Lord Vyce is a powerful and inter-dimensional conqueror and an antagonist from the online series Atop the Fourth Wall.
History[]
Engaging Linkara[]
At some point in the past, Vyce's world was the origin point of a terrible, Lovecraftian being only called "The Entity". With his world destroyed, he tried to warn other worlds of the being, but they didn't believe him, so he decided to "force the issue". Vyce began conquering each dimension by defeating a champion from each one, sixteen so far and eventually tracked the Entity to our dimension.
In the middle of Iron Liz's review of Ewoks #9, Linkara's robotic friend, Pollo, managed to bring him back to our universe, but had to bring along some of Vyce's minions, the Shades. They were defeated and their master then ordered his Shades to give a report, but with only his hand being visible (a possibly homage/parody of Doctor Claw), deciding that Linkara was the champion of this universe and noting "The Enity" had come here. Vyce was later talking with Mechakara, who noted his so called lack of subtlety and eventually began talking about Linkara. The evil robotic double advised the conqueror to attack the comic reviewer's mind with his own magic, a force Linkara trusted greatly and that he understood. Vyce managed to do this with use of Linkara's magic gun, which, as it was revealed, had a very dark past, but it failed. However the conqueror studied the gun to gain tactical information and while Mechakara was angered at the failure, Vyce just decided to change his tactics. Realizing that psychological attacks could not overcome Linkara's will and resolve, the conqueror decided to just bring him down with pure force. Vyce then commanded Dr. Linksano to upgrade Mechakara, but the robot was still destroyed by Linkara in battle. He chose to blame Linksano for this failure, choking him and declaring that the confrontation between himself and the Entity would be fought in this dimension, then saying he would deal with Linkara himself.
Battle with Linkara and Liz[]
Vyce finally went to fight Linkara, easily defeating everything that the comic reviewer threw at him and revealed his goals. He wanted to conquer our dimension, but not for the power or the glory, rather to protect it from the monstrous being known only as "The Entity", which had originated from his world. Vyce continued to easily beat Linkara, until he finally was holding the comic reviewer in the air in a chokehold. However he grabbed the conqueror's weapon and drove it into his shoulder, burning a hole into his armor, causing him to flee.
After some time, Linkara thought of a plan to defeat Vyce and sent him a taunting message via Mechakara's hand so as to draw him to Earth. Enraged, the conqueror returned to be greeted by a blast from Linkara's BFG, though he shrugged it off and continued to easily brush off Linkara and Iron Liz's combined attacks. The comic reviewer did manage to stun Vyce for a moment with a pair of sonic screwdrivers and Lt. Munro arrived to help, only to be easily brushed aside by the conqueror aside as well, who noted he was the one who fought off the Vorsoth. Vyce admitted to the unconscious Linkara and Iron Liz that he'd found their valor impressive and said he'd keep their severed heads so he could remember their battle. But when the conqueror tried to teleport back to his ship, he found he couldn't and Linkara and Liz got back to his feet, revealing that Angry Joe and his army was taking over his ship. Vyce demanded to know how they'd gotten through his ship's shields and Dr. Linksano revealed that he was actually a spy and had disabled the shields and power supply of the ship. Linkara revealed that he'd figured out that Vyce, his Shades, and his ship had the same power source and that the conqueror needed his armor to survive in our dimension, which was why he fled when his armor was damaged in their first battle. Greatly angered, Vyce revealed he had more than one power source and declared that he couldn't be stopped. Linkara and Iron Liz morphed and succeeded in fighting off the conqueror, before unleashing one final attack with help from '90s Kid, Harvey Finevoice, and Munro. Vyce fell, after expressing his disbelief at being defeated and was banished to another barren dimension by Linkara. After bringing the conqueror there, the comic reviewer told him he should be able to survive there, his suit being able to run for about 400 years, and that any civilization was thousands of light years away. Before he left, Vyce told Linkara, (who didn't believe the Entity was real and that Vyce just made it up as an excuse) that he'd doomed the multiverse and that one day, he'd come crawling back, begging for his help.
