Chapter 50: Chapter 29

Chapter 29

 

Raptor of Life: Jean Quantum’s Gate adventures

Jean Grey In the Marvel Cinematic Universe

 

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

-- Star Trek Intro --

Previously in the Raptor of Life…

Jean finally arrived on Earth without bothering to conceal herself; on the same days she fulfilled several objectives. By recruiting the help of several cosmic entities, Jean was able to destroy the Time Variance Authority and bring Nathaniel Richards, the man behind the creation of the organization to justice.

 

# # #

(Gamora Zen Whoberi Ben Titan)

 

Sanctuary II
En route to Chitauri space

 

Gamora lived in fear. It was the first time since Thanos' forces were so reduced and hunted down by a party who wanted their utter annihilation. Ebony Maw wasn't the only one to die since then. Cull Obsidian died when they attempted another attack on a world one week ago.

Gamora was filling her bug out bag, she saw the writing on the wall… The Sanctuary hasn't seen a maintenance berth for that long either, and it limped back to Chitauri space for repair. But it was a matter of time until another space Empire noticed them and attacked them.

The Zehoberei needed to leave before she was the next victim. It was crazy to see how fragile Thanos and his little army were when some kind of force decided that they had had enough of his preying and insanity. They had to resort to piracy to obtain food to feed themselves and materials to fix the giant ship's engines. The first two times they succeeded, by attacking Xandarians commercial haulers; the third time brought the Nova Corps onto their trails with a task force which looked more like a small fleet to Gamora’s eyes. Evidently, they fled but incurred some losses.

Gamora took her favorite sword, pistols and rifle; some clothes and money that she stuffed in her bag. Gamora intended to steal a working Q ship when they reach chitauri space and disappear somewhere she can find bounty hunter work under a new identity.

As she did all this, Gamora didn't notice when Nebula, her adoptive sister, arrived. The Luphomoid was leaning against the wall next to Gamora's door with her arms crossed. “So that’s it? You’re leaving?”

Gamora stiffened as she heard her sister’s voice, she raised her head and saw the blue skinned cyborg leaning nonchalantly against a wall. “Nebula.”

Was her dream of escape dead before being realized? Gamora’s shoulders squared together as she faced Nebula. “Yes, I’m leaving or else we’re all bound to get killed like the others or become crazy like Proxima Midnight after she found Corvus comatose in their bed.”

As time passed, little incidents which slowed them down or lowered their morale kept cropping up. Gamora didn’t want to be the next one who will not be waking up tomorrow. 

“Do you…” The Zehoberei was about to continue her tirade when Nebula interrupted her. 

“I won’t tell them you left.” Nebula straightened up and uncrossed her arms.

“Want to come with me?” Gamora blurted out.

Nebula froze for a moment, surprised that her sister asked her to come with her. It was with emotion that Nebula replied with, “I’m tempted, however I need to delay my leaving. Father… would track you through me. I will have to make it look like you’ve been killed.”

Gamora nodded, understanding where her sister was coming from. She will have to change Cybernetics to become truly untraceable, Thanos had the codes of her current ones. The best cyber-clinics were on Xandar Prime and there were some on Knowhere.

The Zehoberei was happy that her sister was willing to go that far to help her. Knowing Nebula, she was going to drop an incendiary grenade in her room… “That would be a great help. I will try to stay under the radar as much as possible. You'll be able to find me won't you?”

"You know me, I will."

Nebula left after that, while Gamora sighed in relief and sat on her bed. She waited for a while in that position and, at the same time, ripped from the database, information on the next missions and plans of Thanos. Her adoptive father found one of his stones, he even sent some scouts to look for it. 

Gamora knew where she needed to go to thwart her father. She needed to go to Morag, and ambush the team and steal the stone to bring it to a safe place where Thanos wouldn't be able to find it. Gamora felt the spaceship lurch to a stop, it was finally time to say goodbye to her life as a member of the Black Order.

 

# # #

(Steve Rogers aka Captain America)

 

December 11th, 2013

 

Steve didn’t expect to be invited on the warship that had appeared recently, there was no doubt that it was a warship; the rugged design, and the crew proceeding to their tasks reminded Steve of the Destroyer he had been on long ago. The Avengers team invited themselves on the ship by Natasha insisting to check on the safety of the rest of the girls under Captain Grey's care.

The old soldier was surprised that the redhead accepted, she owed Natasha nothing. Even more so when his colleague has become terribly confrontational. Then Tony asked to be given a tour of the Infinity and the redhead accepted. Dr Banner, who had been working in his lab, was called to participate.

Natasha followed her 'sister' or whatever that blonde woman is to her; Clint like a baby duck followed Natasha. Banner followed Thor, who wanted to show him to the medical bay for his Hulking problems. Steve, as for him, wanted to know more about Captain Grey, as she seemed to show them her technology.

They ended up in a training facility inside the ship, which was equipped with a shooting range. Tony came with one of his suits and then began talking shop with Captain Grey when she showcased her personal forceshield which stopped a shot of Tony’s repulsor blast. A transparent blue barrier surged to stop the beam. Tony whistled and looked impressed. “How does this work? I’m surprised that you aren’t cooking in that suit you’re wearing…”

“Well, Doctor Stark, our technology is completely different, yours is based on silicone while I use photronics and a climate control unit, photronics are faster, lighter and able to operate out of phase with this dimension.” The Captain informed the two of them.

Tony pulled a pen and paper and started taking notes. “So this suit you’re wearing…”

Steve was interested as well; if what the woman was saying is true, there’s a lot of space in her suit. The woman laughed at Tony poking her arm with his uncovered hand. “It looks skin-tight, but I’m wearing the equivalent to one of your first generation suits but super lightweight. I call it a 4D-suit. The weaponry and system are folded in the suit’s personal dimension.”

Tony took some more notes. “It’s nanotechnology then? Because I don’t see any other way to use that kind of sub-dimensional Multi-step proportional miniaturization.”

Captain Grey nodded, surprised that Tony arrived at that conclusion already. “Yes of course, we use it. However, the suit is what the commonwealth is able to do with our miniaturization technology.”

“At least nanoscale?”

“Yes, but smaller..” She made her hands do a short gesture.

Steve listened with rapt attention, Captain Grey took a metal rod approximately thirty centimeters in length from the black holster at her belt. “This is a Force lance. It can elongate to become a staff for CQC, fire stunning, or plasma rounds along with other types of smart ammo. It is capable of finding their targets from almost anywhere in the proximity of where they are fired." 

Zap! Zap! Captain Grey hit center mass on both humanoid shaped mannequins at mid-range.

