Crack!
The sharp, splintering sounds grew more frequent. Ronan's body, encased in ice, was a latticework of fractures. Through the translucent prison, his eyes, burning with cold fury, rolled to fixate on Ben. The ice wouldn't hold him for much longer, yet Ben still hesitated.
A plan to manipulate a galactic tyrant was one thing, but the Power Stone was a chaotic variable. No plan could account for everything. The battle against Hydra had taught him that. His strategy had been sound, but he could never have predicted that Pierce would unleash the Hulk. If he hadn't been prepared for that contingency, the outcome would have been disastrous. The same principle applied now. What if Ronan didn't betray Thanos? What if the Mad Titan learned of this and intervened personally? Facing Thanos was one thing; facing Thanos wielding the Power Stone was another entirely.
He recalled the lesson he'd learned from the ashes of S.H.I.E.L.D.: There is no perfect plan, only overwhelming strength.
A new idea, audacious and risky, took shape in his mind. But its success depended on the cooperation of Enara and Ouyana.
Making his decision, Ben reached out and placed a hand on Ronan's frozen form. With a great surge of force, he shoved the entire iceberg down, plunging it from the stormy surface back into the silent depths of Morag's ocean. At the same time, he unleashed the full extent of his cryokinetic power, flash-freezing the surrounding seawater for hundreds of meters in every direction. A massive, continent of jagged white ice formed in the dark ocean, a temporary prison to buy him a few precious moments.
"Just wait right there," Ben whispered, exhaling a plume of frost. He placed a hand on the Omnitrix symbol on his chest.
In a flash of green, his form dissolved. A black, biological medium enveloped him, and within its void, pinpricks of white light glittered like a miniature galaxy. For a moment, he became a living universe. His consciousness detached, traveling across millions of light-years, crossing dimensions and realities, until he stood once more in the endless void before Enara and Ouyana.
His delegate—the weary, overworked clone of his own mind—was already there, locked in debate with the two cosmic entities.
"—Proposal 3,580…" Enara's voice, a chorus of infinite stars, began. She paused. "Ugh. The annoying one is here."
Ben blinked. When did I become the annoying one?
Enara, the black, starless void, turned her massive face away with a cosmic huff. If she'd had arms, Ben was certain they would be crossed in a classic display of indignation.
"Ben," Ouyana, the gentle, star-filled nebula, said, her voice laced with sadness. "Why did you have to separate your consciousness from ours?"
Delegate-Ben just spread his hands helplessly. Originally, Ben's mind had been one with theirs, privy to every cosmic proposal and endless debate. But having three voices constantly arguing in his head made it impossible to focus on anything else. He'd learned to mentally partition their conversation away, much like Superman learning to tune out the noise of the world. Apparently, Enara had taken this as a personal slight.
"I'm sorry, Enara…" Ben started.
"I've heard that apology before," she grumbled, referring to the countless times Delegate-Ben had used the same words. The clone just shrugged.
I'll trade you any time, he seemed to convey. For weeks, he'd been filtering their proposals, vetoing the ones that were too casual or didn't consider the long-term consequences, like Ouyana's well-intentioned but disastrous idea to resurrect the dead gods of Knowhere without considering the millions of living inhabitants. Ben had long since realized Enara and Ouyana were like two impossibly powerful cats; so long as you stroked their fur the right way, even the prickly Enara could be managed.
"Alright, what is it?" Enara interrupted, setting aside her discussion. Part of the deal in leaving a delegate was that Ben's own proposals would be given priority. "What do you want?"
"I need a fake Infinity Stone," Ben stated simply.
Enara and Ouyana both fell silent, a feat Ben hadn't thought possible.
"What do you want that piece of junk for?" Enara finally asked, genuinely bewildered. She was intimately familiar with the stones. Together, they were a powerful artifact within this universe, but that was the extent of it. In the grand scheme of things, they were trivial.
Ouyana was equally confused. "You only want one? And a fake one, at that?" She looked at Ben as if he had finally lost his mind.
