The slender black figure stood motionless amid the raging electrical tempest, completely ignoring the violent blue lightning that could level mountains as though it were nothing more than gentle rain. In his arms, Brunnhilde lay cradled in a protective embrace, though her legendary silver armor had been shattered by the Mother of Storms' assault, leaving her partially exposed to the elements.
Ben glanced down at his rescued friend, noting with clinical detachment that the Valkyrie remained unconscious but unharmed. Her breathing was steady, and the electrical burns were already beginning to heal thanks to her enhanced Asgardian physiology.
Brunnhilde stirred, her eyes fluttering open as consciousness returned. Rather than embarrassment at her current state of undress, her expression carried pure amazement.
"How is this possible?" she breathed, staring at the electrical maelstrom surrounding them. "The Mother of Storms' energy should be strong enough to erase cities. Even my enchanted armor crumbled instantly, yet your form completely ignores this level of electrical fury."
She was right to be astonished. The lightning bolt that had destroyed her armor could have wiped entire urban districts from existence, yet here they stood in perfect safety within the heart of an apocalyptic storm.
"Not ignoring—absorbing," Ben corrected with obvious pride, his voice carrying Feedback's characteristic confidence.
The Conductoid possessed a somewhat flamboyant personality, and Ben found himself enjoying the opportunity to demonstrate his capabilities. Though his hands were occupied holding Brunnhilde, the energy-conducting prongs extending from his head swayed in the supernatural wind like organic antennae.
Those appendages weren't merely decorative. The metallic rings adorning Feedback's tentacles, fingers, and tail resembled miniature conduits, but they actually served as specialized channels for energy absorption and redistribution. Every surface of his alien form was designed to interact with electrical phenomena.
As an energy-based alien hero, Feedback's natural electricity generation was relatively modest compared to other electric-type aliens like Brainstorm or hypothetical lightning-based entities. Even some of Ben's weaker transformations could potentially produce more raw electrical output than the Conductoid's baseline capabilities.
But raw power generation had never been Feedback's primary strength.
The alien's true specialty lay in energy absorption and conversion. All beam-based attacks were essentially useless against him, while lightning served as his preferred source of sustenance. Unlike fictional monsters that supposedly absorbed energy but invariably exploded when overwhelmed, Feedback possessed genuinely impressive absorption limits.
Even the enhanced destructive output of space-level entities could be temporarily contained and redirected through his specialized biology. The Mother of Storms' electrical assault, while devastating to most life forms, represented exactly the type of challenge Feedback had been designed to handle.
The massive lightning sphere that should have reduced the surrounding landscape to molten slag was instead rapidly shrinking as Feedback's energy-conducting systems drained its power. The electrical maelstrom collapsed inward like a deflating balloon until Ben and Brunnhilde stood revealed in its center, completely unharmed.
"You look quite impressive in this form," Brunnhilde observed, finally managing to sit up in his arms.
"Of course," Ben replied with characteristic smugness. "Who doesn't appreciate Feedback's unique aesthetic?"
Under the watchful and increasingly angry gaze of the Mother of Storms above, Ben transformed into living lightning. He vanished from their previous position instantaneously, covering several kilometers in the blink of an eye to reach Caiera and Wanda's location.
In the sky, the Mother of Storms began gathering even more formidable power for her next assault.
"Hilde, are you injured?" Caiera asked with obvious relief as she accepted Brunnhilde from Ben's care.
Only after confirming her fellow sheriff remained unharmed did Caiera turn to Ben with an expression of profound self-recrimination.
"I apologize, Your Majesty. This crisis represents a failure of my oversight. I never anticipated that the Mother of Storms could escape from Mjolnir's bindings and cause such extensive damage to Sakaar."
"I share responsibility for this disaster," Brunnhilde added, her own shame evident despite her efforts to project confidence. "Who could have known those ancient legends contained literal truth? I dismissed them as legend rather than historical records."
Both felt they had failed in their fundamental duties. The crisis had erupted during a period when all senior Plumbers were absent from Sakaar, leaving the planet vulnerable to exactly this type of catastrophic event.
"Don't blame yourselves," Ben said firmly, raising a hand to forestall further self-criticism. "This wasn't your fault. I didn't anticipate Malekith's ability to perfectly impersonate Loki and infiltrate the Plumbers. Sending the real Loki on that espionage mission actually provided our enemy with the intelligence he needed to plan this attack."
"Speaking of Malekith," Caiera's expression darkened with sudden realization. "If he orchestrated this diversion, what about the Infinity Stones..."
