The whole room lit up with countless numbers of popping firecrackers, zillions of lines of electricity in multiple colors whipping through the air and over all the surfaces. All those lines inevitably converged on one of the oversized insect-snake aliens on their cushions over there, came together on her big crested head with the oversized needle-teeth, and drilled into her skull.

Her whole body writhed and twitched, and there was a pop as her eyes blew out from the steam of her overheated brain. The Brood Queen slumped as her liquified brains began to pour out of her eye sockets.

The Red Eyes fell back down, and Imahd’s Shield Khafir dimmed to normal. The other two Brood Queens hissed in shock and surprise at the reaction, their long tentacles undulating in agitation at being found out. The lightnings had crawled over them as well, cleaning them off, but only converged on the one.

“Some form of nanite?” Abdul asked sharply, glancing about.

“A biological sensor-passive variant, run telepathically by the dead one,” I agreed, standing there in the entryway and staring at the two queens remaining. The two Shi’ar honor guards standing at attention there looked at one another, as they’d been covered by the arcs of lightning, too...

“Guards, you are compromised. Report to medical for a full biological and nanite cleansing,” Professor Xavier told them grimly. There was a loud tromping as a full unit of Imperial soldiers in sealed armor came racing up behind us, wielding power-lances fully capable of punching through the best Brood bio-armor and pulverizing the excuse for meat within. Two of them escorted the infected soldiers away, and I also knew a full alarm was going out along the path these queens had taken, sensors were being readjusted, and Shi’ar general irritation with the Brood was increasing quickly.

But, it wasn’t like it was unexpected.

“Now that you’ve received our counter-argument, are negotiations concluded, or shall we continue?” I asked the queens still left alive.

While one of them certainly looked older and bigger, that idiot opening move meant these were young queens who had lost some political games, likely because a lot of their drones and bioships had become Acanti-food. As of right now, we could snuff them both without a care for diplomatic niceties, and the Shi’ar wouldn’t bat an eye, even if the rest of the place turned up clean... which was unlikely.

Yeah, it was likely these queens weren’t getting out of here alive, without a really good reason.

“Your instinctive attack upon us was expected,” the middle one sniffed, flicking away the matter after rephrasing it.

“As was your treacherous attempt at subversion and control,” I agreed, stepping inside. Xavier did follow, but stayed behind me and near the door. Imahd was just ahead of him and, while looking quite relaxed, the Shielder was actually watching everything with murderous intensity. The flick of a finger and Xavier would be out of here, a lot of power-armored Shi’ar soldiers would be in here, and these queens would have a bad last day.

“Get on with what you have to say,” I waved at them dismissively, clearly bored.

“Do you speak for the Acanti?” the main queen hissed, staring at me intently. I was in old ‘Dynamo warrior-goddess’ mode from the vids, not my gold-skinned self at the moment, so they doubtless recognized me.

“Sure,” I nodded, stopping at the other side of the table, but not bothering to sit down.

“They will wish to see this, then, along with the Shi’ar,” the sibilant hiss of the Queen sounded out, with a definitely smug accent to it. She gestured, and a map of the surrounding three galaxies went up, which included portions of the Shi’ar, Andromeda, and Triangulum, with a half-dozen minor galaxies in between.

“The Brood have long occupied territories in these places,” she hissed, lidless eyes narrowing as lights came up in several locations. “Due to the recent unprovoked attacks upon us, we will be forced to withdraw from them. We invite the Shi’ar and other species to enter them as they like.”

Oh ho!

I knew exactly what they were planning with that move, but my reaction was entirely unlike Xavier’s, who furrowed his brow as he also realized what was going on.

“Oh, WOW!” I exclaimed, freezing the two queens instantly. “Xavier, do you see that?” I pointed at the holo display. “They’re giving up! They’re asking the Acanti to eat them!” I turned back to the stunned queens. “Wow, that is really nice of you, it makes hunting you down and feeding on you so much easier, since you’re pulling back from the safe zones the Acanti set up for you. On behalf of the Acanti, I accept this magnanimous gesture, and I assure you that the speed at which the Acanti devour you all should at least double. Thank you for your help in this matter!”

They gawked at me.

“Safe zones?” Xavier asked into the strange silence.

“Oh, sure!” I pointed. “You see all those areas? The Brood have been carrying on genocidal warfare with some very aggressive races there. Now, the Quiggaol, the Zkkk’trx, the Maggi’Chonal, and the Oolaguival, not to mention the Elder Race, aren’t any threat to the Acanti, who’ve flown through their systems untouched for ages. The Mi-Go are arseholes, however.

“But the Brood are pulling out of all those areas that the Acanti were letting them live in! This is great! The Acanti can feed on them to their heart’s content!”

The Brood Queens’ body language was paralyzed. The conflict zones with other races... were safe zones from the Acanti? They were treating the Brood there... like herded cattle?

But... the Acanti wouldn’t raid them there?

There was a hasty flick of tentacles, and the image vanished. “We have misspoken...” the queen there lisped hurriedly. “We were thinking of inviting in other empires to aid in our defense against the aggressors invading our territories. After all, their mindless ambitions will surely threaten other established powers.”

