"Yeah, so about that..." He chewed his lower lip awkwardly for a moment. "See, there was this hole to another dimension, called the Fault. And the Many-Angled ones had taken over the heroes there, so they were these undead monsters, like...like something outta Lovecraft. They tried to invade our universe to make it the same way -- and I mean they tried hard. We got even more people allying with us this time -- like the Shi'ar and Inhumans. It was that bad."
How did he explain the scale? How could he possibly explain it?
"I'm talking a giant death engine made of the corpse of their version of Galactus. We even lost some of the cosmic Abstracts, the, uh -- God, I don't even know how to explain them. Like Death. The Death. Is an abstract. They're so many leagues above us, beyond us, that --"
He broke off in frustration, lacking the skills to articulate some of the outrageous...scale he'd seen, as usual. Also, he was remembering watching the proemial god Aegis explode in a shower of gore and otherdimensional...cancer, remembering getting caught in the psychic backlash, feeling...things, seeing things no mortal being was really meant to feel or see as she died.
The uncomfortable little twitch on his face as he thought about it was unconscious -- and brief.
"It was bad. And it came down to me, Drax, and Starlord facing down a completely insane, omnicidal Thanos in a dying universe. We kept him there while...while the openings back home closed."
He swallowed thickly and caught Vance's eye. "The cosmic cube we had didn't run out of juice like we thought it would, and that meant it would've been damn near impossible to keep it out of Thanos' hands, out of the hands of the creepy undead Avengers in there." He drew in a deep breath. "That's how I lost my arm -- evil Cap hacked it right off with his shield. Anyway, I used the cube to get Drax and Starlord back to our universe, burned all the juice in it so they couldn't get their hands on it and burned up all the Nova Force with it. I tried to keep Thanos out of our universe so he was stuck there but I don't know if I pulled it off."
Moment of truth.
"Cause I didn't...I didn't get to see what happened next." A pause. "Because I maaaay have turned into a dimensional doorway and dissipated into energy." He did one of those awkward Rich shrugs, where only one shoulder rose and fell. "I don't know how I'm even here. I wasn't...it wasn't like I was just floating there. I was gone, Vance."
Okay, joke time.
"...Unless one of the X-Men just left the damn door open."
no subject
How did he explain the scale? How could he possibly explain it?
"I'm talking a giant death engine made of the corpse of their version of Galactus. We even lost some of the cosmic Abstracts, the, uh -- God, I don't even know how to explain them. Like Death. The Death. Is an abstract. They're so many leagues above us, beyond us, that --"
He broke off in frustration, lacking the skills to articulate some of the outrageous...scale he'd seen, as usual. Also, he was remembering watching the proemial god Aegis explode in a shower of gore and otherdimensional...cancer, remembering getting caught in the psychic backlash, feeling...things, seeing things no mortal being was really meant to feel or see as she died.
The uncomfortable little twitch on his face as he thought about it was unconscious -- and brief.
"It was bad. And it came down to me, Drax, and Starlord facing down a completely insane, omnicidal Thanos in a dying universe. We kept him there while...while the openings back home closed."
He swallowed thickly and caught Vance's eye. "The cosmic cube we had didn't run out of juice like we thought it would, and that meant it would've been damn near impossible to keep it out of Thanos' hands, out of the hands of the creepy undead Avengers in there." He drew in a deep breath. "That's how I lost my arm -- evil Cap hacked it right off with his shield. Anyway, I used the cube to get Drax and Starlord back to our universe, burned all the juice in it so they couldn't get their hands on it and burned up all the Nova Force with it. I tried to keep Thanos out of our universe so he was stuck there but I don't know if I pulled it off."
Moment of truth.
"Cause I didn't...I didn't get to see what happened next." A pause. "Because I maaaay have turned into a dimensional doorway and dissipated into energy." He did one of those awkward Rich shrugs, where only one shoulder rose and fell. "I don't know how I'm even here. I wasn't...it wasn't like I was just floating there. I was gone, Vance."
Okay, joke time.
"...Unless one of the X-Men just left the damn door open."