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Did he die again?
Not sure, but maybe he’ll be back, at least he should be back.
Of course, he’ll be back. That’s what makes him so powerful in the first place.
Mysterion opened his eyes to see the many constellations blinking above him. Their divine celestial bodies were never so beautiful in the hero’s eyes until this day, and why was that?
Not that Mysterion never appreciated astronomy before; hell, it was contrary. The leader was thankful that SC was his companion; the guy was more passionate about spilling astronomy fun facts during the many nights when they were assigned co-patrolling as both jumped from roof to roof than the urges of the missions themselves.
Hell– why was the great Mysterion suddenly remembering sentimental memories now? Not that Mysterion doesn’t think about his loved ones at all times. He certainly does - Mysterion is still a human who has a life, emotions, and the decency to care for his companions, civilians, humans, Karen,... and, reluctantly, Chaos.
But today was random. Why was that?
Ah, because the dark glory of justice just died.
This phenomenon wasn’t uncommon at all; it’s just the critical reason why Mysterion is the strongest amongst all of the Freedom Force - the ability of immortality is gifted to him amongst the rest. No matter how many times he is torn apart, burned, or broken physically or mentally, Mysterion will always return.
The cost of immortality is that the hero felt more void every time he died. As in, every time something destroyed him to his death, Mysterion gradually lost a part of his intelligence, then empathy, and finally - humanity. With every journey to space, his supposed graveyard, Mysterion's consciousness gradually became more of a drowning child: slowly letting the freezing sensation consume everything about him - his mind, thoughts, speech, cognitive skills, just everything - then ended up with a lifeless body enveloped in the freezing sensation.
This brings us back to ‘Mysterion’ and the stars.
Every time he dies, almost everything just feels unusually new to him. Gazing upon the stars while body floating in space, Msyterion’s void consciousness urged him to move forward, to touch the stars - to know more about them. Every time the shadow hero wishes to gain curiosity, a single piece of knowledge returns to him - as if a life motto to keep going to keep living.
When Mysterion landed his eyes on the constellation body, he recalled a particular companion.
“SC,” Mysterion called out, “you’re distracted,”
“Huh? Oh, I’m sorry, it’s just tonight’s so beautiful,”
“Never seen you confidently praise something before,” despite his snarky comment, Mysterion still glanced up at the sky. Okay, the night sky was like a divine dark pond with little fishes as stars subtly glided over the reverberating surfaces. Stars twinkling reminds the shadow hero of his childhood when he had nothing to do - the shooting stars were his best friends to pray for a better new day.
“So, are you making a wish?” Mysterion eyes glanced towards some shooting stars that passed by them.
“No, I’m just observing them, and that’s good enough,” SC grinned, “we still have something to deal with down there, right?”
“At least you are alerted,” Mysterion smiled at his man before leaping off, “what did you wish for? Something like family, friends, Stripe…?”
“Well, something along those lines, I guess,” SC rubbed his neck, “Probably wish for Coon to not become such a nuisance every night or so–I’m starting to question the percentage of his human self,”
“He’s an animal, in the end,” Mysterion rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, but it’s pretty funny - so I’ll just leave it there. And for the stars to carry something else more useful, more important to the Freedom force,”
As soon as the soul’s aware enough, no matter how long he pushes to catch up with the stars, it’ll be impossible to reach their destinations. So he quit, for the first time ever, and focused on something else in the vast space. Got it - the soul turned its back towards the star, and seeing,
The Earth.
The Earth looked more whimsical than what Mysterion thought for a long time. It’s a flattened eclipse, so think about a majority of ‘the Earth is a sphere’ view, and just some five to ten percent of ‘the Earth is flat’ hypothesis.
Mysterion didn’t pay much attention to the Earth when it was not related to the fate of humanity. Then again, he remembered that at the end of every meeting, Tupperware would bring up the current political climate to update Mysterion, thinking it’ll be necessary for a superhero agency to monitor.
The thought entertained Mysterion for a bit; then, it shifted into a memory of another of his companions.