"Interesting." Steve found himself saying; the Lance has a power comparable to an assault rifle but with some esoteric effects. He didn’t miss the homing effect of the projectiles shot toward the mannequins.

"Captain Rogers?" Steve felt himself approached by the woman. 

The soldier turned toward her and Steve asked, "Yes ma'am?"

"Why don't you test one of the training lances in the rack there?" She pointed a finger at the gym-like interior, which transformed into a dojo-like training room. Under Steve's eyes, the wooden ceiling was replaced by a skylight and three ninja landed on the tatamis taking a standing stance, waiting for the challenger.  

"Oh, can the training area change more features?" Steve loved the ideas, he always had some bad times upping his training and finding sparring partners.

"Yes, it can. This is similar to what some of my friends have. The training room was upgraded with advanced holographic technology and a tactical computer matrix. You'll be able to fight however long you want."

Jean Grey teleported Steve in the dojo and watched him be surrounded by the three ninjas. Steve quickly took one of the force lances in the rack. "As you can see, those Force Lances are more like melee weapons, they can extend and become two meters long staves."

The weapon changed into a staff in his hand. And Steve found himself twirling it tentatively. The ninjas suddenly attacked, and Steve dodged the first and swept his leg underneath him with the staff. The soldier rolled on the side to avoid a sword coming for his head, then he fired two smart bullets which struck the two remaining ninjas and made them disappear in motes of light. There was the last one who was getting up, but he didn’t survive long enough, as Steve twirled his staff and struck his head and broke his neck with a sinister ‘crack’.

The last ninja disappeared in turn and the dojo disappeared to get back to becoming the shooting range.

“Not bad, I give you a 5/10 for that, there’s much that can be made better.” Captain Grey applauded.

 

# # #

 

Back with Jean…
30 minutes later
Andromeda Ascendant's bridge 

 

“Ma’am, are you sure that you want to involve them in this operation?” Andromeda’s holographic avatar asked me.

I was monitoring the crew and the androids who were doing their tasks. This was one of the tasks a Captain should do, at least that's what Rommie told me. I would have preferred to roam the ship on my own feet though, but I understand that it's too big to patrol it by myself. Using the surveillance system is smarter.

That's why I am sitting on the command chair, with augmented reality glasses on my nose and skimming through the large numbers of holographic windows that only I could see so as to not fill Real Space in the bridge. I hate to clutter the bridge with holo-screens. It's not my fault that the bridge uses holodeck technology. 

"We don't need them, Rommie." I said, I could just take Hela and kill all the Eternals and their master still in gestation.

Rommie stood next to me, looking beyond the screen, her sensors deployed and with all the drones satellites she had released the last four days to monitor the solar system. My Artificial intelligence nodded and said with a serious tone, "At least you acknowledge that point, only I and our crew should be enough."

Andromeda was really prideful about her competence and that of her android crew that she had locked in combat drills in the break time of six months that we had under the time dilation field on Lukedonia. We did a lot of boarding actions, exploration, interdiction and denial of areas, and ship to ship combat. 

I could trust the androids to do their job, but not the recently acquired widows. They needed another month in the simulators for those who wanted to become pilots. Longer for the ones who want to join the away teams.

"However… What I am doing right now is building bridges of trust between us and the Avengers, Rommie." I have a goal in mind and I will cut down the casualties inflicted by Thanos. I won't let him do the snap.

That is why after dealing with the squids, Sokovia, the mind stone and the eternals… I am leaving for Andromeda, to find the power stone and recruit some people there.

"I want them to call on me when the shit hits the fan next time." I explained to Rommie. 

She offered me some new options, "Then in that similar frame of mind you should be doing the same with Wakanda, isn't it going to be the next battlefield?"

I raised my hand in a stopping motion and said awkwardly, "Let’s not go too crazy here…"

Wakanda is a textbook case of why advanced civilization or materials shouldn’t fall in the hands of people who are not ready to harness the technology derived from Vibranium and are unable to evolve socially with it. I don't want to deal with their brand of stupid. Now that I think about it… I'm going to implement a prime directive order if we ever get out of the solar system to explore the space surrounding us. The noninterference with other cultures and civilizations below a certain level of development is a must but with provisions to help when there's certain disaster happening or coming.

Rommie sat at my right side on the XO's chair. She began to think and then finally replied after some deliberation, “I agree that whichever avenue we use to contact them, they will attack or distrust us. They keep their wonder metal rather jealousy.”

Vibranium isn't important in the long run, what you must focus on is replicating the effect of the technology without the wonder metal. But the Wakandan people don't do that and depend mainly on it and are able to kill or lie for it. They aren't truly advanced, they send their young to college in other countries and steal current or theoretical technologies that they adapt with their Vibranium tech. Their vaunted superiority is fake.

I smiled, but Rommie seemed to understand what I did to curtail the influence of Wakanda in the future on the world's stage. Andromeda guessed, “Oh, is that why you gave your own paper on particle manipulation to Doctor Stark? You intend to take away their… advantages?”

It was scary to think that she could guess all my actions like this; I think Rommie is spying on me… “Rommie, sometimes you’re too smart for your own good…”

I intend to do more than curtail them, I intend to show their true face to the world and reveal their technology level to other countries. 

As I focused on the security screens, I witnessed Natasha Romanoff fighting against a bunch of teenage girls. It was awe inspiring to see her move, I even stole some of her moves. But in the end, the girls who have received the genome enhancer formula that I used on my own super soldiers beat Natasha with human swarm tactics.

With the formula, they will be able to survive the stronger gravity on Lukedonia, become stronger and faster and adapt to space and its environments. I switched screens and immediately saw Gabriel fight against Yelena, the two fought with swords, Gabriel with her long sword and Yelena with a rapier. The assassin was fast and skilled, but… Gabriel was hundreds of years old and her experience showed it as she disarmed Yelena.

"Yelena is having a fight with Gabriel in the training room and I want to see her at her best. Rommie, how are all the women after their little trip in the regeneration tank?"

Andromeda looked at a holo-screen and consulted the medical files of each of our new citizens. "Clean bill of health, the damages created by the Red Room were all fixed."

So they can have kids again? That's amazing, I am happy that the red room could not steal the joy of being a woman from them. "I will be able to send some of the girls to look for the missing widows. And invite them to join us."

"Should I ask, Natasha? If she wants to be healed, I mean…" I asked Rommie. 

A notebook and a pen appeared in her hands and she started writing in it. "I will have Yelena make her the offer, Captain."

"Thanks, I just don't want to confront her yet." I told my Artificial Intelligence. I really liked when she played the secretary… 

On the screen, a dropship raised from Avengers Tower, flying toward the Infinity supercarrier. "Pelican inbound, Captain."

