Shedding Skins

by Jason Eberly

Through the vast emptiness that is the cosmos soared the artificial golden being known as Adam Warlock. In the recent years since he returned from a parallel universe*, he had wandered mostly aimlessly, having rare contact with other life forms. After the constant cosmic threats while he was the leader of the Infinity Watch, he was enjoying the peace and solitude that had been denied him since he had exited the peaceful world of the Soul Gem he once again wore upon his brow**.

* (Warlock and the Infinity Gems were a part of the all-too short lived Malibuverse line of titles in the mid-90's. ~The Jasonverse)
** (Adam Warlock returned from Soulworld in Infinity Gauntlet #1 ~Jason)

The rest of the Infinity Gems, the embodiments of time, space, power, reality, and the mind, (as well as Adam's soul gem) had been scattered throughout our reality once again. He hoped they would once again fade into the annals of history, and that all the trouble they had caused the universe would soon be forgotten.

Of course, that would not be the case.

The snake-god writhed on a sand dune somewhere in African Sahara Desert. His scaly skin had a dry, cracked look to it, as if it were dead. Suddenly, two sets of blue fingers poked out through the top of the snake-god's head. It took grip of the skin, and with a sound like that of paper tearing, ripped a large hole in its own head. The husk slumped to the ground, and out crawled a man. He was muscular, had blue skin, and blond hair. He looked at his hands with approval as he flexed and released them. His eyes still reflected his reptilian heritage, as they were the cold, merciless eyes of a snake.

Around him, the barren landscape suddenly began sprouting lush foliage. Within moments, he was surrounded by a lush garden. His face betrayed no emotion, as if this event were not unexpected. In truth, it was not.

"Hello, my Aunt." His voice was the same as his visage: stern and without emotion.

Standing next to the man was a woman with long black hair and wearing a featureless green dress. "Hello, my nephew." Her voice was melodic, filled with warmth and life.

"Why have you come to me, Gaea?" the man asked.

"I have come to warn you that you and your brothers will not succeed on this, the prime plane of reality." The Earth-Goddess Gaea bent down, plucked a flower, and put it in her hair. "Despite your success on the other planes, the forces of the universe will now rise to stop you."

"I have already contemplated this, Earth-mother, and I agree with you."

Gaea smiled as she bent down to pet a small mouse that had been scurrying about her feet. "So you will abandon your plans of conquest? Is this why you have shed your old form?"

A blue foot came down upon the small mammal, killing it instantly. Gaea shirked back, glaring at the blue man who had killed one of her creations. "No, Gaea. I have come to the conclusion that the only way to stop the universe from stopping me, is to become as powerful as the universe itself!"

Gaea stood. "You mean to collect the Infinity Gems, do you not?" She tilted her head back and laughed heartily. "Now I know you shall not succeed in your venture, for those baubles bring ruination to whomever unites them. Tell me what name you have taken, so I may tell your brothers who has brought this folly upon them."

"When I succeed, I shall write my name in blood from your precious mammals across this planet. The name taken in honor of my mother's father, and taken in defiance of your son, who killed many of my kin in the time before time. I have taken the name…Attum!"

With that declaration, he spread his arms high, and destroyed Gaea's garden in a blinding flash of energy. When Gaea opened her eyes, Attum was gone. She looked up to the stars for a few moments, and then spoke quietly.

"Your respite is over, creation of my creation. Time to fight again."

On an asteroid in the vastness of space, Adam Warlock suddenly sat upright from where he had been resting. His head was filled with images no mortal being should ever witness. They were images of what would happen if Attum collected the Infinity Gems and the Sons of Set succeeded in their attempt to conquer the prime reality. Then, as quickly as they had come, the images vanished, leaving only understanding.

Adam stood, resolve upon his golden face. "The gems must never be used to menace the universe again. But this Attum seems much too powerful for me to handle alone. It is time to enlist the aid of old allies." With that, he flew into space. Little did he realize he was being followed.

Somewhere else in space, some time later

On a large, Eden-like planet, a Titanian cruiser lay on a field of grass larger than the state of Texas. Nearby, a tall, bald woman sat in the lotus position inches above the several feet-tall foliage. She was in a deep meditative state until her consciousness sensed the approach of a familiar brainwave pattern. Without moving or opening her eyes, she spoke.