Ben, however, was not stupid at all. He knew that asking them to simply gather all six real Infinity Stones for him was a monumental request—a "big deal" that would trigger endless debate and deliberation. But asking for a single, counterfeit Power Stone? That was so trivial, so cosmically insignificant, that it was beneath their notice. The two entities were like busy parents, and Ben was the child cautiously asking for a dollar. Wasting time on such a minor matter was more irritating than simply granting it.
"First," Ben clarified, pressing his advantage, "it needs to have power comparable to the real stone, but only for a short time. And second, I need to be able to turn it off at will, making it nothing more than a pretty rock."
That sealed it. The request was too small to argue about.
"Motion to give Ben six fake Infinity Stones," Ouyana said immediately, her tone that of a mother placating a child. "Agreed."
Enara gave her a sidelong glance, as if to say, Six, really? but she didn't object. "Agreed."
Ben was stunned by how smoothly it went. He looked at Delegate-Ben, who had been silent throughout the exchange. His clone just rolled his eyes. "Do I even need to say it? I'm you."
"Just go through the process," Ben urged.
Delegate-Ben sighed. "Agreed."
"The motion is passed," the four voices said in unison.
Six shimmering lights of different colors flashed before Ben's eyes, coalescing into six perfect, glowing replicas of the Infinity Stones.
"Take them and go play," Enara said dismissively, already turning her attention back to her previous topic. "Now, Proposal 3,580: Should we destroy and eliminate the fallen Elder Gods on Earth?"
Ben didn't stick around to listen. He had a very angry Kree to deal with.
He released the transformation, returning to the frozen sea of Morag, the six counterfeit stones now in his possession. He'd already formulated a taunt for the moment he revealed the fake. Having a little performance issue with your Power Stone? That felt right.
Outside, the hundred-meter-thick ice was groaning, about to shatter. He had to hurry.
Putting away the other five fakes, Ben transformed back into Big Chill. Phasing through the ice, he reached for the real Power Stone on Ronan's hammer. The moment his fingers made contact, the raw power of the universe flooded him. The pain was excruciating, a burning, tearing sensation like grabbing a white-hot piece of steel.
"Eunice, vibranium containment, now!" he commanded. His nano-tech suit immediately flowed off his body, morphing into a sphere that completely enveloped the real gem, cutting off the energy feedback. He then slammed the fake Power Stone into the empty slot on Ronan's hammer.
After completing the switch, he didn't linger. He phased out of the ice just as it exploded outward, and a red streak shot back into the sky.
Aboard the Sakaarian Messenger, the team had regrouped. Two of their members were missing, but three new, unwilling guests had joined them. The atmosphere was thick with confusion and overlapping questions.
Felicia looked at Peter. "Where's Ben?"
Steve scanned the ship. "Where's Bucky?"
Peter pointed at the captured Nebula and Gamora. "Who are these two?"
T'Challa pointed at Star-Lord. "And who is he?"
Only Venom seemed to be enjoying the chaos. It popped its head out from Peter's shoulder, looked at the two unconscious assassins, and said with a gloating hiss, "Look at all the new chew toys! Ben will be so pleased."
Peter smacked the symbiote's head back into his shoulder. "Ben's fighting that Kree fanatic," he explained. "And this idiot is named Star-Lord."
"I'm not an idiot!" Star-Lord protested.
"She's one of Thanos's daughters," Felicia said, gesturing to Nebula. T'Challa nodded toward Gamora, indicating she was the same.
Steve asked again, his voice tight with anxiety. "But what about Bucky?"
No one had an answer. But then, a calm, familiar voice crackled over the ship's comms. It was Bucky.
"I'm on the Kree fleet."
The bridge went silent. Everyone's face darkened.
Steve grabbed the comms panel, his knuckles white. "Bucky? Are you okay? Did they find you? Did they capture you?"
Miles away, aboard The Dark Aster, Bucky Barnes glanced at the carnage around him. Kree soldiers were strewn across the corridor. Rocket Raccoon was gleefully dismantling their cybernetic limbs, while Groot, his fingers extended into vines, was dragging all the bodies into a neat pile.
He was silent for a long moment.
If this was what being captured looked like…
"Negative, Steve," Bucky said, his voice a perfect deadpan. "I've captured a Kree spaceship. The rest of the fleet appears to be… unaware."
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