Nebiros character, but all you've told me so far is a few family anecdotes."
"I am getting to that, Mr. Cassidy," replied Drusilla Zero with another sip of her tea. "Bruce Blackburn's short-lived Destroying Demon identity would have remained nothing more than an anecdote from times past, had it not been for his famous brother, stage magician Harry Blackburn.
"As you may be aware, your uncle Harry's birth name was Lawrence Blackburn, but he used the stage name of Harry Blackburn after beginning his career as a magician in the early 1930s, seeking to emulate such figures as Harry Houdini and Harry Blackstone. Unfortunately, your uncle was forced to settle out of court for a large sum of money when Harry Blackstone claimed, and rightfully so, that Harry Blackburn was stealing his business by using such a similar name. Thereafter Harry Blackburn sought to differentiate himself somehow from other stage magicians. He sought to use genuine magic instead of mere parlor tricks and sleight-of-hand. And that would ultimately end up leading to his demise."
"Oh, boy. Somehow I think I'm not gonna like this..."
"Harry Blackburn learned a great deal of real magic under a series of tutors, including Jock Kellogg, better known as Merlin the Magician, as well as Mister Mystic, Tor the Magic Master, and Margo the Magician. However, he didn't limit himself to those magicians aligned with virtue, but also sought out unsavory teachers who specialized in so-called black magic, some of whom were Nazis and members of the Thule Society. Unfortunately for the world, his lack of scruples made him an avid student."
"Yep. I knew I wasn't gonna like this."
"Having been on tour in England in 1957 when the Germans invaded and took over that last European holdout to the Third Reich, Harry Blackburn was unable to return home to America for several years. Thus he had ample time to go from dabbling in the occult simply to improve his stage illusions to becoming a master sorcerer, and eventually learned the forbidden secret of conjuring a demon in a physical form, rather than merely a spiritual one.
"Having been inspired by his brother Bruce's short stint as the Destroying Demon, Harry announced a new magic act in which he promised to summon a live demon on stage to perform feats never seen since the days of ancient Atlantis itself. He had discovered some years earlier that his older brother Bruce was still alive, but had kept that a secret even from his family for his own purposes.
"Despite an urgent warning from my father sent telepathically across the Atlantic, Harry used his new skill during the debut night of his new act to summon one such demon. Unfortunately, much to Harry's chagrin, he was unable to control this demon, who claimed its name was Nebiros. During the act, the demon was unleashed upon the audience, and many there were killed or maimed before Harry was finally able to make it disappear into the ether. Since most of those who'd been targeted and killed were German officers and members of the Nazi Party, the British Resistance considered Harry a fighter for freedom, and kept him from being caught by the Germans until he was able to be smuggled back to America."
"Yeesh. Sounds to me they should've let the Nazis have him."
"That could have proven disastrous," explained Dr. Zero, "for that wouldn't be the only time that Nebiros would be unleashed. At least Nebiros was ostensibly on the side of the Allies. Harry Blackburn had permanently tied himself to the demon through a blood ritual, and was unable to do anything to get rid of it. All he could do to appease its blood lust was to let it out of its cage from time to time. Desperate to free himself, Harry sought to pass on his burden to someone else, but because it was tied to him by blood, he could only pass it on to a blood relative.
"By 1963, Harry had become so corrupted by the demon that he tricked his brother Bruce by appealing to him for help, only to betray him. He attempted to bond the demon to Bruce, but failed. (*) When Bruce died shortly after during the German invasion of America, Harry realized that he'd basically signed his brother's death warrant. The demon effectively accepted the sacrifice, however, giving Harry more time to find another.
[(*) Editor's note: See Merlin the Magician: Times Past, 1964: Cloak and Dagger.]
"However, by 1967, Harry Blackburn found that it was becoming more and more difficult to control Nebiros, and the demon lord was unleashed upon the world. In the chaos of the late '60s, Nebiros came close to bringing about total annihilation, and might even have succeeded in doing so had it not been for a young occult specialist named Dylan Flynn. As the son of Mister Mystic, he would become known as Mystic Man. Despite his youth and his own questionable morality, he and the Freedom Fighters of the time found a way to rid the world of Nebiros, at least for awhile. (*)
[(*) Editor's note: This tale has yet to be told.]
"As for Harry, he simply disappeared. No one knows exactly what happened to him, but several rumors of his death later surfaced. Some say he was killed by the Nazis for his role in the earlier massacre, while others claim more fancifully that he was dragged into Hell itself by Nebiros when the demon was sent back home."
