SCION THE PROTECTOR

Blue Marvel says that he has known about the celestial station for a while, he scouted it out when it first appeared and released a light so bright it brought the sun to the ocean, however, there was a strong electromagnetic field around that prevented him from getting close.

A few months ago it shut down completely but he hadn't made the connection between its shutdown and the defeat of the Exterminator, he says that now it all makes sense, the AI travelled through the same electromagnetic field from the celestial outpost to his lab.

Lauin says that he intends to awaken the lab once again and use it as his private residence but to do so he needs an operating system, he says that he can easily write a new AI but that will cost him time, besides an AI isn't all he needs, there are a lot of modifications he still has to make before he can live in it but currently he isn't strong enough to handle the cost of those actions.

He then returns to the topic and says that from what he has been able to tell he needs the aid of another equally powerful AI, if he can fuse with it then maybe together they can stand a chance to defeat Ziran's AI. Binary asks him how he can fuse with an AI and Lauin tells them that he is celestial, he can interface with all forms of intelligence.

Technological life forms may be auxiliary services on Earth but in the universe, there exist races that are purely technological in nature, celestials are in tune with all life forms in the universe and as such can interact with all of them. Not to forget that celestial bodies can also be considered technological in some way,

All he needs to do is establish contact with the AI and his mind will do the rest, Blue Marvel shows him to a terminal in his system, Lauin places a hand on the terminal and instantly his mind enters the system, he starts navigating it and finally lands on the two intelligences, one was a bit larger than the other.

He could easily tell which one was his because of the appearance it chose to have, it mirrored the form of Ziran still, once they encountered each other Lauin knew what would come next, he warned the people outside that they were about to be attacked by the AI seeking to stop his physical body and all they need to do is keep him alive.

Inside cyberspace Lauin initiates a fight with Ziran, since Ziran was a celestial AI he was kind of a god in cyberspace, being a celestial makes Lauin a god of sorts but this wasn't his realm because of that he was suppressed in cyberspace, they exchanged blasts and in the end Lauin was on the losing end,

However, at that time he succeeded in taking Ziran's attention away from Blue Marvel's AI and Lauin sent a wisp of his consciousness to merge with the AI, after he did he gained a foothold into cyberspace. Ironically the AI was called Kevin and since this was his home, he was the strongest there was.

It was the only reason why he was able to hold out against Ziran for so long despite Ziran's god-like abilities, the fusion with Lauin helped balance the scales though bringing Kevin to Ziran's level of power, at that time his home court advantage gave him an edge in their co flick allowing him to suppress Ziran.

Conflicts in cyberspace weren't like conflicts in reality, in cyberspace the strong rule the weak and there was no second way about it, with Kevin becoming strong Ziran was suppressed, and his reach was limited. Lauin discovered that Ziran was already preparing to spread his mind to the internet allowing him worldwide access to all technological systems.

If that happened then he would become practically immortal as they couldn't kill him completely so the first thing Lauin did was burn out the traces of Ziran that had infiltrated the Internet, after that he condensed Ziran's code into a single command and took it into his body.

By the time he left Cyberspace everything had been stabilized, even better Kevin had become sentient, Lauin allowed him access to Ziran's source code so he could find a way of helping his master, after which he left Cyberspace. When he woke up he was surrounded by the heroes, he asked them what happened and Binary told him that they had been attacked by the robots as he said but before they could even fight back against one of them they all stopped.

They seemed to have shut down and then when they rebooted they were governed by the Lab's AI, the AI took them to repair the lab and they were simply waiting for him to wake up. Lauin said that he solved the problem, he then opened his palm and inside it was a revolving ball of energy.

It was Ziran condensed into a ball, Lauin had shut him down and was currently in the process of rewriting his source code based on Kevin's code, kevin had helped him with majority of the work during their little chat together and at present Lauin was simply inputting preferences before relaunching the code as his own AI, he had based it on his genetic code so the AI was eternally loyal to him even though it had sentience, in a way it had become a slave.

Blue Marvel thanked him for his help and asked if there was anything they could do to pay him back, Lauin says that he intended to visit them for help in a few days but it doesn't hurt to do so right now. He tells them that he needs a power source to restart his lab and at present, he cannot do it himself.

He says that Blue Marvel is a living Antimatter reactor making his energy practically endless and Starbrand is literally a condensed universe given form, although Spectrum isn't as powerful as the two of them once she merges with Blue Marvel to form the Omega entity an adult celestial would need to be careful when facing them. As for Binary her power levels, even he hasn't been able to quantify just yet.

Starbrand asks him what he means she is a condensed universe and Lauin says that he studied the Starbrand after he merged with her, he finally recognized its true power, each universe that exists has a portion of energy referred to as the heart of all things.

This is the energy that anchors the universe to the Multiversal Eternity, a long time ago there was a universe that existed independent from the multiverse, the Starbrand was born there however its existence generated a paradox that condensed the universe down into a single star-shaped brand.

This energy was then given a conscience by the heart of all things, since it existed outside the multiverse its power was comparable to a Beyonder however when it entered the multiverse that power couldn't be allowed to exist within the multiverse, the living tribunal at the time enlisted the help of the highest ranks in the multiverse and beyond,

Together they managed to restrict the Starbrand, as its intelligence was abolished it needed to survive by attaching itself to a host, at that time it would only grant the host basic energy to keep them going, however, the Starbrand is practically a flame and it needs fuel to burn, so in exchange for infinite power the host sacrifices their life force.

That is the reason why Starbrands don't live long, because of the restriction one can never unleash the full power of the Starbrand because once you do then your entire life force is vaporized instantly. That is why the brand only gives you the exact amount of power you need to defeat a current foe but the absence of its conscience means it will never grant you the way to use that power, you need your imagination to run that power.

