Jay stood on his side of the arena and looked at all of it for a long time before looking at his side.
Eternity stood there, boundless and galaxy-chested, a living universe taking a side. Infinity, vast and contained, the Queen of Nevers, steady and watching him with that expression she wore when she was waiting to see what he was going to do, the Phoenix Force with fire tracing patterns along whatever surface it rested on, the Natural Order of Things, geometric and precise, Lord Chaos already vibrating with something that wasn't quite anticipation and not quite joy but held elements of both, and Mistress Love, warm in a way that pushed back against the weight of everything assembled against them.
And Domino stood at his left, arms loose at her sides, the AK still slung across her shoulder while the Death Stone caught light from the golden equalization field and threw it back in violet. Her expression was the one she wore when she had already made her decisions and was now simply executing them, not afraid, not even particularly concerned, just ready.
And Luv stood behind them with Bonk pressed against his leg, five years old and watching everything with those blue eyes that had cried all the tears they had and were now simply open and taking it in. The brightness was starting to come back into his face, hesitant but real, the look of a child beginning to understand that the people he loves aren't giving up.
Jay looked at Oblivion's side again, then looked at his side.
Oblivion was smiling and not hiding it.
Domino put her hand on Jay's shoulder, not gripping, not pulling him back, just there.
"Calm down, hon."
"I am calm."
"You're doing the jaw thing."
"What jaw thing."
"The jaw thing where you're calculating how hard you need to hit someone for them to feel it through whatever hole they came from."
He breathed out through his nose before saying, "We are significantly outnumbered."
"Yeah, but we've got incoming," she said in the way she said things when she already knew the answer and was watching him arrive at it. He looked at her, then looked up because she was looking up, and across the arena the air was changing.
Portals opened, dozens at first, then more, then enough that the count stopped mattering and what remained was the impression of every doorway in existence deciding to deliver something at the same time.
Wade Wilson came through sideways, immediately fell over, got up, and pointed at the assembled cosmic entities with both index fingers while in full suit with two katanas and a burrito he had apparently refused to put down for the transit, his mask already up at the nose so he could keep eating.
"YEAH BABY!" Wade announced to the assembled gallery of cosmic entities while gesturing broadly with the burrito. "Okay, quick scan of the room. Big shadow void-guy, three-faced judge, ancient Celestials, Elders of the Universe, and what I can only describe as the abstract personification of things that should not be able to punch, which is fantastic, love it. Who gets chimichangaed first? I vote the big shadow guy since he's got the whole needs a hug, will receive violence instead energy and I volunteer to deliver. Also, if anyone's keeping score, yes, I did just come through a portal carrying a burrito, and no, I will not be explaining myself."
Jay felt something in his chest do something complicated because Wade was here, Wade had come.
Behind him came the Mercs for Money with Gorilla Man dropping into a combat crouch, already in motion before his portal finished closing, Hit-Monkey arriving with the specific silence of something that had identified three targets and was formulating approach angles, Machine Man's mechanical limbs extending to their full reach, and then Masacre stepping through with his machetes already drawn, looking at the assembled forces of cosmic oblivion with the calm assessment of a former priest who had concluded long ago that the world deserved punishment.
"Esto es lo que es," Masacre said while surveying the opposition with what could only be described as professional satisfaction. "Hay mucho que necesita arreglarse aqui."
Wade turned to Jay and translated, "He says this is exactly what it is and there's a lot here that needs fixing, though in fairness, he says that about most situations since it's kind of his whole thing."
Jay did the count, maybe fifteen people so far while Oblivion had hundreds.
Reed Richards stepped through with the posture of a man who had been running calculations for the last twenty minutes and was dissatisfied with the margin of error but had committed to the action anyway. Sue was half a step behind, already generating a force field that expanded to cover the immediate area, Johnny Storm came through hot with a trail of fire marking his entry, and then the floor cracked.
Ben Grimm landed in the arena with a sound like a tenement building settling all at once before cracking his knuckles with the unhurried confidence of someone who has been waiting for the correct application of force for a very long time.
"Whatta revoltin' development," Ben said while surveying Oblivion's assembled forces with the expression of a man who has seen worse and is not impressed. "Grey Aliens, Celestials, Elders an' some kinda foul-creature that looks like it's never been punched in its whole existence." He rolled his massive shoulders and added, "Well, there's a first time for everything. It's clobberin' time."
"Ben," Reed said quietly.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, Reed. Save th' big speech." Ben flexed his rocky fists and grinned under all that orange before declaring, "I been sayin' that since day two, and it ain't stopped bein' true yet."
Thirty people, maybe forty with the Mercs, still outnumbered ten to one.
Scott Lang came through in full Ant-Man gear, shrinking and expanding rapidly in the way that meant he was anxious but channeling it into motion while Hope was right behind him, and Hank Pym came last of the family and moved in a way that suggested a man who had been waiting for an appropriate target for a very specific kind of anger.
