Chapter 8.
By Carycomic
GEMWORLD (THE PHANTOM STRANGER'S P.O.V.)
I let this Green Lama continue rambling without interruption to see if he was trying to manipulate me.
"The lovers tried to embrace each other in mutual confusion and consolation for the longest time. But, their intangibility prevented this. Then, it happened. There was blinding flash of golden light! When their eyes had adjusted to it, they beheld an enormous field of asteroids being consumed by a yellow hypergiant sun at the center of some alternate universe's galaxy. This was followed by another blinding flash of light; and then. . .near-total darkness."
REALITY-7642
Dr. Chaos looked at his surroundings in a total daze. The darkness broken only by large patches of bioluminescent lichen. That was how he was able to make out what appeared to be a truncated pyramid of solid gold directly behind him. To his left was a stone bench and to his right was his lover, Jessie Quick.
"Welcome back to the Land of the Living, Garth Curry."
The young Atlantean hurriedly looked in the direction of that voice. And what remained of his mental fog dissipated as he tried to make sense of the person in front of him. An alien humanoid who was dressed like someone in a photographic negative! Alternating reversals of black-and-white.
"Who. . .? Where. . .?"
"To answer your second question first; you are in a cave somewhere beneath the ruins of the former capital city of the planet Prosilicus. A planet that, at one time, was the home world of one of the first races to achieve sentience in the wake of the Big Bang. But, later, it became the graveyard of the very first race to drive itself to extinction through global nuclear war! That makes this world the one place in this entire multiverse guaranteed to be safe from scrutiny by the Watchers."
"In answer to your first question? I was dubbed 'the Antimatter Man' when first I encountered- -and then clashed with- -an ethereal entity known as the Spectre. But, my preferred designation is the In-Betweener. Sentient embodiment of all that is dichotomous! Order and chaos; good and evil; time and space."
"It was in the spirit of the latter that I was merely exploring the interstitial void, between the Negative Zone and your own Divergent Cosmos, upon discovering that a tachyonic rift had opened up from one to the other. A rift that the Spectre evidently-but-erroneously held me responsible for. . .and over which we fought, accordingly. It was not until much more recently that I found out who was truly responsible for those tachyons. The same party responsible for your late father-in-law's super-speed."
During this litany, the young Atlantean had said nothing. He had merely picked up his lover and carefully seated her on the stone bench. Following which, he began to massage her shoulders. Only to have Jessie Quick stop him so she could bluntly comment: "What the blazes are you talking about?"
"He's talking about me," replied a new voice from off to the In-Betweener's right. The villainous lovers looked in that direction. . .and beheld a small man with unruly brown hair floating in mid-air. A small man with lop-sided spectacles on the bridge of his nose. And dressed in a green robe with a matching conical hat. Making him resemble nothing less than a caricature of Merlin the Wizard!
"Allow me to introduce myself. The name's Mopee; fallen guardian angel of the Speed Force!"
BACK ON GEMWORLD. . .
I looked at the Green Lama in total bewilderment.
"Guardian angel of the Speed Force?! There is no such ranking in the Heavenly Hierarchy."
He half-grinned in bemusement: "He wasn't a true angel. He simply claimed to be one for the sake of convenience. As in, he considered it too inconvenient to tell Barry Allen the truth! That he was merely another imp from the Fifth Dimension, similar to Kwsp and Mxyzptlk. But, unlike Kwsp, he wasn't forcibly returned there at the time of the First Crisis. He was exiled from our multiverse long before then. On to a planet called Qward in a parallel universe composed entirely of antimatter!"
"That universe is known to the residents of the other multiverse as the Negative Zone. And it's through that universe that Dr. Chaos and Jessie Quick were drawn to the lifeless world where they subsequently gave birth to their only child. A child whom Mopee helped train in the use of her inherited powers. Powers that she's been using, since coming of age, to travel from multiverse to another. In order to find herself a worthy mate!"
I admit it. I was temporarily slack-jawed with horrified amazement.
"Then, what happened to Zatanna was merely Anarky's way of attracting the Sorceress of Zoom's attention?"
"Not Anarky. Klarrrrgh!"
The Green Lama was suddenly writhing in pain as his body was suddenly surrounded by streams of electricity. Like snakes made of living lightning! I then turned to my left as a new, and distinctly child-like, voice exclaimed: "That will be enough of that."
It was Klarion; the infamous Witch Boy.
tbc
GLOSSARY
Antimatter Man: a one-shot antagonist created by DC legend Gardner Fox for JLA (v.1)#'s 46-47 circa Aug. 1966.
In-Betweener: recurring foe of the Silver Surfer and occasionally rebellious servant of Lord Order and Master Chaos. Created by Marvel legend Jim Starlin for WARLOCK (v.1) #9 circa Oct. 1975.
Their highly similar physical appearances might be due to Messrs. Fox and Starlin having briefly collaborated on the Dr. Strange story arc in MARVEL PREMIERE that first introduced Shuma-Gorath circa May 1973.