Back to LaGrange Station...

“That’s not the craziest thing. They are going to move the entire system, the Golden Galaxy, closer to Terra!”

“Seriously? That... takes some severe technological or magical chops, right?” Carol Danvers asked, looking at me in disbelief as she read over my report.

“Yeah. There was talk of doing it in a panic when they realized they were a target of Galactus, like that would have helped at all. The extraction is going to be relatively painless in addition, but they figured being closer to their primary allies should be a good thing. They’re going to move the system a few light-years off that way, basically next door as far as stellar distances go.”

“So... in a few years a new sun is going to pop up there, and drive all the astronomers crazy?” Carol asked, shaking her head.

“Basically, yeah.”

“And you just... drained all the magical darkness and death off an entire sun over there.” She gave me That Look, of what the Hell was a basic noob doing showing up someone like her so badly in the I’m Awesome department.

“Ehhhh. I mostly just ignited it and drove the energy into the Underweb, where it was promptly reallocated back to where it should be in the first place. I don’t know why Death left the aftereffects of Her power lingering around, but it’s not my call, so whatevah.” I rolled my eyes and dismissed any consideration of such things.

“Did Sersi have any commentary on the potential Celestial stuff?”

“She’s down in Olympia charging up her Cosmic Core, but she had no experience with anything like that. For all their ‘vast cosmic power’, the Eternals basically stuck around here on Terra and didn’t do much of anything, by order of their bosses. So, they really don’t know crap, despite being as old as they are. They’re like the apex of housebound professionals or something. If it doesn’t come to Terra, they don’t know anything about it.”

“That... just seems so typical,” Carol said, shaking her head, and then her eyes snapped back up. “Hey! A Cosmic Core?!” she repeated. “Eternals can’t develop Cores! We know that! How did you allow Sersi to?” she demanded of me.

I just blinked at her. Oh, right. “Oh, you’re thinking Sersi is Sersi. No. Sersi is currently running around as a Duplicate of me she’s made look like her. My Dupes have Cores. So, she’s filling the Core up with Cosmic energy and making a Cosmic Core out of it. It’s probably going to take her most of a year to charge it up to Eight or something, as she doesn’t have the pure volumes of energy she needs to go faster, but she’s fine with it.”

“And so just like that, she builds up a Core.” Carol rolled her eyes. “Does she have all her own powers?”

“Well, yeah, she took ‘em with her when she Duped out. I could have kept them back, but there was no need to. My Core’s big enough now to power up her set, and I can just invest cosmic energy into rebuilding what she took with her. It’s not an issue.”

She was giving me an intense look. “So... could you do that with just about anybody? Not just Sersi?” she asked slowly.

I gave her a look. “If you think I’m going to go out there, Unimerge an army, and then Dupe them all out in doubles of me, you are crazy, Danvers.”

She bit her lip, but forged on ahead. “So... you could do it, but you won’t.”

“Part of the process involves me permanently absorbing their mind and body, so I can then Dupe them out as a portion of my mind, using their soul to carry them into the Dupe and give them an independent existence.

“But at the end, they’re still a Duplicate, still a quasi-magical extension of me, and I can call them back.

“Sersi’s whole existence has been on a leash because of the Celestial machine that gives the Eternals their immortality, plus I give her a crapton of mental fortification to deal with being a million years old and whatnot.

“That’s not your case.” I slowly reached up and emphatically tapped my head. “You know I’ve got a Mimicked copy of you in here, just like Calli and Mimi, right?”

Her lips pursed. “Well, as I understand it, it’s not complete, and you don’t have my memories or anything...” she said hesitantly, daring me to tell her she’d been lied to.

“That’s exactly correct, there’s nothing coherent. It’s randomly half of you, so there’s no specific details to be seen. But your emotions and core beliefs, those all come through just fine, as does your instinctive practice and control of your powers. Having only five thousand hours instead of ten thousand is still a lot of programmed practice.

“And what your head is saying to me is ‘nuh-uh, no way, do not let me do this, I would go absolutely crazy being a potential slave to anyone, and doing this would be the biggest betrayal to me you could possibly do, even if I’d love it.’”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

She pursed her lips as she stared at me. “Huh. Coming through that clearly, am I?” she asked, a bit chagrinned.

“The things you believe in the strongest come in the most clearly, so yes. Callie asked me the same thing, you know?”

“She did?” Carol blinked. “And you turned her down, too?”

“She’d go from being herself, however she is put together, to being a part of me. I refused to do that to her, regardless of how much she wants a Core and powers of her own, instead of those borrowed from others. She recognized it for the trap it was, and dropped it. If Duping the powers of others was all she could do, then using those powers to the best of her ability was the proper way to go. So that’s what she focused on.”

“She’s got twelve decades of practice using the same powerset!” Carol exclaimed, leaning forward. “Including mine!"

“Sneaky way to power up, right?” I asked, nodding at her. “You could totally go do the same thing, you know. Go off to another alternity, go back in time, do whatever you wanted for a century, come back. You could even laugh knowing you created your own alternity by doing so!”

