Pyrrhic

[Beta Ray Bill]

Darkness. It is a maelstrom that surrounds me. Darkness. It is what becomes over you as you fall to slumber. It is a powerful thing... With its deep dark void. Sometimes if you're not careful it will swallow you whole and grant you a special gift. I can tell you what that gift is: Its dreams. I had those once, but that was long ago when I was just a boy. That was before my mother and father's untimely death and the quest to save my mother from her damnation. Now when I sleep, when I thought I had everything, I no longer dream. Now they are but nightmares and horrible visions of demons, monsters, revenge, and of something that I'm missing. I know what I'm missing... It is the world. only several years ago I discovered the fate of Earth and it haunts me to my very core. I know what I must become and I hope that I'm the greater evil, but they must understand. If they had seen what gazed upon with my very eyes. They would understand. Understand that I Victor Von Doom must rule the world or even the multiverse with an iron fist. 

-

Whistles and the angry shouts of guards bellow outside. This was an all too familiar sound to Victor with each and every passing day. The Baron's guards beating his friends, his people. It built a deep hate that burned like embers his heart. Most of all, what made him so more than upset was what they had done to his mother. He was but a mere infant when it had happened but yet still it bothered him that they had stolen her from him. He hoped that someday his father, the Zefiro tribe's medicine man would- No... no, he must not think that way. No his father would kill him for thinking like that. Victor continued what he was doing previously. Before the Baron's men barged through the village. 

Silently, he sat back down at the dining room table and continued to read one of his mother's books. Books that he was not supposed to read or even take out of his mother's chest. Books that father did not want him to read. Books that were forbidden. His eyes darting and fingers fumbling through pages, he found himself entrapped, spellbound by what the mere paper and glue had to offer. Through the book, he found his mind wandering through the vast idea of other plains of existence and the very idea of magic and sorcery. 

His mother's books were all-inspiring and truly fascinating to him. Victor would have never imagined that even here in the cold Hell of Latveria that even he could gain just a tidbit of power. That the idea of the Baron being a hiccup of what the real world was like. Victor enjoyed and savored the idea that knowledge was power. He craved it. He wanted it. It was everything he needed and maybe it could bring back- 

"Victor! Come, my son! Come now! there isn't much time!" Werner shouted bursting through the front door. 

"But Father! What is happening? W-What happened!?" 

Werner's fingers gripped tightly onto Victor's right arm snatching him out of his chair.

"We need to leave! The Baron, he... He wanted me to cure his wife's cancer. He wanted me to come up with some elixir or miracle potion. It was impossible! I couldn't save her and now he blames me and you next for her death. He claims that we have put a curse upon him and his wife, that we must be executed for our crimes. Come, my son, we must leave Latveria."  Werner’s said his voice raising before turning to a hushed tone. 

Quickly as if Hell itself were biting at their feet, Werner smashed back through the front door. His right hand still gripping tightly onto Victor. Swiftly with hesitation, they made it through the village streets. It didn’t take long for King Vladimir’s men to spot them. The armed guards shouted after them and soon following bullets begin to fly. Victor and his father kept running. They needed to escape Latveria. They needed to get away from Vladimir’s men. They needed a place to hide. 

Pulling Victor in front of him Werner ushering for him to keep moving to keeping running, and running, run more than they had ever done in their lives.

-

Hours passed but they still kept running. The Baron’s men, those guards, those monsters they kept their pace. It was all of Werner and Victor’s effort to keep their own distance from the king’s men. Short of breath Victor darted through the green yet cold forest of Latveria. Quickly he vaulted over a tree branch, his father right in behind him. 

“Why? Why do we keep running father? We can fight them.” Victor said shooting past tree branches that stung at his face as he went past them. 

“Always ready to fight no matter the odds, Just like your mother.” 


“Mother would be alive if not fo-”


Dropping hard to the ground Victor shouted in pain as hard as his lungs could let him. Werner came to halting stop swooping his son into his arms. Not taking the chance Werner kept running, not letting Victor’s weight get to him. No, if anyone must live it had to be his son. Victor was young and he was old. Victor could do great things in his lifetime possibly accomplish more than he would ever dream of. Going as far as he could go. Kneeling down Werner placed Victor behind a rock before placing himself in-between him. 

Quietly they waited, waiting and waiting, silently in hopes that the guards had given up on their chase. It was probably that they were in hopes that the weather would drive them out. Werner peeked over the rock they had hidden behind. It was probably the thousandth time he had done so, but he had to make sure. Make sure they were gone. Bringing his head back down and noticing that Victor was beginning to shiver. He took off his brown jacket and placed it over his only son. 

Hours passed. The weather kept its unrelenting cold until it began to snowfall. Daylight was starting to shift, It was closing in towards night time. Trying to stay warm Victor tried to pick himself up but his father's arms wrapped around him were tight. 

“Father… Father?” His heart started to beat in his throat. He tried not to think of the worst. Tried to get himself up, to wake his father. Tried to keep the unstoppable cold from getting to him. Shouting, his efforts were in vain. Slowly his eyelids became lead, With the last image being something approaching. 

-

Nervously Boris paced back and forth in the village tent. He was lucky to have gotten to Werner and his son as fast as he had. If he were only minutes late they would have surely have met their demise from hyperthermia. But Saving them at this point had done much of nothing but bad. The Baron has ordered that the people of the Zefiro tribe are to be punished unless Werner is to be released unto him. Turing to Werner laying in what little they could make as a bed for him, Boris rushed to his side as he began to slowly wake. 

“Bring… Bring Victor I must… must speak with him.”

Werner’s words were quiet and raspy. The cold had done more damage to him that it had for his son. It didn’t take long for word to spread to the other half of the village. Victor entered the tent his heart pounding in his throat. He feared the worst for his father. No, he mustn't die he mustn’t surrender himself to the Baron and his cruel ways. Slowly he stepped close beside his father. 

“Father?” 

Werner slowly tried to raise himself up in his makeshift bed, his lungs gasping for air as he tried to make words. 

“Victor… You- you must fulfill your destiny. Your mother would have been proud of you son. My son, Victor I love my son but I must- must go back to the Baron. The people of the village depend on me to… Boris, you must protect… protect the b-boy.” Quietly Werner slumped back onto the bed falling back into slumber. 

Wet hot tear dripping from Victor’s cheeks. His fists curling into a ball. Slowly he rose them in the air shouting at the top of his lungs. 

“They have taken my mother and now my father! The world will pay for what they have done!”