For Odin, for Thor, for Asgard!
1. The Cosmic Ultimatum
2. Against the Celestials
3. A previously Untold Story, the Battle for Asgard
4. Odinforce
5. The Intervention
6. Against Galactus, Story from an Alternate Time Line
7. The Star Ravagers
8. What if – Thor met up with Star Trek Voyager?
9. Attack on the All Place
10. When the Thunder Returns
11. The Might of Magni
12. In Search of Odin!
13. Right to Exist
14. The Battle at Time’s End
15. The Revenge of Loki
16. Final Revenge
17. Shall Asgard Survive
18. Superman a herald of Galactus
19. Dark Father
20. Dark Lightning
21. Enter Galactus
22. Triumph of Evil
23. Orin
24. The Return
25. The Transcender Threat
26. The Asgard Anomaly
The Cosmic Ultimatum
The Skies over Asgard
Normally the weapons of Asgard and those who wield them are more than enough to halt any attack on the City. Usually only fools and the allies of fools (therefore fools themselves) would countenance such an attack.
Today is different.
The Celestial One Above All delivered the ultimatum to Odin on behalf of the great cosmic powers of the Multiverse.
Galactus, the Stranger, The Inbetweener, Kronos, Uuaatu and others of his fellow Watchers and five more Celestials, Arishhem the Judge, Gammenon the Gatherer, Oneg the Prober, Eson the Searcher and Exitar the Exterminator were among those present. Abstract entities including Mistress Death herself, Master Order and Lord Chaos, Mistress Love and Master Hate also stood witness. Great Eternity and Infinity were also present though they were at some distance. Perhaps they were not entirely comfortable with the course of action being taken by their fellow titans.
Odin stood stony faced but unbowed. With him the skyfathers of all of the god pantheons associated with the Earth and not a few other Skyfathers, leaders of extra-dimensional pantheons closely allied to Asgard. At Odin’s shoulder stood the blood of the blood, the greatest warrior god ever to have drawn breath, the mighty Thor.
In the skies above Asgard mighty storm gathered momentum, urged on involuntary by the anger of the son of Odin. Everyone present on this day, god and cosmic power alike, knew this was no ordinary storm but a harbinger of what was to come.
Odin, Thor and all of the skyfathers present had mystically grown to Celestial size. A sure sign they were in mood to be intimidated. Elsewhere these events were being witnessed by almost all the god pantheons of the Multiverse and almost all of the cosmic powers. Including the home worlds of the Celestial and Watcher races. Privately more than half of the pantheons of the Multiverse had said they would join the Earth pantheons in battle. Others spoke of the need for caution. Aren't there always such entities? Continuing to advise caution even when all about them is in flame and ruin?
Back behind Asgard City, and deep into the sub continent, yet towering over all, was Odin’s Destroyer construct. Now empowered by much of the god power of all the pantheons of the Earth save only the Skyfathers, Death Gods, and a few others. The behemoth, larger than an Exitar class Celestial, looked on. A signal from Odin was all that it needed. It was unstated, yet understood, that many of the Multiverse pantheons would contribute god energies to it. Odin only had to ask.
Elsewhere among the city’s fortification was the Odin Canon manned by those of Asgard best equipped to do so. A weapon only every fired once in anger. Before the mighty Thor was even born.
The Elder Gods of the Earth including Gaea, birth mother of the mighty Thor, were not subject to the cosmic decree yet they stood in support of the pantheon gods. Silently witnessing events. With them not a few Elder gods from other dimensions.
All in all the most watched event by the great powers in all of Multiversal history.
Presumably, from somewhere, the Living Tribunal himself watched on. Yet that entity had not sought to mediate, or, worse, take sides in the coming conflict.
The demands of the cosmic powers were intolerable. All of the earth's pantheon gods without exception were to cease any form of association with the Earth. They were to play no future part in the destiny of man. To ensure this the pantheons were to depart without any exception and without delay to a distant extra-dimensional location assigned to them. Does not human history itself contain a myriad of such treatments of supposedly lesser groups?
Allfather Odin saw it for what it was. The Celestials had succeeded in influencing the other great cosmic powers to lean to their own particular way of thinking. Odin could feel the anger welling within him. He sensed the hate emanating from the abstract entity Master Hate. The Lord of Asgard controlled himself though controlling his Axe was proving more difficult.
The Celestial TOAA conjured up a vision as to the consequences of the gods not complying with the cosmic ultimatum. It showed Asgard and Olympus and indeed all of the homes of the pantheon gods associated with Earth burned to less than cinders.
Further it showed the Earth, all life upon it expunged, hurtling through space at frightening speed towards the welcoming arms of an unknown alien sun.
Fuelled by Master Hate's manipulations the mighty OdinAxe was urging its master to immediate conflict. Suddenly the sentient weapon conjured up an image in Odin's minds eye. In it Odin had used the axe to decapitate the Celestial TOAA and also slashed a vicious deep cut in the entities chest cavity. Celestial energies were poring forth unrestrained from these areas and the mystical power of the OdinAxe prevented the Celestial from regenerating its damaged armour.
