John flew into space at a very fast speed to confront In-Betweener again as he knew this wouldn't put a dent on his body or even wound him. The Avengers who saw this now just accepted this. They had a very vague idea of how powerful John was now, but this really established who the strongest Avenger was among them.
Thor too had appeared. When he saw all the abstract beings he was taken aback. Even though he was omnipotent in the 10 realms, being like them were dark spots for him. Thor looked at Strange and both nodded their heads. And then they approached the cosmic entities.
"Greetings from 10 realms. I am sorry for asking but is there a grudge between us?" Thor asked. He and Strange knew who they were. Being connected with Yggdrasil gave them a lot of knowledge. And the knowledge of these beings was also among them.
"We and the Avengers do not have a grudge. But John has prejudice against us. So that is what is going on between him and the other nasty guy." Death said.
"Prejudice against you? But I don't remember John telling us about you all. Who are you?" Wayne asked as he was curious about what was going on. Strange looked at all the confused faces of the Avengers and finally said.
"Ignorance is bliss. These are the 'Gods' who control the workings of the multiverse." Avengers were struck by lightning when Strange said that. They expected that these people were powerful but they never expected that these were the Gods that they had been discussing for such a long time. John had spoken of them multiple times.
At first he didn't show any emotion to them. But after the emergence of Black Winter and their non involvement made John very angry and this rubbed all of them the wrong way. Thus the Avengers too didn't have any goodwill for them. But now that they were on the doorstep and seeing a glimpse of their powers they understood that having grudges against them was foolish.
They were never in the same league. Ants don't get to hold grudges against elephants. Only John had the audacity and power to back himself. Not them.
They were again reminded how weak they were in the cosmic scale.
"Oh so they are them. No wonder John is angry with them." Tony said with a grin and didn't mince his words at all. Everybody here was not so happy because their universe was isolated for some time even though they could never speak it out loud. Though all turned out to be good at the end but at some point of time they were abandoned.
"Hey please control your words Tony. We can be dead in the blink of an eye." Banner whispered to Tony.
"Can you please stop the two of them from fighting? Seeing the fact that you are not attacking us I will assume that you all are not here for war. So I hope you can stop both of them." Clark said as he didn't feel any ill will from them.
"We come in peace to apologize for what we have done but we have no control of our colleague." Eternity said.
"We understand. We all have some bad apples in our leagues." Wayne said, looking at Tony.
"What does that mean? I am the most perfect guy for the team." Tony refuted his friend.
"I presume you are not here just to apologize. Is there any other reason for your visit?" Clark asked.
"We do have a matter to discuss. But I guess we can do the same with you all. You are his friends and only you can convince him." Infinity said.
"Oh. Did he do something more to annoy you?" Steve asked.
"Yes. He went to the main universe of the multiverse and depowered every Avenger in that Earth. And now this has created problems in all of the multiverse." Eternity said.
"Huh.. Hahaha... This is something I didn't expect.. This is hilarious... Worth writing about in history books." Tony laughed out loud when Eternity said that. Nobody expected that John had gone to the main universe and made all the heroes of the Avenger of their universe a normal person.
They had seen how one Avenger from another universe turned out to be a nightmare for all. Now John had gone and done the same thing. Only this time he was successful while the Strange from another universe failed.
"By the main universe, you mean the universe where that Strange came from?" Oliver asked.
"Yes. He is the leader of the Black Priests. Since he joined them, he could never interfere in normal matters any more." Infinity said.
"Then that universe deserves what they are getting. They played God with us. And now John played the actual God. I am sorry but we will not convince him." Pietro said as he still remembered that fight. Everybody here remembered that fight as it was a major and an impactful one.
"But it has created a major problem for all of the multiverse." Oblivion reminded them. All got silent when Oblivion said that. By the words of them it meant that if it doesn't get repaired this would turn out to be a problem for all of the universes.
"Why is the main universe so important to everything?" Banner asked.
"Because most of the terrifying beings that the universe can produce originate from there. Beings that are as powerful as us." Eternity said.
"Since you can change reality, I am sure you can undo whatever he has done. Why come to us?" Wanda said as was confused. What Infinity did a few moments ago was changing reality. She can do that too so she didn't understand why there is a major issue with their arrival and getting the approval of John.
"His reality bending powers don't follow the same law as ours. His forms operate on different bases. So we can't undo what he has done. We can only come to him and ask for this. This was also the reason why our colleague here attacked him as he thought he is a fake one." Eternity said.
"Then he deserves what he is getting." Victor said as he had been keeping an eye on the fight through the satellites.
After Venus got decimated, the nearby planet Mercury was also done for as John was hurled into that planet. And right now they were fighting on the surface of the Sun and since fire is John's territory he was able to overpower In-Betweener. John was having a good time throwing punches at him.
