Inner Man Theatre

    “And Asteroid Boy got Earth’s Shadow Ninja from Xames Scott of SBX!” Red randomly blurts before Porter starts.

    “Oooo, a picture!”  Gracie says in awe.  “Totally should have done that, Blue.”

    Porter speaks.  “This is a photograph I keep to focus on the good days before Ruin took them away.  AB and James had just helped us stop Galarius, and this pic was taken during one of the many celebrations that were held for us.  How I cherish those days!  Unfortunately, all of that came to an end.  We all fell in combat, most of us in humiliating defeat to mere foot soldiers due to some weird physics-alternate phenomena going on at the time.  The Shiloh Brothers both died this way, as did I and my partner Retros.  What a horrible day it was as I faded from consciousness watching my Seri and the other women taken away from the burning cabin that was our last attempt at keeping them safe.   When I awoke, I learned that several of the women had died in lunacy, including Seri’s best friend Priss.  How did I wake up if I was dead?  Well, you can thank cybernetic enhancements for that.  Who revived me?  The enemy.  They had a practice of taking the corpses of their enemies and turning them into lifeless drones to haunt those who knew them in life, ‘recruiting’ them to the cause.  It’s kind of like SUSIE in SBXL, except we were literally mobile corpses instead of clones.  This was thought to have been the case with Misty Zero’s mother long ago, and it was thought to have been the case with me.  However, both instances proved the inefficiency of the foe’s scientists.  James Scott had been the one to discover Misty’s mom was still alive and recoverable.  I was the one, years later, to realize for myself that I was still in this life and had limited control over myself.  I could have fought back, but I didn’t want to.  I used this predicament as an excuse to give up and forsake all the limitations of being a hero.  I wanted to live for me.”

    Porter sighs.  “That’s how I became Ruin.  My superior power and skills quickly earned me the rank of leader among my new army, and thus, I led in the eradication of any surviving heroes, including Brian Logan Zero.  He and I once again met in battle, only we had switched sides.  With all my enemies gone, I was even able to acquire Seri and marry her as she was too desperately eager to have me back to challenge me.  I know she regretted seeing me like this, but it was better, in her mind, then living alone with everything she knew having been stolen from her.  We and our precious daughter ruled the universe of Storyboard X until a troublesome team of meddlers actually thought they could outdo my power.  I joyed in regularly showing them how pathetic they were, but I could never succeed in stomping them once and for all.  That’s when they finally infiltrated my palace and Blue Shiloh confronted me.  We fought for quite a while as he was so much more proficient than anyone I had faced in decades.  Even so, he still proved to only be the second most powerful fighter in our universe.  I still dominated and I had the pleasure of ending his life right there in my sight.  Before killing him, I told him the truth.  I didn’t care about being a hero anymore.  I didn’t even care about or love my Seri or my daughter.  It was all about being the strongest at that point, and I was very happy with myself.

-Next Page-

-Previous Page-