"How about Nebiros?" asked Dan. "I'd been doing some research on occult figures, and came across the name, which just rolled off the tongue. Though I can't for the life of me remember where I read it -- probably in some moldy old text from the Middle Ages. All I remember is reading that Nebiros was supposedly one of the major demons, referred to as a Marquess or Marquis of Hell by Johann... uh..."
"Johann Weyer, author of De Praestigiis Daemonum--" interrupted Norm. "-- On the Tricks of Demons. It was a rebuttal of the Malleus Maleficarum, the witch-hunter's handbook."
"Right, right," said Dan. "Anyway, this demon's supposed to avenge the loss of dignities and honors or something like that."
"An acceptable, if rudimentary summation."
"So, what I'd really like to know, Doc," asked Dan, "is there any chance that the demon could come back someday?"
"To tell you the truth, Mr. Cassidy, I'm not entirely convinced that Nebiros hasn't come back already. I have heard reports of Axis troops being slaughtered by the dozen, with no suspects yet named, except for an ephemeral 'Destroying Demon.' In my business I have found that there are no true coincidences. Would you happen to know anything about the Destroying Demon, Mr. Cassidy? After all, it certainly appears to be a bit of a family tradition, as it were."
"Me? Why would I know anything?" Dan said, suddenly so angered at the question that he stood up indignantly.
"Tell me, Mr. Cassidy, what have you been dreaming about lately?"
"What kind of questions are these, lady?" said Dan. "You think I had something to do with those massacres?"
"Well, you are the last remaining Blackburn on your mother's side," said Dr. Zero. "It's entirely possible that Nebiros is bound to you by blood thanks to your uncle."
"I don't have to stand here and listen to this!" Dan shouted, throwing up his hands.
"Dan, Dan, calm down, pal," said Norm. "Drusilla is just following the leads where they go. She's a ghost detective, remember? She didn't mean to offend you... uh, did you, Dru?"
"It's Drusilla, not Dru, Mr. Paxton," she replied coldly. "And if giving offense might draw the demon out more effectively, then I certainly did mean to offend."
"Lady, you're nuts!" Dan said, grabbing his jacket and heading down the stairs to the back door. "Norm, thanks for the drinks. I'm outta here."
"I will see you again soon, Mr. Cassidy," called Dr. Zero with certainty, "whether on your terms or on mine."
"In your dreams, lady," said Dan, slamming the door as he left.
It was almost midnight by the time Dan Cassidy returned home from The Third Eye, having had to take a circuitous route to get home after curfew. He stewed all the way home, and racked his mind to figure out why he'd become so angry. Just one look at that woman, and her overly formal speech patterns had flustered him so much that, by the time she'd outright accused him of harboring a demon, he couldn't take another moment in her presence. Completely exhausted by the discussion, he went straight to bed without bothering to undress or brush his teeth. And by the time his head hit the pillow, he had forgotten all about it.
by Doc Quantum
Ever since the incident at the studio, Dan Cassidy had been seeking any information he could find on what may be happening to him. He knew he had to be discreet, because to draw attention to yourself in Occupied California was never a good idea for any reason. After having no luck at the local library, Dan turned to his old friend Norm Paxton, who was particularly knowledgeable in the subject, being the owner of an old bookstore specializing in the occult called The Third Eye.
After pestering Norm with numerous questions, Dan was finally referred to an acquaintance of his who was one of his oldest customers -- an occult specialist named Dr. Stephen Zero, who was well known in certain circles as a ghost detective. (*) The only problem was that he'd have to wait a few days to meet this specialist, since Dr. Zero wasn't currently in California. Given that California -- or rather the Axis powers who'd conquered California -- was in a state of war against the United States of America, he wondered how likely it was that he'd ever meet Zero, Ghost Detective at all.
[(*) Editor's note: See Zero, Ghost Detective, Feature Comics #32 (May, 1940).]
Yet a mere three days later, Norm sent Dan a message telling him that the meeting was scheduled after closing hours at the bookstore.
Immediately after work, Dan Cassidy went to The Third Eye and waited in the attic until Norm closed for the day. Dan was sipping a cup of herbal tea and reading an old paperback when Dr. Zero arrived.
Only this wasn't the Dr. Zero that he'd been expecting. Dan had already read a great deal about various figures in the occult, and Dr. Zero's name kept popping up. But that Dr. Zero had been a male ghost detective active since the early 1940s, if not earlier, and the Dr. Zero before him was a youthful but frail-looking wisp of a woman with ghostly white, unblemished skin and blonde hair pulled back into a tight bun. She was certainly intelligent-looking, but with her thickly rimmed glasses and gray and white outfit, she seemed better suited to the environs of a library than supernatural warfare of the kind he'd read about.
