The "G" Shield - By IdleMuse

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).


Canadian Wilderness

Research base jointly sponsored by the US Government, Canadian Government and S.H.I.E.L.D.


Truly in the middle of nowhere, a military experimental base was formed out of an old abandoned Canadian Military base by the joint efforts of The U.S. Military, S.H.I.E.L.D. and a number of private contractors on the request or rather, an order of one Alexander Pierce, Secretary of the World Security Council, a political body that had, over the years, put its paws into every single important issue of the world.

One such issue was the Hulk.

Originally, the WSC was satisfied with keeping a watch at arm's length as Ross made a fool of himself and the Army by going on a global manhunt for someone who he could not even contain if he wanted to. The WSC and by extension, S.H.I.E.L.D. were content in keeping a close eye on Ross' movements to ascertain whether he was going out of control or not. This was fine for them because, by some miracle, even if Ross had managed to contain Banner without an astounding amount of casualties, the end result would have benefited them all the same. After all, Ross was carrying out such massive undertakings without the formal approval of the President who was just aware that the Hulk was some boogeyman who had fled the States with secrets of the Super Soldier Serum. They were in the prime position to blackmail Ross should he ever come into Banner's possession and milk him for all his worth without even lifting a finger which worked fine for them.

Alas, it was not to be.

The events of 2010 had made one thing very clear for every single party involved. They were living in a new world now that would not wait for them to adapt at their leisure. Power was out there.

Pure raw untapped power that was just waiting for them to take. Sure, it was a bit simpler than that but the very fact that Emil Blonsky had been enhanced to the point that he was able to, albeit briefly, contend with the monstrous power that the Hulk had on hand was telling them something.

They were vastly outpowered when it came to containing threats like the Hulk. Thankfully, there was only a single Hulk in the world and they had yet to come across somebody who could even come close to the Hulk in terms of power. Blonsky had come close but after seeing the utter carnage that had followed in the wake of his petty fight with the Hulk, the President had pulled the cord and given the order for Blonsky to be executed.

Secretary Pierce, along with his impressive cabal of politicians had tried every possible method to dissuade the President from executing someone who could, one day, become an asset against the Hulk should he ever turn up and threaten their country but the President was dead set on making sure that someone like Blonsky never rampage in the middle of a densely populated area like Harlem. The President had even ordered for them to inform him personally should they have any news on the whereabouts of Banner.

Fearing a repeat of the execution, Pierce had banned Fury from even looking for Banner and even if he did find Banner, to protect or at least hide him from all the other parties. Ofcourse, Pierce never said it out loud but to someone like Nick Fury, superspy extraordinaire that he was, it was the same as someone shouting at the top of his lungs.

Thus, Fury had found Banner and had made sure that the man led a relatively peaceful, chaos free life and even hid him from all the private and extra governmental militaries that continued to look for someone who could wreak a city in a matter of hours.

The one good thing that came out of it was that Pierce was able to convince the POTUS to provide him with essentially unlimited resources to create countermeasures in case the Hulk was ever "found", leading to the establishment of the current base where S.H.I.E.L.D. and H.Y.D.R.A. flew in their best geniuses along with poaching some from various companies across the globe and tasked them with recreating the enhancement that was given to Emil Blonsky. The enhanced Blonsky before he took in the Hulk's blood and became the Abomination. Before becoming the Abomination, Blonsky was able to regenerate almost all of his bones breaking within the span of 24 hours, exhibiting recovery speeds higher than that of even Captain America along with enhanced physical attributes across the board, making him an objectively better Super Soldier than Steve Rogers.

Their primary objective at this base was to replicate that very same level of enhancement across the board so that they could provide their respective organisations with a new wave of super soldiers. Unfortunately, Pierce and by extension, .H.Y.D.R.A. had another plan in the making.

Underneath the hidden military base, located right in a valley surrounded by towering tundra, providing natural shade, H.Y.D.R.A. had built another base without the knowledge of any of the other stakeholders.

Daniel Whitehall, one of the more prominent scientists of H.Y.D.R.A had made startling discoveries in the form of an entire settlement of naturally enhanced people. He had even captured and experimented on some of them and had made astounding progress in figuring out their origins.

Pierce, convinced by the ramblings of Whitehall, had allowed him to experiment on the volunteers who had given themselves up for experimentation, knowing that there was a good chance they would not come out of that experiment alive. Whitehall, emboldened by the resources of H.Y.D.R.A., forced many of the volunteers to be dosed with the super soldier serum before forcing them to touch the Obelisk that Whitehall had in his possession, forcing them to undergo the process of terrigenesis or die in the process.

While the rogue element was making progress with their goal, the official team in their experiments had run into a number of roadblocks that stopped them from creating fully stable super soldiers. They had officially found a way to turn normal soldiers into super soldiers for a short period of time before their bodies shut down. Even this was enough for the POTUS as he had increased their funding, considering that failed product as a success.]

The same gaps that forced the research team to consider alternatives to the Super Soldier serum had long since been solved by Whitehall during his experiments with numerous other Inhumans. Ofcourse, he never volunteered that information. Instead, he used that research and created his very own line of stable super soldiers but Whitehall had never wanted to create super soldiers. At Least not the ones that Pierce had envisioned.

No, what Whitehall wanted was to recreate the Inhuman line in a supersoldier because he was curious of the effects of the Diviner on someone who was already superhumanly powerful.

For that effect, he had already obtained multiple specimen from across the globe who matched the genetic makeup of Jaiying, his first live specimen. Ever since then, he had tracked down multiple of her kind and experimented on them, preserving their tissue for an experiment like the one he was conducting today.

For he had found multiple specimen that matched Jaiying and had even turned one into a super soldier.

All that was left was exposing him to the Diviner. Over the years, he had figured out that the Diviner was just a container for a specific type of crystal. He had found other Diviners and extracted that crystal from them. Today, he was going to do something he had never done before.

He was going to inject the powdered form of those crystals directly into the bloodstream of the super soldier known as Jack Sullivan

He had just never expected for the same mild mannered Jack to suddenly experience a very different reaction to the terrigenesis process, releasing untold amounts of energy in the process, vaporising every living being in a 100 metre radius, which included a significant portion of the base, including him and all of his life's work, forever burying the information that led to the creation of the one who would later on be called as the "Shield of Earth".




This is the story of Jack who went to sleep after his job as a consultant and woke up in the body of a superhuman falling to his death.

"AAAAA!!!" His screams echoed throughout the forest as he crash landed, albeit safely, right in the middle of nowhere, which was actually a different middle of nowhere than the base he was experimented on.

Follow along as we explore Jack's journey through the complex tapestry of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

The Place I̶͕͎̫̒̋n̵͎͕̤̋̒-̶̥͚̦̄̌̂B̵̤̮̑́̕e̶̟̓̉t̴̡̞̬̂̉͊w̴̰̣̲̿̏̆e̴͓͖͂e̶̛̯͛͠n̸͙͑

–Jack Sullivan–

"So, I am dead?" He found himself numb at the information that he was dead, that too by a heart attack in his sleep. It was not exactly surprising considering the hours he put into work and the amount of red meat and processed cheese he put into his body. Still, he was barely 30 years old and he was being told that he had died in his sleep and was found by his neighbours almost a week later in a decomposed state. Man, that sucked. At least, he died painlessly so that's good.

"Yes, you are dead. Now let's get on with the process," His gaze snapped to the shapeless massive blob of light that hurt to look at the more he tried to discern its features. He didn't even know how he looked or whatnot because, in his current form, he was literally invisible to his own senses. The only thing he could "see" was the massive white light in front of him that apparently spoke on its own. The light was also impatient because it was telling him, someone who had just been informed of his own death, to "get on" with something.

He raised his finger or at least, the command to do so left his thought centre, he didn't know if he actually did or not but before he could give the white light a piece of his mind, his words were bulldozed over as the light continued, "You are now dead. You have an above-average karmic record for someone who was nothing but a pencil pusher. I guess amidst the sea of fake charities that you ended up donating to, somewhere along the way, your money must have reached an authentic one. Congrats by the way for that, it is harder for that to happen than you think,"

The voice continued to yap on about karmic scales and reincarnation packages in other universes. His mind was stuck on the fact that the literal millions he had donated in his long career had mostly been wasted. Before he could dwell on that fact too much, he "looked" at the white light in shock and then ducked his gaze away as it tried to hurt. He tried to voice out his curiosities but the white light somehow snapped a finger, at least that's what it sounded like to him and the next thing he knew, the white light was gone and it was replaced with a giant wheel of fortune.

