Soul Hunter, Part 2
(Episode 16)

Written by Larry Brody
Originally Summarized on March 23, 2006

The Watcher Oatu recapitulates for any who missed the Surfer's recent travails: “Since his creation, often has the destiny of the Silver Surfer seemed inextricably linked to my own.”

Oatu proceeds to tell the audience of the Surfer's battle with the Sarqs, his alliance with the virals and the treachery of the Nebula viral. Most importantly, he tells of the Silver Surfer's triumphant return to Zenn La and his reunion with Shalla Bal. But just as it seemed Norrin Radd had found happiness, the Soul Hunter—the one who transported Zenn La into an unreachable dimension for its own protection—returned, discovered the uninvited Surfer and literally threw the cosmic-powered herald into the sky.

“I am the Watcher -- and once more must my attention focus on the Silver Surfer -- and the triumphs and tragedies that signal his fate!”

We return to the flung Surfer. The Soul Hunter's throw was so powerful that Norrin Radd is falling up to space. He blasts a meteor that threatened to collide with him. “Shalla Bal spoke of the Soul Hunter as a benefactor,” he says. “If the Seeker means me well now, how must he behave when he intends harm?” he asks wryly. The Surfer commands his board to him, and he rights himself.

On Zenn La, Shalla Bal pleads to the three-story Soul Hunter. “Great one, how can you do this? Your attack on Norrin Radd was unprovoked.”

“Can you not understand? Norrin Radd is an interloper here,” the Soul Hunter retorts. He then flies into the stratosphere to finish the Surfer. “By borders are violated by you!” he declares.

The Surfer dodges and feints for his life as the titanic Hunter barely misses grasping him. Radd attempts to parley. “Whatever the cause of your enmity, it need not be,” he said. “My desire is not to harm you but to live the rest of my life on Zenn La, in peace.

The Soul Hunter vanishes and reappears behind the Silver Surfer. He grabs him in his oversized hands. “There can be no peace with a trespasser in my realm,” he declares. “Look around you, Norrin Radd. This dimension with its worlds, its civilizations, is my creation. A place where everything I have chosen will be forever safe, and I have not chosen you!”

The Soul Hunter pulls the struggling Surfer closer to his face.

“But why do you believe I am a threat?” Surfer asks.

“Look how we battle, almost evenly matched. Your power is truly awesome, Norrin Radd. How can the dimension of the Soul Hunter be a haven when I have a rival such as you?” the Hunter asks rhetorically, squeezing the wriggling body of the Surfer.

The Soul Hunter fires his kill shot, a beam from his forehead. Astonishingly, it strikes the Surfer and bounces off. It strikes the Hunter, and he screams in anguish. Immediately, his body begins dissolving. The Hunter gets smaller and smaller and he starts to fall to the planet below.

 

ACT ONE

Silver Surfer catches the diminishing Soul Hunter before he can plummet to Zenn La. They land safely on the planet's surface. Seeing Radd cradling her savior's body, Shalla Bal asks, “What have you done to the Soul Hunter?”

The Surfer replies, “Ask rather what he has done. I have merely attempted to survive.”

The Surfer lays the Soul Hunter on the ground. He has now shriveled to the size of a normal man and can only groan in response to his pupils' entreaties.

Thanos glares at the Surfer. “The Great One took Zenn La so that never could the planet be menaced again, and this is how we thanked him,” the Titan spat.

Even Shalla Bal is dismayed. “Never would I have thought the joy of our reunion could turn so dark,” she said.

Other Zenn Lavians press around. Many accost the returned Surfer with their words, but none threaten more meaningfully than Thanos. “I promised to never use my destructive power again,” he said. “But if I had not…”

The Silver Surfer defends himself. “I tell you, your “Great One” was injured when his own beam struck him.”

Shalla Bal asks for her lover's help and, ever chivalrous, he says, “One of the powers given to me by Galactus, is that of healing.”

The Surfer focuses his healing beam on the Soul Hunter. The Hunter opens his eyes, and for a beat we think he might live. But then his eyes close, and he dwindles away to nothing.

As the Surfer stares in disbelief where the Soul Hunter lied, the Zenn Lavians cry in anguish. Even Shalla Bal turns on the Surfer. She says, “Perhaps it would have been better if you had never returned here, Norrin Radd.”

