Starting in Ancient Rome, a boy and the apprentice to the Cog Master, or the resident Old Man, work as a duo maintaining the ‘Janus Nexus,’ and like a secret agency, the MIB, or Section 31, or something, throughout the timeline of humanity the boy and the old man and a handful of others preserve Order.

The Old Man knows Caesar, Augustus, and the duo’s introductory story takes place in the Royal court of the Ancient Romans.

The Palatine Hill, where the word Paladin eventually comes from, is where the underground Janus Nexus exists (fitting for the new year), and the other side, the other “face” of Janus exists across the Ocean, under water, underground, who’s doorway resides at the tip of the African continent (modern day Tunisia—the site where ancient Carthage had once existed).

See I don’t believe in time travel, so to speak, and I’m open to the possibility, of course—I don’t like to rule out any possibility, but I don’t think that’s what’s going on here. I don’t claim to know. Is it believable that what is going on with these ancient megalithic sites is neither aliens, nor “us” from the future, who built up all these great ancient structures that have left all baffled at the discovery, but is it just as possible, given it’s an ‘unknown,’ that it’s all humans… from the past, who built all those great feats of civilizations, but who were once also highly advanced? Those anomalous monuments that surpass our own, monuments to the mystery, it would follow that it’s just as possible that intelligent beings on this planet had once reigned with a great but totally different kind of technology—not one bound to the binary computing systems of modern man, and our electronics and circuitry, but of one which survived the flood. The survived knowledge of the properties of matter might have been brought back all from thought, what was remembered by some of the masters who survived all the cataclysm, and so the ‘Mahabharata’ and the ‘Baghavad Gita’ and these Hindu texts, of the times of the great war machines, the flying crafts with laser beam and weather weapons, and these strange all-knowing kings, who probably weren’t “all-knowing” but had so much knowledge left over from the pre-flood/cataclysm that they were able to look as gods to them, and dazzle the people with their building and resonance technologies (probably) that they astounded them with their Atlantean (probably) knowledge, and if not levitating stone by some manner, then baking it in to the enormous forms and pouring molten hot rock into the form of the same rock composite, perhaps, but either way some ancient Engineering technique that already it is clear, rivals our own.

So, do a lot of their descendants, and refugees from their wars, exist right here: underground/underwater?

Since I think the most likely possibility, of it all, is that it was ‘us’ in the past, likely with some due intervention, by ‘them,’ but the overarching idea behind it remains the same, that it was ‘us’ who did these feats of construction and whether it was a hybrid race or some kind of genetically enhanced species or just a really old one, he hadn’t seen a cataclysm on that scale for perhaps thousands of more years, and was suddenly struck by it, seemingly out of nowhere, and you can guess what remains after the last scrambling to get away, the small probably insignificant towns that would survive that sort of thing, maybe the people on the outskirts, maybe there was a cataclysm in the 200+ thousand year history of mankind where, because of major and incomprehensible cataclysm one time it got down to 1 man, and his wife. And maybe it got down to 1 man, and his wife, maybe 3 or 4 Mass cataclysms ago, and maybe the hybrid race you keep bringing up, please stay silent, survived to whatever degree underground, in hidden tunneling systems, or possibly under oceans and in hard to access areas in general. Or maybe even just a separate human bloodline, that goes off into the deep caverns, and the unknown worlds of the Antediluvians.

I don’t believe the over-arching explanation is time travel ( by our future descendants), but my story involves time travel, and an HG Wells type-descendent character (with his time travel machine he practically is), a figure fighting off the forces of evil, in the 4th dimension, like a wizard, or maybe it was the 5th dimension… and the story is of the Society of Janus, and their Mission of keeping the monster at bay.

The word “hero” comes from the name Herod, one of the Jewish kings in Biblical times (NT) who is also a central character Focused on in the story of Ancient Rome, and the royal court of Augustus. Because Herod grew up in Rome, amongst the royal families, which was customary to do for diplomatic reasons, having a high-born child live and be raised in an allies country, protected and educated by the sovereign, and solidifying the relationships between kingdoms thereof. Young Herod Agrippa grew up in the court of Augustus, who was by then an older man, and so Herod grew up with his grandkids (at least according to the Robert Graves’ novel). Augustus married Livia Claudia and so the Claudian line fused with the bloodline of Julius Caesar, as Augustus was his adopted son and heir, and so the future emperors of Rome had grown up with Herod as one of their play friends.

And so the [fictional] Janus Society, or ‘Janus Nexus,’ has a library section which will archive all that happens, in the future and the past, that the Paladin Order will be used as knights, or agents of Janus (in reality: the Cog Master).

