Meister looked around the room where he had been summoned. He wondered what needed antimatter fueled generators to do its work. He didn't like the sheer amount of them crammed in the same space where he stood.

One of those could power a city the size of the Americas. He counted at least twenty.

A hologram of a Jotun appeared in the center of the room. Heavy brows shadowed dark eyes. An armor of metal pieces fitted together covered the giant. He revealed crooked teeth when he smiled.

“Greetings, mortal,” said the Jotun.

“Greetings, Jotun,” said Meister. He fell into a parade rest stance while he waited for the giant to talk.

He had done some work for them in the past. They spoke slowly as they considered what they wanted to say.

“I have need of your unique brain,” said the Jotun. “I wish to hire you into my service until my plan is completed. I will pay double your fee if things work out the way I intend.”

“I'm listening,” said Meister. Double his usual fee meant twice his weight in valuable metals and gems.

“The equipment around you has been built to stop the movement of space and time,” said the Jotun. He waved on his end of the call. “Intersections will remain in place between whatever realities are touching.”

“I don't think you have enough power here to do that,” said Meister. He waved his hand at the machinery around him. “I calculate it would take millions more to do anything like what you intend.”

“Not if I possessed a key,” said the Jotun. He smiled at Meister's expression. “One of those should do the job fine.”

“So you're going to give me this key and we turn on the machinery to stop the rotation from happening,” said Meister. “What do you get out of it?”

“It's a simple plan,” said the Jotun. “And the more intersections that come into being, the more doorways we can use to enter and leave other worlds.”

“So you plan to spread an army through each of the portals,” Meister said. It sounded good as long you didn't consider another army shutting things down.

Meister had tried similar schemes in the past. He had been forced out of position by meddlers alerted to what he was doing.

He had no doubt that someone would try to interfere as soon as he turned everything on.

“Commanding the intersections means I can attack anyone I want,” said the Jotun.

And the Jotuns' natural enemy was the Asgar in their walled city. They would definitely try to interfere in something that allowed the giants to invade their turf, bypassing the wall they used to keep their city safe.

“When do you want to put this action in place?,” asked Meister.

“The key will be arriving soon,” said the Jotun. “As soon as you have it, power up the facility and place it in the holder provided for it. As soon as I'm sure everything is working like I planned, I will give you plans for the next move after this. It will be up to you to keep the key and the equipment it powers safe until we can destroy our enemies.”

“Do you think someone will come for the key?,” said Meister.

“Someone always comes for the keys,” said the giant. “That is why I am relying on you to keep this one safe until we have deposed anyone who might try to stop us.”

“That will be a lot of beings who operate on your end of the pool,” said Meister.

“None of my fellow Jotuns, or the Asgar, will know of my involvement until I am in charge of both sides,” said the Jotun.

“There is also the Thunderer and his people, the Celestials, Huang,” said Meister. “The list is long and they will all attack this place to stop you.”

“Command of the intersections will lock most of them out,” said the Jotun. “You will have to provide security to stop those we can't lock out at the moment.”

“I will see what I can come up with,” said Meister.

“I'm glad that you will be there to help me,” said the Jotun. “Once I am in charge of everything, you will be my personal agent to fix problems with a personal touch.”

“That's good to know,” said Meister. He already foresaw a time when he would be doing away with the Jotun and taking over his operation.

And using one of the keys to do that would be fitting enough in his opinion.

It had been a long time since he had killed a Jotun, or a godling. It would be a pleasure to thin the herd again.

“Don't fail me, Meister,” said the Jotun. “This is one of the most important tasks I have asked of you. If you lose the key, or the facility itself, I will be forced to let the other Jotun have you. They will take the loss of the key as something personal.”

“I understand,” said Meister. If the scheme failed, his nominal empoyer would stand back and let his people have their way with him. That probably included such fun things as drawing and quartering.

It wouldn't be the first time someone tried to kill him over something like this. He usually killed his commander before he encountered any real trouble.

And killing a Jotun was just as simple as killing a smaller life form.