I read the passenger manifest. Nick Fury, Agent Hill and is that Coulson? "Ah the one eyed super spy finally showing up. He didn't take long to accept my invitation." 

 

# # #

(Nick Fury)

 

He looked at each of his agents in the dropship. Maria Hill had come with him, and the man next to him… He didn't expect to pull Coulson out of his work with his SHIELD team to have a tête a tête with a military officer from another space nation. They had loaded into the dropship with the plan to learn a lot about this Systems-Commonwealth government the two ships in orbit are part of. Where they were in the cosmos, how many worlds were under their purviews, how many spaceships they possessed; which economic model they used… and what’s more important, if they were willing to enter into an alliance with them.

There was also a promise that Nick had made to the Skrulls, to help them find a new home, the super spy hoped that this Captain Grey wasn’t someone prejudiced against the Skrulls refugees. 

Clang. He felt the dropship land, and Nick undid his safety belt and stood up from his seat. The exit hatch opened and formed a ramp that each of the SHIELD agents descended while watching around themselves.

The metallic door closed behind the dropship. But there was a panoramic window which undeniably showed Nick that they were in space as they could see the curvature of Earth on a bed of stars. The ship seemed to follow the American continent as it orbited over the planet.

There were other dropships and fighters being maintained around them by a bunch of technicians who were discussing something. The door facing the dropship opened and it wasn't Nick's surprise to see Natasha, Clint, Tony Stark and Captain America walking up to his group.

"Welcome, sir." Steve greeted Nick.

The one-eyed man stared at each of them wearing a bodysuit with the A symbol on its chest. "You seem to be having fun there?"

Nick knew they already had half a day to get to visit the ship. Clint confirmed it by saying, "Yeah and it is amazing; I've been given the tour, and I think it's your turn to be shown around, Director."

Captain America interrupted his colleague by stepping forward. "We were told that Captain Grey will be receiving you in the Observation Lounge."

"Where is it?" Nick raised a brow, why were the Avengers the ones who led them anywhere… Was this new Captain going to co-opt the superhero team?

The door opened on a corridor leading inside the spaceship's depths. "It's on deck 1, please come with us, sir."

The Director of SHIELD followed the group while looking around at the same time. He wished that he could place some bugs inside the ship to be able to listen in or detect the ship from orbit when it was camouflaged. But something told Nick that it would be a mistake to do so.

From the interactive map he was reading on the wall, they were at the upper aft section of the Andromeda Ascendant. Nick liked the name of this ship, it sounded strong; they finally arrived before a set of doors that swished open. Inside there was a long table and a small bar and a panoramic window showing planet Earth. The Observation Lounge was sparsely furnished, but Nick thought that it’s because it didn’t see much use despite how pristine it looked.

At the head of the table a redhead in a red bodysuit waited for them, she was reading something on a tablet. At her side was a woman with shoulder length brunette hair, and a Systems-commonwealth uniform. “Your guests are here, Ma’am.”

“Thank you, Rommie.” She thanked her assistant who sat herself at her side at the table.

She put her hands at mouth level, with fingers interlocked as she greeted each of the newcomers. “Good evening, Director Fury, Miss Hill and… Agent Coulson.Weren’t you supposed to be KIA?”

“How do you know me? Ma’am.” Coulson asked.

The woman, Rommie invited them to sit at the table; and each of them sat down at the high-tech table. The table started projecting holograms above its surface, more notably folders filled with files on which the name of everyone present was written on them. Captain Grey said, “When you contacted the SHIELD agents, part of the Avengers… I intercepted the communication and saw your reunion on screen.”

Nick closed his eyes, this has been a bad move on his part; he should have told the Avengers about Coulson surviving right after the invasion. But they had needed a rallying cry and having a deniable asset to do all those ops for him had been a boon.

“I’m surprised that you know who everyone at that table is here as well.” Nick glared at the Captain who didn’t seem ashamed at all.

“I’ve done deep background checks on each of you before allowing you on my flagship,” She boasted.

Nick could understand where she was coming from, Captain Grey wouldn’t allow any one on her ship, it was where she lived too it seemed and she was responsible for the well being of her crew. But there was something that Nick needed to say, “Can I ask you to stop breaching SHIELD’s servers, Captain?” The Director requested.

Captain Grey impishly smiled and shrugged. “I’m not breaching or hacking anything, my computers are powerful enough to ignore the primitive security and whatever program you have watching out. It’s also a matter of technology compatibility, I use Quantum Computing and you don’t so I always win and get data.”

Captain Grey's hands fell flat on the table as she smiled. “Anyway, I’m happy that you’re here, Director. I have a lot of things to make you privy of.”

Nick wanted to slap the smug smile away from her face, but he breathed in and out and asked, “And what might that be?”

She leaned into her seat and asked Nick by looking him in the eyes. “Do you want to help save your world? Not just the USA. There’s a credible threat to your planet on its surface right now.”

The Director stood up and demanded, "Explain!"

Ten people appeared on the projected hologram and Jean Grey started to narrate, "They call themselves ‘The Eternals’; they are a race of synthetic beings created by the Celestials.

The Celestials are the oldest race in the universe. They are cosmological entities with vastly powerful matter and energy manipulation abilities that were present long before the dawn of creation and were responsible for the Big Bang and for bringing planets and lifeforms into existence throughout the cosmos. 

The Eternals work for the Celestials, they are sent to multiple planets to protect and help evolve sentient lifeforms to power a Celestial seed inside the planet. The seed that they protect is nurtured by absorbing the energy that the sentient lifeform on the planet releases by simply existing.

There’s Ten of those beings who arrived on Earth during the Stone Age to protect humanity before the seed is ripe for harvest. Eternals are outwardly physically indistinguishable to humans, although they possess far greater strength, agility, and durability than an average human. They are capable of "living" forever without aging. They’re annoying because they can survive what normal humans can’t; travel the vacuum of space without any protection or breathing gear for example. I don’t consider them sapient, because they are artificial and not biological, and unable to make their own decisions, anything that makes them consider deviating from their mission is ignored. They may bleed like us, but they are just flesh automatons repeating tasks.”

“Wait, we have had alien robots amongst us for that long?” Nick asked.

"Yes they were responsible for a lot of events in your history and led your civilization to what it has become nowadays." Captain Grey explained and different files about human history came alive in the holo-screens. Jean showed multiple people who looked the same throughout history.

