It's another 100 issue milestone, so time for the Author's centennial appeal!

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Now, on with the story!

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Fedora had even brought along a Mentor helm along from the Nova Corps for that very purpose, spending over two hundred years of real time going through the Xandaran technology build-up over the last hundred thousand years, figuring it all out, and then turning her attention to everything from Badoon to Skrull to Kree to Shi’ar technology and beyond, sussing everything out, understanding the foundations and applications and differences... and then starting to make the adjustments for human technology.

Who says you can’t use a mystic war to aid in the advance of technology?

Unfortunately, she didn’t have the Legendary Ranks to truly get into the Celestial technology, or some of that shown by the Elders, Eternals, and the like. That said, the foundations for what she had done were so solid that it was moot.

Stark was going to be so envious.

All of that was above and beyond them working on Legendary magical items, or simply multiple less powerful ones at the very apex of mortal ability. When you’ve time and gold, there’s no reason not to, and they’d brought along thousands of tons of the stuff each to Burn through over time. I’d have to go searching through the planet’s mantle for more, although needing large supplies of Gear for all of us was now a thing of the past...

The pure Karma earned was not actually all that high, because of the Timeless and Transient nature of the conflict. It wasn’t really intended to be lethal, instead being a competition of skill, intelligence, influence, and recognition... and our assortment of Sorcerers had succeeded wildly in that, to the point Farallah and Krakkan of the Octessence were severely put out by not having their own wildly gifted servants representing them in the War, having had to make due with far more typical servants.

Everybody now had an Epic Implement and Ring, at the least. The plethora of support magic items we had was, eh, impressive, as well as those we could hand out, or had made for last-minute requests from certain parties. A hundred Rings of Sustenance was nothing to make over a thousand years with downtime between fights, after all...

As for Karma... seven times the Karma needed to break into the Eternal. Added to that Dealer and I had made ourselves and through the others, and it had paid for the other two Tranches for me, so basically opening everyone up who had their own souls for all three Tranches.

It was also enough to pay for all my Golden Child Stat Buffs. I did so, but I didn’t engage them. I was pretty sure they were at least +10 to my mental Stats, and I wasn’t ready for a mental expansion like that. The physical side of things, eh. It was basically freeing up some of the energy from my Ultra Core.

I would have to figure out what my Levels were going to be in, and the Feats and Masteries I was going to take, although I also sprouted another Golden Child Level on its own, taking me to /15 there...

The Fantastic Four had reached Triple Sixteens, including in their Avatar Classes, making them truly among the most formidable Terran heroes alive.

Among other things, Ben had also mastered the bass and the trombone, Frankie the guitar and drums, Reed the piano and the glass armonica, and Susan the harp and the flute.

Their biggest benefit was that the Legendary Ceiling was paid for on one Tranche, their ‘reward’ for serving in the War. They still had to make Twenty, but that step beyond was already paid for, and such a thing was inevitable for the Fantastic Four.

Their Clones all naturally elected to join the Alternity Watch teams after being updated from their Primes, taking their Elemental Circle in a new direction, while still being available for mutual updates and back-up if needed.

Now there was just to resolve a few outstanding problems...

---------

“I’ll have you know I’m still unsure about this being the best move, but I’m trusting you.”

The silken-haired, green-blazed Freya Munroe just laughed softly. “You know it’s cruel to lock up someone with that level of power, for both us and him. I guess I was figured to be the best way for him to live vicariously.”

“We’ll see.” Sama bent down and hauled away a dense block of nihilaen that had to weigh close to a thousand tons, leisurely drawing it aside to reveal the statue of a man curled up in the corner of the small area concealed below, formerly hidden by the nihilaen.

“Does that prick in the thaumind really have its eyes set on Malloy here?” Sama’s eyes were sympathetic as she looked at the petrified reality warper, his expression of torment still apparent, and his psychic trauma still testing the Torc around his neck.