No, he was never blessed at luck-based games. That was why he was a quant. Someone who used math and solid logic, along with a hint of mind fuckery, to do his job, i.e, help rich assholes become even richer. He knew from experience that leaving it to fate in his case never led to good outcomes and yet, he could not voice any protests because he was being pushed to the giant wheel from behind. He didn't know what overcame him at the moment, but without any conscious thought on his part, he raised his arm and placed it on the knob at the edge of the wheel and just rotated it with all his might. The wheel began to give out stereotypical Wheel of fortune noises as it continued to spin at a dizzying speed. Slowly, the words on the wheel became visible to him and his eyes continued to widen, if he had eyes that is, as he read the choices that were available to him.

There were literally all tiers of choices in that wheel, ranging from "become the dog of nobility in the medieval ages" to being reborn as "Yawheh in Dxd". Some were extremely lucrative, promising immediate OPness and untold amounts of luxury at the very beginning and some promised the life of a literal animal, that too in the age where modern medicine was not available even for humans, let alone their pets.

Slowly, almost painfully, the wheel came to a halt and then pointed at the choice that read - "Transmigrate into the body of a loyal HYDRA soldier during an experimental procedure in the MCU".

That, that was something he could work with. Oh, who was he kidding, he was going to be born as a literal Nazi and not during their heyday either. He would be lucky to be alive and imprisoned rather than becoming meat paste under the assault of the Hulk or Thor or worse, tortured for information because he was going to become someone who was loyal to HYDRA so it stands to reason that he might know critical information.

Before he could delve fully into the emerging panic attack, the white light spoke once again,

"Okay, as far as options go, that is not unsalvageable," The voice said with a tinge of sympathy for him.

"Now, let's get to the next segment where I am sure your strengths will shine through,"

"Yeah yeah, let's get this over with," He said numbly.

"Hey, cheer up. This is something that is already in your favour because of your karmic record. Let's get you some options, shall we? Now, what can we get you that will help you survive? Ah, yes, there you go. Just take a look at these options and tell me if you want any changes in them,"

He didn't have eyes, legs, or any limb to speak of and yet, he could see the page that had been handed to him by the light. His previous dead eyes gained a hint of interest in them once he read through the options he was given. There were not a lot of them and even in them, some of them clearly did not tempt him. Like the one that said, "Turn into living energy from the experiment and live in fragmented consciousness until your body reforms slowly". No, sir. He was not going to give up his most important possessions, even if it did gain him more than enough power.

The one that made the most sense to him was, "Gain the powers of barrier generation and manipulation along with a wild entry." Apparently, the catch was that the experiment succeeded but also released enough energy to vaporise everyone within close distance, making sure that he would not have to fight through a horde of HYDRA agents the moment he is transported into an unknown universe. Okay, calling the MCU unknown might be a bit of a stretch since he was a huge fan but it was not as if he knew every single thing about that universe, just the major events, and that too might never happen if he was going to be involved in them. Butterfly effect and all that stuff. He would also not be hunted down by HYDRA on account of most of them not knowing about him at all. Apparently, he was a personal project of one of the heads of HYDRA, Daniel Whitehall and his death would also mean that any information that Daniel might have had regarding him would be erased from the world, especially since the body he was going to inhabit did not have any official record anyway. It might get hard to assimilate himself back into society but that was for later. Right now, he has made his choice.

"I choose this option," He was not sure how to tell the gigantic white light about the tiny words that were printed on the paper but apparently, the light understood it all the same.

"Oh, a nice option. One that demands immense pain at the very beginning but has very nice dividends later on. I approve. Anyway, let's not wait any longer, I have a lot more souls to deal with. Goodbye and good luck, Jack Sullivan, you are going to need it. As a favour, I have made sure the name stays the same for both of your lives. Enjoy!"

Those were the last words he heard before his vision turned black and he was whisked away to his destination, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

__________xx____________

Joint Experimental Facility, Canada

He didn't know how long it had been since that moment but he did know that it was starting to get uncomfortable to be with himself for so long that his thoughts started to wander. Thankfully, before he could go insane with his own company, he saw light at the end of the tunnel as he was promptly dropped into something that felt like hot lava with how painful it was. Great, now instead of him going insane by his own thoughts, he would go insane with the pain he was being subjected to at the moment.

Those were the last bits of coherent thoughts his brain could muster up before his entire being lit up with the agonising pain of lava coursing through his very veins. He must have screamed himself hoarse because he could not hear his voice. All he could see was a sea of green, so much green, before there was a huge shockwave that knocked him unconscious.

The next moment he opened his eyes, he found his voice was back because he was screaming for a totally different reason now. All he could do was scream as the gravelly ground was approaching at an alarming speed and all he could think was 'IamgoingtoDieIamgoingtoDieIamgoingtoDIE!' but thankfully, before he could become paste on the ground, something happened as green filled his vision as he stopped just a second before he hit the ground.

"Whoa," His low exclamation echoed around him as he floated just one foot above the ground. As he craned his neck to look in one direction, his body seemed to follow his vision as his entire body turned to look in the same direction.

"Aha, this is awesome," He shouted jubilantly but then immediately winced in pain as the injuries that he must have sustained during that explosion caught up to him. 'The adrenaline must be wearing down' he thought to himself as the green tint that had filled his vision receded and he promptly dropped himself to the ground. Ground that was both hard and extremely cold. He then also noticed that most of his clothing had been torn apart from the very explosion that must have catapulted him into the sky. To begin with, he must have been scarcely clothed because of the experiment and the ensuing impromptu journey through the atmosphere did his meagre clothing no favours.

Shivering, he tried to rub his arms together to generate some form of heat before remembering his condition. He hurriedly checked his person for some sort of note that could explain his current situation other than him being declared dead in the official HYDRA files and being free from chase that would have no doubt ensued had they thought he was still alive and in possession of powers from their experiments.

Speaking of powers, he looked at his arms and clenched them as he tried to take a feel for something. Something that was different from his previous situation. The green glow from before had stopped his halt. Maybe he had flight then, as his power?

No, that would not explain his mostly unscathed state from the explosion that had thrown him high up in the sky. He was also not feeling as cold as he should. From the looks of it, he should be getting frostbite from the biting cold but he was just feeling a little cold. Not snow forest cold but the AC being a little chilly for his tastes cold. It was uncomfortable but not unbearable. Maybe it had something to do with the experimentation.

As his thoughts began jumbling, he took a deep breath and sat cross-legged on the ground and started taking deep breaths, something that had helped him tide through a panic attack countless times throughout his too-long for his taste career. As he began concentrating on his breathing, the part of his mind that was panicking and focusing on the onslaught of new information that had since been presented to him, began to quiet down. At the same time, he sensed something else in his mind. Something that was hot. He didn't know quite how to explain it but he could feel something in his mind that was not there before.

He had read about advanced mind palace techniques before but he always thought it was just some figment of the imagination of some ridiculously academic shrink who wrote it down in some book which then became a bestseller.

He had never expected to actually feel his mind space as was written in some of those self-help books. He could feel his mind but not in very good clarity but somehow that hot part could be felt very easily. Tentatively, he tried opening his eyes, only to find himself stuck in the same place. To his growing panic, he was attracted to that hot thing and soon found himself standing in front of a small glowing green moon that was as small as a golf ball. He didn't know what overtook him but his hands strayed towards the green ball and even though it was getting hotter, his hands didn't stop until the ball was firmly held in his grip. The moment his fingers closed around the ball, rays of green light began escaping his fist. Before he could do much in panic, his eyes opened and with a gasp, he found himself sitting in a huge dome made up of green energy.

He looked at the hand that was previously holding on to that green ball, only to find his entire body covered in that same green energy.

'So this is my power,' He thought with satisfaction, unaware of the gaze of the Watcher of Asgard that had been following him since he awoke in this universe.

---

Word Count - 2339

If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head to my P*treon. It is the same name as my username.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Canadian Wilderness

–Jack Sullivan–

'So this is my power,' He thought with satisfaction, unaware of the gaze of the Watcher of Asgard that had been following him since he awoke in this universe.

He had thought that he had been cheated out of his powers for a moment but it would seem like the pain of that experiment was going to be worth it. Well, if he could properly control this power, that is. He looked in childlike wonder as the dome of green energy that surrounded him created a pleasantly warm atmosphere, warding off the cold he was feeling earlier. With a thought, the barrier that was surrounding him began contracting until it was just large enough to fit him snugly. With a thought, it expanded to its previous proportions. He noticed something while playing around with the barrier. Its green glow intensified when he tried to shrink it and it became dimmer the bigger it got. The same was not true for the glow around his body. He found that he could not control it at all. At least, not for now. So, he focused on the thing that he could control at this point and that was the huge green curtain that was now draped over the entirety of the clearing he was in.