He didn't like how he was hurled by In-Betweener to Mercury so as retaliation he took In-Betweener to Sun and fought on it against him. Infinity who was always keeping an eye on everything rebuilt everything that was destroyed by their battle.
Any slight change in celestial objects near Earth would have a huge impact on humans so they made sure no problems occurred to the people. They had already started the journey on the wrong path, derailing more would just alienate John.
"Can you both stop them? They are just causing more fear among the people who are seeing this ugly fight." Clark said and this was the truth. Many of the high level people were able to see the fight via satellites and what they were seeing was terrifying.
Deconstruction and construction of planets in the blink of an eye. They have seen decimation of planets and many had speculated that huge beings would be able to do it. Even many of the Pokemons would be able to do it. But the construction of planets in the blink of an eye was what horrified them more.
It basically meant rewriting reality as they saw fit. Though they weren't sure who was fighting, since it was happening close to Earth it was probably someone who lived on Earth. And that basically meant Avengers.
The governments who saw this lamented on the fact that the Avengers had become so powerful and they could do nothing about it.
"Fellow beings, please come back and stop your confrontation." Infinity said. And whose words worked like magic. Both stopped fighting and were back where they all started. It's like her words were like commands.
But in reality it wasn't so, all the abstract beings used their powers to stop them from fighting and trying to over power each other. They both were back on the beach and were separated from each other so that they wouldn't start getting on the throats of each other. Even after this fight both of them were perfectly alright with not even a small scratch on either of them. It was as if nothing had happened.
"Stop with your prejudice In-Betweener. In the name of your masters." Oblivion said in a loud tone. He had specifically asked not to antagonize John and he went and did exactly that. This showed no respect to him and he didn't take it well.
"He started the fight.' In-Betweener retorted.
"It was you who went and poked him with your useless argument." Eternity said.
"And John I hope that this was able to calm your anger and hatred against us." Infinity said with an expectant face looking at John. All were silent to hear the reply. That was the main reason they were here. To apologize to him. Even though they couldn't say it out loud, they hoped that their gesture would be enough to show their attitude to him.
John was silent for a second before saying
"I don't have anger or hate towards you. I do understand why this all had happened and why you took the decision before. I just don't like the hypocrisy of you all. You just said that if Earth 616 isn't controlled then everything will spiral out of control. But you all forget that destruction is a part of our lives. No matter what, destruction will come one day or the other." John said as he had already heard their discussion with the Avengers while fighting.
"Destruction comes to us all. Nothing is eternal. But as you said against the fight with Black Winter. As a living being, it is in our natural instinct to fight for living." Eternity said. John and others were silent when they heard this. All the Avengers were with John with what he did.
Even though they didn't understand why John made the superheroes as normal beings, they didn't care. They trusted John so whatever decision he took would be backed by the Avengers.
"So are your here to force me to change my decision?" John asked.
"No we are here so that you can rethink of the decision that you took." Infinity said.
"Hmm. Alright.. I will change it back but after sometime. They deserve what they are getting. Believe it or not, sometimes they themselves are responsible for destruction that effects all. They had become too arrogant. I know you don't have the concept of morality but we as humans do. They will get their powers back when they are ready to take the mantle again." John assured for the first time.
When he depowered the Avengers he knew he had to go back to the decision he had made that time but he wanted them to suffer. Suffer the same fate as the X-men. Both Avengers and humans needed to be shown the reality.
"Alright as long as they would be back. We just wanted an assurance as like you we also abhor derailing of natural order." Infinity said.
"Apparently not everybody is on board with your decisions." John said looking at In-Betweener, who had been quietly standing on the side. If there was hatred for any of the Gods, John had that against him.
In-Betweener would do everything for his own interests and benefits. So John wanted to teach him a lesson. And even though they weren't able to reach a conclusion with this fight, John wanted to show that he always had his eyes on him.
In-Betweener looked at John. His face still showed that there was anger but since all came to a agreement, he couldn't say argue back. And truth to be told, he was surprised by the power shown by John. He thought that phoenix was lying when she said John was the perfect host. But this was not the case.
He was able to use his powers freely with no restrictions. Especially with his new form and his weapon. It was as if his body was made to hold the power of Phoenix.
"I know what I am doing. You don't have to remind me what is right and what is wrong." In-Betweener replied.
"Someday I will have to talk with Lord Chaos and Master Order and maybe I will ask them to remove you as the agent of them." John said.
"I would like to see you try." he said while again bringing out his weapon.
"Enough." Oblivion said. Now in a more angry tone as he looked at In-Betweener.
"tch.." saying that In-Betweener vanished. He felt insulted here and none of the others had supported him. He felt out of place so he had decided to just leave. He vowed to take revenge of all the insult he had to suffer here from all of them.
