Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. It’s time once again for a trip to Eternia, where the endless battle between good and evil continues. Join Ibentmyman-thing and Matthew K as they bring you a brand new story featuring some of your favorite Masters of the Universe characters. Welcome to Eternia…
Snake Face stood before the absolute Lord and Ruler of the Snake Kingdom in a position of supplication, arms spread, head down. “What instructions do you have for me, King Hiss?”
Hiss was silent. Indeed, the entirety of the den was silent.
Silent as stone.
Snake Face lowered his arms and sneered as he looked into the frozen stone eyes of King Hiss. “No orders? No commands, no demands?”
Hiss remained a statue, locked in his human guise. Beside him, Rattlor was frozen in half-step.
And all around him, the Snake men remained frozen.
“You have done well, Snake face. I knew I chose wisely when I spared you.”
Snake face shuddered at the noise in his head. It unnerved him to have someone so close, so intimate as to have their words rattle in his mind, but there had been rewards to it as well.
In addition to his more serpentine qualities, King Hiss was a powerful Sorcerer. When the unknown one imbued snake face with the power to transmogrify living tissue to stone it was decreed that his power may not be turned on fellow snake while King Hiss held his power.
But Hiss and his magic was rendered inert yesterday. First the power, then the King himself, by Snake Face’s power.
Snake Face took a step up and grasped King Hiss by his stony face. With a shove, he tipped the Snake Lord over, where he fell to the floor of the den with a thud. Snake Face hissed laughter at the sight.
Why Snake face was chosen to retain his power when Hiss was not was a mystery, but Snake Face was not a fool who relinquished his chance at power.
“Go to Snake Mountain. Another who has betrayed his betters and succeeded them awaits. He is in league with me. Join him. But do not seek to usurp his power. Betray this warning and suffer.”
“You’re gathering an army you can control,” Snake face said to the voice that rung in his head.
“I’m reshaping worlds, little serpent. I’m…reordering the food chain, to put it in words you understand. I have eliminated the Snake threat on this world.”
“And what of me? Am I still a threat?”
The voice was silent. Snake Face cocked his head and awaited more from the voice, but it did not return. He wondered if he had angered the voice, or if the source of the voice had simply grown tired of him.
He gave one last look at the stone snakes whose den he had shared and left for Snake Mountain.
The Sidewinder touched down in front of what was once Skeletor’s realm, off limits to snakes since the betrayal that soured the slight truce between Hiss and Skeletor. Snake Face looked up at the Snakes for which the mountain was named. This had been their home once, a long time ago. Maybe it would be again. All it took was a leader unafraid of the warm bloods.
Blood was not warm when it was made of cold stone.
“You are the snake I was warned about,” said a voice from the shadows beyond the gate. The speaker was similar to the snakes he was used to, but also different. The eyes, the darting tongue, the fangs; they reminded him of Snake kind. But his posture, his hue, his nature all suggested something much different.
“The voice speaks in your head as well?”
“Constantly. Insistently. Incessantly. They call me Fang Man.”
“Snake Face.”
Fang Man approached him. His eyes were dead, without emotion or fear. There was a calm certainty behind them, as if the outcome to every situation was already known to him. Snake face considered for an instant playing it safe and turning his power on him lest this creature take his head when he least expected it, but decided he may have a use for him. “Apparently we are to have an alliance. Like favors like? Our mental visitor seems to favor the cold blooded race. Maybe he’s one of us?”
Snake face looked around, seeking out hidden dangers or shadowed threats, but it seemed as if Fang Man was alone.
“What does our benefactor wish of us now?” Snake Face wondered.
“There are others. Like you, like me. Others he has contacted. They are coming here.”
Snake Face looked up at the snakes at the top of Snake Mountain. Stone snakes, frozen, unmoving, staring out at the dark hemisphere for eternity.
Just like home.