RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Writer's Block Chewy Walrus: The Odyssey

Immediately following The End - Avatar from The End of the Message Board League

He’d seen many things in his lifetime. He’d faced more dangers, toils, and snares than any man ever needed to. He’d lived through them all. He was the Chewy Walrus. Fallen son of the church of science. Hybrid of a mortal man and a tusked aquatic mammal. Leader and founding member of the meta-human organization known as the Timeline Orderkeepers of the Message Boards. He was a friend, a colleague, a confidant, an inspiration, and a hero. But, that, in essence, was the whole point. He was.

Months ago, the Chewy Walrus made the ultimate sacrifice. He paid the ultimate price. He sacrificed himself - his very mortal soul - to the dark lord. The Viper. He spent his days trapped within a veritable torture chamber that was his mind. Hung on a cross while the other men who shared his thoughts were tortured in ways too grotesque to repeat, he felt hopeless at the hand of the V.

Until a short while ago.

Liberation.

Sweet freedom.

At the hands of the man he had once hated, but had grown to respect as a soldier, a warrior, and a friend.

Milliard Kreagan.

The Avatar.

And now, Chewy stood, in a place beyond life, gazing at a woman more beautiful than he had ever seen. When he saw her, he smiled, as his eyes met those of his teammate. Avatar smiled back, nodding at the man he had sought all his life, then, turning his gaze back to the woman he had looked for even longer.

“Delilah,” he said softly, as Chewy approached the bed where she lay, “I’d like you to meet the One…”

Delilah gasped, covering her mouth. “You mean, you have found him?”

“Indeed,” he said smiling ear-to-ear. “And he does not disappoint, I assure you.”

Taking his wife by the hand, Milliard pulled her to her feet and turned her to face the white-haired man before her.

“Delilah,” he said again, his words getting caught in his throat. “I’d like you to meet… the Chewy Walrus.”

Delilah smiled at Chewy warmly, offering her hand. “It is an honor to make your acquaintance, Sir Walrus,” she said, curtsying slightly.

“The pleasure is mine,” Chewy replied, lightly kissing her hand. “And, please, call me Chewy.”

“I see,” she said, smiling at him still.

“Av -- er… Milliard has told me an awful lot about you,” Chewy said, realizing that Delilah probably did not know her husband by the name he bore as a member of TOMB. Chewy looked at Avatar, and then back at Delilah. “He loves you more than he could ever have expressed.”

Delilah’s smile grew as she gazed longingly once again into her husband’s eyes. The warmth of her smile illuminated Avatar’s heart, making him happier than he had ever been.

“I know,” Delilah said, turning her attention back to Chewy. “You dress rather strangely for a knight of your caliber, Chewy. I must say, from Milliard’s descriptions, I pictured you somewhat… differently.”

“That is not surprising,” Chewy said. “At the time in which the prophecies came, people did not dress like this.” Chewy looked down at the blue and black bodysuit he wore, lightly touching the Walrus insignia on his chest. “In fact, they still don’t,” he muttered, chuckling a bit.

“The fact is, Delilah, that I am not the One that your husband sought…” Chewy said, his disposition turning serious. “He thought I was, but… I’m not…”

Delilah covered her mouth in shock as Avatar gazed at Chewy, confused.

“How… how can this be, Milliard?” she asked, looking to her husband, who moved toward his friend.

“I don’t know, my love,” he said, gazing hard at Chewy with his one eye. “How do you rationalize this, Walrus? What of the proof?”

Chewy ran his hands through his long, white mane and set his yellow goggles on a near-by table as he slid into a chair by the bed. “I... failed you, Milliard,” he began slowly. “I gave myself up to Viper, for the love of God! I was the V! I killed. I murdered. I was a tyrant. I… I deceived you…”

Avatar rose from his seated position by his wife on the bed. “No, Chewy,” he said defiantly. “No. You saved me. It was hell, yes, but it was my ultimate salvation.” He looked back at Delilah, who watched this all in confusion. “I didn’t realize that until now.