Mere fanciful imaginings on the part of the sentient OdinAxe? Mayhap, yet the Lord of Asgard allowed the Celestials to read this in his mind and he saw they were discomforted by it. "If the OdinAxe troubles them, how much more will they be troubled by the lost weapons of Asgard?" thought Odin but he shielded these particular thoughts very carefully.
The Celestial TOAA with typical rigidity indicated by hand signs that there was no scope for negotiation. This was simply how it was to be. Odin's response was quietly restrained yet eloquent. Eternity looked aside, clearly embarrassed. If wisdom and eloquent reasoned argument meant anything then the battle was already over. Since it didn't, Odin finished with the clearest possible indication that the gods would not move. Enigmatically he cautioned against opening a "Pandora's box" of unrestrained god power.
As the great cosmic powers temporarily retired from Asgard, Odin pulled Thor and Zeus aside. "We must expect an imminent attack" said the Allfather. Without time for a detailed explanation Odin with a mere gesture placed in the minds of Thor and Zeus the knowledge of a great event that had been kept from them for untold millennia.
Back in a time when even Odin himself was yet young and new to the throne of Asgard a long hard war was fought with an enemy too fearful, too terrifying to contemplate. When victory was achieved only by the narrowest of margins Odin removed all knowledge of the conflict from every living being save himself and the Living Tribunal. This was so men and those who were more than men could sleep at night and the Multiverse could again become a quieter, gentler place.
Both great Odin and the Tribunal thought that the weapons used at this time would never again be needed. That they were simply too powerful to be left anywhere that lesser beings could acquire them. As such these "lost weapons of Asgard" were placed beyond the access of all save Odin and the Living Tribunal.
"My son" said Odin "We are ranged against all the cosmic p
owers of the Multiverse and have uncertain support from many of the Multiverse pantheons". "Unthinkably we must again retrieve some of these ancient weapons; great mjolnir will show you the way." "With the cosmic powers attack imminent all skyfathers must remain here."
“Which weapons shall I return with father” enquired the Mighty Thor.
“You will know my son” was Odin’s only reply “you will know.”
Even before the mighty Thor could return the conflict began.
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The gods drew first blood. Almost exactly the same as in the image the OdinAxe had conveyed to Odin's mind's eye. By the very mightiest of swings with the fabled OdinAxe Odin decapitated the Celestial TOAA. As in the image the mystical forces at play seemed to prevent the Celestial from regenerating its armour. The energies of the most exalted Celestial of all were spewing everywhere. The OdinAxe held firmly in Odin’s hand seemed to be glowing brighter than a million suns.
Then in a move that caught the cosmic powers completely by surprise Odin removed his long standing custodianship of the delicate balance between Order and Chaos. Instantly Master Order and Lord Chaos were at each others throats and the Multiverse entire was plunged into a conflict between order and chaos that could only spiral out of control unless another were to take up that custodianship.
Then with the Celestial TOAA still writhing prostrate before Odin, all restraint and all caution was thrown to the cosmic winds as gods and cosmic entities flew at each other.
Galactus and Zeus locked together in a death embrace from which only one would survive. Eye energy beams blasting in to each others faces. Inconceivable energies dancing and coruscating about the entire lengths of their huge forms. Both titans savagely ripped at each others throats, hands and fingers alive with either Olympian energies or the power cosmic. Indeed the Olympian and cosmic energies intermingled to the point they were inseparable. Each of the true titans sought to free an arm, to deliver a blow powerful enough that it might also deliver death.
A phalanx of pantheon death gods, not just those such as Hela and Pluto associated with the Earth plane, but others among the Multiverse pantheons struck in a wedge shaped formation at the ultimate of all death entities, Mistress Death herself. Perhaps this was no more than a vainglorious attack but it would serve at least to occupy Death for a while.
Leading the charge for the elder gods the Demogorge sought to rip out the throat of the enigmatic stranger while the All Pantheon Destroyer construct raised its disintegration visor and unleashed that awesome weapon on Exitar of the Celestials.
Deeply worried about Asgard, the All Father had placed the “Shield of Odin” about it. The Shield had grown to city size and would offer temporary protection at best. Until the mighty Thor returned with something more enduring.
Odin confronted by Arishhem the Celestial suddenly found himself plummeting not only through layers of time but layers of time in different dimensions. No doubt primarily the work of Kronos but the dimensional subtleties suggested the hand of another. It was a clever tactic containing only one significant flaw. It was used against Odin the Almighty, Lord of all Asgard and wielder of the Odinforce.
Returning to the now moment in our Universe Odin ensured that Kronos was suitably "rewarded". The supposed master of time was himself placed in a one day long repetitive time constraint block. His own personal "ground hog day" if you will. In a 24 Earth hour repetitive cycle Kronos was the helpless witness to the final 24 hours in the infamous fuhrerbunker of Earth's greatest Dictator Adolf Hitler before he took his own life. Odin chuckled, if the battle against the cosmics went on long enough Kronos might even go mad. There seemed a strange irony in this.
