Mister Victorious’ body loomed in—an extreme close-up! His mask was lit from below, the purplish-pink light casting severe, dramatic shadows. The others looked on from behind—the Wizard, the Fantastic Girl, and even Electro— their faces aghast in wonder at their teammate’s genius—or was it fear at the awesome power at Victorious’ command? The object of Victorious’ intense interest? A bubble that contained swirling, crackling energy, reminiscent of an atom at monstrous size. “Behold the power to bind men’s minds! Behold, the Meme!”
***
Electro, one of New York’s more recent heroes, was amazed! When he was invited to visit Victory Castle, he had no idea about all the wonders these scientists had uncovered! But could Mr. Victorious be serious? This new invention violated every law of known science! Mr. Victorious agreed. “of KNOWN science!” Victorious stood before a series of television displays that echoed his brief lesson. “We all know the basic building blocks of matter and energy. Particles of matter such as proton and neutrons. Particles of energy known as photons. Why, even you yourself, Electro, can control the flow of electrons!” The Fantastic Girl giggled. Now who’s violating what? The Wizard had to add “and gravitons!” he tapped his anti-grav discs. “Can’t forget about gravitons!” (His specialty.)
Victorious continued. His “arcanotech” builds upon the particle of spiritual force—the animon—a breakthrough he discovered during an accident in college! And, by manipulating patterns of animons and forming pseudo-molecular structures, his arcanotech had created an artificial meme, a literal “germ of an idea.” Any concept, thought, or idea could now be transferred from person to person by simply catching this meme. “I get it,” the Wizard smirked. “A ‘thought virus.’” Victorious frowned. A crude summary, and one that oversimplifies its application. Imagine! We could wipe out racism and prejudice by introducing a meme that literally changes the way entire nations think! Education, social attitudes, psychological disorders— all could be revolutionized!
The Fantastic Girl shuddered. Or it could be a disaster, she wondered to herself. Electro asked what the meme was programmed with right now? Victorious admitted the terrible power of the meme, and he had yet to program it with a specific idea. He didn’t want to rush to make a such a weighty decision. Victorious invited Electro to continue his tour with them, and the Wizard wondered if Electro had made a decision as the door shut behind them.
Little did they know that they left someone behind, someone unheard and unseen. But let’s peer a little more closely, shall we, Reader? You may notice a dotted outline, revealing the invisible, just for your elucidation. It’s a somewhat familiar figure, isn’t it? And look! The form elongates, stretching his body to examine Victorious’ experiment. There’s but one person who can stretch like this—Dr. Frightful!
Frightful talks in a headset, confirming to Malice that he was right—Victorious’ defenses may have caught him if he was visible, or caught her if SHE were Invisible, but by mixing that up, by making HIM invisible, they’ve tricked the synchronicity of the arcanotech at Victory Castle! And here was their perfect revenge against 4-Victory and how they abandoned the Frightful Four at the bottom of the ocean. 4-Victory had no idea how easy it was to escape the Atlanteans, and that ignorance shall be their undoing!
Dr. Frightful typed a few sentences into the keyboard underneath the glowing meme bubble. Then, with a final click, the bubble burst—the meme’s energy started to seep outward, wafting in tendrils, and pulsating with glowing light… slow-ly, slow-ly, slow-ly, slow-ly…
Elsewhere, Electro was having a flashback. Zap, Bam, Pow! He and the infamous Spider-Man had exchanged blows, but Spider-Man couldn’t be taken down by Electro’s lightning bolts. A chase ensued through New York City, with Electro riding the rails of an elevated train (Literally! He was barefoot!) while Spider-Man swung between the buildings. Spider-Man was nearly captured in the end, with Electro static-clinging the villain to a wall, but the Web-Head collapsed the wall on himself, and his body was never found. Still, Electro had come closer to anyone this side of the Enforcers to nailing the spidery-fiend, all thanks to a unlucky lightning strike that transformed a lowly electrician into a home-town hero!
Fantastic Girl wanted to know all about Electro’s home town—suburban life was especially fascinating to her. But the Wizard pressed Electro for a decision. “After all, we don’t know when the Mole Man’s coming back, and you don’t want us to resort to calling ourselves 3-Victory!” Electro didn’t know. All of this was a bit overwhelming. What could he add to such a team?
The Wizard waxed poetic about each of them contributing something. He wondered if it might match the fundamental forces of the universe? Electro obviously represented the electro-magnetic force, while he himself was gravity. The Fantastic Girl’s control over her body’s form could equate to the strong force of binding molecules together, while Victorious… Electro held up a hand to cut him off. “See right there? Overwhelming…”
Perhaps distracted by the conversation, the heroes failed to notice the crackling energy of the meme sneaking behind them, touching their heads, infecting their minds. The meme sparked a new idea, unbidden, unwanted, but none the less uncompromising and irresistible. It was like a tune they couldn’t get out of their head: “I hate 4-Victory!”