“I committed crimes, yes. I betrayed those closest to me, yes. I ushered in the reign of the dark lord, yes. But… it all worked out for the best, Chewy. For me, and for the rest of TOMB.” Avatar’s tone grew soft as he walked over to Chewy’s chair, squatting down to look him in the eye. “It will work out, Walrus. You may not have accomplished all that I told you that you would, but, in essence, my father was right. You were the One that I sought. You’ve given me what I never thought possible. Death - and with it, a second chance at the life I always wanted, but never had.

“You may not have been the One my father wanted, but you are the One, Chewy. You were the One I needed. That we needed.”

A tear ran down Avatar’s cheek as he finished. The Chewy Walrus placed a hand on the man’s shoulder, helping him to his feet. As Avatar stood, facing the man he had grown to love and respect, the Walrus took the man firmly by the hand.

“Milliard Kreagan, you are one of the bravest, most selfless men I have ever had the privilege to know and work with.”

“And, you, Chewy Walrus, are the best friend I have ever had.”

With that, the two men joined in a firm embrace. No longer teammates. No longer friends. But brothers.

As the two men let go, Chewy walked over to where Delilah sat. “Mrs. Kreagan, it’s been my distinct pleasure to meet you. Your husband… he…”

“I know,” Delilah said, compassionately, raising her hand to his face. “Thank you, Chewy Walrus. You have done more for my husband than I’m sure you will ever know.”

“And he for me, ma’am,” the Walrus replied. “And he for me.”

Chewy turned, beginning to walk out the door. As he reached the doorframe, he stopped, turning to where the Kreagans sat, looking out after their departing friend.

“Oh… and one more thing,” Chewy said, reaching behind the back of his neck. Milliard and Delilah Kreagan watched as the Walrus unclasped a small golden chain from his neck, sliding it into his gloved hand. “I believe this is yours, Delilah.”

The woman held out her hands expectantly as Chewy poured into them her amulet, which she had worn in the days of her living. Smiling, Chewy then turned, walking out into the Elysian Fields, which surrounded him fully.

Chewy turned towards the sun, closing his eyes and soaking up its warm rays. The light felt good, he had to admit. Darkness had too long been a part of his existence and he was glad to feel the warmth of the risen sun. Running his hands gently over the heads of wheat that ran across the ethereal Fields felt good. Invigorating, almost.

After walking on a ways, Chewy paused, kneeling beside a quiet stream that ran through a central field. Dipping his gloved hand into the gentle waters, he pulled out a small portion of the quiet waters and continued to do so until he had drank his fill. As soon as he was done, he lay on his side, gazing at his own reflection in the water.

He looked at his face. Tired, sunken eyes. Prematurely grey hair. High, pronounced cheekbones. Squared jaw and cleft chin. Chewy smiled as he took off his yellow goggles and looked at them pensively. They had been his… mask of sorts. They had hidden his face. Not who he truly was, mind you, but his face.

But then, who was the Chewy Walrus?

The question pulled at the man’s heart and mind. He had spent his entire existence as a walrus-human hybrid – the creation of a friend-turned-madman who was more interested in playing God than in scientific discovery. He was a freak. And, in an effort to find his place in a world that he felt he no longer belonged in, he gave himself over to helping those who did not have the special gifts and abilities that he had. It had been worth it, as far as he could tell, but the last few months had been a literal hell.

The Walrus rolled onto his back and cringed at the thought of even considering it again. In the past few months, he had been the antithesis of everything that he had believed and held dear. He had become merged with the very essence of evil… and, he wasn’t quite sure, but part of him… missed it.

Absurd as the thought was, a part that the Chewy Walrus had chosen to bury deep still longed for the power and the knowledge that had come with his merging with the V-entity. And why not? He was a scientist, first and foremost. An explorer second. Both of these professions required a need, a yearning, for knowledge in any and all forms. The knowledge he had experienced, the sheer omniscience, made him wonder… wonder what if he still had it.

Then he remembered the torture. The pain. The anguish. The existence of himself in triplicate as each of the men that inhabited his mind were forced into cruel and inhumane torment. It took all the Walrus had just to resist his captor, but he held out long enough, not ever having been fully consumed by the Beast. He realized that the lust for knowledge that he faced now was only a cry from that same Deceiver – the Viper. Despite that the Viper had been cast into the Abyss, he still longed to be one with it again.

