“If I may ask, what was the biggest threat you were involved in?” I inquired of Natalya.

She weighed her words, how much I knew, and the acknowledgement that I had a line right to Briggs and Sama if I was the second person to be given a Nova Core. “The neutralization of Korvac. He came in from an outside Alternity, and a team I helped went in and took him down, using the information gained in other Alternities to help.”

“Impressive.” I doubted Korvac was as powerful in reality as he had been in the comics. Getting grafted to a computer designed by the Badoon that suddenly allowed him to claim cosmic power made no sense. If their technology had that power, they would have grafted their own warriors to them and gained such power for themselves!

However, that set up something else... “That must have happened after Champion came here...” I murmured, seeing as how the Collector had shown up there, and left rapidly afterwards.

“We tracked him to Korvac’s location, watched him be destroyed, and moved in thereafter. The man was neutralized and Fed to the Land,” Natalya stated unequivocally. Ah, yes, Sama mentioned he had made it here...

Oh, that must have been horrible, him getting stuck inside a temporal lock like an Interdiction, Cosmic Awareness shut down with Forsaken Obfuscation nullifying everything, and then dampeners just sucking away all his cosmic juice while trained Forsaken or well-Equipped killers with Bane of Legends on their Weapons took him out.

Then, he and his pretty cosmic power got to realize there was this huge empty hole of a world underneath him, whose cosmic power from a Celestial Seed had been removed, creating a big, empty capacitor for such stuff, and he had to watch it all get sucked away.

Mother Gaia was likely smacking her lips and wringing her arms happily to take it, too! Cosmic entities coming here had better be damn careful...

“So much for remaking the universe in his image. You at least got a Dreadskull out of it, right?” I had to ask, and she actually smiled slightly.

“Two, and a Legendary Baneskull! Korvac, the Collector, and the Collector’s ‘daughter’ Carina.” Her three fingers waggled at me proudly.

I clapped quietly in polite appreciation. “And they used the Collector’s to follow it back to his Collection.”

“You are disturbingly insightful. Yes, we have thousands of people going through his Collections and learning what he has.” She sighed despite herself. “There are rather a large number of beings of historical importance from many worlds being held in stasis. It is a very complex, thorny issue releasing and repatriating them.”

“Mmmm, akin to Peter the Great being brought back and demanding his throne, I imagine.” Which would get nowhere in Briggs’ Russia, but who knew on other worlds? “And, I imagine, races and creatures that have long, long gone extinct.”

“Including some that are incredibly dangerous.”

“Get a read on their genetics and off with their heads for those, I imagine. Briggs is not sentimental on mundavores, I’m assuming.”

“No, the Great Bear tends to be quite pragmatic about certain things,” Natalya agreed. “The Collections are vast, of course. The Collector was billions of years old. It will take many generations to go through it all and find that which is truly useful.”

“The ultimate archeological dig, in worlds-worth of functioning museums built to survive the eons.” I shook my head despite myself. “Did he have much of Terra’s genetic history, with the dinosaurs and the like?”

“Yes. Apparently, he stopped in every million years or so and gathered genetic records, including right before any major die-offs. We could repopulate the world with entire ecosystems from back then.”

“Oh, gods and Totems. If that gets out, how many people are going to be clamoring for pet dinosaurs of their own? Screw the Savage Land...”

“We have been advised by MANY of the current Totems that doing so would not be appreciated,” she assured me.

“Yeah, I imagine not.” It had taken four billion years to get evolution where it was now, especially sapience, barring the manipulation of aliens and settlers from other worlds interfering with stuff (which they totally had). “Taking possession of and defending the Collection would seem to be somewhat difficult, but I assume the defenses are robust, and the locations very hard to find.”

“That is correct. We are more concerned with the other Elders taking action, as they are aware of his death. Based on other Alternities, we believe the Grandmaster will attempt to contest with Death for the return of his brother Elder.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I slapped my forehead. “And make a game of superheroes to do it?” Marvel’s big event that brought in heroes from everywhere and all around the world, setting off a new wave of such events every few years. First, the Contest of Champions. Then it was the Secret Wars... while mega-cool to read about, they were just weird as heck if you were one of the parties involved. Cosmic entities playing dice with you...

“It seems the uncertain nature of it appeals to both parties.” Her emerald eyes glittered harshly. “The Great Bear is not kind to cosmic entities thinking they can use humanity as they see fit...”

I calculated what that line meant, and had to smile despite myself. “Ouch?” I asked rhetorically.

“Yes, that is one manner of putting it,” she agreed.

“Dormmamu?” I inquired, definitely amused now.