"Adam."

"Heather," Adam Warlock replied in greeting.

'The gems?" she asked.

"The gems."

Heather sighed, straightened her legs, and lighted on the field. "Will we need Drax?"

"Probably," Adam responded. "I heard he had been killed by Thanos. In fact, I heard he had killed you, too*.

* (In M2K's Captain Marvel #15. ~Jason)

Heather smirked. "I guess death isn't all it's cracked up to be…but you know about that, don't you?* Actually, when Thanos and I last clashed, I was still recovering from a previous battle, and was no where near full power. I used my telepathy to make him think he had killed me." Heather Douglas, alias Moondragon, lowered her head a bit, sorrow flashing across her face for only the briefest of moments. "As for my father, Thanos did kill him."

* (Heather's referring to the fact that Warlock has died at least once himself. ~Jason)

Adam pondered for a moment, then placed a hand on Heather's forehead.

"What are you doing?" Moondragon asked, slightly surprised.

Adam smiled. "Using your telepathy to make a…long distance phone call, as it were."

Moondragon did not understand how Adam could use her telepathy, nor what he was using it for, but she suddenly felt a powerful presence all around her. The wind increased to gale-force nearly instantly, causing the tall grass to whip about this way and that.

After another minute, the wind disappeared as quickly as it had started. The prickly feeling of power in the air remained however. Adam smiled slightly and removed his hand from Heather's head.

"What was that?!" she asked, confused.

"I called in a favor," Adam stated as he turned slightly and pointed a short distance away.

Heather turned and saw a mound of dirt being pushed up from the ground. Before she could even conjecture what was happening, the mound exploded, spraying dirt in every direction. Heather covered her eyes, and when she pulled her arm away, she saw a familiar figure standing where the mound had been.

A hulking green figure dressed in purple and a cape stood there, blinking in the light of the mid-afternoon. The figure opened it's mouth slowly, thought for a moment for the appropriate words, then spoke slowly.

"Drax…back again?"

Adam Warlock walked over to Drax, and put his hand upon the large figure's shoulder. "Yes, Drax…and I'm sorry, but we need you."

Drax looked down at Warlock. "Drax…find it hard to think again." He then looked up and saw Moondragon. He stared at her confusedly for a few moments, then recognition lit up his face. "Bald lady!!" he said excitedly.

Moondragon strode forward, a slight look of trepidation upon her face. "Hello, Drax."

As soon as she was close enough, Drax picked her up like a rag doll and hugged her. He then put her down and scratched his head.

"Drax…remembers…dying again to protect you, bald lady. Guess Drax suc…succee…guess Drax did it, huh?"

Heather couldn't bear to tell him that he had died a useless death at the hands of Thanos. "Yes, Drax….you did wonderful." She then turned to Adam, fury in her eyes. "You…you used my telepathy to contact Chronos* in order to bring my father back from his well-deserved rest!"

Adam said nothing, and began walking towards Moondragon's ship. "It is time to go pick up the rest of our group."

Moondragon and Drax followed.

The Planet Omicron III

Pip the Troll laid back on a plush bed of pillows, his hands behind his head. Around him, a bevy of scantily clad, beautiful women of all different races tended to his every need.

"Your cigar, m'lord?" a large-headed, yellow skinned Rigellian asked him, handing him a large cigar.

"Here is your beer, master," a green-skinned Skrull female said as she handed him a foamy glass of ale.

Pip took the cigar and beer. "Ahh, this is th' life. It's good to be the king."

A feather-headed Shi'Ar woman slinked up close to the cloven-hoofed Laxidazian troll, a mischievous smile upon her face.

Pip's grin grew even larger. "And what do you have for me, dearie?" he asked.

"The bird-woman ran her fingers through Pip's hair, and said in a rough, guttural voice, "Unh, yer bail's been paid, scumbag. Take yer smelly, drunk ass outta my cell."

Pip abruptly woke as cold water was thrown on him. He sat up and sputtered. He looked around the dank prison cell he had been locked in for several days now. He got off the stinking straw he had been using as a bed and strode to the cell door, where the guard was unlocking it in order to let him out.

"Somebody paid my bail?" Pip asked aloud. "Who around here would do that?"