The holo-screens showed different places, like Korea, Spain and China and in the Atlantic Ocean where they had some battle to protect humanity against the Deviants; the Deviants are a monstrous and apex race of near-immortal beings genetically engineered by the Celestials to ensure the development of sapient life on the planets seeded with nascent Celestials by wiping out the planet's apex predators. 

“They helped kill a lot of dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers… and species of animals that they deemed dangerous to humans while in the Ice Age era.” The next holo-screen showed the Savage Lands and other parts of the earth with the Deviants attacking animals.

Phil Couslon, who has been leafing through the files and watching the videos asked, “More importantly, Captain Grey, what is that seed?”

Jean pointed a finger at Phil. “Good question Agent Coulson.What I can tell you is that the seed is simply a baby Celestial. The more humans there are on Earth, the quicker it develops, until the emergence.” From a mountain, a giant bipedal figure emerged from a volcano and the planet cracked and the baby Celestial escaped into space when it exploded.

“This… this was the Emergence?” Phil began sweating profusely.

“Indeed, an Emergence is a cosmic event signifying the birth of a Celestial, while simultaneously destroying the planet it was created on.”

Nick was the first to speak after rewatching the Emergence. “That’s what you meant about saving the planet, you want to stop it?”

Jean nodded. “Yeah, if you don’t stop it, the emergence is projected to destroy Earth in 2018.That’s what the predictive algorithms of my computers are telling me.”

Nick was stumped, he didn’t know what to think; what did that woman want from him? “What am I supposed  to do to stop this?”

“Fortunately, nothing. Director. I wish to ask you to help me find the Eternals, then I will destroy the seed.” Captain Grey asked.

Nick looked at the young woman, expecting a catch that he couldn’t see. “It can’t be that simple.”

The redhead sighed and explained, “I can’t find them alone, you have skills to find people on this planet that I can’t dismiss.You know your world better than I.”

Nick nodded, he recognized the fact that the Systems-Commonwealth were strangers here and didn’t know the lay of the land. “So be it, we will help. But not for free, Captain.”

Jean smiled. “Oh, a transaction, I can get behind that. What do you want for your services?”

The Director began weaving a story and said, “In 1995, two groups of aliens entered in contact with the Earth, one were-”

“The Skrull and the Kree; yes, I know who they are. Come to the point.” Jean said dismissively.

“I’m surprised you know already.” Nick was surprised by the knowledge Jean had of their planet’s history.

Jean said in an idle comment, “You’re lucky that the Kree didn’t enslave you all, that’s their modus operandi, they send an invasion force to threaten you and tell you that you’re now part of their space nation.”

“Yes, Carol Danvers destroyed the fleet and that allowed us to stay free. But we have more eyes in the sky due to this first invasion. Thanks to this there are a lot of Skrull refugees on Earth. What I want you to help me with is that I hope that you help me keep a promise I made to one of my Skrull friends.”

“What was that promise?” Jean Asked.

“Help the Skrull race find a new home.” Nick said as he looked at the young woman in her unwavering verdant gaze.

Jean sighed as she said, “Before I commit to any decision, I need to discuss this with my advisors first. This promise you did makesme have to negotiate with their current government and speak about what they want in a world where they could migrate to.”

“Thank you for giving them a chance, Captain Grey.” Nick smiled, content that he helped some of his friends.

 

# # #

(Agent Phil Coulson)

 

Hydroponics garden
2 hours after the meeting…

 

There was a sleeping blue dragon in the garden, it was the size of a small bus. Then it transformed into a little girl who was gardening while ignoring the SHIELD agents. The group decided to let sleeping dragons lie to not have any problem or start an interstellar incident due to their curiosity. Like the saying goes: Curiosity killed the cat.

But it was awe inspiring to see the small girl fly in the garden from bush to bush to pour water with her abilities; no tool needed apparently. The Andromeda Ascendant Hydroponic Garden is a very large garden and aquaculture center. Phil started strolling inside when he found the Dragon girl watering the plants.

He wished he could stay longer on the ship and wake up to the serene atmosphere; thanks to the atmospheric control, he could feel the breeze slide against his skin like a cool blanket. He sat at a wooden table, then he poured himself a coffee that a robot waiter offered him in a thermos and a recyclable cup. It tasted delicious and was apparently grown here in the garden. While he sipped on his coffee, Phil was looking at his friends playing Basketball, Clint was losing…

This place was beautiful and well maintained; despite the ship using replicators technology to serve the crew and officers. The garden was used by everyone onboard to stave off the hazards of space such as confinement and isolation, and the distance from their home planet. It’s essential that astronauts or military men on a spaceship are getting the requisite food, sleep and exercise needed to stay healthy and happy. That is why the garden is the main source of fresh food and oxygen for the ship, and is also a place for crewmembers to relax and play games such as Basketball. 

Clint Barton and Captain America were having a game at the moment, helped by some of the slipfighter pilots who were playing. As he watched around himself, Phil looked around him. As he noted the layout of the garden. It was a massive area that sprawled over several decks, and had a very large unidentified tree at the center of the area. It had at least three entrances, which are equidistant from each other and are very large, more akin to the interior doors leading to the cargo bays than other, smaller interior doors. 

“Phil.” The agent heard his name from behind him.

He recognized the voice, without turning his back, he sensed her move and sat at his side on the table. 

“Natasha.” Phil said warmly when he turned to her.

She was wearing a SHIELD bodysuit that espoused her body perfectly; it was a bit distracting, but he forced himself to look her in the eyes. “How are you doing? It’s been a while since we last saw each other.”

The assassin rolled her eyes at him; it’s barely been a year… then she seemed to think about something and she sighed. “I feel a bit lost to be honest.”

Natasha used to be sent almost anywhere because she is so adaptive. Was life in a spaceship too much for her? “Why?”

You are reading story The Raptor of Life at novel35.com

Natasha looked down at her hands and said, “I just witnessed Captain Grey pass judgment on General Dreykov… she spaced him through the airlock.”

Justice was quite simple and regulated for people in the Systems Commonwealth it seemed; and the trials were swift, the punishment carried out right away depending on the offense the accused perpetrated… “And?”

“The girls all cheered when they saw him rupture blood vessels and suffocate shortly after exposure to the vacuum of space. Some of them were crying about being free.” Natasha continued to say.

Phil didn’t say anything, but he continued to listen. Natasha looked under the fake blue sky and asked, “But are they truly free? Didn’t they just get a new master who wants to use them for her own nefarious reason? Well I assumed that.”

Phil tried to guess what the problem was that was eating Natasha, and he came to a conclusion which was, “And after speaking to them you discovered that your assumptions were untrue?”

