Green Arrow and Hawkeye were comparing archery: fixed targets, moving targets, from long range to close range, back and forth.
Zatanna and Scarlet Witch were exchanging notes on magic. Martian Manhunter and Professor X were sharing morning tea. Atom and Ant-Man were debating who could shrink smaller.
"Jean, you three... good morning." In the mess hall, Thea spotted the awkward trio. The three of them had almost certainly been up all night, though she didn't read anything untoward into it. Just a perfectly normal observation.
The three returned an awkward greeting. As a key combatant, Jean had to fight today. She'd changed into a red-and-black leather outfit with the X-Men insignia on her belt, hair draped over her shoulders. Her presence was sharper and colder than yesterday's.
Compared to the day before, she seemed a touch distant. Not a problem—this was an inevitable stage of early personality integration. Combat, especially against a powerful enemy, would accelerate the process.
"Ms. Queen, how far apart do the rings need to be to take effect?"
"Ms. Queen, how do we shut down the ring's cycle?"
"Ms. Queen, this ring..."
The two men rattled off seven or eight questions in quick succession. She answered each one patiently, then fled under their plaintive stares, dragging Diana with her.
On the way, she whispered the trio's situation to Diana. The warrior goddess burst out laughing. "So they'll just... stay like that?"
Thea scratched her cheek, thought about it, and offered an uncertain, "Probably..."
Still laughing, they strolled into the conference room. Today the heroes had assembled in full, ready for a fight to the death against Krona.
The Grandmaster's cloaking abilities were exceptional. He'd already slipped in ahead of them, waiting for their signal before joining the assault on Krona. The old fox's combat prowess might be questionable, but his talent for staying hidden hadn't dulled over the years.
The two groups each shouted a few rallying cries, then filed aboard Star-Lord's ship, the Dawn.
"Right here. Punch it!" Thea found a weak point in the spatial fabric. Star-Lord maxed out the ship's power output and aimed straight for empty void.
At sufficient energy, space gave way. The ship tore through the barrier and entered the convergence zone between the two universes.
Not far off, Galactus's remains still hung in the void. The heroes were in full combat gear. One final equipment check.
Krona wasn't alone. He'd gathered a substantial force of cosmic pirates and interstellar criminals—some from Marvel, some from DC—all bent to his will. Batman's surveillance drones, deployed during the last engagement, had relayed that intelligence.
The heroes needed to punch straight through to the central control zone, find Krona, and take him down.
A deafening crash—the ship hard-landed. The Dawn really was built to last; a near-suicidal ram left only minor damage.
The whoosh of flight cut through the air. The handful of heroes with vacuum survival and confidence in their speed had already left the ship ahead of the rest, clearing a landing zone.
Excalibur in hand, Thea was first to engage. An alien with a rhino-like head and a spider-like body caught the blade's arc and split clean in two. Dark-green pus-blood sprayed in every direction.
"For Asgard!" Only Thor could bellow that war cry without worrying about alien gore landing in his mouth. Thea wanted to ask—your Asgard is destroyed, you know that, right?
Heavy footsteps thundered. A green blur overtook her. The Hulk was ecstatic, smashing a thug with an energy gun to pieces with a single punch and barreling deeper without a second thought.
The remaining heroes brought everything they had. Spider-Man swung on weblines, muttering under his breath as he pushed forward. Batman had switched to a speed-type suit, trailing Spider-Man by half a step. The sorcerers each employed their own methods for rapid displacement—Doctor Strange covered hundreds of meters with every wave of his hand; Zatanna and Scarlet Witch had their own magical means.
Green Arrow drew startled looks from his new friend Hawkeye as he activated his armor. Thrusters blazing from his boots, Oliver rocketed after the vanguard.
Captain America, symbol of the American spirit of freedom, had none of these advantages. He could only run. Fast as he was, among a crowd of metahumans he looked outclassed.
Thea glanced at him and the handful of baseline heroes in the same boat—mostly Marvel's contingent; the DC side hadn't brought any non-powered fighters. She extended a hand. A pale-green glow enveloped their feet, and they surged forward—a Marvel-edition mass haste spell.
Krona's rank-and-file couldn't slow them. The combined force cut through like a blade. Thea and Diana formed one spearhead. Jean Grey, Wolverine, and Cyclops formed another. The Hulk was a spearhead all by himself—the three fastest assault groups.
The rest were either bound by no-kill principles or sprinting flat-out, too busy running to fight.
Galactus's interior wasn't structurally complex. Krona's modifications had been minimal; he hadn't invested much effort into the layout. The group pushed through the corridors and reached the central zone in short order.
"Krona, today is your last day!" Thea shouted the declaration, officially marking the start of the battle. Strictly speaking, she didn't have to, but it carried weight. The job was originally Captain America's, the designated voice of patriotic righteousness. Nobody had anticipated the strike team moving slightly too fast; Cap was still somewhere behind them, long legs pumping at full speed.
No matter. Thea figured she could carry that banner just as well. Declaration made, she brought Excalibur down in a vicious overhead strike.
The blade carried not just emotional energy but a measure of her own Pseudo-Phoenix Force.
The fusion between the two universes was accelerating. If there was a single silver lining, it was that she could now borrow a sliver of divine power of death from the other side.
Her understanding of life remained shallow. Her Pseudo-Phoenix Force was death blended with emotion—weaker than the original, but more intuitive in her hands.
This strike represented her absolute best. The sustained charge had built her momentum to its peak. Krona couldn't dodge. His right hand flared with golden light, and a massively thick barrier materialized in front of him.
Excalibur bit into the shield with unstoppable force. The first few centimeters parted like butter. Then resistance mounted—but Thea refused to relent, pressing harder, driving the blade down.
Krona couldn't evade. He was ruthless in his own right: he let Excalibur cut into him and simultaneously triggered his armor's counterstrike.
A white arc of electricity reared up like a dragon, clawing skyward, and slammed straight into Thea.
A searing hiss. Countless tendrils of energy crashed against her body. She barely managed to block with her vambrace before the arm guard and the liner beneath it vaporized. The massive current punched through, blasting a bloody hole in her arm about two fingers wide, the skin around it scorched an angry red.