Because no 5+1 would be complete without an 'alternate' view.

Enjoy!

#5: Skullmaster

"DIE, CAP-BEARER!"

His rage echoed through the underworld and the very foundations of Skull Mountain shook. Skullmaster's anger had scarcely known such heights in his thousands of years of life.

"I know it was you! I know you are the one who stole my Crystal of Souls! Face me!"

Even as he bellowed, though, he recognized that it was futile. It had been weeks, as measured on the surface world, since the Crystal of Souls had vanished, long enough that the accursed Mighty One could not possibly still be trapped at the center of the Earth and have avoided revealing himself. Skullmaster didn't know how Max could have arrived and escaped without detection, but he had no doubt that his hated enemy was behind the theft.

"Curse you, Lava Lord, for distracting me at such a critical time!"

For the Crystal had gone missing only moments before Skullmaster had discovered that his worm of a servant, Warmonger, had betrayed him and had resurrected Lava Lord. The ensuing battle between Skullmaster and the original inhabitant of Skull Mountain had cost the lives of countless lavabeasts and other creatures that lived here, and had solved nothing.

Lava Lord retained control of everything beyond the river of lava and the lavabeasts as well. To say nothing of the machine Magus, which had not been enough to overpower Skullmaster in their fight, but had survived enough to be repaired. In time, Skullmaster expected to see it again, and twice as dangerous.

Time Skullmaster had no option but to give Lava Lord as he readied his own forces for another attack.

The war for Skull Mountain had been handily won when Skullmaster was first forced here, but then he had carried the Crystal of Souls. Now, though still powerful, he was not so dominant. And this was Lava Lord's own territory. The very rocks answered to him as they never would the invading outsider.

And it could only be the fault of the Chosen One.

"Only the Mighty One has the power to defeat me. Only he could have brought me so low as to waste my time subduing Lava Lord when I should be plotting my revenge!"

Skullmaster growled and clenched his bony hands into fists that would have snapped the boy's fragile neck.

"And such revenge will not come easily with the loss of my precious Crystal. Curse him a thousand times!"

Skullmaster's situation was dire and he knew there were few outcomes that ended favorably for him now. If he defeated Lava Lord and was able to reclaim the underworld, he would still waste both time and resources, while above on the surface the Mighty One could be growing ever stronger. If he failed to defeat Lava Lord, he would be easy prey skulking in a corner when the Chosen One came to destroy him.

There was a third option, but even Skullmaster recoiled from it.

"I have always said I wished to lay his broken body at the feet of my Master. If I cannot achieve victory, it will be my body broken before my Master."

And that was something Skullmaster dared not risk. His feud with the Chosen One was amusing to his Master, a diversion, and for as long as it continued as such, Skullmaster was well enough in favor as not to warrant punishment. But should he fail, or should he cease to please his Master, all the torment he planned for the Mighty One would pale in comparison to the suffering to which he would be subjected.

Skullmaster must find a way to escape or to gain power – whatever avenue he could take to again chase after the boy who was the center of his failure as well as his rage.

"If he has destroyed the Crystal, it will take years to reforge a new one without the fragments. But those are easily located and reassembled unless my old friend has been particularly clever for once. However, as predictable as he is, Virgil can be uniquely troublesome."

His face contorted in a snarl.

"Though not nearly as troublesome as that boy who heralds my destruction!"

And while Skullmaster languished at Skull Mountain battling Lava Lord and his endless lavabeasts for control, the Chosen One could well be acquiring powers that would easily lift him above the strength that remained to Skullmaster himself.

"He could have mastered the Arcana. He could be wielding the Crystal of Souls himself, though to do so would rather trample the purity of his supposed heroism. He could have uncovered any number of lost magical artifacts or acquired more modern weapons like the Magus."

Of course, the worst part of it was that Skullmaster had no way of knowing any of it. Without the Crystal of Souls, he was blind to the outside world.

"He will come to kill me and I will have nothing with which to destroy him! I cannot allow it!"

His own pride and rage aside, Skullmaster did not dare the wrath of his Master, and his Master's wrath would be great indeed if he could not destroy the Mighty One before the Mighty One turned his eyes to the Master himself.

"Though I can be at least certain that the so-called Mighty One will never defeat my Master. But I want the pleasure of his blood and his pain for myself. I will not allow it to be taken from me!"

And from within his twisted, evil soul, Skullmaster struck upon the darkest inspiration of all his planning since before his first banishment to the center of the Earth. As the glee of the future washed over him, he began to laugh – a low chuckle at first, growing to a crazed hysteria that again set the foundations of Skull Mountain to shake.

"Oh, what irony! What a perfectly hideous paradox!"

For the first time since the destruction of his Crystal, Skullmaster found himself grinning.

"The Mighty One will die, and with him the hope of his world for all time! And it will all be his fault!"