Morden Man — Roleplayer Guild

Castle Doom, Latveria

Once upon a time the future had belonged to Reed Richards. It had belonged to Sue and Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm, Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne and Steve Rogers too. It had belonged to all that looked across the vast black canvass of space and were brave enough to step out into it. Once upon a time Earth had stood upon the edge of a New Frontier – and Reed Richards had been its architect.

Now that New Frontier lay in ruins. Using the dreaded anti-life equation Darkseid had amassed an army large enough to conquer a thousand universes. Once the Green Lantern Corps had fallen, Earth’s defeat was all but inevitable. First to be laid low was Lex Luthor’s Justice League. The billionaire had made a courageous final stand in New York but had been broken for all the world to see. Then came Superman’s Avengers. Clark Kent and his colleagues were subsumed by Darkseid at the Kryptonian’s Fortress of Solitude. All that was left of Earth’s mightiest heroes were the Fantastic Four – and Doom.

In Doom’s throne room Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben made their final stand. Encircled on all sides by Darkseid’s forces Reed toiled away on a machine that he hoped would change everything. It was a time craft. They could no longer beat Darkseid in this time – that much was clear – and every second spent trying to was wasted, or so Doom had explained. Humanity’s salvation lay in accepting the inevitability of defeat in the present. To save the world, to preserve mankind’s New Frontier, they would have to journey back in time and unite Luthor and Superman before Darkseid’s forces reached Earth.

It was going to take some doing. Richards could feel the sweat pouring from his forehead as he and Doom put the finishing touches on the craft. Ben and Johnny had already been strapped into it. Sue had been providing the two old rivals the protection they needed to see the craft completed.

“How much longer?”

“Thirty seconds.”

Richards glanced over his shoulder in Sue’s direction. On the other side of the forcefield she had erected he could see the famed “S” of Superman. Once it had been the Kryptonian sign for hope. Now Clark Kent, the man Reed had once considered one of his closest friends, brought only death and destruction in his wake. He was Darkseid’s archangel – his herald. And with each blow from his clunking fists he brought Storm’s shields closer to breaking.

For the first time in years, there was doubt in Sue Storm’s voice. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold him.”

Even with their world destroyed and their colleagues broken at Darkseid’s feet, Ben and Johnny were reluctant to make common purpose with Doom. It had taken Reed every bit as much effort to convince them as it had to build the craft they were now strapped into. They had travelled across space before, next to that travelling through time would be child’s play – if it worked. Whether it would was another story altogether.

“This had better not be some kind of trick,” Ben Grimm called out to Doom.

“Children’s entertainers deal in tricks,” Doom glowered at Grimm. “Doom deals in certainties.”

“Yeah, well you had better hope so or you’ll be picking bits of skull out of that helmet of yours for months.”

Beside Ben, Johnny ground his teeth. Usually he was every bit as indefatigable in the face of adversity, but that had changed in New York. Peter Parker had given his life so that the Fantastic Four could live. Johnny had watched on helplessly as Superman tore Parker in two. The jokes and false bravado had died with him.

He placed one of his hands on Grimm’s arm. “If this doesn’t work, we won’t be alive to tell the difference, Ben.”

There was a loud bang as “Superman” brought his fists smashing down against Sue’s shield with so much force that Sue’s nose began to bleed. Behind him the braying army of Apokolips let out a hateful cheer as they sensed their prey weakening. Sue wiped the blood from her nose with the back of her hand and shouted a word of warning to her fiance.

“Reed.”

Richards did not so much as look up from the craft this time. “Just a few moments more.”

Superman’s balled-up fists came crashing down against what little remained of Sue Storm’s forcefield. It shattered on impact and the force sent her flying across the throne room. The room filled with bone-chilling Apokoliptian screams as the herald of Darkseid, Superman, stepped across the breach. There was no sign of urgency on his part. The inevitability of their defeat at his master Darkseid’s hands was assured. They would break as all the others had broken – as he had broken.

“Suzie!” Ben roared as he tried to tear himself free from his restraints.“Let me outta this thing, Stretch. I’ll show that no-good Darkseid what’s for if it’s the last thing I do.”

“There,” Reed proclaimed as he pushed the last component into place.

“We need to get out of here,” Sue shouted to him as she climbed to her feet. “And fast.”