“I will let you get ready,” said the Jotun. “The key will be arriving by messenger. I will give you a list of targets in case we have to fight this out.”

“I will be waiting,” said Meister. He smiled at the giant as the connection was cut. Jotuns thought they were at the top of the food chain. They died just as easily as anyone else.

Meister looked around the room again. It was one of the most impressive achievements that he had seen recently. Stopping intersections seemed far fetched at the moment. He had used them for traveling between worlds to carry out his schemes without worrying about where he had set up, and what resources he needed to gather.

He could maybe use this room as its own intersection if he had enough power to do it. Wouldn't that be a surprise for his giant friend.

The idea appealed to his ego. No one have ever shut down the doors that stretched across space and time before. Doing that would earn him a spot in the villain book with Al Hazzard, and Ikaris.

Being able to go anywhere his room touched meant never having to wait for an intersection. He could just watch for one to form and take that.

Getting back was a separate problem that he felt he could solve with the right amount of time. Maybe he could control an intersection from both sides. He could do a raid, and then return in a moment as long as the doors remained open.

Meister didn't like the fact that he had to wait on a messenger. He would have rathered gone and got the key himself. He supposed this way was to keep him on track and not take off with the goods.

A bell rang. He looked around. A screen pointed him at the front door. Someone in a brown uniform stood outside with a box in hand. The stranger looked around as he waited for someone to come to the door.

Meister left the room and descended the flight of stairs to the foyer. He reached inside his black jacket as he went to the door. He looked at the strange face in a mirror by the door. It was the fifth one he had worn so far. It was too square, unmarked by what he had done, and the eyes were too cheerful in his opinion.

They weren't the eyes of a man who had seen whole civilizations to the grave in his pursuit of his objectives.

He opened the door. The messenger smiled when he saw his bell ringing had brought someone to the door.

“How's it going?,” the delivery man said. “I have a delivery for a Muenster.”

“That's me,” said Meister with a smile. He held out his hands.

“I'll need you to sign for it,” said the delivery driver.

“I'll be glad to,” said Meister. He took the box and held it under one arm. He took the clipboard and pen and signed for the package. He handed the clipboard back.

“Thanks,” said the delivery driver. “Have a good one.”

Meister retreated behind the door, shutting it against intrusion. He walked back to the engine room. It was time to impose his own hand on this section of time and space.

He wondered how his employer would take a mutiny this soon in the proceedings.

He decided that he would take the time to look things over before he went rogue. The Jotun might have left overrides to try to stop him from taking over things. He would have to find and disable them.

Then he could think about security measures for keeping out any unwanted guests. As soon as the intersections froze in place, someone would come after him to prevent whatever he was doing.

He had to be ready for that eventuality. He doubted anyone from the Asgar would be able to read what he was doing until they were locked out of the tree from the top. That would force their soldiers to see other limbs to try to trace them back to him.

That still left other nation states from other parts of the tree, and the free wanderer that his scheme would disrupt. Some of them might gather up enough forces to try to invade his base of operations.

Some of them were almost as capable as he was.

Meister pulled out a knife and rested the blade gently against the tape holding the box closed. It parted under the touch. He put the knife away and opened the flaps. A wooden box sat inside bubble wrap. He pulled it out and thumbed the lid open. A small key gleamed up at him.

He looked around. He saw a keyhole in the mechanism. He took the key and inserted it in the machinery and twisted it. The equipment came to life around him. He smiled as he watched existence bend to his will.

The Jotun should have known better than to give him a real key to carry out his scheme.

If he had the other two, he could rewrite all of reality to his will. He decided he could pick them up if they showed themselves. He had to worry about putting his plan in motion in opposition of what his employer wanted.

Meister began going over the equipment for any safety lock that might be used to cut him out by remote. After that, he needed to look for traps. He didn't want his manager trying to kill him with trapped circuit boards and the like. When he was done with that, he moved to checking the rest of the house for weak points he needed to fortify.

He wanted to rule reality from a secure place with its own space-time coordinates.