As he saw the barrier change shapes and become multiple different shapes along with some truly irregular ones, his eyes lit up as a truly great idea filtered into his mind. "Let's see if this works," he muttered to himself as he lifted a boulder that was twice his size. It took a little bit of effort but it was not significant by any stretch of the imagination. He then gingerly placed the boulder on a surfboard he had created out of the green barrier. There was a ripple wave emerging from the point of contact of the boulder but aside from that, there was no feedback to him about the weight being placed on the barrier. He then stepped aside and went as far as he could and then willed for the barrier to cover the boulder and move forward and to his utter joy, the surfboard continued to move around the clearing and even rocketed straight into the air until it seemed to hit some sort of distance limit as it jerked to a stop. He then recalled the surfboard and found that the boulder had not moved an inch from its place, owing to the barrier holding on to it that strongly.

He then did a truly asinine thing at a time when he should be securing food, water, and shelter. He recreated that surfboard and then stood on top of it and then, with a thought, whooshed straight into the sky, "Woohoo!" His loud exclamations of joy would have startled many birds had there been any life in the winter wasteland he was in. As it was, he was able to get a high enough altitude, from where he could see….nothing. There was literally nothing as far as he could see.

No roads. No smoke. No lights. No sign of human activity. Nothing.

"Damn," His shoulders slumped as he realised that he would have to travel very far to reach civilization and it was not as if he was safe right now either. The only reason he would not show up on the radar was because of his relatively tiny size and the fact that he was not at a truly significant height for them to detect him. He could also not go too fast or suspicions would arise from the sensors that were no doubt tracking any fast-moving object across any part of the world. He could see the sun rising and yet, the subtle warmth did nothing to ward off the chill in his mind. For the first time, he realised that he was quite alone here.

The memories of that soldier who had lived his entire life under the illusion of HYDRA came to the forefront of his mind as he quickly got to work on securing the essentials for himself but then, halfway through, he realised that he didn't quite feel hungry yet, nor thirsty. Realising that he was not a regular human being, he chose to travel. Travel because he would not be able to handle his thoughts for so long without the company of someone benign around him. The perks of being born Asian, he mused to himself, never being too far away from a crowded place was something he took comfort in. It was a chaotic order in a weird way that he was thankful for, especially since it was nearly the same at his job as well.

"No time to mope. Here, we gooooo," He muttered to himself as he gave the full throttle to the surfboard, rocketing him towards a random direction. He didn't have much of a criteria aside from the sun peeking out from the mountains and he hoped to find someone near those mountains.

As he cut through the air, quite awkwardly, as he was holding on to the surfboard with all his might, his thoughts wandered to the world he had landed into. Depending on the time period, he might be screwed or ultra-screwed. He would have to confirm that pronto. It should be fairly modern considering that HYDRA was experimenting on him and actually succeeded in giving him these weird green barrier powers. He still did not have the full explanation yet but he would not hold his breath for some help from the person who sent him here. They seemed fairly pragmatic and giving him these sweet powers in exchange for a whole lot of pain could be considered a fair exchange.

As far as his memories go, the period where HYDRA had the most resources to experiment was either at the height of the war, when the Captain was not actively participating, or after SHIELD had wormed its way into the global power structures. He could not decide which one would be worse. On one hand, being in the 1940s would suck, coming from an age of modern amenities but it would also give him the best chance to lay down the footwork for the upcoming enemies. On the other hand, being born in the modern ages, around the time Stark became Iron Man, would not give him much time to prepare but would be comfortable living-wise. It would also help because his memories regarding that era were rock solid. He could probably intervene and make the lives of lots of people better if he was smart and exploited his knowledge properly. Of course, he could also become a lot richer if he used his current powers properly but that just seemed like an ill-advised thing to do.

He could go around selling his powers to the highest bidder but not only did that bring in a ton of risk regarding the clientele, it would also bring undue attention that could only end in him landing in either a prison cell or a dissection bed. No, that route was probably cut off. Of course, he could sell his services to someone who he knew was good. Someone whose moral compass was quite alright and who had deep pockets to sustain that moral compass.

Someone like–

"Hey, kid!" He heard someone say that to him but that could not be right, right? He was hundreds of feet up in the air and cruising at very high speeds. There was no way someone was flying in the air beside him, right?

"Hey, kid!" He mechanically turned his neck to the side to see a very red and gold piece of advanced armour floating right alongside him. It was a true testament to the influence the memories of that soldier were having on him that he didn't immediately pee himself in fear of Stark and then squeal excitedly because he was going to meet the Tony Stark.

"Haha," He was not proud of himself for that awkward smile and wave he gave that Stark mirrored as well. He then did something that should have been his first response to seeing someone in advanced armour at your side.

He….ran.

Yes, he ran full throttle. Tracking advantage of his superior build quality and powers, he made a hard right and ran in the opposite direction as fast as he could. In hindsight, that was not a good decision because soon enough, he could feel some sort of shockwave on his rear as he sped past the white landscape.

'Ohmygod that was Tony Stark. That was also a sonic boom. ShitShitShitShit!' Were his thoughts as he flew higher and higher to avoid the mountainous terrain he was in. So far, it had been less than a day since he had been dumped into this reality and he had already met someone who was more than capable of turning him into a perfect rendition of Swiss cheese, which is, fun fact, not always made in Switzerland.

No, his thoughts were wandering as panic began setting in. He then did something he probably should have done way before. He looked back and–

"Hehe," Awkwardly smiled at the armour that was, even now, hot on his tail. He was probably trying to say something but the speed at which they were moving, no sound would reach him. He then did everything in his power to shake Stark off his tail. He dived below, began travelling in irregular patterns then rocketed up into the air with his highest speeds. He tried twisting and turning and yet, Stark was hot on his tails quite the same. Weirdly enough, he was maintaining distance from him for some reason. No matter how hard he accelerated, Stark maintained the same distance and he was going quite fast. Much faster than when he broke the sound barrier and yet he had Iron Man at the same distance.


Above Greenland

–Tony Stark–

When Jarvis had first informed him about some disturbance in the snowy regions of Canada, he was taking a break from his work and thought, why not, so he donned his suit and went on a cross-country trip to the edge of Canada. He was not sure what he had expected but a base that was smoked very recently was not on his list. He could see some parts of the base were deliberately burned down and a single place where it seemed like everything was vaporised. There were trace energy signatures that Jarvis tracked down to an area a few hundred miles north. He traced the signature only to run into what looked like a kid.

A kid who was glowing green and was holding on for dear life on some sort of surfboard that glowed green as well.

"Jarvis?"

"Detecting trace gamma energy from the subject, sir. Same signature as the surfboard. It would seem that the subject is capable of innately generating such energy constructs, sir,"

That….threw him for a loop. As far as he was concerned, there was only a single big green giant on the planet and that was the Hulk. He could see very similar gamma signatures from the kid in front of him but he did not seem like a hulking rage machine so he took a risk and greeted him.

What followed was an awkward smile and wave before the kid booked it. He followed suit of course but the kid didn't stop there. He broke the sound barrier and then accelerated even more. He was glad that he had upgraded the suit to go beyond Mach 6 if need be but this was just ridiculous. The kid seemed afraid of him and was doing everything in his not inconsiderate power to shake him off but…it was fun. Jarvis was constantly spoofing the satellites and radar to make sure that NATO didn't fall on the kid's ass as he blatantly violated airspaces that even he would hesitate to.

It seemed as if the kid had gamma-based powers but aside from creating those energy constructs that he could control by his will, he had yet to see some other power. The kid was also deathly afraid of heights it would seem, because he was still holding on to the surfboard with all four of his limbs, creating a hilarious sight. The kid dived below and then up and then down. He turned hard right and then crossed over to Greenland, not even realising that with his speed, he was crossing countries very easily.

At this point, they were over Mach 6 and his suit was starting to reach its limits. Even Jarvis was not as confident in getting the kid anymore and at the speed they were going, his words would not reach the kid even if he used the biggest speaker in existence. There was no radio on the kid. No tech whatsoever and he was still going despite him being very non-threatening aside from chasing him for hundreds of miles in the air.

So, despite his best wishes, he stopped and let go but not before completely scanning the kid from top to bottom. His energy signature was also stored and saved for future reference. He would not get anything from that kid now. He would have to go back to the base for more information.

As far as he knew, there was no mention of that base in any of the records he had access to so he had more hacking to do in his schedule now.

He looked forward to it. It would have helped immensely had the kid been in the fights he had been in previously. Just the sheer strength those barriers must have to protect the kid from becoming minced meat due to their speed, it would easily stop even high-caliber rounds. The kid was going to be a powerhouse and he, for one, would like it if he became one with the right company, with the right morals.

Speaking of right morals, "Jarvis, call Agent Coulson of SHIELD, will you?"

"Affirmative, sir."

Well, if a chat with old one-eyed might shed some light on the situation, he could stomach that short meeting and if not, it was always a pleasure to meet with mister Agent. Pepper liked him.

