Wow, that was a powerful list of people there. Of course, it all meant absolutely squat to the big guy in blue and purple to the side, rising way, way up over everyone. Mr. Hill took one look at Him, and backed the fuck away to give Him room.

All those who had any sense left did the same.

That didn’t include the Ultron Kill-bot, which only registered an energy source, and laughing happily at finding a source of energy that could power it forever and allow it to slay all of its foes, leapt to the attack in all its adamantium, plasma-mouthed killing glory.

A single finger moved to intercept, Galactus not even bothering to look the robot’s way. There was a flash of light, and the robot stopped in midair, everything going dark, and it simply fell to the ground, already cold and inert.

Thundra promptly gave the cold carcass a kick. “Good riddance, loudmouth!” she said, bouncing it off the wall and sending the nigh-unbreakable carcass ricocheting and skidding to a halt near Mechanar, who took an assessing gaze at it... but it wasn’t near Doom.

Doom and Kang warily came together; Graviton and Maelstrom found they had massive energy manipulation in common; Modred, the Swordsman, and the Dreadknight made up their own little clique; Crusher Creel wandered over to say hi to The Mountain, and so did the whole Demolition Crew, the women basically following Felicia/Thundra over there quickly.

I was not surprised to see Apocalypse and Mechanar move together and start talking, cyborgs that they were, but I was rather surprised to see the Mandarin eschew the masterminds and brainy-types, and instead head directly for Mr. Hill, who had done work for him in the past.

“Mr. Hill,” the aloof Chinese Master of the Ten Rings greeted the Mountain, as the others there instinctively made way for him.

“Mandarin,” Mr. Hill greeted him coolly. “You’re either a bit late or a bit early for a contract. Rings telling you anything we should know?” he asked, gesturing at the man’s hands.

The Mandarin spread his hands once, multi-colored lights running over the Rings, and glanced up at the looming Galactus once. “Stay away from Him,” he said flatly, respect and fear mixed together on his face.

“Shit, don’t need a Murim lord to tell me that,” Rigger muttered for just about everyone.

Mr. Hill took out a stogie and lit it with a match off his face. “That there is Galactus, a cosmic power above gods, who gets His munchies by eating planets. He can literally kill us all with a finger flick.” His tone was dead level, accepting of the fact. “We’re ants. He won’t bug us, because He doesn’t pay attention to ants.

“However, Him being here means that something big enough and strong enough to grab Him is behind this. That probably means something one step up the ladder from Him, and I have no idea what that means, other than we are all fucked.”

He exhaled as everyone around him shifted uneasily, but his unmoved face was oddly reassuring despite itself. “But we ain’t dead. So, something wants us alive for some reason, or we’d just be snuffed. Also,” he lifted his arm and pointed, “I think that’s another spaceship over there.”

----

-Stay calm, Peter. The Patriot is right in front of you. This isn’t your first trip to space.-

“Right, right,” he murmured, looking around alertly. He’d come in separately from the others, but he knew just about everyone here by reputation, and had met almost all of them on the Colosseum, if nothing else.

The Patriot was here, the Arrow at his side, and the new Iron Man in his spiffy War Machine-style armor not made for Tony Stark Boy Genius was backing him up. Thor and his Hammer were present, while the Wasp was buzzing around looking at everything. Quicksilver was staying oddly still and poised, but his eyes were going in every direction, trying to see everything that was going on.

Towering green, both the Hulk and his cousin the She-Hulk were also here, the Gamma Group totally represented.

The Human Torch, the Rock, and Reed Richards had all arrived here, with Cyclops having gone to assist them while Sue was looking after her boy Franklin. Cyclops called out to Angel in surprise, and Warren Worthington and his too-clean good looks flitted over, his senior Hawkeye from the Aerie trailing him.

The Euroforce seemed to have brought over Sunstone, her partner Darkstar, the metal man Colossus, and the blue elf teleporter Draufganger, as well as the Black Knight from England, who was even on his atomic steed/cycle.

“General Rogers, we’ve got company,” Hawkeye said, pointing out the transparent dome of the ceiling inside the probably-a-starship they were in. Heads turned up to the reflecting light off another vehicle nearby. “And you don’t want to know who’s inside that ship...”

------

“The stars!” arose from both ships at the same time.

There was a galaxy spinning out there below them, huge and vast. As they watched, it vanished from view, erased star by star, millions of them wiped out of existence, like an invisible hand sweeping away castles of sand into the water.

“I AM FROM BEYOND! SLAY YOUR ENEMIES AND ALL THAT YOU DESIRE SHALL BE YOURS! NOTHING YOU CAN DREAM OF IS BEYOND MY POWER TO ACCOMPLISH!” an ageless, genderless voice boomed into their minds, as a great light from a point in space played over all of them in a grandiose manner.

---

Mr. Hill looked at a couple of the Schmot Guys trying to calculate how much power such a feat would take.

“Fucking illusion,” he said under his breath, but everyone nearby heard him, especially the Mandarin, who sent him a sharp glance. “Takes a fucking hundred thousand years or more for light to travel that far, yet it all died at once. Lookit the big guy. Does He look impressed after something wiped a galaxy?”

They did indeed all look at Galactus, whose face was completely unmoved by the display.

“Graviton! Any changes in gravitational waves after all that mass was wiped?” Hill called out roughly.

