The celebration: at the bottom of the sea! The guests of honor: De’Lila, the Fantastic Girl, (“Isn’t it exciting, Mole Man!? We’re celebrities!”); Harvey Elder, the Mole Man (“I’m overwhelmed, Fantastic Girl. But, Wizard, what do you make of those strange markings on the pillars?”); the Wizard (“We’re the first humans these Atlanteans have ever seen, and you’re worried about the architecture? Some guest, eh, Victorious?”); and Victor von Doome, Mr. Victorious (“Not the first human, perhaps...”). Victorious pointed beyond the throngs of ogling underwater folks, beyond the bubbles and seaweed that look like confetti and streamers, and beyond the crumbling but austere ruins...
Chapter One: I just stopped by to drop some things off
Doctor Octopus, famed scientific adventurer, met the members of 4-Victory at the bottom of the steps to a large rotunda atop a jutting underwater butte. Announcing the team to the crowd below and the aristocracy above, he led them into the presence of Lady Dorma. Dorma asked for her gift, and Victorious motioned to the large black box behind them, next to their undersea vessel. “The murderers of Namor, the Sub-Mariner of Atlantis, as we promised.” Dorma thanked Victorious for his service, invoking the history of her people-- long had the people of Atlantis been little more than nomads and wanderers. For decades, they could merely hope for the return of their great prince, lost since the Great War upon the surface world. At least now, they know their answer. Perhaps now, they can move on.
Dorma invited Victorious and the others to join in a feast before they leave. But Victorious declined, revealing in a flash of light the intricate, circuit-like pattern that overlaid himself and his teammates. Saying that the arcanotech runes that allow them freedom underwater might wear off soon, Victorious took his leave, and Doctor Octopus escorted the team once more, this time out of the area.
The Wizard was confused, almost scoffing. He thought Victorious’ spell would last for hours more. “It is more than a spell,” Victorious ignored or failed to notice the derision, “I just would like to leave this unfortunate moment in time as quickly as possible.” He looked at the prison holding the members of the Frightful Four as he said so. The Mole Man spoke his own frustration, how there must be another way. “I fear for what these Atlanteans might do.”
Doctor Octopus shook his head. “You don’t need to worry. Don’t let the barbarian trappings of these people fool you. They are quite advanced in many areas, including the field of social justice.” At this, 4-Victory looked awkwardly at one another. Mr. Victorious confronted Octopus. “I realize you take pride in being the first man to re-discover this place, and it must be alluring to stay among these people who find you so fascinating. But are you staying for the right reasons?” The Fantastic Girl hugged herself. What Victorious was saying-- was that meant for Dr. Octopus, or for herself?! As a Skrull, was she not doing the same thing with the humans of Earth? The Mole Man noticed her internal dilemma, and he tried to reach out, but De’Lila unconsciously leaned away.
Mr. Victorious handed Doc Ock a small box with intricate designs. “Should your time here be more than you can bear, should your heart ever break because it is torn in two, open this gift.” “What is it?” “Clarity.” And with that, 4-Victory left Doctor Octopus, and the ruins of Atlantis, behind.
“’Clarity?’” the Wizard asked as 4-Victory was aboard their vessel. “Should he need it,” Mr. Victorious’ voice was matter-of-fact, as if that explained everything. The Fantastic Girl threw out an observation: “Still, they seemed a fascinating people, perhaps I should stay behind to observe them...” She trailed off, but thought to herself that if anyone thought this Skrull shouldn’t be among them, she just gave them an out... “I’d still like to follow up on those carvings on those pillars,” the Mole Man offered. “I mean, while we’re down here and everything.” The Fantastic Girl couldn’t follow the rest of the conversation with the conflict of her own thoughts. Was it that they truly didn’t want her to go, or did no one pick up on her hint? Was it selfish of her to explore the world of the humans, when she should be continuing other explorations on behalf of her home planet?