Cut to the quick, the Surfer stammers, “You could say such a thing? After all I've endured…” But the lover's spat is interrupted by the landing of Skrull warships captained by Commander R'andom.

A holographic image of R'andom appears on the planet's surface and says, “We too have sensed the result of the battle between our beloved Soul Hunter and the Silver Surfer. The mental link we shared with the Soul Hunter brought us a peace no Skrull had ever felt before. But the Silver Surfer has taken that feeling away!”

Caught unaware, the Surfer can only ask, “There are Skrull planets in this dimension?”

“No planets, but this fleet,” answers Thanos.

The weapons of the ships point at the planet's inhabitants. R'andom demands the Surfer be remanded to his custody or Zenn La will be decimated. Their weapons discharge.

Unable the stop the wave of energy, the Surfer transmutes it into a flock of doves. He then takes to the skies, hoping to draw the Skrulls away from the innocent Zenn Lavians. The armada follows him. They fire another energy wave that misses the Surfer and destroys a nearby moon. While dodging the death beams, the Surfer cannot help but wonder why the normally benevolent Soul Hunter attacked him. “There is more to this than the Hunter told me,” he muses. “But what?”

Meanwhile, Thanos and Shalla Bal have consulted the crystal of life to better understand what occurred between the Hunter and the Surfer. They see the replay of the beam deflecting from Norrin Radd and striking the Hunter. Shalla Bal is dismayed when she learns she was wrong to doubt the Surfer's veracity.

Then, Thanos has a thought. “What if the Soul Hunter lives, yet he has diminished in size?”

“We must look closer into the very fabric of this dimension,” said Shalla Bal.

Back in space, the Surfer continues to evade the Skrulls; but he is distracted when he notices that celestial bodies are shrinking too nothingness much as the Surfer did. The gravity of the surrounding area is thrown into bedlam when a nearby star disappears. The Skrull ship rocks violently, and the crew shapeshifts to avoid injury.

An energy whirlpool appears where the sun was and cracks the nearest Skrull ship into two. Other ships are drawn toward it.

Ever the hero, the Surfer attempts to save the Skrull ships only to find himself being drawn inexorably into the vortex.

 

ACT TWO

Act two begins not with the Silver Surfer, nor with Thanos and Shalla Bal, but with the viral watchers and rogue viral Nebula.

“Nebula, we can no longer control you, yet the minds of your brother and sister virals remains linked to yours,” says the watcher prime, the aggregate of all the viral watchers. “We know too well the crime you are committing. Return to us!”

The Nebula viral is ensconced in an energy barrier trapped between our dimension and the Soul Hunter's realm. “Everything's been set into motion,” she says. “Soon you'll be my brothers and sisters no more.”

Before we learn what Nebula is plotting, the action returns to the Silver Surfer who is frantically trying not to be sucked into the vortex. Skrull ships from the armada are dragged into the whirlpool. In desperation, the Surfer fires a cosmic bolt into the black hole. The black hole sputters and vomits out a Skrull ship. Realizing the center of the vortex is vulnerable, the Surfer fires bolt after bolt until it has regurgitated most of the Skrull fleet. Inexplicably the whirlpool then dwindles away as if it never existed.

Befuddled, the Surfer asks Commander R'andom how he fares, but before he can answer, they are interrupted by the image of Shalla Bal and the life crystal.

“Norrin Radd, we need you,” she says. “The entire dimension of the Soul Hunter needs you.”

Before she can expound, her image disintegrate.

“I must go to her,” the Surfer says. The Skrulls offer their services, but not out of gratitude for saving their lives. As they return to the planet's surface, other celestial bodies begin disappearing.

Back at the academy on Zenn La, Shalla Bal and Thanos explain to R'andom and the Surfer that within the subatomic structure of the dimension, they found a miniscule Soul Hunter.

Zooming in on the Hunter, he speaks haltingly. “All of you are in deadly danger, and the fault is mine,” he says. “I was created by chance and fated to be the only sentient creature in this time and space. Although gifted with great mental power, I led the loneliest of lives. Then, in my curiosity, I discovered a neighboring dimension teeming with life, and brought various civilizations and environments here. Through their company, my mind was at ease, and I learned to broadcast my tranquility to my guests. But then a strange creature from your dimension contacted my mind and told me I had been invaded by a being who sought to destroy me, the Silver Surfer.”