“If I wanted to have a family, I might even do so,” she muttered, but I could hear her clearly. “Did she really have sixteen kids?” she whispered to me.

“With four sets of twins, and spaced over a century. Shapeshifting made pregnancies a cinch.”

Carol threw up her hands in defeat. “How can any woman possibly match up to that?”

“Like you really had a chance,” I winked at her. “Besides, I know exactly what the both of them were doing their first night back here after being away from you for over a century.”

She went hot pink right to her ears. “Subject changing!” she exclaimed seriously.

“Please. You wanted the cold lightning so badly, and then Mimi came in after updating and I showed myself out...”

“It, it is really hard to concentrate when you make me remember that,” she managed to get out, face as red as eating Combicha Four.

“Maybe you should get yourself a full-time lover and not have to worry about those things, then.”

She flung up her hands. “Atom’s only interested in Wrench, Wrench is only interested in machines, and Paragon is faithfully married, while Zhuli has no interest in humans. None of the station crew catch my eye when they have all the hero worship thing going, and I won’t have a relationship with a subordinate!”

“Wrench has been seeing Barb,” I pointed out thoughtfully.

“Wha-what? She’s gotta be twenty, thirty years younger than he is!” she spluttered.

I just looked at her. With extended longevity, what the Hell did that mean? “Must be her taste in music?” I offered. “And transversal superconductor relay modules?”

Her jaw worked, and then Carol slapped her cheek. “In other words, she’s another gearhead. Okay, yeah, I remember she was working with Stark on Xandar, building the stuff while he was designing it.” She sighed again in defeat.

“It appears you will have to suffer with being the go-to secondary lover for the most irresistible woman on the station, and the most desired man. Here’s me being so sympathetic for the horrible situation you are in.” I gave her The Look, and she went pink again.

“Why don’t they bother you more?” she demanded, although there was no heart in it.

“Well, I’m really not all that into Primus, and I’m prim enough that I prefer Mimi over Callie, as Mimi doesn’t have a husband. My fling with Primus was basically Sersi enjoying herself, but she’s down in Olympia right now. I’ve entertained Lygaete and Cerise a few times, and I think I shocked the heck out of Zhuli when I turned him on...”

“You... and Zhuli?” Carol couldn’t believe it.

“Just need the right pheromones. He’s actually pretty enthusiastic once his biochemistry kicks on.”

“I didn’t know you, uh, had so many affairs?” she asked lamely.

“Well, I don’t have them ten nights in a row or something,” I rolled my eyes suggestively, and she blushed hotly again. “Really, if you want a night off, just go to my room for a late massage, and I’ll keep you there through the wee hours, spark you down, hum lullabies into your ears, and rock you to sleep. Won’t be any wild and enthusiastic sex at all.”

She hung her head in defeat. “I’ll be by at ten. I need some sleep.”

“Like that’s gonna stop Callie from running into you out by Io...”

“You are not supposed to be paying that much attention to us!” she cried out in protest, flushing again.

“I am supposed to be paying exactly that much attention to you,” I refuted her calmly, and I tapped my temple. “You are plainly very happy to be in such a remarkable situation, you’re just not used to being open about it. I don’t talk with others about other people’s sex lives, so don’t worry about me gabbing about yours. Just be aware that I basically know who is sleeping with whom all the time hereabouts.”

“Ugh. All-seeing security chief Dynamo, or something.” She waved her hand dismissively. “I’ll be by tonight. Cold lightning, lullabies, sure. I just want some sleep.”

“Your wish!” I smiled, getting to my feet.

----------

Carol took a scented bath with candles and everything, got a full body massage with cold lightning, and was drooling asleep in my bed, all covered up and very relaxed while I sat out in front of the window.

I didn’t need to see outside, of course. Cosmic Awareness made that totally unneeded, taking the wonder out of a lot of the universe and inserting a lot of Aw Gawdammit instead.

There were always mental demands on my time, but that was fine. That’s what I was there for, and the thoughtstreams doing that stuff were always interested in what was being done and why, Warlord and Soldier and Manager and whatnot.

Superheroing, the job description. Be a superreactant and win when tested, and if you’re a super-progressive, don’t get found out or people will call you a villain. Mmm.

What to do next, what to do next...

-Oi, what’s cooking down there?- I finally /asked down to Dealer, who seemed to be running around doing something.

-Deviants! Serpent Crown! Elder Demon Set! Kidnapping brides for him!- she /reported back instantly, giving the impression of hurrying around.

-Oh, really?- I was a little shocked the Deviants could muster the muscle to pull off anything after what Briggs kept doing to them. He really had no use for the Deviants whatsoever, and having to deal with the Skrull and Kree versions of them really engendered no more sympathy from him. -Wow, color me impressed they managed to pull it off.-

-This is probably their last hurrah,- Dealer /added grimly. -They’re planning to offer their victims as brides for Set-spawn. We’re on our way now to the temple city to take them out. They’ll probably defend it with everything.-