Okay, so.. I was pretty into Marvel the other day. I had just played some magic the gathering with a friend. I used a sliver deck, and I was thinking. Who would survive a war between Slivers and Marvel? I decided slivers would, and since I wrote it myself, that’s exactly what happened.
I don’t do the marvel characters a lot of justice in this one, so if you’re a huge marvel fan, you might not want to read it, unless it inspires you to make your own fanfiction in which the opposite is true. Well, here goes.
Mages were everywhere, and there were a lot of different kinds. Some mages, when they had enough power, waged war on other mages, for petty or righteous reasons. This story is about two mages of great power, and a war that threatened to sweep away an entire world.
Silivren and Meracles recently discovered each other on a road trip across several realms. Since they were on an equal level, they figured, why not duel to see who’s better at sorcery? What else do you do with that much power, right?
So they picked a world, and the game began.
Silivren appeared in Central Park, and looked around. Okay, no immediate threats. That was good. He wondered where Meracles had landed, but couldn’t think about that right now. He tied himself to the mana in central park, and walked the streets. The people dressed so strangely, and they were starting to stare.
Before he realized it, he was hailed from a building above.
“Hey, you, Renaissance Fairy, what’re you doing in Brooklyn?” a voice said.
“Brooklyn? So that’s the name of this realm? It sounds.. nice. I might get used to that,” Silivren said.
A strange man in some kind of tight bodysuit dropped to the ground.
“Hmm, that leaves nothing to the imagination you know,” Silivren began.
“What’d you say? Your accent is weird. Where are you from?” a certain hero asked.
“I hardly remember. I’ve done so much traveling lately. I think it was some kind of fairy land after all, Tor Nano, or something like that,” Silivren said, “You know, I really should introduce myself,”
“Hi, I’m Silivren,” he said.
“You don’t know who I am?” The cape seemed a little insulted by that.
“Not from around here, remember?” Silivren said patiently.
“It’s Spider-man, and if you don’t mind, I have a city to protect,” Spider-man said.
“That’s nice. I have a world to conquer, so I’ll be going,” Silivren said. He had difficulty reading the expressions of this masked man.
“Oh, that was the wrong thing to say, punk,” Parker said.
He punched Silivren right in the gut.
“Oof,” Silivren said.
Silivren thought fast. Green.. color of life, color of nature. How about.. He raised his hand and with a flourish, summoned an elf with a spear.
“Grag a grag,” he said.
Spidey didn’t waste any time, but punched him again, this time in the face. However, after a few seconds, he found a spear pointed at his backside. He managed to avoid the attacks of the elf, but the elf was getting a lot better at landing blows all of a sudden.
“As I was saying.. Summoning sickness. It’s a bitch, but after a few minutes, you’re fine,” Silivren said. He focused all of his energy beneath the city, towards the sewer.
“Sure is a lot of dead stuff below us. I hope you don’t mind..” Silivren said, wiping the blood from his nose, “In my world, we do the talking first.. Must be a difference in social graces,”
“From below, to above,” Silivren said, and summoned a skeletal soldier to fight as well.
Spider-man started to back away. Who was this clown? How did a third-rate mage go toe to toe with an A-list cape? It was like he was getting stronger every minute. Spider-man knew he had to get to Doctor Strange, and fast.
The skeleton advanced on spider-man, the elf blocking his access to Silivren.
“Yeah, I’ll get back with you on that,” he said, and slung some web. He quickly left.
The elf examined Silivren’s wound, and with a small spell, healed him. At least it would hurt less, and it wouldn’t get infected.
“Thanks, Selva. This world is a little less friendly than I thought. I know we could leave it to be devoured by Meracles, but that seems like such a waste. Besides we can’t judge an entire world by a single person. We need to get some food and regroup,” said Silivren.
He dismissed the skeleton, and he and the elf walked down the streets. Blending in was the hardest at first. It was going to be a long night.
Meanwhile, in another part of the States, Meracles had tapped a cornfield. He pulled from his memories his first sliver. It wasn’t very impressive, with only a few natural platings, but it was a start. He and his new friend hid out until night, when they headed in the direction of a small mountain range. It had begun.
The night was a long one. Silivren wandered the cold streets. Eventually someone tried to mug him. Silivren didn’t understand, but the elf quickly disarmed the attacker, and found some strange leather folding thing with a lot of paper in it. Silivren used this strange paper to buy food, and something less conspicuous to wear. However, Spider-man had been prowling the city and once again, he found Silivren.