The Ancient One stepped through a sling ring portal of her own making with Wong at her shoulder, and behind them came every master she had assembled at Kamar-Taj. Jay's throat went tight at the sight of the sorcerers, the people who had kept Luv safe, who had trained with him, who had taught him magic while his parents were gone, and they were furious. He could see it in how they moved, combat-ready and carrying the rage of people who have had their student taken from their protection.
Mordo was among them and looked at Jay with the expression of a man who had complicated feelings about many things and had decided, for the next few hours, to set all of them aside.
Sixty, maybe seventy total, though the numbers weren't moving fast enough.
Then came the golden heroes with YagFoOad coming through already filming, because of course he was. Behind him came a schoolteacher from Tokyo with six arms she now knew how to use, a nurse from Manchester whose hands still carried warmth from healing work, a firefighter from London who had grown wings once, briefly, and had been ready since for the next time, all ordinary people from the golden light broadcasts who had accepted borrowed power in the moment of someone else's need, who had felt what it was like to be strong enough to help, and had answered the call again.
Rachel Morrison came through in her broadcasting blazer as the woman who had helped coordinate the Titan rescue, who had seen what Jay and Domino were trying to build and decided it was worth protecting.
Jay counted maybe a hundred and twenty now, still badly outnumbered.
He heard a familiar sound and turned to see Bobby there with Max and the rest, looking simultaneously terrified and absolutely determined. Bobby gave Jay a look that communicated several things at once, the primary one being you didn't think we were going to sit this out, did you?
Jay opened his mouth, then closed it while his eyes burned though he refused to let it show, but Bobby saw it anyway and nodded once, which was enough.
More portals opened.
"Heroes!" The call came from multiple voices at once as Reed's tactical baritone and Scott Lang's determined shout overlapped into something that sounded like a battle cry that had been waiting for the right moment.
Captain America came through first with his shield on his arm and his jaw set in the particular way that meant he had already run the ethical calculus and arrived at a conclusion. Natasha was right behind him with Clint and Sam Wilson with his wings already spread, while Bucky Barnes looked at the Celestials with the expression of a man who had fought Nazis and decided cosmic entities weren't fundamentally different. More Avengers came, more heroes from teams Jay half-recognized and some he didn't, all spreading across his side of the arena.
"Assemble!"
The sound they made wasn't the roar of the cosmic gallery but something different, smaller and less abstract and considerably more deliberate, the sound of boots on impossible ground, shields settling, people who had come because they were asked to and because the thing being asked of them was worth coming for.
Jay stood in the middle of it with maybe two hundred people total against Oblivion's thousands, and he felt something he hadn't expected, which was hope.
Then the ground rumbled, not the combat-ready kind but the old kind, coming from deep inside things and moving upward through everything, the kind that meant something fundamental was participating.
Green light and gold light together with the specific glow of life that predated civilization, ten thousand growing seasons compressed into one moment.
Gaea came, not fully, not physically, not in the way that would have required negotiations about what happened when an earth goddess materially entered the Dimension of Manifestations, but her presence was there, immense and green and ancient, the kind of old that doesn't need to announce itself because it is in the ground underfoot and the air and the pulse of everything that has ever grown.
She was with them the way she had always been with every human who had ever planted a seed or protected a child, quietly and without condition, and she had chosen this side because the boy they were defending was five years old and loved dinosaurs and had been told he didn't deserve to exist. Gaea, who had watched every human child since the first one drew breath, had opinions about that.
Jay felt it in the soles of his feet and took a slow breath before letting it out.
He looked at Luv and saw the brightness coming back into his son's face, hesitant but real, the specific brightness of a child who has been told through actions rather than words that he is worth this.
He looked at Domino, and she was already looking at him.
"Right, so Fury actually showed up," Jay said.
"Yep."
"Reed Richards is standing in this arena, and the Fantastic Four are here."
"With the Avengers, yeah."
"Even JJJ is here! I'm going to need a minute to let my brain catch up to that."
"Later," she said, and the corner of her mouth did the thing.
Across the arena, Oblivion regarded the assembled humans and heroes and ordinary people with the expression of something genuinely trying to determine whether it was watching courage or absurdity before landing, reluctantly, on both at the same time.
Wade was already doing something inadvisable with his burrito.
The Living Tribunal rose to his full height.
The golden equalization field settled into everything and everyone in the arena with the finality of a starting gun.
"The Trial by Combat is sanctioned," the Tribunal said while his voice reached into every consciousness present and left no room for ambiguity. "Let it be understood that the outcome binds all parties to the verdict, and what is decided here will not be subject to revision."
He looked at both sides with all three of his faces, at both sides, simultaneously.
"Begin."
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