Triumph of Evil

The Great Hall

Asgard

2210 AD

Of all those present in the great hall of Thor, only the Lord of Asgard and the Silver Surfer sensed the imminent danger.

Scant milli-seconds before it's arrival, the duo combined to create a protective force field against the maelstrom. A force field that melded as one the power cosmic and the Thorpower.

Only those physically closest to Thor and the Surfer at that moment now lay within the field's protective embrace. The skyfather Heracles, Lord of All Olympus and Iron Man.

It was not the Iron Man that you would know, Tony Stark being long since dead. You could even be excused for not recognising the highly advanced ultra light armour encasing his descendant.

Outside all was destruction for as far out as any and all of the four could sense. This was something far more than just the localised destruction of Asgard. Nor was it merely some type of annihilation wave passing on its way. No, Thor knew, deep in his soul, what was happening here was happening everywhere and at the same time.

As the destructive forces raged outside, tongues of unknown and unknowable energies penetrated the Thor/Surfer protective shield. Even though it was now reinforced by the son of Zeus. The energies lancing at the occupants within, curious to know what sort of entities could possibly have survived the unsurvivable.

As they did, Iron Man erected his own energy shield to protect the foursome. A shield within a shield. The inquisitive tongues of energy retreated temporarily. Something within the composition of the inner shield troubling them.

Seeing that even this might not be enough Thor and Heracles together created a pocket dimension. From within the buffers of the pocket dimension and their own combined energy shields the four rode out the universal destruction.

When the four titans re-emerged in what should have been our Universe they were inside a protective force bubble that was powered by them all. A most formidable combination of Asgardian and Olympian energies with the power cosmic and advanced 23rd century earth science.

What they emerged too was nothing, a total void with no evidence of existence. Not a star, or planetary or lesser mass was visible or detectable. Even the loneliness of deep space is usually punctuated by the light of some very distant stars. Here there was nothing. The Silver Surfers superb vision detecting not so much as one candlepowers worth of incoming light.

Within the relative safety of the near impenetrable force bubble the four traversed our Universe in large teleportation jumps looking for any signs of existence. Nothing was evident. Nor, without any supporting frame of reference, could they be certain that they had actually moved any distance at all.

At a break in their teleportation jumps, Heracles carried out an experiment. Placing his much vaunted mace just outside the protection of the force bubble. Only to see it immediately cease to exist.

Still within the protective force bubble the four began teleporting interdimensionally. Here too they were confronted only by non existence. There was no evidence that any of the Multiverse's myriad of different dimensions still existed. Though without any frame of reference none of the four, could be certain that they had teleported interdimensionally at all. At best they were simply teleporting inter-dimensionally from nowhere to nowhere.

At that moment all four within the force bubble had the same thought at the same time. That they, and they alone, might be all that remained of existence. "There must be others that survived" said the Surfer, "in the same way we have." His companions remained grimly silent. Not for the first time since the current train of events had commenced Thor and Heracles pondered on their supposed godhood status. Had they only been playing at being gods? and now were the real gods, those responsible for recent events, about to show who was really in charge?

The four speculated upon who or what could have been responsible for such an act. An act of a crazed Celestial with the infinity gauntlet or perhaps of the Living Tribunal himself? Yet what had happened here was on such a scale, of such magnitude, that it transcended even those possibilities. Bringing them back each time to only one possibility. One name and one name only came to them all.

Of the four the Silver Surfer, even more of a loner now than in our time, seemed the least affected and Iron Man the most. Far more so than his companions the former herald of Galactus was used to the loneliness of deep space. Which would equip him well now. By comparison the great great grandson of Tony Stark was only too well aware that underneath all the brilliant technology, he was a mortal man in a uniquely hostile environment.

