Cody saw something.

He saw all red, with mist and strange distorted visions. Cody's head hurt; he did not feel any other pain, just a strange migraine. He cast his eyes around for any sign of the Bloodstones, but he saw nothing. Then a figure appeared before him. The figure was older than him by about ten years. The figure was fairly stout with a well manicured look, brownish beard and mustache and a matching suit. The figure just walked on the trails of smoky mist that were all around Cody.

"Son?" he spoke. "Son, I must talk to you!"

Cody thought he was having a vision before he died due to the lack of air getting to his brain.

"My dad's dead!" spat Cody.

"And so are you," replied the figure calmly. "I am Albert Jenkins, your father." He paused for dramatic effect. "You are dead and I am here to guide you to your destiny."

"What?" Cody was brilliant.

"Your destiny," replied Cody's father. "You are going to get a second chance." He smiled, hoping to put Cody at ease.

"What doyamean?" stammered Cody.

"Well, I must tell you a story to illustrate my point. I was a Warlock of great power while I was alive. Your mother was a witch. The two of us lived on Haight Street in a Coven of witches. For some strange reason, our normally peaceful lifestyle was viewed as malevolent by a certain powerful gang. The Bloodstones warred with us constantly. There were always fights and espionage between our two factions. Your mother died while I was away er.... in England on business. When I returned to Necropolis, I was captured and dragged to death by the same man who just killed you. Before I died, you will remember that I left my amulet for you. It is the source of your power; it will bring you back from the dead. You will be better and more powerful that you were before. You will also see visions of evil to come. You will have the chance to stop such evil. You will have a taste for Justice. You will never rest until all evil is destroyed. You will be my ultimate achievement, the Nemesis of all evil!"

The elder Jenkins was above himself with fervor. He was towering above Cody. Cody began to burn. Not physically, but spiritually. He began to hate, to hate evil. Cody's mind raced with all sorts of punishments for the evil that men do. Cody felt euphoric and he felt alive.

Cody's father spoke a few more words quickly. "Make me proud, Cody. Make your mother proud.  The good people of the world need a champion and remember that you are not alone."

Albert Jenkins began to fade and Cody started to feel intense pain.

"Father!" screamed Cody, long and loud.

A terrible rumbling was his only answer. It was wet and it was raining. He realized he was in a stairwell near a door. The door had a huge lock; it reminded him of the Bloodstones' lair, but somehow it was different. He reached out for the lock. As he grasped it and pulled, the lock ripped from the door. He was strong! or the door was rotten.

Cody rolled over himself to fall into the opening beyond. Consciousness left him again; this time it was sleep, not death that accepted him.

When Cody awoke this time, he saw more visions, nightmarish visions of killers and clowns, actors and assassins. As he rose, Cody saw that the sanctuary he had fallen into was the old wax museum. Cody vaguely remembered that it had closed about twenty years ago.

Casting his eyes to the walls he saw that there was an extensive supply of figures and costumes as well as make-up and props. Some of the props seemed all too real. Cody strode to a display of ancient weapons only to find that they were authentic, donated to the museum in the fifties by some famous explorer. Cody hefted a broadsword and thought of what it would do to the skull of the leader of the  Bloodstones.

Just then he caught sight of himself in a mirror. His already homely face had been all but erased by the ritual dragging across town. He fell to his knees and tried to weep, but his tears stung his face -- so he rose and started to smash things. A fury rose up inside of him. A rage consumed him and he beat many of the waxen figures to powder by the time that he recovered his senses.

Just then, a new feeling came over him. A pain in his exposed skull started to pulse, his vision went all red and he saw a young girl, maybe seventeen, being mounted by some drooling thug. As the young woman fought to keep her virtue, the thug beat her relentlessly. Cody imagined that the man would gain pleasure from her dead or alive nonetheless.

Cody realized what he was seeing was to come. His rage built up again and he raced for the door, only pausing to grab a cloak from a wax figure.

Moments after exiting the wax museum, Cody reached a deserted portion of the wharf. A scream rose in the night only to be suddenly silenced. Rage drove Cody forward, his feet pounding the pavement. As he arrived at the source of the evil he sought, his headache grew to a pounding tumult. He searched out the shadows to see a hulking goon bent over a young beauty. His rough hands traveled her body in ways that they were never meant to. Cody reached the rapist and latched onto him with a claw-like hand. The huge man was easily lifted off his victim and thrown against the wooden wall of a restaurant that had seen better days.

"W-Who are you?!" demanded the big bruiser.

Cody would have been stymied by the question, never being very imaginative, but he responded in this case without thought

"I am your Nemesis!" he growled and approached the thug.

"Y-You ain't human....Fuck you!" cursed the thug.

The bruiser had recovered a bit of his senses -- had he recovered them all, he would have run for his life. Instead, he reached for a garbage can lid and swung it at Nemesis. The strike was caught by one of the horribly scared Avenger's claw-like appendages and crushed into a ball. The thug tried to turn, but Cody caught him and held him high in the air. The thug looked down at the monster before him and pleaded for mercy.

"Mercy for you?" remarked Cody. "What mercy were you going to show her?"

With that, Nemesis growled and thrust his other bony hand into the man's crotch, ripping at the thing he found there. When the screaming was over, Cody stuffed the man's genitalia down his own throat and snickered slightly at his own inventiveness.

Cody saw that the girl was only half conscious and scooped her up. He then lumbered towards a business that looked to be open and left her there. She looked up with glazed eyes and, without words, thanked Cody for saving her life. Cody felt a brief bit of emotion, a feeling of a job well done -- then he leapt away, swirling the ragged cloak he wore...

Next episode....A Face Only a Mother Would Love!