Natasha nodded. “Some of them chose to become bakers, seamstresses or farmers and they are studying for those professions currently.”

“But some did choose to join Captain Grey’s crew?” Phil asked after sipping on his cup.

Natasha looked quite saddened as she thought about her sister. “Yes, like Yelena.”

“Ah, your sister.” Yelena Belova, one of the younger Black Widow who was put through the mind controlling programming and turned into General Dreykov's obedient subordinates. She was now a corporal in the Systems-Commonwealth Navy, and now that SHIELD knew about the remaining brainwashed Black Widows on Earth, they found the footsteps of all Commonwealth Widows all over the world as they looked for their sisters and attempted to free them.

How did they track them? The Red Room aerial facility crashed in Siberia and SHIELD recovered the remains of their computers. On some of those were files about all the widows, living and dead, having been trained in the facility. But there were no mentions of their assignments after they graduated.

“Did they invite you to join them, Natasha?” Phil asked smoothly as he guessed at the drama between Natasha and her sister.

Natasha stared up in surprise at Phil. “How do you-”

“It was easy to guess.” The agent shrugged, the clues were there.

The redheaded assassin turned her attention to the game, Steve’s team was now getting on the backfoot as Clint’s team scored repeatedly. She finally said, “They offered me incentives to join them as a member of the crew…”

“What perks were they willing to give you?” Phil asked, truly curious what the offer was they gave Natasha, the woman was clearly conflicted.

“A bunch of sessions in the regenerative tank and fixing the damages the Red Room made… an apartment on Lukedonia, the planet Captain Grey is based from; oh and a genome enhancer and the rejuvenation serum, it’s a short term treatment apparently, if I accept I will be back to my prime, my twenties and be stronger, faster, smarter than I am.” Natasha counted on her fingers the good terms that were given to her to join her sister, Yelena, in The Office of Naval Intelligence of The Systems-Commonwealth Navy.

With shock etched on his face, Phil asked, “How are you not jumping on this opportunity? I would!”

The serums employed by the Systems-Commonwealth made the recipients at the level of Captain America physically stronger and quadrupled their lifespan. Phil would have jumped on the offer if it was him, just to fix some of his back and knee problems. 

Natasha shook her head. “For me to get those, they want me to change citizenship to the Systems-Commonwealth's one…”

Phil understood and grimaced slightly, he took a swig of his coffee and realized, “Ah, you won’t be able to work with us anymore?”

The redhead sighed and then nodded. “They didn’t say that, but I think it’s implied?”

Nothing was said for a long moment; Natasha continued to wallow in silence and Phil finished his coffee. It was after the basketball game finished that the Agent said to Natasha, “Why can’t you just negotiate with Captain Grey, having double citizenship is something normal in these times. Maybe you can cut a deal with her and Fury?”

“Would you help me with that? I don't want Fury to think I am jumping ship and betraying him?” Natasha asked.

Phil smiled. “Obviously, but you’ll owe me one.”

“Thanks…” Said Natasha with a relieved sigh.

 

# # #

(Ikaris)

 

Two weeks later…
Ohio
Stuart Farm

 

He had been seeing the world pass him by for so long, continued his vigils and fights against the Deviants, creatures which threaten the delicate order that they brought on the planet as their charge was developing slowly, as the world continued to evolve without them to guide it like before.

However, the world had changed again, and not for the better. Aliens seemed intent on invading the Earth at all cost. Why? He didn't know the reason yet, but he was investigating. He turned his head and saw his wife, Sersi, entering the house and just getting back from work.

"Hello dear. How was your day?" Ikaris said while opening a beer can.

The black haired woman took off her glasses and undid her ponytail, letting her hair free. She then put her coat on the rack next to the door. "Ikaris. Quite boring to be honest, I must return to grading the homework of my student."

His wife sounded tired, he knew that it was his role as a husband to lighten her burden. He stood up after drinking a bit of his beer and said, "Don't worry, I will prepare dinner, what do you want fixed tonight?"

She walked toward him with half-lidded eyes, hugged him and smooched him on the lips. "Surprise me."

Ikaris nodded and kissed Sersi's cheek. "As you wish."

They disentangled from each other and the Eternal walked into the kitchen, while his wife went to sit at the table to grade her students' homework. Ikaris put on his black colored apron and next walked up to the fridge and opened it. As he looked for ingredients to make a rice salad, he heard the door to his house being knocked on.

Knock! Knock! Knock! The entrance door rattled.

Sersi walked up to the door to open it, but Ikaris intercepted her and grabbed her arm. "I will get it."

His wife nodded, then Ikaris walked up to the door and cried out, "Who is it?! The plaque says no Jehovah witness or merchant!"

They were a plague in Ohio, there was a community of scammers roaming around selling sub-par mattresses and solar panels around. The Jehovah witnesses were just like locusts trying to sink their claws in good hardworking Christian paychecks. Oh, how Ikaris wished to kill them all with his optic blasts…

"Ikaris! Open the door, it's Kingo!" A fellow Eternal called out.

Ikaris quickly opened the door and his compatriot wearing his battle armor was before the porch, looking harried and worried, "Kingo… What are you doing here? It's not yet time for the yearly gathering."

Combing his hair with his hand, Kingo said, as he looked outside, "We don't have the time, they must have followed me; my friend you and Sersi must flee. Scatter and hide."

Ikaris frowned, "Why?" 

He was sure that they had killed all the Deviants on Earth, who was after his friend? Kingo, fortunately, gave him more food for thought. "We're being hunted, they already got Gilgamesh, Pastore, Druid, Makkari, Thena and Ajak."

"Who? Deviants? Aren't they supposed to be dead?" Ikaris questioned.

He just saw something move in the forest, and Kingo's hands started glowing with golden light. "I… I don't know. Maybe!"

Feeling movement behind him, Ikaris saw his wife wearing her sweater, yoga pants and slippers. Kingo recognized her and shouted, "Sersi!"

"Yes!? Oh Kingo… hello." The ravenette waved at the other Eternal.

Ikaris battle armor appeared over his body with an exertion of his will over his cosmic energy. "Prepare for battle."

The Eternal saw something in the sky, hovering and beating its wings. It was also bigger than a horse.

"Against who?" Sersi asked as she shifted into her own armor.

"Deviants." Ikaris said.

BOOM!! Someone landed with the force of a missile feet first on his truck. Standing on the wreck was a golden skinned woman with purple hair, her eyes glowed with silver light and she was mostly naked. Next to her was a giant winged dog with golden fur.

"A Humanoid Deviants? First time I saw one… And is that a winged dog?" Ikaris asked out loud.