Anthony Stark desperately hoped there would be no failures in either the power source or other technologies of his suit. Though he must have known that any one of his three companions could and would provide him with alternative power. Not for the first time, the latest iron man pondered on whether scientific and technological advances could ever one day make men the equal of the gods, or the cosmic powers. Perhaps not. Still there were capabilities in this 23rd century armour that even the mighty Thor didn't know about. Human ingenuity is a formidable thing. Not least among that ingenuity was an armour that could sustain him near indefinitely even in deep space.

Confronted with no signs of existence in the present, the four chose to travel into the past in search of answers. As they moved downtime, in what should have been our own Universe, the events of the past receded away from them. The very history of the Universe evaporating before them. Like the print of a two dimensional newspaper being removed to leave only the barren tabloid. Until, when they reached the time before time, there was no history left to recede away.

Travelling from our present into the future yielded the same result. Future events, future history evaporated before them leaving only blankness, until, at the end of time itself, there were no future events left to evaporate.

The only option now remaining was to explore the alternate future timelines. It seemed as if each timeline, each alternate future reality would yield the same emptiness. Yet finally in the far, far flung future of a single alternate timeline they encountered something other than emptiness. A whole Universe of existence. A squalid, foreboding and ugly place, full of the stench of evil that might have been created from the worst nightmares of man, god, or cosmic entity.

At this moment the Watcher appeared. Uuaatu levitated at a distance from the foursome. The normally impassive entity looked shaken by recent events, that had been far greater than any he had heretofore observed.

"How did you survive?" enquired the Surfer "when almost no one else has?"

"I am the last of my race" said Uuaatu "I was spared only so that I might do that which I do – observe and bear witness to momentous events."

Though it was clear that Uuaatu knew more he said nothing else.

At that moment the single timeline, a single shard of existence, began spreading backward in time. Forging a history and a past where there had been none. Solemnly the Watcher looked on at the bizarre act of creation. He continued to watch long after Thor, the Surfer, Heracles and Iron Man had departed.

'There is only one option open to us" said Thor. The others agreed.

"We must seek him out" said Heracles.

"Your father met with him once?" said the Surfer.

"Aye" replied Thor.

"How was that done Thor?" asked

"In the only way in which one may approach him" responded the Surfer "unless he comes to you."

Later (if time meant anything at all now) the four stood at the edge of the monstrous multi-dimensional black hole. The only known gateway to he whom they now sought. It had not been here when they came this way before.

It stood in a Universe of nothingness with nothing to be attracted to its awesome gravitational pull, save the four brave souls now near it. If for that reason alone, it seemed to pull at them with even greater attraction than any laws of physics might have suggested.

"We should all go" said Thor "Heracles and I for the gods, the Surfer for the cosmic powers and Iron Man for all of humanity."

The Surfer had been going to ask Iron Man how his suit might withstand the gravitational pressures but thought better of it. The former herald of Galactus had been gone a long time but he knew, well enough, that human technology had not stood still and that human ingenuity had not diminished.

Thor, Heracles, and Iron Man had all wondered how the Surfer was faring. With no external sources of the power cosmic available to him. They need not have. In the intervening years he who was once Norrin Radd had changed. He had had drifted well away from men and at the same time had become even more powerful. Something had happened over those years which was not common knowledge. None of the three cared to ask and the Surfer did not volunteer any information. Suffice it to say that there was no one else they would sooner have with them in this unimaginably dire situation.

Then the four allowed themselves to fall into the great gravitational well. Lingering for just a moment in the inconceivable density of its core before allowing themselves to be drawn beyond. To the other side of the multi-dimensional black hole where they entered the totally infinite and totally timeless eternal ethereal sea. That which surrounds all Multiverses' past and future and is the preserve of only one entity.

From there they teleported across a vastness that made our own Universe seem little more than a mill pond.

All were only too conscious that here in this place they could only rely on their own internal reserves of power. There existed no external well or reservoir of energy that they could draw upon. Nor could there be any assistance from any source. But then now no such reservoirs or sources of assistance existed anyway.

The four reached their destination.