She caught up with the conversation in front of her: “So you think your monsters come from Atlantis?” the Wizard was following up on the Mole Man’s comments. “Or they could share the same common ancestry, perhaps give a hint to our own,” the Mole Man remarked, “Victorious, what do you think, could you trace the origins of this piece of stonework?”
Victorious considered. The design certainly looked remarkably similar to the monsters on Monster Isle. He could perform a simple psychometric experiment to tune the vessel toward related designs. Perhaps there were other undersea ruins that could hold more clues. The Wizard began piloting out to the open ocean, “Alright,” he said, “but this brings a whole new meaning to ‘fishing for clues!’”
Chapter 2: It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to DIE here!
There! A new, fantastic scene greeted the 4-Victory submarine pod as the gloom of the undersea diffused like fog revealing the end of a road. A new and mighty city sprawled below them. Where are we? Somewhere in the South Pacific! How is that possible! The Sub-pod used similar arcanotechnology as Mr. Victorious’ wondrous Sky-Carpet, slightly skipping through other slight physical laws.
Never mind that now, there’s a city to explore. Look! Those patterns of artwork look vaguely familiar! That architecture there? That must have been what that rotunda would have looked like in its prime! A pristine city buried under tons and tons of water. “Looks like we’re too late,” the Wizard deadpanned. “No,” the Mole Man whispered. “Things are here!” Almost as if on cue, a huge behemoth-like monster suddenly launched itself into view. The Sub-pod was beneath its notice, however, and its shadow wafted across it as the beast passed by.
The Mole Man’s rapport with such monsters made it easy for him to point out other beasts, of all sizes, all colors, all varieties. Some were whale-like, others vaguely dragon-like, and one even appeared to be a massive kelp bed! But there was something wrong. There was one that Mole Man couldn’t sense. The Wizard cocked his head. “I don’t know. I can not-sense a great many things right now. But my not-smelling pepperoni pizza doesn’t mean there’s a delivery man outside.” It’s different, the Mole Man said. Come on...
It was different indeed. The members of 4-Victory floated through the water into an arena, of sorts, in the middle of the underground city. There lay a beast, curled slightly on its side, as if sleeping. It was large, at least eight feet in height, and massive, at least a thousand pounds. It’s hide was bumpy and coarse, like an elephant, and bright read. His head was large and oblong, with sunken eyes and a wide slit for its gaping mouth, and each limb ended bluntly, with six claw-like single-jointed digits.
“Is it alive?” asked the Fantastic Girl. The Mole Man said it wasn’t, but it wasn’t really dead, either. Mr. Victorious stretched out his hands toward it, the arcanotech on his gloves glowing faintly. He concurred with the Mole Man-- the monster was in a null-state. He placed his hand on the creature’s head, and lines of arcanotech flowed over his hands and spilled over the monster’s head. With a roar, the beast raised itself to its full height, sending out a wave of energy that knocked the unsuspecting 4-Victory through the water!
What confused the creature more? The fact that it just awoke, or the fact that it awoke under the ocean? It seemed ill-prepared for the environment, but energy crackled around him, and he “breathed” easier, taking a few moments to recover itself. Seeing no immediate threat, it backed away slowly. The Mole Man was the first to approach it. He introduced the team and himself, asking what it was, where this place was, and how could it have been found in such a condition?
“I am the Deviant, the last of my kind, and known to them as Karkas. This... this is all that remains of our once-proud Lemuria. This was all destroyed by ... the UNI-BRAIN!”
“What is this Uni-Brain?”
“THAT,” announced the Deviant, pointing above them, “is the UNI-BRAIN!”
It rose up from behind them without warning, a giant six-foot yellow brain atop a enlarged protrusion! Stranger still, it opened two baleful white eyes at the top of the protrusion, the base of the brain! More strangely, the brain began to pulse with a blue fire, even amid the ocean water, and with each pulse, it began to grow! Even more strangely, it began to speak, projecting words into their very minds!