“You should totally do that. Let the Brood run away, the Acanti will eat them, everyone will be happy,” I assured Xavier, not looking at the Brood. “And then, those races will have to wonder about the wisdom of invading the areas the Acanti devoured clean of the Brood, and if they want to piss off the Acanti like the Brood have.

“Those races really haven’t had any run-ins with the Acanti, except the Mi-Go. They might be a little surprised when they find out the Acanti ate all the Brood, and if the Acanti indicate they might want to stop advancing past such-and-such place, they might just pay attention.

“And you know, trusting the Brood to guard your flanks is like rank stupidity. They are raiding your populations and resources so they can fight those guys. Why don’t you just do it yourselves instead of sacrificing hundreds of thousands of your own people, or your planets and systems, to do the same thing? Do you really think the Brood are better at it than you are?”

Xavier had his fingers steepled, and a small smile on his face as he considered all that. The Brood Queens did not look encouraged. “I confess to the fact that the Shi’ar know little of those regions, albeit some dangerous forces are out there. This is likely true for the Skrulls and Kree, as well. It would be of great benefit if the Acanti could provide some relevant strategic information about those civilizations...”

I waved my hand, ignoring the Brood queens gaping at all this. “Done. The Acanti have been everywhere and seen everything. They saw these parasites come in from another dimension way back when, and promptly attack their ancestors for food and enslavement. They have no place in this universe. Let the Acanti eat them up, and everything will be fine.”

“Well, we have no problems with this state of affairs,” Xavier agreed leisurely, turning his gaze on the Brood Queens. “If you like, I can contact the representatives of the other major powers and alert them to this change of affairs.” Meaning he totally would, because if the Brood swarmed into the safe zones, their raiding of nearby planets and shipping would naturally increase.

If they didn’t, suddenly the empires were getting new territory and would have to deal with the races on the other side who had been fighting the Brood. They might not WANT that, but it was true they were effectively paying the Brood to do the job in the lives of their people, anyway. Who says they wouldn’t be better off?

What was true was that none of that really concerned the Acanti, but they’d been ‘nice’ about not attacking the Brood who were doing ‘a job’, which meant they HAD been considering those races and empires while munching away on the Brood forces.

Diplomatic leverage!

Still, the news about the conflict zones was something the Brood simply had not realized, too focused on how they were being munched apart everywhere else to realize where it was NOT happening.

Who was more dangerous to them, the Acanti, or those various races?

Who... was more dangerous to those races?

I could see the realization setting in. The universe could be a cold, unfriendly, and uncaring place. It was definitely the kind of place the Brood could fit themselves into.

Now that cold unfriendliness was focusing on them. Hungrily. They’d always had the mindset of predators after coming here, but now they were the prey, and the Acanti had big, BIG appetites. The Brood were not even native to this universe, and so the Acanti didn’t have to feel the slightest bit guilty in getting rid of them. They didn’t belong here, anyway.

Also, cold hard payback was a bitch, too. The Acanti might have been able to let them go once they could defend themselves, but now that eating the Brood and their enslaved bioships was beneficial? Well, time to munch them down!

The Brood had no friends, and no allies. There were partners of convenience (who in the end were just more deluded prey) and outright enemies, that was it. Not a single empire out there was going to lift a finger to help them, as they didn’t want to piss off the Acanti, either. The space-whales had been around forever, and simply did not cause problems, at times even being helpful to random folk, and were much beloved by spacers as a general rule.

“Perhaps the Acanti would care to share the borders they do not care to venture past?” the Brood Queen hissed rather lamely. “I am sure there are interested parties that would like to know where the limits of their responsibilities lie.”

“Sure, I’ll see to it those empires are informed,” I agreed with her. “Why, you planning to do a mass exodus into those safe zones?” My voice dropped slightly. “It’s really easier if you run. The Acanti are everywhere. They’ve been traveling this universe since before Galactus woke up. Anywhere you flee to, they’ve already been to, and likely are already there. Having you run away will be just like setting up a buffet table, helping them pick you off the more easily. There’s been a lot of Acanti calves born in the last couple of years, and they all need to grow. Surely you won’t deny them the chance to get bigger more quickly, right?”

There was nothing the Brood loved more than enslaving large Acanti. However, all the Acanti now seemed to be immune to their slaver viruses and biowarfare, and the Acanti were growing bigger rapidly, increasing their strength and dreaded Song, by eating the Brood and their bioships!

“When the gluttony of the Acanti turns on other races, what will they do then?” the queen hissed, dancing around an answer. “Do they truly think that we will be the only targets of their hunger?”

“I imagine what will happen is that the Acanti will go back to doing what they’ve been doing for the past few billion years, before some extra-dimensional invaders came in and started attacking them. The number of sapient races the Acanti have had difficulties with can be counted on two of my hands. The numbers they’ve seen rise and fall with no conflicts at all number more than the stars in this galaxy.

“The history of Acanti not fighting those who do not mess with them goes back further than the existence of your species, and almost every species alive in this universe. I think everyone will know whose history to trust. We certainly do.”