---

Word Count - 2416

If you guys would like to read upto 15 chapters ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon. It is the same name as my username.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Canadian Wilderness

–Jack Sullivan–

He took in deep breaths as he tried to calm his hammering heart. He had taken one look at his rear and after seeing that Iron Man had stopped his pursuit and was instead retreating away, he had booked it even further because if there was one thing he knew about Tony Stark from his comics, that he was a man who did not do things half-heartedly. If he had started his pursuit of him for some reason, he was damn sure that Tony would not let him go without any significant reason. He continued to fly through the air and then even had the bad idea to dive into the water that had appeared below as well. Well, the good news was that his barriers held even under the crushing pressure of ocean water for who knows how deep he had been. The bad news was that it also meant that he had crossed the country he was in and had now wandered into some other equally remote snowy country.

Why did the universe hate him so much that it dropped him into an area that was so remote that even after flying for what seemed like hundreds or even maybe thousands of miles, he had yet to see any human establishments? On top of that, he somehow had the attention of Tony Stark on him now. He had no conceivable way of hiding his face and now that Tony Stark, arguably the smartest man with the smartest tech on the planet knows what he looked like, it was only a matter of time before his entire history was ferreted out and a manhunt was launched for him. Well, that would happen only if Tony went to the government with that information and he severely doubted that Pre-Chitauri Tony would do the responsible thing.

Instead, now that Tony has seen his powers in action, he would first search for him by himself. Not for any nefarious reasons but for his personal curiosity. It was only a matter of time before some camera somewhere spotted his face and Jarvis tracked him down, leading to Tony Stark himself appearing before him for some reason.

He probably should not have panicked so much but it was written in the Wheel of Fortune that the body he was currently inhabiting was someone who was fiercely loyal to HYDRA and he did not want to risk his face being outed as some sort of uber terrorist. He wanted to be alive, thank you very much. Nobody would believe him even if he could explain his circumstances and even if somebody in the government did believe his story, they were more likely to just disregard it in favour of focusing on the more exciting aspect of him, i.e., his powers.

Speaking of his powers, he examined the green barrier that had been covering his skin like a second skin ever since he had stopped himself from crashing into the snow and found that it was still the same colour even after hours of continuous high-intensity use. Well, he said high intensity but he did not feel winded even in the slightest. Somehow, despite running away from a chase from Iron Man, he was still fine and not feeling hungry, thirsty, or exhausted at all. Must be some sort of by-product from his super soldier physiology.

"Neat," He muttered to himself. At Least that was some silver lining on the dark cloud that was his days ever since had landed in this hot soup.

"What's neat?" Somebody said from far away in a metallic voice.

"Ah!" He would deny yelping and then falling on his ass to anybody that claimed so. In front of him, at the very edge of the clearing was some sort of hologram, projecting the face of Tony Stark. He instinctively summoned a shield in front of him and got ready to bolt at the slightest hint of action from Stark. In the meantime, he readied another armour around himself, buffing himself up from a defense perspective. Yet, as he waited for a minute or two for some sort of action from either Stark or for some weapon to hit him from his blindspot, nothing happened, resulting in quite an embarrassing silence in the clearing. That silence was broken by something falling down, creating a muted thudding sound. He immediately whirled around to face the unknown threat with a shield and a sword in his hand along with a larger version of armour around him that hid all his features only to freeze in embarrassment as he saw there was nothing in front of him aside from a broken tree branch.

His shoulders slumped as he heard Stark snort at his reaction, over exaggerated it might have been but he was hamstrung as it was. He dismissed the sword and shield and opened up the area around his face, turned around, and stomped towards the hologram. Stark watched with a raised eyebrow as he stomped towards the machine, leaving huge imprints in the ground due to the force with which he was walking.

Getting upright in Tony's holographic face, he hissed out, "WHAT.DO.YOU.WANT?" He had already been stressed throughout the time he had been in this death universe because let's face it, despite his bumbling about the universe being slightly better than other death verses, it was no sunshine and rainbows either. There was always some big bad out there who would threaten the earth and their lifestyle as he knew it. It had been less than a day since he had been thrust into his new life, with admittedly some cool powers that he could not fully understand. It had been one thing to land in some remote area off the map where he could take some time to regroup and experiment with his powers to better understand them so that he could plan his eventual introduction to civilization proper but it was a whole other thing to have someone who could easily kill him or destroy any chance of him having a somewhat normal life find him and then chase him for hundreds of miles. It was incredibly vexing for all of that to happen in a span of less than a day. At least, it gave him absolute confirmation that he was in the time period after Tony had been kidnapped by the Ten Rings. He was sure that there were some memories in his head which could help him better understand his situation but he simply didn't get the time to sort through them.

"Whoa, hey, kid. I am not your enemy. An enemy would not have helped you by spoofing your energy signature that you are blaring for anyone to sense, by the way. Greenland might not have a great science program or a great military but it is under NATO charter and the US is probably looking straight at your energy signature right now," Tony said to him as a chill ran down his spine. He looked at himself, the extra armoured plating he was standing in, and hurriedly dispelled everything or at least tried to. The thin layer of armour continued to cling to his skin.

"They are not on their way, are they?" He asked Stark, pleadingly. He could not deal with another attack on his person right now. His powers might hold on but there was no guarantee that they would not just hound him till exhaustion and then swoop in once he passed out.

Stark shook his head, "No. I have stopped anyone from reading your energy signature but even my reach is not infinite. Somebody is bound to stumble on you and that will no doubt spell trouble for you considering your status as a runaway. There is also the curious case of you not existing in the system which is a bit peculiar considering the day and age,"

His palms suddenly felt clammy as Stark stumbled on his lack of information in the digital world. He was about to come up with some excuse before Stark himself butted in.

"Of course, something must have happened for that to be the case and I won't pry much. Just answer my question: Did you destroy the base in Canada?" Stark asked him with an air of deathly seriousness.

He gulped for some reason and tried to think of his situation earlier. The moment he had been thrust here, he was in a world of pain. The pain made him unable to even think of something like destroying the base. He was also not sure if his awakening destroyed the base or if the experiment itself released such energy that destroyed it. In the end, he was sure that he consciously did not destroy the base so he answered with..

"No, I did not destroy any base. I didn't even know where I was until you told me just now. Why did you think I destroyed some base in Canada?" He questioned Stark back about it. Maybe, there were some clues in the base that led Stark to him. If so, he might have to go back and destroy them or at least, ask Stark to do so. He was also not sure how to go forward from here. If Stark himself could point something out, he would be incredibly grateful but he didn't know if the current Stark could be trusted as much as the Stark that would have matured incredibly because of the things he had gone through in the span of five years.

Stark looked at him with an unnerving intensity for a moment longer than he would have been comfortable with and then, as if a switch had been flipped, went back to his relaxed stance and shook his head, "I guess you were not conscious then. There was a base in Canada where I found an energy signature identical to yours. The base was built by a government agency that has been very spooked by my arrival and has been clamoring for me to leave their airspace and I have left. I don't know what happened to you or if your situation was out of your control or not but I do have an offer for you,"

His fists clenched at his sides as Stark finally came out with his reason for being here. He would have to think about it thoroughly because dealing with a man like Stark was incredibly difficult even for seasoned politicians, let alone him, a shut-in introvert who spent more than half his day staring at multiple screens.

"What do you want?" He bit out tersely.

"I want you to come to work for me. In exchange, I will provide you with an identity, paperwork, food, shelter, and a handsome salary. In exchange, I want you to work on your skills and then, once you are proficient enough, work as a bodyguard for my girlfriend."

He blinked in confusion. It took him more than a second to realise that Stark was somehow giving him a way out. A way out of months of running, of hiding because he did not have official paperwork or any money to survive or bribe someone to create an identity for him. It was incredibly one-sided and in exchange, all he would have to do was protect Pepper Potts, the future CEO of Stark Industries.

So, he relaxed and then nodded, "Okay. I will work for you BUT if you try and experiment on me, I will leave immediately. Deal?"

Tony pouted, honest to god, he actually pouted at that, "But come on! What about only non-invasive experiments?"

He paused at that. He actually felt better now that Stark had something to gain in exchange as well. It would be incredibly suspicious if Stark was offering him something from just the goodness of his heart. He supposed he could give Stark that much, for now.

"No cloning? Nothing involving my DNA or Blood?" He pressed Stark who gained a thoughtful look on his face at that condition.

"Fine..Deal. Now follow this beacon. It will take you to the nearest jet which will bring you to LA. We will meet once you have had some food and rest along with proper clothing. Also, let me introduce you to Jarvis–"

A "Hello" piped up from the speaker in a distinctly rich British voice. Guess that was Jarvis then.

"--who will be your point of contact. If you need something, just call for him and he will try to solve it and if not, then forward it to me. Now, I am sure you can fly at Mach speeds but for the sake of both of us, go slow and follow this beacon. Try not to create extra flashy constructs. That would just expand your residual energy signature and make things more difficult for you. Alright? See you in LA," Stark quipped and the hologram shut down after him. The hologram shutting down revealed a small rectangle-sized box that began floating with the distinct whine of repulsor technology.

