20 Skrull Thor Part IV

Taking a breath, Thor released it slowly as he looked up at the light hanging above me. The metal bed he was laid upon was cold, the room around me of a similar temperature. With him laid practically naked upon the bed beside a pair of pants, it made for a very uncomfortable experience.

Moments later, the door opened and in stepped an entourage of Skrulls including Emperor Dorrek. "Are you certain that you wish to do this, H'loridi? This procedure has never been done before." Dorrek explained.

"And if it succeeds, I will be much stronger." He replied with a smirk. Ultimately, if he wanted to return to Asgard and not be killed by the beings manipulating Odin of all people, he needed power. This new procedure, the one being called the Super Skrull Program was one that would artificially recreate Warskrulls.

Thor had no problem with it, not like the rest of the Warskrulls and considering the public execution of General K'tratz for his actions in the near dissolution of the Lifestone Tree Treaty. Now with the news that the Super Skrull Program was in effect, the Warskrulls were incredibly annoyed for the death of the commander and the removal of the one thing that made them special.

The success they had meant they earned a great deal of prestige and wealth. With competition in the form of the Super Skrulls, that would only mean that they would have to split their profits or work even harder.

Already Thor had discovered talks of rebellion and launching an attack upon the capital in order to put an end to the Super Skrull Program. But to Thor, that didn't matter to him at all because unlike them, he saw this as an opportunity to get him closer to what he had always been working towards. Not to purely save Asgard, but to save the one person that had always been by his side ever since they were children.

The brother who despite their differences had always been someone he could rely upon in even the most difficult of situations.

Loki.

Odin's children had been trained to work together, but Odin had also made it so that his children were divided. United in their cause to save Asgard, enough so that they were willing to put aside their differences, but also rivals with one another.

The oldest pair was Vidar and Tyr. One the strength and symbol of power, the other the mind that controlled the flow of events.

Then there had been Baldur and Hermod, the youngest pair. Not a pair of battles and war, but a pair of diplomacy and statesmanship. Hermod was the messenger, the one that kept everyone up to date on everything, ensuring that no one was without the truth of events. Baldur on the other hand was the man who kept rebellions from breaking out in the newly conquered provinces.

Finally had been him and Loki, the odd pair that had never been able to fit in, a result of Loki's past that Tyr and Vidar had known, but never able to fully accept. With Loki's own actions and personality on top of that, it only made it that much harder for the other sons of Odin to accept him. Thor, a man who always stood beside Loki was equally as mistreated.

They only had each other and Thor couldn't stand the idea of letting him continue to suffer. Loki was the one person that stood by his side and Thor would repay that a hundredfold. If that meant risking his life in this procedure to enhance his powers further, that's exactly what he would do.

"The artefact is being forged today," Dorrek informed. "But in the meantime, let us proceed with this procedure."

-X- Line Break -X-

The Lifestone Tree Treaty.

A treaty that was put in place by eight alien races of great power and influence within the universe that would avoid war between them all. Considering the vast size of their empires, the destruction caused by war would only result in losses in the long rung. Instead, by uniting together they could pool their resources together and become even more powerful.

Amongst this treaty, were the eight races:

The Skrull.

The Badoon.

The Shi'ar.

The Dire Wraiths.

The Kronans.

The Centaurians.

And rising stars in the form of the Sovereign and the newly formed Kree Empire as they were beginning to call themselves. The recent number of planetary conquests both had succeeded in was making waves.

Each of them had chosen a single representative to wield an ancient artefact formed from the leftovers of the Big Bang. Their intention was to create a group of superpowered beings that would enable them to protect their own interests. Even if it meant working together, a much harder task than anyone would have thought possible.

But Thor didn't think things would last forever, there was a lot of bad blood shared between all of them. The Skrulls had engaged in numerous wars with longtime rivals, the Badoon who had during the time of Nogor the Talisman. The Dire Wraiths were also another problem, a group of rogue Deviant Skrulls that had refused to join Sl'gur't and her campaign and instead delved into black magic. Their exposure to it led to them mutating into the Dire Wraiths and in order to stop them, driven by fear, the Skrulls led another genocide.

The Dire Wraiths survived and their hatred grew, the two races having clashed a number of times in their existence. But that was the end of their list of enemies, they had a few skirmishes with the Shi'ar Empire though nothing major. A similar situation with the Kree, the war between their two races had only just begun, but nothing that would make it impossible to go back from.

The Kronans themselves had similar conflicts with the Shi'ar and the rising empire of the Sovereign. However, the list went on, everyone gathered here was part of a race that had conflicts with one another, mayhaps not everyone, but enough of them. Above all else though, none of them had allied with one another and that meant this treaty while tentative, was still in effect.

Leaning back into the chair, Thor looked around the room to his fellow representatives. A whole host of characters, that each possessed a great deal of power at their grasp.

Looking down at his chest, Thor looked upon the blue gem that was fitted into his chest. He then looked around at the others to see they too had gems fitted into their chest. Each filled with a great deal of Cosmic energy that gifted them with a great deal of power.

'This alliance won't last long.' Thor thought to himself with a frown. 'And when it does begin to fall through, chaos will erupt from it. As Loki always said, chaos is an opportunity. If I want to save him, then I need to learn how to use chaos as such and well, from what I'm seeing, there is plenty of things for me to take for myself. The question is; how?'

-X- Line Break -X-

They were an amusing bunch, the representatives of the Lifestone Tree. Then again, people like them always were, but they popped up every now and again. He had encountered groups like these multiple times in his long life and he had seen many things of interest happen in the last few decades.

Most of it surrounding the little backwater planet formed from the body of an Elder God, Gaea. A fact that not many knew of, but he was aware, all thanks to the limited knowledge he acquired from the shard of the Crystal of Ultimate Vision.

Many races had attempted to take it for themselves, the Crystal of Ultimate Vision. None had succeeded because the crystal hidden within the Citadel of Light and Shadow, was still there. He couldn't say how he got ahold of the shard, all he knew was that it had happened and ever since then, he had spent his life looking around for someone who could bring him the whole thing.

Every race that was a part of the Lifestone Tree was a race that had attempted and failed to take the Crystal of Ultimate Vision. This failure was also the reason behind why the Skrulls had invested so much into the Super Skrull Program in order to replicate the powers of the Warskrulls who were now a dying breed. The Kree had also attempted to take it for themselves, an attempt for power that would help them to tip the war in against the Skrulls. It was all so amusing to him, the way in which people scrambled for power.

True power only came to those who were deserving of it.

He didn't take the shard of the Crystal of Ultimate Vision, it just appeared before him.

It was so amusing to him as he watched people scramble for power like it was something they could work hard for. He wouldn't stand by now though, not when a new offering was presented before him like the shard of the Crystal of Ultimate Vision did many centuries. An offering that would give him the power necessary to go for his long-held ambition and his crowning achievement.

Xorr the God-Jewel.