I laughed softly at the subtly shocked look on the Mad Titan’s face.

“That is correct. Galactus, the greatest defender of Life and Existence itself. He who devours worlds before the Celestials can destroy galaxies, consuming their Seeds. If they seek to stop Him, He can even destroy them forever.

“He and Death have an intimate relationship, for none have done more to continue Life across the eons then He, and so Death endures.”

“Your world had a Celestial Seed...” he murmured after long moments.

I pointed directly at him. “You are a descendant of the human race of Terra the Celestials changed and modified to defend the Celestial Seed. The energies you wield so proudly are a legacy from them!

“I am a member of the subspecies they mucked around with as a lab experiment to make better guards and better sacrifices for their bloody Seed. We decided we didn’t like their terms and sold the Seed off to Galactus for a pass on the world-eating.

“You are meant to be a slave-servant, and we were meant to be sacrifices!”

I looked up at him as he stared at me, and I tapped my crossed arms thoughtfully. “If you are a worshipper of Death, you are an idiot. Slaughtering billions now is denying Her trillions of lives over the eons. Perhaps the numbers are just a rounding error at the scale She operates on, but you hastening The End is merely assuring that She is the least successful Death ever, with the smallest After Life.

“Galactus slays billions, and saves quadrillions, and generates uncounted more Deaths as Life endures elsewhere that the Celestials would cut short. Indeed, a Celestial born steals all of Her rightful deaths for itself!

“Your slaughter of worlds is a waste of time and a sign of something seriously off in your head, and I believe you know this. You are sabotaging yourself for some reason, perhaps a lack of self-worth, perhaps realizing something is wrong with your own internal logic for your decisions, but not being able to identify it. Perhaps even a remnant of the Will of the Celestials misdirecting in what you believe to be service to Death.”

“No force commands the will of Thanos!” he responded instantly, energies beginning to build on his hands as his eyes lit up.

My Red Eyes were up and very tense at that moment.

“So why are you reacting like there’s a threat to you?” I replied to him, tilting my head to stare at him. “Especially on this day, and this place, when I’ve made it plain I have no intention of fighting you? Is such an unreasonable emotional outburst just because of a sore point, or something else?”

He glowered at me, leaning in closer, and I stared right back at him.

On the flip side, if he tried anything, there was going to be a boom of me breaking the sound barrier. The others had already retreated to just being able to see me once Eros was gone, as I had Signed to them as Thanos had his back turned to pull back as far as possible.

“Still no fear.” The particle effects and glowing eyes dimmed and went away, and he returned to his unperturbed expression. “Impressive, Dynamo.”

“Eternal energies,” I observed of his hands. “Forever bound to the Celestials. Furthermore, whatever mutation you underwent seems to have sent you in the direction of Deviancy, so instead of inheriting the independent randomness of base humanity like your brother, you’re aligned even further with Celestial purposes.

“Celestials harvest life in uncounted multitudes, deny Death Her due, and look down on mortals. You aren’t denying Death Her due because you aren’t strong enough to do so, but the rest, mmm, you’re doing well, Master Thanos.”

His stare at me could have melted stone. I sat there and stared back at him neutrally, although I blinked a lot to show I was bored quickly.

“There is far more to you than meets the eye, Dynamo,” he eventually ground out, straightening and turning back around. “I did not expect to have such a discourse today, or to be given such things to think on.”

It was almost a dismissal. I stared at that monstrous back, and felt the weight of the multitudes who had died for no reason but him pining after Death Herself.

“I advise you to keep your presence in the Sol System very, very quiet, Master Thanos. Sama Rantha knows who you are, and does not want you here.” I flicked a holofile over to his systems as I turned and skated rapidly away.

------

Thanos paused a moment before the holo came up before him, and he watched it silently. Galactus, Celestials confronting one another, many humans in colorful uniforms defying the peripheral energies of their conflict...

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

The Sword rose, fell, and something inside him went icy cold as the recording of that ding, ting! echoed across his soul.

He watched a Celestial fall in two pieces.

It was not ‘dead’... although its energies were leaking out and away. But she had breached its armor, and itself, as if they were nothing.

A Celestial!

He re-ran the whole scene over thirty times, trying to picture how it could be done, what sort of power was required, and his blood grew colder and colder as the math and the numbers simply grew harsher and more unforgiving.

That slash could have cut the whole planet in two...

And that swordswoman knew who he was, and did not want him here.

He turned slightly to look after Dynamo, whom he had initially taken little more than a passing interest in. She had revealed herself to be something far more than he had expected, instead of merely a woman cunning enough to endure the beating of Champion for as long as she had.

She was long gone, of course, doubtless having no wish to test his patience with the reputation he had rightfully earned.