From the darkness behind the guard stepped the golden form of Adam Warlock. "Nobody around here, my friend. Lucky for you, you have friends in high places."

Pip's face lit up. "Adam!! Great to see you, man. I thought you'd forgotten all about your old friend Pip the Troll." Pip quickly got to the outside of the now open cell door, lest the guard change his mind about letting him out. The four and a half-foot troll put a hand on the back of his oldest friend and hurriedly ushered him out onto the street outside the alien police station. "So, what's up? Come to party with me, 'cause I know this great place to get some…company…if you get my meaning."

Adam looked down at Pip. "Actually, I'm here to get your aid in stopping an otherworldly demon from collecting the Infinity Gems and taking over the universe." He then grabbed Pip by the scruff of the neck, and flew into the air toward Moondragon's spaceship, which was hovering overhead.

"Ahhh, nuts," Pip yelled as he dangled helplessly. "I shoulda known. You never show up unless there's trouble, and you need the help of the universally famous hero…me! I tell ya, Adam, yer a bigger downer than those clowns who threw me in the clink just because they caught me cathing a peek at their planet's princess. I mean, who wouldn't? She's got these four gigantic-"

The roar of Moondragon's ship consumed the rest of Pip's comments as it soared on to its next destination.

In an underground base hidden on an asteroid near the Black Galaxy

"Kill her! Kill her! KILL HER!!"

Nebula's troops fired indiscriminately down the poorly lit corridor. Her pursuer had chased the she-pirate from one hidden base to another. Countless of the supposed granddaughter of Thanos' had been ruined by the interloper that had her and the sad remnants of her pirate's crew trapped in this lowest level of her stronghold.

Out of the darkness, several small knives flew through the air, striking each firing pirate in the neck, killing them all. Nebula peered into the darkness, her weapon at the ready. Into the light walked a green-skinned woman with long black hair. Her eyes were covered with black makeup to form a sort of mask. She wore a scale-like outfit of a slightly drabber shade of green.

"Gamora," Nebula hissed through gritted teeth.

"That's right, pirate," Gamora stated, "and I'm here to see to it that your bloodline never hurts another soul." Gamora drew a katana sword from a sheath on her back.

Nebula took careful aim with her blaster at Gamora. "If I die this day, witch, I shall not go down alone."

Before another word could be uttered, a series of rumblings shook both combatants off their feet. The rumblings seemed to be getting louder and closer.

Nebula looked around. "This asteroid is geologically stable! There should be no earthquakes here." She glared at Gamora, bouncing around equally helpless from the shaking. "Did you set up explosives?"

Gamora shook her head no. "Don't try to deceive me, Nebula. If this is some trick of yours…"

Just then, a large object fell through the ceiling between the two women and landed with a thunderous 'THOOM!!'. Gamora jumped to her feet, recognizing the purple and green figure that had just pounded its way through the steel and bedrock of this fortress.

"Drax!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"He's with me." Down through the hole in the ceiling floated Adam Warlock. "And we need you once again, Gamora."

"Not until I carve the names of every one of this she-pirate's victims on her corpse, Adam." She strode toward Nebula, who was still recovering from the shockwave. Adam stepped in front of her.

"I'm afraid that's not possible, Gamora," he said.

"Why not?" the former assassin of Thanos asked.

"Because we need her, too."

"WHAT?!" both Gamora and Nebula shouted at the same time.

Nebula found her next words first. "What makes you think I'll help you?!"

Adam picked up a rock the size of a head and tossed it over to his large companion. "Drax?"

Drax caught the rock, held it in front of Nebula's face, and with minimal effort, crushed the stone into powder. Nebula looked as the remains of the rock sifted through Drax's enormous fingers.

"Hmm," she said. "Maybe I will accompany you for now."

Gamora was still shocked. "Adam, you can't be serious! She's a pirate! She'll stab any of us in the back at the earliest opportunity!"

Adam turned back toward Gamora. "I assure you, my old friend, that we will need her in the coming fight. Have I ever given you reason not to trust me?"

"Plenty, actually," she retorted. "But you always seem to be right. All right, but at the first sign of her betrayal, I'm gutting her."

"Good enough."