Richards swept across the throne room, knocking crazed Apokoliptians out of the way as he went. He followed after Sue as she made her way towards the craft. She erected one last faltering shield around it and Reed slid along the ground, making his body as thin as liquid, to slip beneath it as it sealed off around them. Sue made her way to her seat and strapped herself in only to find her fiance still stood staring at the carnage they had left behind. There was someone missing.

There raging against the forces of Apokolips on his own was Doom.

Victor’s green cape fluttered defiantly in the wind as Superman bore down on him. The Kryptonian lifted one of his bloody fists into the air and swung it towards him with enough force to break a planet. At the last moment it was stopped dead. Doom was glowing green with magical energy when he brought a punch of his own down on Earth’s fallen protector. It sent him smashing through one of Castle Doom’s brick walls.

“We can’t,” Reed muttered as he watched on.

There in the hour of Earth’s greatest need Reed Richards felt his will wavering. Would he trade the fate of their entire world in for the life of the man that had opposed and frustrated him at every turn? He looked to Sue, Ben and Johnny, each imploring them to join him with their eyes, and felt a pang of indecision. His hand lingered over the time craft’s controls as he watched Doom raging against the forces of death themselves.

“We can’t leave him behind,” he repeated as he prepared to send the three of them into the past on their own. “We can’t.”

~There is no can.~

Doom’s voice sounded in Reed’s head. It was every bit as assured as it had been the day they had met at Metropolis University all those years ago. Reed remembered that day more crisply than any other in his life. He had stood before world devourers, scoured the furthest reaches of space, and not once had he felt overawed. Only Victor Von Doom had achieved that. Today as he stood prepared to do the impossible he had achieved it again.

~You must.~

With a casual wave of one of his metallic hands, Doom sent Richards flying into his seat. His restraints were fastened tightly and the craft began to hum. Sue's fingers slid into his and he looked to her with teary eyes as they began to glow with light. Slowly their surroundings began to melt away but in the distance Reed could make out one of Superman’s hands clamping around Doom’s throat.

The Kryptonian lifted him into the air and prepared to deliver the killing stroke. With his last ounce of energy, Doom delivered a contemptuous backhand that sent Superman staggering backwards. Blood trickled from the corner of the Kryptonian’s mouth and he let out a growl as he began to tighten his hand around Doom’s throat.

~Farewell, Reed Richards.~

There was a blinding flash of light and Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben were torn away at an impossible speed. Richards could feel reality bending around them and time and space giving way as Doom had promised it would. In the distance there was a glimmer that filled Reed with hope. Perhaps Victor had beaten the odds, as only he could. The glimmer bigger by the second until was within reaching distance and Richards made out the “S” sign. It was death. Winged death had arrived for them.

The cold, lifeless eyes of Superman were locked on them as they tumbled through time. Reed slammed his fist on the controls in an effort to hasten their escape but still the Kryptonian gained on them. His fingers were within inches of them when the craft hit another gear and pulled away from him at the last minute.

The last thing Reed felt as he drifted out of consciousness were Sue's fingers tightening around his. They had done it – they had cheated death itself. The New Frontier was saved.

<Snipped quote by Lord Wraith>

It was nice, but I'm a sucker for one written "in-character" Just so.@Byrd Man

I'mma let you finish, but this is still the greatest sheet of all time.

<Snipped quote by Byrd Man>


| Identity |
Ric Flair, better known as “The Nature Boy” or “Slick Rick”

| Origin & Backstory |
Flair was born in Memphis, Tennessee and adopted by German-American parents before settling in Minnesota. Flair excelled in athletics at school and eventually earned a scholarship to Minnesota University where he would letter in wrestling. One evening whilst working as a bouncer in Minnesota a chance meeting with the Greek god Hercules would set Flair on a path that would change his life. The drunken Hercules challenged Flair to a wrestling match for all of St. Paul to see and Flair managed to unseat Hercules for a few seconds, a feat no man has matched before or since, which earned the Prince of Power’s admiration. Buoyed by this great victory Flair would go on to become the greatest super-wrestler the world had ever seen.

| Attributes |
Being a styling, profiling, limousine riding, jet flying, kiss stealing, wheeling and dealing son of a gun.

| Character Notes |
Sometimes has trouble holding his alligators down.

| Character Goals |
To take every last one of you pretty little things to Space Mountain and back. Provided you're eighteen and over.

| References |

@Morden Man

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