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Previously
“Um, sure. What do you want me to do?” He squeezed out the words with much difficulty, not that the Collector seemed to notice, glad and lost in his own thoughts as he was.
God, he was so going to cut his body apart into small pieces before throwing them into a nearby star.
Knowhere
-Jack Sullivan–
His insides churned as he looked at the reports in front of him. These were just one of the many atrocities that this mercenary group had committed. And from the looks of it, they were on their way to commit more, all without a shred of remorse for the lives they had ruined, people they had killed, sentient lives they had violated without an ounce of pity from their end.
Apparently, the Collector had been very pleased with his agreement, not even doubting him for a second, not doubting the damage he could cause if given even a single second of absolute freedom with his powers. He was unsure as to where the Collector was getting that confidence of him from not using his powers to escape the moment he was away from his shackles.
Most importantly, did he know the fact that Sorcerers needed the Sling Ring to open portals? Was the information regarding the Masters of the Mystic Arts available to him?
If there was someone who knew the ins and outs of an obscure organisation on a backwater planet under the guard of an absolute beast of a civilization, then it would be the Collector. The man was older than dirt itself and that's a fact.
He was probably in the universe before the first solid masses cooled down to form planets and asteroids as they knew it.
He wondered how he survived before that period because as he was portrayed in the movies, he could not have survived an extended bout with Thor, not to mention Odin, the other Skyfathers, and the celestials. Maybe, he had more powers when he was younger, his powers slowly withering away as he aged.
Something to ponder on, and ultimately useless as historic powers or not, he was going to die the second he got his hands on him.
He continued to browse through all the information the Collector had on this group. They were a fringe faction of mercenaries, held together by some criminal capable of harnessing cosmic energy, or at least that’s what the leader of the mercenary group wants the rest of the galaxy to believe.
The Collector was not the rest of the galaxy though and he recognised the artifact he was using to maintain control over such a large, violent, savage group of criminals.
The Artifact, according to the Collector, was something that had been built by an Ancient Civilisation that had the honor of capturing the attention of a wandering no named Celestial.
As far as he was aware, Celestials were responsible for the creation of life and life bringing environments across the universe. It was the overarching duty of all celestials but there were special ones even among the all-mighty race of gods. They were the named ones and they had purposes, other than propagating life throughout the universe.
No named celestials wandered throughout the universe, performing their duties, like all powerful drones capable of reshaping the universe as they knew it. Some ancient civilisation managed to catch the attention of a no named Celestial that stayed with that race for a short period of time.
Well, a short period of time for the Celestial, that is. According to the records, the Celestial stayed with the race for over a thousand years. In that time, the Celestial had managed to use the Power Stone that the planet had, to forge a piece of armour that he then gifted to the King of that race.
That armour, passed down from generation to generation, locked on to the genetic data of the lineage of that King, found itself in the hands of some half breed that had gone mad in the head. He then used that armour to gain dominion over a small group of mercenaries, which then grew to become a group with over 10000 members, hundreds of ships, dozens of carriers, and somehow, ownership of multiple habitable planets as well.
The armour itself was nothing special in terms of extra abilities but the commander of the group K’ehmbe, had used it to display extraordinary brutality. Combined with his penchant to do anything and everything under the sun, without any regard for morals and ethics, meant that he had gained an indirect backing from major powers who wanted something done, in the dark but did not want it to be traced back to them.
The armour juiced up all of his base abilities. If a normal alien used it, he would probably fry himself from the inside out. As it is now, K’ehmbe could use it to juice himself to display astonishing might because his base stats were nothing to scoff at, either.
However, he knew that wielding something as volatile and corrosive as the energy of an Infinity Stone, watered down as it may be, was not anyone’s cup of tea. This fellow was probably already dying but maybe he didn’t notice or just didn’t care as long as he could perform depraved acts according to his pleasure.
Well, the Collector had thought this through, it would seem. He had purposefully chosen a target that would not compromise his morals. Someone who was so innately evil that he would have killed him even if the Collector hadn’t pointed him at the alien.
The Mercenary group was now targeting Tivan’s holding, of which, a surprising amount was just mines. Mines on top of mines, mining all kinds of materials throughout the universe. Tivan’s mines were special in the sense, that they used robots instead of slaves throughout the mines.
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That means that most of the good civilizations with an image to uphold, like Xandar, used him as their contact to procure raw ores. That made up quite a bit of his income and those pirates were now targeting those planets. Built with robotic defenses, they could defend themselves for a short period of time before reinforcements arrived but apparently, none of his usual mercenary contacts had responded to him in time, leading to a huge delay in deliveries.
That led to lost time and lost time meant lost money, a big no no in Tivan’s terms.
In his words, K’ehmbe was just a patsy, used by some of the bigger guys, to provoke and force him to act, to judge if he was weak or strong. Tivan wanted to use this opportunity to showcase just how powerful he was.
