The Battle for Gerosha (disambiguation)

The Battle for Gerosha is the name of two different works within Dozerfleet Comics. The first is a 2005 DSHW machinomic, making up the core of Gerosha Prime in the Gerosha multiverse. The second is Issue #9 of Origins and Fallout, the first volume of the Cataclysmic Gerosha version of The Gerosha Chronicles. Both versions are love / sci-fi / adventure tales about the exploits of Stan and Shalia Flippo, and their quest to reclaim their homes in southern Indiana from the Hebbleskin Gang.

Young Stan and Shalia
The story begins with young Shalia Hood jotting some notes down in her diary, revealing the history of her grandfather Sadasheeva Cherupara and grandmother Alexis Hood. She then talks about her mother's tragic encounter with the fugitive Dwayne Lloyd, and of what happened to Dwayne. She also remarks on what she'd like to see happen in the world, and on her thoughts of those who'd devalue her as a human being due to the nature of how she was conceived. She wonders if she'll ever meet a man who shares her concerns. She is then shown giving a piano concert at school, while an aged Marissa praises her for her performance.

Meanwhile, Stan Flippo is frustrated when the doctors won't let him in to see his sick and dying mother in the hospital. Tobey tearfully says goodbye to Alison, as she passes away. He promises to enlighten Stan about the treasure of Lohtz, the Phaelite experiment, and more. Stan and Tobey end up burying Alison a week later, with Tobey being near-inconsolable. Stan promises to carry on what Tobey was doing, and to make something of himself. Tobey tells Stan that no matter what, he should always seek to find a woman that he can love, as Tobey loved Alison. Stan promises to consider it.

Some time later, Stan and Shalia meet in the woods when Stan goes for a walk and Shalia is heading towards town. They are instantly fascinated with each other, and head to town together. They begin to see that the Hebbleskins are trying to establish a presence in Boonville, and that the FBI appears clueless what to do about it. As time goes by, Stan and Shalia begin to spend more time together. Townsfolk begin talking about them, considering it strange that Stan and "that black girl" would see anything in each other.

Deaths of Tobey Flippo and Marissa Hood
While going over his notes about Lohtz, Tobey finally solves the riddle of where the treasure is hidden. However, he dies of a heart attack. Stan attempts to call an ambulance, but it arrives too late. Marissa arrives at Stan's place with Shalia, and they are horrified to learn that Tobey is dead. They offer to give Stan shelter, but he refuses on the grounds that he doesn't want to appear to be cohabiting with Shalia. Marissa tries to blow that off, but Shalia decides to honor Stan's wishes. Marissa then sees that Stan and Shalia were meant to be together, and offers to help them get married.

Little does she know that Hebbleskin spies arrive near the crime scene, disguised as cops and paramedics. They overhear whispers that Stan and Shalia are considering getting married, and are reminded of the "liPo" prophecy. They immediately go into panic mode, letting the new southern Indiana operations manager, Sgt. Luddin, know that a new Flippo family has come together. Rumors begin flying about a new Phaelite named Darius Philippine quickly becoming a hero among heroes in the US military. They note that some of Darius' facial sculpt vaguely resembles that of Stan, and spies confirm that Darius' mother was Insila Murtillo. Those same spies confirm that the baby whose DNA was used for creating Darius also was infused with "Grandma Centipede," allowing for one of his future children to possibly become a Centhuen Prototype. A "Gifted Flippo" from Stan and Shalia spelled trouble. Luddin tells his men to watch from a distance, in case anything interesting happens.

Stan begins visiting Shalia frequently, and they plot out their goals of taking a trip to Florida to recover Lohtz's treasure. One evening though, Marissa has a stroke. Shalia panics, and calls Stan before calling 911. Stan tells her to hang up and call 911. Meanwhile, he runs to Shalia's as fast as he can. A Hebbleskin assassin tries to stop him, but he dodges the bullet fire. He manages to get the gun away from his would-be assassin, who then pulls out a knife. However, Stan tricks the Hebbleskin into falling on his own knife. Stan leaves the corpse behind, still managing to arrive at Shalia's before the ambulance can get there.