"Skyfathers, Surfer, Iron Man, I have been expecting you" came the less than friendly greeting.

He who is above us all took different forms depending on the viewer. For Thor he appeared as an even more majestic version of Odin seated on an impossibly large throne, for Heracles substitute great Zeus for Odin, for the Surfer substitute the one time authority figure of Galactus and part of the control room of his worldship. For Iron Man, his estranged father. Authority figures all, but there was nothing comforting in their presence. Nor was that the intent.

Yet all four saw the same entities in attendance with The One Above All. A sight to freeze the veins or chill the bone marrow for any entity that had veins or bone marrow. An assemblage of evil that included Tyrant creation of Galactus, Thanos of Titan, the dread Dormammu, Loki god of mischief, the death gods Hela and Pluto, and Perrikus of the dark gods to name just a few.

Somehow, somewhere along the way, the forces of evil had managed to gain the ear of the ultimate power in existence or even in non existence.

Certainly this explained a great deal, virtually all that had happened.

At that moment the Living Tribunal appeared. Did those visages look low and dispirited thought the Surfer though with the Tribunal it was impossible to tell. "Welcome my friend" said TOAA "we have missed you" in condescending tones which suggested that the Tribunal was anything but welcome and had not been missed at all.

"How could we ever have allowed this to happen?" Thor heard himself say as energies dripping with evil began crashing all around he and his companions.

The massive energy fusillade crashed against the force bubble coruscating across its entire surface and threatening to collapse it.

He who is above us all looked on with some amusement but did not intervene. The Living Tribunal watched on, more than merely uncomfortable.

The four heroes in the force bubble returned fire concentrating on the weaker elements of an alliance of evil that had somehow gained the ear of TOAA.

Perrikus of the Dark Gods, Loki and the dark lord Pluto fell before the onslaught only to be immediately revived by TOAA. That is if they were truly who they appeared to be in the first place.

With the energy assault on the force bubble continuing, the bubble suddenly ceased to exist exposing the four heroes momentarily to the full brunt of the assault and forcing them to hastily erect their own individual force shields. This was no mere failure of the force bubble under the assault but direct intervention by omnipotence.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen" came the smoothest imaginable telepathic communication entering every entities mind in an all pervasive manner "is this the way to entertain our guests?" With not even a gesture the combatants were thrust aside and appearing before them was what appeared to be an Earth 19th century English croquet lawn, complete with tables of tea and crumpets. The setting was even adorned by a few more than bemused local gentlemen and women.

Appearances were not deceiving. This was not merely a visual image or re-creation down to the minutest detail; rather TOAA had reached back before his act of Multiversal destruction and placed this small segment of space time before them. In short, it was the real thing.

"Please, partake of refreshment, catch up with old friends" continued the insistent, almost compelling telepathic message.

Iron man was horror struck; utterly dismayed to see the crystallisation of his growing belief that absolute power was now totally mad.

The Surfer looked across at Thanos. He could sense the mad Titan scheming as to how to get the best out of the situation. As if, somehow, Thanos might even be able to get the better of the greatest power in existence.

Though none of the four heroes yet knew it, it was Thanos himself that had been the catalyst for events. Thanos who had become aware of the significance of the multi-dimensional black hole and had been the first of the evil alliance to make entreaties to TOAA.

As no one among the combatants came forward to take up the offer of refreshments from TOAA the mighty Thor stepped forward. "Lord, why do you do this?" he asked addressing TOAA directly. "Surely you remember my fathers visit?" There was no fear in the voice of the son of Odin.

TOAA seemed to pause and reflect, not unfavourably, on Allfather Odin's visit. Yet the moment of omnipotent reflection passed.

"Do not persist Son of Odin, your resistance to authority is known, yet you stand now before omnipotence!" said TOAA, both speaking the words and telepathing them at the same time.

Yet Thor did persist. For when have you ever known him to bend the knee against perceived injustice?