He considered that, and the fact that Zorr was probably throwing himself into the face of a terrifyingly perceptive young woman who was definitely not a hidebound and predictable Xanadaran.

Nova Corpsmen are not the only ones who can be overly predictable, he mused with a grim smile...

-----------

“Jesus Christ and Mother Mary!” Iceman got out when I finally came skating back to the shuttle. Nobody had left, but they all had grim expressions on their faces.

“Such a good Christian boy,” I said to him, and he blushed despite himself. “Let’s go, and do not spread word of this.”

“But... that was Thanos, the Mad Titan! The Head of the Black Order!” Nova protested, half-pointing in that direction.

“I believe every single upper authority of Titan knows he is here, Richard. Do you see an army of defenders assembling to even force him away, let alone take him down?” I looked around conspicuously with everyone else.

He hesitated a moment. “There are some local militia units on standby inside the local towers. Mentor observed some com traffic from them when we were led inside...” he finally sighed in defeat.

“Yeah, no. They aren’t here to fight him. At most they’d just drive him off if some idiot got past them. Also notice that not a single damn native was inside that place at all, and none are coming. I believe that if it were anyone but the son of their bloody leader escorting us in there, we would have been prevented from entering.”

“That little prick was trying to get us killed, wasn’t he?” Jewel spluttered, clenching her fist. “All because you stopped him from playing us like his personal harem?”

Kismet looked particularly angry. After all, using her for breeding had been the original purpose of her creators.

“The tendency of the noble and valorous Nova Corps to go after villains and criminals first and think about the consequences later is well-established. Kismet is the only one here who would survive a serious direct attack from him. You’d have to be a Core Six to survive one or two of the same, a Core Eight to be more than an annoyance to him, and a Core Ten to have any chance of actually overcoming him, Richard.”

Nova stared at me, back at the Titan he could no longer see, and just closed his eyes helplessly. “And so they just let him stand there...”

“He’s just that bloody dangerous. It’s just like trying to stop Sama Rantha from doing what she wants, or crossing the Great Bear.”

Those two had stolen the M’Kraan Crystal, and could make new Novas. The example was quite pointed.

“Right. Scott, can you fly that thing?” I asked, pointing to the touring shuttle. If not, we were easily capable of getting back under our own power.

“Hey, hey!” Peter piped up, raising his hand. “Since our tour guide up and left us, there’s nothing stopping us from, uh, stretching our legs out on this alien paradise with all the high towers and loopy architecture and stuff, right?”

I looked at him, all bouncy and ready to spring away, and then at Cindy and Gwen, who had their lips pursed and weren’t going to say no to that idea at all.

“Huh.” I glanced at Iceman. “Big icy roller coasters.” My eyes moved to Cyclops. “Lightfoot practice sliding behind him. I’ll join you.” I moved my eyes to Kismet. “You’ve probably never seen webslingers having fun, or lightfooters doing loop-de-loops, so this should be fun. Nova, Jewel, just keep a steady pace and make sure we don’t get lost.”

Everyone started to smile despite themselves. Richard turned around, accessing his map of Titan, and pointed, “Well, it’s thataway.”

“Woo-hoo!” Peter shouted out, webline shooting out and jumping for the sky and the edge of the platform instantly. Whooping with glee, Gwen and Cindy were right behind him.

“Hey!” Ice spurted up out of nowhere, and Iceman carved a path of ice hanging impossibly in midair, sliding along it after the Spiders. Cyclops raced after him, ruby lights flowing over the soles of his feet as he slid after his friend, and I was right behind him.

Shaking their heads, Nova and Jewel lifted off the ground, and a little wide-eyed and very curious now, Kismet followed.

---------

Kismet ended up trying her flying out while sliding along Bobby’s ice before too long, as it looked like too much damn fun. She fell off a few times, but just got back on and kept at it, laughing with glee as we swept through grand turns, arches, actual loops, powered up ramps, did flailing ski jumps, and veered this way and that at shocking speed and changes of direction, sometimes bent over double to get through some of the narrow places the Spiders were diving through so enthusiastically.

The Spiders were bouncing all over the place, sweeping through impossibly coordinated acrobatics with aplomb and skill, swooping through massive arcs on weblines that would have torn the arms off normal humans, plunging through thousand-foot falls with glee before swooping and bouncing their ways back up, going around and through the ornate architecture and buildings, bouncing off the occasional air transport vehicle, tubes, or walkways, clearly enjoying the heck out of themselves as they did so.

Jessica remarked quietly on coms that the Nova Core seemed to have cured most of her airsickness. She’d never been good at flying high and fast because of it, so in practice she stayed low to the ground and worked on her control and legwork. Not getting queasy or vertigo was a wonderful thing to her.