Jason Woodrue shook his head slightly as his feet landed gently upon the ground, dust kicking up everywhere around his wooded feet. He crinkled his nose in disapproval as he stared at the barren world surrounding him. This place was perfect, he thought to himself, as he eyed the desolate landscape. It needed what he could bring it, a caring touch, a gentle hand to nurture and bring forth potential absent currently from it's dust-encrusted cover.

Jason slowly turned around in a circle to get a good look at the landscape. Nothing. There was nothing for miles and miles on every side of him, but the gray rocks below his feet and dust. If this planet had ever been a bearer of life, all traces had long since been erased. Considering that it contained a very breathable atmosphere, he found this very odd. Usually, a planet with plenty of breathable air had some form of living creatures, yet this planet was completely devoid of any.

In fact, that was hardly the only peculiar thing about this miserable chunk of rock. Jason found it even stranger that the planet had no geographical features. It was almost perfectly round and smooth. There were no mountains or hills jutting out from the surface. Nor were there indentations showing the past existence of seas and oceans. Nothing of any such kind, there was nothing but countless miles of plain, flat, dull gray rock and plenty of dust.

It was not as though Woodrue had never seen a desolate planet before. Not long after he had received his Gift, and decided to use it to explore the universe, he had journeyed to the moon on his way outward. Despite the ruins of the Blue Area and the Watcher's Home, it also was a very desolate place. But at least it had some characters, indentations of where meteors had crashed against it, and where ancient seas had once bedded, teaming with life. But this world, had no such thing, and that is what made Jason know that this would be the perfect planet for his next experiment.

Jason slowly sat down cross-legged upon the dusty ground, letting the gray dust settle before he continued his actions. Next he closed his eyes and began to concentrate, letting thoughts leave his head and placing himself in a meditative state. Slowly as he placed his hands across his chest, the fleshy bark that made up his skin began to separate, and his Gift emerged, to float in the air immediately in front of him. He felt its warm glow, and a great happiness filled his heart.

The Gift is a glowing gem. Oval in shape, it is a bright green in color, and now glowing brightly. It is flawless, and even without it's amazing powers, would be considered worth a fortune to many races. But there was much more to this gem. It holds power. Power greater than anything most people could image. The power to control the very shape of reality. A power that allowed its wielder to do almost anything they could think of, and Jason Woodrue, the creature once known as Floronic Man, is its wielder. It was he fate, he had been told, and with it he has done many amazing things. He hopes today that he will do another.

Jason begins his meditation on the gem in front of him. He fills himself slowly spreading across the surface of the planet. His search unsatisfied, he begins to stretch his mind farther, probing into the ground beneath him for signs of life. He searches for signs of the Green.

[ STOP! ]

Jason is jarred back to reality by the sudden psionic yell, which rings deep into his brain and unsettles all his thoughts. That was very odd, Jason thinks to himself, as he looks around for some sign of his mental assailant but again sees nothing but the countless miles of gray stone. Somebody had to say something, for he had never yelled at himself before, and despite the fact that he did travel alone right now, he didn't think insanity or space sicknesses had affected him yet. Shaking off the strange occurrence, Jason's mind wandered to a different time when he had been a very different person…

Then came Jason Woodrue. He didn't care for Maya's peace and wanted control of Flora all for himself. So he began a war, which divided the races and destroyed the beautiful land. Despite his attempts, and all his destruction, he could not claim victory over Maya and her armies, and in the end was forced to concede defeat to her superior armies.

When the time for punishment came, and Jason stood before Maya and her courts for punishment, he came. The Lord of Dreams. He said, with great sorrow, that Jason had committed a most heinous crime, bringing war to a world that have never known anything but peace. For punishment, Jason would be exiled to a world more suited to his behavior. Jason would be exiled to Earth.

