"Nick Fury?"
The moment Bant stepped off the ship, he spotted Nick Fury strolling arm-in-arm with a green-skinned Skrull woman along the upper walkways of the Galactic Federation Tower. The two walked together, then without any reservation, began kissing openly.
It wasn't envy. Nor did he feel like some lonely third wheel — after all, Skrulls were, by most human standards, a little hard on the eyes.
In Bant's view, Nick Fury may as well have been making out with a locust. Extremely hard to watch.
Hearing Bant's voice, Nick Fury looked up in surprise. "Bant Parker?"
He released the Skrull woman. Catching sight of Bant, he looked as pleased as if he'd run into an old friend, and immediately walked over to greet him.
Truth be told, there had been no shortage of bad blood between the two of them. But at this point, all of that was water under the bridge. Nick Fury hadn't been the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. for a long time now. Letting go of all that damn hassle had been an incredible relief — so much so that even looking at Bant, he found the kid a hell of a lot more agreeable.
He gave a warm greeting, then introduced the Skrull woman beside him.
"Priscilla Fury. My wife," Nick said, keeping it brief.
"This is Bant Parker. Plumber for the Celestial Union."
"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Parker."
Priscilla extended her hand toward Bant. The two gave a brief clasp, then parted.
Unfortunately, she offered her right hand, so Bant had no opportunity to collect Skrull genetic material. But there was no rush — the Galactic Federation had no shortage of Skrulls.
"Didn't expect to run into you here, Fury."
Bant now found this black cue ball a lot more agreeable himself. When there's no conflict of interest, everybody can be friends.
Nick nodded. "I came with another friend. I'll introduce you in a bit. By the way, how's Earth doing now? I heard you took down Thanos with the Captain and the others. Damn impressive!"
If Thanos's full military force were concentrated in one place, it could wage a protracted war against any one of the three great empires — and win.
And yet, Thanos, mighty as he was, had lost to the Celestial Union.
It only deepened Nick Fury's wariness toward this newly emerged cosmic organization. Though he was no longer on Earth, he still did everything he could to gather intelligence on the Celestial Union — particularly on that Chief Enforcer who had killed Thanos, the so-called King of Sakaar.
But the results were mediocre at best.
The people who knew Bant's true identity were almost all on Sakaar itself. And that place, thanks to its uniquely advantageous position in the cosmos, had been all but sealed off into another dimension through the power of the Space Stone. No outsider could reach it.
As for branches on other planets, they were staffed by locals from those very worlds, with only a handful of dispatched personnel.
So Nick Fury had no idea that the head of the Celestial Union was, in fact, Bant himself.
"Tony built an Ultron intelligence system. Earth's pretty much under his thumb now. The Avengers are practically disbanded." Bant shrugged, indicating that Earth and the Celestial Union had nothing to do with each other anymore.
"What happened?" Nick Fury froze.
Just a few months ago, the news he'd received was that the Avengers had decisively defeated Thanos's Black Order. He'd been marveling at how well the Avengers had developed — proud that the initiative he'd pushed into reality had indeed proven its worth.
And now, out of nowhere, they were already at the point of disbanding?
Fury was dumbfounded.
He immediately pressed for the full details.
He might no longer be director of S.H.I.E.L.D., but the Avengers were still his life's work!
Bant, omitting only his own schemes, laid out the whole sequence of events. By the time he finished, Nick Fury's face had gone several shades darker, and even his wife had furrowed her brow, finding this Ultron thoroughly unreliable.
Technology was meant to be a tool. How could it be used to rule over humanity?
That was putting the cart entirely before the horse.
"How could you let him do something like that?" Nick Fury felt Bant should have stopped him.
"Unless I broke both his arms and legs, ripped out his vocal cords, and locked him up in solitary — do you really think he'd have listened to me?" Bant shot back.
Nick Fury fell silent at once.
In truth, even if Bant really had beaten Tony into a paralyzed, unconscious wreck, there was every chance that guy's consciousness could still somehow link up with JARVIS and then, without warning, drop a colossal mess on everyone.
Tony Stark was exactly that kind of person.
He sighed and tossed the subject aside.
Forget it. Whatever happens, happens. If things go south, it's not my problem anyway.
With that thought, Nick Fury felt much lighter at heart. He slung an arm around Bant and went back to probing for intel on the Celestial Union.