"Norm, didn't you tell me I was gonna meet the legendary Dr. Zero?" Dan said to his friend. "This is a chick, and a young one, at that."
"An astute observation," she replied with a sigh.
Norm shrugged. "I didn't know it earlier, but the old guy's retired now. This here is his daughter, Dr. Drusilla Zero."
"Pleased to meet you, honey," Dan said, smiling as he offered his hand. "You sort of remind me of my cousin, Mary Frances."
Instead of reciprocating with a handshake, she turned her nose up at the gesture and took her seat across the table from him, where she peered at him over her lowered glasses as if she were sizing up a lab specimen. "I understand you have some questions for me, Mr. Cassidy," she stated, rather formally.
"That's right," said Dan, taken aback by her unfriendly attitude, "I--"
"I take it you had expected me to be a man," she interrupted. Before Dan could stammer a reply, she added, "My father was the Dr. Zero from all the stories you've undoubtedly heard. In recent years I have taken up his practice, and I have long since realized it will take me a great deal of time before my own name becomes as well known as that of my father's." (*)
[(*) Editor's note: See Hourgirl: The Haunting of Hedley Heights, Chapter 2: Dr. Drusilla Zero.]
"And how is dear old dad, anyway?" he asked.
"My father is as sharp and perceptive as ever, Mr. Cassidy, but I hardly believe you asked me to travel all the way here to chit-chat about my family," she said. "Would you not rather learn a few things about your own?"
"My family?" Dan's eyebrows raised involuntarily. He hadn't been expecting the conversation to go this way. "Well, I know my Uncle Seamus is a bit eccentric, but--"
"Exactly how much do you know about your mother's side of the family, Mr. Cassidy?" asked Dr. Zero. "I am, of course, referring to the Blackburns."
He shrugged. "Not too much, actually. My ma hardly spoke about her family. All I know is she had two older brothers, Harry and Bruce. When I was a kid, before she died, I remember she told me my Uncle Harry was in show business -- a stage magician, fairly famous in his day. Uncle Harry died around '68 or so. And Uncle Bruce died as a young man way back in 1940."
"You may think you know the general basics of your family history, but I suspect you've barely managed to scratch the surface," said Dr. Zero. "Tell me, does the name 'Nebiros' ring a bell?"
"Why, yes it does!" replied Dan with surprise. "How did you--?"
"The matter of the demon Nebiros is precisely why I took pains to travel all the way here, Mr. Cassidy, despite the difficulties in doing so. But please, allow me to continue. There are a few things you need to know about the Blackburns, and I'm happy to oblige."
"Dan has always been a bit of a weirdness magnet," Norm said with a chuckle. "Remind me to tell you about that Blue Devil character who appeared at the Verner Brothers Studio last August, on the eve of the invasion. He looked and sounded so much like Dan in a costume that everyone naturally assumed he'd tried to play a practical joke, and instead got himself in hot water with his boss."
"Yeah, thanks for bringing that up, Norm," said Dan. "I nearly lost my job over that. They still don't trust me other there, especially when I didn't end up joining the Nazi Party like everyone else did. Still can't believe how everyone just caved under peer pressure like that."
"I think there's more to it than we might think," said Norm, his voice hushed as he continued. "That mind-control ray was operational for five years, indoctrinating everyone around the world into the Nazi philosophy. A lot of you were kids back then, too, with developing brains that didn't know how to counteract the propaganda. You can't just shrug something like that off. It's terrifying to think about, but I think people just feel more drawn to the familiar, and what's familiar to them isn't freedom, but being under Axis control."
"Loose lips sink ships, Norm," said Dan, making a motion of zipping his lips. "Never know who's listening, right? Anyway, the lady was just about to tell me something I don't know about my family. Care to continue, Doc?"
"Thank you," Dr. Zero said, accepting a cup of Earl Grey tea with milk and sugar from Norm. Taking a sip of it, she continued. "Mr. Cassidy, your uncle, Bruce Blackburn, was a counter-espionage agent for the United States Army Intelligence Corps. He was a contemporary of my father, in fact, and worked with him on a few occasions over the years. His missions largely remain classified to this day. Known as America's greatest counterspy, he operated from the mid-1930s until 1963, when he died."
"Wait a second," Dan interrupted. "I happen to know that my Uncle Bruce died in 1940, when my mom was just a little girl. She even attended his funeral!"
