"‘Tis not like you to be so quiet my dear," Loki casually said to Amora.

"Have you not noticed we are but pawns in this game?" she quickly answered.

"Yes, but with the gem, I...<ahem> we will be pawns no more," Loki carefully answered.

"Then why play the game? Why not take this to this Traveler directly. Surely he cannot stand up to two Asgardian-born Gods?"

"And how do you propose we find him?" Loki questioned.

"Could you not find him in your astral form?" answered the stunning goddess as she placed her hands on her hips. Her posture seemingly indicated she was annoyed by the slowness of her partner.

"Yes," answered Loki with a gleam in his eye. "I could find him easily, and we could bypass the mortal route and take this directly to this Traveler." Without a moments’ hesitation, his astral form left his body.

An eternity seemed to pass for the Enchantress as she paced back and forth nervously wondering if Loki had betrayed her in some way. She stared at his lifeless body pondering a million different ways to dispose of it, trapping him in his astral form. "No. The prize is too great! Patience Amora!" she told herself as she began pacing back and forth once more.

A short scream unintentionally left Amora’s lips as she was startled by the body of Loki suddenly coming to life again. "Well?"

"I have found him, my dear! And I have a plan," Loki said renewed with vigor.

"Oh great," Amora said sarcastically as Loki began filling her in on the details.

"I sense trouble approaching," Metron said turning to Traveler.

"Nonsense. None of these primitive beings can do anything to me." Judus Traveler looked ahead steadying his gaze downward from a cliff towards a small plain enclosed by a forest and a smaller mountain. "I wonder which team will approach next. The last team didn’t do so well."

"Traveler!" All eyes turned to Amora as she walked forward, her hands raised up in the air visibly about to cast a spell as the energy around her fingers crackled. "It is high time we did battle, god to god!" She yelled as she walked closer and closer.

"You seek to challenge me?" Traveler asked incredulously.

"Not only shall I challenge you, but I will defeat you!" she yelled as she pointed her spell to her adversary and released a bolt of Asgardian majik energy.

Traveler instinctively placed a barrier to block the energy coming towards him. The energy stopped short of reaching Traveler and turned into a mist.

"Flowers?" Traveler questioned as he inhaled the mist.

"Yes. A simple distracting spell was all that was needed for me to do this!" Loki’s voice erupted from behind Traveler. Before Judus could turn around, Loki released his spell and Judus began to glow as a substance materialized all around his body.

"Arcane crystal?" Judus told himself as his body slowly became immobilized.

"In a few seconds you will blackout," Amora said. She quickly turned to Metron. "And you?"

"What manner of creature art thou?" Loki joined Amora and stepped in front to face Metron.

"I am Metron and am here strictly as an observer. I pose no hostilities to you or any other of these creatures," he said almost robotically.

"Very well. If you tell us where the gem is, we shall spare you," Amora attempted to bargain.

The boom of an explosion echoed as Amora and Loki turned around to see Judus emerge from his prision. Shattered shards of crystal flew about penetrating everything they touched. Loki and Amora ducked as pieces flew past them.

Metron quickly generated a force field as crystal shards rapidly struck his shield and bounced off. Judus placed Loki and Amora in an energy bubble. "These two shall annoy me no longer!" he said a bit angered.

"I don’t think it is them you need to worry about." Metron replied to Traveler lowering down his force field.

Judus quickly ran to the edge of the cliff. A few seconds passed as he absorbed into his mind what he saw. "No! I cannot let this happen!" he said as he dematerialized.

"Look!" yelled Orion as he and Darkseid arrived at a clearing. The small cliff-like region was surrounded on all sides by a thick forest of trees. "The gem is in the cave ahead! All we have to do is beat this giant robotic guardian!" he said pointing to a silver metallic figure standing fifty feet in the air at the foot of the cave. Orion rapidly activated his unit rider and rushed to attack the guardian who in turn immediately retreated to the left heading toward the forest. "You will not escape me!" Orion began to yell.

"Orion!" yelled Darkseid. His commandeering voice caused Orion to stop. "You seek to fight that which is not our enemy!" he continued.