"I heard that the King of Sakaar is attending this meeting in person, which is why all three empires are taking it so seriously." As he guided Bant along, he pointed toward the silhouettes of several colossal warships beyond the atmosphere. "Those belong to the Shi'ar Empire. That one over there is the Kree Empire... I hear the Kree are absolutely determined to secure Ronan the Accuser this time. There's a real risk they'll clash with the Celestial Union."
He offered the warning, then took the opening to ask:
"You ought to be a senior plumber by now. Do you have any idea what the King of Sakaar is actually like?"
At that, Bant smiled. "What, the great spymaster needs to come asking me for intel?"
Nick, utterly unashamed, winked at Bant with something close to pride. "Connections. They're also a measure of a spy's strength!"
But after saying so, he admitted honestly, "I did try to dig up intel from Xandar, but it didn't amount to much. Most people didn't witness the King of Sakaar defeat Thanos with their own eyes. They only saw from a distance that terrifying energy shaking the heavens and earth, nearly knocking the moon right out of the sky. Any of that actually true?"
"It's true." Bant nodded.
At the time, Thanos had used gravitational force to pull one of Xandar's moons directly toward the planet. A little closer, and the mutual gravitational pull would have torn both the moon and Xandar apart, reducing both celestial bodies to cosmic dust.
Except Bant had pushed it back.
Nick listened, finding it all hard to fathom. But he didn't think Bant was lying to him — there would've been no point.
So what if he fooled Fury? If he couldn't fool the three great empires, it was all for nothing anyway.
Who would win — the King of Sakaar, or Carol?
He silently compared the two sides' strength, but quickly shook his head. If the reports were true, then Carol most likely wouldn't be a match for the King of Sakaar either.
At the very least, without entering Binary mode, Carol probably can't measure up.
So Nick's curiosity about this King of Sakaar only deepened, and he kept pressing for the man's identity.
Bant continued to evade. "The Chief Enforcer will be attending this meeting anyway. Won't you find out soon enough?"
Nick rolled his eyes, but didn't push further. He took Bant on a tour of the Galactic Federation.
He knew this place inside and out.
As for the plumbers traveling with Bant, watching Nick Fury — mere fleshly eyes unable to recognize a true god — they couldn't help but find it amusing.
Bill waved a hand, dismissing the plumbers who'd been preparing to follow and serve as Bant's protection detail.
The King of Sakaar, needing you to protect him?
Wasn't that a joke?
If anything actually went down, Bant might well end up having to protect them instead.
Bant and Nick walked and talked. Nick's wife, not wanting to intrude, took her leave first. A while later, a blonde woman in a striking red-and-gold uniform approached Nick Fury.
Clearly, this was Captain Marvel.
"This is the friend I mentioned. Carol Danvers. People call her Captain Marvel. She used to be in the Air Force. You should be familiar with Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S., right?"
Nick nudged Bant with his elbow.
Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. had been documented in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s archives. But after S.H.I.E.L.D.'s collapse, Norman had taken over its legacy. Nick figured that, given Bant's ties to Norman, he'd definitely have some knowledge of those critical secrets.
Bant didn't deny it. He shook hands with Carol in a friendly manner and gave a brief introduction of himself.
"Bant Parker."
He sized Carol up quickly and found that this Captain Marvel wasn't the middle-aged aunt face he'd been half-expecting. Instead, she had refined, well-defined features. Bant figured she was probably the Captain Marvel from some comic-book universe or other, and didn't find it particularly strange.
Carol, for her part, took a fairly favorable impression of Bant.
Or rather, she held a fairly favorable opinion of the Celestial Union as a whole.
For all these years, she too had been maintaining peace across the cosmos. But with limited manpower, the number of people she could help was small.
Yet as the Celestial Union's sphere of influence continued to expand, with more and more planets joining, the force upholding justice only grew stronger. From a long-term perspective, it was a very good thing.
"Would you consider joining the Celestial Union?"
Bant tossed out the olive branch at once.
Carol's combat strength went without saying. A woman who could tear warships apart with her bare hands and punch Thanos in the face — she was top-tier firepower across the entire universe. And that was without even mentioning her Binary form.
If she could also awaken Celestial Energy, it would be a boon to Regidomon's development too.
Before Carol could speak, Nick Fury shot his hand up, unable to contain himself. "What about me? Think I'd fit in? I could join too! The Spy King — I'm not just bragging!"
He had ulterior motives. Becoming a plumber was a pretense; getting his hands on Celestial Union intelligence was the real goal.
