Trick 179: A Cosmic history Lesson

As soon as Ace returned home, he got calls from every single member of the Avengers and SHIELD.

Sharon was standing in front of him with her hands on her hips, looking at him with worry. Ace chuckled and pressed a few buttons on the phone, tossing it onto the table as holograms appeared everywhere.

He sat on a chair and held his stomach, grinning "Hey! See the news?" Steve frowned with his arms crossed, "What happened?" Tony snapped his fingers, saying "I think it's pretty clear! Giant God visited, the Wizard told him to get the hell out, and the Giant wasn't too happy."

Steve looked at him, saying "Tony." Tony rolled his eyes and Natasha said "Judgment?" Ace saw a strange look in her eyes and said "No… Relax… Don't…" she licked her lips and Steve held his temples, sighing.

Sam was in his old uniform and said "So we have to fight giant planet sized Gods now?" Bucky scratched his head and asked "Would bullets even help here?" Rhodey looked at him with his arms crossed, saying "At least you're not normal."

Bucky frowned, muttering "Why does everyone keep saying that…"

Clint let out a breath, saying "Anyway, we gotta figure this out, right? I'd rather not have my house blown up by a giant god…" Natasha looked at him smiling, "Me neither!" Clint looked at her replying "You need to come over for control practice… Found more brimstone eyed people in Russia…"

Pietro looked at him asking "What were you doing in Russia?" Clint cleared his throat and replied "Don't worry about it."

Steve turned to Ace, asking "What do you know?" Ace looked over at Sharon, she rolled her eyes at him from the doorway, out of sight. He turned back to Steve, explaining "Well, here's what I know. That was a Celestial, right?"

Everyone nodded and Ace went on, "He's Arishem the Judge, basically…" he stood up and made a diagram, saying "Before I start, here's some History of the Universe. This came directly from the Ancient One, who has talked to a few literal Gods. Not like Thor, like think of the God of Christian Religion, that concept. They're like the embodiments of natural laws and concepts… like Death for example, Natasha's met her."

Everyone looked at Natasha and she nodded, saying "Yep. Real pretty." Ace nodded and explained "The personality of these gods is… complicated to say the least. In every Universe, the Celestials, and the Gods of Concepts exist. But unlike all of us, they're not different entities."

Tony frowned and held his chin, saying "You mean to say, they're all one person just split across the multiverse?" Ace nodded and said "Yeah. They're infinitely more powerful than any of us alone…" he curled his lips and looked at Steve, adding "But not together, eh Cap?"

Steve rolled his eyes and smirked "You got it, kid." Ace chuckled and went on, "The beginning of the Celestials is quite literally the beginning of the Omniverse." Rhodey cut him off saying "Hold on, Omniverse? What the hell is that?"

Tony waved his hand, replying "A bunch of Universes is a Multiverse, a bunch of Multiverses is an Omniverse. Shhh!" Rhodey looked at the rest, giving a look like 'Are you for real!?' They just shrugged and gave him a look saying 'It's the wizard, what did you expect?'

Ace continued regardless, "These details are a bit iffy, since it's basically hearsay, but! What I was told was that in the beginning, there was only darkness and the One Above All appeared, lightning up the darkness creating the First Cosmos."

Sam looked at Bucky, muttering "Makes sense, right?" Bucky replied with a whisper, "I'm still on Omniverse, man…"

Ace went on, "The First Cosmos had the First Firmament, basically an avatar of the One Above All. He was lonely so he created the Celestials to live in this cosmos. However, nothing ever changed, there was no time, death, nothing, just endless space and infinite life. Got it?"

They all nodded and Rhodey said "So everyone was immortal and we have to fight the oldest geriatrics known to universal history…" Ace chuckled and gave him a thumbs up, the diagram showed what Ace was saying as he went on, "The Celestials didn't like this, they wanted change, evolution, and mortality. So they started a war and killed everything before shattering the First Firmament himself, breaking the First Cosmos and creating the Second Cosmos."

He raised a finger, adding "But, the First Firmament's corpse created countless universes by itself, this was the first Multiverse. It was at this time where Eternity, Infinity, Death, etc. were born. They just appeared out of necessity, not created by anyone. So anyway! The Celestials did what they wanted in the Second Cosmos, creating 'Omegas'... I don't know what those are though, it's vague because everything was new. Even Death."

He paused for a moment and everyone looked at him, he scratched his neck and explained awkwardly "The Cosmos itself has a personification, it thinks, lives, and breathes just like us, it's also curious so… It kinda… killed itself to experience what it was like…"

Sam looked confused, asking "Excuse me?" Tony rubbed his chin, saying "Okay, I got it. Basically, everything was new, the Intelligence of the Second Cosmos killed itself to experience the feeling of Death." Ace nodded and explained "The Second Cosmos only lasted a few millenia because of this, but it was reborn into the Third Cosmos. Now listen carefully because it gets complicated from here on."

Rhodey said "Oh, now it's getting complicated?" Sam looked at him, replying "Man, you never change, huh?" Rhodey pointed at Ace, saying "We're hearing the same thing, right? You not confused?" Sam rolled his eyes, replying "Course I am, but here I am, listening."