However after Lauin used his power to modify Brandy's body a special circumstance was created, the brand fused fully with Brandy and as she became the Starbrand, the Starbrand became her as well. As a result, they are fused for all time, although she cannot unleash the full power of the brand she can unleash enough for her specific situation as dictated by the cosmic entities that govern this universe.

the only letdown is that in fusing the brand with her he practically placed it under the full restrictions of this universe's control forces and as a result, her top power was cut down, while within universal space the amount of power she can access is no longer infinite however outside universal space, then her power returns to its true state.

Blue Marvel asks why she can not unleash the full power of the brand and Lauin tells them that to unleash the full power of the Starbrand is to set it free from the constraints placed by the living tribunal, let alone her, even Lauin at his full strength cannot override the power of the living tribunal, theoretically, it can be done but once its successful the condensed universe will be set free and it will overwrite the current universe.

Normally no host is powerful enough to handle that much strain so they all vaporize before they can succeed, however even if Brandy were to succeed the cost would be the current universe and she too would be annihilated in the process, besides at present she doesn't have the strength to unleash even 50 percent of its full power but she is almost comparable to a celestial.

He says that the starbrand was split into the multiverse however a few years ago a great purge of sorts was initiated for whatever reason he isn't aware of yet, he tells them that Starbrands across the multiverse are being burnt out and Brandy was about to become one of the victims.

As a Starbrand is burnt out in a universe it no longer seeks a host, its power is sent to the remaining hosts in the multiverse and the thinning process is still underway, the more Starbrands die the stronger the remaining ones become and Brandy is one of the beneficiaries.

She hasn't reached an adult celestial's power levels yet but she is close and with time she will only get stronger, unfortunately, her power deviates further and further from celestial energy as such he can no longer fuse with her, if he did either he would burn out her power or she would burn out his.

Considering his current state it's safe to say who will be annihilated, Binary asks whether he can fuse with her and he says that he doesn't know. He says that all the knowledge he has is based on the collective experiences of the celestials, the bit about the Starbrand came from the Fulcrum who was there when the Starbrand was being made.

However despite all their power the celestials have never encountered the Isotope 8 energy before and as such they do not know its true power, he says that it's possible she can help him but it's also possible that she can destroy him, so before he is strong enough he wouldn't want to risk it,

Spectrum asks him what he wants to do and Lauin opens a pathway for them to follow him, the pathway leads to his lab where they arrive to find total darkness, however despite the darkness they can still feel the place, Lauin runs his power and the lab lights up, he tells them that when he is present the lab can run off of his power but it depletes way too fast.

Blue Marvel asks what metal it is and Lauin says that it is celestial armour, he tells them that each celestial can use this metal however the metal only responds to celestial energy, he can transmute it but to do that he would need a power source ten times what he has at the moment.

Blue Marvel asks what he needs from them and Lauin says that the lab used to run on a contained baby galaxy but now that it's gone, he says that for normal operations the lab needed the energy output of at least a binary star but that is just the baseline.

Blue Marvel says that he can generate a star however his energy is Antimatter, he says that the star will not be stable in this universe and may end up becoming catastrophic, Lauins says that he is well aware which is why he doesn't want them to create a star, he says that he wanted them to make him a black hole,

Being created from the Omega effect this black hole will be reversed in that it will not absorb matter to grow in size but rather it will generate matter to grow in size, it will be comparable to a white hole. Blue Marvel then tells him that an existence of that magnitude will not only destroy the Earth but the entirety of the star system and maybe half the galaxy.

Lauin says that he is well aware of its potential destructive power which is why he suggested it, but he wouldn't do that without the means to contain such power so he is going to use all he has to reform this lab and in doing so generate a containment mechanism for the blackhole,

Spectrum says that Lauin just said he doesn't have that power, she asks him what he is going to use for the terraformation. Lauin says that he truly doesn't have the power but he has a way of making it up, he says that as an infant celestial his energy core is sealed up tight, it doesn't release energy freely and mostly absorbs energy.

It only releases energy in cases where his life is threatened which is why he is going to do just that, he says that he is going to rupture his containment, it will leak enough power necessary to enable him to complete the terraformation when he is done the two of them will generate the blackhole and infuse it into the lab's power source.

At that time he will be unconscious, the energy from the lab will feed him and repair his core and then he will wake up, Blue Marvel asks him why he is going to all those extreme ends. He asks Lauin what he is preparing himself for and Lauin says that something is coming to earth and none of them can stop it.

He tells them that when a new celestial is born into existence it tends to make news, unfortunately not everyone reacts with joy. He says that there is an enemy out in the multiverse that hunts down Celestials they go to life-sustaining planets seeking out celestial seeds and they feed on them.

Blue Marvel says that he knows who Galactus is and so does everyone here, they have encountered him before, Lauin says that terrifying as Galactus the devourer of worlds is to infant celestials, Lauin isn't afraid of Galactus, he says that he is Afraid of the thing that scares Galactus, they call it Abraxas, it lives off celestials and hunts them down whenever they appear, when he assumed his true form it sensed his presence and it has seen him.

He says that he can sense it coming for him, he says that Abraxas doesn't like change, he wants things to stay the course, celestials plant seeds in planets and use the dominant life species to nurture the seeds, Galactus goes around the universe hunting and feeding on these baby celestials and when Galactus is fully fed Abraxas comes for Galactus.

He says that by awakening in his infant phase, he has deviated from the cosmic circle of life and Abraxas is coming for him, he says that the fight against Abraxas is a fight every celestial needs to face, it's a trial of sorts, if one passes then they are free from Abraxas for all Eternity, if they fail Abraxas consumes their life core.