He-Man #2: Elephant Man

RANKED 2nd BY VOTERS IN CHARACTER CREATION CONTEST #56!

The Eternian Plains

Battle Cat growled loudly, and leapt at the attacker with a roar. The Evil Warrior simply flung his head around towards the great green-and-orange cat, and batted him aside with his horn. "You can't stop Rhino Man by yourself, kitty cat!"

"He's not by himself," came the voice of He-Man from behind him.

Rhino Man turned with a "Huh?" just in time to see He-Man's fist coming towards his face. It connected, and Rhino Man went flying backwards.

"He-Man! We've got to stop Rhino Man before those Elephant Men reach Castle Grayskull," growled Battle Cat.

"And we have to do it fast," agreed He-Man as he ran towards Rhino Man, who was getting up.

Further out from the Castle, Tri-Klops pointed and said, "Look, Beast-Man! It's He-Man and Battle Cat!"

Beast-Man growled, and said, "I can see that, you dimwit! Rhino Man will take care of him! We have to get these beasts moving again!"

Whiplash stepped forward and said, "Then that's what we're going to do!" The alligator man swished his great tail forward and snapped it at the elephantine creatures. "Get moving you stupid animals! Yah!"

Some of the Elephant Men began moving forward again, but Whiplash's tail struck towards the albino Elephant Man, and he caught the tail in his mighty hand. "No," he said. "I am not an animal! I am...a man!" As he jerked Whiplash forward by the tail, and punched him back again, he declared, "An Elephant Man!"

"Tri-Klops! Ninjor! Get him! And get them moving again!" Beast-Man roared.

Tri-Klops' visor spun around, coming to rest with his blaster eye facing front. He let his gammavision loose, and blasted one of the Elephant Men. Unexpectedly, the gray Elephant Man disappeared, and the white Elephant Man got a little bigger.

"What?" gasped Tri-Klops.

Then, one by one, the gray Elephant Men disappeared in flashes of light, and the white Elephant Man grew bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until finally, he was nearly as big as Castle Grayskull itself! Beast-Man, Tri-Klops, Ninjor, and Whiplash looked on in horror.

"You wanted me to move, little men?" said the now gigantic Elephant Man. "Then I will move!" Before any of them could react, he reached one giant hand towards them, and scooped them all up. Then he strode towards Castle Grayskull.

Elephant Man's change had not gone unnoticed by He-Man, Battle Cat and Rhino Man. They had stopped mid-fight to see him change into the giant before them. They were still staring in awe when he began to come towards them.

"That is one big problem," growled Battle Cat.

"He's magnificent," He-Man said with admiration.

"He's mine!" shouted Rhino Man, and he charged towards the gigantic Elephant Man.

Elephant Man saw the Evil Warrior running towards him, and did not stop. He smiled, and when Rhino Man was in range, he kicked him, sending him sailing over the heads of He-Man and Battle Cat, and crashing into the wall of Castle Grayskull where he bounced roughly, falling to the ground.

He-Man and Battle Cat observed this, and then turned towards Elephant Man as he got closer. In just a few more steps, he was on top of them. He looked down at them, and said, "I think these men have had enough," he said, dropping the four Evil Warriors in a heap on top of Rhino Man.

"I think you're right," agreed He-Man. "We'll have to make sure to find a way to let Skeletor know that his plan has failed."

"I think I know just the thing," chuckled Elephant Man as he scooped up the evil men. He drew his arm all the way back, and threw the five warriors in the direction of Snake Mountain. "That should let Skeletor know how things went!" He laughed a deep, thundering laugh, and then in flashes of light, he began shrinking until he stood before He-Man and Battle Cat at normal height, all of his gray Elephant Men standing with him.

Snake Mountain

"What is happening?" cried Skeletor. "I should have felt the power from Castle Grayskull by now!" he screamed.

"Perhaps Rhino Man was not enough to defeat He-Man?" asked Evil-Lyn.

"What?!" balked Skeletor. "Of course he was! Those fools should be back by now! Where are they?!" he complained.

Just then, he heard fearful yowling in the distance and it seemed to be getting closer. He looked out in that direction just in time to see his five Evil Warriors coming his way fast, all screaming through the air.

"What? You fools! Watch where you are flying! I forbid you to land here! I forb-- UGH!" he said as the five warriors flew into him and piled on him and Evil-Lyn in a heap.

"Get off of me, you dolts!" screamed Skeletor. "Do you hear? Get off of me this instant." He received only groans in return. "Get up! Get uuuuup!" he continued to scream.

"Ohhh," groaned Evil-Lyn. "You idiots."

Castle Grayskull

"They startled us at first," said Elephant Man, "but once I realized where they were herding us to, I would have no part of it. If you ever need us again, you have only to call on me, my friends," he said as he extended his hand.

He-Man clasped the hand of this new Heroic Warrior, and said, "We will, Elephant Man! You can count on it!"

Battle Cat roared in agreement, and the Elephant Men trumpeted victoriously.

Story, original characters and content are owned by Chris Bishop. Copyright Chris Bishop 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.

...As for my vote: Going with cbishop.	stumpy49er
Well this is a tough choice. Both cbishop and stumpy49er both wrote well and in the style of the cartoon. I concur with waezi2 in "decisions, decisions" [meme of He-Man with caption: I'll have a think on it!]	batkevin74
Okay. Both cbishop and stumpy49er went with anthropomorphic races who were already kinda in the MOTU universe so it came down to which did I like better: Rhino's or Dolphins AND which episode (as they both wrote episodes) I liked better. Rhino Man reminded me of what Beast Man should've been, that Grizzlor from Hordak's Horde was for about five minutes; a powerful brute capable of taking on He-Man solo. Dolph reminded me of an aquatic version of Rio Blast, who was never in the series only action figures and possibly my favourite figure (so many guns) I think it came down to Stumpy's ad breaks and the Orko morale story at the end. Personally I think Orko is a waste of space like Jar-Jar but he served a purpose to get kids to buy more toys and tune in each week. stumpy49er you get my vote. You and cbishop should seriously collaborate on a six issue MOTU tale as you both get it really well. "Get off of me, you dolts!" screamed Skeletor. "Do you hear? Get off of me this instant." Best you two get to work :)	batkevin74
batkevin74: lol, I had no idea about the elephant guy existing in MOTU. And yeah, the rhino guy was kind of generic, but I was going for something recognizable, as I was going off of old memories of the show. :} Really, I just wanted to get to the merging/growing scene for El' Man- I liked the idea of him throwing the badguys back to Snake Mountain. It did turn out that the dialogue was fun though. :)	cbishop
cbishop: Snout Spout, yeah that was his name, was like the last action figure of the original MOTU but because they weren't making any more of the show he got sent across to She-Ra and her animated series.	batkevin74
See? I didn't know all that, and I really didn't research it. I just went, "which two animal men do I not remember seeing?" Lol	cbishop
batkevin74: Thanks for the vote. ...As for the collaboration idea: I don't know, I'm not the most motivated writer and I wouldn't want to let another writer down. That said, thanks for the praise! Also, I love that logo with our usernames under it. :) cbishop: Yeah, I really liked how Elephant Man grew by combining with the others. I could totally see that as a toy.	stumpy49er
Yeah, batkevin74, that was pretty cool. :)	cbishop
cbishop	arthurkerr
Thanks!...	cbishop

Thanks for stopping in! :^D

any relation to Joseph Merrick?

No, but the movie about him is why I had my guy use the line:

"I am not an animal! I am...a man!"

;)

ah. neat :)