And, in spite of himself, the Walrus wondered if Prometheus had ever felt the same way…

Suddenly, a queer thought passed through Chewy’s head as he began to notice what it was that he was looking up into. He had been too lost in thought to notice it before, but now, as his thoughts seemed to dwindle, he saw it for the freakish happening that it truly was.

The sky had turned dark.

Siting up with a jerk, the Walrus took in his surroundings, realizing that he was no longer in the Elysian Fields. A flash of thunder brought light to the area as the following clap of thunder deafened the man as he rose to his feet.

“Wh-where is this place?” Chewy said, scanning his eyes over the terrain. He saw craggy ground and uneven roads. He saw rotten, wilting trees lining the roadside and a stench like that of ozone hit his nostrils, much to his disgust. Wrinkling his nose, the Walrus placed his yellow goggles back onto his face and looked at the ground beneath him. He stood at a fork in the craggy road. Two lanes branched off before him, one leading toward the East, the other, toward the West.

“You are at the Crossroads,” a voice came from behind him. Chewy whirled around in surprise to see the man before him. The man wore a long grey cowl, which covered his entire body, and a hood, which hid his face, save his two glowing white eyes. He was hunched over the reigns of his pale horse, a long scythe in his right hand. Beside him stood an equally ominous individual. This man had long black hair and neat goatee and was wearing a black Grecian toga with gold trim. Chewy’s eyes widened as the horse rider continued.

“All of your life has led up to this moment,” he said, his raspy voice echoing across the barren wasteland that lay around them. “Now is your time, Chewy Walrus. Your true destiny lies ahead, not behind. Upward, not downward. Forward, not backward.”

The man on the horse stopped speaking, seeming to gaze expectantly at the Chewy Walrus. However, before Chewy could open his mouth, the regally dressed man beside him spoke up, a commanding tone to his voice.

“Do you know who we are?” he asked.

“I have an idea,” Chewy said, scratching his chin pensively.

“Enlighten us,” the rider said menacingly.

Chewy cleared his throat as he prepared for a recitation. “’And I looked up and saw a horse whose color was pale green, like a corpse. And Death was the name of its rider, who was followed around by Hades. They were given control over one-fourth of the Earth, to kill with the sword and famine and disease and wild animals.’ Book of Revelation, chapter six, verse eight.”

:”Truly, you are much wiser than we anticipated,” Hades said, stepping forward slightly. Then, turning to his partner, “He is precisely the man we need.”

“Need?” Chewy asked, stepping forward warily. “Need for what?”

“The end is near, Chewy Walrus,” Death said, his foreboding tone sending ominous shivers up and down Chewy’s spine. “The Red and Black Horses are already waging their war and famine on mankind. Your friends are dying, if not dead already. Then, we shall ride among the Earth, bringing a swift end to those who remain.”

“What do you mean ‘the end is near?’” Chewy asked incredulously. “I’ve stopped the end of the world hundreds of times! There’s no possible way that you can say that my friends can’t do it again!”

“I am afraid that my colleague is correct,” Hades replied. “Behold!”

As the lord of the underworld spoke, a swirling portal appeared beside him. Hades gestured toward it, and, as Chewy peered inside, he could make out the forms of the members of the MBL and TOMB, standing around a large table in the all but toppled MBL Headquarters.

“We need your help, Eurostar!” Bibbo said, pounding his metallic fist hard on the table, sending a fissure through its center. “You can’t have come back only by accident!”

“No,” the Italian smiled, rocking his young son to sleep. “I have not come back by accident. I have come back for my son. For him. I have not come to fight your war. I was a guardian angel while among the Host, not a warrior. My days of fighting are long over.”

“Dammit, you can’t give up!” Bibbo said adamantly, walking over to where the man in red stood. “We need you, Euro! Now more than ever! I will NOT believe that we are to sit here with our thumbs up our butts, waiting to fall! Now, tell me you will help us!!”