Orion turned to look as the robotic guardian entered the more dense area of the forest. "What makes you say that?" he questioned.

"Did you see any trees move as it entered the forest?" Darkseid answered.

From behind Darkseid, a pair of glowing eyes observed cautiously as a hand slowly rose. A clenched fist was careful to release a low powered plasma shot. The shot struck Darkseid's back as the large shadowed figure smiled, pushed a button on his belt and vanished.

"Who dares to fire upon Darkseid?" A voice boomed, echoing in the surrounding cliff-like region.

Captain America and Superman appeared on the right of Darkseid. Captain America instinctively reached around his back and grabbed his shield. As he did, Braniac 5 and Vril Dox entered the scene at the other side of Darkseid.

Orion quickly began flying back toward his partner's side. "It is an ambush!" Orion yelled.

Darkseid bellowed a chuckle. "Do you think I need you to defeat these fools?" Darkseid powered both his hands and shots them in front of each of his foes simultaneously.

The resulting explosion caused Vril and 5 to fly backward as the impact hurled them several feet away.

On the other end, Superman withstood the impact and quickly reached out to see his partner's condition. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"My shield absorbed the brunt of that shockwave," the Captain said getting up a little slowly.

The explosion caused the energy creature to come out of the cave. It quickly targeted the two closest to the cave. Namely, 5 and Vril, who were still a bit stunned by the explosion. Floating through the air, the semi-transparent mass of energy rapidly flew toward the pair, making crackling sounds. As it closed in on them, 5 pressed a button on his belt and instantiated a force field around the creature.

"That's not going to hold it for long!" Dox yelled in desperation. "It's starting to absorb it."

"Quiet," 5 yelled back. "I need to think."

Instantly, all minds were diverted by Orion's interruption. "Father, look!" He quickly turned everyone's attention to the side of the cliff as two figures approached the entrance of the cave from the side. "It is Thanos and Warlock!" he said not believing his own words.

"You seek to rob me of my prize?" Darkseid commanded as he turned toward them, his eyes powering up and fists clenching. "If I cannot have the prize, nobody will!" Wasting no time, Darkseid quickly fired his Omega beams at the entrance of the cave. Thanos reached the entrance and was hit by the full force of the beams saving the cave entrance from fully collapsing. The debris cleared slowly by the soft wind as the silhouette of Thanos began to appear still standing. Slowly, he came into view with most of his bodily armor stripped and in pieces.

"What? You survived my Omega blasts?" Darkseid responded genuinely surprised.

"I am Thanos!" the reply echoed outward. A smile crossed his face.

"Yes, but *I* AM DARKSEID!" retaliated Darkseid as Warlock passed by Thanos.

A whisper was faintly exchanged, "I see Death keeps her word!" [Note: Death banned Thanos from her realm as punishment in CPU#2 thereby rendering Thanos immortal - M&M]

"You take Thanos. I'll try and handle Darkseid," the Captain told his partner. "That way, they each are dealing with an unknown entity and may be more cautious in their attacks." He quickly jumped to action and threw his shield to the back of Darkseid's head. About to fire upon Thanos, Captain America caught Darkseid off guard and unbalanced causing him to fall forward on his hands. He caught the shield as it unerringly returned to him and began running after Orion who had taken off toward the entrance of the cave.

Orion entered by the left side of the cave as Thanos walked forward and focused his sight on Superman approaching from above rapidly. He was met by a plasma blast from Thanos’ eyes and fell to the ground a bit more surprised than hurt by the strength of the impact. Thanos aimed and blasted again as Superman rolled to avoid the shots and turned to blast Thanos with his heat vision. Smoke rose from the point of contact as Thanos looked forward and fired a plasma blast to the ground in front of Darkseid who was about to fire a blast himself. The explosion caused Darkseid to become unbalanced as he missed his target and blasted the top left entrance of the cave. Boulders came rushing down hitting both Superman and Thanos. As Darkseid recovered his balance, he began walking toward the cave.

Using the slight cave-in as a distraction, Orion charged at Warlock and dove toward him knocking them both down. Each struggled to be on top as Captain America entered the cave from the right side.

