Brave Beyond the Stars: Flash Gordon and the Witch Queen's War.

"So, you're saying that this is the true history of Flash Gordon?"

"Yes," replied the old man. He was dressed in a clean suit, with neatly trimmed hair and a thin, white mustache. In his hand was a cup of coffee, which he sipped absentmindedly. "The real story."

She sat across from him at a small café in the city, her mind reeling from all that she had heard. It was hard to believe that the legend of Flash Gordon could be so different than what she had been taught in school, but everything about this stranger seemed to confirm that it was true. They had met by chance at the museum a few weeks ago, where they both happened to be admiring some ancient stone tablets from early Mesopotamia. The man's curiosity about the tablets had gotten them talking, and now here they were enjoying afternoon coffee together.

"What were those stones for?" She asked the man. "Were they like monuments or something?"

"A little bit," he replied. "Those stones are called stelae or ziggurats. They're used to honor great leaders, usually ones who have passed away."

"Why did you choose an older one?" She asked. "I mean, if this Flash Gordon really existed thousands of years ago..."

"I chose it because my friend used to visit this museum when he was younger," said the man. "He never told me why he liked it so much, though I suspect it had something to do with his father."

When she didn't respond right away, the man continued: "You know about how Queen Azura attacked Brazil on orders from Ming? How Flash and Princess Aura escaped in her airship?"

She nodded silently as she stirred her coffee with a wooden stick. It took her back a few years to when she worked as an intern for Ming's empire as part of her studies in political science. It had been an exciting time in her life, but also frustrating at times as she spent long hours studying and preparing reports for the higher ups, who often ignored them anyway or twisted them around to suit their own needs. Her favorite job, however, had been organizing the annual space festival—a week-long event where people from all over the empire would gather to pay homage to Queen Azura and Emperor Ming during their anniversary celebration. The festival always ended with a huge parade across the space port where hundreds of ships would sail past Emperor Ming's flagship—even more exciting than when he gave his annual address! She smiled at the memory: no matter how politically inept Emperor Ming was, nobody could deny that he knew how to throw a party!

"You seem like you enjoyed your job there," said the old man politely as she reminisced about her experiences on Mongo. "Apparently you were quite good at it."

She smiled again. "Well thank you," she said shyly in reply. Then, after taking another sip of her coffee: "How did you get out of there? I mean, they must've been pretty angry after Flash defeated them."

"They certainly were," said the old man gravely as his eyes grew distant in thought. "It wasn't easy." She waited patiently until finally he continued: "As far as I know they never found Princess Aura's body—they only ever saw us escape into space in her ship." He paused again before continuing: "After landing somewhere in Africa we traveled across land and crossed many oceans until we reached Brazil—the first free territory we found."

At this point his voice became almost reverential as he recounted how Princess Aura's magic powers helped them defeat Queen Azura's armies even after Flash fell victim to an assassination attempt by Emperor Ming himself—an attack which left him apparently dead for several hours before Princess Aura miraculously revived him with another spell! But then once Queen Azura led an attack on Brazil itself and forced Princess Aura away from these shores forever—leaving Flash behind alone to fight against endless hordes of Azura's soldiers until finally Emperor Ming decided to spare his life rather than make him suffer any more torture! After that things got really crazy: Emperor Ming declared war on Earth itself and sent thousands of soldiers down to Earth who immediately started wreaking havoc everywhere they went as they searched for Princess Aura without success! Things only started looking up when Earth made an alliance with Mars (which was ruled by King Vultan) who agreed to help Emperor Ming conquer Mongo once and for all! But when Ming arrived on Mongo led by a vicious witch known only as Zarina he was shocked by what he found...! And so on...and so forth...all very dramatic! *And yet somehow still not nearly as interesting as what really happened.*