Return in a New Body[]
However Lord Vyce wasn't done and in the event of his defeat, he'd equipped an trans-dimensional distress beacon so he could signal his Shades for help. But he waited for three years without any signs of help coming and realized that due to the difference in the passage of time between the universes, it could be centuries before any aid came. Aside from that, Linkara was going universe by universe deactivating Vyce's Shades so help might never come at all. Thus he did the only thing he could think of to escape, take on the nature of the Entity and become the very thing he hated, a being of living data. Thanks to the communications signal still on in Mechakara's hand, Vyce was able to transfer himself through it into a new body Linkara was building for Pollo. However he could only transfer himself between mechanical bodies and could not transfer himself out of the Pollo body. After noticing the Pollo body was gone, Linkara managed to find a particle trace that led back to Mechakara’s hand, leading him to think it was Mechakara taking over the body.
Eventually, Vyce confronted Nimue and managed to engage Comicron-1’s teleportation system, despite Nimue trying to stop him, teleporting onto the ship. Vyce began trying to get into Comicron-1’s propulsion system and Nimue couldn’t stop him, though she locked him out of every other major system and began working on the lesser ones. Linkara and Pollo teleported aboard, but found they weren’t in the bridge as planned since Vyce had accessed the secondary security, sealing off the bridge. Vyce then locked down all the doors, trapping Linkara and Pollo and Linkara contacted Liz, who’d been teleported to another part of the ship. He told her to head to Engineering and secure the area, while he and Pollo headed to the bridge to unlock the doors. If Vyce gained control of Engineering, he would be able to destroy every living creature. Eventually Nimue contacted Linkara, telling him, she had a message for him from "Mechakara". He was threatening to vent the atmosphere of the ship if Linkara did not surrender control. However Linkara refused, pointing out that he could easily teleport off the ship and Pollo did not need oxygen to survive so he could stop "Mechakara". Linkara then ordered him to give up or he’d activate the Comicron-1’s self-destruct. Vyce did not respond, then there was an explosion and Nimue told Linkara that there were power fluctuations throughout the ship. The sensors, weapons, and teleporters had been knocked out and Liz reported that "Mechakara" had created an imbalance in the engines, causing power outages everywhere. Nimue explained that since she was programmed to deactivate security measures if the ship was endangered, "Mechakara" was damaging the ship in an attempt to deactivate the lockouts. Liz revealed that there was a radiation leak in Engineering and Linkara tried to order Nimue to activate self-destruct, but she said the imbalance in the engines made doing so impossible. However the door opened to reveal the Cybermat, the ship’s security sentry, which Nimue activated earlier, and Linkara ordered Pollo to go deal with the engine imbalance, while he headed to the bridge to deal with "Mechakara". Linkara and the Cybermat confronted Vyce and after shooting at each other, Vyce fled with the Cybermat following him. As Comicron-1 started to fall to Earth, Vyce apparently teleported himself away, though Linkara managed to stop the ship from falling.
Revealing Himself[]
Vyce had never really left Comicron-1, successfully hiding thanks to his damaging the internal sensors of the ship, but he was apparently damaged and awoke later. He went into a room where several Shades were stored, activating one and headed to the science lab with it, when Linkara learned of his presence and teleported aboard with his allies. However Vyce activated the propulsion systems, able to overcome safeguards installed by Linksano, and headed out into space. Linkara and Harvey stormed the science lab and took down the Shade, but it managed to activate the voice modulator of the Pollo body, allowing Vyce to reveal himself as the one really possessing the body. He explained what happened to him, declaring that he'd overcome the fact that he couldn't get out of the Pollo body and that he was determined to continue his quest to destroy the Entity. Linkara tried to tell Vyce that the Entity had already been destroyed, but he refused to listen, refusing to believe that Linkara had succeeded in destroying the Entity when he couldn't even do so to Vyce. Vyce said he'd take control of the entire ship soon enough, but Linkara replied that he'd destroy it first and he ordered the self-destruct sequence. However Vyce unleashed a huge energy burst, having tapped into the ship's power and increasing his energy greatly, and escaped, heading to the bridge. Thanks to his drawing energy from a number of sections, including internal communications, teleportation, and door controls, Vyce trapped