"Let’s get him with teamwork," the Captain told his old ally during the fight against an omnipotent Thanos. He quickly grabbed one of Orion’s arms.

Warlock threw Orion on top of the Captain knocking them both to the ground. Captain America, caught by surprise, took several blows from Orion before he was able to recover and defend himself. Warlock ignored the fight as he got up and began walking toward the gem deeper in the cave.

The energy creature finished absorbing the forcefield and rushed back to the cave de-materializing both 5 and Vril who had just begun running to the cave firing at Darkseid and attempting to stay in the race. A Watcher appeared just in front of the cave as the energy creature quickly turned, ignoring all other teams as it rushed back to the cave.

"Enough!" yelled Warlock as he reached to grab the gem and walked out to the entrance. Thanos dug himself out from under the boulders in time to see Warlock raise the gem on his hand. "From the one, I reach out to the many!"

The energy creature was instantly dissolved as a brilliant flash incorporated and radiated about Warlock. In less than a second, he became an omnipotent being again.

"No!" yelled Judus Traveler as he teleported to the entrance of the cave. "You are not allowed to do this."

"I’m actually surprised you didn’t pursue the gem," Darkseid said looking at Thanos.

"Ultimate power is an ephemeral commodity," answered Thanos.

"Warlock!" yelled Captain America, "No one is meant to have all that power. Remember what happened last time..." he said attempting to resort to reason.

A silence followed as everyone stared at Warlock with nothing to say.

"What now?" Thanos broke the silence as he turned away from Warlock to the other combatants.

"Why does the Watcher remain if there is nothing else to see?" Thanos frowned.

"Wait. You don’t know who..." Judus attempted to explain.

"What? You know about..."

With that said, a brilliant flash encompassed the area as the Living Tribunal disappeared along with the Watcher. Silence rained across the land as Warlock and Thanos remained on the cliff alone.

"You might be able to take him..." Thanos prodded at Warlock.

"Continue...I suppose...my quest for knowledge," Thanos responded. "What of the 7th gem?"

Warlock made a short sound for which Thanos was unable to determine if it was a sigh or a chuckle. "I teleported it away," he said almost unwillingly.

"It cannot be used to draw power anymore from the others," Thanos mentioned.

"No, but its secrets shall remain so," Warlock said with a tone of finality. "Can you teleport us out of here? Our work is done."

"What makes you think I have enough power for both of us?" Thanos said adjusting his belt timing cycle. Not hearing an answer, Thanos looked up only to see Warlock staring directly at him. He smiled, almost forgetting Warlock was a supreme being, even if for only a couple of minutes. "I suppose I can squeeze enough for both," he finally said. "My personal transport is keyed to my lab, if you don't mind. I just need some minor calibrations to include two. A lot of energy went in the time-teleporting away from Darkseid at the precise moment."

On a cliff over-looking the entire area, Judus and Metron awaited their punishment. "Impossible how they managed to defeat me! We don’t even get a trial like Chaos and Order. Only a sentence..." Judus said pouting, as he and Metron observed Thanos and Warlock from afar.

"I believe you underestimated your participants," Metron answered. "Your lack of knowledge on the gems and human nature gave them the upper hand, and while I can't begin to claim I understand it all, I understand that there was a lesson learned here. Chaos and Order themselves approved of this only because they were curious as to what would happen. Apparently, both the beings known as Warlock and Thanos exist outside of their realm - and therefore anyone/anything that involves him cannot be predicted or controlled by them."

"Indeed!" he said as though now looking through a different set of eyes. "You are right! I did not get what I expected, but I have learned..." Judus said as he entered a thoughtful mood.

"The trial of Chaos and Order is over. It is time to hear our sentence." Metron disappeared. Judus watched Warlock and Thanos teleport away as he himself began phasing out. "You have won the day, but we will meet again!" A continual whisper was heard as Judus dematerialized completely. "We will meet again."

Thank you for reading the Director's Cut to one of our first fan fiction stories at the Silver Surfer Website - Cosmic Treasure Hunt!  We hope you enjoyed it... Now, be sure to send us feedback below or by e-mailing cpufeedback@yahoo.com