Adam put his arm around Gamora, Drax grabbed Nebula, and they flew back up through the hole and to Moondragon's waiting ship.

A short time later, back on Earth

The reunited Infinity Watch stood upon the beach of their former base of Monster Isle. Monster Isle sat somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, and was home to the underground tyrant, the Mole Man. The Mole Man was apparently not on the island at the moment, probably tending to his underground kingdom.

The team had been milling about, with Gamora, Pip, Drax, and Moondragon catching up with each other's activities since they split up. Nebula stood near Adam, her hands on her hips.

"So this is the fabled Earth, eh?" she said, looking around. "I've seen better planets. So, Warlock, what's the deal here?"

The golden man smiled at Nebula. "Please, call me Adam…and let me gather the others so I can explain 'the deal'."

He called the others to him, and explained about the vision he had experienced in space.

"So I decided the best way to protect the gems is for them to have guardians," he concluded.

"But why us?" asked Moondragon. "Aren't there more powerful potential guardians than Pip out there like Quasar or Captain Marvel? Or smarter ones than Drax like, well…anybody?"

"Excellent questions, Moondragon," Adam said. "This brings me to the second reason for gathering you all here, including Nebula. You see, the gems are lost throughout the universe. Not even I know where they are, except for the one on my forehead, of course. However, I can use my gem and all of the prior long-term contacts you had with your particular gems to draw them here."

"Errr…if they're brought here, won't that make it easy for this schmuck to nab 'em all at once?" Pip asked.

"And you've yet to explain why I'm here," said Nebula. "I was never one of your little playgroup."

Adam addressed Pip first. "I would rather we possess the gems and be able to protect them on our terms, than let this menace hunt them down on his." He then turned to Nebula. "And while you may not have been a protector of a gem in the past, you did briefly possess the Infinity Gauntlet*, and your blood-link to Thanos, who held the Reality Gem, should enable me to draw that one to us. Now please, all of you…sit. We begin immediately."

* (Back in The Infinity Gauntlet #6. ~Jason)

The sextet sat in a circle on the beach, as the waves began to creep on shore behind them.

"All of you, close your eyes and focus on your individual gems," Adam said, and the others did as he asked. "Visualize your consciousness soaring through the universe, being drawn to the energy with which you were familiar with for those many months." A soft green beam of light erupted from the soul gem on Adam's forehead, which linked all the members of the Watch. "Now feel yourself pulling your gem to you, like a long-lost loved one."

In front of each of the participants, besides Adam, a sparkle of electricity began to emanate. Colorless at first, then each began to glow in a distinctive color. Blue in front of Drax, red in front of Gamora, purple for Nebula, orange with Pip, and a yellow nimbus hovered in front of Moondragon. Then, with a flash of light, where the nimbi were now floated the five missing Infinity Gems, each the same color as the energy that had been crackling just instants before.

Each of the Infinity Watch opened their eyes, to see the gems floating in front of them. Then, before any of the others could react, Nebula lunged at the gems, hoping to grab them all and seize absolute power, like she had done once before.

Before Nebula could barely move, however, she met with the backhanded fist of Adam Warlock and flew backwards a dozen feet or so. She sat up slowly, blood beginning to trickle from the corner of her mouth. The others looked on, stunned, not at Nebula's attempted treachery, but at Adam's physical assault. It was not like him to be so brutal.

"Adam--?" Gamora began to ask, when Adam whipped his head at her, and she saw his eyes had changed. They were not their usual flat white eyes, but rather the eyes of a serpent.

'Adam' then snatched the gems out of the air, and the world exploded around them all.

Earlier

Adam Warlock had just began his journey to enlist Moondragon when he was blasted in the back by a bolt of mystic energy. He cried soundlessly into the vacuum of space, and turned to face his attacker. Facing him was a man with blue skin and serpentine eyes. Adam recognized him from the vision he had experienced just minutes before.

"Attum," Warlock thought, and immediately released a blast from his soul gem at the Son of Set. Attum again released mystic energy, this time in the form of a shield that blocked Warlock's attack.

"Yes, me," Attum spoke aloud somehow in the void of space. "I take it my aunt has tipped you to my plans. But even she did not know how I intended to carry them out." Attum released another blast of energy at Warlock, who tried to dodge. Though it did not him completely, he was slowed by the initial attack and was clipped on the side, causing him to cringe in pain.