Linkara. He eventually contacted Linkara and demanded that he deactivate the self-destruct and give up control to him. Linkara mockingly asked if he was having problems, but Vyce replied that he was going to deactivate it very soon and he was only offering him a chance to get out of this alive. Linkara just dismissed him, adding that he'd only conquered one or two planets in each universe, and Vyce said that the Entity fled quickly every time he pursued it. He went on to explain that the conquests helped him identify what it was posing as and helped make universes compliant for future takeovers. Vyce went on to say that the Entity was not the only multidimensional threat he'd fought, it was the only one that survived. Linkara pointed out that despite this fact, he'd still beaten Vyce, who replied that he'd grown cocky and foolishly trusted Dr. Linksano. Now he knew that he could only count on himself in his quest to destroy the Entity and Linkara insisted that he'd destroyed the Entity, saying he had a recording of it. Vyce dismissed this as false and again demanded that Linkara surrender the ship, but he refused, ending the communication. Linkara managed to get out of the science lab with help from the Cybermat and headed after Vyce. He attempted to sneak up on Vyce, but he noticed the reviewer and blasted him, before finally deactivating the self-destruct. However Pollo, having taken over Linkara's Tom Servo replica, appeared and blasted Vyce away, before reuniting with Linkara as Vyce retreated. Linkara managed to catch up to him and tried to fire his phaser at him, but it jammed, so he overloaded it and threw it at him, blowing open a hole in the hull. Vyce tried to hover away from the opening, but Linkara kicked him out and though he was still alive, it was unlikely he would be able to return to Earth. However, as Vyce floated continuously in the vacuum of space, he swore that he would return.
Vyce made a cameo appearance in the Four Year Anniversary Review of "Spider-Man: Power & Responsibility". When Linkara did his famous "I AM A MAN" manly punch, he somehow pulled Vyce, still trapped in the Pollo body, from outer space into the room. Vyce voiced his confusion at what was going on as he and Linkara struggled for a moment, before Linkara quickly pushed him back off-screen and teleported him back into space.
"Haunting" Linkara[]
As Vyce floated through space, he realized that his transmitter was not damaged like other parts of the Pollo body. He was only able to transmit himself small bits at a time to Comicron-1 due to his damaged state and the vast distance between them. His influence caused Nimue to become slower and weaker, such as during the encounter with Jaeris, and slowly drives her insane with glitches as he corrupts her. The glitches slowly become worse overtime, with Nimue constantly repeating random words and phrases until rebooted, and she constantly whispers "Are you afraid?" to Linkara and how she is going to kill him. Linkara makes no progress figuring out what's wrong with her, at one point believing the King of Worms is responsible for her condition due to how she mentioned him occasionally.
Eventually, when Linkara tries to perform some tests on Nimue on Comicron-1, she traps him onboard and moves the ship out of Earth's orbit while slowly shutting down the ship's life-support features in an attempt to kill him, while tauntingly asking him "Are you afraid?" several times. Linkara is forced to deactivate her to save himself, with her saying a brief "help me" before shutting off. With her gone though, Vyce was able to take full control of the ship since she was no longer resisting him, revealing himself to Linkara. Though Vyce voices possibly getting revenge on Linkara, he instead plans to return him to Earth and resume his hunt for The Entity, again ignoring Linkara's claims that it's already dead. Jaeris manages to save Linkara by forcing the fire suppression systems to activate and the two make a run for it. But Linkara refuses to leave the ship to Vyce and they escape to the auxiliary control room, a room off the ship's grid that Nimue and now Vyce has no idea about.
As Linkara plots to reactivate Nimue, and if that fails destroy Comicron-1, Vyce eventually finds him and Jaeris. As Vyce slowly takes control of the auxiliary control room and turns the ship away from the sun Linkara was flying them towards, Linkara fights back by having the Cybermat's aboard cause various glitches and problems with Vyce's systems. As Vyce declares he will now kill Linkara for this instead of sparing him, Linkara asks if he knows what a "ghost" is. Vyce mistakes this for the term for a "spirit", before Linkara explains he meant as in a "backup copy", and claims he has backup copies of Nimue. Vyce says he can't put in a backup since he closed access to his data core, but Linkara reveals he didn't delete Nimue, he simply turned her off, and reactivates her before patching her corruption from Vyce with her earlier backups.