But yes, these are the primary heroes of the story: Claudius (future emperor who conquered the islands of Britannia for Rome), Herod Agrippa (Jewish lineage and Marcus Agrippa’s heir, a close friend of Augustus in youth), a person named Germanicus (Claudius’s beloved older brother), Tiberius (the king of Rome, ostensibly, who I believe was in power during the crucifixion of Jesus), Livia (grandmother of Claudius), Caligula (nephew of Claudius), a guy named Posthumous, and Castor… and then the Old Man and the boy apprentice (the Cog Master ⚙️, and The Slayer—main playable character of the video game).

And Castor was the son of Tiberius, and Posthumous was the only biological grandson to Augustus. And so these two guys become Paladins, who work for the Janus Nexus as operatives, getting sent around time with small battalions of their agents around the important timelines of history, fighting armies of evil undead like zombies, and witches and mummies and all of that shit. So Posthumous (which means after-life) and castor are the main warriors at the beginning of the story, being sent around by the Old Man to fight at medieval times, and American Western times, and Victorian era times, and it’s kind of like that cartoon Mighty Max, where he has the owl adviser and the big warrior hero dude that travels around with him.

And so in the first playable mission, you go to Italy in like Florentine era of economies and burgeoning new finance systems and cloth manufacturing, and Posthumous dies on the mission. Next, Posthumous becomes the over-arching villain of the rest of the story, and is basically set up as the last boss, resurrected by a medieval Count who was practicing Black Magic, during the Ciompi Rebellion, when a bunch of textile workers rose up against the wealthy oligarchs and violence ensued. The oligarchs d’ed up, and really strongly began to further factionalize, and one of the great first European uprising by the taxpaying people occurred. In the imagination, this was occurring at the same time as other black magic events, done in such places as would be called Romania one day in the future, and Dacia in the Ancient Roman past, and is where the Carpathian Moubtains meet the Black Sea. The nation of Wallachia, with their Vovoides and their strange relation to the Latin Speaking Pope.

Wallachia is the nation in that geographic region where Transylvania is located, and the best ringer for the ‘Count Dracula’ occurred right there, as Vlad III, the son of the Dragon lineage, and the man who would lead to the lineage of the English Monarchs, like prince Philip or whatever, who sit on the English throne today. They’re the Royal Family now. The Transylvanian state church/State fusion that was Wallachia, who had their Vovoide ruler ship, which I imagine is something like a czar, and the Eastern, Russian etc. rulers always had Eastern Orthodox Church fused State-Religions, who recognize Christianity as their overall monicker but just not the Pope, as the final arbiter of the decisions made over “their” people. Makes sense. But czar even comes from the word Caesar, and that brings us right back to Augustus Caesar, and Claudius.

And Claudius is the Caesar who conquered Brittania, so he met with all of the Arch Druids who probably had unimaginable secret knowledge, and were masters of the oral tradition and transmitting ancient knowledge by word of mouth, another tendril of what would later be known as the gnostic heresy, which is the attempt to find transcendence through occult, secret knowledge (that nobody ‘else’ has). Exclusive knowledge, which is usually when they molest you or something perverted, and give you drugs and try to f you.

… ancient mystery site and anomalies around the world, the show Ancient Aliens to the characters from the X-Files TV show, Agent Mulder and Special Agent Scully.

She’s the skeptic, Dr. Scully, sent to shut the bunk and to debunk all of the unaddressed claims, and Agent Mulder is the true believer. Fox Mulder is ready to cross the line to answer his questions. Fox Mulder wanted to believe.

… honorary agents of the Janus Nexus, and the guy who died, Pinchbeck?, is a fallen hero, immortalized by the Lebrii, the library of the Nexus Society. And so you can have these guys showing Mulder and Scully the future where mainstream society would have an extremely successful tv show, that many people I feel like tend to watch, specifically around the holidays, Christmas in particular. Even the normies will kind of get into the strange or into the outré, around the Winter Solstice.

Maybe it’s the cold.

So there are honorary heroes to the Society of Janus, and not all of these were through martial means of inclusion—there are scholars, some who were mavericks in their fields, who fought against the rigid establishment, on behalf of the Truth, who get approached before death, and are familiarized with The Old Man, and our other diplomatic representatives.

…

A

Choose now the Form of the Destroyer: The enormous shape of Apocalypse stands before Gambit, the wind of the facility was gushing with wind, he was alone, there weren’t any other X Men here right now, and his charged throwing cards were having a negligible effect on the think new massive armored form of Apocalypse, who was always already insanely over-powered.

