[b]Eclipse[/b]
[hr]

Jericho breathed in as he stretched out his arms, slowly going through the steps of the movement. In front of Jericho was several dozen people, all mimicking his movements. They were all enraptured by Jericho’s actions, all of their attention focused on the man. For he was their teacher and they were eager to learn from him. He was the fist of Khonshu, ancient god of the moon, and they were his acolytes, adding their strength to the Egyptian god.

Jericho then put his arms down and assumed a relaxed position, saying, “And relax. Focus on your place in the universe.”

“It is by the power of the moon,” came the response from everyone gathered in the room.

“And the moon shall keep you,” replied Jericho, “And that’s it for today. Thank you all for coming, and please keep Khonshu in your hearts.”

Everyone then bowed, before beginning to leave the room. Jericho couldn’t help but smile as he saw how many had showed up for this teaching, how many were following after him. It gave him a rush to possess that power.

[b]“But that power is mine,”[/b] spoke the voice of Khonshu in his mind, [b]“You are the disciple, not the god.”[/b]

“I know,” Jericho replied telepathically, “All this is for your glory and dominion.”

[b]“You would do best to remember that. For I am divine and eternal, and I shall be until the end of days.”[/b]

Jericho didn’t say anything else as he felt the presence of Khonshu leave his mind. Every time the god spoke to him, Jericho felt degraded. But he was painfully aware that all his power came from Khonshu, and without him he would just be another soldier. And Jericho knew that he was destined for more than that.

It was with that self-assuredness that Jericho exited the room and into the lobby outside. This building was one of the more recent additions to the Church of Khonshu, one of several in New York now. In the brief time it had been open it had already attracted a sizable congregation, a gathering of people that were now leaving the building.

While Jericho himself had run this service, that was not the norm as he had priests of Khonshu to run the regular services. But Jericho knew that he had to keep up appearances, as he was a celebrity and needed to be seen. Thus he had to show up the various Church of Khonshu buildings, reminding his followers that he existed and cared for them.

However Jericho did not care for them enough to exit alongside them. Instead he went through an employee only door which led to a closed off landing pad. Sitting in the middle of the pad was Jericho’s signature moon-white hover bike. Jericho placed his hand on top of it, triggering its biometric recognition software. Once the bike confirmed it was indeed Jericho, it turned on.

Jericho mounted the hover bike before rising into the sky. As he lifted off higher than the building, several of his followers spotted him and began to cheer. To keep up appearances, Jericho waved at them before speeding away from the church. The hover bike quickly cut across the skyline of New York, a city that had been rebuilt several times in the last few decades due to alien invasions. But New York remained, a shining jewel amidst the ravaged world.

Jericho spotted his destination, the massive Ultimates Tower. Tapping a few buttons on his bike submitted his clearance code to the tower, as to avoid its many defense systems. Sure enough Jericho was able to land his bike on the docking pad without getting shot out of the sky. Jericho dismounted his bike and took an elevator into the tower proper.

Getting off on the floor with living quarters, Jericho decided to take a shower. Being around a lot of people always made Jericho feel gross, especially when it was those sweaty guys who could barely keep up with the yoga part of his sermons. After showering, Jericho walked back into the living quarters, just wearing a towel. As he did so he was approached by a human sized robot. It was Jarvis-7, the butler android to the Ultimates.

“Master Eclipse, welcome back to Ultimates Tower,” the robot stated, “May I find you some clothes?”

“I can find my own,” Jericho replied, before wondering, “Any alerts I should know of?”

“Currently there is one Ultimates level threat in the city, but Master Venom is handling it.”

Jericho frowned at the mention of the symbiote host, as he had a low opinion of aliens, “Well what is it?”

“Arms trafficking, with both criminal elements and mutant terrorists,” explained Jarvis-7.

Jericho then smiled as he would never miss the chance to beat down some mutants, “Sends the location to my suit. Eclipse is going on this.”

“Yes sir,” answered Jarvis-7 as Jericho made his way to the armory.

Inside was one of several Eclipse armors he had made. He always kept one at Ultimates Tower, his home, and a few other select places. As Jericho looked at the armor, he knew it greatly looked like that of Moon Knight, the previous Fist of Khonshu. But he had failed his mission, dying during the Dark Phoenix Crisis before Khonshu could take over the world.

Jericho believed he would be different as he put on the armor. And killing mutants would help with that. So he armed himself with some knives, two handguns, and a katana. He said nothing to Jarvis-7 as he went back to the landing pad.

While he did use his hover bike in a civilian capacity, it was also decked out for combat. Jericho confirmed this as he checked the status of the cannons on the front of the bike. Satisfied that it was working, Jericho lifted off into the sky.

As Jericho cut across the skyline again, Jarvis-7 sent him the coordinates to his armor’s HUD. Jericho saw that it was a few minutes away by hover bike, so he pumped the thrusters. Jericho wanted to get there before Venom had all the fun and there were no more mutants left.