and sighed then said dramatically. “— Billions of years of Martian history and the development of Martian culture were brought to a standstill that day when Roth and the Aristocrats overthrew the government,” after a moment a little melancholy crept into his voice. “—So now we’re all just Exiles, —scattered throughout the universe with fond memories of Mars, and of the way things use to be.”
Jesse stared sadly into the heavens for a moment, but then a defiant smile crept across his face. Suddenly he raised a clenched fist and shouted with gusto. “But, Comes the Triumphant Victory!”
Caught up in the glory of the moment I too raised my clenched fist and hollered. “But, Comes The Triumphant Victory!”
Jesse’s eyes twinkled down at me as a new comrade in arms. Then he exclaimed “But Wait! I’m getting way ahead of myself. Before we became Exiles, there were the Boskonian wars and after that there was a long great time of peace. After Parker and I had finished building the famous Martian Canals, Moscovitch decided to give up his Ruler ship and retire to Andromeda.”
Jesse lay back in the tall grass and sighed, “Ahhh —I remember that day well. Parker and I were waving goodbye to Moscovitch as he flew off in his new red convertible ship with the radio blaring: “Let’s Get Away From It All,” by Frank Sinatra. It was a glorious farewell! That was the very same day Roth left Elysium to form his army. You see, Moscovitch had appointed Parker and me to ascend the throne, but Roth thought Moscovitch should have appointed him King, and I think that’s when his hatred of Moscovitch and me began to fester in his soul and his megalomania became a burning fury demanding revenge.”
“Wait a minute, you mean you and Parker were the Kings of Mars?” I was astonished — my big brother Jesse, the King of Mars.
Jesse tried to act nonchalant, but I could tell he was proud of this fact by the way he pompously held his head and smirked with delight.
He pulled out a big cigar from his gabardine jacket pocket and rolled it across his fingers. “For a short time we were.” he nodded. Then staring at the cigar he became nostalgic again. “Ah what a time it was. Everyone did exactly as they pleased, no work, no chores — it was Utopia!” Jesse emphasized this statement by thrusting a pointed fore-finger in the air.
Well, that sounded pretty good to me, I mean no chores like taking out the trash or washing the silverware, just having fun drawing, reading comic books and listening to radio programs like “The Inner Sanctum.” Yeah, that sounded okay. I knew what I liked to do best, but I was curious about the Martians.”
“What do Martians like to do best?” I asked.
Jesse’s answer came faster than two shakes of a Dragons tail, “Why scientific research, of course!”
†
Later, lying in bed that night my thoughts were filled with visions of the majesty of the olden days on Mars. I thought about The Mighty Moscovitch, the brave Ex-Ruler, about Madman Roth and his sidekick Tok Loor, the cranky dwarf pirate. I wondered about Erf and Merf, the friendly green dragons and laughed again when I thought of The Little Men. But, mostly what I thought about was Jesse and Parker as the reigning Kings of Mars. In my mind’s eye I could see the Martian people — a great cheering throng of them throwing flowers at Jesse and Parker as they mounted the steps in the Roman style gardens of Elysium to sit upon their kingly thrones on that glorious and magnificent day.
Jesse was sad that he couldn’t return to his homeland, but the very last thing he told me that night was that he and Parker and the other Exiles had a secret plan called: “The Triumphant Victory”, and soon they would rescue control of Mars from Madman Roth and the greedy Aristocrats. But, he said, that the timing must be right. He also promised to tell me about the night they all got exiled and how he and Parker just barely made it to Earth or Tellus as he calls it. I could hardly wait.
But, before I continue further there’s something important that needs to be mentioned. It’s something that happened eons before that neither Jesse nor I knew about back in 1938.’—And… it was about Madman Roth.
CHAPTER 4
THE EVIL DARK ONES
It is written in the Sacred Book of Origins that the universe is a battlefield between the forces of Good and Evil. In many different eons this battle has been fought and waged — by many different races — in many different struggles.
In the drama that this story tells, years before Mars had become civilized The Evil Dark Ones came like a pestilence… fleeing through space, searching for a place they could conquer. For a very brief time these large devious Rat-winged creatures had found that place in the form of a small red jeweled planet that lay yawning in an unknown dimension of space. That small planet later came to be known as the “Jewel of Arcturus” because that’s where it had first appeared in Our dimension — two light years from the star Arcturus, but after that, it had inexplicably disappeared and like a lot of mysterious things, had become a Legend. Everyone knew that inside the red sparking exterior of the “The Jewel of Arcturus” lived several superior worlds, and one of them was the world of Demon Veri. The Evil Dark Ones had held captive the residents of the Red Jeweled planet to be their slaves and do their bidding, but then something went wrong for them and one fateful night the red-jeweled planet drifted into our dimension, near the star of Arcturus and its portal door mysteriously spiraled open.
Suddenly out flew thousands of the Evil Dark Ones with a bright white glowing sphere of light hounding after them. Inside this shinning translucent bubble was Celeste, the Princess of Light, who could take many forms and was the only enemy powerful enough to destroy them. The Evil Dark Ones fled far and wide and then came upon a starry planet in the Virgo Cluster system. They swooped down upon a craggy mountainside near a rock strewn valley during a torrential sparkle storm. As the creatures dove amongst the rocks, Celeste hurled shafts of lightning strikes down upon them, destroying hundreds of the Evil Dark Ones at a time. One by one they crashed upon the jutting rock … that is all save two.
As Celeste searched through the torrential skies, dark clouds passed over a blood red moon and the terrain below darkened... She cast her lightning shafts here and there amongst the rocky region to lighten up the battlefield. The two creatures that had eluded her were hidden, crouched and shaking beneath a high cliff. Their rat bodies shivered in fear as her lightning bolts struck loudly, flashing nearby.
Suddenly the sparkle storm ceased and something very, very strange began to happen. The two rat creatures started to glow from inside and seams of light began to break them open, showering the air with shards of weirdly angled glass-like fragments that reflected rainbows of light.
The female rat creature Morbella, screamed in horror. “Yeeee! What’s happening to me?”
Her male counterpart’s eyes glowed red as he squirmed, shape shifting and squealing unintelligibly, “Euth —Euth —”
It seems that out of their own dimension the Evil Dark Ones were subject to the physical forces of the dimension into which they had come, and were now taking on shapes far different.
Morbella morphed quickly into the shape of a beautiful young woman with long black hair. Wriggling up, she