"Lord of Asgard, yield up your hammer" came the booming telepathic response causing some minds present to crumple.

Almost all of these entities of evil now present had felt the power of the hammer of Thor at some time or other. All of them, especially Thor's step brother, stood transfixed as TOAA held out his hand.

Every ounce of the enchantment within the hammer and every fibre of strength within Thor's body resisted the request. Yet TOAA was insistent, gradually increasing the unlimited force and power that lay behind his request.

The veins in Thors face and arms looked set to burst, his muscles bulged unnaturally large, his hammer seemed on the verge of breaking apart. He was now holding it with both hands.

It should have been over, long before.

Finally, inevitably, Thor's grip weakened and the hammer flew into the waiting grasp of TOAA. He who is above us all looked around accusingly at the Living Tribunal and also at the Silver Surfer. They had quietly conspired to assist the mighty Thor.

TOAA looked at the Surfer knowingly, yet his omnipotent anger was reserved solely for his greatest creation. With merely a stare from his master the Tribunal's limbs began to move uncontrollably and his head rotated on his neck at considerable speed. The Living Tribunal assumed a grotesque posture eventually lying prone and unmoving.

It was a truly frightening demonstration of ultimate power both humbling and hideously grotesque at the same time. That the second greatest power ever to have existed could be treated in such a matter.

"Take your hammer back Thunderer" telepathed TOAA almost respectfully "If you want it that badly."

The moment was alleviated when all eyes turned to an unexpected visitor, Uuaatu the Watcher.

"Watcher why have you left your assigned post" came the angry telepathic boom.

Defiantly the Watcher chose to ignore omnipotence addressing instead the now recovering Living Tribunal and the four heroes.

"The single future timeline is spreading back into the past and splintering into alternate realities, each even more misshapen than the original timeline."

Uuaatu continued and was somehow allowed to continue "TOAA purged the entire Multiverse, save those of us now present, and is replacing it with a madness gleaned from the deepest recesses of the minds of evil now present.

It was then that Thor perceived how it was. Those representatives of evil now present, whatever their original intentions, were just as much hostages to the whims and mood swings of TOAA as the heroes, the Watcher, and, as just amply demonstrated, even the Living Tribunal.

The Watcher's mouth continued to open yet no further sound came forth. His mind continued to send telepathic utterances yet none present received them. His body began to implode

"I have no further use for him" said TOAA "his is a race that I have never really cared for, watching on as curious observers while others struggle for their very existence."

"You may return to your contestation" said TOAA "let the amusement continue."

With that the small bit of space time that had been a 19th century English croquet lawn returned to oblivion and the battle between the heroes and the evil alliance recommenced.

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In the free flowing battle that ensued Thanos of Titan was nothing but contemptuous as he and Loki struggled with the Thunder God. As if he knew, with certainty, that no matter how many times Thor might defeat him, TOAA would always resurrect him.  

Though everyone fought their own fight the sheer savagery of the struggle between the Surfer and Tyrant and Morg turned heads.

Heracles pondered on this. He and Thor both knew that something involving Tyrant and Galactus and some of the heralds of Galactus had happened decades ago and deep in interstellar space. Though none of those involved ever spoke of it again. The son of Zeus would have been hard pressed to think of two entities more savage than Tyrant or Morg. Yet did he sense fear in their eyes now?

The Silver Surfer was fighting as none of the other heroes had seen him fight before. More powerful, savage, brutal, unyielding. Heracles thought of an ancient legend – of stories still occasionally heard in - of a great cosmic warrior.

The mighty Thor stood above a fallen Thanos the last dregs of a massive Skyfather level godblast still issuing from his hammer. All that was left of Thanos chest cavity was a smoking ruin – yet it had provided some hitherto unknown information about his anatomy.

As always the Titan had proved enormously durable even more so than in times past, forcing Asgard's Lord to use one of his greatest weapons.

Thanos' craggy face was only partially destroyed. What was left of it lay with a smile, looking in the general direction of TOAA. This was definitely not a clone.