Warlock fired another ray from his forehead at Attum, but before the beam could reach him, the serpentine menace vanished. Warlock, clutching his side, turned around just in time for the reappeared Attum to connect with the injured cosmic guardian's face with a mighty blow. Adam was sent flying uncontrollably through space, half-unconscious.

Attum willed himself over to Warlock and held the badly injured artificial being by the shoulders. "I can currently sense only one of the gems at this time…yours," Attum explained. "To someone with demon's blood in them, your gem filled with souls was like a beacon to me. I can also use your gem, linked with those who possessed the others, to draw them all together."

Warlock's eyes fluttered open, and he thought weakly, "You…won't win. I won't…let you use the…gems."

"My dear little straw man…I don't remember needing your permission." With that, Attum unleashed a mystic bolt through Adam Warlock's chest. Then, with little fanfare, Attum plucked the gem off of the quickly cooling corpse that was Adam Warlock. Attum then placed the gem on his own forehead, then concentrated. After a few moments his blue skin ripped from head to toe, revealing a perfect duplicate of Adam Warlock beneath. He paused for a few moments, used his mystic abilities to locate the first member of the Watch, then teleported to the world he sensed Heather Douglas was on.

Adam Warlock's lifeless body drifted away slowly into the darkness of space for a short while, when a figure flew unerringly towards him.

"Oh, Adam," the figure said as it examined Warlock's corpse. After a few moments, the figure flew off in another direction, Adam's body in its arms.

Back on Earth, now

Gamora peered through the sand and smoke, attempting to see what had happened when the beach had exploded. A figure appeared out of the swirling maelstrom before her, his blue hand striking faster than even the rumored 'deadliest woman in the galaxy' could react to. His hand caught her by the throat, and he picked her up off the ground, choking her.

"A-Adam…?" Gamora sputtered out.

The rest of the being holding her then emerged from the smoke. He was a tall, blue, naked man with blond hair. The six Infinity Gems rested on his forehead in a sort of 'V' pattern, and his eyes were cold and serpentine. He held up two fingers from his other hand and replied with a leer, "Attum. Two 't''s, no 'd'. And I am your reality's new Supreme Being."

In a flash, Gamora had drawn her knife and severed Attum's hand at the wrist. She fell to the ground, and removed the severed appendage from her throat. Attum merely looked at the stump where his hand had been, and instantly a new hand grew to take the old one's place. He then looked at the hand that had been severed on the ground. The gems on his forehead flashed briefly, and the severed hand grew and transformed into a giant five-headed snake.

Attum then pointed at Gamora. "Get her," he said to the snake-being.

One thing Drax was always ready for was a fight. So when the beach had exploded, he was almost instantly on his feet looking for something or someone to hit. Out of the debris came a blue man, much the same color as the pirate Nebula. Drax hadn't seen this person before, so he hesitated.

"Uhhh…you the bad guy?" Drax asked Attum.

"Yes, Drax. I am the 'bad guy' as you so succinctly put it.," Attum replied.

Drax hesitated no longer. He charged Attum, his fist cocked back ready to deliver a haymaker that would send Attum to the other side of the galaxy. But before he could proceed several steps, he felt a strange sensation sweep over him.

He was suddenly in a car on a lonely stretch of highway in Nevada. His wife, his daughter, and himself were staring up at the night sky in disbelief as they saw the UFO descend toward them. He saw the light flash from underneath the spaceship as his car exploded from the laser beam. He died a horrible, flaming death, not even being able to tell his family he loved them before he was consumed.

Drax was suddenly standing before his daughter, now grown into the self-styled 'Goddess of the Mind', Moondragon. She had taken over the planet Ba-Bani, and had shackled his mind to prevent him from stopping her. With the aid of the Avengers, he had thrown off her mind-control and, in a fit of rage, now confronted her. Moondragon was determined to not let him stop her, as she fired mental bolt after mental bolt at Drax. With a sudden 'pop' noise in his head, and a flash of light in his eyes, Drax's brain suffered a severe cerebral hemorrhage, and he died at the feet of his only child.

