“I expect that seducing Gladiator long enough to Mimic him wouldn’t be difficult. It might well be the less optimal choice, considering she’d have both Flux and Kismet handy for updates,” I pointed out to Sama.

“Something you may wish to consider for yourself, then. Discuss things when she arrives.”

“Very well...”

“Now, I want you spreading out Marks and building up lines of communication and upgrading the people around you,” she went on in no uncertain terms, making me wince even more. “You should have Marked both Richard and Jessica out on Xandar, giving you a constant awareness of their situation. I’m relying on a Widow we posted out there as an embassy. So, go visit them, and upgrade them.

“You’re a Power of Ten Powered, and that Underweb Caster stuff lets you do things here literally no one else on the planet can do. If we want to beat the crush, we need every edge we have.

“Stop messing around. You’ve got eight Duplicates or more running around living all the lives you want to live, which you can update at any time. How about protecting their lives by taking the big step up and doing your job right?”

“Rassum frassum!” I said to that, and hung up. She could figure out what to do about Heliopolis on her own.

She wanted me, us, all putting our Marks on people. She wanted me starting an Allegiance. She trusted me to do the right thing and not compete, that we were in this together, and we were a team all doing our parts.

Except I wasn’t doing my part, I was underplaying everything, because I didn’t want to be a boss, and I loved playing at not being a Caster and not having the almighty responsibility riding over me that it entailed. I deserved a break too, right?

I had Sekhmet pissed at me. I was wearing a sorceress goddess on my back, who happened to be a Twenty. By the time I was done going through her memories, I was going to be a Twenty and more, by definition.

I could borrow her spellcasting ability to cast normal magic, too. She was likely going to be shocked that I could make better use of it than she could.

Thanos was out there. Damn, the freaking Magus was out there, more dangerous than Thanos. Probably another bloody time-lost dastard in the wrong timeline, dumped on us by who knew what. Although who knew what had happened to Adam Warlock, maybe he just changed earlier with the changes in the timeline...

Sama wasn’t going to let me sit back and shepherd the planet into greatness. That was basically her and Briggs’ job. As long as I was active and not getting in the way, Briggs probably didn’t care what I did. Sama, now, Sama just wasn’t going to let me phone it in.

I sighed.

I had three more Duplicates I could make out of Madrox’s power, if I saw him again. Because Extra Spell-Like Ability was a Feat that either doubled the number of times you could use an ability, or allowed you to use it three more times, whatever was less.

I had taken it twice, once for the Ur Copy Spell-Like Ability, and once for the Abilities copied by using it. It meant I could make three additional Duplicates, since I could use any Copied Ability with nominally unlimited uses by the source up to six times, instead of merely three.

Hadn’t had it when I’d Ur’d him initially, I had added it later. It made it easier for me to experiment with and copy the powers of others I ran across, without relying upon them as a crutch, especially since the Copied power went away at Renewal.

However, that didn’t mean the effects of the powers did. So, the Ur-Madrox Duplicates hadn’t faded away, despite me losing the power to Duplicate like he did. So, if I Copied the Mimic power, and it made long-term changes, those changes would stick around.

Primus was the most powerful Paramount of Terra, no questions. I wasn’t aware of how exactly he differed from Superman, although he didn’t have heat vision, as I recalled. It was more of a psychic lightning/psychokinetic force effect. His powers didn’t come from solar energy or cosmic power, after all. He literally was a massively evolved normal human, whose power was to keep evolving to face and overcome stuff.

Comet was the most powerful overall female Paramount, mostly because of her energy absorption and secondary form, which had cosmic-class energy outputs. Fury was technically stronger than her at base, but Comet ramped up very quickly, and if she got enough energy to Flare up, welp, it was usually a quick fight after that.

Sersi was the most powerful of the Eternal race’s Reality Warpers, more gifted at molecular control than any of them, and that included transforming other living characters. She also had the normal flight, super strength, durability, healing factor, and longevity of her kind. I assumed using reality bending to instantly power up was a viable tactic...

Hrm. How much mental stuff carried over was going to be something, too. Without knowledge on how to use such powers, copying them wasn’t going to be exactly useful. Then again, she had both Comet and Sersi/Flux right there to teach her about them. Either could apply.

Frak. There was so much I still wanted to do, without stepping up onto the Big Stage.

I had a Six Nova Core, closing in on Seven. I’d be at Seven before Franklin Richards was born.

Frak. I glared at my Vaccine and typed, Where do I have to go to meet Eon?

-----------

Several days, tons of gold, a welcome-back party, and an ersatz baby shower later...

It was an office building, rented out in one of the Rand-Meachum buildings, a fact I knew because such were being managed by Nelson, Murdock, & Walters while he was on his martial arts training quest with Luke. Doing pretty well, too, I’d heard.