"Ready when you are, sir," Jarvis said from the beacon as it gained a bit more height.

He sighed and looked at himself. Really, looked at himself. He had nothing to his name. At this point, even his clothing had torn away, leaving just his pants in a semi-decent condition to protect his modesty. At this point, he would give anything for the modern amenities that he would have given up in a heartbeat in his old life, for literally a moment of true peace.

"Yeah, let's go," He sighed and lifted his body carefully using the barrier and then slowly followed the beacon. He just hoped that he did not come to regret this decision. Being on the side of good guys and helping defeat villains, becoming a hero, was every boy's dream and he supposed he owed it to his starry-eyed younger self before he was crushed by the corporate world, to at least try to enjoy as he lived out the dream of all children.

---

Word Count - 2381

Next - Face to Face with Stark and future Plans

If you guys would like to read upto 15 chapters ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon. It is the same name as my username.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

L.A.

–Jack Sullivan–

Okay, going with Stark's crazy good employment offer was clearly the right decision. Looking at the opulent suite that had been given to him the first night he had in LA was crazy. Even in both of his lives combined, he had never even been close to such a place. Sure, in his first life, when he had paid off his debts and was investing aggressively for his future, he could have afforded this place if he went completely off the rails for that month's budget but it was never realistic or practical for him to be living and lounging in such a huge hotel room. In fact, calling it a room would be doing it disservice. It was more like a penthouse built into the building of a hotel along with housekeeping and room service. It was like the best home ever. He could live here forever.

And therein came the problem, Jack thought to himself, sighing. He could not live here, in this safe comfortable abode, cut off from the rest of the world. It would be too much anxiety, living here and not knowing what was going on outside and then preparing for it. He knew that, eventually, the shit would roll right down into his lap anyway so why not be in the know from the beginning so that he can prepare for it. He knew that Stark had some other reason to help him apart from his powers but he was not really worried about that. Sure, Stark had his flaws but it was also undeniable that he was, more often than not, on the good side, and to the current him, that's all that mattered.

So, there he was, sitting in his bathrobe, a very expensive bathrobe, on an equally expensive couch with a glass of wine in his hand, changing channels on the very large TV that the suite had two of when the bell rang. He quickly put down the glass and went to the door, very excited about the ice cream he had ordered. He was told that it was "out of the world" by the room service guy and so far, the room service guy had not disappointed him even once so he was inclined to believe him.

"Ah!" He very much did not yelp when Tony Stark, the man himself, appeared at his door, dressed in a three-piece suit at 2:00 in the morning. So great was his shock that a green covering promptly appeared on top of his exposed extremities. He had practiced all the time he was awake on the plan to try to turn off the primary barrier that seemed to cover every portion of his skin and was finally able to do it at 1 in the morning. That was the reason he had waited so long to have a nice long hot shower in the absolutely opulent multi-shower head bathroom that was there in the master bedroom of his suite. And now that he had finally coaxed his body and powers into relaxing, this happened. One of his heroes just up and appeared in front of him.

"Ahem," He coughed in an effort to make himself forget that anything appeared and then stepped back and gestured for Tony to enter the suite. Tony nodded as he looked at him weirdly and then entered the suite. He made no effort to sit on the couch, instead, he went to the tall ceiling-high windows and stood in front of them.

He just stood in the back awkwardly, not knowing where to place his hands. Finally, he tightened his bathrobe and then went straight to the kitchen to get himself a glass of water.

"You need something?" He asked Tony on his way. He closed his mouth when Tony just waved his hand and then went on his weird sightseeing of the street below.

"Alright then," He mumbled to himself and promptly gulped down a glass of water. "Ah, that hit the spot," He sighed in relief. Sometimes, a glass of cold crisp water is all you need to shock your system back to calmness.

"So," he began as he went back into the living room with another bottle of water, just in case he needed it, "-What can I do for you, Mr.Stark? I thought I was supposed to be trained before I could begin working for you."

"Ah, technically," Tony said before snatching the bottle right out of his hands and then gulping it down, "I began paying for you the moment you sat in my jet and came to the US illegally, I might add,"

Ah, so that's how he was going to play it.

"I see," He nodded slowly and then went back to sit on the sofa, Tony followed suit to sit in front of him. "I repeat, what can I do for you, Mr.Stark?"

"Nothing," Tony said briskly before looking at his watch, "At the moment, nothing. I want you to come by my house tomorrow so that I can do some checks on you."

He was about to nod before he was interrupted by Stark, "Do you know you are always emitting trace amounts of gamma energy…."

"Jack," He said once he realised that he had never told Tony or Javis his name. In his defense, it had never come up. He had figured that the hotel would ask for some form of identification but apparently, once you have Stark level of money, even hardened laws are mere suggestions. "Jack Sullivan is my name. I don't remember anything else from before I was falling in the snow but this name. Jack Sullivan,"

"Right, Jack, yeah. So, as I was saying, you are constantly emitting trace amounts of Gamma radiation which are startlingly similar to one that I have encountered once before. Also, the moment your green skin or armour, whatever it is you call it, activated, that amount exploded exponentially. You are lucky that I own most of the facilities nearby that have gamma sensors and thus, am able to hide you. But even that cannot be a long-term solution."

"So, you are saying I need to not use my powers to hide better? But then how will I do my job of protecting the person you want me to protect?" He questioned Stark, mindful of the fact that he was not yet told of the identity of the person he was supposed to protect and he was playing the part of an amnesiac kid for sympathy points. He was not sure how far that would take him but he was not exactly a tactical genius, even in this new life so he went with the first thing that came to his mind. He was still assimilating the memories of Jack Sullivan and had come across a very interesting tidbit. His appearance and his body had been changed immensely from the person he was before he was experimented on. He had grown about 5 inches and gained dozens of pounds in muscle mass. Not to mention, he had also been de-aged somehow so he looked more like a teenager and less like the 30-year-old he was.

"No, No No No, You don't have to worry about that. I will whip up something to help you contain the gamma leakage and mostly, the normal radiation you emit is overlapped by background radiation anyway so unless someone has your specific signature to look for, they would not be able to find you. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. Once you use your powers though, if they are looking for you, finding you becomes very simple. I am not an expert on powers and you don't seem to know much about them either. How did you turn off the green skin part though?" Stark went on a ramble and then questioned him.

"Ah," He stuttered and then raised his right hand, creating a small rectangular sheet of green colour that then floated around the entire room before coming back to his hand, a handle forming out of thin air before he held onto the handle, creating a makeshift shield for him, "I practised a lot. I finally turned off that annoying skin an hour ago so that I could take a nice hot shower. It takes some concentrating to do in real-time so it activated because I was surprised to see you at my doorstep at 2 in the morning," His unvoiced question was clear for Stark to see and yet, he glossed over that question with the ease of a seasoned politician and focused on the shield that was resting on his right hand.

"May I?" Stark looked at him as he extended his arm towards the shield. "Yeah, sure," He nodded and then released the shield to him.

"Surprisingly light," HE muttered before snapping his fingers, causing a suit to appear behind him with a shimmer of light.

"Whoa," He jerked back in surprise, completely caught flat-footed in the presence of one of his suits in the room. He was completely unaware of that and could have been easily killed by him had Stark wished so. Damn, he had great stealth tech, not that he was looking for it, his relaxed mind and body not actively looking for threats anymore.

Tony ignored his surprise and then handed over the shield to the suit which immediately opened up to reveal a whole host of contraptions that immediately began scanning and working on the small shield he had given Stark.

"So, you can still control that?" Stark asked him without looking back as a remote hologram of some sort appeared in front of him that he immediately began working on.

"Uh, yeah.." He said trailing, unsure of the direction Stark was taking this meeting.

"Try and move it," He raised an eyebrow at Stark's order before he willed for the shield to come to him. He could see the suit's hands jerk for a bit before it stopped, the sounds of servos whirring echoing in the room. He raised an eyebrow at that and looked at Stark who motioned for him to try again so he did, with increased focus. The hands jerked once again and the servos began making even more noise but the shield did not move so he, like an anime character, raised both his arms towards the shield and just..pulled.

He pulled with all his might and smiled because the servos finally gave out, pulling the robot towards him before his smile dimmed as the robot then simply activated repulsor arrays that were somehow embedded in his shoulder blades, creating enough thrust to counter his force. Even then, he didn't give up and pulled more and more until the robot was forced to run the repulsors at full blast. At this point, the jets were causing gusts of wind in the living room, scattering any paper and dropping vases left and right, and yet, he didn't stop pulling. Finally, with a herculean roar of effort, he pulled the shield..and the arms of the suit straight out of its sockets.

