✔️Hero's end

The villain stood gazing at the havoc he had caused. Most of the so called heroes laid at his feet dead or dying. Only a couple remained with strength to fight, but no matter, he would take care of them soon enough. He chuckled darkly. They had all gathered from the vast reaches of the universe to defeat him. And now here he stood having defeated them all. It had taken a while. Starting at the outer reaches and slowly making his way towards earth where the mightiest heroes lived. Defeating every superpowered being there was.

Now there only remained a couple of heroes and pathetic earthlings. Thor, one of the few remaining, flew at him bringing down lighting as he did. The lightning did not faze the villain and he merely swatted Thor out of the sky like a pest. Thor crashed into the side of one of the remaining buildings which collapsed. Thor did not rise again. His gaze traveled around the fallen heroes landing on the spiderling. He had fought bravely and fiercely but in the end all it had taken was a mere squeezing of his fingers to crush him. Iron Man had fallen quickly afterwards blind in his rage and grief. By that time pretty much all the heroes had been dead.

The villain had come prepared. He knew of their weaknesses and exploited them using his own abilities to end the rest. When the heroes were dead he would rule over the humans as was right. For humans were meant to be ruled by those greater then them. Of course having heroes would have gotten in the way of that so he had to end them. And since dead heroes often resulted in people fighting back for a forgotten cause, he had placed the human race in a stasis, outside of time, and erased any memory they had of the heroes, so even if any survived he could easily make them appear the villain and turn the people against them.

As far as he could tell there were only about a dozen heroes left. Most of which he had already forgotten their names. Even the annoying merc was dead. Destroyed beyond regeneration. He stumbled back as one of the heroes blasted him with some kind of ray. He growled in annoyance firing a blast at the pesky being. They flew back to tired to dodge and lay still. His partner screamed in rage and ran at him growing in size as he did so. This did not bother him since he already was the size of giant ant man. He grabbed the man's fist as he tried to punch him delivering one of his own more powerful hits. The man stumbled back returning to normal size. The villain bent down picking him up and flicking him into the sea. He would not have the strength to swim back. The villain's size did not give him the same limits as the giant ant man or whatever he was called in giant form. Two down, he thought, ten to go.

He gazed around spotting a cluster. Not wanting to waste time he picked up a large piece of debris and tossed it onto the gathered heroes. Only two escaped. One with his speed and another by manipulating her molecules to pass through the object. Four left. They came at him together. The one zooming around his legs trying to tangle them in a piece of cable while one blasted him with energy beams. The girl who could phase through objects tried to get past his armor in order to stab him or something, he couldn't tell and he didn't care. He extended a palm toward her and released a fiery blast. As he'd assumed being able to phase through objects did not apply to fire. Three left. The fast man was taken down with a mere kick. Truthfully the only reason he had made it that long was because the villain had found him amusing. Now there were only two left. The annoying one firing harmless blasts at him, he took care of him with a hunk of debris too he was too tired to doge and to spent to blast it to pieces.

Now for the last one. The villain looked around trying to find his location. He knew there was still one more alive. He could hear his heart beating. He must be hiding. The villain chuckled darkly. "come out, come out wherever you are. Hiding won't do you any good." He laughed when he saw the tiny man come out. He wasn't even superpowered. He was a scientist and a writer, tech genius or something. Shame, he had wanted his final opponent to be more of a challenge. Well no matter, this would be over soon. He crouched down picking the man up. The man made no move to escape. The villain smirked. He brought him up close to his face. "Puny mortal, you thought you could defeat a god?"

"No." he responded. "but we did know we could bring down a tyrant." And with that he lunged at the villain stabbing something into the soft flesh around his eye. The villain screamed dropping the man who rolled on the ground hurt but not gravely.

"You will pay for that mortal!" the villain screamed. "you thought a mere stab could kill me?" the villain roared. He stood, but then he stumbled down to his knees, then to his hands and knees. He could feel himself shaking. His skin burst with pinpricks of pain that were getting worse. "What is this?" he gasped.

"A toxin that targets everything living. Converting the living things energy into energy it uses to tear apart DNA and living tissue. You cannot escape it, it is already in your veins. You will die." The man stated calmly.

"This means nothing, I have destroyed all the heroes and the people will not remember them. Others will come and without your precious heroes humanity will be destroyed!"

"You have already defeated all the others" the scientist said calling his bluff. "You will die and humanity will live. Unlike you we did not fight for power and fame, we fought because with great power comes great responsibility. Responsibility to protect those who cannot protect themselves. To save the innocent and sometimes the not so innocent. To uphold justice and liberty and hope. To give hope to those in despair and to set an example for others to follow. To show that even without power people can do great things and help those around them. That true strength does not come in the form of power but in the desire to do great things for others and do one's best in accomplishing that goal.

Fighting for what you believe is right even when all seems lost because if you do nothing you might as well join the enemy. Because if you do not fight then all hope is lost and all is doomed. If there comes a time when a person does not stand up for another who is being mistreated, then all we have fought for is lost and humanity would be doomed. But as long as there is one person willing to inspire others to do great things, then what we have died for is not lost. Only continuing on in those who live their daily lives wishing to help bring about a better world."

With those words the villain fell, the spell collapsed, the fallen heroes disappeared as if they had never been there, the buildings restored themselves all signs of a battle gone, and the people reappeared going about there daily lives as if great heroes had not just died to save them. But that was alright. For the last remaining hero was determined to carry on their legacy and make their heroics known. And in this way inspire others to stand up for what is right, and realize that they too could do great things. Even if those things were small and only helped one person the hero would be satisfied that all they had fought to defend would live on. People would be inspired by their tales to bring hope to others about the possibility of a better future. One they could help bring about with just simple acts of kindness and bravery.

Yes.

Stan Lee was ready to show the world how to be a hero.

to Stan Lee who died Monday November 12, 2018

and to Marvel fans everywhere

may he never be forgotten

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