He pointed his thumb at Bucky, adding "This dude is so far behind I don't think he'll pass the quiz." Bucky snorted, "I'm following… kinda." Tony waved and said "Hello? Let the Wizard talk, it's not my fault you all failed highschool." Natasha crossed her arms, stating "I didn't go to school." Clint sighed, "We can tell."

Ace cleared his throat, saying "Anyway! The Third Cosmos was the first complete Cosmos because the First one was nothing and the Second one was shattered. This one had a concept of being which was dark vs light or heroes vs evil. The Lightbringer One and the Anti-All fought for eons until the Anti-All died and shattered into countless pieces, forming the void in all universes going into the Fourth Cosmos."

He drank some water and ignored comments like 'Oh yeah, you better drink, we're gonna be here for a while.' 

He rolled his eyes and went on, "The Fourth Cosmos was inhabited by archetypes that lived in patterns fighting each other over and over forever because that was all they knew until they came together to unite against the Archetype of the Devourer of Worlds. They changed from 'What-Must-Be' to 'What-Can-Be' and transferred to the Fifth Cosmos. Basically, instead of one on one, this time it was a group battle. The Fifth Cosmos was the beginning of Magic, the Sorcerer Supreme of that Cosmos survived the death of the Cosmos to become the Devourer of Worlds in the next one."

Ace let out a breath and smiled, continuing "The Sixth Cosmos gave birth to Science. The concept of Science itself was created." Tony raised a brow and Ace went on, "One man was chosen by the Cosmos to continue into the next Cosmos as the Devourer of Worlds, Galactus. His name was Galan but now he's just Galactus."

Steve asked "Galactus?" Ace explained "A giant dude on the same level as the Celestials, he eats planets and accumulates energy in his body so that the next Cosmos has enough energy to be born. He doesn't usually do much, more of a force of nature, really. He'll eat planets with people on it or not, he doesn't care… I heard he has a herald that finds abandoned planets now, I don't know if that's true though."

Tony asked interestingly "And the Seventh?" Ace clapped his hands and smiled, the diagram showing all of them, "We are in the Seventh Cosmos. Funny enough, I don't know what's going on in this Cosmos… The others can be recorded in History but this one is new so…"

Steve hummed and Tony asked "What about the 6th Cosmos, you know anything else?" Ace shook his head and replied "I only know that the Science in that one was so advanced it was unthinkable what they could do. I do know that there's a race of people called the Watchers that look at everything in between universes and write everything down. They advanced so far through science that they became Gods basically, they're immortal and everything but they aren't allowed to interfere or they will be killed by their own people."

Rhodey spun his finger, saying "Okay, now fall back, what were we talking about again?" Ace blinked and slapped his forehead, "Ah! Oops… Ahem! So, what I was saying is that the Celestials are extremely powerful and scattered throughout the Multiverses since the Third Cosmos, they're not… 'evil'. I don't know how to explain it, it's like a Tornado. If a Tornado destroys your house, it's not on purpose. That's just what it does… or no wait that's a bad analogy…"

Tony waved his hand and said "I got it, Gandalf." before turning to the rest, explaining "These Celestials are basically curious scientists, experimenting on the universe itself. They exist to experiment since they were born out of curiosity. They don't do bad things because they're evil. They essentially don't have a right and wrong concept, everything is an experiment for them. They're the scientist and we're the mice, understand?"

Steve frowned and asked "So what are we supposed to do?" Ace shrugged and grinned, "I don't know but I bit the scientist." Rhodey rolled his eyes, saying "Great…" Tony chuckled and said "Don't worry… If you give a Mouse enough time and access to the Scientist's knowledge, the roles can change."

Steve looked at him and asked "What did you do, Tony. I know that look." Tony licked his lips and grinned, "Me and the Wizard may have come across a little piece of cheese… Currently, Avengers Mountain is under construction."

Natasha asked in confusion "Avengers Mountain?" Tony looked at Ace, who chuckled excitedly "Oh man! You're gonna love it! The Celestial that Sersi turned to marble was reverted to normal but it was dead so I brought it to the North Pole and set it up because Tony wanted to study it and turn it into a base of operations, but listen to this! We found ANOTHER one! So now we have a double base! But the Celestial body is a biological android entity!"

His eyes sparkled and he continued "We're creating a base inside the body of the Celestial while learning about Celestial technology… Well Tony is! I'm making a magic library though!" Steve looked at Tony, who nodded, adding "Banner is here, busy at the moment."

Sam said "Hold up. 'Here'? Meaning you're there right now?" Tony nodded and said "Yeah, of course, the wizard would've been here too but he went to see what was up with the Celestial that showed up and then we called." Ace added, "Arishem came and said there will be judgment for killing Tiamut, so I told him to kick rocks then he metaphorically kicked me. Then I told him that I would tear his head off his neck and he left."

Everyone was silent and Ace gave Sharon a thumbs up, winking with a look saying 'Look at me, how cool am I?!' she giggled and rolled her eyes.