Eurostar stood pensively, watching the ex-sailor before him. The man had changed much since Edulcore Cicciotto had last seen him, but one thing remained the same – his unwavering devotion to that which was right and true. Euro sighed, setting his son into a makeshift cradle, where the boy slept soundly. Turning toward the new leader of TOMB, Eurostar gave his reply.

“No,” he said sadly. “I have finally given up. Over the last few years, things have gotten worse and worse, up to the point where things don’t make sense… like some higher beings or powers that be are just trying to screw us over.”

He paused, looking up at Bibbo and tearing off his full-face mask, staring the man square in the eye. “Listen, Bibbo. The League is dead. TOMB is gone. Maybe… maybe it’s better this way…”

“Damn you,” Bibbo muttered under his breath, shaking his head and looking at the newly resurrected hero. “DAMN YOU! How can you – YOU, or all people – say that?! HOW!”

Eurostar looked down at the ground, then up in the face of the man he had fought beside for so many years. “Because,” the Italian said weakly, “I died along with the League.”

Chewy was aghast as the portal before him faded into obscurity. Eurostar, though Chewy had never met him, was a hero of the plainest sense. For him to have given up… It was more than Chewy wanted to think about.

“It is this interaction that has spelled the end of the world for your world,” Hades said. “For Eurostar held the key… the key that has now been lost forever. This world will end, Chewy Walrus, and there is nothing that can be done to stop it.”

“How can one man’s choice spell the doom of six billion people? How is that fair?!” Chewy asked, suddenly becoming alive with rage.

“Life is not fair, Chewy Walrus,” Death said, his voice piercing at Chewy’s ears.

“How can you speak of life?!” Chewy seethed. “You give death!” he cried, pointing an accusing finger at the figure on the horse. “And you thrive on it!” he yelled, turning his attention toward Hades. “How can you stand there and tell me about the fairness of life?! The life that neither of you respect?!”

“How can you speak of life, Walrus?” Death asked, his tone much more calm than that of Chewy. “You, who have been given the very power and mastery to take death away with a touch of your hand. Do you think this was by accident? Do you think that it was chance?”

“Your destiny awaits you, Chewy Walrus,” Hades declared. “You will find that in death, your true purpose for living will be revealed.”

“How can you say that?” Chewy cried, stepping up into the face of the god of death. “I was a hero! I was a leader! I was an explorer! I was a scientist! I made the world a safer, better place for my fellow man!”

“And look where it has brought you,” Hades said, stretching his hand out, indicating the terrain around them. “You are dead. Surely this cannot have been by accident? Surely you cannot believe, after all that you have seen in your lifetime, that everything happens by chance?”

Chewy stood there, confused, yet still staring Hades dead in the eye, not blinking or even wavering in his stance.

“Now is your time, Chewy Walrus,” Death said, leaning from his perch. “Your friend Kreagan was correct. You are the One he sought. However, your time of reckoning had not yet come. Now it has.”

“This,” Hades stated, “has been ordained since the dawn of this era. You are the man that has been sought. Everything you have known, everything you have experienced, everything you have lived has been brought about for such a time as this.”

For such a time as this…

The words echoed through Chewy’s mind, causing his vision to blur and his head to spin. Holding his hand to his head, he braced himself as, for the first time ever, his other selves began to speak.

“For such a time as this,” said a man, clothed totally in white, a platinum ring on the ring finger of his right hand.

“For such a time as this,” said a man, clothed totally in black, an ethereal glow coursing over the full extent of his body.

“For such a time as this,” said a man, identical to the Walrus in every way, save an otherworldly, almost evil yellow glow in his eyes.

“You know the words,” they said in unison. “You know the phrase. It has been the key to your existence, and will continue to be…”

quote:

---

From TOMB Code ‘no’: Malvana’s Song:

Boss Tweed sat massaging his temples next to Rypta's chair in the War Room. He sighed a deep sigh and glared at the wall ahead of him. In the hangar downstairs, Rypta Gud'n, BISONSIX, HERO!, and LLANCE helped modify the timeship for Hyperboard travel. Fluffy installed his tracker into the timeship, and Professor Radium sat across Boss Tweed, looking at him intently.

