Ki exploded into the vacuum of space, midnight-blue flame that illuminated the void between galaxies. Dan pushed himself to his limits, fist pulled back as he readied a punch. His base tests showed his growth to be less than expected, but impressive enough.
Light vanished as his fist extended outward, a wave of force that cracked near invisible lines in the fabric of space. Even Krypton’s scanner had trouble reading his power, with an estimate that still placed him below universal. Dan shook his head and dispelled his ki.
“I need to figure out a way to convert my ki into its divine form,” a flash of eternity and Dan phantom jumped back into Earth’s orbit. Right now it magnified his strength, but the gain was about two times his normal levels. “Its greatest benefit right now is that it carries the power of my biofield within it.”
“You approach a threshold, master of my master,” Etrigan’s words came with a yawn, the lazy Demon spent most of his time asleep. “In a world filled with multiversal horrors, such an event could bring disaster.”
“I’ve already been noticed by one ancient god,” Dan shrugged as he descended towards the fortress. Cyttorak was near the upper layers of Marvel’s rankings, overshadowed by some, but not many. “I doubt I’ll be able to avoid attention entirely, even if I just sit inside the sun and do nothing else.”
“Perhaps, but you should prepare yourself,” Etrigan snorted from Dan’s shadow. “Enemies that stand in the divine will pack me up and put me on a shelf.”
Dan raised an eyebrow. This was the first indication of the Demon’s true strength he’d gotten. Perhaps it was time to test himself against Etrigan once more… he shook his head. Beating his demonic training partner could come later, Steve and the others were waiting.
“It looks like Bucky is the chosen human,” Dan nodded as he swooped towards the Fortress from above. Captain America’s best friend was a safe pick for the first human test subject. “His loyalty to Steve is more than enough to keep him on Krypton’s side, and I did steal his ‘opportunity’ to become a super soldier.”
The entrance of the Fortress slipped past, followed by a string of crystal hallways. Dan sped through the base until he reached the central lab. Cal stood with the chosen three, in the middle of an explanation about the serums and their different properties.
“So, you’re saying that after we take these, I’ll be stronger than Steve?” Bucky flashed his friend a devilish grin. “You better watch out, you’ve spent the last ten years showing me up!”
“He just said that we’ll all receive the higher level serum eventually,” Steve rolled his eyes as he turned to wave at Dan. “Superman, long time no see!”
“Greetings, Captain, Bucky,” Dan glanced at a glum faced Wolverine at the back of the group. “What’s the matter Logan? The injection is voluntary, you don’t have to take it if you don’t want it.”
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“If you say it will make me stronger, then I trust you,” Logan shrugged, face still morouse. “I just got written up by the Professor… apparently my history lessons are ‘uninformative ravings’ that have to be ‘tempered by some level of fact.’”
The gruff mutant scowled as he snarled at the ceiling in frustration, while Steve struggled to repress his laughter. Dan shook his head and waved to the healing pods. The serums would be injected with the subjects already inside, a precaution against negative side effects.
“Be happy, once the process is complete you’ll never forget anything again,” Dan opened the pods with his biofield and motioned for the trio to enter. “Kryptonians can get distracted, but we never actually forget anything we’ve seen… one visit to the library and you’ll be the most qualified history teacher in the world.”
“Maybe, but I’ve met Supergirl,” Logan scoffed as he stepped into the pod. “She might have a perfect memory, but Kryptonians can still get bored… how am I supposed to sit down and read an entire library of books?”
“You’ll be fine,” Dan rolled his eyes as the pods sealed around the group. They rendered the three men unconscious, another precaution. “Alright Cal, inject them and we’ll leave them to cook… the Primes can keep watch, the two of us have work to do.”
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So that’s an infinity stone…” Cal leaned forward as Dan opened the power stone’s spherical container. “It doesn’t look like much, but it’s got a tremendous amount of energy.”
“This is the power stone,” Dan levitated the purple jewel free of its case and let it hover above his palm. “It has the might of a universe, pure energy that can consume its user.”
With his slower than expected growth, the stones in his possession were currently his greatest strength. The space stone needed to remain in the tesseract for now, but the power stone could be used freely… if his body was strong enough to handle the thing.
“Are you sure you don’t want to wait?” Cal frowned at the luminous, purple gem, Stormy in his arms. “I’m sure we can forge a device to act as a medium…”
“We could, and even if we can’t there are others we could turn to for such things,” Dan nodded, his eyes on the stone. The Dwarves, the Asgardians, even the Kree, they all had weapons that could harness the power of the infinity stones to some degree. “But Venom and I can bear the load together, and my power is getting close to this stone's limits anyway.”
If he could empower himself directly with the power stone, his strength would more than double. The use of an object would force him to be reliant on a link that he shouldn’t need, and some enemies would take advantage.
“Our enemies are stronger than expected, and my own growth rate will take another ten years under a blue sun to be universal in strength,” Thanos was powerful, but he seemed to grow over time. The strongest versions could ignore the power gem and sweep universes without the infinity stones. “Once we’ve tested the stone, we’re going to locate a quasar. They have an even greater impact on Kryptonian biology than o-class stars.”
Dan had avoided contact with quasars before this, mostly because they contained more power than an average galaxy. Unpredictable and volatile, close contact with one required him to be strong enough to withstand their might. Cal wasn’t there yet, but Dan could shelter the younger man with his biofield.
“Understood,” Cal drifted back, while Stormy leapt from his arms and curved a wide orbit around Dan’s body. “But if you’re injured…”
Dan smiled as his fingers closed over the gem and sealed away its light. The contact jolted his body, a connection to a formless well of untamed power. It surged forward, legion in its depth and might.
Purple light rippled over his body, electric arcs that flared out into the void. Stormy and Cal sent out runic wards, barely enough to contain the overspill. Dan frowned, biofield extended to grab hold of the rebellious power.
It struggled against his grasp, but a bit of effort sealed it under his skin. Held tight within his body, it was forced to follow the same path as his ki. A continuous circuit, from his cells, to his biofield, and back. The purple glow shifted, the undefined energy transformed to something familiar.
“I can use the stone to generate a limitless amount of sunlight,” Dan’s lips turned up in a smile as he placed the stone against his chest. Venom wrapped it up and hid it away in a brief flash of light. “I should have grabbed it the second we got here…”