But Bant didn't mind. Plumbers, much like S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, operated on a tiered system. Low-ranking plumbers had no access to any core secrets. If Nick Fury joined, he'd essentially just be working for free. And if he really got any funny ideas, Bant could always send him off to scrub toilets — some alien excrement was unbelievably foul.
"A plumber, huh..." Carol lowered her head, thinking it over.
She did have a good impression of the Celestial Union, that was true. But she had her reservations.
All this time, she'd operated solo. If she became a plumber, wouldn't she be bound to the Celestial Union?
"Actually, I think I'll pass—"
She'd just begun to decline when Bant cut her off. It was as if he already knew her concerns. "Don't worry. We also have an outsourcing and temp-worker system."
Nick Fury's eyebrows shot up.
A temp-worker system, huh!
You little—
That's cold!
But he'd misunderstood. This temp-worker system was essentially a pool of auxiliary members of the Plumbers. On paper, they operated under the Plumber identity, but in practice, they weren't required to follow orders from headquarters. Instead, to a certain degree, they could share Celestial Union intelligence and basic equipment, making cosmic rescue operations far more effective.
Of course, Bant's real goal was still to scatter the seeds of Celestial Energy.
Compared to full-fledged Plumbers, temps didn't have to fulfill the obligations of obedience to headquarters — but they also didn't enjoy the benefits of the Plumbers.
Hearing this, Carol's reservations vanished. She agreed on the spot to join the Celestial Union as a temp.
Bant had been waiting for exactly those words. He immediately handed her a badge.
"The badge serves as a communicator — guaranteed to stay connected in any environment. It can also be used for positioning, scanning, analysis... a huge range of functions. The magic runes on the back are the Celestial Sigil. Activate it, and you'll temporarily gain Celestial Energy."
"What's Celestial Energy?" Nick Fury had never heard the term before, and immediately asked about it.
"Something I modeled after Xandar's Nova Force," Bant said, naturally steering clear of any mention of Regidomon. "Think of it as a last-resort safety net for critical moments."
Anyway, giving you Celestial Energy wasn't a bad thing. Just use it and be done with it.
Nick Fury clicked his tongue in wonder, then asked for one too.
Bant had no reason to be stingy. He wished as many people as possible would use it.
Unfortunately, Fury was just too weak. People with low baseline life-energy levels were also very weak when they first awakened Celestial Energy.
The three continued chatting for a while. Then Bill came striding over with great purpose and informed them the meeting was about to begin.
So the group departed together.
Nick Fury was still rubbernecking like a gorilla, searching everywhere for a glimpse of the King of Sakaar. But all the way into the conference chamber, he didn't spot a single suspicious figure.
The leaders of the three great empires, however, had already arrived.
The round table that had previously been divided into three was now split into four. Each of the three empires held its own corner. Only the Celestial Union's place remained empty.
Nick Fury wasn't qualified to sit at the table. His and Carol's seats were far off to the side, since they represented none of the three empires.
"The King of Sakaar still hasn't made an appearance?" He was shocked. Making the three great empires sit around waiting — there probably wasn't another person in the universe who'd dare.
His gaze moved to the central round table in the chamber. That was the true heart of the Galactic Federation Council. The voices of the three empires were the ones the universe could not ignore. Everyone else — even someone as powerful as Carol — could only be considered to carry a certain degree of weight, nothing more.
Right now, those three were clearly growing impatient.
Especially the Majestor of the Shi'ar Empire, Kallark.
He was a tall, imposing man with a black crest-like hairstyle, clad in a red-and-blue uniform. His strength was immense. In the comics, he had records of trading blows with fighters like Thor and emerging completely unscathed.
And his ability was somewhat similar to the Hulk's.
For the Hulk, the stronger the rage, the greater the power. For Kallark, the greater his confidence, the mightier he became.
As one of the preeminent warriors in the cosmos, Kallark was, naturally, supremely confident!
But at this moment, he was also supremely furious.
This so-called King of Sakaar had said he would attend the Galactic Council, yet here he'd left the representatives of the three empires cooling their heels for this long. It was as if he didn't even consider them worth his regard!
Such blatant disrespect — he could barely tolerate it!
So what if he had defeated Thanos?
Setting aside the fact that no one even knew how Thanos had actually died, even if the real Thanos himself were here, he would never dare treat the three empires with such neglect.
Kallark was eager to see just what this so-called King of Sakaar was really made of!
/-\
Enjoying the story? Want to read ahead?
Support the novel and unlock early access to unreleased chapters!
~ +20 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon! (+1 Chapter daily)
https://p-atreon.com/Its_Zack
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access Patreon normally)