“So that’s why he was so excited,” He muttered to himself as he laid down on his bed, looking at the ceiling, with his hands behind his head. He is probably the single strongest being in the Collector’s hands and his agreement meant that Tivan now had someone capable of shutting down every single one of his rival’s mouth.
Tivan wanted him to create a spectacle, a public show of force. Force K’ehmbe to use up all of his powers and then murder him and his entire group in cold blood.
He had two rotations (days) before K’ehmbe’s forces reached the next set of mining planets. Well, his answer was obviously a resounding yes, considering the amount of poor, helpless people trapped on those carrier ships, being treated as slaves, living in the worst conditions.
“Ah, yes, before I forget,” His gaze snapped to the side as the Collector's face was now projected in front of him. His face was adorned by a mischievous smirk as he looked down at him. He internally rolled his eyes at the not so subtle sense of superiority he tried to project over everyone.
“You see, while I am sure that you would not try to betray me in bad faith, being the hero you are. Still, I thought it prudent to prepare an insurance policy, as you humans like to call it,” Tivan said as he backed away from the camera.
His eyes had narrowed when he had started speaking but the moment the view behind Tivan became clear, he shot upright as he glared at TIvan with absolute fury in his eyes.
“Ah, there’s the fury I know you have in you. Not the fake acceptance you gave me earlier today. YOu are way too early to try and fool me, Green Guardian of Earth.” Tivan smugly stated as he spread his hands, as if revealing something grandiose.
His heart sank as he saw all of his friends/acquaintances in this hell, including Kumpo, unconscious, suspended in vats of flowing fluid.
“What do you want?” He gnashed his teeth as he unconsciously started gathering some of his powers. He tamped down his powers in time, lest he find himself knocked out by the shocks or worse, dead by the bombs probably implanted in his spine.
“Oh, no need to be so hateful about it. Nothing nefarious, I can assure you. I just want to make sure you honor your end of the deal, nothing more, nothing less. This is just insurance, in case you decide to try your hand at killing me. Believe me, better men than you have tried and failed. Don’t add yourself to that list needlessly, Mr.Jack,” Tivan said pointedly as the feed closed in front of him.
In his anger, he punched the pod wall right next to him with all his strength.
That damned bastard. It was a mistake on his part to underestimate someone who has been alive for literally millions of years. That was something he would not repeat.
If Tivan wanted to bear the focused hatred of someone like him, he would give him that. He would make sure that Tivan is dead, one way or another.
He will have dead man’s switches but it was not as if he was without cards in this battle. He would lose, in a battle of wits, that much was granted. Tivan’s sheer age all but guaranteed that. Where he would shine is his ability to gather attention.
That would be his undoing. So, two days later, he would go out and destroy that mercenary group. He would hunt them down and kill them with an unrelenting frenzy, so much so that word of that would spread to the deepest ends of the cosmos. Sure, it would grab the wrong kind of attention as well but that was a risk he would have to take.
He had wasted enough time as it is in this place and he did not want to stay cooped up in this place, waiting to see if Thanos won or not. He didn't want to live in fear of turning to dust any second. He would grow mad like that.
He needed to be involved. He needed to do something, something to stop or slow down Thanos. In his memories, he had seen the last battle at Wakanda and it was a pretty close thing. If he could just close that small gap between defeat and victory, they would win and Thanos would lose.
That much would be enough, but for that to happen he would have to get out of his place.
And so, he was on a ship, traveling at FTL speeds at the largest mining planet cluster that the Collector owned and operated. It mined some obscure metal used in the bolstering of FTL Engines. Something that was needed by every single power in the universe so they were unwilling for any other power to get their hands on something this important to their plans.
So, it fell into the hands of a supposedly neutral party like the Collector. Well, more like Tivan orchestrated the whole thing to happen in his favour instead of it just being another coincidence.
Truly, Immortality is one of the greatest gifts, for some beings that is. He was sure that he would grow mad with the passage of time, of seeing all his loved and known ones turn to dust, as they passed through time.
There were many ways this could turn in his favour. The easiest of which was gathering Heimdall’s attention. It would take a simple action of uttering his name to make sure Heimdall and by extension, Asgard knew about his continued survival.
There was a chance that Odin would choose not to tell Thor but that was fine by him as well. Odin himself would be too curious about him, seeing his abrupt rise to power, not to mention seeing that he was a good ally of Thor and someone who had stood up for the good.
That has to count for something.
If not Asgard, then….
Then, there was always her……
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Word Count - 2174
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A/N - Sorry for the short one. On my way from office today, it abruptly started raining and by the time I got my raincoat on [the rain was forecasted but my stupid ass chose not to wear the raincoat since it was literally sun out all day], I was already completely drenched. Thank god, the laptop was fine.
Now, I sit here, typing this, wrapped up in my comfy cozy blanket, eating(drinking?) soup before taking my tablets and leaving for the dreamworld.
See you guys tomorrow (hopefully!)
Thanks for reading!
Toodles!