by Kristogar Velo
Marv Velo was trapped in a cage made of energy, his costume still on, but his laser gauntlets had no effect on the bars. A man sitting on a floating throne circling the cage yawned. "You done trying?" he asked Velo.
Velo decided to hold up and humor the villain for a second. "Where exactly are we?"
"Well," the villain said, "we're at the portal that ripped open following the death of my counterpart. You see, I was trapped in a... bridge, I guess, between universes. It's somewhere near your homeworld, I understand, less than a light year away... far from Earth. I had to react very quickly when it opened, had to grab this spaceship and its weapons from the future, and then
I had to grab you."
"Why? Why did you have to grab me? I could understand Hardy New-Born, or Zed, but I'm
far from the most powerful or dangerous member on the MBL."
"True, but, you see, my universe was about three years ahead of yours. My battle with the MBL, it ended with you holding the key to defeating me, because I was busy rounding up Albino, Speck, and Johnny Monolith, the most powerful members of that team. You surprised me. All the weapons you have... why did you never tell your teammates about them?"
Velo didn't respond.
"It doesn't matter. I've destroyed them," the villain told him. "And after I tell the League what you were holding back, they will never trust you again. It'll be fun, and I'll make you watch the entire battle from here. Front row seat."
"What do you plan to do?"
"First, I will form a league of metavillains, made up of the universe's most evil scum. The League will beat them. If all goes the way it did before, it'll take out a couple members as well. I understand there's no Gooz here, so that should make it even easier to defeat your team. Then,
while your teammates are struggling, I will kill Prometheus X and Viper, because they are
perhaps the biggest non-MBL threats around. They don't stand a chance against me, against
what I can do."
As if demonstrating what he meant, the villain's glowing jacket shot beams around him, destroying almost everything in the ship, then in a matter of seconds repaired everything again.
"Enough stalling with you, Mr. Velo." In the blink of an eye, a group of twenty beings showed up, and from the look of them, they were all very powerful. "Maybe I'll kill all of you this time... if not, hey, I can always look forward to the next universe."
"You'll never defeat them," Velo said calmly.
The villain smiled. "Funny, that's what the others said. Can't you guys be a little more original?" He then proceeded to address the new group of villains that he had gathered. He told them very quickly and precisely why they were there. "Now be off," he said after he was finished.
One of the villains raised his hand. "Sir, you, uh, how do we get to... Earth?"
"Oh," the main villain said. He opened a portal, reached in, and pulled out a rather small device. "Mass teleportation. Won't be invented in some millennia. It'll work wonders for you." The villains grabbed it, and they all immediately disappeared to Earth.
"That power," Velo began. "You're..."
"Please," the villain interrupted him. "Don't call me that. Just call me... Mr. Bucket. Little more original and villainish."
Continued in Chapter 2: The Talos Has Slipped Out of Our Hands