WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD - Mod Plot [The Aftermath]

[relativityspeaking]

Who| Closed to the Spectre, Galactus, etc.
What| This is something like a "cutscene" of the Spectre-Galactus fight and what follows
Where| Near an uninhabited planet, in a star system near Braal's
When| After all the teams complete their objectives.
Warnings/Notes|

The sun cannon's blast had gone off without a hitch, damaging Galactus' ship and buying the other teams some time, but what followed was an unmitigated disaster. The Legionnaires had hoped they could defend the cannon long enough for at least two blasts, but a single beam of the power cosmic had destroyed the sun cannon and injured most of alpha team.

Then, after the blast, Brainiac 5 had disappeared. Just like that. In a splash of sudden empty space. As if Galactus had looked at him from across Braal's star system and willed him away. Jazmin didn't know if he was even alive.

In any case, after that initial blast, it was up to them. The new Legionnaires. They were the only hope Braal had -- and they hadn't disappointed. As soon as she got the word that Galactus was moving away to an uninhabited world, and that the Spectre had been freed and was gunning for him, Kid Quantum called in a threshold request to the planet where it was all about to go down.

Someone had to go and see what happened. And most of the teams had injured Legionnaires. She figured she could hold out just long enough to see before having to go to Legion World's Medbay. She brought some Legion observation drones with her, so that the whole team could see the final result of their actions.

In this, she wasn't so much a player as a camera-person, documenting what was about to happen so everyone could see. She had no power to affect the outcome of what was about to happen. No one did.

All she could do was hope it would work -- and also hope desperately that she'd find out that Brainy had simply been displaced rather than killed.

"Please work please work please work please work please work please work please work," she muttered to herself as her Kwai guide thresholded her in.

Comments

[legionnpcs]

The answer was simple.

Yes.

[relativityspeaking]

"Why? Entire worlds could've died. The Legion barely managed to save Braal in time and we had to let a dangerous force like the Spectre loose to do it."

[legionnpcs]

To make the Legion ready. That's why I've done everything that I've done.

The Time Trapper gestured with his hands and an image of the rift on Phelolu was visible, shimmering the way it shimmered when it was open.

I'm the one who brought the new Legionnaires to this universe. I'm the one who gave them powers or altered their powers. I bathed them in the light of the artifact known as the Hero Dial-- The image shifted, showing a strange artifact --and dredged countless timelines, trying to find the perfect potential powers for them.

The Time Trapper clenched his hand and the illusions snuffed out.

They needed to be altered. The powerless needed power and some of those with great power needed to be...humbled. Forced to cooperate with and depend on others. Only in cooperating in such a way, does the Legion have a chance against what's to come.

[googledox]

"For what's to come?" Brainy asked slowly. "Are you trying to prepare us for some manner of threat to time and space? Like you've done to the Legion before?"

[legionnpcs]

It calls Itself Chronoblivion. It is a being that was born in the earliest cosmic fires of the newborn multiverse: a sentient universe that exists only to feed. It has devoured innumerable timelines, growing larger and more powerful with each one that it consumes. As it destroys worlds, it wraps itself in an armor made of the broken fragments of universes.

The Time Trapper drew itself up to its full, hulking height.

It has latched onto this universe, Legionnaires. And once It does this, it cannot be undone -- Its form is so hulking It cannot even remove itself. It intends to feed on this universe and when it does, it will finally be powerful enough to feed on them all.

[relativityspeaking]

"Feed on them all?" said Jazmin, her eyes wide. "You're saying that if It destroys our universe, It will destroy all of them. Every universe. Everywhere."

[legionnpcs]

This universe is where all life must make its last stand. If Chronoblivion isn't stopped here, all of existence will end. And all that will be left is Chronoblivion's bloated form, occupying the space where universes once thrived.

The Time Trapper gestured to the broken planet.

That's why I brought Galactus. A test. Like Galactus, Chronoblivion is a Devourer that can never be sated. Chronoblivion also has Its own heralds, beings from the worlds It's devoured that It bends to his will. Like the Silver Surfer and Stardust, they serve him with deadly obedience. And like the parasite Harrow, that created chaos on the worlds Galactus attempted to consume, they are no longer truly living: the shadow that life casts.

The Time Trapper gestured again and apocalyptic visions appeared all around, worlds brought low by Chronoblivion's heralds. Worlds that were eventually consumed by their master.

Its heralds have overseen the downfall of countless worlds, weakened them and their defenses to make their destruction inevitable. The recent incident on Naltor, for instance, was not an accident.

The visions of the apocalypse faded.

Everything I've done and everything I do is to prepare you. The powers. Threats like Galactus. The mayfly dimensions I've tossed you into. Either you will become strong enough to face Chronoblivion and Its heralds or you will die. If it's the latter, fortunately there are many universes to pull many new Legionnaires from.

[googledox]

"You can't just risk their lives like this!" Brainy cried out. "The Legionnaires you're pulling from other worlds are not -- not disposable cannon fodder. They've acquitted themselves admirably, but you can't just rip them out of their lives and throw them against an apocalyptic threat!"

[legionnpcs]

I can. And I will.

[relativityspeaking]

"What about the missing Legionnaires?" Jazmin pointed out. "Can't you just find them instead? And bring them back? They all understand the risks, they volunteered for this. If we have the full team back, that should be enough. No one else would have to risk their lives."

[googledox]

"Do you know where they are?" Brainy asked. "You're powerful enough to have access to such knowledge."

A pause.

"Did you have a part in them going missing?" His voice trembled. "Are they alive?"

[legionnpcs]

I had no part in their disappearance but whether they live or not -- that is not my place to say.

[relativityspeaking]

"Or you're just refusing to say," Jazmin snarled.

[legionnpcs]

What I will say is this: prepare yourselves.

He seemed to be looking right into the drones, at the Legionnaires on the other side.

For a brief moment, they saw the vision of some monstrous thing, an ephemeral flashing image of a worm-like being made of stars, curled up in the twisted, broken remnants of worlds.

Heed my warning: the end comes. This universe is where all life must make its last stand. Stop Chronoblivion here or all of time and space ends.

With that, the Time Trapper's purple cloak flared around him and he disappeared.

[googledox]

Brainy and Jazmin were left floating there, wide-eyed, near a broken world.

Brainy turned to look at his team-mate.

"...No pressure."