saviorgoddessastrid:

fleet-admiral-red‌:

Still the barrier held, and Yellow had taken a few shots of her own at the Giants.

At full power, her Caduceus pistol released lances of golden-white fury that blasted many angry, boiling craters deep into the skin of the Giants. But the Giants had answered with some return fire of their own, hammering away at the barrier.

It continued to hold, but Yellow had a sinking feeling the large beings were going to try more heavier assaults. If they had any magic attacks that equaled artillery in strength, then it would start to be troublesome.

True to Yellow’s suspicions, one of the Fire Giants cast a spell towards the group.  A meteor began to fall down from the sky right towards them.  “Disperse!” Thrud yelled as the convoy quickly broke ranks to avoid getting flattened under a meteor.  This time, Thrud fired off some of her own magic, using a Holy Drive to fire off lightning bolts at the Fire Giants.

There was little time. Yellow swept her hand up, reshaping the shield wall into a flat plane and reinforcing it with both her suit’s energy reserves and her force of will.

The healer grimaced and braced herself. At that high a velocity, the blast yield of that meteor had to be in the multi-megatons.

She could only block it once. And not again for a while.

Even so, nothing prepared Yellow for the blinding light and sheer force of impact. The meteor obliterated itself upon smashing into her shield plane, the golden barrier shattering along with it into a rain of particles as Yellow screamed in pain from the psychic feedback.

And so she fell, ungraciously plummeting and crashing onto Thrud’s vehicle.

“I’m…sorry.” Yellow weakly said as she forced herself to sit up, her head feeling like it had taken a railgun impact. She could already see the Fire Giants preparing another attack. “Suit’s low on…power.”

saviorgoddessastrid:

fleet-admiral-red‌:

Serina had her own plans for what was to be her faith.

She certainly had every intention of keeping them on a tight societal leash. The Initiative had kept religion out of the public sphere for decades, and she would not start intruding upon it now. Any worship was to remain a strictly personal matter, not one meant for society.

Astrid’s comments on Domains and Afterlives was marked for clarification. Still, no time like the present.

“You spoke of Domains and choosing an afterlife for those who worship me. These are active choices?” the hypermind inquired.

“That they are,” Astrid answered.  “A bit of paperwork needs to get filled out to make it all official, but you can select which Primary Domain you have and you can build your own afterlife.  Just do be warned, your Primary Domain, once selected, can’t be changed, and you’ll gain power relative to your Primary Domain, so make sure it’s a broad-reaching topic.”

Were she a normal mind, Serina’s consideration on her choice of Domain would have taken several minutes.

But she was a transapient. Running through and choosing the most applicable of themes or concepts she could have influence over took merely a few picoseconds. To any observers of the conversation, she would have appeared to reply instantly.

“Done. If it is applicable, my Domain shall be that of technology. In all its forms and levels.”

A fairly obvious choice for her, really. Innumerable beings used technology in one way or another. She herself was born of it.

saviorgoddessastrid:

fleet-admiral-red‌:

“Peace isn’t an achievement, Astrid.” Red replied to the empty air while standing up and looking around. “It’s a responsibility.”

True, he could have used the Gauntlet’s power to achieve lasting peace. But if he could use it for such an act, another would have committed unspeakable atrocities.

Better that this power be destroyed than let anyone alive wield it.

Whoever this ‘Thanos’ was, Red hoped he never met him.

“If this is the kind of power you wield, Astrid, I trust no one except you with it. The Q withdrew from interacting with the universe to avoid misusing their power. Did you ever consider doing the same, in the past?”

“I did end up withdrawing from interacting with everyone once,” Astrid answered.  “It was because I was suffering from severe burnout from helping people.  However, the end result of my actions was the start of the Crusades.  Even if I myself wasn’t using my power, or actively calling myself a goddess, others strongly believed in my divinity, and they believed in me so strongly they went to war over worship of me.”

Astrid let out a sigh, thinking things over some more.  “It was thanks to the Crusades that I realized that I can’t just run away from my position.  This power I wield can’t just be ignored like anything else, as much as I’d sometimes prefer the ability to ignore it.  So, I simply choose to wield my power to help others.”

Astrid put on a smile and opened up a portal to bring Red over to her Throne Room in the Temple.  “Still, you’ve passed the test with flying colors.  It was honestly quite a relief to see you make the choice you did, even if it wasn’t what I had expected.”

As Red passed through the portal to enter the Throne Room, he shook his head with some slight amusement.

“You see now, why my colleagues and I ceded power to the Assembly? We have made flawed decisions in the past in the Initiative’s name. Much blood has been shed. You know what I’m talking about.”

Stepping out into the Throne Room proper, he spread his hands. “Better that this power be taken out of our hands.”

As he saw Astrid appear before him, Red laced his hands behind his back. “This…Thanos. Please, tell me about him. What you said about wiping out half the universe…troubles me.”

saviorgoddessastrid:

fleet-admiral-red‌:

It was another one of those days. Days when the unexplainable happened to him or those around him.

So when Red found himself with the strange gauntlet on his left arm and that message left by Astrid, the very first thing he did was just to sit down in a corner and look the thing over.

A frown came over Red as he turned the Gauntlet this way and that, looking at each of the strange glowing stones. Could it really do absolutely anything?

He wasn’t prepared for his mind to suddenly be flooded with information.

To be able to sense every corner of the observable universe, every large star and infinitesimal cosmic string. Touch the raw fabric of spacetime. See the roiling, bubbling quantum fluctuations of reality’s most fundamental layers. Feel and know the minds of uncountable hundreds of thousands of septillions.

To wield levels of energy beyond the grasp of even Serina’s supercluster-wide Enclave Network. To stretch or even reverse time, toy with causality as if it were putty.