Shalia then informs Stan that 911 decided to hang up on her. At one point, a creepy voice asked if "Mrs. Flippo" was the one who called. Stan and Shalia realize that there is little they can do, except to flee town. The Hebbleskins arrive instead of an ambulance, but Stan and Shalia hide in the forest. They claim Marissa's head as a trophy, after confirming her to be dead. A horrified Stan and Shalia all the same nab Tobey's car, using it to drive out of town before being noticed.

Recovering Lohtz's treasure
They sell several of Tobey's possessions in exchange for the money needed to make a trip to Florida. They then head straight for the beach where Lohtz was believed to have landed when he found the Gerosha Stone. The treasure they find, much to their shock, proves to be worth a trillion US dollars. They immediately begin plans to one day build the Triangulum, a triangular house that could double as a museum for Boonville upon Stan and Shalia's deaths. Stan shares with Shalia that if Boonville ever falls to the Hebbleskins, he'll help rebuild it in the form of Gerosha - which will be named after Lohtz's seashell.

Stan and Shalia married
Stan and Shalia return to Boonville with a bodyguard named Justin Tandem, whom they recruit in the nick of time as he begin falling apart after his divorce. He helps them keep secret where their most priceless recovered treasures are stored. Meanwhile, he also helps them connect with jewelers who will let them show off their least valuable gem findings as a smokescreen for their real treasures. A plot of land is declared for where the Triangulum will one day be built - once the necessarily materials arrive and all other required legal clearances are in place.

The military sends young recruits Darius Philippine and Mitch Brandel into the Boonville area to keep tabs on any Hebbleskin activity. However, they miss the secret connection: police chief Franklin Smonds. Stan immediately tries out for the minor leagues, and gets a deal to begin his baseball career. It doesn't take long before Shalia reveals to Stan that she's pregnant. Reily Flippo is born, and the years pass quickly. Reily grows up to develop an affinity for cooking. Shalia enters the political sphere in Boonville, and believes that the couple will begin achieving their dreams any day.

The raid
However, Sgt. Luddin and Fantisk Hebbleskin decide the time is ripe to launch their plan. They send in their forces to ravage the town in a coup. Stan and Shalia are forced to flee the town once more, but are unable to save Reily. Reily ends up being captured by the Hebbleskins, who search his DNA for any signs of being a Centhuen Prototype. When none are found, they're about to dispose of him. However, he is rescued by Darius Philippine. Darius and Reily also end up saving Erin Wyer, whose parents Geoffrey and Patricia Wyer have already been murdered by Hebbleskin thugs.

Stan and Shalia are among those who get scattered when a Meethlite dome is formed over Boonville, making it hard for anyone to get in or out. They end up separated, with Shalia and her friend Trina Domingo being captured inside the dome and Stan trapped outside of it. Sgt. Luddin and Franklin Smond take matters into their own hands to establish a local Hebbleskin nation in Boonville. Fantisk, the second-in-command, becomes a sort of enforcer, and overseer of Meethlite science in town. He abducts Janette Edwards, placing a primitive version of an AI backvisor on her with "rabbit ears." She is turned into "Jeanette the Bunny," a near-mindless assassin who kills whomever she's instructed to.

When officer Lionel Sanchez learns that his fiancee Trina and daughter Amelia are among those thrown in prison, he protests. He is forced into hiding, his job as an officer having been stripped from him for objecting to the new order. Fantisk sends Jeanette to hunt him down. However, he manages to free Trina and Shalia right before both were scheduled to be beheaded. Lionel, Trina, Amelia, and Shalia begin recruiting a resistance force from within Boonville, in the hopes of reclaiming it from the Hebbleskins' control.