Drax was suddenly charging Thanos as his body burned with the Virshgon virus in it. Thanos merely smiled as he vaporized Drax into nothingness.

He was suddenly in a car on a lonely stretch of highway in Nevada. His wife, his daughter, and himself were staring up at the night sky in disbelief as they saw the UFO descend toward them. He saw the light flash from underneath the spaceship as his car exploded from the laser beam. He died a horrible, flaming death, not even being able to tell his family he loved them before he was consumed.

Drax was suddenly standing before his daughter, now grown into the self-styled 'Goddess of the Mind', Moondragon. She had taken over the planet Ba-Bani, and had shackled his mind to prevent him from stopping her. With the aid of the Avengers, he had thrown off her mind-control and, in a fit of rage, now confronted her. Moondragon was determined to not let him stop her, as she fired mental bolt after mental bolt at Drax. With a sudden 'pop' noise in his head, and a flash of light in his eyes, Drax's brain suffered a severe cerebral hemorrhage, and he died at the feet of his only child.

Drax was suddenly charging Thanos as his body burned with the Virshgon virus in it. Thanos merely smiled as he vaporized Drax into nothingness.

Attum stood on the beach, seemingly talking to no one. "So you shall continuously re-experience your many deaths, Drax, until you beg me to grant you it permanently."

Pip had sought shelter behind a tree when the beach had exploded, and had decided to, as he put it later, "hold the line" by continuing to hide behind it. The tree, however, was suddenly uprooted and flung far out into the ocean. Pip, cowering, looked up to see Attum standing before him. Pip then noticed that Attum was naked.

"Uhm…h-hey there," Pip began. "You…must be a bit cold, since it seems there's a bit of…uh…shrinkage there. How 'bout I go find you a nice fig leaf or sumthin'?" Pip barely scampered off in time to avoid a mighty blow from Attum. Attum gave chase to the fleeing Laxidazian troll.

Moondragon lay on the beach, recovering consciousness when she noticed the blue figure standing over her. She immediately noticed the gems on his forehead, and attempted a mental bolt to stop him quickly. Instead of firing the bolt, her left arm suddenly began jerking back and forth. When she attempted to stop it, her right eye began blinking furiously.

Attum knelt down before her. "I've mixed up your mind's motor controls, dear Heather. Any time you try to do anything, your mind will make you do something completely random. Rather fitting for someone always desperate to be in control, no?"

Moondragon attempted to spit in Attum's face, but merely ended up wiggling the toes on her left foot.

Nebula picker herself up off the ground, trying to shake off the cobwebs after the massive explosion. She noticed a shadow fall over her, and the blue-skinned Attum loomed above her.

"Nice skin color," Nebula remarked, getting to her feet and brushing herself off.

"You do not attack or flee?" Attum asked.

"I am the granddaughter of Thanos of Titan. I fear no one or nothing, and I will face my death standing tall and proud."

She then walked up to Attum, and kissed him. Attum stepped back, shocked and surprised that he could still be shocked by humanity.

"That will not save you. I still intend to send you into the heart of this planet's core, where you will perish instantly," Attum replied coldly as he mentally ordered the space gem to send Nebula to the center of the Earth…

…and nothing happened.

Nebula smirked. "Something else you should have remembered. I'm a pirate…and damn good at looting." She opened her hand, and within it lay the six Infinity Gems.

Right then, the golden female that had been carrying Adam Warlock's body had arrived at Earth, trailing the energy she felt leaking out of Adam to Monster Island. She saw Attum with the soul gem (as well as the others) on his head confronting a blue female, and knew him to be Adam's killer. To her astonishment, though, she also saw four other beings who looked exactly like Attum attacking other beings at various points on the beach.

She then saw the blue female kiss Attum, and in a move almost too deft to be seen, had seen the woman swipe the gems off of Attum's forehead.

Four of the blue men suddenly vanished, and Drax reappeared, leaving only the Attum facing Nebula.

Nebula held her fist high in the air, and yelled, "The Universe is MINE!!"

A light emanated from inside her raised fist, as she tried to access the combined powers of the Infinity Gems to remake the universe in her image, as she had done once before*. All present shielded their eyes as the light grew to a blinding flash. When it faded, and the spots were rubbed out of their eyes, they all saw that nothing had changed.