The Fantastic Girl was the first to speak. She complained that Electro should just go if he wanted to go! The team obviously didn’t care about its members, if they were interchangeable. Otherwise, why weren’t they going after the Mole Man? Why didn’t they do enough for him while he was here? It’s just something she had to get off her chest-- she hated 4-Victory!
“Yeah!” The Wizard found himself in agreement. What did HE need a team for anyway? These people were just holding him back from his true greatness. Give the public what they wanted—the Wizard, not the “Wingless Wizard and his Fantastic Friends.” He hated 4-Victory!
Mr. Victorious watched the bickering but didn’t say anything. Perhaps the idea of such a team was stupid. Perhaps he was wasting his time with responsibilities to a team when he SHOULD be pouring all his efforts into new scientific discoveries. He wanted to save the world, but if one must do something right, then one must do it himself! The Wizard’s remark prompted him to speak out. “I have long suspected you coveted leadership of this team. So be it; I quit this hated team!”
Electro watched, dumbfounded, while the members of 4-Victory flew out of Victory Castle at the same time, albeit in different directions. He was left, alone, but for the life of him, he couldn’t understand what brought such a change of behavior. The evil laugh behind him should clue him in, however—Dr. Frightful suddenly revealed himself, laughing in his arrogance. “Who knew that the way to defeat 4-Victory was to allow them to defeat themselves!”
Electro whirled upon him, flinging a lightning bolt. “Hey! Whoever you are, whatever you did to them, you better change them back!” Of course, Frightful could easily dodge the bolt by snaking his body out of the way. “Hmm, an electrostatic discharge? Perhaps an excited ionic state negates the neuronic manipulation brought upon by the meme?” Electro fired more bolts, “Doesn’t anyone around her speak English?”
After swooping, dipping, and weaving, Dr. Frightful stretched right towards the window. “Oh, no, you don’t!” Electro leveled his outstretched hands, and a pulse of electricity exploded outward. The wave of energy stopped suddenly, making a shell around the room. Frightful was stopped by the field, unable to leap out the window. Zap, zap, zap! This was no mere electric cage—he was trapped in a bubble of electricity!
“Fool! Have you not figured out my malleable body possesses a modicum of resistance to your pitiful blasts? It is merely a matter of time before I break through--- or, perhaps, to break YOU!” A giant, expanded fist crashed into Electro’s entire body. “Okay,” Electro answered groggily, “I think I understood that LAST part.” Electro answered back that he might not be smart, but he was a fast learner. His electricity formed a fist similar to Frightful’s own and smashed into Frightful’s body. When Frightful elongated to another part of the room, Electro rode an elongated electrical bridge to the same part. When Frightful wrapped ropey arms around him, Electro formed ropes of electrical energy to wrap around Frightful.
Still, Frightful never lost his composure, as angry as he was. Finally, he dropped all pretenses of fighting and simply stood in the middle of the room. “Sue,” he said into his headset. “Time for a little teamwork.” Once again, Frightful slipped into invisibility. Electro was dumbfounded. He sent a few lightning-zaps into the area where Frightful had been. But all he heard was Frightful’s voice, taunting him. Frightful suspected that all he had to do was wait—soon, Electro’s powers would have to be recharged, and then he could just slip away scott-free.
Electro didn’t say anything, but he knew Frightful was right. Perhaps Frightful was just testing the limits of his powers during their fight. Electro would have to refresh his powers, through re-charging or resting. Would his electrical field last, or would Frightful be able to resist it once it weakened enough to let him escape?
Well, it was final seconds in the game, better go all-out! Electro concentrated, filling the air with an intense electrical field! He could see Frightful’s snakey outline in the yellow-white fire, could hear his scream over the crackle and snap of the discharge. Electro collapsed with a groan, wisps of smoke trailing off his body. Dr. Frightful was already unconscious, his plastic form winding all about the room.
Electro got to his feet, then spent some time to tie up his fallen foe, (using his own body to tie into knots!) He wasn’t sure it would really keep him, but he’d have to find 4-Victory, and fast! This guy hinted, after all, that Electro could be the key to restore 4-Victory to their rightful selves.
Oh, Electro? Better hurry! Already, Stan has entered the office after a break to grab the afternoon edition. He tossed the paper to Jack, who noticed the picture of 4-Victory on the front page. “4-Victory, huh?” he asks Stan. Stan's eyes sparked briefly with the same bubbling energy of the Meme—“Yeah. I hate those guys.” Jack looked back at the newspaper, and now his eyes, too, are bubbling with the Meme! “Yeah, me too. I hate 4-Victory! Although that masked Victorious gives me an idea for a new villain...”
To be continued in 4-Victory #11!
Cover and text by Danny Wall
An artificial meme? Cool, huh? Sometimes I get an idea stuck in my head, and it's so all-consuming that there's nothing I can do but act on it, work it through until it's out of my system. Like an infection, but for my thought processes! A meme for this kind of fanfic-slash-blog struck me hard, and the Flipside was born.
Find out more about memes at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
Posted by: Danny Wall | May 21, 2007 at 11:17 PM