"Shit!" Stark exclaimed but he had no time to even duck before the suit which had its repulsors arrays at full blast came barreling towards him. At the last moment, all he had was the shield he had taken from said robot which he raised in front of him, into which the robot crashed. There was a dull gong in the room as he was thrown straight into the window and then slid down like a cartoon character, looking at the smoking heap of suit that was attempting to stand up on its two legs before Stark snapped his fingers which finally caused the suit to go limp.

"Stark, What the fuck!" He cursed out, looking at his semi-cracked shield. In the first place, it had been under a lot of stress due to all the pulling done on it and then the suit had crashed into it at who knows what speed, causing it to develop cracks. With a sigh, he willed the shield to disappear and stood up from the ground, and looked at Tony who was busy looking at the screen that was being projected from his smart watch.

"Not bad. More than expected. I see, so that's what happened," Stark continued to mutter to himself, causing his anger to increase until he created a barrier and covered the smart watch in it, closing the holographic screen. Stark stopped midair, looking comical as he had his hands drawn as if he was writing on an invisible screen, only that he had no screen to speak of at the moment.

"You couldn't wait just one more minute, huh?" Stark deadpanned at him, causing him to snort.

"So, what data did you get from ruining one of your, no doubt, million-dollar suits, oh, wise Lord Stark?" He asked him snarkily, his mood a bit off because he was supposed to be relaxing and sleeping in that bed that was so comfortable it should be illegal.

"Okay, first of all, I pay you, so the snark is not appreciated. Secondly, try multi-million dollar suit and thirdly, the data is something that will help you too so I don't understand why a little lost sleep is making you so cranky,"

"The thing is Stark, I have not slept or relaxed in over 24 hours, and just when I was about to sleep, you showed up with your killer robot suit which is now just a smoking heap of garbage in the living room floor," He said to Stark in a calm manner yet his anger was radiating out the same.

Stark paused and looked at the condition of the living room with a broken suit on one end, broken decorations like vases strewn about, and raised his finger, "You know what, you have a point. I have already collected some preliminary data and might have something for you tomorrow. Meet me at my house in the afternoon. I will send someone to pick you up. Now, good night," Stark said before he gathered his smartwatch and snapped his finger, causing another suit of his to reveal itself from its stealth mode which then promptly picked up the other suit and went invisible as well.

"Really, do I have to worry about another one of those staying after you leave and then killing me in my sleep?" He deadpanned at Stark.

"Good night, Jack," Stark waved him goodbye and marched out of the door. The suits presumably followed after him and closed the door, causing him to collapse on the couch with a sigh of relief and exhaustion.

He took one look at the mess in the living room and decided it was the headache of the housekeeping services and dragged his body up to the bedroom and just collapsed in the utterly comfortable bed. With a will, another barrier appeared above him which zoomed across the room and turned off the lights, engulfing the room into the blissful darkness where he slowly drifted into the sweet lull of sleep.

---

Word Count - 2556

Upto 15 extra chapters - P*treon

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

L.A.

–Jack Sullivan–

"Yawn," He woke up with a yawn which was also accompanied by a long full body stretch that was supremely comfortable. He would argue to the ends of the world that this was the best way to wake up, by stretching your body. Due to the modifications done to his body, he didn't exactly need that much sleep. It had barely been 4 hours since Stark had left and he was already feeling completely refreshed with just that amount of sleep. It was both nice and sad in a way. Nice because sleeping less while getting the same amount of rest would be something akin to a dream for most working-class people and also sad because sleep is something that he enjoyed immensely. Sleep is one of the few things in the world that are sacred and enjoyed by everyone. He foresaw very little sleep in his future life and that saddened him a bit. Yesterday, he was a lot more mentally taxed than physically exhausted and thus, had fallen asleep in this ridiculously comfortable bed.

As was the norm with high-end hotels, it came with a weighted comforter that was absolutely perfect along with an ungodly amount of pillows, one of which he was spooning in his sleep. Happy with his inanimate sleeping partner, he threw the pillow to the other side of the massive-sized bed he was sleeping in and hopped onto his feet in a feat of athleticism that would have had his old body wheezing and grunting in pain because of all the old joint pain that had accompanied him well throughout his late 20s.

With a sigh, he stretched once again and admired his physique in the human-sized mirror that was installed in the bedroom. God, he loved this place. If he could, he would choose to just live here. It was that good. He could see his abs and noticeable cuts in his muscles.

Whistling, he thought of all the ladies he would woo once he entered the dating scene. Unfortunately, he was sure that it would have to wait for a while because of his baby face. Because he might have the body of an Adonis, he had the face of someone who had just hit puberty and had not finished going through it, keeping him at the awkwardly illegal age of 14-15 years old. Going after girls of that age would make him a pedophile and going after girls his own age would most likely end with the ladies in jail so unfortunately, the dating scene was a no-go for him.

"Bummer," He muttered to himself and then went about his day, using the fancy toiletries provided by the hotel to do his business.

__________xx_________

"Thank you," He tried to ignore the looks his server was giving him as he continued to absolutely destroy the pasta they had given him. There was already a tower of plates on the table in front of him as the drawbacks of having an enhanced body finally caught up to him. He was particularly heavy on the meat, evidenced by the multiple steaks that he had devoured in a short span of time. Once again, he wondered if he shouldn't have just ordered room service but then he was reminded of his identity or lack thereof and then went back to scarfing down food that would have been enough for a family of 4, for a day.

"Mr.Sullivan?" He looked up mid-slurp from the noodles he had ordered to look at a gentleman wearing the stereotypical driver's uniform. Swallowing the noodles, he asked, "Yes?"

"I am Ned, I will be your driver for the day. I was told you have an urgent appointment with Mr.Stark?" His words made his hands pause from where they were inching toward his next plate. He sighed and looked forlorn as he told the server to clear the dishes and bill them to his room. Ned took his coat, which was entirely unnecessary but it was a part of the ensemble that Jarvis had left for him in the room so he had gone ahead with that, and then they headed towards the limo. And what a limo it was. It looked just like the average run-of-the-day limo but once he went inside, it was like he had entered a whole other world. Plush massage chairs along with a full bar and TV already running for him. He looked at the phone that Stark had left for him yesterday and started scrolling through the news, the habit of doom scrolling refusing to leave him even after traversing through universes. He was not a fool. He was aware that this phone was bugged all the way but he did not use it to search for anything nefarious. Just general public information that, hopefully, Stark should not be able to make sense of.

Apparently, all the companies were still there, Stark, Oscorp, Hammer, and more. Wakanda was still a third-world country and it also told him the time period he was in. It was May 1, 2011. That gave him roughly a year to prepare for the events that surrounded the beginning of the endgame. The event that exposed humans to the truth that only a select handful of people knew. The confirmation that they were not alone in the universe and their neighbours were not all friendly and neither were they stone-wielding Neanderthals. They were hyper-evolved civilisations capable of destroying Earth multiple times over without even breaking a sweat.

Hmm, he noted that the limo was not as silent as it was advertised back in his home universe but it could just be his enhanced senses giving him more information than was normal for regular humans. He could also sense the minute vibrations of the different speed breakers and even the minute potholes that remained to be a hard problem for human civilization in every universe. "Aha, the good stuff," He exclaimed softly once he found the good wine in the bar of the limo and promptly just pulled the lid and started drinking straight from the bottle. It felt so nice to do so knowing his body would just filter out the toxins nearly instantly, allowing him to enjoy the wine without getting drunk. Ah, that was also conversely a sad thing. If he wanted to get drunk, there was no possible way other than procuring some wine from off-world markets.

"We have reached, Mr.Sullivan," He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice them reaching the Stark residence. Well, he did notice the car slowing down but he didn't register that as them reaching Stark's home. He exited the car to see the absolutely sprawling area in which Stark had built his house in. It was the iconic house he had built into the cliff and was also seaside, creating a magnificent view that could not be topped by many things outside of Stark himself. Perfect level of opulence for a man who had everything and would have even more in the future, if the memories of the man he had in his head ever turned out to be true.

He took one look at the same rectangular platform that he had first met in Greenland and nodded to Ned, who took the car away. "Lead the way," He said, feeling silly talking to a rectangular rock but he knew that Jarvis was listening all the same. The rock nodded and then turned around and floated away. He promptly followed suit. He took the time to take in the various things that assaulted his senses once he started taking the long walk to Stark's living room. The smell of nature and the smell of metal was something that he had long become used to. It was the smell of something burning that piqued his attention and it was not coming from the building but from somewhere behind him. He chose not to point that out because he did not want to out himself as being enhanced, not that Stark did not have an inkling of an idea already.

"This way, Mr.Sullivan," Jarvis' voice filtered through the ceiling speakers as he went downstairs through the stairs that led straight to Stark's basement. He soon reached the glass doors that separated his lab from his living space.