But Arishem the Judge awaited Odin. Like Galactus, Arishem also opted for the savage physical approach. Odin was slightly bemused by this. The Celestials were if anything somewhat slow, cumbersome and unskilled in purely physical battle. While Odin was undeniably one of the great warrior gods of all time. As he had mystically grown to Celestial size Odin was only too happy to accommodate the Celestial in physical battle. As Odin reigned blow after blow upon Arishem the hatred grew within him. Who were these meddling genetic manipulators, these self styled space gods to demand that the true gods themselves be rounded up like cattle and put to pasture? Increasingly Arishem was unable to return Odin's blows but the Allfather was past caring.
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Elsewhere and perhaps even elsewhen the mighty Thor marvelled at the contents of the “Lost weapons of Asgard repository” every bit as much as he marvelled at their location.
Odin and the Living Tribunal had almost hidden the repository in plain sight.
It was located in one of the realities contained in the All Place itself, a place where all of the realities converge as if they were merely different streets in a large city. Yet this particular reality was accessible only to great Odin and the Living Tribunal and now the mighty Thor. Thor wondered whether the present custodians of the All Place, the galactic superpower empire of the Tolden knew of the repository. This seemed unlikely. If Odin and the Living Tribunal together did not wish it, then it was not so.
Thor marvelled at his father’s accomplishments in gathering all these weapons together.
He now knew that as a young skyfather, Odin had embarked on a cosmic quest. To locate the main extra-dimensional pantheons, to begin “mapping” their locations on the great map of the gods, and to gather in any great artefacts upon the way. A quest that had paid dividends in times past and would now do so again.
Of the various artefacts before him one item seemed to call to him much as mighty mjolnir might do. He knew it from the description Odin had implanted in his mind.
It was “the armour of the son to be” – not Thor as Odin’s son but Magni, his own son not yet born. Magni who as wearer of this armour would take mighty Asgard to even greater heights. So Thor believed, and so he had once seen when viewing the distant future from the high place at Hlidskialf.
Even the battle armour of Odin himself could not begin to match this armour. Its pedigree was beyond all question.
It was originally the armour of Tragathh the last soldier of the Brell a race that millions of years ago strode the stars and the dimensions as easily as men might walk to the house next door. In a great intertemporal journey of millions of years Tragathh had sought out and destroyed the entity that had destroyed his own race.
Then, living, all too briefly among the gods of Asgard Tragathh passed on content bequeathing his armour to a youthful Odin. Legend had it that the armour contained all of the residual power of the Brell. Yet not content with this Odin had added his own enchantments and those of the other Earth skyfathers and in the end enchantments from most of the extra-dimensional god pantheons that he visited on his great quest.
The mighty Thor took with him just two other artefacts. They did nor glow or entreat him to take them but he knew just the same that these were what were needed. Just as Almighty Odin had said.
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As the struggle between pantheon gods and cosmic powers continued the palpable hatred, grew ever greater fuelling the conflict. This was something far more than merely Master Hate's manipulations. All engaged in the battle felt it to a lesser or greater degree. It allowed of no scope for conciliation or reason. Even the normally docile Watchers fought with indescribable savagery. Odin had not known the like since the unthinkable, unmentionable war long ago. As if those who had then threatened all of existence had somehow been able to pass on their hatred many millennia later.
Though the Odin Cannon had never been used during their life times, Heimdall, Hermod, and Hogun the Grim had all been well trained in its use. Heimdall offering a physical sensory capability far beyond the most adv
anced imaginable computer targeting systems and Hermod offered a frightening speed of operation. Hogun offered sheer determination and the preparedness to take massive loss of life if necessary.
Rumour had it that when last used, on a distant battlefield, the Cannon had shattered a Galaxy and even its recoil alone had pulverized a star system. They would need to be careful with it.
Soon the first of the main body of Celestials and the race of Watchers began to teleport in to the battle. At about the same time more of the Multiverse's other pantheon gods’ skyfathers, war gods, gods of thunder and death gods also began teleporting in. On both sides some never made it. Both the Celestials and certain of the Multiverse pantheon gods had the power to intercept and destroy entities while in the act of teleportation. An act also well within the present capabilities of the Odin Cannon.
Those Celestials and Watchers that reached the field of battle came under immediate fire from the Heimdall/Hermod/Hogun controlled Odin Cannon. A Cannon that can destroy Galaxies can with a few adjustments be calibrated to destroy a Celestial or a Watcher.
Apart from Eternities subtle assistance to Kronos, Eternity and Infinity had played a by-stander role but as more and more of their fellows fell before the gods their own high level intervention was becoming increasingly necessary. Eternity took the first step to full scale involvement in taking over custodianship of the balance between Chaos and Order relinquished by Odin. “Steadying the ship” for the cosmic powers.
For Odin, for Thor, for Asgard Page 1