“KARKAS THE DEVIANT! YOU HAVE AWAKENED. IT IS TIME. JOIN US.” With that, a bolt of the blue fire arced outward and struck the Deviant in the chest. Aarg! The Deviant was held in place similar to before. “N- never!” Karkas managed to shout.
“Look here,” Mr. Victorious floated up to address the Uni-Brain. “If your battle has truly sunken entire cities, than this goes beyond yourselves. Let us mediate before there is more suff--"
“THIS GOES FAR BEYOND EVEN YOUR COMPREHENSION,” another arc of blue fire, this time at Mr. Victorious, who was held in place and in great pain.
“Victorious!” shouted the Fantastic Girl. She shape-changed into more piscine features, darting upwards and knocking him aside. It had the effect she hoped for, dislodging Victorious from the Brain’s onslaught.
The Mole Man struck a dramatic pose atop a pillar, pointing the way for one of the nearby whale-beasts to attack. It pummeled the Brain, knocking it aside and freeing Karkas. The Deviant flew upwards rapidly. While the Brain was engaged in fighting back the whale-beast, Karkas fired bolts of blue fire of his own, but they seemed to have little effect.
“I just want to point out that we are battling a giant brain on the bottom of the ocean,” the Wizard remarked as he flew around, looking for an opening. His anti-grav discs gave him great freedom of movement underwater and his force field actually deflected the brunt of the Brain’s attacks as they arced out toward him like a static electricity generator. However, the flame blasts from his Wonder-Gloves wouldn’t do much good in this environment.
The whale-beast gave up its attack, frustrated by the Uni-Brain’s fiery aura and relentless attack of its own. The Mole Man, now riding atop twin eel-like snakes, commanded several dragon-fish to snap their tails at the brain, which was now well over 25 feet and still growing. The Fantastic Girl joined in the shape of dragon-fish herself. The Uni-Brain could afford to ignore such attacks, however, and press the battle against the Deviant. Another bolt of blue fire, and Karkas went carooming off into a building roof, making a huge crater. Karkas responded by snatching the roof, tearing it free, and flying upward with it to smash into the Brain.
The Wizard had still one more trick up its sleeve. He tossed an anti-grav disc at the top of the Uni-Brain. Actually, he had tossed a disc he had tampered with. The polarity was reversed, creating an intense gravity well. Talk about your migraines! The pressure on the Uni-Brain would be tremendous! “Are you a fool!” Victorious shouted back, “If you can’t manage the gravity well, we might as well have created a black hole at the bottom of the Pacific!” “One problem at a time,” the Wizard shot back.
The Wizard’s disc was playing havoc with the Uni-Brain’s blue flame. The power released between the two was enormous! The seas began to bubble! Mole Man’s monsters all fled of one accord, and he was rescued from floating away by the Fantastic Girl. Mr. Victorious and the Wizard shielded their eyes against the light and heat, and the only sound heard above the sizzle was the Deviant’s brutal laughter. Finally, spent and shrunk to its six-foot height, the Uni-Brain wafted downward, resting in the city below. The Deviant tore off a nearby pylon, raising it high to smash the Brain in!
“Uh, wha—" the Deviant began. But it’s movements were too slow, too ponderous. Even his voice sounded like a run-down record. Mr. Victorious explained, “You never allowed me to explain. My arcanotech couldn’t cancel the null-state we found you in, but I could overlay a second null-state on the first, canceling it out. Guess I should have mentioned that the effect would only be temporary.”
“You won’t be needing this,” the Fantastic Girl morphed into a similarly tall humanoid, taking the broken pylon from the Deviant’s hands. “Not that you’d reach your target anyway.”
“Now, then,” Mr. Victorious addressed the Uni-Brain, “what situation, exactly, goes far beyond my comprehension. Keeping in mind . . . I can comprehend a lot.”
Chapter Three: The Secret History of the World!