"The stones are secure," Wanda interrupted, extending her palm to reveal the orange Soul Stone hovering above her skin. "When Ben asked me to relocate Hela and Hodr to containment, I also retrieved this from your office."
She had anticipated Malekith's likely objectives and acted accordingly.
"Although Malekith escaped and the Totem Tower suffered structural collapse, we prevented any truly significant losses," Wanda continued.
Caiera visibly relaxed at the confirmation. "The Tower was already built on the Red King's original foundation—this won't be the first time we've needed reconstruction. The previous version was hastily repaired with inferior materials."
She was already planning improvements. "With access to Earth's vibranium supplies and the dwarven craftsmen's expertise, we can build a new Totem Tower that will withstand virtually anything."
But something nagged at the back of her mind—a sense of overlooking some important detail.
What am I forgetting? she wondered.
Deep underground, Tony Stark sat in his prison cell, contemplating the same question with considerably more personal investment in the answer.
Unfortunately, no one present thought to check on the forgotten prisoner.
After ensuring Brunnhilde's safety, Ben redirected his full attention to the Mother of Storms hovering above them. The primordial entity represented pure electrical energy in quantities sufficient to devastate entire planets, but she had made the tactical error of confronting Feedback directly.
"That's enough, Mother of Storms," Ben called upward, raising his right hand in a gesture requesting cessation of hostilities. "This is Sakaar, not Asgard. Your quarrel was with Odin not here with us."
Despite her status as a primordial force rather than a conscious being, the Mother of Storms possessed genuine intelligence and awareness. As the spiritual essence of Mjolnir, she had observed the universe through the hammer's experiences. If negotiation were possible, Ben preferred that approach to destruction.
Moreover, her power level was genuinely impressive. If she could be convinced to join the Plumbers, they would gain a formidable ally even without recasting Thor's hammer.
Unfortunately, the entity proved entirely unreceptive to diplomatic overtures.
"I don't care about the distinctions!" the Mother of Storms roared, her electrical form crackling with renewed fury. "I know only that you intend to reforge Mjolnir and seal me in that sunless prison once again!"
Her rage was understandable. Although trapped and powerless within the hammer, she had remained aware of external events throughout her imprisonment. While Odin's death brought her satisfaction, the prospect of new bindings under different masters was equally unacceptable.
"I have no intention of recreating those seal," Ben replied truthfully.
But his reassurance fell on deaf ears.
"Meaningless promises!" she snarled. "I'll destroy this world and everything upon it. When nothing remains, no one can imprison me again!"
Every syllable emerged like thunder, each word carrying the force of space storms.
"Child, how many times do you believe you can absorb my power before your form reaches its breaking point?"
She sneered while gathering thousands of lightning bolts from across Sakaar's atmosphere. The display was genuinely awe-inspiring—if someone observed the planet from deep space, they would witness thunderclouds completely obscuring its surface. Massive spiral formations larger than continents churned with brilliant electrical discharge, creating mountain ranges of pure energy suspended in the cloud layers.
This was the thunder of annihilation itself.
The short-hafted hammer of condensed lightning in the Mother of Storms' grasp wasn't designed to produce mere sparks—it was the sound of apocalyptic twilight, the final drum-beat of universal ending.
"Sing through the dusk, Thunder Burial!" she declared, bringing the weapon down with devastating force.
Countless lightning bolts erupted in all directions as reality itself seemed to crack like a shattered mirror. The electrical storm that had been building for eons unleashed its accumulated fury in a single catastrophic moment.
BOOM!
Tens of thousands of lightning strikes hammered the planet's surface simultaneously, each one carrying enough force to split continents. The very ground fractured under the assault as heaven's wrath descended without mercy.
"You asked for this!" Ben's voice turned cold as ice, his previous diplomatic tone evaporating.
He raised both hands toward the sky while the energy-conducting prongs on his head extended upward like organic lightning rods. In an instant, every lightning bolt in the massive storm found its target, converging on his position with irresistible attraction.
The Mother of Storms observed this display without concern, actually laughing at what she perceived as suicidal overconfidence.
"You're planning to absorb lightning powerful enough to unmake worlds? How laughably naive!"
The electrical forces she had unleashed could sink entire realms within the Nine Realms if properly focused. Ben's attempt to contain such destructive potential seemed like the height of arrogant foolishness.
Now let's witness this idiot destroy himself, she thought with malicious satisfaction.
The Mother of Storms gestured, and even more lightning gathered above them. The storm covering the planet seemed to find its outlet for accumulated rage, rushing toward Ben with overwhelming violence and completely submerging him within seconds.