Woof! Ahooooo! Roar! The dog threw itself at them, jaw open, showing a row of pointy teeth.

Kingo shot at it with his energy beam, but the canine dodged the shots agilely. The woman charged them, flaming sword in hand, Sersi rolled on the side and Kingo did the same on the left. Ikaris fired his optic blasts at the winged woman who dodged by rolling in the air, her hand covered in fire and she shot a cone of fire toward Ikaris who tanked the attack.

Those were not abilities possessed by the Deviants! Before Ikaris could catch the woman throwing fire in his face, he was tackled to the ground by Sersi. Saving his life as a gigantic black sword fell from the sky and embedded itself where he had been standing in front of the house.

Ikaris looked at the face of his wife and was about to ask why she jumped on him, "What?-"

Sersi just pushed off him and pointed at the sunset lit sky. "Look up, Ikaris."

There were a mass of flying weapons blackening the sky and moving like in a ballet. Some turned on themselves or stayed immobile. Ikaris stood up, helping his wife. "Flying weapons?"

Kingo came next to them and he said, "Look closer, my friend." He pointed at where the giant sword was embedded. 

"The soil is dying around it, even the wood of the fence is withering."

Another giant sword was floating in the sky, with two people standing on the blade. This time two women, one tall and raven haired, the other with a shorter stature and crimson locks the color of blood. The winged woman and the strange canine from earlier flew toward the giant Jian sword and landed on the blade, joining the two other women.

The redhead who was wearing a red bodysuit suddenly was covered in silver armor starting from her right arm. Silver spider-like limbs sprouted from her back and a katana-like blade grew from her gauntlet and she disappeared… only to reappear before Ikaris and kick him in the belly and send him to slam into the empty corn silo next to his house.

 

# # #

(Hela Odinsdottir)

 

This week of hunting had been so busy, and challenging. The humans of SHIELD, helped with the computers we lent them, connected to Andromeda’s spy satellite drones network and helped find those… Eternals one by one. They started with a woman called Thena, she lived in Greece on a private island.

Jean let Hela take care of this one, the fight had been fun, and the adversary was skilled enough… However, Hela decapitated her after cutting off her two arms when she paid more attention to the cloud of swords raining down on her. Jean immediately put her in a body bag and inside a stasis casket for the body to not decompose. 

The next enemy was in Canada, and running a pub. His name was Gilgamesh and he was really strong; after wrecking him with her telekinesis… Jean killed him by paralyzing and stabbing him with her Witchblade and sucking Cosmic energy out of his body. It was then that things became more dangerous as a woman, another Eternal and the next target, arrived and saw the dead body of Gilgamesh fall down on the ground.

It was the speedster, Makkari, they all had strange names and it was weirder that Jean knew all of them. Before Jean could do anything Makkari fled and disappeared. Then that was the first day where Jean and Hela lost track of the Eternals. They were now aware that they were being hunted, and by the time Jean found them, they were in the Pacific and on an island waiting to ambush her.

They were surprised that she wasn’t one of those humanoid Deviants when she started talking to them and telling them that she’s killing them because they’re going to be the end of this world if she doesn’t; that she was putting an end to their millenias long mission. They hadn’t believed Jean and she killed Pastore, Druid and Ajak; unfortunately, Makkari escaped again, but not without damage… Jean sliced her right arm before she could run.

Thanks to a biological scan, Jean discovered the location of Makkari and it wasn’t easy as she kind of sped all over the world. She regenerated her arm completely as well, it was when she was with Kingo that Jean and Gabriel attacked; the dog, Castiel, neutralized Makkari’s legs and Gabriel decapitated her with her flaming sword, killing her for good. However… Kingo the other Eternal present tried to fight them.

This time it was Hela’s turn to fight, and rain down swords onto the Eternal. Hela countered his energy projection by pushing her awareness over all the battlefield, neutralizing his constructs by destroying them with her necroswords and almost killed him when he played the lizard and cut his hand to avoid the necrotization of his body from spreading and then he disappeared somewhere. The hunters discovered that the Eternal is able to propulse himself thanks to the blast of energy he used to attack in some sort of three dimensional movements.

They followed his trail to North America, until he led them to more Eternals in Ohio. Hela knew how to fight him, and her armor and helmet materialized on her. Hela then shadow-walked in the shadow of her swords. Gabriel and her dog began fighting the woman Eternal, while Jean was taking care of Ikaris.

Hela's shadow form flowed out of Kingo’s shadow and she attempted to backstab him only to be stopped by a barrier of cosmic energy over his body. Klang!

Kingo rolled with the hit and fired three blasts in retaliation. Zap! Zap! Zap!

The Goddess of Death spread her arms and shouted, “Shadow shield.”

The shield tanked the Cosmic energy, then Hela saw a shadow pass over her and smiled. “Death from above!”

The sky darkened as gray clouds gathered in the sky, forming some kind of whirlpool from which a huge scaled beast appeared from. ROAR!

Lightning gathered in the sky and struck the Eternal like a fury. ZAAAAAAAAAP! Frying him with enough power to light up a minor city. Hela giggled, Sapphira was having fun striking at their foe. This has been a good tag team between Hela and the Space Dragon. Kingo was down, but he started regenerating again. Hela walked up to him, Necrosword manifesting in her left hand.

The Eternal was sitting up now, slowly recovering from the attack; they were disgustingly resilient. Kingo’s head turned to Hela and his voice cracked when he asked, “...Why? We did… nothing to you.”

“Don’t speak to me, soulless creature.” Hela interjected denying any conversation with the Eternal.

The thing glared at Hela, raising his hand already shining with cosmic energy. “I-”

Hela kicked his head. CRACK! She broke his neck but it wasn’t enough to kill one of them, they would eventually heal from this. That is why she decapitated him with her necrosword. SLICE. Kingo’s head fell on the ground at Hela’s feet. She kicked it with her right foot and said, “No more Bollywood for you.”

Just like Jean had told her, those beings are artificial and more like biological computers, they don’t have souls. To Hela the Celestial created automatas with terribly limited agencies; in a sense it was normal, they were loaded with power that subsumed the entire body.

Gabriel was battling Sersi who fought as if her life depended on it. The woman kept transmuting her flaming weapons into water. With her power she turned everything around her into a death trap that Gabriel and the dog had to agilely dodge while battling with the Eternal.

“Gabriel! Need any help!? I've finished already.” Hela hollered.

Castiel, the nice Angelus Doggo whined as he was struck by diamond arrows shot from Sersi's created compound bow.