Radium: Mr. Boss Tweed...

Tweed: Look, I know who you are, OK? Don't give me this "Mr. Boss" crap...

Radium: OK, fine. Tweed, I know that you hate this just as much as I... we do! But look, for the time being this is necessary.

Tweed: You listen to me, "Radium"! We are entering the Hyperboards! The Hyperboards! To fight the diabolical Doktor Klone! He was EuroTsar! One of you knows what we're up against! One of you knows the odds! ONE OF YOU GIVES A CRAP WHILE THE OTHER JUST WANTS TO BE LIKED! (under breath) ...you are so Willy Loman...

Radium: My friend, don't sell me short. To think that you were brought back to life... for such a time as this...

With that, Radium stands to leave the room. Tweed sat in thought for a while, staring at the surveillance tapes of Radium walking into his simple quarters and tinkering with his chemistry set. Tweed buried his head in his hands and rubbed his temples even harder. He cracked his ghoulish knuckles and floated out of the War Room and made his way to the hangar, Radium's last words ringing in his head...

"...for such a time as this..."

"...for such a time as this..."

"...for such a time as this..."

"...a time as this..."

---

“For such a time as this?” Chewy said, trying his best to remember what significance those words held. “For such a time as this…”

quote:

---

From TOMB Code ‘no’: Return to Mandelovia:

"Bring us in, Dan." The Raider lurched forward, sending the remaining five members of TOMB spinning down into their rightful time. As the clouds in the sky parted, the Mandelovian Palace lay before them, but not as they had once known it... "What the...?"

Joker1 shot up, peering out the window. "It's still taken over!" he yelped. "What're we gonna do, guys? They hate me! My werewolf form almost killed them!"

"Calm down, Joker1, we'll think of something..." Chewy sank deep into his pilot's seat, looking down. He studied the palace guard, and wondered if it would be logical to... yes, of course! "Tweed, I need you here, now!"

The nethereal Boss Tweed flew into the cockpit. "Yeah, Chewy?"

"Do you remember what Professor Radium told you? How you were as much a part of this as he was?"

"Yeah... what's your point?"

Chewy tore off his gloves, tossing them onto the floor. Dan looked up, giving his old friend a "what the heck are you doing" look. A glowing extended hand was held before Tweed. "Take my hand, Tweed. The Touch of Death and the touch of one who's cheated death will surely..."

"...Surely bring about life..." Tweed whispered, finishing Chewy's sentence. "Of course! 'Such a time as this'!" Tweed's hand met Radium's, expelling a gigantic flash of light which blinded all. From the blinding light, three voices called out.

"Spinning... molding... forming... shaping... spinning... molding... forming... shaping..." When the blinding light subsided, a familiar form lay slumped on the ground. It wore yellow goggles, a glove on one hand and a ring on the other. His hair had gone white due to the stress, but it was obvious to all that the form was that of...

"Chewy...?" Dan slowly rose from his chair and shook his friend awake. Chewy rose slowly, aching incredibly. TOMB had unbuckled, and were now standing before the cockpit entrance.

---

“Those words,” Hades said loudly, his voice sending a crack of thunder through the air, “are the ones that spoke you into being. And now it is those same words that point you into your true direction. In the midst of death and despair, your journey now begins.

“Journey?” Chewy asked, looking to the two ethereal beings that gazed into and through him. “What kind of journey?”

“Your quest is one of necessity,” Death said. “You are to travel throughout the Netherworld. The land of the dead is to be your walking place and the underworld is to be your expedition.”

“I am not to stop the end of the world?” Chewy asked, now more puzzled than ever.

“No,” Hades said. “You were told that there is nothing that can be done. This is true.”

“Then, what…?” Chewy began.

“Yours now is not to question, but merely to follow and obey,” Death said. “All will be revealed to you in time.”

“But, I don’t understand!” Chewy cried, walking toward the figures before him. “What am I to…?”

“Go, Chewy Walrus!” Hades said as the two forms began to fade. “As our time has now come, so has yours…”

The images of Hades and Death vanished completely from Chewy’s view, leaving him standing alone in the desolate region of the Netherworld.