The Power of Ten Book Four: Dynamo

“Tell me what she did!”

Dealer’s startlingly silver eyes stared into the black lights of the Mad Titan’s orbs. She slowly turned her eyes down to the massive hands grasping her vest, and flicked a finger.

A deck of Cards appeared in her hand, and his eyes glanced that way despite himself.

On the back of the first Card was a picture of his own face, in surprising detail. It riffled away, and the next Card had the same image... but something was missing.

His soul jerked, and the Champion of Death felt something about himself get erased. He let go of her, jerking again as another Card turned, and something else was missing, but he could not tell what...

The Deck paused before the fourth Card was revealed.

The Dealer stared at him, her silver eyes having never left his own. He noted that the air temperature had fallen tremendously, and carbon dioxide was materializing on the walls and floor with instantly congealing water vapor... and she wasn’t even using powers of cold or ice, which he would have mocked instantly.

“What is it worth to you?” she replied frostily, and he marked well the disdain in her voice. She obviously had no fear of him.

“I need to know what she did in order to perform my duties properly!” he ground out, well aware that the moral value system of Dynamo and her sisters clashed with his own.

Her laughter was short and sharp, deadly silver eyes never leaving him. “Ah, yes, your duties. A Champion of Death clearly outperformed by a mere Courtier who didn’t want the status. If you do not learn, what will you do? Will you kill yourself properly in shame? I’m sure Death is considering what you did to prevent this whole situation, versus what Dyna did. Perhaps the ability to heartlessly murder billions is not as valuable as She thinks it is.”

Thanos grimaced despite himself, but kept his distance. He had the distinct impression that if she was threatened, that Deck of Cards would continue to flip before him, and he would be utterly Erased from existence, not even Mistress Death able to bring him back. It was plainly something that The Dealer had made up specifically for him, and he had no counters for it at the moment.

He wasn’t sure any counters would be effective, either. He had never downplayed how clever Dynamo and her sisters were once they began making their moves. They were all capable of killing in massive numbers, were mercilessly efficient, and inspired in their lethal artistry as they wrought doom on things days, weeks, months, and even years before events came to fruition.

He could appreciate the skill, originality, and power such things required, and was also certain he could come up with counters to them, given time.

Time was not on his side at the moment, and plainly the woman before him was blaming him for failing to stop the Cancerverse’s intrusion himself.

The Annihilation Wave had shown the universe just how dangerous Terrans could be, particularly THESE Terrans!

“That is it precisely. We were facing Many-Angled Ones, beings from beyond Death’s power and remit. They had long planned this strike, the first of many as they sought to strike across the many universes and infect them from within! There is nothing that says they cannot undertake such a scheme again!” The very fact they could Summon and Sacrifice Death Herself meant they were capable of things no native of this universe was.

Her lips twisted as her nonesuch eyes glittered, and he knew she was contemplating literally Wiping Him Away. He waited, holding himself high, facing down something more dangerous than Death to him, in service to knowledge, and to Death Herself!

“That event cannot happen, for the creatures of Mythos that were responsible for the Cancerverse are either Dead or More Than Dead, guests and food for the Weavers of the Underweb until they are Consumed and simply gone,” she whispered at him, her gleaming silver eyes narrowing. “Dynamo did nothing more than wake the Death they slew from Her sleep, a simple call to resonate throughout Eternity and Infinity and stir dead Death from Her dreams.

“Then the Weavers Sealed the Cancerverse, and Death Ended it, and all within it, including those who thought they had slain Death and so were Beyond Her.”

Thanos contemplated that question, finding many of his own fears laid to rest about Dynamo’s power and resources, even if she was able to so perfectly resolve the problem. “I saw the collapse of the Cancerverse as its breach into ours burned away. I heard the... Mythos entities scream. I felt the power of Death rise...” He paused tellingly. “The Cancerverse is gone?” he finished, grimly satisfied that such an abomination of Life Unending was gone.

Dynamo had indeed arranged for the death of an entire universe! Truly something to be recognized as a Courtier of Death for...

“It was reborn and rebuilt by its last survivor.” The smile that spread across her face was cruel and twisting. “Death is now Eternity in the realm reborn, and the power of the Mythos creatures She slew is now added to Her power!” Her leaning forward was infinitesimal, but it felt like a mountain looming over him, dread and despair filling him. “Dyna gave a Death far more than you ever will, Champion of Death! Rejoice! You will never be able to equal either her sacrifice or the gift she presented to Death!”