“No, Consort!” Gabriel showed why she was part of Jean’s group as she switched from her flame to her light weapon. Magic also filled the air as she found a way to inhibit the Eternal's transmutation abilities. She covered the ground with a carpet of holy light and created constructs similar to her swords and threw beams at the woman she was fighting.

Hela paid attention to the two others who were battling. “Jean is having fun.”

The Eternal, with the optic blasts, flight and super strength, was battling against the spider themed Jean with Witchblade. It was at the speed of sound that each sword leg deflected or blocked each optic blasts. At the same time she used pyrokinesis on the flying man. Hela was aware that Jean was trying to kill him without damaging his body, but it was taking too long.

This was when Jean denied him flight thanks to the power over space obtained through the ingot of creation. She raised the gravity around him and slammed Ikaris on the ground. Silver snakes slithered from the silver armor of the Witchblade and bit each of the Eternal's limbs, keeping him from adapting to the gravity and standing up.

Ikaris' eyes burned with hatred and launched optic blasts at Jean who raised a hand and absorbed the energy. The Eternal stopped, as he realized how futile his resistance was. Jean looked at him with pity. "You done?"

The fact that she spoke surprised the Eternal, he was about to speak when Jean stared at him and her eyes shifted to ruby red. "My turn."

KRAKOOOOOOOOOOM! Twin beams of ruby red light struck Ikaris with high intensity, slowly creating a crater.

Somehow, the Eternal was hyper resilient but his armor was slowly looking in disrepair. When she stopped, Jean walked up to him and crouched, raising him by grabbing his hair and saying, "This is an optic blast, not that weak shit you use."

Hela giggled at that as she watched Jean pulling Ikaris out of the crater, Gabriel was holding onto Sersi with her own light magic constraint. She put her down on the ground at the same time that Jean arrived; they were put next to each other. Jean stared up at Hela who watched the Eternal with pure disdain.

“Hello Ikaris, Sersi.” Jean spoke gayly.

Sersi was the first to speak. “Who are you? Why are you doing this?”

Hela rolled her eyes as Jean postured. “Sorry, not sorry; this is survival of the fittest after all. You didn’t think that we would let you destroy Earth when your little Celestial emerges, right?”

Ikaris and Sersi had a lost expression on their faces as Jean made a big reveal. Sersi asked again, “What are you talking about?”

Jean facepalmed. “Oh, yeah I forgot Arishem, wiped out your memories each time you did the job. Don’t worry, I will be killing him too.”

Only Jean could speak of killing a Celestial so casually, Hela shook her head. The Eternal didn’t seem to be able to handle that simple statement; Ikaris looked at Jean with hatred as he said, “Killing a Celestial? Impossible, you don’t have the power.”

A cloak of cosmic fire wrapped around Jean, making Ikaris flinch as he felt the unfathomable power radiating from her body. The redhead wasn’t laughing anymore. “I’ve been playing with you and still bested you. I will be killing the rest of your compatriots on Earth and don’t worry… Tiamut will follow you soon, as well as Arishem.”

Hela interrupted her girlfriend’s diatribe. “Jean… why lose breath on those soulless constructs? There’s no afterlife for them, when they die, that’s it.”

The shroud of cosmic fire disappeared, the Eternals kept silent as if they had seen a ghost; they didn’t even try to run away, they knew it was futile. Jean had that effect on her enemies when they realized her power; she was omniscient, but preferred using mundane means to do things, despite her precognition being faster.

Jean’s spider sword legs retracted, but not the katana blade at her gauntlets. She slowly walked up to the Eternals and said, “Sorry Hela, it’s my bad habit of monologuing.” Her head turned to Ikaris and Sersi. “Humanity doesn't need you anymore, Eternals.”

Stab! Stab! She stabbed the two in the breastplate, the Uru and Vibranium blade piercing the Eternals armor easily. Witchblade started leeching the cosmic energy in their body, drinking deep, and the Eternals closed their eyes slowly dying as the source of their power disappeared. Hela did her job and decapitated the bodies. Slice!

“No mercy.” They were powerful certainly but were completely soulless and mimicked really well sapience; biological AI that their creators didn’t want to give too much freewill.

Sapphira landed on the farm and started breathing lightning on it, destroying everything while Jean put the bodies in a body bag and stasis casket. Everything caught on fire as the Dragon breathed and Jean wasn’t even bothered by it; with a peppy smile she said, “Let’s go kill the others who are left!”

Hela was having a disturbing effect on her paramour, but she wouldn’t change her at all; it was time to go kill the rest and the Celestial that threatened to destroy Midgard. Everyone climbed on Sapphira’s back and she took flight as fast as one of Jean’s Pelicans powered by ramjet technology.

 

# # #

(Nick Fury)

 

He looked at the screen, the camera directed at the Dragon lifting from the ground. A motherfucking dragon! As powerful as a battleship and shooting lightning at stuff. Jean Grey was more than a starship Captain, that was clear. 

When she had asked for help finding those powerful beings called Eternals, Fury had seen an opportunity to ingratiate their organization to a stellar power. It hadn't been easy but Fury's analysts and investigators found them. It started with a trickle of information at first, sighting of monsters and incredible people with atypical abilities. Abilities on par with the likes of Carol Danvers and the Enhanced hiding in plain sight all over the world.

Speedsters, disgustingly strong people, esoteric powers such as transmutation or energy projection or weapon constructs made of energy. It all started with a man called Kingo. SHIELD found out pretty quickly that he was immortal, as he replaced himself and pretended to be his own father and grandfather. It was easy to see the web of lies weaved around the man after this; then came the results, his close associates, it was easy to see the same people over one hundred years around him.

They found them all easily, and gave their locations and files to Captain Grey who thanked them, she threw Fury a bone with a piece of tech to manufacture more quickly, fabricators. He was aware that to them this was ancient technology but to Earth it was so advanced that it wasn’t even funny. What’s good is that she gifted the same tech to Tony Stark or at least the schematics and the underlying principle behind it; she wanted him to be able to build it and commercialize it.

For the past week they spied on Jean Grey and Hela who appeared at the location of those Eternals and systematically slaughtered them. The redhead used some kind of adaptive liquid armor that adapted to any kind of shock or absorbed energy. Fury wasn't sure that bullets or tank rounds or even missiles would do anything to Jean’s team and something told him that nukes wouldn't be useful as well.

Nick heard someone open the door to the viewing room, it was Agent Hill, then she turned green and someone else replaced her. It was a tall male alien, a Skrull and an ally to Fury. "So verdict?"

The alien nodded. "The remainder of our government wishes to enter into negotiations with the Systems-Commonwealth. Even ask for asylum or to join them." 

Nick was going to lose his best infiltration assets, but they did their time and he acted as a bridge between two people. "I hope everything goes well for you."