It could almost have been a scene out of the Roman Coliseum. With Thor watching TOAA as a gladiator would have watched Caesar. Yet TOAA did not choose to resurrect the Titan.

Thor for his part was holding the god blast in check. If TOAA resurrected Thanos the unfettered godblast would be unleashed again. A direct challenge to ultimate authority.

Some may think that this was exactly what Thanos desired. To be with his love Mistress Death. Yet TOAA had removed everything from the past Multiverse, even death, leaving a state of total non existence. A null Multiverse where death no more existed than life. True a new Multiverse was being formed by TOAA but it was embryonic – a single far future timeline starting to splinter into alternates and moving back to the past – death had yet to gain a foothold here.

Elsewhere on the battlefield Tyrant had met with the same fate as Thanos. Tyrant knew the reason for the Silver Surfer's new level of power and it had unnerved him yet the creation of Galactus fought to the last. A badly injured Morg appeared to be appealing to TOAA but that absolute being decided not to resurrect Tyrant either.

Whatever deal the alliance of evil thought it might have struck with TOAA appeared to be null and void. Yet, given the actions of TOAA, it seemed as evil had triumphed anyway.

"So hard to get good help these days" said TOAA "I shall just have to do this myself."

TOAA thrust aside the Olympian Lord and Dormammu at a crucial stage of their encounter and looked at The Avenger had fought magnificently. His new technologies surprising Pluto and Perrikus neither of whom had encountered the armour in long years. It brooked the question again of what mankind might ultimately have been capable, if they had only been given time.

In the brief lull Thor pondered on the state of mind of TOAA. The absolute being had washed his hands of the Multiverse and retreated to total isolation. Eventually taking no further interest in his handiwork. Since only the truly great powers of the former Multiverse could visit via the multi-dimensional black hole gateway those visits tended to be sparse. In fact non existent until All Father Odin came millennia ago to avert a major crisis of that time. The combination of inconceivable isolation and the more recent contact with the deepest recesses of the foul minds of the alliance of evil was enough to unbalance even the greatest mind of all.

TOAA stripped Iron Man's ultra light armour from him, disintegrating it without regard for the frail human body that lay within. Anthony Stark was left burned, bleeding and almost unconscious from the pain.

As Thor, the Silver Surfer and Heracles raced to Iron Mans aid they were barred by a barrier of unknown composition. Suffice it to say that the multi-layered, multi-faceted barrier was far, far more than just a powerful energy shield. To TOAA this appeared no more than an amusement. A test, if you will, for the remaining three heroes.

As the two Skyfathers and the Silver Surfer struck at the barrier all three felt the exhilarating additional power and capabilities coursing through them. The Living Tribunal had not chosen to intervene directly. To do so would have been to invite something worse than what had befallen him before. For some reason the indirect approach of using the already enormously powerful heroes as proxies did not invite immediate retaliation from TOAA. Perhaps absolute power was just playing the game.

None of those present save TOAA and the Tribunal, can know how the Multiverse guardian had felt at his earlier humiliation at the hands of TOAA. Yet no one need doubt the lengths to which that truly awesome entity will go to set matters aright. When the creator of our Multiverse effectively left us, it was the Living Tribunal that he left in charge. The ultimate arbiter. The ultimate responsibility.

As the three heroes still struggled to reach Iron Man to the seeming amusement of TOAA, the Living Tribunal looked on at the still forming new Multiverse. It's rate of creation, including the expansion of the grotesque original timeline back into the past had slowed dramatically.

It posited the question: does even omnipotence have its limits? Such as trying to create a Multiverse while toying with the Living Tribunal, the former Multiverse’s two most powerful pantheon gods and the Silver Surfer.  

Ultimately the mighty Thor, the Silver Surfer, and Heracles bent reality to recover their fallen comrade and passed him into the (only) comparative safekeeping of the Living Tribunal.