He was about to knock on the door before it opened up by itself. He gingerly took a step in and saw the absolutely chaotic way that Stark had kept his stuff in. He was sure that even here, there was some sort of order to it that only Stark and probably, Jarvis knew about.

"Ah, Jack, right on time," Stark emerged from behind him, only this time he was prepared for it because his enhanced senses managed to inform him about the door opening and somebody stepping down on the stairs, unlike yesterday night when the suits' came with state of the art stealth technology that managed to suppress even their minuscule scents of metal.

"Mr.Stark," He offered his hand for a handshake but Tony just placed a pizza box on his hand before moving on to the center of the lab where a huge screen awaited him, creating something like a central console of sorts. He shrugged and just opened the pizza box, delighted to see it was Margarita pizza, his favourite. He immediately began munching on it as he followed Stark to his battle station, as it were. He was curious as to what Stark had to show to him. Once he had had enough rest and food in his stomach, he had realised that Tony must have measured the strength with which he could move around his barriers, and seeing that it managed to break apart high-strength alloys, it must be a lot and that filled him with hope because he did not want to be stuck on the defensive duty only. That would be, while heroic enough, plain boring and a little dangerous because even someone with absolute defense will not win if they don't have at least an average amount of offense in their cards.

"So, what can you tell me about what happened last night?" He asked Tony once again. With a soft, "Ah!" Tony swiped on his screen which created a hologram in front of him, showing a video feed, probably from the cameras from his hidden suit, showing the scene of him ripping apart one of Tony's suits hands. There was a graph that showcased the amount of force the suit's servos were exerting along with the repulsor arrays to stop his shield from escaping its grasps. The feed ended with the suit being damaged.

"Congratulations, little guy. You are officially the second-hardest hitter on the planet. Well, that I know of," Stark said and then added after a little pause.

"How hard?" He questioned Stark, already aware of the hardest hitter on the planet. The Hulk. He was curious how he compared to the Green rampaging giant.

"Well, I couldn't exactly get an exact figure but at a very minimum, more than a couple dozen tons. The moment I lost count was about 38 tons. I was able to get that figure only because of magnetic arrays in my suit that held onto the arms before that too failed." Stark said as he tried to explain to him the complicated mechanisms he had installed in his suit to make sure that it never failed in its basic integrity.

"Wow! The number one must be an absolute beast to beat even that figure," He fake exclaimed.

Tony snorted as if he had thought of a particularly funny joke that only he was privy to. "Yes, he does hit much much harder than you do," He added in the end slowly.

"Ah, yes. I have something for you. I have devised a course where we can test your powers and then figure out your limits. Then, we can move on to training so that you can improve them. You should have just hit puberty so hopefully, your powers should grow with you."

Ah, Stark was still under the assumption that he was just a kid when in reality he was almost 31 years old, the same age in both his lives. Interestingly, maybe his body was actually reverted internally as well. He might have to test that out as well and who better to do it than in the lab of Tony Stark, the man who could make even an Infinity Gauntlet, something that only the Dwarves of Nidavellir, had the privilege of making.

With that in mind, "Okay. I have a couple of other tests in mind as well. You see when I woke up this morning…"

They went on with their conversation, unaware that Jack had already appeared on SHIELD's and by extension, HYDRA's radar as someone with no identity coming in contact with their POI[Person of Interest], i.e. Tony Stark. It was only a matter of time before they tried to approach him once they realised that he truly did not exist in any database known to man.

Meanwhile, Jack had the bare bones of a plan forming in his mind that could lead to Thanos being stopped but he had to be incredibly careful. After all, it wouldn't do for him to save Humanity from an outer existential threat only for it to crumble from within, just like his society was about to. He had seen plenty of signs and he would do everything in his power to make sure Humanity had a much stabler conversion to a developed planet rather than the handful of developed countries that adorned its brown patches of land.

---

Word Count - 2321

If you guys want to read up to 15 extra chapters - P*treon

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Stark Residence, LA

–Tony Stark–

He watched Jack leave his lab after they had spent the entire afternoon working on his powers or rather, they had just spent an afternoon testing out ideas that Jack had for his powers and him just facilitating those experiments, partly because he was just curious and partly because knowing more about them might genuinely help him some day. As far as he knew, the part about Jack losing all of his memories was a load of shit that he could smell a mile away. He did not display the same symptoms as someone who had just lost their entire life. He was not disoriented at all when he was confronted by something that, all by rights and means, he should have known beforehand. Even his manners, as reported by Jarvis, show that while he is clueless about some things, he knows just as more about stuff that he shouldn't know about. For example, he claims he had no idea who he was, and yet, at the first chance he had, he had fled from him as fast as he could, as if he was guilty of something. He also said his name at the clearing where Jarvis had tracked him to and was very used to the mannerisms of the western world despite him being a teenager and amnesiac.

He did not know what to make of that kid but he knew one thing, that base had something to do with SHIELD and there were marks of Jack's energy signature in that base. Specifically, the part that had been thoroughly vaporised, not even leaving even a single piece of rubble or mortar in that place. His first thought was that Jack had somehow done that but despite his suspicions, there was no way that Jack could have done all of that judging by the state of his powers. He had the powers of barrier generation and not the ability to generate enough energy to disintegrate everything. Speaking of his powers, they were marvellous. He was already so strong and was growing. He counted a 1% increase in the force behind those barriers in the 5 hours that Jack had spent in his lab.

The barriers themselves were a work of art. They were based on an energy that had never been observed previously and coated with a layer of gamma. The gamma part was what gave those barriers their incredible strength. That was why the more force Jack tried to exert with his barriers, the more gamma energy coursed through them. The base energy was only responsible for maintaining the integrity of the barriers and nothing more. The real kicker was the cloak that appeared on Jack whenever he tried to use his powers to a larger extent. If he just manifested some barriers and moved them around, depending on the speed, he could do that without ever triggering his transformation but the more power he tried to exert, the more gamma radiation emitted from him. They had tried various experiments to figure out the different shapes, and sizes of the barriers that he could conjure. Based on the current data, apart from the full body armour that he has over him, Jack can summon at most 2 other barriers at full mobility before he starts to lose focus, causing the barriers to starting decaying. He also has some sort of latent awareness of the barriers as he can direct them without looking at them. He said that he has some awareness if he has a barrier in that place but he can't exactly get a full visual of the place. They tried putting a blindfold on him and getting him to navigate a space just by the awareness he gained through his barriers and while it did work to an extent, he could not imagine someone going through a fight just by relying on those senses. The barriers were excellent at detecting high-speed projectiles and somehow, automatically moved in the way once something was fired at Jack with high speed, seemingly without even him noticing. He had recorded immense surprise and betrayal on Jack's face when he had realised that Jarvis had fired a rubber bullet on his back and that his barriers had stopped without any intervention from his side. Overall, he would say that Jack's powers were defensive in nature but with just a little bit of training, he could become a deadly weapon, capable of easily defeating even his most powerful suits. They had also tested his barriers against concentrated repulsor blasts and found that while it did tax Jack to withstand that blast, it did not look like it tired him so much that he wouldn't be able to hold on to that barrier for a long time. There was also something peculiar with the aftermath of the repulsor blast that Jack had sustained and he had tasked Jarvis with figuring that out.

"If I may, sir?" Jarvis pinged him as his attention to something on the screen. He looked at it to see that his conjectures were correct after all.

"So, his barriers also absorb the energy that is incident on it?" He mused out loud. The kinetic fallout from abruptly stopping his repulsor blast should have been far higher than it was. That was why they had done this experiment while he and Jack were behind reinforced glass and the Barrier and the repulsor array were in a bunker he had built in the basement. The fallout and everything regarding it was recorded but nowhere in the readings, he could see where all that energy was going. It was as if that barrier was absorbing it and dumping it somewhere unseen. Calculating the total energy loss from the shockwaves, that barrier had absorbed enough energy to power an average home for months and yet, all it gained was a slight green tint before Jack dismissed the barrier with ease. As soon as Jack dismissed the barrier, his green armour also receded immediately.

"Also, sir, I think I have something that might interest you," Jarvis' voice filtered through the speakers he had installed throughout every nook and cranny of his lab.

"What is it, J?" He asked and he received. There was a 3D scan of Jack's body that Jarvis had been able to snag without him knowing about it. Well, he had basically consented to non-invasive experimentation. So, this was within the terms of their contract.

"Is that what I think it is, Jarvis?" His voice gained a serious undertone to it as he dropped his coffee mug and moved over to the station to take a better look at the data. If the data was correct and he was sure it was correct because Jarvis had done it, it showed the internals of Jack's body. It was unreal. He might have had the face of a teenager, but his body was not that of a human. Well, not that of a normal human at least. Jack's bone and muscle density were off the charts. His lungs were larger than normal with his heart beating at less than 50 bpm at normal state and never even crossing 80 even after Jack had been exerting his powers.