"That was merely a ruse," explained Dr. Zero. "The nature of his work necessitated that he falsify his own demise, then obtain plastic surgery so that he couldn't be recognized even by his own family. His compatriot Lieutenant Jackson, who was also believed to have died, was made to look like his twin so that they could switch places at a moment's notice." (*)
[(*) Editor's note: See "Living Dead Men," Feature Comics #32 (May, 1940).]
"Wow," Dan said, taken aback. "That's just cold. My mom lived through the rest of her childhood and all of her adult life believing that her big brother was dead."
"As I explained, it was seen as a necessity," she continued with a shrug. "Blackburn proved to be even more successful at catching spies as a supposed dead man than he'd been when he was known to be alive. Yet for a brief time he also joined the ranks of the costumed mystery-men so prevalent in those days, and donned a yellow acrobatic outfit paired with a red cape and red-horned cowl, along with a false mustache and goatee, to become -- the Destroying Demon."
"You don't say..." replied Dan with a frown. "So what connection did he have with this Nebiros, anyway?"
"Absolutely nothing," said Dr. Zero. "The Destroying Demon was merely a short-lived role modeled after a popular comic-book hero of the time, Colossal Guy. Blackburn used his devilish alter ego to frighten superstitious foreign spies, making himself appear to fly by the use of a rock-climbing apparatus hidden beneath his cape. As the Destroying Demon he was able to save the entire city of New York from being poisoned by cyanide. He abandoned the costumed identity shortly afterward." (*)
[(*) Editor's note: See "The Demon of Destruction," Feature Comics #39 (December, 1940).]
"Then I don't understand what that has to do with anything," Dan said, frustrated. "So Uncle Bruce used Hollywood-type stunts to become a super-hero from the comic-books? So what? I was hoping you'd be able to fill me in on this Nebiros character, but all you've told me so far is a few family anecdotes."
"I am getting to that, Mr. Cassidy," replied Drusilla Zero with another sip of her tea. "Bruce Blackburn's short-lived Destroying Demon identity would have remained nothing more than an anecdote from times past, had it not been for his famous brother, stage magician Harry Blackburn.
"As you may be aware, your uncle Harry's birth name was Lawrence Blackburn, but he used the stage name of Harry Blackburn after beginning his career as a magician in the early 1930s, seeking to emulate such figures as Harry Houdini and Harry Blackstone. Unfortunately, your uncle was forced to settle out of court for a large sum of money when Harry Blackstone claimed, and rightfully so, that Harry Blackburn was stealing his business by using such a similar name. Thereafter Harry Blackburn sought to differentiate himself somehow from other stage magicians. He sought to use genuine magic instead of mere parlor tricks and sleight-of-hand. And that would ultimately end up leading to his demise."
"Oh, boy. Somehow I think I'm not gonna like this..."
"Harry Blackburn learned a great deal of real magic under a series of tutors, including Jock Kellogg, better known as Merlin the Magician, as well as Mister Mystic, Tor the Magic Master, and Margo the Magician. However, he didn't limit himself to those magicians aligned with virtue, but also sought out unsavory teachers who specialized in so-called black magic, some of whom were Nazis and members of the Thule Society. Unfortunately for the world, his lack of scruples made him an avid student."
"Yep. I knew I wasn't gonna like this."
"Having been on tour in England in 1957 when the Germans invaded and took over that last European holdout to the Third Reich, Harry Blackburn was unable to return home to America for several years. Thus he had ample time to go from dabbling in the occult simply to improve his stage illusions to becoming a master sorcerer, and eventually learned the forbidden secret of conjuring a demon in a physical form, rather than merely a spiritual one.
"Having been inspired by his brother Bruce's short stint as the Destroying Demon, Harry announced a new magic act in which he promised to summon a live demon on stage to perform feats never seen since the days of ancient Atlantis itself. He had discovered some years earlier that his older brother Bruce was still alive, but had kept that a secret even from his family for his own purposes.
"Despite an urgent warning from my father sent telepathically across the Atlantic, Harry used his new skill during the debut night of his new act to summon one such demon. Unfortunately, much to Harry's chagrin, he was unable to control this demon, who claimed its name was Nebiros. During the act, the demon was unleashed upon the audience, and many there were killed or maimed before Harry was finally able to make it disappear into the ether. Since most of those who'd been targeted and killed were German officers and members of the Nazi Party, the British Resistance considered Harry a fighter for freedom, and kept him from being caught by the Germans until he was able to be smuggled back to America."
"Yeesh. Sounds to me they should've let the Nazis have him."