The Surfer looked at Thor and Heracles and they looked at him. Now backed unreservedly by the full power of the Living Tribunal and witness to a newly forming abomination of a Multiverse the trio had no choice.

Sensing that TOAA would probably just wink them out of existence the trio launched themselves at omnipotence.

And found themselves falling into the abyss that was now the mind of he who is above us all.

Since before time began no entity had ever been in this most sacrosanct place of all. The mind of TOAA.

Thor, Heracles and the Silver Surfer marvelled at what they saw. Though all three were now great powers in their own right, there was nothing that could truly have prepared them for this.

The reason for their spirit essences having been drawn into this most inviolate of places could have been anything from a continuation of the game being played by the seemingly mad TOAA to a cry for help from that ultimate authority.

The three did not come under any immediate attack, yet palpable evil existed here, in this innermost sanctum, the one place where it should never be. The mighty Thor sensed a precarious balance twixt that evil and all else here. The clear cause of TOAA's instability. Thor saw also that until this inner conflict was resolved TOAA might be something less than omnipotent.

Heracles, Lord of detected that evil had evolved in this most unlikely of all places. Possibly a product of untold millennia of chosen isolation. The external alliance of evil did no more than perhaps stimulate it a little in the entreaties they made to TOAA.

About the three great beings there existed the knowledge of all things. All events that had ever taken place or might ever have taken place in the former Multiverse. All unfolding events in the embryonic Multiverse still aborning.

Then in the uneasy co-existence, the evil that had established itself here struck out again – its goal - total domination of the mind of TOAA . It was a battle that the two Skyfathers and the great cosmic being known as the Silver Surfer could not avoid, even if they wanted to. There was simply nowhere else for them to go.

For what could have been the merest moment or, just as easily, all of eternity the great battle raged.

For the Surfer and the two Skyfathers it was not a battle that involved planet shattering blows of hammer or mace or energy exchanges across star systems. Rather it was fought at a metaphysical level.

Whatever element of goodness within TOAA had drawn forth the conscious spirit essences or souls of the three great powers it had been seeking their help. By comparison the evil here sought to overwhelm the intruding spirit essences. The chosen form of attack to remove from them every ounce of courage, honour and nobility they possessed.

Thor and Heracles had visited upon them all those past events which had tested them to their utmost limits. All at the same time. On top of this the untimely deaths of their fathers Odin and, more recently, Zeus were visited upon them again.

The Surfer was subjected to equally distressing and testing events including repeated alternate dream fantasies of the death of Shalla-Bal and indeed all of Zenn-La. An attempt to, crudely put, "break him."

At times Thor, Heracles and the Surfer found their individual consciousness co-mingling and were able to give support to one another.

The attempt to "break" the souls of the Surfer and the two Skyfathers was a fundamental mistake of the first order. A clear demonstration that the purely evil components within the mind of TOAA were not of themselves omniscient. A mistake that TOAA in his normal state would never have made.

Doubtless given a sufficient aggregation of power even the mighty Thor could possibly be physically defeated and his conscious mind destroyed. What could never be done would be to take from him the courage and nobility of his soul. No more than one could remove the honour of Heracles or the inherent nobility of the Silver Surfer.

Though the inner resolve of all three, in their own different ways, was tested to the utmost limits of their capacity, they all held firm. At the moment of realization that this form of attack could never succeed, the evil within the mind of TOAA ejected the conscious spirit essences of the three titans and returned them to their physical bodies.

To the waiting and now recovered Iron Man and the remaining members of the evil alliance there had been subjectively no apparent lapse of time . All stood dumbfounded looking on at TOAA. That entity, in its present chosen form, stood before them completely immobile having appeared to have shut down.

The Silver Surfer, Thor and Heracles all knew that the inner battle taking place within the mind of TOAA was still unresolved. Whether they had made any difference to TOAA's internal conflict, only that ultimate authority knew.

