Anton is in the swamp on foot approaching his target and radios into
Graham. He tells Graham to prepare a landing team once he finds the
plant he's looking for, Anton then records a journal entry about
learning of a ritual cavern where medicine men created a hybrid swamp
lily, and he hopes that the lily holds what he needs to reverse the
aging process. Swamp Thing appears and tells Anton to leave, warning
that is hallowed ground. Anton insists that it's science and ignores
him, and then slips and falls into the brush. He finds the cave entrance
and goes in as Swamp Thing watches.
Inside the cavern, Anton
finds the lily and discovers that his radio signal is late. Swamp Thing
comes in as Anton reaches for the lily, and the roof comes down on top
of both of them. Once Anton recovers, he finds Swamp Thing buried
beneath the debris. The scientist digs him free, figuring that the lack
of sunlight is restricting Swamp Thing's powers. He doesn't find a
second entrance, and suggests that Swamp Thing use his nature powers to
generate an earthquake and break them free. Swamp Thing finally tells
him that they're going to die, but Anton refuses to accept the end of
his life. He looks at the lily and blames Swamp Thing, then figures that
Graham will track him down.
As Anton digs, he admits that
Graham is a sorry excuse for an assistant, and talks about how he and
Swamp Thing were once friends when Swamp Thing was Alec Holland. He
dismisses his former friendship as sentimentality and talks about how
his academic prowess kept him apart from the other children in school.
Anton tells Swamp Thing when his mind takes on a will of its own and
Anton suffers from headaches, then talks about how he has to act normal
to hide his superiority. To silence his mother's concerns, he learned to
act normal. As Anton talks about being a theatrical actor, he imagines a
spotlight shining on him as he describes the power holding over an
audience. He says that all of his peers--the great geniuses of the
past--are dead, and current scientists and their awards are meaningless.
Anton rants about the Supreme Being, asking if anyone is out there. He
argues with God, saying that he's the Grim Reaper as well and tells him
to show himself. He insists that the laws of physics can be explained by
mathematical probability, but then concedes that God must have created
him.
Swamp Thing moans in pain and Arcane figures that his time
has come. He says goodbye to his adversary as he apparently dies,
declaring that he's won at last. Anton sits in the darkness and laments
how he is the only one who understands reality, and how he has been
dismissed as a madman. He talks about the love of a young woman, and
tells Swamp Thing's corpse that was their common bond: both losing their
wives. Anton claims that he never meant for Linda to die.
The
lantern flickers and Anton realizes the oxygen is running out. He
imagines himself autopsying his corpse for a classroom and screams in
protest, and insists that he deserves more. Anton figures that he's
delirious and comes face-to-face with a skeleton. Anton dismisses it as a
skeleton, but the skeleton says that it's Anton and when Anton tries to
remove its head, it grabs him back.
Anton finds himself
kneeling at his grave as himself as a priest reads his eulogy. The
priest doesn't know what contributions Anton made to life, and Anton
wonders if he's left nothing to the world of any merit. He admits that
he did plenty of damage to Swamp Thing, and says that they would have
reached exhilarating heights together. Because of Swamp Things
dedication to good, all they did was die together. Anton begs to the
swamp and God, swearing that he will utilize his incredible gifts for
good if they let him live.
The lantern goes out, and Swamp
Thing manages to send a single part of himself outside to the sunlight.
He regains his powers and frees himself, and tells the unconscious
Arcane that fresh air and the scent of the lily will revive him. Swamp
Thing explains that the more talking Anton did, the more he converted
oxygen to carbon dioxide and revived him enough to free them. Anton
wakes up and Swamp Thing asks if he remembers the promises that he made.
He says that he heard him and so did the swamp, but Anton dismisses it
as incoherent ramblings and leaves, radioing for Graham.
Written by Gadfly on Nov 20, 2017