Hoping to one day return to his own home, and conquer both Flora and defeat the Dream King, the man known as Jason Woodrue began to scheme evil plots upon the Earth. He tried to cover the city known as Los Angeles into his own personal gigantic garden, but was defeated by Ms. Marvel and the space knight Starshine. Not long after Woodrue became known as the Plantman, and joined such villains as Black Bison, Water Witch, Spellbinder, and others in the Legion of Doom. They battle the Champions on many occasions. They lost a lot. Eventually Jason was placed in jail for many years.

Upon release, Jason created a machine, which purged all human elements from his body, and made him purely a creature of wood and flora. Skin became bark. Bones and muscle became wood. Jason Woodrue became the Floronic Man, the next step in his evolution.

Plotting his revenge against all his enemies, Jason had done little rehabilitating during his extended incarceration. Then it happened. He met the person who would forever alter his course of history and change his mind forever. He met the Swamp God, and the Swamp God introduced him to the Green

Jason's first contact with the Green had left him shocked and dismayed. Never had he felt anything so pure in his life. Never had he felt something so amazing. The trees and the plants, all the flora, teamed with a life all their own. The Green was vigorous and powerful, strong in will and in their hearts. This overwhelming touch made Jason very sad, because for the first time, he realized the destruction he had caused both on Flora and here on Earth. Jason felt ashamed and unworthy of the power of the Green, and turned away to hide in shame.

Then the Great War came. The Mad God Thanos had collected six gems of unparalleled power and used them to make half the universe simply vanish. He then blamed it all upon the Earth, and soon the other races came to make the humans pay for their crimes of Genocide. If not for the intervention of the Guardians and the Dakkamites, earth would surely have perished. In the end, Thanos was defeated and the Guardians selected six different souls to each become a guardian of the six different gems. They chose Jason Woodrue, the Floronic Man, to wield the reality gem, the most powerful gem of them all.

Many thought, including Woodrue himself, that the Guardians were certainly insane. Instead the Swamp god and others came forth to say that fate was a strange thing, and that Woodrue was something special. They said that in his hands, the gem may become the very embodiment of life itself, and be used for good. No one had ever said such kind things of Woodrue, and he vowed to prove their trust in him right.

On that day, the Floronic man began his mission. Woodrue moved throughout planets all over the galaxy. He built life. He restored life. He made the plants and trees and animals grow. He brought air to unbreathable worlds and life to barren lands. He tried everyday to make up for all the mistakes he had made in the past.

Thanos bellowed, "You will leave this world now, intruder, or you will DIE!"

Jason felt the trembles of fear begin to seize his body. Despite, the fact that he wielded one of the most powerful forces in all the universe, he could not contain the chills which the very sight of Thanos elicited. The harsh purple skin, which sunk in around his cold, dark eyes. Eyes of pure evil that had, without so much as a blink, one-time washed the universe clean of billions of lives. The blue and orange suit which he wore had become famous throughout many galaxies as a sign of death to come. His right hand still wore the gauntlets which had one time held all the Infinity Gems, and had made Thanos one of the most powerful creatures in all known existence.

Thanos spoke, in a harsh, gravely voice, which had an effect similar to nails on a chalkboard. " You have entered my personal domain Woodrue. This is my altar to the fair lady that holds my heart. This is my fortress of solitude, and you have violated it. Take your trinket and leave here immediately, lest I be force to kill you and return that babble to my possession."

Woodrue considered the idea, and made mental plans to transport himself as far a way as possible. Something stopped him. There was more to the story here, and whatever fear had been induced by the shock of Thanos's unexpected presence had begun to ebb away. Jason looks the creature straight in his eyes and suddenly did not see the evil Titan, which had scourged the entire universe at one time. Woodrue saw something worse. He saw nothing. He spoke slowly, "Why are you here Titan? Why this planet, and where has all the life gone that seems to cry out to me from somewhere deep and hidden?"

Thanos let out a course, harsh laugh. It was a horrid sound like nothing Woodrue had ever heard, and he hoped to never hear it again.