“I am uncertain. I believe the Hag may have become fed up with him. It was remarked by some of my sisters that Baron Mordo has not been seen for some months, either.”

“Surely that can’t be related.”

“Mmm. Whatever would a necromancy-using Vishanti-style Sorcerer letting himself be infected by The Dragon have to do with a crazily arrogant Faltinian with impulse control issues, both of them mad for power?”

I thought about that, and pulled out my Crystal Vaccine. She watched with interest as I pulled up the List.

“Don’t see him on it anymore,” I mused tellingly. “Ho, Jericho Drumm made the List. Good for Brother Voodoo. Don’t see many full-bore Binders around...”

“Ah, the Two’s personal beepers. Have they called at inconvenient times yet?” Natalya smiled at me.

“Not really.” I rolled my eyes at her. “But then, she doesn’t call on me much. I tend to find things to do on my own. I’m assuming Peggy gets those annoying calls, and her Shield teleports her to them.”

“Sometimes the General gets to go along with her, sometimes he does not,” Natalya confirmed.

“Yeah, I noticed the special designation for him. Hercules is on the List, but I assume that’s because he agreed to it. Thor’s not on here, but Hierophant Ursula is... Is there a reason only the Romanovas are on the List for the Widows?”

Natalya smirked despite herself. “Use-at-will teleportation devices are not easy to come by,” she pointed out. “Those who gain them usually join the Alternities Watch.”

“Ah, dumb question, I never asked them when I had the chance. Any relationship with Otherworld?”

She sniffed despite herself. “Arrogant and overbearing self-appointed judicators of time and space. They and their compatriot temporal empires have very little power or influence here. They loathe us, and I believe there was even some discussion among them about destroying our timeline.” Her eyes glittered dangerously.

“Oh, I bet that went over like a bed of nails,” I half-laughed.

“I do not know what happened, but suffice it to say, we are still here!” she smiled smugly.

“Indeed.” And really, that’s all we needed to know.

Super-spies from Russia, out there in alternate dimensions, making sure this world was safe from them, and identifying common threads and threats that spilled across alternities. Indeed, Briggs and Sama were staying well-informed.

Also, no doubt raiding for nuggets of technology, too, staying ahead of the tech-curve.

On the other hand, the whole ‘reinventing the universe’ shtick made predicting such events erratic, even with time-travel shenanigans. So even divinations here were useful for such stuff, and stopping such idiocy from happening here.

If I was right, the Annihilation Wave was the big event coming that Dealer had Divined, and I wondered what Sama and Briggs were going to do about it. I should probably ask...

I winced to myself at the thought that Reed Richards had set it all into motion with his discovery of our Negative Zone... and their corresponding discovery of us. Heckuva thing to win a Nobel Prize for...

-----------

Time passes...

Having news spread that I had a snap-together Portal that could go where I wanted it to was a nice aid in getting around when I had to conceal my spellcasting. Sure, I could also fly superfast, but when you have to get somewhere quick, nothing beats bending space and time.

I walked through the Portal to within a mile of my target, easily discernible by the wrecked trees across the road, which had been casually torn through with immense strength

Everyone else was caught out doing something, mostly shopping or out with a friend, or teaching or going to classes when the call came in. I was only occasionally a guest lecturer, and generally held down the labs during the day since Reed and Sue weren’t there.

This emergency call for help had come from Canada, of all places. The remnants of Alpha Flight had been severely manhandled by four superhuman attackers, with their leader Vindicator hospitalized in critical care.

Footsteps driven into the dirt road by casual heavyfoot led that way. I zipped down towards the distant sounds of exploding trees and the sight of falling trunks, as well as the crunch and explosions of a few vehicles being manhandled.

Canadian army trucks and jeeps were scattered here and there. There were signs of explosions, shells casings, and the imprints of hands mangling metal and tossing tanks and trucks around.

I flew past overhead as the four were tearing through a line of soldiers, tanks and anti-tank guns proving useless against them. The broken bodies of soldiers were scattered everywhere, many hanging in trees, impaled on broken limbs, or crumpled in the wreckage of their vehicles.

Those who had been hit directly were in pieces.

Yeah, I knew these four.

I wanted to pose, I really did. I wanted them to know who had come for them, what they were going to go up against, and who was going to take them down. I wanted the soldiers to see that someone could show up, confront them, and stop them face-to-face, and win a lot of glory for myself in so doing.

What I did not want to do was give them any more chances to speak.

Function’s Blade snapped out as I went by at Mach Five, just a whisper of wind and sparks of trailing lightning.

Piledriver, raising his massively swollen fists, paused in astonishment as he ignored the desperate gunfire of the soldiers before him who he was about to mulch.

Then his head fell off.