Dinner was served around an ancient oak table with a refurbished 17th century facade. Marcus, the faithful butler whose shoulder-length gray hair belied his youthful-looking face, directed three other servants as they delivered an assortment of food before taking a seat himself. It was a virtual smörgåsbord of dishes from all around the world, enough variety for everyone seated to be satisfied.
Myrddin, the last full-blooded Neanderthal to walk the earth, rose at the head of the table to address his guests. The Old Man was not tall by any means, rising just a little over five feet, but he commanded a powerful yet serene presence in the room. He possessed the low brow of the Neanderthal and a completely bald cranium that may have looked foolish on anyone else but him. His beetle-browed features looked instead wise beyond human understanding. His face was long and somewhat ape-like, but completely regal. He had never been a king, except perhaps the king of wizards, but he had been the perfect advisor to many monarchs over the centuries as per his life's calling. A close-cropped white beard completed the regal look, and his short and stocky body, adorned in a well-tailored, dark tuxedo, seemed almost unmoveable except by his will.
He looked carefully over the faces of his guests, gauging the state of their emotions beyond their outward physical appearances. No mind was hidden from him, yet he was careful not to intrude upon the privacy of any of them by going beyond mere surface emotions. The gathering was not a happy one, not at all. Too much tragedy had occurred in so short a time for this Christmas celebration to be a joyous one. Yet, as the Old Man looked into the faces of everyone sitting at the table, a kind of calm peacefulness seemed to fill them from inside. Yes, there were pressing matters that needed to be solved, and great men to be mourned, but this time, this dinner, would be theirs to enjoy for its own sake. Finally he spoke.
"My friends, we gather here together on this day for a most sober and critical occasion. We mourn the loss of young Axel's father, Doctor Henry Quantos, a man known to many of you for his scientific and medical achievements and to some of you for his human compassion and generosity of spirit. We also condemn the heinous kidnapping of young Eddy Cicciotto and stand side-by-side with Edulcore and Rose to accomplish his safe return as soon as possible.
"Yet let us not forget what season this is. The winter solstice, Christmas, a time to remember what we still have and what we can do for others, even in the midst of the darkest, most bitterly cold time of the year. This is a season of hope. I have seen the future, and I am confident that our continued hope is not in vain.
"It is also a time of particular celebration for one of our number, young Axel Magus. He has turned thirteen years old today, and though he mourns for the loss of the only father he has ever known, let us honor the memory of his father by celebrating Axel's birthday."
Myrddin placed a hand down upon the shoulder of the boy sitting on his right and smiled kindly down at him with an expression of understanding. No audible words passed between them, but more was spoken in that gesture than a thousand words could express.
"Thank you," Axel said, as if feeling the need to say something out loud for the benefit of the few at this table who could not read minds.
Axel Magus was at that uncomfortable, gawky age between childhood and adolescence and had grown by leaps and bounds since his twelfth birthday one year ago. During that time he had been formally adopted by his foster father, Doctor Henry Quantos, and he had seen his hero and savior, the hot-tempered Mason Templar, be killed and resurrected as the relatively dispassionate Rama Avatar, a man who was very similar yet different in so many ways from his predecessor. The boy's hair, once an almost-platinum-shaded blond, had grown darker with age, and it was now chestnut brown and somewhat unkempt and straggly-looking. With the gawkiness of his thin frame he looked like a normal young teenager, but his outward appearance belied the power that he held within.
The boy had always held power. As a young orphan with natural psychic powers, he had been made a ward of the state in the small Caribbean island-nation of La Perdita. Along with six other psychically-gifted children, he had been groomed to become one of La Perdita's protectors. With the powers of telekinesis and telepathy, an array of powers such as flight, force-fields, and mind-blasts enabled Axel and his honorary brothers and sisters to become the PSI-Unit, the Psychic Security and Intelligence Unit as the government dubbed them. The people loved them. They had no parents but were embraced by the public they protected as their own.