“Do you really think this is why I lured you here? Just to fight… you?”

Gambit was listening. He was ready to fight, and to go out heroically, and he was ready to die, finally, at least he’d be standing on his feet. But he wanted to know why this new and improved form of Apocalypse had lured him all the way here.

“I have been engaged… in an ultimate battle… between dimensions I was previously unaware of, but one in particular, and the winner of the struggle will be the form… of the Destroyer… and it looks like I will not be the one… but my enemy, Piedmon, from a Universe described only as Digital in nature, has produced a Destroyer Avatar which far surpasses my power.”

Gambit was shocked. He had never seen a vulnerable spot in Apocalypse before! And he was scared at what kind of power had humbled the old Tyrant, even in his future-advanced form, which makes him massive and more formidable than Gambit had ever seen him.

“Well, what you want done?”

“I need you… to find… a secretive organization—as secretive as the X Men… the agents are called… Agents of the Janus Nexus.

…

The Old Man and his apprentice had been on the case, trailing a lead which lead to the cult that they had pegged their suspicion on, in New York City, at a building that, for lack of any better words, was either built by a madman, or a genius… or both. It was a natural supernatural conduit. If that makes any sense.

John Constantine was on the scene too. They were on the trail of Gozer the Gozerian, and Constantine was an expert on the old bird.

Their contact in this node of time and place is “Pete Vankman” and he and Constantine sort of clashed. Maybe their caustic, sarcastic personalities didn’t jive too well together. Two people can’t both be the coolest guy in the room. The Old Man had been checking the occult literature we’d ascertained thanks to John Constantine, and soon the Swamp Thing would join them—once the breakout of ghosts and goblin-spirits and attacks started.

On the streets of New York, and outbreak occurred, and the swarming poltergeist population decloaked before the population, and its usual numbers were multiplied enormously by a rift spewing from a single sourced channel, a rift had opened up, and The Swamp Thing had established a safe base of operations for them. The Janus Nexus had to adapt, to strange circumstances, and this was a ‘whopper.

So, inside the magical matrix created by the roots and tendrils and wooded masses, grasses, and fungus a Fortress was near-instantly manifested by the bog god, Earth Elemental, amazing Swamp Creature. Constantine liked to swat him down a peg, and bantered to him like any old mate. Inside the Headquarters we could stage our campaign against the Absolute Infestation of New York City. The Poltergeists flying through the streets, posing as Taxi drivers as emaciated husks of dead bodies, re-animated by powerful Dark Powers, and hot dog consuming frenzied, fat, goblin-demons ran around like mad clowns, stirring up emotions and causing general, yet playful, chaos.

“That’s one of the fastest I’ve ever seen of them.” Constantine cooly remarked, standing casually yet powerfully, and confident, unafraid apparently of the daunting task here in front of him. “Look at him go, the green one.” The creature was zipping around, eating whatever street-foot was left on the street.

[the Stakes] stands up, from a crouched position behind some cover, “well, shall we go out?” flipping a wooden stake in his hand, ready to combat the supernatural parasites.

The Old Man says they should scout around a bit, but report back quickly; don’t range too far out, but keep an ear out. See if you can find out any more information.

They meet up with Pete Vankman.

They meet up with Gambit.

Gambit tells them about the warning by Apocalypse, and the group resolves to coordinate and prepare for the arrival of this threat to a super-charged ‘Apocalypse.’ The monster Myotismon was the previous Digital Monster that [the Stakes] had dealt with, and now the next evolution of this evil form had come about, to further threaten the mortal realm.

Constantine was here, this time, and we had all gotten stronger, smarter, and more well-equipped. A few ghostly apparitions attacked us, and then it was a swarm… Constantine did some work, I’m not gonna lie, and his protection spells were obliterating 90% of their threats.

The demon dogs jumped out, the spells did not affect them, and [the Stakes] did battle with them, but was careful to quickly escape before taking mortal damage from them. After they are subdued, we see a red-eyed massive Apocalypse, who is collapsed on his belly and fighting with only the upper portion of his torso, and being controlled by Puppetmon, or Piedmon if Puppetmon is already defeated, Piedmon is performing with them as if by marionette strings, laughing, and the group does battle, alongside Gambit, to take down the ornery red-eyes corrupted form of Apocalypse.

He would not be the form of the Destroyer.

Gozer the Gozerian was next, and they were forcibly turned to the town of Derry, where the crew must investigate the location of an evil force there, driven to intervene by the pleadings of the poor children which the Old Man and Constantine were sympathetic to. Gambit had disbanded after we had cleaned up Apocalypse, and all we had were these kids as back up, and one big kid: John C.