The Living Tribunal was not with Even before the armoured one signalled the fact, Thor realized that that the Tribunal was attempting to stop the spread of the fledgling Multiverse. A Multiverse based on the conceptions of the evil now existing in the mind of TOAA and plumbing, at least in part, the wildest depths of depravity, the wildest dreams and aspirations of the minds of the evil alliance.

Elsewhere, what had started out as a far distant future, single shard of reality. A seed almost casually sown by TOAA had now spread deep into the past and splintered into a myriad of alternate time lines. Now even with the intervention of TOAA temporarily withdrawn that embryonic Multiverse was evolving of itself. Each splintering alternate time line more thoroughly grotesque, more chillingly bizarre than what came before it.

Thanos and Tyrant had still not been recreated. Yet Thor, Heracles the Surfer, and Iron Man were still confronted by an evil alliance that boasted the likes of Dormammu, Mangog, Annihilus, Mephisto, Hela, Pluto, Perrikus, and Loki to name just a few.

In normal times this assemblage would have presented a grave threat to the four heroes.   Yet these were hardly normal times.

The two great skyfathers and an empowered Silver Surfer with total understanding of each others capabilities held back not one iota of their full magnificent powers and thrust the miscreants aside consigning them to the same oblivion as TOAA had earlier consigned our former Multiverse. It was a massive demonstration of power even in this place.

Then the four heroes teleported from the chosen home of TOAA, in the truly limitless ethereal sea, to join the Living Tribunal in his great task. Behind them TOAA remained immobile, locked in a form of his own choosing, all his attention now turned to his own inner conflict.

The heroes arrived at a nexus point between newly emerging realities. There the Living Tribunal himself seemed hard pressed.

This entire embryonic but rapidly emerging Multiverse was throwing everything it could at him. The Surfer knew the Living Tribunal had been empowered by TOAA as the ultimate adjudicator in our old now obliterated Multiverse. He had not been vested with adjudication powers for this abomination of a Multiverse now aborning.

Instead of facing the likes of Thanos, Tyrant, Mephisto, Mangog, Dormammu and many others the heroes found themselves confronting in physical and physical/energy form the very worst nightmares created from the deepest recesses of those evil entities minds. Entities spawned by an act of TOAA. Something ultimately far worse.

The mighty Thor moved across to the Living Tribunal levitating a little above the Tribunal's visage. Mighty energies flowed between Thor, his hammer mjolnir and the Living Tribunal in both directions. The two titanic entities launching a sustained assault against the nearby nexus point.

By their side the Silver Surfer, Heracles and Iron Man, joined the assault on the nexus point after first fending off an attack from creatures they would never have encountered even in their worst nightmares.

At first nothing seemed to happen at the nexus point but then the grotesque alternate realities slowly began collapsing in on one another which was certainly no bad thing. At the same time the slowly converging realities began unravelling from the past leaving a state of non existence behind.

All present could see where this was going to end. Just as all present could see that it was time for a different act of creation.

"Perhaps I can help with that" came a smooth communication, part telepathic, part physical speech, and part addressing the soul. He who is above us all had finally resolved his inner conflict to the benefit of the untold trillions of living beings that were just a few moments from creation.

TOAA allowed the Living Tribunal, the Silver Surfer, Thor and Heracles to participate in the great act. Iron Man watched on in total wonder.

TOAA did not recreate our Multiverse exactly as it had been, though the he could have done so. There were a number of quite noticeable absentees and not a few new faces among the greater and more influential powers of the new Multiverse.

After it was all over, God decided to hang around for a while. He left the Tribunal in the same adjudicator role but the Almighty decided to keep a closer eye on things than he had been doing. Call it therapy for his previously self imposed isolation.

The Silver Surfer became a cosmic agent of a more aggressive Living Tribunal.

While Thor and to a lesser extent Heracles, already the key leaders of the Multiverse’s pantheon gods, became the ultimate enforcers for the Tribunal.

The power behind the power.       

End