And then it all ended. A series of disastrous circumstances and intentional maliciousness caused the deaths and disappearances of all but one of them: Axel. Yet compared to the ordeal that Axel had been put through, the other PSI-Unit members had gotten off easy: Axel had been tortured by a rogue Perditian military officer who sought wealth and power for himself and used the secrets of the PSI-Unit to gain such. His rescue from that situation was akin to leaping from the frying pan into the fire, for although he briefly came into the care of Dr. Henry Quantos, he was quickly abducted by a mystic cult rumored to be run by the infamous wizard, Auguste Bullock, also known as Aurochs.
Finally, his savior found him and rescued him. The legendary Mason Templar, an adventurer and museum troubleshooter, had tracked down this mystic cult while on an errand for a prominent museum from which a priceless artifact had been stolen. During this mission he found the boy Axel and wrested him from out of their clutches, delivering him back to the one man who had cared for him as a father, if only briefly: Doctor Henry Quantos, who was now living on the island of La Perdita where Axel had grown up. Mason relocated to the island himself, partly to ensure Axel's safety.
The ordeal had caused Axel's latest psychic powers to become dulled, but a newfound mystic power of his own had brought him under the notice of Myrddin, who began to teach the boy the ways of the wizard. Axel was soon adopted by Quantos even as he became the disciple of the wizard Myrddin, known in legend under the name of Merlin, the wizard of King Arthur.
On Axel's right sat Marcus, the faithful butler of Myrddin's. Marcus had telepathic gifts of his own, and as such he had been one of two unofficial adult members of the PSI-Unit, training the young psychics in their more powerful yet undisciplined abilities with his own lifelong experience. Across from Marcus sat Tanya Landsvitter, now calling herself Ameristar. Tanya had been the other unofficial adult member of the PSI-Unit and had been particularly close to young Axel, becoming a much-needed mother figure in the boy's life during his formative years. Both Marcus and Tanya were psychically-gifted to a certain degree but were much more powerful when their powers were used in tandem.
An empty space was left between Marcus and Edulcore Cicciotto, who sat opposite from Myrddin at the other end of the table. This empty space was perhaps left to serve as a reminder of the grave reason for this gathering.
After returning from a battle with the La Perdita-based Vanguard International, a team of adventurers with whom Edulcore Cicciotto had a long history, Cicciotto learned to his utter dread and horror that his old arch-enemy, the wizard Aurochs (who had already influenced so many of the people at this table in evil ways) had captured Cicciotto's own son, Eddy. Fortunately for him, his wife Rose and their newborn daughter, Amara, were still safe, but only one man could help Cicciotto retrieve his son from whatever parallel universe Aurochs had secreted him away to. And so the proud Edulcore Cicciotto accepted the help of the wizard Myrddin, a man whom he had never fully grown to trust yet with whom he felt a strange bond going back beyond his own lifetime. At Cicciotto's right hand sat his wife, Rose Biggles, and their very young daughter Amara. Rose was yet another accomplished telepath and was an adventuress in her own right. Had she not been responsible for the care of Amara, she would have insisted on accompanying Edulcore on his mission to pursue Aurochs and rescue Eddy.
To the right of Rose and Amara sat Tanya. Since her days as a trainer for the PSI-Unit, she had returned to Myrddin's side and now took on the role of Ameristar, a heroine who intervened for a good cause when an intervention was deemed necessary. As Ameristar she wore an advanced suit of armor with a number of capabilities that enhanced her already-formidable psychic powers, yet she was now adorned in an elegant eighteenth-century dress and an archaic-looking powdered wig befitting the dinner and the modest festivities.
Rama Avatar sat uncomfortably between Tanya Landsvitter and the Old Man, attempting to raise the ever-present anger that boiled within without success. The telepaths who outnumbered the rest were out to ensure that a pervading calm settled upon everyone, even the warrior's heart of the legendary Swordsman himself.
The dinner conversation consisted of short but polite sentences and knowing glances between certain individuals. Despite the prevasive calm among the dinner guests, none of them could truly celebrate the season nor the young man's birthday. The group was allowed to enjoy this meal as fully as they could under the circumstances, but it was evident to all that Edulcore Cicciotto and Rama Avatar could only wait for so long until they were allowed to embark upon the hunt.
