Freedom Reborn

The way the story is presented, Antimato is supposed to be another one shot villain... the "obligatory antiverse" story, as it were. There'd be some cryptic hints as to what caused "the Hero's War" but overall it'd just be a filler arc in the middle of a larger story, and an excuse for Influx to have a few other time/reality adventures before the end of the Volume.

It isn't until much later we find out that one single choice separated Antimato's world from ours. This one simple alteration (which I won't go into just yet... however, it sets up a whole string of delicious anti-verse related subplots and crafts "reversed" versions of all five protagonists) created a butterfly effect on the rest of the universe, causing none of the other members of Influx to arrive on Earth when they were supposed to. And without Ch'nybe there to suggest forming a team of their own, Tomato would instead work with his former friends from "Freedom Fans," a website that had dedicated itself to supporting superheroes even prior to EF's original defeat of Randy Ripoff. Because of the member's close ties to the superhero community, several members (including Tomato himself) had gained powers of their own.

These super-powered "Freedom Fans" would turn out to be an incredibly successful team, even more so than Influx. Perhaps too successful... the team soon discovered a plot Hint: Villains Reborn that shook the superhero community, turning heroes against one another. The resulting war left the hero community decimated, and the populace disheartened. Driven insane by the carnage, Antimato resolved to "save" the world by becoming a villain capable of uniting it, as Randy Ripoff had once done. He then set about creating a device to bring the one person capable of realistically stopping him (a heroic version of himself) and spared former-villain-turned-freedom-fighter Tobias Rhied (Teknos) to trick him into using the device for its intended purpose.

In the end, Antimato would apparently perish at Rheid's hands (Rheid would "kill" Antimato with a stolen weapon after his defeat at Tomato's hands). His arc would serve a threefold purpose for the series: To open things up for other Antiverse fun later on, to start the ball rolling on the Villains Reborn sub-plot, and finally to introduce the lethal application of Tomato's abilities... See, the reason Antimato would remain pretty much unstoppable was that he could kill an opponent regardless of his defenses, merely by focusing all the heat from the air around him/her to one specific point. Tomato himself would be forced into using this ability at the very end of the volume.

Years before the formation of Influx, in worlds very far away from our own, Warriors of Light and Darkness did war upon one another. On one side, the "Fallen" a group of warriors intent on universal conquest using an army of creatures formed from the souls of their victims (Mazoku), and on the other the righteous souls trying to stop them. And on either side, two "brothers"... Peter, an immortal hero of legend fighting to protect his new friends; and Darek, a mercenary cloned from stolen DNA, jealously seeking to destroy his predecessor. Over the course of the conflict, they crossed paths many times, culminating in a final battle on Peter's own home world. Disarmed and defeated, Peter stared defiantly at his clone, whose cursed blade stood poised to end his life. But at the last second, Darek tossed the blade away, unable to defame his honor by committing such a cold blooded murder.

At least, that's how it happened on our world.

On another, Peter's life was taken from him, his soul turned into a Mazoku and forced to do his murderer's bidding. Forsaking his honor and his last ties to humanity, Darek would soon amass greater power then even his former Master within the Fallen. Forming an alliance with Amatsu and Voght, Darek would soon seize power over the entire fallen, plunging the universe into an even greater shadow then it had been before. And despite amassing hordes of Mazoku in the years that followed, he would always delight in turning his brother's soul against his former friends, in eternally torturing what little remained of his brother within the demon's shell.

Born to a warring people, Yami Herotoshi was instructed from a very young age in the ways of honor and death. However, when a freak storm tore the boat he was sailing on apart, Yami was left stranded on an island far away from his home and his people... far away from the war that had previously defined him. There, he made friends with others that had been similarly stranded, and slowly was able to put his warlike past behind him.

But even on a peaceful world, war will always loom somewhere over the horizon.

Seeking to test their newfound army, the first members of the fanatical warriors of dark, the "Fallen," sent their Mazoku to Yami's home world, seeking to destroy it. Unprepared, the inhabitants of the island were no match for the onslaught... but using ancient magics, many were able to escape. These survivors banded together to stop the oncoming tide of darkness, Yami chief among them. He had lost everything he loved, and he would cast his vengeance against all who allied themselves with darkness.

Of all the characters in Influx, Anti-Yami is seemingly the most unchanged from his main earth counterpart. In Influx, Yami's role is to be the guy who will suggest the most practical method of achieving a goal, even if that method is either distasteful or relies on using lethal force. This attitude is exaggerated on Anti-Earth, where Darek's takeover has led to more brutal action by both sides. This unnerves our Yami, because he sees very little difference between himself and his "Mirrored" counterpart. But as Peter later points out, there is a fundamental difference in the two character's motivations. In our reality, Yami's desire to end conflict quickly is primarily intended to defend those he cares for, whereas Anti-Yami's purpose is to cause as much devastation to his opponents as possible.

One thing I should probably mention before closing this off: For the sake of simplicity, I have up until now presented the Fallen as the bad guys and the Warriors of Light as good guys. However, things are rarely that simple, and the Antiverse stories are intended to underline that. The Fallen are unquestionably the "bad guys" of the story: Led by an evil version of Darek, they seek to take over the world and will use whatever means they deem necessary to satisfy their own needs and desires. However, the light is not really any better. Ruthless and cold, the Light seeks to make the universe into what it deems a "perfect" society, with little tolerance for anything it sees as "unclean" or "less than perfect." The Warriors of Light mean well, but their own self importance and arrogance about what is "good" leaves little room for the common person to make his or her own choices. As such, much of Influx' second foray into the Antiverse is spent dealing not only with Anti-Darek and his forces, but also in keeping Yami and the other Warriors of Light in check.