“See you got a wardrobe change. Did Legolas help you pick it out?” he asked.
“Nah, it was this cute girl at the shop. She must’ve thought there was one of those.. conv…en..tions? In town? Guess capes aren’t the only ones with no taste in clothing,” Silivren replied. He rather liked this.. garbage-saying? No, that wasn’t right.
“Ready for round two?” Spidey asked.
“You do realize that if you somehow disable me, my rival will take over this world? What’s worse, he’ll do it a lost faster. He has slivers,” Silivren explained.
“He went to long john silvers?” Spidey asked.
“No, cape, he has quickly evolving monsters that each inherit the new ability of the one he’s most recently summoned,” Silivren said.
“You’re bluffing, or have been watching Shutter Island too many times,” Spidey said.
“I wish I did have an island to tap. It would make all this fitting in stuff sooo much easier,” Silivren said.
“Why don’t you just go to Manhattan? Oh, right, sorry, Dorothy, your house fell out of the sky yesterday,” Spide said.
“An island? Here?” Silivren asked. He quickly conferred with the elf.
“I do smell a great deal of water coming from the west, Lord Silivren,” said the elf.
“Very well. To the west we will go. Sorry, cape, we have to get some more mana. However, we would like to discuss the possibility of aiding you in the oncoming threat. We believe we would be the most useful against the slivers, and once we get the blue mana, we can scry for their location. If you have any local wizards, you shouldn’t have any difficulty locating us.”
“Oh no you’re not. You’re gonna get a web-slinging butt kicking if I have-” Spidey said, leaping towards Silivren.
The elf used Spidey’s momentum to redirect him, and Silivren managed to get a terror off, causing Spidey to curl into a ball and cry.
“The Reign of Terror has begun,” Silivren said. “Man, I can’t seem to get a good reputation with these capes. Perhaps the island will allow me to become more persuasive,” he said, and the mage and elf made their way to Manhattan.
Meanwhile, with a mountain and a few days to work, Meracles had developed a small task force of slivers, now with the offensive capability and toughness to sustain combat with most humans. So he took what he wanted from a few stores, slaughtered a few cows to feed his growing army, and then journeyed toward the south, hoping to encounter some swamps to make his next addition even more deadly. He managed several shifts with his army, rather slowly, but he was picking up speed. He wasn’t quite prepared for the group of capes that attacked him, but they were C rank at best, so his slivers slaughtered them.
Silivren managed to tap Manhattan island, and although it wasn’t a typical island, it gave him the diversity he needed. He sensed a foreign magic, and turned to see Spidey in the company of a 30 something mage in respectable clothing. Silivren weighed the situation and said
“Oh, so there are mages here. That’s good. I think you’ll want to see this,” Silivren said, and scryed the location in the mid-west, revealing both human and animal corpses. “He’s hit the ground sprinting I’m afraid. I suggest you call your reinforcements and we take the battle to him,”
Dr. Strange, because that’s who it was, said, “We’re aware of the situation and are on our way. You’re welcome to assist, but that’s all you will do. I’m the Sorcerer Supreme of this realm, and I’ve tolerated your interference far too long,”
“O…kay.. Well, let’s just see how this goes, then,” Silivren said.
Strange quickly teleported them to the area. Silivren looked around, and then unfortunately, the smell caught up with him.
“Hurk.. I’ll never get used to that,” He said.
The capes were silent. If they were not used to carnage, it didn’t show.
“He went..” Strange began.
“South,” said Silivren.
He caught a death glare from Strange and said, “Oh, right, I’m the assistant to the Soos Chef Supreme. My bad,” He was getting better at the colloquialisms he thought. Must be hanging out too long with Sticky Fingers.
“It’s.. Sorcerer.. nevermind,” said Strange. He levitated them closer, and found a sliver. He vaporized it, and they moved on.
“I think it might be better to-,” Silivren started.
“Quiet, I’ve got this..” Strange said.
They went along further, and before they realized it, they were quickly surrounded. Their only advantage lay in the fact that they were airborn.
Spidey started to leap into the fray, but Silivren grabbed his shoulder and said, “I think you might want to size them up first,”
Strange began blasting away, and Silivren searched his mind for the appropriate response.
“Ahh, yes. The troll,” he said. He summoned a muscular troll onto the ground, and watched as the slivers picked it apart in seconds. It was pretty gruesome.