The former Professor Franklin Hall spun to look at him, eyes narrowing a bit. As an Earth Avatar, Hill also controlled gravity, and if it wasn’t as widespread as Hall could manage, it was Paramount in his area of control, meaning Hill was a major threat to the ‘Embodiment of Gravity’.

It also meant The Mountain could get Graviton’s attention and respect easily.

“No, nothing!” Hall replied, and it took a moment for him to realize what that meant. “Nothing was destroyed...” he murmured, turning back around to look at the sky.

“Something is playing us?” Thundra asked, her face twisting coldly. “Even trying to play Him?”

“Yeah, but notice He ain’t leaving.” The Mountain glanced up at Galactus. “You all figure a test is coming next?...” he trailed off.

“BEYONDER! LET US SEE IF YOU HAVE THE POWER TO REWARD GALACTUS, AND REMOVE FROM HIM HIS HUNGER!” bellowed the planet-eater, as all the mortals below winced.

------

“Not a single gravimetric change to represent the mass distortion that would result from such a massive disruption of matter. Add in the relativity issues with the light, and we’re dealing with an illusion on a colossal scale, or perhaps merely beamed right into our minds,” Reed Richards reported, the bracer on his wrist dimming as everyone was quietly relieved.

They all heard Galactus’ challenge, pseudo-telepathic as it was, and saw Him exit the other ship by simply phasing through it as if it did not exist. The point of light in the sky emanating all that power focused on Him, berating Him for daring to challenge its power.

Well, seriously, this was not a Contest to Galactus. He could have killed everything there by exhaling. Skipping right to the reward was the only proper course of action.

Yet the light’s power was proven true, as a moment later Galactus was hurled forth from it, unconscious, and the two ships began sweeping toward the single star that was left in their view, following the tumbling World-Eater.

“It can overcome Galactus. A cosmic power true, even if it can’t wipe a galaxy. It can still effortlessly prevent that light specifically from reaching us,” Reed pointed out for everyone, his brown eyes narrowed and intense.

“And it wants us to fight the guys in the other ship?” Ben huffed. “What kinda malarky cosmic entity is that?”

“Someone who really needs a multi-channel TV and Mexican wrestling shows,” Peter popped out instantly. “I mean, seriously, don’t we have a zillion hours of entertainment around the galaxies just for this?”

“If it was something simple, that would solve our problems,” General Rogers agreed as the Battleworld for their fight was being assembled ahead of them, a surreal display of a whole planet coming together. “For some reason, this is all confined to Terra. Even Galactus has a Terran connection, so it stands to reason the entity saw Him there... and all of us there. For some reason, we are its window to the universe,” he deduced thoughtfully.

“Man, I don’t even want to ask what some alien god-thing is thinking of when it’s watching a place as messed up as Terra!” Johnny Storm blurted out with feeling.

“It probably feels like a kid watching Saturday Morning Wrestling,” Cyclops offered. “Superheroes and supervillains going at it repeatedly for no discernible purpose...”

“So, it sets up its own stage, and is sitting back to watch the fun?” the Hulk murmured in his deep voice.

“‘Slay your enemies’ is pretty precise words, General,” Clint Barton, the Arrow, murmured, watching the world taking shape ahead of them.

“It’s bombastic and over the top. It wants to be entertained. Note how ill-defined the reward is, too. There’s nothing that says the situation stops once your ‘enemies’ are killed. It can just bring in more things, even after it rewards us.” The Patriot was grim as he considered their options. “As Galactus just proved, fighting back and running away are literally going to get us nowhere.”

“Yeah, He’s falling just as fast as we are, going to the same place,” Hawkeye agreed, looking at something off in space. “And that place is getting put together as we speak...”

Maybe the galaxy going away was an illusion, but they could see the pieces of the planet ahead of them coming together out of nowhere, plucked out of who knew where and assembled into something resembling a planetary land mass, with strange and alien landscapes set up right next to one another in knife-edge changes of terrain.

“One way or another, we’re going to be fighting while we figure out what to do. General, I’d like to nominate you as commander here for the duration of this scenario we find ourselves in. We should begin forming up some teams and commanders as we prepare...” Reed spoke up.

------

“I would like to hire you, Mr. Hill, and,” the Mandarin’s eyes drifted over the very interested eyes of most of the mercenaries about, “any that you would care to vouch for.”

“Izzat so.” The Mountain’s voice was level and calm, ignoring the planet getting literally put together in front of them, the speed of their ship, and the fact that a point of light had beaten up the planet-eater that could snuff them all.

This involved money. So, this was serious business.

“Who wants me to vouch for them, step behind me. Who wants to deal alone, step away.” He blew a ring of smoke as people started shuffling. “Now, some of you might need to be reminded of my rep. I treat my money seriously, and my contracts seriously.

“If I vouch for you, that means you treat your contract seriously, and you get your money. If you break this contract, I will hunt you down, and I will find a way to kill you. No muss, no fuss, I will put you in the ground dead. It ain’t gonna be a brawl or a fight. I will straight up murder you, and you will vanish.

“If you got a problem with that, you step away. If you don’t, then I’m dealing here.”

Black Tom Cassidy almost stepped away, but Cain Marko reached down, put a large hand on his shoulder, and shook his head slightly. The black-haired Irishman glanced at the back of the looming Mountain, and stepped back into place.

So did all the others already there.