Because I could, I finally went looking for something else: the home of the Lanterns... pardon, the Watchful Order of the Guardian Eye.
It was on the far side of the universe, at least as far away from the minor galaxy that was the Milky Way as the Beyonder Battleworld had been.
There was no civilization of note there. It was a dusty planet of golden sands, what water was present locked away underground, the mountains ground down to nothing by billions of years of wind and sand.
The race that had risen here had died off before the first dinosaurs were rising on Terra. They had spread across the galaxies and passed their genes on through new races and civilizations across Creation. Their own time was done, but they’d started countless other races on the paths to the stars. Their temporal footprint reached out to fully a third of the universe over there, not quite reaching the Milky Way, a truly wise and enlightened people whose descendants knew nothing of them after the passing of eons.
The Contemplator, Tath Ki, was the last of them!
There was only one thing remaining on that world that remained of note, and that was the Lantern that rose there.
The great eye-like Orb floated there atop a podium of something similar to adamant, defying all the eons as it endured. The glittering crystal of its making was undimmed, and the eye still shone forth with all the power now that it had borne when it first tapped into the quantum power and spatial impetus that was the domain of Infinity.
There were buildings here, rising around this great Lantern, built for the great peacekeeping Order of the Guardian Eye that was based here, on an ancient world with no other resources. It had only the power of the Lantern, the earnestness of those who came to be found worthy by it, and the great Order that had risen here and spread throughout much of the universe, enduring for years uncounted as beacons of hope and peace for distant galaxies that had never heard of Kree or Skrulls, Shi’ar or Terrans.
They were not an army, and they had never been an army, although they could gather to fight if there were enough in an area. In the local galaxies where thousands of them patrolled the stars, piracy and grave stellar disasters, cosmic events, and even interplanetary wars were rare things, for the Lanterns kept the peace, righted wrongs, and were subordinate to no planetary laws as they did so, only the ancient creeds and the worthiness of the Lanterns they bore with them.
The more distant you were from the Great Lantern, or Great Eye, whatever it was called, the fewer Lanterns were there.
There were over a million active Lanterns, but what did that mean in a place the size of the universe entire? There were countless galaxies, let alone star systems, where the quantum light of the Lanterns had never shone.
Our Lantern was a Korliguan, a crimson-skinned humanoid race from a world bathed by a reddish sun, with crimson trees and scarlet plants, located nine entire galaxies away, only dimly known of by the Skrulls. The Great Advisor to the Guardian Order had sent him here, to Terra, where many key fatelines converged, and he had arrived here just as humanity was first getting into space. He had introduced himself and his mission to Doc Bronze, the Great Bear, and Primus, and in doing so had helped form the initial core of the High Guard. He had helped keep watch over our world ever since, while taking some time to explore parts of the Milky Way and the neighboring powers that seemed interested in us in rather exciting adventures and explorations of his own.
That Great Advisor to the Guardian Order? It was an aspect of Eon! He’d chosen a different path for his Guardians of the Universe here, and as a Cosmic Entity, he’d been able to keep true to his course over hundreds of millions of years.
The Lanterns were effectively the greatest noble knightly order in existence. There were empires who had knights with more numbers, but none with the power of the Lanterns, or with anything resembling their history. How do you match a glorious history that is literally a billion years long? Even the many Elders of the Universe respected the Lanterns... and didn’t care to cross them, if only out of respect for Tath Ki.
Heartwarming to see. While having an individual champion with the Quantum Bands was great, the vast Order of the Lanterns had done far more than any single active mortal could. The floating Eye-Lanterns were just too cool, too.
Just one more way this universe deviated from others, which meant Sama and Briggs weren’t the entire reason...
It seemed I would be taking some jaunts out into space and collecting me some cosmic-class toys for use...
---------------
“Adam Warlock of Terra?” I asked calmly, dropping down in front of the unlikely motley group going down a backstreet on a nameless moon. I didn’t look like me, and had on a crisply pleated courier’s uniform, complete with a circular, level cap.
All four of them promptly snapped up on guard against me, with Pip the Troll scooting behind the golden-skinned man who bore a great resemblance to Kismet. The big guy in green and purple would be Drax the Destroyer, his artificial life Geased to ever pursue the death of Thanos of Titan, whose forces had slain his family. The slender green woman moving with an assassin’s grace, yellow patches about her eyes, would be Gamorra, considered one of the deadlier killers in the galaxy at this time.
“Who wants to know, and come you as friend or foe?!” Gamorra half-snarled at me, her blades snapping up and on guard.
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“Dyna Morgan, Trans-Terran Delivery Service!” I replied calmly, hovering there, my reply completely startling them. “Adam Warlock of Terra?” I repeated, bringing up a Holo of him and comparing the two extremely obviously. Clothing sense like that, hard to mistake for anyone else.
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And speaking of delivering some mail...
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“I am Adam Warlock,” he finally admitted, frowning at me as he stepped forward. “What do you have to deliver?”
“Very good, Mr. Warlock.” I snapped my fingers, and took a small box out of Hammerspace. “An interested party said to convey these to you, as they should be of help for your continuing quest against Thanos.” I handed it over, and he took it cautiously. “Inside you will find a pair of Kree Nega-bands, similar to those worn by Captain Mar-Vell, who I believe you are acquainted with?”