"That could have proven disastrous," explained Dr. Zero, "for that wouldn't be the only time that Nebiros would be unleashed. At least Nebiros was ostensibly on the side of the Allies. Harry Blackburn had permanently tied himself to the demon through a blood ritual, and was unable to do anything to get rid of it. All he could do to appease its blood lust was to let it out of its cage from time to time. Desperate to free himself, Harry sought to pass on his burden to someone else, but because it was tied to him by blood, he could only pass it on to a blood relative.
"By 1963, Harry had become so corrupted by the demon that he tricked his brother Bruce by appealing to him for help, only to betray him. He attempted to bond the demon to Bruce, but failed. (*) When Bruce died shortly after during the German invasion of America, Harry realized that he'd basically signed his brother's death warrant. The demon effectively accepted the sacrifice, however, giving Harry more time to find another.
[(*) Editor's note: See Merlin the Magician: Times Past, 1964: Cloak and Dagger.]
"However, by 1967, Harry Blackburn found that it was becoming more and more difficult to control Nebiros, and the demon lord was unleashed upon the world. In the chaos of the late '60s, Nebiros came close to bringing about total annihilation, and might even have succeeded in doing so had it not been for a young occult specialist named Dylan Flynn. As the son of Mister Mystic, he would become known as Mystic Man. Despite his youth and his own questionable morality, he and the Freedom Fighters of the time found a way to rid the world of Nebiros, at least for awhile. (*)
[(*) Editor's note: This tale has yet to be told.]
"As for Harry, he simply disappeared. No one knows exactly what happened to him, but several rumors of his death later surfaced. Some say he was killed by the Nazis for his role in the earlier massacre, while others claim more fancifully that he was dragged into Hell itself by Nebiros when the demon was sent back home."
"How about Nebiros?" asked Dan. "I'd been doing some research on occult figures, and came across the name, which just rolled off the tongue. Though I can't for the life of me remember where I read it -- probably in some moldy old text from the Middle Ages. All I remember is reading that Nebiros was supposedly one of the major demons, referred to as a Marquess or Marquis of Hell by Johann... uh..."
"Johann Weyer, author of De Praestigiis Daemonum--" interrupted Norm. "-- On the Tricks of Demons. It was a rebuttal of the Malleus Maleficarum, the witch-hunter's handbook."
"Right, right," said Dan. "Anyway, this demon's supposed to avenge the loss of dignities and honors or something like that."
"An acceptable, if rudimentary summation."
"So, what I'd really like to know, Doc," asked Dan, "is there any chance that the demon could come back someday?"
"To tell you the truth, Mr. Cassidy, I'm not entirely convinced that Nebiros hasn't come back already. I have heard reports of Axis troops being slaughtered by the dozen, with no suspects yet named, except for an ephemeral 'Destroying Demon.' In my business I have found that there are no true coincidences. Would you happen to know anything about the Destroying Demon, Mr. Cassidy? After all, it certainly appears to be a bit of a family tradition, as it were."
"Me? Why would I know anything?" Dan said, suddenly so angered at the question that he stood up indignantly.
"Tell me, Mr. Cassidy, what have you been dreaming about lately?"
"What kind of questions are these, lady?" said Dan. "You think I had something to do with those massacres?"
"Well, you are the last remaining Blackburn on your mother's side," said Dr. Zero. "It's entirely possible that Nebiros is bound to you by blood thanks to your uncle."
"I don't have to stand here and listen to this!" Dan shouted, throwing up his hands.
"Dan, Dan, calm down, pal," said Norm. "Drusilla is just following the leads where they go. She's a ghost detective, remember? She didn't mean to offend you... uh, did you, Dru?"
"It's Drusilla, not Dru, Mr. Paxton," she replied coldly. "And if giving offense might draw the demon out more effectively, then I certainly did mean to offend."
"Lady, you're nuts!" Dan said, grabbing his jacket and heading down the stairs to the back door. "Norm, thanks for the drinks. I'm outta here."
"I will see you again soon, Mr. Cassidy," called Dr. Zero with certainty, "whether on your terms or on mine."
"In your dreams, lady," said Dan, slamming the door as he left.
***
It was almost midnight by the time Dan Cassidy returned home from The Third Eye, having had to take a circuitous route to get home after curfew. He stewed all the way home, and racked his mind to figure out why he'd become so angry. Just one look at that woman, and her overly formal speech patterns had flustered him so much that, by the time she'd outright accused him of harboring a demon, he couldn't take another moment in her presence. Completely exhausted by the discussion, he went straight to bed without bothering to undress or brush his teeth. And by the time his head hit the pillow, he had forgotten all about it.