Our crew found the clown at several spots around Derry, and after an encounter, but no victory, we had received a ‘picture from Derry,’ which contained a photograph of a living paranormal entity caught inside—at least a portion of it. It was a portion of a creature, and a portion of it’s very soul. We brought it back to Chicago, to “Bob,” the

Ghost Adviser of Harry Dresden, and he said he had found another similar thing, during one of the ‘Dresden Files’ and that his had been a little worm in the top left corner of the photograph.

Bob was a host manifestation, allowed to project an image of himself in life and walk around, the confines of Harry Dresden’s spell-infused rental. He is confined to a skull forever, but, thanks to Harry, he gets to stretch his legs out on a regular basis.

He only gets sent back to the skill if his advise gets too… sharp. Or if Harry’s getting laid.

Bob says the photo can be traded, bartered, but the thing that would want it most is the thing who’s piece of soul is infused within the thing. Constantine says he thinks he can get an offer on the Black Markets, and it’s always safe and best to check in and look at the price out there on it.

Harry sometimes tried to reel John in a bit, but he was also admiring of the rival wizard, and he didn’t like being the second wizard in the room. No wizard ever liked that situation very much. But part of being a well-rounded Mage means you can play within a team, any team, any assemblage of miscreants and misfits one may find one’s self involved with, and so the banter would have to be precise and scathing.

“”Bob” seems useful.” Constantine remarks to Dresden. He helps with the Googling.” Constantine grabs at his hockey stick, “nice staff, feels powerful,” Dresden smiled, “Thanks, got me out of as many binds as the drum stick has.” Constantine said: “you run a tight ship here, Dresden, I think we have a real chance to beat this thing, if we work together—“ And then the Swamp Creature emerged from nearly thin-air, growing itself into fresh green vegetation in the middle of the room, announcing he had summon them to return to the New York Fortress of the Green, for their Head Quarters was under attack.

Beetlegeuse

Beetlegeuse the famous parasitic shade that was always harassing them, had been working double-time against the Janus Nexus in the timeline wars, just for the element of anarchy usually it seemed, but now coordinated his efforts for a means, and now he was teaming up with the Cenobites, and now the two teams would merge: on both sides: and Blade, Jack Crow, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer conjoin, to take on the arraying forces of Darkness, assembled by the time-spanned life of Posthumous. The crew was a real powerhouse now, and the Digital Domain was their next target.

…

The Digital Domain

Androidmon. Androidmon returns in the battle with Piedmon, even though the Digital Monster wasn’t nearly as strong as the Mega level monsters doing battle now. He could help, fending off threats against the children, what a devastating tragedy it would be if one of these young ones got seriously hurt—and now through the portal, the Old Man, [the Stakes], and all their crew came through the portal into the digital domain.

There was a massive house there, a whole compound, and a theatre in the backyard. They were on a small plot of landed suspended about a mile up along a thing column. In the center of the compound Piedmon sits at a massive Telescope, observing anywhere he wants in the Digital World, HA-HA! he laughs watching the group arrive. None of these fools could defeat him, his power was on an absolute different level! He was a Destroyer! An archetype of the harbinger of the Final Battle! Bringer of the Apocalyose—the Ghenna!”

The Count had been a little like this one. More so than Myotismon. It was the clown part. And the demon from Derry, Pennywise the clown, and that mobster who fell into that vat of chemicals, Jack Napier, who started taking over the criminal underground of Gotham, and taking the mob throne by terror and force. They all use poison. They all use deception—and our own good will against us.

The Joker’s city goons and his mimes are the moat we would have to cross to find the Batman. Constantine called him the Black Dragon, and we needed him to defeat this clown “Digimon.” Batman should be able to pull it off. He’s the only bloke I know I can think of to call about it.”

The Bell Tower

Batman has taken a beating, in the top of the Belltower, having crashlanded his plane on the steps of out front. As soon as punched the clown, he instead turned around, as our portal had triggered him, and we took him and his girlfriend back to the Janus Nexus. I guess we inadvertently saved the Joker fellow.

Ah well, for now, he’s just a small fry. We had the “many forms of the Destroyer” to contend with. Right now, the form I was concerned about was Wargreymon.

Constantine is trying to cajole “Metalgreymon” to evolve to the next stage, greatly increasing its power. Now it was official: these creatures are the most powerful thing he’d ever seen. Morally neutral: some the form of dinosaurs who spit fire balls, these Digital Realm “monsters” will be the key to figure. Their sheer power was on another level, and not it was time for John to learning everything he can about them all.