The scale exceeded their previous exchange dramatically. Even Caiera and the others, positioned several kilometers away, found themselves affected by the expanding electrical maelstrom. They retreated steadily, but the endless lightning seemed infinite in scope, gradually forming a sphere as massive as Sakaar's moon.
Several surrounding cities were reduced to ash in mere moments as the electrical storm expanded beyond all reasonable containment.
Fortunately, Nebula had executed the evacuation procedures flawlessly. She had activated the Plumbers' second-largest battleship—originally Thanos's Sanctuary II but now serving as emergency transport—and successfully evacuated millions of civilians to safety.
"This energy level..." Nebula muttered from the ship's command center, her enhanced senses reeling from the electrical interference.
The charged particles saturating the atmosphere made her cybernetic components extremely uncomfortable. If she still possessed her original modified physiology, she would likely be paralyzed by now. More concerning was the sheer magnitude of the lightning storm's power, which left her struggling to process the tactical implications.
The expanding thunder-sphere had grown nearly as large as one of Sakaar's satellites. Complete detonation would channel enough energy to penetrate the planet's core and obliterate everything within the system.
Worse yet, detonation seemed increasingly inevitable.
Caiera and the others had retreated to the evacuation ship, with Brunnhilde now wearing replacement Plumber nano-armor after her original equipment's destruction. They studied the data compiled by Azmuth's systems, their expressions growing increasingly grave.
"Can Feedback actually absorb this level of destructive force?" Caiera asked, her usual unshakeable faith in Ben finally showing cracks.
In a direct confrontation between equally matched opponents, she maintained complete confidence in Ben's eventual victory. Both Heatblast and Four Arms possessed power comparable to the Mother of Storms, and several other transformations could probably match her capabilities.
But regardless of the battle's outcome, detonation of the massive electrical accumulation seemed unavoidable. Even victory would result in most of Sakaar being vaporized in the aftermath.
The only solution required absorbing every joule of the deadly lightning storm.
Could Feedback handle such an impossible task alone?
The answer was: Yes.
Within the heart of the thunderstorm, two figures stood facing each other in defiance of space forces.
Ben's Conductoid form was operating at maximum capacity as he continuously absorbed lightning beyond any reasonable measure. Powerful electrical arcs wrapped around his body like living serpents, his energy-conducting systems pushed far beyond their normal operational parameters.
The Mother of Storms continued releasing electrical force without pause. As the core manifestation of all thunder and lightning, she possessed theoretically infinite power reserves. With her divine authority, she could maintain this storm until the universe's end and the death of gods themselves.
But Ben had no intention of simply enduring punishment indefinitely.
While his tentacles and tail absorbed massive quantities of electricity, his hands aimed directly at the Mother of Storms, releasing accumulated lightning in concentrated beams. Though both combatants wielded electrical power, the energy he fired back had been processed through his alien biology, making it completely independent of her control.
The redirected lightning struck like spears, creating gaps in the Mother of Storms' energy-form while simultaneously venting excess power into space rather than allowing it to accumulate planetside.
"This approach isn't sustainable," Ben realized, frowning with concentration.
His body could handle the absorption process, but the Mother of Storms operated at a higher energy tier than his current form. The rate at which she generated lightning exceeded his maximum absorption capacity. Over time, Sakaar would still face destruction.
He looked up at the Mother of Storms hovering above and made a decisive choice.
"Time to take a calculated risk."
"Ten thousand thunders roar—Storm God's Apocalypse!" the Mother of Storms declared from on high.
Convinced that Ben couldn't maintain his current absorption rate much longer, she increased the lightning output yet again, bringing the full fury of planetary storms to bear in a single concentrated assault.
Rather than retreating or seeking cover, Ben launched himself directly into the attack.
"Your lightning is nothing compared to mine!" the Mother of Storms mocked as he approached.
"Really?" Ben smiled with predatory satisfaction. "What about this?"
He released every stored joule of electrical energy within his body, leaving his absorption systems completely empty as he rushed toward the Mother of Storms. His ring-adorned hands tore through the lightning barriers and seized the elemental entity's energy-form directly, while his head-tentacles and tail pierced into her electrical matrix like organic plugs seeking power sources.
The Mother of Storms was stunned by the audacious move.
"Since you can generate infinite electricity," Ben said with cold determination, "why don't I simply absorb you directly?"
He had exhausted diplomatic options. If the Mother of Storms refused negotiation, he would solve multiple problems simultaneously—containing her destructive potential while addressing Feedback's relatively limited native power generation.
"Mother of Storms," he declared with growing excitement, "I need you to help me evolve!"
Direct absorption of a space electrical entity would transform Feedback from a useful support alien into a genuinely formidable combat form. The upgrade was too valuable to pass up.