“What creature? Who told you this?” the Surfer demands.

“Nebula is the identity it gave,” the Hunter answers. “That is why I attacked you. From all I have perceived since I now know that I was wrong. In attempting to reduce my supposed enemy to literal nothingness, I caused myself to begin diminishing instead. As I dwindle, so will everything I brought here. Unless you can find a way to flee this dimension, all of you are doomed.” With that, the Soul Hunter again vanishes.

Radd considers the new information. “Why would the Nebula viral betray not only me but all the beings brought to this dimension?” he thinks as he prepares to fly away and confront Nebula.

Shalla Bal stops him. “You must take me with you,” she says, “because, in spite of what it has done, the Nebula viral may be our only hope.” The Surfer agrees and places Shalla in an energy bubble before they take off.

At the plasma jump, Nebula greets the Surfer magnanimously. “I've been expecting you,” she said, “and you must be Shalla Bal. You've no idea how frustrating it is for a girl to enter the Surfer's mind and always find him thinking of you.”

Pleasantries dispensed with, Nebula reveals why she precipitated this crisis. “I want to be the woman I was before the Universal Library,” she says, “and I needed something to ensure the Silver Surfer would help me.”

“You have put millions of lives in jeopardy, just to use them as bargaining points,” asks the Surfer incredulously.

“Got your attention, didn't I?” says Nebula. Around the three of them, the universe—satellites, ships and stars—begin to disappear. “When the Surfer alone tried to help me, he failed. On the Library I learned that it'll take both his healing power and the arcane skills of Zenn-La to cure me of being a Viral.”

Shalla Bal acquiesces, “If you do know a way to help the civilizations in this dimension, we will help you. But you must perform your part first.”

The Nebula viral agrees and begins telepathically instructing the Surfer and Bal how to proceed, but Radd gets in one shot: “You are more contemptible than I thought.”

“When you met me Surfer, I was a pirate, not a saint,” she retorts.

Cut to Zenn La where Bal is now instructing the gathered denizens of the Soul Hunter's realm how to proceed. There is only one way we can prevent ourselves and our worlds from becoming nothing but subatomic particles, and that is by leaving this time and space the same way Norrin Radd entered,” she says.

“The virals of the Universal Library will join with the Nebula Viral and myself to open and widen the rift,” the Surfer says.

“And the power of the harmony of Zenn La will then propel your worlds through it,” said Bal.

As the others leave, Radd says to Bal, his beloved, “Glad am I that you have come with me, beloved. My mind will be at ease knowing you are safely out of this dimension.”

Bal looks sad beyond words, and then says, “Only the Master can focus the power of Zenn-La. I must stay on this side of the barrier – and guide the transfer from one time and space to the other.”

The Surfer looks stricken. “But the risk! As long as you are here, you can dwindle…” Shalla interrupts him.

“The price must be paid. And only I, of all this world, can pay it,” Shalla Bal says. The Surfer is stung, remembering those as the very words before he offered himself to Galactus.

He tries to embrace her, but cannot through her protective energy bubble—just like she could not embrace him all that time ago.

“I will come for you the very instant the last planet is through,” the Surfer says.

“I could ask no more,” says Bal.

Their moment is lost when Nebula shouts that the virals are ready. The rift begins to open wider. The Surfer adds his own power, and it widens farther. Bal whisks away to the life crystal to guide the proceedings.

Planets, stars and peoples all move toward the rift. Some pass through, but some disappear first. Entire planets are extinguished, but many survive. Only the flagship of the Skrull armada is able to make it to the rift in time.

The last planet passes through, and Radd is immediately off to gather Shalla Bal.

“Hurry Surfer, I need her,” warns Nebula.

“No one could need her more than I,” Radd retorts.

He reaches Shalla and says, “You are safe now.” He grabs her and takes her toward the rift, but before they pass through she and life crystal dissolve into quarks.

“No!” whails the Surfer. Despondent, he stops moving toward the rift. Ironically, it is the Nebula viral who grabs the Surfer telekinetically and pulls him to safety before he too dwindles.

On the other side of the plasma jump, Surfer sees a new star system that he helped create. Every creature there, save Nebula, has him to thank for their life. But his only thought is of Shalla.

“She is gone,” he murmurs.


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