“Kwannon caught some stray thoughts while she was interrupting its third attempt to set up a vortex there. It wants a powerful mortal host, and a reality warper would be ideal. With his fractured mind, Mr. Malloy would be perfect, and it’s been trying to find him.”

“Well, I wasn’t worried about him. Who else were you thinking of?”

“Euroforce is hunting down the remnants of Proteus.”

Sama sighed and rolled her eyes. “More of Xavier’s mistakes coming back to haunt us...!”

“I chalk that one up to MacTaggert, who is the height of uselessness,” Freya replied, lifting out the statue with telekinesis from her Ring Seed. “Euroforce is hunting down the Remnants, and running into Crux teams as they do.” The two met eyes, rolled them in tandem, and looked at the floating statue of Malloy.

“Well, do what you have to,” Sama waved, and Freya nodded, reaching out to touch the stony head of the petrified man.

Silver sparked on her fingers, and the magic keeping him in Stone Stasis washed away, restoring him to flesh and bone, and bringing his mind out of its timeless fugue and back to crushing reality.

She felt the instant pulse against her fingers, a terrible killing pressure trying to reach out and warp reality in a pulse of obliteration, an instinctive reflex against the fact he’d been imprisoned and locked away, as petulant and automatic as a child. It hit the Interdiction from the circlet on his neck and failed completely, which only made more pulses instantly start jumping around and pressing at the walls about his mind and body, trapping him in reality.

Only this time, he could scream, and was just about to start doing so when the Tats on her back flared, magic poured down over him, and he was drawn away and into the Tat, Sealed and Bound.

Freya exhaled sharply as her magic bore down on the uncontrolled Reality Warper’s soul. He had great amounts of power, but not quality of it, and the mind controlling it was fractured and unstable, unable to cope with the reality and limits of his own ability. He could not stop her as she bore down on him, infiltrated his mind, and despite all his instinctive attempts to drive her off and protect himself from her, she cut through it all to the heart of his power, and calmly removed it from him.

His mind jerked as the overwhelming feeling of being weighed down and pressured by the universe evaporated. The shock rendered him completely unconscious in pure relief, and she bound him up in soft weaves of Hope and Valor, something to give him courage and the will to recover, and left him there inside her.

---

Freya opened her eyes to meet Sama’s, exhaling once. “That is the mind of a man who was never meant to have power,” she murmured sadly, shaking her head. “I would not be surprised if his own nature is why his power never manifested until so late.”

“We agree on that,” Sama nodded. She reached down, idly swept her hand forward, and the massive block of completely energy-inert nihilaen was dragged back into place. “Can you access his ability?”

“Not yet, but I’ve removed it from him. However, it is integrating into my Core. I believe I’ll have to get my Core to the same level as his own to sustain use of it, as well as keep its own functions. So, at least 850, probably 900 or more.”

“He was registered at 864. If you want to attune to his abilities, it’s not going to leave a lot left over for Core abilities. Probably at Core Six or Seven tops, and that’s if you max it out at 1000,” Sama said, eying the dark-skinned, green-eyed Munroe in front of her. “Which one are you, if you don’t mind? I know you all have your quirks.”

Freya smiled winningly. “Well, I’m the farmer!” she explained calmly.

Sama lifted an eyebrow. “Really.” She turned, and they both started walking out of there down the long stone tunnel, albeit as fast as a man could run. “Well, that’s why I haven’t heard of you. Where are you living?”

“I run a farm in eastern Wyoming Territory. The Storm Ranch.”

Sama didn’t stop, but she did sigh and pinch the bridge of her nose. “And a vineyard, and a horse ranch, and cattle and sheep and goats and pigs...”

“Oh, you have heard of me!” Freya smiled.

“Gah! You’ve already introduced four new breeds of livestock, Awakened horses and dogs, and that From the Southern Slopes is a really good bottle of wine.”