Now restored to full-power, Nimue confronts Vyce in data form. Vyce dismisses Nimue as a threat, mockingly calling her "computer" and boasting of his superiority before attempting to destroy her. He fails though due to Nimue's full power allowing her to think much faster than him, and begins deleting him from her systems. As Vyce begs for mercy so he can stop The Entity, Nimue proclaims him to be evil just like The Entity and that his hunt for it is merely an excuse to feed his ego and cause others to suffer. Before deleting him, Nimue asks him "are you afraid?", and Vyce whispers "...Yes." in response, with Nimue responding "Good." before deleting him. However, having all traces of himself deleted from Comicron-1, Nimue immediately discovers Vyce managed to transfer himself to a Shade and escaped by teleporting to Earth, with her unable to track him. This leads to Linkara vowing the be ready for Vyce and find him before he can strike again.
The King of Worms[]
Linkara spent the next several months hunting Lord Vyce. After several false leads, he and Pollo eventual found Vyce's hideout and attempted to storm it and capture him. Unfortunately, by the time they got there Vyce was already gone, having evacuated before their arrival and deleted most of the files that had been there. The evidence Linkara, Pollo, and the Cybermats did find suggested Vyce was attempting to rebuild his old suit, and they found a poem he had about the King of Worms, deciding to investigate it themselves due to it being a similar creature to The Entity.
After the death of the King of Worms, it is revealed that Lord Vyce has been spying on Linkara and his friends himself and is working with '90s Kid. Lord Vyce expresses frustration over the group's confusion over how the King of Worms was literally scared to death, believing he could have destroyed the King of Worms himself with one blow, and states he and '90s Kid should attack now. But '90s Kid tells him to be patient, that they will strike when the time is right and hopefully when that time comes the others will stand with them instead of against them.
Working with '90s Kid[]
'90s Kid's absence from Linkara and the others becomes increasingly obvious. After Comicron-1 crashes into the moon, Linkara initially thinks that The Entity was responsible, only for Pollo and Linksano to reveal that it was a Cybermat. Specifically, the one he sent after Lord Vyce when he first took over Comicron-1 and was disabled and never recovered. It reactivated and wasn't reprogramed from the influence from the King of Worms, and took down Comicron-1. As Linkara processes this, he confronts '90s Kid when he finally arrives about his absences and why he couldn't be located by Comicron-1 during a crisis. When Linkara implies The Entity might be possessing him again, '90s Kid storm off in anger, with Linkara ordering him to be tracked.
Eventually, Linkara believes that rather than The Entity still being alive, Lord Vyce is going to become the new Entity. Linkara, Harvey, and Linksano trap and confront '90s Kid about Vyce's location, having figured out he is working with him and has stolen parts to help Lord Vyce rebuild his armor. When '90s Kid refuses to explain anything though, Lord Vyce arrives, easily defeating Linkara and his friends before rescuing '90s Kid and teleporting away with him. The others reason that they are working together because '90s Kid was possessed by The Entity and Lord Vyce has been hunting it, so they decided to work together due to believing it is coming back.
Linkara's growing paranoia of Vyce becoming the new Entity lead to him crossing several lines, such as tracking his friends in the hopes '90s Kid would make contact with them, and trying gain access to government satellites he could use to hack into anything or use as space-based weapons. When he refuses to listen to them at an intervention they stage for him, it leads to them all walking out on him, refusing to go along with him.
Fighting The Entity[]
Linkara's friends spied on him as his agenda continued, planning to install a virus into his ground systems located in his home when he is onboard Comicron-2 during its maiden voyage, hoping it will slow him down. Linkara detects them with his personal security systems and activates his shields and Cybermats to catch them. They are unexpectedly saved by '90s Kid, who quickly pulls them into a temporary pocket dimension so they can move around and discuss things, with Lord Vyce revealing himself to everyone there. Once there, '90s Kid and Vyce reveal that The Entity is not dead, but is still alive and has possessed Linkara.