When he finally took another breath, Red looked again at the gauntlet. There was no longer any doubt.

The Initiative’s mandate, their entire reason for existence…could be achieved overnight. No more war, no more hatred, no more unjust suffering.

Peace and prosperity…for all minds.

Red now knew how the Q and Astrid herself felt. Such power was beyond the comprehension of most beings.

But as soon as the euphoria of knowledge had come, so too did realization. This Gauntlet had granted him effective omnipotence, no doubt through the combined use of those glowing stones.

Red took a breath. He’d made his mind up on the very first thing he would do with it. If Astrid meant to test him, no doubt she was watching.

If she wanted him to play around with reality, then the least he could do was mimic the Q.

He raised the Gauntlet a little, gazing at it for a brief second as all six stones glowed.

Snap…

For a moment that seemed like eternity, nothing had changed. Then in an instant, the six stones disintegrated into light, before the Gauntlet itself fell into dust. A sigh was all he made as he looked at the pile that had been the Gauntlet.

“No one should ever hold this power.”

“…Admittedly not the response I expected,” Astrid mentioned telepathically.  She had expected Red to hold onto this power and act to gaining the peace he so desired.  Though admittedly, it was nice to see that he wasn’t going to abuse the power either.  “Still, I suppose there are worse responses than just destroying the Gauntlet and the Stones.  I suppose I should be grateful you didn’t go Thanos and destroyed half the universe out of some nonsensical idea of ‘balance’.”

“Peace isn’t an achievement, Astrid.” Red replied to the empty air while standing up and looking around. “It’s a responsibility.”

True, he could have used the Gauntlet’s power to achieve lasting peace. But if he could use it for such an act, another would have committed unspeakable atrocities.

Better that this power be destroyed than let anyone alive wield it.

Whoever this ‘Thanos’ was, Red hoped he never met him.

“If this is the kind of power you wield, Astrid, I trust no one except you with it. The Q withdrew from interacting with the universe to avoid misusing their power. Did you ever consider doing the same, in the past?”

saviorgoddessastrid:

@fleet-admiral-red

It was another peaceful day on Eden.  All the citizens of the GDI were going about their daily lives.  However, there was about to be a surprise unleashed on one of them.  Fleet Admiral Red, the Commanding Fleet Admiral of the GDI, was going to go through a test devised by Astrid, though he was not aware of it.

A dimensional warp appeared under his feet as he fell through it, depositing him in what looked like a parallel dimension.  Indeed, most everything looked the same, except for the fact that his left hand now had an elaborate golden gauntlet with multiple powerful magic gemstones placed on it.

There was a note attached to the gauntlet, a holographic message recorded by Lady Astrid.  “Yo Red!” Astrid said once the message began.  “So, I’ll admit that I’ve been kinda wondering what kind of morals you truly have, so I decided that it’s time that I give you a proper test of your morals.

“That gauntlet you have is called the Infinity Gauntlet.  I dropped you off in a parallel dimension, and I want to see what you’ll do with this thing.  In case you’re wondering what the gauntlet can do, the answer is ‘anything’.  It’s got enough power in it to allow you to warp reality to your leisure.

“You’re free to do whatever you want with this thing.  I’m just interested in seeing what you’ll do when you have access to this kind of power.  Once I’ve seen enough, I’ll tell you what the results of this test are.”  The holographic Astrid winked at Red.  “Don’t worry, everything you do in this dimension isn’t going to be dangerous.  So go as wild as ya want with this power.  I will say though, you can’t use the gauntlet to return back to your home dimension.  I’ll veto that specific ability, but nothing else.”

With that, the transmission ended.  Now, Red was left on his own with the Infinity Gauntlet.  Astrid had herself set up in her home dimension, observing Red’s antics with a bucket of popcorn at the ready.  This was going to be interesting.

It was another one of those days. Days when the unexplainable happened to him or those around him.

So when Red found himself with the strange gauntlet on his left arm and that message left by Astrid, the very first thing he did was just to sit down in a corner and look the thing over.

A frown came over Red as he turned the Gauntlet this way and that, looking at each of the strange glowing stones. Could it really do absolutely anything?

He wasn’t prepared for his mind to suddenly be flooded with information.

To be able to sense every corner of the observable universe, every large star and infinitesimal cosmic string. Touch the raw fabric of spacetime. See the roiling, bubbling quantum fluctuations of reality’s most fundamental layers. Feel and know the minds of uncountable hundreds of thousands of septillions.

To wield levels of energy beyond the grasp of even Serina’s supercluster-wide Enclave Network. To stretch or even reverse time, toy with causality as if it were putty.

When he finally took another breath, Red looked again at the gauntlet. There was no longer any doubt.

The Initiative’s mandate, their entire reason for existence…could be achieved overnight. No more war, no more hatred, no more unjust suffering.

Peace and prosperity…for all minds.

Red now knew how the Q and Astrid herself felt. Such power was beyond the comprehension of most beings.

But as soon as the euphoria of knowledge had come, so too did realization. This Gauntlet had granted him effective omnipotence, no doubt through the combined use of those glowing stones.

Red took a breath. He’d made his mind up on the very first thing he would do with it. If Astrid meant to test him, no doubt she was watching.

If she wanted him to play around with reality, then the least he could do was mimic the Q.

He raised the Gauntlet a little, gazing at it for a brief second as all six stones glowed.

Snap…

For a moment that seemed like eternity, nothing had changed. Then in an instant, the six stones disintegrated into light, before the Gauntlet itself fell into dust. A sigh was all he made as he looked at the pile that had been the Gauntlet.

“No one should ever hold this power.”