"The Deviant is the last of his kind, for the Uni-Brain is all that remains of this offshoot of humanity. Ages ago, we discovered that in becoming the Uni-Brain, we would become all that we were destined to be-- the very pinnacle of our creation and evolution. And it was only as the Uni-Brain that we could survive the return of the Space Gods that seeded our people. Our people, and one other-- the Eternals.
The Eternals were like unto our cousins. But they grew tyrannical in their power, enslaving early humanity and lording it over them as their gods. They encouraged the world to view us as hideous, as monsters. For too long we ignored our cousins, turning inward to great advances of technology, architecture, poetry, and art. But with the return of the Celestial space gods, we knew our planet would be judged harshly, thanks to the selfishness and cavalier greed of the Eternals. One and all, we learned how to bodily merge together to form one mighty Uni-Brain. We used our collective cosmic power to confront the Eternals in a final battle once and for all. We thought we had won. We had thought the Celestials would be pleased.
But there was one of us who was not of one mind, one purpose. This Deviant, Karkas, thwarted our attempt at forming the Uni-Brain. He stole some of our collective power but refused to merge with us. With our power divided, the Eternals were not defeated, merely ousted and forced to hide. Moreover, the battle between us and the Eternals, and us and the Deviant, resulted in the cataclysm that you see around you. The Celestials left, inscrutable and enigmatic, to return in another age to judge the Earth.
In our stalemate, we forced the Deviant into a null-state, with ourselves laying dormant should he continue to sleep. As the years passed, humanity grew and flourished, free of the taint of the Eternals to be themselves, and undersea species used the remnants of our cities as their own, carrying its art and technology throughout the ocean. Our former experiments in biology and genetics also went on, becoming truly the beasts of legend and of sensational sightings around the globe.
Thus our stalemate continues, and thus we wait for the return of the Space Gods."
The various members of 4-Victory had each their own unique reaction. The Mole Man was awed by this fantastic tale, feeling as if he has tapped into a mythology so much larger than anything he could imagine. The Fantastic Girl recalled legends from her own planet of the Celestials, but those were all just stories, weren't they? The Wizard couldn't get past the idea that there is so much more science yet undiscovered, if beings such as Celestials could exist within such physical laws. Mr. Victorious, however, remained dispassionate, perhaps because his face mask hides his own feelings too well.
In time, he asked, "And if you had the full cosmic power of a Uni-Brain, what would you do?"
"We have discovered our purpose on our planet. What remains is to find our purpose in the universe."
"And if the Deviant returns his stolen power but does not join you, would your decision be the same?"
The Uni-Brain paused. Finally: "His purpose has already been decided by himself, and outside ourself."
"Very well," Mr. Victorious drew himself up. "Karkas, relinquish your power to the Uni-Brain and be free of them forever." Turning to the Brain, he added, "Surely humanity has advanced enough to care for itself and defend itself from Eternal or Deviant?"
"Bah!" Karkas spat out, even though it was drawn out as time continued to slow for him. "Take it and begone!" Blue flame arced out from Karkas and into the Uni-Brain. The Brain fairly sighed as it soaked in the power, and it continued to grow again, drawing itself up to its 25-foot height.
"THE UNIVERSE . . . IT BECKONS!" and the Uni-Brain skyrocketed toward infinity.
"Release... me," the Deviant forced out.
"Hm," Mr. Victorous remarked, although he didn't sounded convincing in his surprise, "it seems that the Uni-Brain never bargained to release you from a null-state."
"Noooo---" the Deviant's voice trailed off as he continued his slow-motion movement, until, finally he simply stopped.
"But," Victorious continued to the frozen Deviant, "Know that if it *does* ever wear off, 4-Victory . . . will be waiting!"
Cover and text by Danny Wall
First of all, I know that it's "supposed" to be the Uni-Mind, but that's the Eternals' version. Who's to say that the Deviants couldn't have formed their own collective intelligence? It IS the Flipside Universe, after all! (And the Uni-Brain sounds so much more creepy-cool!)
Posted by: Danny Wall | March 19, 2007 at 01:57 PM