Vyce explains that after Linkara convinced The Entity to commit suicide, it was not actually dead, just like he believed, but had instead laid dormant inside Linkara, resting for years. This influenced Linkara and gave him protection from The King of Worms, until it was awoken by The King of Worms, resulting in it killing King of Worms in retaliation for disturbing it by scaring it to death. After that, The Entity began to influence Linkara more, resulting in his paranoia, anger towards his friends, and all the lines he had been willing to cross. Vyce confirms The Entity was not responsible for the destruction of Comicron-1, explaining that was just a convenient accident that helped it, though he believes it was planning to destroy the ship eventually anyway, The message from the future '90s Kid brought back was indeed speaking about The Entity the whole time, not Vyce. Vyce explains the numbers on the card were not just meant for deciphering a message, but a program to protect Linkara's personality from The Entity. Linkara is unaware he is being possessed because The Entity only takes possession of him when it wants to, and as far as Linkara is concerned he is acting completely like himself.
While everyone is working, Erin teleports into the pocket dimension. Vyce asks if they can trust her, but Harvey reminds him he's not one to talk, and the others catch Erin up on everything. While in the pocket dimension, Vyce explains he thinks they can weaken The Entity by separating it from Linkara, so they plan to use the raw mystical energy from Moarte's room to contact Margaret, the spirit of the girl in Linkara's magic gun, reasoning she could help them in their efforts, despite Vyce proclaiming it to be a waste of time. They successfully summon her image to talk to her, but discover that The Entity has possessed her the same as Linkara. Vyce and The Entity exchange threats with each other before Margaret's image disappears.
Vyce reasons Linkara needs to be made aware of The Entity's presence so he can free himself with his own will. They realize he needs something inspirational to remind him of his victories and give him hope, and Vyce knows exactly what that will be; his old ship. The group teleports to the crashed Comicron-1 on the moon, where Vyce takes a moment to reflect on his war with The Entity. He explains he has had allies who died, left him, or betrayed him, but realizes his ship was his home and constant companion before it was taken. As he wonders what he's still fighting for, '90s Kid comforts him, lifting his spirit. Vyce observes the damage done to the ship, but thanks to some patches by Linksano when they were stripping the crashed ship, Vyce says his plan will be less difficult than he thought. He has Linksano transfer Nimue into the ship's systems, knowing she is not infected. After a brief exchange between the two, with Vyce finally addressing Nimue by name instead of just "computer", he has her engage "Priority V7", granting her access to Comicron-1's systems like never before and having her activate one of the ship's hidden functions that only Vyce could access, "The Forge".
Vyce boasts that his ship, like him, got better after every battle. The Forge is an ability he gave the ship, capable of manufacturing any object called upon by drawing from any transmutable substances in a close proximity. He often used this function for small-scale production of Shades and other weapons, but reveals it was far more useful for self-repair. As he explains this, Comicron-1, thought to be beyond repair by everyone, rises from the crater on the moon completely repaired and restored to its former glory, like a phoenix reborn, as Vyce declares "I am Lord Vyce, and this is my sword!" Linkara spots Comicron-1, and as the others suspected, begins to fight The Entity's influence, until Erin helps him break free from it completely with Linkara's magic coin, which harms Outer-Gods like The Entity, driving it nuts. But The Entity survives by possessing a hologram onboard Comicron-2, forcing Linkara and Erin to flee to Comicron-1.
Regrouping with Vyce and the others, they note how The Entity is still alive and Comicron-2 is just sitting in space not doing anything. Vyce initially suggests they attack while The Entity is vulnerable and try to disable its hologram body, until Linkara notes one thing that doesn't make sense. If The Entity has been active for years since The King of Worms, why hasn't it taken over Earth again and absorbed all life like last time? Vyce admits he had not considered that either. Speculation aside, Linksano proposes that instead of attacking recklessly they find a way to permanently deal with The Entity so it can't flee again. Vyce agrees with this, wanting to bring his long hunt to an end.
