Marvel Flipside: The End #5

*** MARVEL FLIPSIDE: THE END ***
Featuring: the Guardians of the Galaxy

DEATHBIRD, host of the Phalkon, the Phoenix Force, once more feels overwhelmed by the scope of the universe.  As the Phoenix, she was once the "Bride of Galactus," and the result of their union was Infinity itself. Overwhelming, indeed! And overwhelmingly *more* so when you think that Infinity has been lost, and the resulting tear in the fabric of creation may mean the end of existence...  unless the Guardians of the Galaxy can find and restore Infinity to the universe!

***

The SUPER-SKRULL of the Skrulls, CAPTAIN THANOS of the Kree, and MOONSTONE NEBULA  join Deathbird in staring at the tear of space and time. The trail to Infinity must start here (Hmm, Nebula remarks, this quest sounds like it could take a long time...) But these self-appointed Guardians have an unexpected enemy suddenly attacking them! It's ... the Silver Surfer, Herald of Mephisto! The Guardians will not be allowed to save the day. His master has determined the fate of the universe, and it's fate is death!

Elsewhere, on Earth, Mr. Victorious is trying a different tactic. He has tracked down The Brotherhood's enemy, the High Caregiver, to attempt the impossible. To repair Eternity, he must become as great as Eternity! The Caregiver must evolve him to like unto a god, an abstract entity himself!

The process begins! The Wizard watches in awe as the Caregiver's massive kirby-knobbed machines reduce Victorious into blobs of dotty energy! But then, the Caregiver does the unthinkable-- she takes Frightful from where the Brotherhood have been guarding him, and adds Frightful to the process! For the Caregiver will only accelerate Victorious' abstraction if he will take Frightful along with him!

The Brotherhood and Wizard launch into battle with the Caregiver. What was she thinking!?

As for Victorious and Frightful-- they find themselves in a vignette of recreated scenes, answering Frightful's question: why should it be Victorious in the first place? For Victorious had once touched the face of Eternity before-- the fateful day that Reed Richards sabotaged his early arcanotech machine and pierced-- no, exploded!-- the veil between the real and the sublime. And the other? Why, it must be Frightful himself. Surely he had glimpsed, however indirectly, the same veil-piercing moment? But where Victorious had embraced it and grew in wisdom, Frightful had flinched away from it, and that growing hunger to recapture the "inspirational" moment has driven him insane.

The Brotherhood has the Caregiver on the ropes-- and the Blob rips the helmet away from her head- revealing the glowing cow's head of Bova! She, who had taken over where her former master had failed. If only he had used his machines on himself, but instead, it was up to Bova to carry on, to care for his creations and for the future of earth itself! But the Brotherhood is wrong. She knows what she is doing-- for she had been through the process herself. She is also an aspect-- and aspect of Mothering Care. And now her purpose has been fulfilled, her purpose to allow Victorious and Frightful to save the universe....

And now the Wizard begins to glow... the Caregiver remarks that now it's Wizard's turn to have a purpose...

Victorious and Frightful continue to evolve through their memories, their triumphs, their failures, their loves, their losses.... they are both two different aspects-- they are both Driven, both Insatiable, both Determined... Frightful is Probing Curiosity, but Victorious is Purposeful Ambition. Both have been needed to help Earth reach this global golden age, and both will be needed to help the universe heal itself.

And where is Infinity? The Guardians of the Galaxy can barely keep the Silver Surfer at bay, with the Power Infernal at his command. But, in a moment of sudden revelation, Deathbird realizes why the Surfer is battling them now, battling them here. There was a reason that the empires of Shi'ar, Skrull, and Kree found themselves on Earth. They were drawn together from the beginning. Infinity has been in the hearts of them all! Deathbird uses the power of the Phoenix to draw forth the piece of Infinity hidden within each of them, as representatives of their races-- and there *She* is!

But wait. Something's wrong. Infinity is being corrupted by the Surfer! Infinity is incomplete-- there is a piece missing, and this incongruity has given Surfer a foothold. His has corrupted Infinity, in the name of and for the will of Mephisto! And in so doing, the universe....

ends.

Victorious and Frightful, in their Abstracted states, meet with Eternity and Mephisto in a region of abstraction. In the center of them all is the Wizard, plucked from reality as the various entities talk around him. Victorious and Frightful have found it. the WIZARD had the missing piece of Infinity within him. It's this slim aspect of Eternity that allows the abstractions to exist while All That Is has been destroyed. It's also why Frightful was so important to help heal reality-- it was Frightful's past exploits that would bring the Wizard into the future, and it was Wizard who held the last piece of Infinity.    

Mephisto gloats. This was all according to his plan. He had to destroy the universe in order to "save" it. Save it for himself, of course. By restoring Wizard to his rightful time, Infinity will be resorted-- it will no longer be harbored within the hearts of men of Earth.  If Wizard returns, there will be no drive to work together, there will be no global golden age. Instead, Mephisto will always have a foothold. There will always be petty politics, greed, or hate in the way.

Victorious doesn't believe it. Because they will always have free will. And whatever happens when the future is re-written, it will be because of whatever they CHOOSE, and whatever they FIGHT FOR. Spoken like a true aspect of Ambition, Wizard remarks. But he thanks Victorious for the inspiration.

Next thing he knows, the Wizard is back at the warehouse where 4-Victory fought Dr. Frightful. It's empty now. The whole world is as full as it ever was, but it feels... emptier. Well. Guess it's time fix it all back up again.

Good thing about being a hero, Wizard thinks. We always come out on top, and never stop until we do.

NEVER THE END.

Comments

[ozbot]

(PS. It never came up in my summaries, but the Super-Skrull has all the powers of a duplicate Earth's Legion of Justice. Can you guess which ones?)

[Aaron]

*claps*

[Danny]

*bows*

Thank you for this and all your comments. I hope you enjoy the little bits of art and story from the new site. If you have any suggestions for what characters you'd like to see, or maybe a personal challenge to "flip" a particular character, let me know!