“The thought between flat Earth and circular Earth is actually intriguing. I wonder how it stemmed out to be,” Mysterion chuckled.
“Well, there are some arguments to both sides, and I’ll try to be unbiased,” Tupperware jokes, “The–um, flat Earth stems from the sensation of living - you and I sit here on a straight line, we usually walk in a straight line, everything we do is on a straight line sensation - and thus, a flat Earth,” he paused, “it’s kinda relative, we’re experiencing a lack of dimension,”
Mysterion cocked his head.
“The other theory is proved from, well–a lot of gravitational physics, and the infamous Earth photo from NASA,” Tupperware summoned his rotating Earth hologram above them, “This one demonstrates physical, rather than feeling, proof. It’ll just be better to believe this one, whether or not NASA rigged the photo." The cyborg then shut the hologram.
“Hmm? So you’re a circle Earther, then?” Mysterion half-joked, he somewhat hunched that it’ll be an obvious answer.
“Not really, both are inaccurate in their way,” Tupperware explained, now that took the leader off-guard, “Maybe it’s just the vagueness that they’re too perfect - perfectly thin, perfectly circular - it doesn’t make any sense for Earth was hit constantly with meteorites and stuff,” the cyborg frustratedly leaned on his chair before, “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see–until both sides can agree on something.”
“Nothing is ever perfect, what a life lesson,” the leader mumbled.
Unlike the stars, the Earth is a more realistic destination thanks to its gravitational field. The more aware Mysterion became, the more matter he felt - he was returning to the land of the living again. Great fucking time, it’s not the time to float in nothingness anymore. Mysterion has a lot on his plate: hero work, meetings with Coon and Friends, or trying to compensate for building property damage - something that Toolshed has been doing passionately with or without his team.
Thinking about domestic civilian lives - Mysterion thought Toolshed was the most involved in their lives thanks to his friendly personality, which slowly brought him back to another memory.
“And that is another construction the townspeople are working on!” Toolshed pointed to the site as the duo toured around town, “They’re really working on it; hopefully, there won’t be some, like, Earth-shattering mission that’ll crush their dreams,”
“Noted, I’ll make sure that we’ll stay away from that site, if lucky, that is,” Mysterion shrugged on Toolshed’s phone screen, “It’s pretty ironic that you’re casually strolling with me instead of working with those engineers there,”
“Hey–I know my tools, but I’m no engineer. I don’t think they need me anyways; it’s the people’s job, not a hero’s,” the ‘engineer’ vigorously pointed at his phone screen as the people murmured as if he was angry against the other line, “It’s been well to see everyone in South Park doing fine, especially with social work and stuff,”
“That’s good. Everyone is working well today,” Mysterion’s static voice praised, “by the way, try to stop by somewhere to eat while you patrol - You don’t want to end up like Coon last time,”
“Don’t worry about it! I’ll just stop by my favorite place and get some hot dogs from the team! The owners know me so I’m sure the payment process will be quick and all,”
“I’m still amazed that the public knows you personally as if you’re not afraid of the consequences,” Mysterion commented.
“Ah, well, I just trust them. They’re pretty cool when you get to open up once in a while—Ah, I’m at the shop! Bye then!”
“Okay, bye–” and the other line shut.
He opened his eyes again, still in space - but sensed becoming heavier and closer to Earth, he’ll be alive again.
His companions really make a difference in his perspective of the world. As the Earth keeps spinning, Mysterion could be as beautiful but impossible as the stars or be as open but at risk with the people around him. Those philosophies spiraled in his head, slowly shaping from the dying boy to resurrect into the previously alive man who didn’t trip in the waters in the first place. Slowly but surely, all the puzzle pieces of everything lost from Mysterion - his mind, thoughts, speech, cognitive skills, just everything reunite in one body once again.
That is the sickening beauty of immortality - the ability to feel everything come out and return to a person.
With enough awareness, the soul will unconsciously become a human again - as unconsciously as Mysterion closed his eyes for the last time in this journey.
Welcome back, Mysterion - Doctor Timmy’s voice messages in his head.