“That...” A sense of crushing helplessness, a wall of service and devotion that he would never be able to climb or exceed, rose up in his heart.

“And don’t think just bringing The End is going to do anything. Death can do that at anytime, and I will Erase you if you even start such a path. I’m sure She’ll let me know you’ve gone off the rails, and Wiping you once you betray Her intentions will only be fitting.

“You’ll just have to be content with being second best to Death forever.”

Thanos’ grimace was even deeper and more lit than before. Dealer’s smile only grew colder, undeterred by his reaction.

“As for HOW she did it... She didn’t. All the crazy power-ups and blessings she accrued were manipulations by the Weavers in the Web, setting up the biggest trap for the Mythos in multiversal history. Her only job was to wake Death up from death, and Death slew them while the Weavers snared, Sealed, and Bound them all after baiting and springing their trap.

“I think we can both feel certain that those watching from Outside will never try such a stunt again, and given your helplessness against merely one or two of them, I’m fairly sure you don’t want to go hunting them down one by one... although if you succeeded, it would perhaps be a good use of your time, chipping away at the mountain in front of you.”

He snarled at her. “How many... how many did she kill?” he rumbled. Regardless if the Weavers Sealed the trap or Death dealt the blow, it was Dynamo who had pulled the trigger!

“I don’t know. Ask your Mistress, She probably has an excellent idea,” Dealer sniffed.

He was Eternal. He swore to himself that he would surpass the killing totals of Dynamo, no matter how long it took. Surely the numbers of the Many-Angled Ones were endless, and was not his greatest talent in bringing Death to all? He would simply make the Many-Angled Ones the centerpiece of his efforts, and let them know that Death and Her Champions did not appreciate their efforts to kill Her...

-------

Dealer watched Thanos go, a sour taste in her mouth.

Death still valued him more than the hundreds of billions of sapients he had killed and sent to Her embrace. Just killing him would only end with him being sent back to life when Death grew tired of his company, to serve Her once again.

He could only be Wiped Away.

Dealer knew Dynamo was alive, but had been sent completely outside this multiverse, leaving her behind to become the new Prime for everyone.

A Prime finally able to take a Pact with Heaven now that the Underweb Pact with the Widow was finally terminated. If she was more of the Song than the Tome, that was just the way things rolled, right?

She had a LOT she needed to invest in the Pact, but that was fine. She was a Legend, an Eternal, and she had time... and Heaven and its representative here, the Enigma Force, always had things for her to do. The beings who knew what Silver Sign meant here in this multiverse were herself and the other Clones and Duplicates of Dynamo, and the Ranthas and Briggs, and that was it.

She hoped she would finish riffling through the Final Deck she had made for Thanos some day and watch him Go Away Forever, but that was obviously not today. For now, spite and intense competitive desire were sending him deeper into Death’s service, this time against the foes of all Creation.

Given how many deaths those creatures were responsible for, perhaps bringing Thanos back to slay them was a good deal for Death. Only time would tell. Perhaps he might even come up with new and novel methods of slaying them forever, and such things could be spread across Creation to do battle with them. The Cerulean Sigil could use some help, after all...

There had been no funeral, because Dynamo wasn’t dead. She was simply gone, exiled and far away, and wouldn’t be able to come back, leaving the rest of them to argue over who was going to Sunbathe and feed the rest of them, at least until Sama took care of that problem with another blue supergiant star’s-worth of assorted energies for them to digest.

Even Dynamo’s link to the Pocket was gone. They had hauled out her Gear and Masspack from it, sent into it since they would not survive her exile. Outside the multiverse here, indeed...

The other thing was who was going to get the Cosmic Awareness, and Dealer had been the one voted up, Senior Prime that she was. The usefulness of it was just too great, and Uncle Ben didn’t have the mental chops to abuse it properly, so she was going off to see Eon later today to get that process taken care of.

She eyed Dyna’s Negabands, transformed slightly to fuse with her own Bracers under her blouse’s sleeves, and sighed. She’d even refused one of the Strontian Uni-merges in the past, not wanting to get caught up in fisticuffs, but there was no getting around the fact that she might have to punch something out in the future.

Heck, she didn’t even have a proper Weapon, and Function was now the Weapon of an Eternity!

Ugh, such a time suck! Still, someone had to do it... and keep track of their crazy big family and all the people they cared about.

But it was fine. They had this, Dyna knew they’d have this, and all was good. She could only hope where Dyna ended up would be someplace she was okay with being... just like she had originally come here, almost three decades ago...