"Why, I killed it, of course…" Thanos said quite matter-of-factly, "Once this planet was teaming with life. It was known as Epis-4, and was just in the early stages of development. It had lush jungles filled with animals, rivers teeming with fish, and the air was filled with birds. The most intelligent life-forms, who called themselves Urr, were in the beginning stages of development. They were hunters and gatherers living in small stages, but some had begun to explore animal herding and a few others were in the early stages of crop production. Then I came. I saw them for what they were and I crushed them. The killed Urr, and when that left me unsatisfied I burned the jungles, and I evaporated the seas. Then I moved from area to area, eliminating every scrape of life until the world was nothing more that lifeless rock. Total destruction."

Woodrue stared at Thanos in shock and horror. "Why," He asked, "would you want to do this."

"I was doing them a favor," Thanos said in complete honesty, "What would happen to them. Soon they would become ‘civilized' people. They would build cities and breed wildly. The animals and plants would be destroyed to make room for their expansion. Diseases would come. War would come. Soon they would be little more than the crazed beasts which occupy worlds like those of the Kree, of Shi'Ar, or that miserable Earth. They would destroy themselves eventually, and this planet. I merely used my abilities to speed the inevitable. If there were any left, I am sure they would be grateful. They all lie with my Love now."

Woodrue could scarcely believe his ears, "You are indeed a MAD God Thanos. What right did you have to destroy this planet and these people? Who the hell do you think you are? These creatures had a right to develop. They had a right to mature. For all you know they might have grown into the greatest civilization in all the universe. They might have grown into peacemakers. They might have become doctors and cured all the diseases known to the universe. They might have contributed to the betterment of all living. But in your arrogance, your selfish evil, you thought yourself something more than you are…"

As the last sentence issued forth from Woodrue's mouth, Thanos lashed out with a deadly blast of psionic energy. The blast simply passed right through the form of Floronic Man as though he were an illusion. Woodrue watched Thanos with disgust as blast continue, and Thanos seem to make the very ground around him tremble.

"Thanos, you are a fool. Did you really think that in all this time I haven't learned to properly wield my gem? While you had all six at one time, I have only this one, and we have become very intimate in my travels across the universe. Reality is mine to bend as I see fit."

Thanos watched in fire and rage as the ground around him trembled. He watched as vines began to sprout from fissures and cracks in the gray rock. Vines began to sprout everywhere. Thanos began to fire his beams of energy at them, but became alarmed when a shadow cast above him in the cast. He saw the clouds. Then he saw the rain. He flew through the air to the form of Jason Woodrue, sitting cross-legged before him in the sky, but flew right through, and landed on the ground behind him.

"You poor, misguided fool," Woodrue turned around and eyed the creature with a look of pity, "you, for all your power and wisdom know nothing. It is time you learned. From this day forth, your reality is, you are stripped of all your Titan powers save your miserable immortality. You will live here, on this planet, as one of its common denizens. You will learn to respect life, and all its forms. You will hunger. You will thirst. You will tire. You will grow hot and cold. You will learn to adapt to the life around you. You cannot die, but if you don't nurture your needs, then you will feel pain. Terrible pain. You will learn to live Thanos. This is your punishment for taking all that life. You will learn to live."

Thanos screamed in anger as he felt all his powers slip away from him. As he watched mountains rise, trees grow, and rain begin the pour, all he felt was hatred. He stared at the image of Jason Woodrue.

"I will NEVER respect life foolish creature. You can't hold me. I AM A GOD. I am death's soulmate. I will retrieve my powers somehow, and when I do, I will hunt you down. I will pry that gem from your hands. I will give you a million painful deaths, over, and over, and over again. You have made a most terrible enemy today, and I shall never forget you."

Having heard Thanos's mad tirade, Woodrue left him standing there. He then moved high above the planet, and began to shift reality to suit his needs. Soon, he smiled as he noticed, the planet had returned to the state it had been before the arrival of the Mad God. Lush, green, and beautiful for as far as the eye could see. Woodrue then nodded his head, placed his gem back, deep inside his bark-like flesh, and began his journey to the next planet. He was happy with himself, because today he had taken another step towards atoning for his own sins, and with any luck, had started Thanos on the right path as well.

THE END