The resistance
Fantisk suspect that a resistance is about to form, so he kills suspected resistance member Vanna Kassan after breaking into her house. He takes Vanna's foster daughter, Jessie Menrez, as a hostage. Darius sends Mitch into town incognito, using a fake-out to give Mitch time to get in. Once in, Mitch makes it his goal to infiltrate the demoralized masses and seek out resistance members remaining. Mitch takes out Franklin Smonds and a corrupt cop named Angie Schneider. He runs into conflict with Jeanette, but manages to free her from the AI and win her over to the resistance. He discovers that the escaped Shalia was about to be captured by Frank and Angie, so he instead has her come with him. He arranged for her to escape, while he stays behind with the inside resistance to organize a military operation. Shalia on the outside is reunited with Stan and Reily, and then meets Erin. Stan and Shalia both are so impressed with Erin, that they decide to adopt her.

When Lionel and Mitch synchronize an assault on the dome's power base from inside. Darius follows that up with an attack on its external core. The dome is destroyed, and the National Guard sends in an air raid over Boonville. The Hebbleskins scatter, and only a few of them escape to regroup with Hebbleskins outside of southern Indiana. Word gets out to Fantisk's younger cousin, Duke Arfaas. Arfaas vows to have the heads of all of Shalia's future daughters' heads as trophies, whether the "Gifted Flippo" interpretation of "liPo" prophecy is true or not.

The final battle
Shalia points out to Stan that Boonville is being destroyed to purge it of the Hebbleskins' evil. Stan decides to march in with Darius and the National Guard to reclaim it anyway, saying: "Then let it be said. This day, when Boonville died, is the birth of a new city!  This is...the Battle...for Gerosha!!!"

As the Hebbleskins' forces - Meethlite, AI-controlled, and corrupt cop - all begin dying like flies, Fantisk flees with his prisoner into an iron smelting factory. Mitch gives chase. Fantisk expects Mitch to pause when he points out that he his holding Jessie hostage. However, Mitch continues on with their shootout melee until both run out of bullets. An impatient Fantisk throws Jessie into the molten iron, taunting Mitch for not saving her. Mitch fires back that Fantisk didn't either. Right then, Mitch suddenly runs away. Fantisk looks confused, waving his sword in the air and daring Mitch to come back and keep fighting. But as he's delivering a speech, a missile comes down on the factory and blows Fantisk to smithereens. He dies mid-sentence.

Aftermath
The heroes celebrate their victory starting with Lionel and Trina getting married. Stan and Shalia then get the clear to have the town officially renamed Gerosha. Some of the massive Flippo fortune is given towards helping build Gerosha atop the ruins of Boonville. Stan and Shalia formalize their adoption of Erin, and construction officially begins on the Triangulum. Amidst Gerosha coming to life, Reily meets a woman who shares his passion for cooking - named Ashlee Kornsdall.

Characters
The following is a list of characters in The Battle for Gerosha.


 * Stan Flippo: The adopted son of Tobey Flippo and biological son of Alison Ligash, also the biological son of minor league baseball player Steve McNolan. Stan believes that he should strive to be valuable to God at all times if at all possible.  But he doesn't see himself becoming a minister, as his mother hoped for.  Rather, he wants his everyday life character to be his testimony.  He develops a passion for minor-league baseball, as his biological father once had.  He also wants to be the family man that Tobey never got to be.  On top of all that, he shares Tobey's passions to rid the world of the Hebbleskin Gang, and to find the treasures of Henry Lohtz.  He never expects that the riches he'll find even before finding Lohtz's treasure will make him feel like one of the richest men alive.  Unfortunately, his successes earn him a multitude of enemies to overcome.