This Metalgreymon was a hybrid dinosaur and Android and it was unsurprisingly very promising from the vantage point of Constantine. He had gotten naturally along with Thai, and took him under his wing as a kind of understudy.

Harry Dresden held back with Matt, and the two would become best friends after their survivals here, and victories… and Buffy the Vampire Slayer was happy to hang out with some real ‘girls’ for a change—and Izzy and Joe were in awe of Blade, and Jack Crow supplied any of the info Izzy would need. Joe was taught how to toughen up a little by blade, who teaches him basic martial arts. To boost his confidence. When Wargreymon came around the fighting potential of our group had more than doubled—and we even tracked down and sprung a sneak attack on ‘The Fangs’ character de jour, Postbumous, and they did battle, to the Vampire’s avail. The group scared off Posthumous as they recovered Agumon from the battlefield. The Angelic Angemon was needed to hold off [The Famgs], and it escaped away without taking any lives.

Posthumous would disappear and recuperate. He had delivered a message to Lord Piedmon, who had now been told the last location of attack upon the timeline, and he chose another in which to counter-attack.

…

The Prophet Paul Atreides, the Pharaohs, The Mummy, Fairies of Brittania, werewolves in Cinema, the novelization of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (and Cinematic Depiction by the Director of ‘The Godfather’). The death of Duncan Idaho. A honorable warrior sacrifice: a ‘ghoula.’

A scientific replication by an advanced race of cybernetic-minded societies, called Ixians, had manufactured a process whereby Duncan Idaho, the Dune hero who sacrificed himself in order to save Jessica, and her son Paul, intuiting somehow that they would have the Golden Path, and the jihad or religious war that would rage across the Galactic Empire, and the desert planet Dune was perfect for creating this stranglehold of power because it was the only source of the commodity called ‘spice’, without which stellar travel, at warp speeds, is not possible (and it may be wormholes), and so restricted spice flow would lock the gears of trade into stagnation, the crumbling system of connected worlds, by spice trade, could not trade or travel far, and so degradation took place, and the cult of Paul Atreides has swept up the people of the Galaxy, a primal kind of tribalism had usurped the delicate machinery of royal houses, of fighting Feudal Households, regressively violent and power hungry, like the Harkonnens, always sabotage, always spy, cheat, lie, steal, and murder…

The Dune ‘fremen’ people have sietches of deposits of water underground, in secret, across the landscape of Arrakis, and their true military had always been built up, in secret, a massive military-based population of religious extremists, and the day the Harkonen landed and started mistreating then native spice harvesters of Arrakis was the day they sealed their fate, as the sietches built up in fight man-power on a secret and enormous scale… and the militant, Spartan warriors of the Fremen can be said to be the best soldiers in the Galaxy. The Jihad would begin against the first real opposition, the Sadukar, and the Emperor’s warrior planet, hardened terrain and well-trained battle in sieging Planets trained battalions of drop-in soldiers, traveling with all the spice reserves left, spreading the cult of personality of Paul, and his family is a Galactic Royal Line unlike any other…

Fast Forward a few thousand years, and we have the lineage of Paul Atreides still enthroned, and also a likeness to Duncan Idaho, a ‘Ghola’ who is made in a lab, by the Ixian, by the God Emperor’s allowance, to make for him a truer and truer Duncan, and along his vast reign he has almost perpetually had a living Duncan Idaho beside him, he said it was comforting to the Paul Atreides in him, and that he somehow was simultaneously his father and his father’s father, through psychic Forces, exacerbated by contact with the spice of Arrakis, and Oracle is awakened inside me… and I am… my ancestors… ancestral knowledge, is it held within the genes? How can this knowledge of lifetimes be imbued within Leto, he had been born like Alia, of the Knife, the supposed abomination, a child who had been born fully adult, with ancestral knowledge upon birth, and the Fremen closer to the Bene Geserit witches fear the abominations, mistakes of the eugenics campaign, trying to make the Kizatz Haderach (or however you spell it).

Stilgar

Rocky 4

Boxing

Baki the Grappler

Invasion of Saiyans

Goku and Frieza

Boxing2

The Soviets: Homeland Advantage

The Bell Tower

“You wouldn’t hit a guy with glasses, would ya?”

Perfect Cell

Yujiro Hanma

Gozer the Gozerian

Vigo the Carpathian

The Indian Burial Grounds: Carol Ann

Pazuzu

The Exorcist

Pennywise and the town of Derry

Dream-catcher

Comic-Book Vampires

Piedmon

Joker: Axis Chemicals

Flugenheim Museum

Loki

The Mask