* (Infinity Gauntlet #6 ~Jason)

Nebula looked at her fist in surprise, then anger. "Work, damn you, make me SUPREME!!" This time, not even a spark of light flashed from the collected gems. She was so startled, that she didn't notice Attum move until he grabbed her wrist.

"It seems the gems don't like you. I can't say that I blame them," Attum said as he focused his will on the gems in Nebula's hand. The she-pirate felt his presence trying to regain control of the cosmic trinkets, and focused her own formidable will against his.

"You can't win, you know," Attum said, his serpent's eyes locked onto Nebula's. "I am one of the ssseven sssons of Sssset. My mother's father is one of this world's great conquerersss, my mother one of it's fiercest warriorssss. My will shall prevail."

Nebula gritted her teeth. "And I am the bastard granddaughter of one of the most feared villains this universe has ever seen. I grew up experiencing the worst dregs this cosmos could muster…horrors that your family couldn't even imagine. And I survived. And I will survive. And I will prevail!!"

"ENOUGH!!" A voice that seemed to come from all around the combatants boomed. Amidst the gems laying in Nebula's hand, the green soul gem began to float, a gentle light glowing from within it. A ray of light then shone forth between the combatants, and revealed the ghostly greenish form of…

"Adam!!" Gamora yelled. "What in the seven rings…?"

The opaque Adam Warlock held up a hand, obviously meant to silence Gamora. He then used the same hand, and pointed at Nebula. "Nebula! It is useless for you to try to wrest control of the gems. Eternity long ago decreed that the gems shall not work collectively. That is why nothing happened when you attempted to use them."

"Then howcum the blue man group here was able to use 'em all at once?" Pip asked.

"He is not of this universe. Therefore, Eternity's decree did not apply to him. At least not fully. He was able to access the gems power, just not to the level the Infinity Gauntlet once possessed."

Attum scowled at Adam. "But given time, I would have been able to access them fully. And I still shall!" Attum then used his other hand and snatched the gems from Nebula's outstretched hand. All the gathered members of the Infinity Watch girded themselves for more battle, but the ghostly form of Adam Warlock merely stood as stoic as before.

"No," Adam said, "You have already sown the seeds of your defeat. The endgame is here."

"Who's going to stop me, little artificial man? You?" Attum sneered at Warlock. "I already killed you once, it would be child's play to do so again."

"Not so," Adam stated. "It is true you killed me. In fact, here is my body now, brought to Earth by the being that followed my entry into this cosmos of madness. She is the being known as Her, or Kismet."

The golden female landed upon the beach, and laid the dead body of Adam Warlock upon the sand. She found herself staring at the ghostly apparition of the man she had carried halfway across the galaxy.

Adam continued. "During my time as Supreme Being*, I altered my soul gem. I infused my soul with the gem. My soul IS the gem, and the gem IS my soul. So, even in the event of the death of my corporeal form, I can still protect it and the denizens that reside within…much the way Gaea does with Earth. So when you 'killed' me, Attum, you released the constraints of my mortal flesh and made me more powerful than you could ever imagine."

Drax perked up. "Adam like Obi-Wan Kenobi!!"

Attum grew impatient, his forked tongue flashing to and fro. "What matterssss thisss? I am the son of an Elder God!! My power is ssssecond to none!!"

"Wrong," Adam corrected him, "You are the son of a mortal woman…and that mortal link gives you a soul. And I…I am the master of souls!"

A green light enveloped around Attum, and he screamed. Quickly, the light seemed to be absorbed back into the soul gem from whence it had come. When it had completely faded, Attum fell to his knees, then prone on his side. His eyes were blank, and a bit of spittle began to trickle down his chin. The gems fell out of his now limp hand, and spilled out onto the sand.

"Attum will be safely imprisoned in soul world for eternity, hopefully he will find peace," Adam said as he looked down at the catatonic form of the son of Set.

The others gathered around the fallen demon-god and gems, and Pip finally broke the silence with, "So…what now?"

Next: What now, indeed? If you would like to see more of Warlock & the reborn Infinity Watch, write in and let us know! An arc in Marvel Fanfare, perhaps? Maybe their own limited series? Want to see the regular adventures of this band of characters? Let us know!!