 * Shalia Flippo: The daughter of Marissa Hood and a serial rapist named Dwayne Lloyd. Rising from humble beginnings in the forests outside of Boonville, she is very patriotic.  She believes she can bring about godly change through the roles she seeks to acquire in local-area politics.  Stan provides her both a loving home to turn to, and a financial fallback system to fund her political activities.  She shares Stan's passion for a world without the Hebbleskins' evil.  However, she does not expect that saving her home from them would be so perilous.


 * [Reily Flippo

Reily Flippo is Stan and Shalia's first son. He has no idea the amount of chaos that is about to befall his parents until after he is kidnapped. Ploribus rescues him, but even after the war and everything he witnesses in his life, he wishes only to return to a normal life and hopefully find the right woman when he gets to that point. He has no idea how perfect a match Ashlee Kornsdal is for him.


 * Ashlee Flippo

While in exile from Gerosha, the Flippos settle in a neighborhood not far from it. In this new town, they meet the Kornsdal family, and love soon shows between Reily and Ashlee. It becomes clear that these two are meant for each other, and the two families work their hardest to arrange a wedding for them once they are legally old enough to wed.

Vanna Kassan

Vanna was an outspoken critic of Shalia's political enemies and suspected the Meethlites' plans all along. She was Jessie's legal guardian at the moment, and did her best to raise Jessie like a mother would. While she and Jessie had their disagreements, the two of them generally got along well. Fantisk, in an effort to make a statement to the already demoralized human inhabitants of the Craterville-Gerosha area, decided to take this known dissident and make an example of her. All we know of her is the severed head lying on the floor when Jessie comes home. Jessie doesn't run because she knows who would've had the capacity to kill Vanna this way, and that running would be useless.

Amelia Sanchez

Amelia Sanchez is the daughter of Lionel Sanchez and Trina Domingo. She contributes little to the actual story other than as something Franklin uses to threaten Trina with. After the story's continuity, she becomes a major contributor to the development of Gerosha. She witnesses her parents' wedding day, but doesn't understand the significance of it until years later.

Trina (Domingo) Sanchez

Trina Domingo lived a very rough life, including time on the streets. She didn't seek help to improve her quality of life until she discovered she was pregnant with a high-profile officer's daughter. After that, she befriended Shalia Flippo, who helped her get her life on the right track. Her new-found faith proves to be a great value to her, as it not only gives her the assurance of salvation she sought personally, but allows her to remain courageous enough under Franklin's tirade to look for a way to free Lionel from the mind control that's been put in place on him.

Lionel Sanchez

Lionel is kindhearted but prideful, and falls under a weak sort of mind control. It takes time alone on guard duty with Trina to free him from the spell, but his breaking free is gradual. He agrees to help her escape, while making it look like he killed her. It isn't until Mitch and Ploribus begin their raids that Lionel is completely free from Franklin, Fantisk, and Luddin. He and Amelia are rescued together.

Sgt. Luddin

The boss of the Meethlite alien branch that has managed to acquire control over the Craterville-Gerosha area. He is a power-hungry warlord and is not afraid to execute prisoners on a whim the moment he fears a loss of control.

Fantisk

The Executioner-in-Chief over all Meethlites, Fantisk is almost as horrible as his boss, Luddin. Fantisk has an uncanny bloodlust and unnatural abilities. He takes pride in his devil-like appearance.

Ploribus Philippine

Ploribus Philippine is a half-Phaelite, made from a mixture of pure Phaelite and DNA stolen from the baby Stan Flippo. Stan and Ploribus never figure out their relation to each other. The Phaelite and Meethlite aliens have been at war for centuries, and see each other as incarnations of good or evil. The war expands to include the Craterville-Gerosha area, where Sgt. Luddin seizes power after winning control from corrupt politicians. Ploribus and his network of do-gooders set out to right everything that's been wronged in Gerosha, but he realizes quickly he can't do the job entirely by himself.

Jessie Menrez

Jessie lost her real parents to the crime in Craterville, and moved in with her friend Vanna. Somewhat rebellious, it still doesn't take her long to figure out what is going on when her legal guardian is found dead. Jessie tries hard to save her own life no matter what that requires.