"You had to antagonize him. Don't you?" Oblivion said little bit irritated by constant insults of John at In-Betweener.
"Trust me when I say this. He isn't a good guy." John said.
"We will keep an eye on him since you are insisting. For now we are leaving. I hope you will keep your promise." Infinity said.
"I will. Whenever I give a word I tend to keep it." John replied.
"Ah yes. The another thing which I came here for." Eternity saying that waved his hand. A white blue ball of light floated in his hand. And then it slowly came to Steve Rogers. John and all were surprised by this sudden ball.
Steve Rogers seeing this was confused. They could detect no malice from the ball of light but didn't understand what was this for.
"Is that what I think it is?" John asked.
"Yes. I want him as my Guardian for this universe. I hope you will accept it. This universe never had one. It's time I lend a hand." Eternity said. John nodded.
This ball of light had the power of Captain Universe. The herald and Guardian of Eternity. Made to protect the living in all of the universe. A power is being granted to every Captain Universe born.
The power was known as Uni-Power. A part of Enigma Force, the God of Light. Whose mantle Venom took during his fight against Knull.
Now Eternity had basically asked Captain Rogers to be Captain Universe and be the protector of the livings of the universe until he can pass the power to a later generation in the future.
"Take it Captain. It's for you. You will understand after taking it." John said.
"What? Do I need to eat it?" Steve said.
"No.. You need to touch it." Diana, who was close with him said. She could feel there was a power that was residing in the ball. Steve took his hand and finally touched it.
Then there was a blinding flash of light and everybody around closed their eyes to avoid the bright light. And when the light faded away, Captain America looked totally different.
His old costume was gone and was replaced with a more sleek looking costume. His iconic star was gone and was replaced with a white colored circles in his chest while the rest of the upper costume was blue. The costume in his legs has turned to pure white in color.
Captain America looked totally different and kind of holy now.
"How do you feel?" Diana asked him as he saw him change totally.
"Powerful. More powerful than I have ever felt before." Steve replied. Then he looked at Eternity and bent his knees to greet him. Tuning with Uni-Power made him realize what kind of power and responsibility he had on his shoulders now. But Captain being Captain, he was happy to take this responsibility.
"I vow in the name of all lives that I will protect them at all cost for now and till my death. Thank you for making me the Guardian." Steve said. Eternity nodded his head and so did the other abstract beings. Without saying any more words all of them vanished together.
Captain America has become Captain Universe now. And his area of protection had just changed from a country to almost the universe.
John on the other hand looked at his home and waved his hands to repair all the damage his house had dealt with.
"John, who were they?" Arthur asked. Everybody was curious. Only Strange and Thor knew of them. Though they knew that they were Gods they didn't have any idea of what kind of beings they were. Thor then explained what kind of beings they were and the forces they represented.
They were in awe and many even felt a little bit of envy for Steve as he had become such a huge power now. John on the other hand was silent. He would have to return to Earth 616 soon to undo the damage that he had done.
But that would not be immediately. He would take his time in this and leave for that world. Maybe he would take some of his friends for sight seeing.
"John, did you really de-power every single Avenger from that Earth 616?" Pietro asked. As he was really excited about the whole situation. They had all suffered once and now their counterparts suffered the same fate.
Only this time it was more painful for them.
"I did. I was disappointed with them and felt they had lost their way." John then proceeded to narrate the whole story of why he did so and his disappointment.
"So this is what happened. Now wonder you took that step. They deserved what they got." Clint said. When he heard how he died two times he was shaken.
"But the civilians are suffering." Clark said while creasing his brows.
"I will restore it back soon. Now I want a little rest. Today was too much even for me." John said. He was a little scared to be honest. Even though he had shown that he didn't fear the cosmic beings, he in his heart knew that if the abstract beings decided to attack him, it would be too hard for him to handle.
He was only a single God, while they represented all of the multiverse and were powered by it. He was sure that if all of them had decided to attack him, he would not have been able to escape in one piece for sure.
So he needed to show his tough side and show that he wasn't afraid of them. That was one of the main reasons why he decided to beat down In-Betweener. And of course he didn't like him because of his history and the stories that he read in comics.
John went to his home and nobody stopped him. There was too much to handle today and even though all remained unscathed, they were bombarded with total new information.
"Go home. There were a lot of things we came to know today. Control the public opinion. There would be a lot to explain to the people." Wayne said. What the satellites saw was alarming to say the least.
"Oh, another headache. I hate giving answers to the nosy journalists." Tony said.
"I thought you loved being in the limelight." Clark smirked and said
"Hey. Don't tune in with Wayne. he is rubbing off on you the wrong way." Tony said. By now Clark had perfectly integrated with the squad. Though they felt weird that he acted kind of a leader of the group but since his ideal matched with Steve they didn't bother to interrupt him.
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