Now he showed surprise, staring at me in some disbelief. “I am...” he admitted, minor energy popping open the wrapping and the lid inside.
The golden Bands gleamed there, ready for use. They all gawked, despite themselves.
“The instruction manual, such as it is, is underneath, Mr. Warlock. The key power of the Nega-bands is that they turn focus, perseverance, and determination into actual might, so the powers it unlocks are in the end dependent upon yourself.” I paused significantly. “Also, do not slam them together violently, as it will send you into a random location in the Negative Zone.”
I turned my head, and the Holo from my Bracer shifted. “Gamora of the Zen-Whoberis?” I asked calmly.
She was startled I knew of both her and her people. “You have something for me?” she blinked at me in shock.
“Trans-Terran Delivery gets very well-paid to complete its deliveries, my lady!” I answered somewhat stiffly, and she even looked a little contrite. “I have here the Crystal Blades of Saint Sevyeranti of the Zen-Whoberis,” I flicked up the curving, beautiful Swords into my hands, their living crystal blades flowing into existence, and presented them to her as she gawked in shock, “and one pair of Ultraspecs encoded for you and you alone.”
Her hands full and still in shock at getting the legendary Blades of her people bestowed upon her, she didn’t block me in time as I fit the glasses onto her face smoothly, and they promptly meshed into her skin before she could react. “Instructions should begin playing immediately, Miss Gamora.”
“I, what?” she stammered, as words began to play across the lenses, and she looked up and down from the blades to me, not knowing what to say, as I turned to the next of them.
“Master Drax the Thanos-Bane.” My Holo shifted, and his hard face grinned at the appellation despite himself. “A Corpruxilian Mindstone set into a magnapsium circlet.” I held out the gleaming circle with the twinkling jewel set into it, and he automatically stepped forward and bowed his head to accept it. As it settled upon his skull, it wrapped around skin-tight and actually hissed slightly as it melded into him. “This will ward your mind and soul from psychic attack, and give you a ranged attack whose force is dependent upon your willpower... or which can be channeled into your fists.”
“Uh, thank you?” he replied, stepping back, and reaching up to touch the stone. Looking up into the sky, he scrunched up his face, and a white blast of energy hissed as it shot up into the air.
“Just delivering, sir,” I smiled professionally. The last Holo popped up, and Pip the Troll zipped right up to receive whatever he was going to. “Pip the Troll of Laxidazia?” I asked the short fellow with the bulging belly calmly.
“Idol and lover of millions!” he replied immediately. “Are you hopefully delivering yourself?” he promptly asked me, looking me up and down.
“The fee for that, sir, is totally beyond your means,” I replied simply, and he definitely looked disappointed. “Sir, one Binging Ring, which stores up to thirty days of victuals at one time, but which naturally must still be eaten ahead of time.” I presented him the golden Ring, and his eyes got very wide.
“Wait, I could eat just once a month... but I could eat thirty days worth of meals at one time?” he blurted out, dark lights dancing in his eyes at the idea of abusing any feasts he ran into in the future. He jammed it onto a hairy finger promptly.
“Yes, sir. Also, one Zypyssxann Darkjumper Amulet.” I held the darkly twinkling stone on the obsidian chain out to him, and he took it cautiously. “It grants the ability to teleport one’s self and potentially one’s companions with them, dependent on the wearer’s toughness and ability to visualize. As its power varies by the one that wears it, you must find out its limits yourself. Notably, teleporting along the line of one’s life is considerably easier than moving into places one has never been.”
I could see all kinds of fiendish ideas starting in his mind as he quickly put it on. As for me, four holo-squares popped up. “Could you kindly acknowledge delivery with a thumbprint, sirs and madam?” I asked them all politely.
Despite themselves, they were all bemused by the sheer professional banality of that, and offered up a thumbprint to register delivery.
“And the patron’s final message: Good luck against Thanos, Guardians!” I offered them a crisp salute, and then me, my trim uniform, and the rest zipped up into the sky and headed off and away, leaving them looking after me in amazement, only Drax having gotten off a proper salute or wave.
---
The other three all turned to look at Adam Warlock, still holding the box with the Nega-bands inside. He slowly took them out and clapped them about his wrists, where they sparked once and sealed tightly. He flipped up the setting for them in the box, and there was indeed an instruction manual beneath, of all things...
“This was... most unexpected,” he admitted, and they could not help but agree with him, and wonder who their unknown patron was.
---
Shooting away and prepping to Portal out, I reflected that they’d definitely needed something of an edge, what with Adam never getting the Soul Stone or anything. Even being an Exemplar wasn’t going to help him win against Thanos without something to fall back on.
He’d probably end up a little more physical than the Adam Warlock of canon, but that was fine. The Nega-bands could be used all sorts of different ways. Gamora was going to end up truly deadly with the Ultraspecs’ gifts, Drax was going to be very hard to shut down and finally have a ranged attack, and Pip would have the ‘porting ability that had made him so notorious in canon.
The Magus and his ploys against Warlock were already done and gone. Movements against the Dark Apostles, Thanos’ personal servants, should commence, and occupy Thanos while Nebula led the Dark Disciples off to get butchered in Xandar.
Cosmic Awareness, letting me play at the bigger game, instead of being a Pawn...