Mitch Brandel

Mitch Brandel previously worked as a Green Baret in the Marines. He later was assigned to work mercenary work with the Phaelites. He is called in to investigate the activities going on in Gerosha, but finds himself in a quite a bit of an adventure along the way. Rumors of his presence spread to the Meethlites, who know him only as "The Major."

Justin Tandem

Justin is someone who knows of Stan and Shalia, and knows where they keep their secret treasures. He agrees to help Shalia remain a secret so the police don't come after her. The couple is in enough trouble over marrying so young. Nobody believes they're married and the fact that they live in the woods without jobs or anything makes them suspicious to the officials in Craterville. Once Stan is framed for wardrobe theft, Shalia realizes that she is in danger as well. It would be another few months before she could stand on her own. But by then, Stan's name would be cleared and it would be time for their son Reily to be born. Justin doesn't generally like Stan much, as the two of them never got along well in public in the past, but he understands the weight of Shalia's situation enough to put aside his and Stan's differences for her sake.

Angie Schneider

Angie is a usually clueless happy-go-lucky lady who doesn't have the ambitions of Lionel. She too is under mind control, but snaps out when Mitch and Franklin get into a gunfight. Even when she believes the worst about Shalia, she still remains calm and nice, to a fault. It isn't until her dying moment that she understands that she was not fighting for the good guys.

Franklin Smonds

Franklin is so evil and so easily seduced and deceived by the Meethlites that mind control is almost uneccessary. He is the ultimate dirty cop, but with most of the rest of the police under mind control, it doesn't matter. The police no longer bother with petty thieves, and instead focus their energy on trying to weed out dissidents of the Meethlites. He is easily infuriated by Trina's unwillingness to accept his terms of argument.

Arianna Triste

Arianna was deceptive and manipulative. As the "maid" for Stan and Shalia when Stan was pursuing his early sports career and Shalia her political career, Arianna was looking for ways to trick Stan into thinking that she was Shalia, at least one time. She admired Stan's body skills, and wanted Stan for herself, even if only once. She almost results in Stan and Shalia divorcing a short time after Reily is kidnapped. Her death by killer bees some time later proves important in Stan and Shalia's desire to prove their innocence when they are once again framed for major crimes...

Dr. Spinwords

Dr. Spinwords is a quack hired by the Meethlites to assist in the indoctrination of the human population of the Craterville-Gerosha area. Posing as a therapist, he tries to get Shalia to abandon her beliefs and her desire for Stan, and become an apethetic individual. When it's clear that his methods won't work on Shalia, he makes sure to let the conspirators know...

Janette "the Bunny" Edwards

Janette Edwards made an honest living dressing up in a bunny suit to impress little children. But after the Meethlites got to her, she began walking around at night in a trance, putting on her bunny suit originally used for public television and killing dissidents of the Meethlites. It takes Mitch Brandel's fight skills to win her back to her senses...

Marissa Hood

Shalia's (almost) saintly mother. Marissa passes away before Shalia's 18th birthday, and doesn't live to see Stan and Shalia get married. Had she lived, both Stan and Shalia would've had a much easier time transitioning into stable adults, and would've had someone to help them with Reily.

Erin (Winston) Flippo

Erin was an orphan, who spent some time with Ploribus to get off the streets, but eventually found herself in the loving care of the adoptive Flippos. She and her brother Reily got along very well.

Kirby Flippo

When Reily and Ashlee have made it big in their culinary careers, they have a son named Kirby. He looks like Reily did at one time, and through Kirby, Stan sees the Flippo family cycle come full circle. Stan is now "Grandpa," Reily is now "Dad," and the new Reily is Kirby. Kirby shares Reily and Ashlee's interest in preparing food, a big break away from Stan's obsession with sports and Shalia's with politics.

Webcomic



 * First envisioned in May of 2005.