Vyce and Linksano come up with a plan to use the orbiting satellites Linkara took over while possessed to use as space-based weapons against The Entity. They plan to combine the program '90s Kid brought back from the future and dimensional portal technology Vyce has on the ship to expand it and create a pocket dimension to trap The Entity, which it cannot escape from and will be destroyed with it inside once the portal closes, using the satellites to project and close the portal. They need Linkara to board Comicron-2 and fly the ship close enough to the portal to draw The Entity inside. Vyce wishes he could do it himself, but his data form would not be able to escape the portal, while Linkara could simply teleport off. The plan is put into motion, with Linkara entering Comicron-2 and attempting to lock its controls for the portal, but is discovered by The Entity (revealing itself to actually be a fragment of The Entity left behind when it committed suicide) and attacks Linkara.
As this happens, Lord Vyce takes command of Comicron-1 and attempts to drag the ship to the portal with a tractor beam, but the two ships engage in a space battle. Comicron-2 is too fast to disable, so Vyce has Linksano patch into Comicron-2's security systems so they can see what's going on and figure out how to help Linkara. They witness Linkara figure out why The Entity is doing all this, because it is simply "playing a game" it doesn't want to end, because it knows its existence is still pointless, which is why it hasn't absorbed all life yet. They witness The Entity commit suicide again, this time for real.
However, Lord Vyce still refuses to believe The Entity is actually dead, and goes insane thinking it is just a trick. Vyce turns against his would-be allies and increases power to the singularity generators before Nimue can lock him out. He intends to open a portal so large it will engulf the Earth itself, and then the entire universe, believing it will ensure The Entity will be trapped and he will be the one to kill it, boasting he has finally won. '90s Kid pleads with Vyce not to do this, and although Vyce states his respect for '90s Kid, he refuses to stop and apologizes for what he must do before teleporting him to the brig with the others, musing to himself it is once again him and his ship alone against The Entity.
Death[]
Linkara learns about Vyce's betrayal by contacting his friends, and he devices a plan to stop him. He contacts Vyce from Comicron-2, pretending to be possessed by The Entity again and tricks him into believing he plans to escape to another universe with Comicron-2 before he can be trapped. Vyce teleports to Comicron-2 to end the battle in person, taking control of the ship and flying it toward the portal while continuously overloading the engines and locking the controls, intending to teleport away and leave The Entity to its fate, declaring "Checkmate". However, Linkara reveals they aren't playing "chess", they're playing "poker", and Vyce fell for Linkara's bluff.
"The Entity" Vyce confronted on Comicron-2 was actually a hologram of Linkara created from Vyce's own portable hologram projector, while the real Linkara took back control of Comicron-1. Linkara states The Entity is dead for good this time, and whether he is right or not, he won't let Vyce hurt anyone else just because he refuses to accept that. Vyce panics and tries to turn the ship around, only to remember he overloaded the engines, and begs Linkara to save him so they can stop The Entity together, but Linkara says he is stopping it, leaving Lord Vyce to fly into the portal as Vyce gives one final cry of "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" as Comicron-2 flies into the portal. Because Vyce's data form is so similar to The Entity's, the portal recognizes it as The Entity and closes itself after Vyce enters, killing Vyce once and for all.
Powers and Abilities[]
In his normal form, Lord Vyce is extremely powerful, able to battle Linkara and Iron Liz when he is at full power and brush their attacks aside with no effort. He wields a powerful energy blaster weapon, which is powerful enough to damage him and is one of the few things able to do so. Vyce also has a large amount of advanced technology at his disposal, including a powerful, inter-dimensional spaceship. To escape his prison, he has become a being of living data, similar to the Entity, but he is simpler, only able to take over machines and he's currently stuck in a body of Pollo, though Vyce says that with time, he'll learn how to deal with this problem. In this body, Vyce can hover, interface with technology and fire energy blasts, but it takes a lot of power.
Trivia[]
- Vyce is played by Will Wolfgram.
- Vyce's punishment, being banished to an uninhabited planet, is similar to that of "The Smiling Man", a villain from a webcomic made by Linkara called "LightBringer" and the multiseries webcomic crossover "Crossoverlord". The Smiling Man was banished to a parallel version of Earth without life or technology.