(Tothian and the White Skull, a forbidden romance)
Editors Note: I'd just like to remind everyone that this is just my crackpot theory. I have no way of proving any of this.
Beyond the beaches, past the alien jungle and over the mound of rotting native corpses lay a solitary beach house. Now, this was no beach house to scoff at, equipped with the most exotic and top of the line technologies and wonders that one could imagine, and furnished with some of the finest fixtures and fittings one would expect. Glamorous and unusual, and equipped with a wide variety of kill bots and doomsday machines, this was the vacation house of a villain. Not just any villain, mind you, no, one of the greats.
This is where Crimson Nematode found himself, alone save for his team of scientists, action interns, accountants, personal assistants, chauffeurs and personal cooks.
So very alone. This was his first time he had been to Dimension Z since his crushing defeat at the hands of the White Skull. The battle had cost him billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of Native lives, and even Professor Kanye West.
The Crimson Nematode was here to reflect on the loss of one of his trusted confidants,
"But Sir!" Murphy, his new assistant said in a consoling voice,
"Why do you care about White Skull leaving ROACH? He's a hero now! A hero most vile!"
There was a pause.
Followed by a deafening pop. A small, greasy smear was all that remained of the Crimson Nematode's latest assistant.
"Okay, look." Nematode said as he lowered his
Beamerizer Ray,
"He's not a hero."
"Yes he is." Stated Murphy's replacement, McNeelly,
"He posted on the forums! He's ingrained himself in their community."
"Yes, I'm aware." Nematode said as he lifted up his space helmet and pinched his brow,
"But he's not a hero. He's a villain."
"But he walks among the Heroes!"
"He's still villainous...sort of..." Nematode said,
"Look, it's complicated. Everyone sit down."
A hushed tone took over the room, followed by every member of the Nematode's entourage sitting down cross legged in front of him as he leaned himself against a wall.
"Okay, sit down and shut up. The Skull's still a villain. Mostly." Crimson Nematode explained, gesturing with his hands as he spoke,
"His Villain life was seeping into his personal life. That's a big no-no. You see, while we have our villain persona and our secret identities, heroes don't, not really, because-"
"Because heroes have no lives!" Exclaimed one of the junior interns.
"Right! Well, not really. While we keep our two lives separate, with Heroes the line tends to get blurred. It gets into a complicated 'which identity is the true one' argument. Like, is Bruce Wayne the real personality or is Batman? But whatever, that's a story for another time, now don't interrupt again." Nematode said, halfheartedly threatening the minion with his raygun,
"So he needed a way out. And he really couldn't just drop off the radar. Heroes, and the greater problem, their shit stupid fans, don't really let anything go."
"Like how we're still getting flak over that DC Guardian shit?" Exclaimed Nematode's sous-chef.
"Right. You see, in that example, even though we've buried the hatchet with DC Guardian, his fans are a consistent pain in our collective asses. Now, like I said, one of the RLSH fanboys decided to threaten Skull's life. And that ain't cool." The Crimson Nematode's best sonic the hedgehog impersonation was lost on most of his followers.
The Crimson Nematode paused and helped himself to one of the beers in the White Skull's fridge, making sure to avoid the poisoned ones,
"Anyways, like I said, even if he gave up being a villain, he'd still have a big old target on the back of his skull. So he did something incredibly smart -"
"He became a hero!" One of the scientists said, before Nematode smashed the bottle of beer over his head and jammed the shards into his face. The bloody, pulped scientist fell to the ground dead, and the Crimson Nematode continued his story;
"No. He pretended to redeem himself." There was a confused silence,
"If there's one thing that heroes like more than defeating a villain, it's reforming one. Hawkeye used to be an Iron Man villain before joining the Avengers, Magneto was part of the X-men for awhile, there's also Quicksilver, Silver Surfer, Deadpool, Sabertooth, Juggernaut, Scarlet Witch, the Phoenix, Venom, the Punisher, Wolverine, all of them were villains and all of them have been heroes as well. Comic book nerds eat this shit up. Skull knows this."
There were a few
'aahs' and
'oohs'
"So Skull goes to their forums, says he's seen the light, that he doesn't believe in the ROACH way and that some of the heroes are doing genuine good. Same time he gets to criticize the really insane ones. Now he's got some heroes thinking he's a balancing voice of reason. He gets a wider audience to write to, and he doesn't get the death threats anymore."
There was silence.
"Wouldn't they see through this incredibly insincere facade?" Asked Nematode's acting coach.
"No, because Heroes are all retarded." Crimson Nematode stated.
There was more silence.
"Becoming a hero is stupid." The Crimson Nematode stated as he folded his arms over his chest,
"The White Skull isn't a hero, and he isn't stupid."
"The White Skull is a fucking genius."