The Tribal woman looked like a native blonde, and was basically here to make the office look occupied, clean it, and otherwise surf the net all day. She informed me that she was helping write down stories about alien races into the Tribal database, putting legends and philosophies behind the many names on the universal translators. Eon could be quite chatty about such things.

I stepped through the office door into the other plane beyond. The organic material of the ceiling and floor didn’t bother me, and it quickly opened up into a large internal space of purest white, with an odd avatar floating in the middle of it.

It looked like a tree trunk with a big eyeball, a second face with closed eyes, and maybe another masked face on it, all topped with bushy brown hair instead of leaves. I thought the abstract form was quite amusing, knowing that its real body was absolutely astonishing in size, measuring at least an AU across, and capable of eating Terra like a grain of rice in relative terms.

“Greetings to the Great Sage Eon!” I bowed formally under its gaze. “My apologies if I am disturbing you unexpectedly.”

It was a sign that I was not weak. Astral Ward IX+1 could totally fend off Cosmic Awareness, so he’d have no idea I was coming.

“Ah, the Warlock of the Widow in the Web. Your kind are very unusual, Doctor Ouilette, and rarely as powerful as you have become. It is a pleasure to meet with you.” The strange tree floated towards me, its somewhat masculine voice a mix of sound and open telepathy. “May I ask your relationship with Briggs and Sama Rantha?” it inquired calmly.

“Huh. Subordinate ally, I guess?” I hadn’t really considered it. “I am neither in their Allegiance nor Marked by them.”

“Very interesting. And yet, they have sent you to me, hoping I would grant you the gift of Cosmic Awareness.”

I took a deep breath. “Actually, they just kicked me in the arse and made me find you sooner than I would have otherwise. I fully intended to seek you out at some point and ask the same thing.” I lowered my Astral Ward and went down on one knee in mid-air before it. “I am aware that this is a precious gift, and not something granted lightly. Judge me as you will, and I will accept it without rancor.”

Long greenish tendrils extended out from the floating trunk, converging on me and my head, touching my temples lightly. I felt a truly vast intelligence sweeping past my mental defenses and over my mind.

“By Eternity.” It looked over my mindscape in some amazement. “I do not believe I have seen a mortal mind with such a vast intellect, especially of such youth. Yet you have not neglected your spirituality or your instincts. This is truly a rare accomplishment, Doctor.”

“Thank you, Great Sage,” I replied calmly.

“Tell me, what is your purpose for asking the gift of Cosmic Awareness from me?” the avatar inquired, withdrawing its tentacles.

“I am afraid a rather selfish one, Great Sage. Knowledge of great and powerful threats to my homeworld of Terra here coming and which might come is my primary interest. While I am not averse to doing battle against great threats elsewhere, defense of the cosmos entire is not my goal at this time, nor intervening in the affairs of other species who do not threaten my own. I do not mind helping noble peoples, but that is not why I ask.”

“You are bluntly honest. An unusual trait in one with your power,” it noted, probably somewhat amused.

“This is not a circumstance I care to be misleading in, Great Sage.”

“Your natural comprehension and mindset is probably a more natural fit for Cosmic Awareness than I have ever witnessed in a mortal,” Eon admitted. “Your reasons are noble, within the limits of your desire to care, and, I suspect, you are more generous than you are implying.”

“That is probably true, Great Sage,” I sighed. “It is because I know three of the Words of Creation, and they rub off on me regardless.”

“Oh? Words of Creation?” I could tell I had Eon’s intense interest. “I’ve not heard of these before. What are they?”

“They are the essence of certain positive elements of Creation. Would you like to hear them? They... may be damaging to you,” I warned it. Eon was, in the end, a servant of Eternity, and eminently Neutral, although an advocate of things considered positive by many, and its champions were of noble purpose.

“I would very much like to hear them.”

I nodded shortly.

“TRUTH.”

“HOPE!”

“VALOR!!”

The avatar rocked in place. The white space around me pulsed, darkened, and ran with colors in a vibrant rainbow.

The Words of Creation were literally distillations of Good. In a realm governed by Order and Chaos, hearing them voiced had to rock Eon to its very core. Even if it could not understand them, given its Alignment, the concepts they embodied would resonate within its mind, shedding light upon dark thoughts, illuminating harmonious thoughts, and scattering ambivalence.

They were powerful, absolute things, and the more you understood of them, the more powerful they were!

Child of an abstract entity, unable to truly comprehend their Essence, but able to feel the boundlessness of them, they were things Eon had definitely never heard before, a true shock to a being so ancient and so knowledgeable.

It took long minutes for the light show to fade and some serenity to return to the room. The eyeball there was weeping, and tears were falling from the face on its avatar.

“Such Words! Such power and insight! Touching on a fulcrum of balance I have never felt before...” the avatar finally murmured, the filling voice somewhat hoarse. “Doctor Ouilette, for this gift alone I would trade my own, even were you not so eminently suitable for it. Come, and let me open your mind to the cosmos...”