“So you see.. We’re going to need help,” Silivren said.
“Not yet,” said Strange. He conjured a firestorm and make quick work of the hiding places. Then he began picking them off one by one, until they suddenly faded from view.
“Spectral.. He found a swamp. This just went from bad to worse,” said Silivren.
“Then we’ll just stop him at the source,” said Strange.
Silivren realized his current approach wasn’t working. “I think I’ll be traveling for more mana. Let me know what you come up with,” he said.
“What do you know about all this?” Strange asked.
Silivren gave a rather brief explanation on planeswalkers, mana, slivers, and the like.
“I see. So he’ll just get stronger until he overpowers us,”
“Precisely,” said Silivren.
“All right. Well, I hate to do this, but I’d better make a sending to the Avengers, X-men, somebody,” he said. He transported them back to his Sanctum Sanctorum, and with a venomous look said,
“All right, Silivren, don’t touch ANYTHING,” said Strange.
Silivren sat in an armchair and waited. Strange made the call. Silivren’s composure was slipping, though. At this rate they would all be dead, and Silivren’s brief career as a planeswalker would be over.
“I’ve got to check on something real quick. I’ll be back in a few minutes, or hours.. or something, “he said.
The capes gathered their forces, and prepared for the final battle. With Strange’s ability to decloak the slivers, the battle went well, at first. However, the Commander of the Slivers was absent.
They decimated their foes quickly, but then, something went horribly wrong. The slivers started regenerating. Bones snapped, muscles flexed, and then they were all back.
Then the Meracles, said, “The Sliver King has arrived,”
“Well, I must admit, this went exactly as I planned,” the Sliver King said. “Now I’m going to slaughter you all, find my rival, and finish this,”
So he did. He cut down the capes, and right before he finished the job, there was a loud pop.
“All right, Meracles. You win. I’ll become your lieutenant, and you’ll control the world. Just don’t kill them,” Silivren said.
“You care about these people? All the more reason I should finish them off. You’ll make a good lackey, though,” Meracles said.
“Yes, but I have something you want,” he said, showing a medallion that was shaped like an eye.
“The Eye of Agamotto, you wouldn’t!” began Strange’s protest.
“I will,” he said. The two planeswalkers and the sliver horde vanished from sight.
“Well, Silivren, it’s good you came to your senses,” Meracles said in the hive fortress. However, there can only be one Sliver King,” Meracles added.
A sliver stabbed Silivren through the chest, and Silivren fell to the ground.
“I know. This was the logical conclusion. But while you amassed an army, I took a trip to someplace very unpleasant,” he said. The sliver tried to remove its tail, but couldn’t.
Silivren pulled a vial from his cloak and said with a sinister grin,” Engineered Plague, courtesy of the Phyrexians. It only cost me my ribcage, which they kindly replaced, as you can see.”
He smashed the vial on himself, and the sliver stopped. Meracles tried to undo what Silivren had done, but he was out of his league when it came to biological warfare. In hours his sliver army were incapacitated. By they next day they all died.
Meracles was captured by the capes, and robbed of his Spark. Now he was trapped in the earth dimension and in the equivalent of superjail.
“Well, eventually the revolving door will swing the other way,” he muttered in his cell.
Silivren was quite dead, but he arranged to have a few things sent to some of the capes. In a small box Franklin Richards received a small pack of cards. One of them was called, “Silivren, of the Emerald Kingdom,” with the picture of a goofy looking wizard in green robes.
Franklin focused on the card, and called Silivren into being again.
“Hello, Franklin. As you have summoned me, I am your loyal servant. And now, I think it’s time we taught you to make use of your powers, don’t you think?” Silivren said with a grin.
So Silivren became Franklin’s tutor. Franklin wasn’t exactly magical, and had to learn his own ways of planesawlking, but they became good friends. Eventually Franklin used his powers to free Silivren from servitude. They pledged friendship and mutual aid.
“So long as we are friends, I vow that I will never invade earth again to conquer, and you can always call on me for help,” said Silivren.
“I think it’s time I took a trip home to recuperate. You should, too. You don’t want to stay in foreign lands too long without a plan. That was my first mistake. We’ll be in touch,” he said, and shifted, “Thus we depart for worlds unknown,”
Franklin went home. Only minutes had passed here. He had promised his parents he would never use his powers without their permission, but the day would come when he would be needed, and he would be ready.