"Thank you, Nick, for doing this for us." Talos smiled.

Nick waved him off. 

"We're friends aren't we?" Then he looked at the alien as an epiphany came. "I think we need to speak with Carol."

"You must recall her, our long exile and nomadic ways might be finally coming to an end." Talos declared.

 

# # #

 

Back with Jean…

I flew into interstellar space at warp speed, dodging comets, stars and stray planets. Covering 20 000 Light Years in one hour at the location; making me stop at the Oort cloud of the target star system. The star in question was a giant yellow sun, but it felt artificial to me.

The star didn't have a soul like the Sun, maybe it was due to its position in the Cosmic Ley-lines. I slowly approached the system and entered through the Oort cloud layer, a powerful solar wind buffeted my cosmic wings. My awareness spread all over the star system and I looked at what was here; there were some Jovian planets, at least two, and only one inner planet and two dense asteroid fields.

I also found the World Forge around the star, there were cosmic lines connected to it from the planet. The construct the size of a moon was harvesting heavy materials from the star. No, the World was powered by the star itself; I gazed at many manufactories for organic and inorganic constructs.  

It was making ships, and other things. I will be taking it as a prize and have fun deciphering that technology. I can't believe that my task brought me here, Prime was right that I sped through the task she gave me. 

Finding the World Forge had been easy, I just stole the Domo and let my AI on its system and they combed the computer core with a fine comb. This time I went there as a Phoenix Avatar, cloaked in cosmic aura to shield myself. My job became easy when I teleported directly over the Forge World's orbit after reaching the Jovian planets bigger than even Jupiter and Saturn.

Despite me floating here, and declaring my presence, it took a long ass time for Arishem to come to me. A mountain sized humanoid in red armor writhing with cosmic energy slowly approached, its face facing me with its six eyes focused on me. "Mortal, what have you come for?"

He thought that I was easily intimidated, he was weaker than I thought, barely at 1% of my Phoenix Force powers. I shrouded myself in psionic energy as I answered, "I've come to kill you of course, Arishem. You tried to annihilate my people with your Celestial Seed scheme. I killed all your Eternals and Deviants on Earth, I also destroyed the Seed that you had left there, and now it's your turn."

A veritable palette of emotions passed through the cosmic being, dread, sadness, anger and it settled on hatred. Arishem manifested a staff in his hand and as he fired an island sized Bram of energy at me he shouted, "Impudence, Disappear, murderer!"

ZAP! Bang! A golden beam of energy shot toward me and it would be strong enough to erase a fleet in my opinion. However, I raised a hand and started siphoning the energy of the blast. Arishem's four eyes opened wide as he saw me still standing and floating in space."How are you not dead?!"

"My turn." And I launched a continent destroying concussion blast into Arishem's face.

Golden Celestial blood escaped his mouth and eyes as he received my punch. His Helmet was dented and he showed fear for the first time; that is why he launched a fucking micro-star at me and made it explode. However, I contained the blast with a thought.

I threw a disintegration wave in retaliation and this is how we went through the entire electromagnetic spectrum as we exchanged blasts. Slowly ramping up as he threw gravity distortions and micro black holes at me, I controlled the probability, space and time and negated his powers.

I was impressed as he fought me and resisted the hit with my concussion blast and energy manipulation. "Interesting, you don't fight with pure physics but with concepts."

And this is where the gloves came off. He assaulted my mind with his own, trying to crush it. I unleashed my mental power upon him, his ancient mind threatening to engulf my own, but… the Phoenix Force boosted my strength infinitely and helped with fighting back. 

Arishem still didn't realize who he was fighting and I liked it this way. I was testing myself against him with the bare minimum power and I was learning conceptual combat. We were exchanging blows that could shatter planets, and destroy space around us, he didn't even realize that I was slowly ramping up.

I hit him with a stillness beam and destroyed the matter of his armor. Arishem was throwing stellar events at me, pulsar, neutron beam, black hole and even sunlight. Basically the kitchen sink, as he grew desperate. Then I decided to finish him here with my psionic avatar manifestation. 

My form grew looking like a winged woman with six arms and armed with weapons, a spear, a sword, a blade, and a lotus. I grew taller than Arishem and looked down on him. My real body was in the head of my construct and my spear's blade began rotating while I struck the Celestial. The lotus fired phase disruption energy beam at the fucking Celestial passively.

My sword launched at Arishem's chest, targeting his heart, he deflected it with a shield covering his entire body.

"You're no mortal." Arishem realized,

I laughed. "You finally notice, dude."

Arishem tried to convince me to let him go. "Why are you interfering with my work? I am creating life all over the universe and…"

"Oh shut up, you're flawed and your creations even more so, leave the life giving planets gig to someone else." Loading the concept of destruction into my weapons, I threw myself at the Celestial who realized what I was going to kill him with.

He understood when my avatar gained cosmic pyrokinesis who I was and he let himself be stabbed, understanding that I would never let him go. Then I ransacked his mind as I killed him, stealing his secrets, his technology and knowledge. Keeping myself from any personality bleed through with Arishem, it was as he was dying that he said, "So, I have been judged and found wanting."

"Yeah, now die like a good boy." I stole all his cosmic energy by absorbing it into the Witchblade who became even more powerful as it gorged itself on Arishem's energy. It was already getting too strong for street level stuff. 

I dissipated my avatar and stored Arishem's body in my pocket space, I was finally done- a ton of Celestials gathered suddenly in the solar system. There were at least 20 of them surrounding me. Oh, so this was how that was going to play out, the bastard had called for help. But I wasn't going to give up on the World Forge, no I was going to kill them all.

Crossing my arms I surrounded myself in my Phoenix Force cloak and grew past the size of a planet, the sun and the system. I blockaded any teleportation abilities by shifting the space around the star, disrupting it. The Celestials who had come were now looking at me with fear.

"I am going to kill you all, who perpetuate this pointless cycle of destruction. Now disappear from my sight, from this universe." 

My disintegration wave then killed them all, destroying any speck of their atoms, not leaving any bodies to collect. My awareness spread all over the universe looking for the other Celestials in this vast universe and I said, "You better find another way to create more of yourself or I will kill you like I did to Arishem's faction. You're all replaceable after all."

My eyes then fell on the World Forge and I loaded it into my pocket space and I teleported myself back outside of the Sol system where everything was going to be okay. I was going to Lukedonia with my new shipyard and Celestial cities. I may even create my own Eternals, loyal to me.

"Now, it's time to focus on life. Killing becomes boring after a while."

 

---

A/N: Have fun guys!

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