Freya beamed. “Thanks! Had Anning’s help on it, she’s much better at the brewing side of things. I just work with the animals and the plants.”

“Storm-grown produce. I saw that valley you’re messing with the weather with...”

“Ah, it’s minor, and helps me grow citrus trees.”

“You’re growing oranges the size of volleyballs!”

“Ah, you’ve had one? How’d it taste?”

“Disgustingly good. What are you using?”

“Natural alchemy of the highest order, of course!” Freya grinned proudly. “Of course, the twenty Ranks in the appropriate skills all help...”

Sama just sighed. “What are you planning to do with Malloy’s power?” she inquired fatalistically.

“Probably nothing, unless I have to. I’m a farmer. I’ll fight if I have to, but I just want to watch my fields and orchards and animals grow, you know?”

“I’ll have some things for you to work on with his power once you activate it. How are you fueling your Core?”

“Slowly, to be honest. Nature magic on a Theurgy Level. Anything I don’t use on the farm goes into the Core, Druidic Reserves keep a constant flow into it. It’ll be years before I hit Core Nine, even with a hollow Ten Core, and I’m extremely uninterested in pushing it by draining the Land.”

“But you’ve a Caster Level halfway to the moon,” Sama half-asked, and Freya could only nod reluctantly.

“Storm has me on Weather because of her mutant powers, but in pure Nature Magic, I’m the best of us.”

“Which means you’re the best on the planet.” Sama held up her hands as they exited the thousand-foot tunnel in the side of a random mountain in the Continental Divide. Freya reached out politely and powered up the Seal on the mountainside there. An instant later, the entire tunnel closed in, and there was no sign it was ever there at all, leaving the two standing in mid-air alongside a sheer mountain wall.

“Conjure up a ball of Natural Magic. I’m aware you all have a Pocket Universe where you store excess energy for constant conversion. A Reserve is not enough to keep up with your potential Ten Core conversion speed, correct?”

“That is correct,” Freya agreed, swirling her hands, and a rich emerald globe of natural energy, brimming with multiple Elements that swirled with the Green and Brown, appeared above her hand.

Sama gave it a glance. “Ah, resonates with Nature Elementals, nice.” She flipped out Tremble, and as casually as ever, punched the blade of her Sword through the green globe and right into the startled Freya’s hand.

The pommel on the Sword of the most dangerous woman in the world unwound like a rose opening, revealing a ruby Stone therein. It pulsed exactly once.

Freya felt like the whole planet shifted under her feet as a stupefyingly immense amount of energy, exactly the mix of the Orb in her hand, only magnified a million times or more, swept down her links to the Pocket and appeared there.

“That should speed things up, right?” Sama asked, withdrawing Tremble. The Orb of Natural Energy was naturally gone as well.

The wound in Freya’s hand healed almost instantly, of course, nothing more than a precise cut mended almost as easily as it was inflicted. “Yes. It should triple the speed,” she analyzed quickly. “Wow!” Freya smiled cheerfully. “Now all of us with Weird Cores are going to be sidling over here to get Pocket Reserves of that size!”

“It’s a recent trick I learned. Highly abusable.”

“Stick a planet, release a sun?” Freya guessed calmly.

“Or a supernova, or more.” Sama smiled grimly. “Control is very important.”

“The other Gems provide the infinite amounts of control, I assume, turning the infinite power into more control of the power,” Freya nodded, waving at Tremble. “I’m assuming that some of your testing of your limits involved collapsing some of the planar realms of idiots out in The Mess?”

Sama gave her a sidelong glance. “You people really are too smart,” she snorted. “Yes. Knowing what you are capable of with this thing is not the same as being able to control the power. An overly clever bastard could crack the universe with this toy, unleashing something they can’t control.” The crimson Stone disappeared under the pommelcap again, and Tremble was sheathed calmly.

“It’s really nerve-wracking carrying this thing around, even if I can chop a star in half!” Tremble piped up from behind Sama, and Freya could only agree...