"So what? Is Jack some sort of super soldier then? The first one after the Captain?" He asked Jarvis because if it was true, it indicated an astonishing breakthrough in the super soldier department and would totally explain SHIELD's involvement in that military base and the part that had been vaporised along with it having Jack's energy signature.

"Jarvis, show me the base's location and track Jack's energy signature when he first appeared on your radar. Also, see if there is any way that the blast that vaporised that part of the base was what threw Jack in that direction because if there is anything that could help Jack survive that energy blast, it would be his barriers," He said out loud and was actually somewhat saddened to find that he was correct. The amount of energy it would take to vaporise that base was roughly equivalent to throwing someone of Jack's mass to that place where they had first tracked him before he became airborne and went near supersonic.

"Jarvis, throw all of this into the black box and never access it without my permission, got it?"

"Affirmative, sir,"

He sighed in exhaustion once the file transfer was done and all the data regarding Jack and his status as the world's newest super soldier were stored away in a black box which was sequestered away in some deep dark place in the ocean only Jarvis knew about. Some might call that extreme measure as paranoid but only he knew the amount of destruction that his technology could unleash if some unsuspecting party stumbled upon it and used it to create weapons or worse, sold them to the highest bidder.

He turned around when the sound of the door opening reached his ears and immediately sagged in relief as Pepper entered his lab with her office wear. It was evident that she had just come home directly from the office. Her role as the CEO of Stark Industries kept her incredibly busy and while he had felt guilty in the beginning to just dump that role on her, she had assured him that she was actually more than happy to make sure that Stark Industries did not lose its vision because he was more focused in the lab and was absent in the boardroom meetings. Nowadays, he didn't even know what Stark Industries was focusing on aside from the energy contracts for remote places. He had expected the backlash from Congress, Big Coal, and Big Oil once Stark Industries had announced essentially unlimited low-cost clean energy for all but for the President himself to call him and advising him to pace the technology had been a wake-up call.

So, at the pilot stages, the Arc Reactor was being offered as a safe clean alternative to energy in places where traditional energy lines did not go. It included huge cruises, and many stations on both the Poles and some remote areas of America and Europe as well. Last he had heard, Norway had ordered enough Arc Reactors to replace all of their reactors but Pepper had stopped the order mid-way because doing that would have set a precedent that could have threatened their plan to carefully, slowly, incentivise the current businesses to abandon fossil fuels and embrace clean energy.

"So, Jarvis tells me something has been bugging you recently?" His shoulders sagged as Pepper ran her hands through his hair. He hugged her tightly, the recent events running continuously through his mind. He was aware that he was stepping into a landmine by hiding Jack and not telling Fury or even his contacts in the military about him but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Especially not now when he was aware of what fate awaited him once the people in the government became aware of a super soldier living right under their nose. Especially a super soldier who was so strong. While not as strong as the Hulk, Jack was even more valuable to them because he could be persuaded. He was not like the Hulk who would attack them before even listening to their offer. Even if Jack's services could be bought, that would be enough for most of them but the problem was that Jack was not exactly of the age where he would be comfortable leaving him to the wolves.

"There has been this kid I met during my trip to Canada," He began telling her about Jack as they left his lab and went upstairs to have dinner together, something they tried to do at least 4 times a week.

The Lab's lights slowly dimmed before it went completely dark in the lab as it was locked airtight.

____xx____

"So, when do I get to meet this super kid?" Pepper asked him as they moved to the dessert section of their meal while snuggling on the couch.

"Uh, I don't actually know. I haven't even known him for all that while so I don't trust him anywhere near you right now. We'll see in the future once he has earned my trust. I actually told him that he will become your bodyguard in the future once he has been trained first," He told her, earning a surprised look from her.

"Really, a super-powered kid who can stop missiles with ease, just to be my bodyguard?"

"Not like that. You know why I did that. It will help him get a job and get on his feet, become independent, safeguard him from the vultures because of his public identity, and also create additional protection for you," He explained to Pepper.

"Protection from whom, Tony? I am safe, you don't have to worry about me. Happy does a great job, you know it. Plus Jarvis is always with me and if anything does happen, I know you will swoop in and save the day,"

"Yeah, but what if I can't? What then? The enemies we have cannot be stopped by just bullets and you know it. The world is increasingly becoming a place where just me in my suit won't be able to protect you. We need more and that is where Jack comes in."

Pepper looked at him and smiled in understanding, "Okay, fine. He can become my bodyguard but I will take his interview before that. Deal?"

He smiled at her. She was so beautiful and more than once, he wondered how he ever got a woman like her. He certainly did not deserve her.

"Deal."

---

Word Count - 2318

If you guys want to read up to 15 extra chapters or just want to support me - P*treon

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

LA

–Jack Sullivan–

It was the morning after Stark had called him in to test his powers. He had been very reluctant to do anything other than stay in that comfortable bed and munch on chips and dip while watching TV.

"Ah, that's the stuff," He moaned in absolute delight as the flavours just exploded in his mouth. Even this bootleg butter chicken, which was just a pale imitation of the real stuff found in Northern India, was enough to absolutely bamboozle his taste buds. He was just glad that he had the presence of mind to order it for room service this time instead of going to the restaurant below and making an absolute fool of himself. So, there he was, with 5 servings of butter chicken and Naan, absolutely going to town on that stuff when he realised something.

"Hmm," He hummed to himself and then continued to feast on the stuff in front of him. He realised that, after becoming a super soldier of sorts, he had been enhanced in more ways than one. For one, he stubbed his pinky on the way out of his bedroom and had, on instinct, begun jumping around in pain, only to realise that the pain never came and his pinky was absolutely fine. Now, he was no masochist to test if he could heal wounds faster by cutting himself or worse, burning himself but he was pretty sure that had he done that, it would have confirmed his theory. He had been enhanced in every way beyond what Steve Rogers was. He still had no idea about the experimentation they were doing to him in that base and neither did Jack. He was an absolutely loyal soldier to the cause and had not even questioned why his superior had ordered him to strip and then strapped him into a very shady-looking mechanical contraption. So, it was pretty much left to him to find out the extent of his enhancements by fumbling around. He still could not go out in public yet because Jarvis was still working on an iron-clad identity for himself which was a load of bullshit if he had ever heard one. It was clear that it would take no time for a digital entity like Jarvis to create a very strong identity for him and yet, they were stalling. For what? He did not know but at least the hotel bill was being charged to Stark's credit card and thus, it was a balm to his soul as he continued to feast on hundreds of dollars worth of food for every meal.

He might have to bring that super soldier thing up in his next meeting with Stark. It would be very beneficial for him to find out the limits of his body to better prepare for everything. Honestly, getting access to SHIELD training will be the best option because they must have some sort of handbook to train any enhanced people they might have recruited into their workforces. The practicality of doing that however stayed his hands. No doubt SHIELD might help him immensely but the chances of the HYDRA within SHIELD exploiting him were immense, despite his apparent age being that of a minor. Fury might hesitate to do so but Pierce would definitely not care about pesky things like morals before tasking him with assassination missions..

No, being with Tony Stark would be the best option as he did have the resources to arrange private training for himself and would be the best shield when SHIELD came knocking. In return, all he had to do was act as a shield for him whenever it was required, something that he planned on doing anyway. He had already chosen the hero life or at least the good samaritan life anyway so he planned on going on that path full steam, no hesitation. With that in mind, he stared mournfully at the Butter Chicken as he debated calling Stark with his request when his eyes lit up as he had a brilliant idea. He shoved the piece of Naan in his mouth and said out loud, "Jarvis?"

His gambit proved successful when his phone's screen lit up with a faint orange glow as a voice piped up from its speakers, "Yes, Mr.Sullivan?"

"Aha, I knew it. You were spying on me all this time, weren't you, Jarvis? In your face, Stark!" He pointed at the phone triumphantly, spittle flying from his mouth as he pointed out the very obvious as Stark himself had given him this phone and it was very clear that there were some caveats with the free perks.

"I had assumed that it would be very obvious to you about the fact that we cannot let an unsupervised superhuman out into the world, was it not?" The very dry voice of Jarvis came out through the speakerphone and the TV speakers as an orange blob appeared on both the screens.

"Ha ha, very funny, Jarvis. I just wondered if you can get a message to Tony from me?" He chuckled wryly and asked him, all the while as he continued to shove in as much food as he possibly could in his face.

"Certainly. Sir is busy at the moment otherwise he would have connected to this call himself," Jarvis replied.

"Very well, tell him that I have noticed some odd things about my body and believe that my powers may have enhanced my body to a certain extent and I would like to test that,"

Jarvis took a beat to reply despite him knowing that Jarvis could reply to a hundred such conversations at the same time and feel no pressure on his processing power at all.

"I see. That is certainly interesting and I will inform sir about it. In the meantime, Sir has advised you to remain indoors and feel free to take advantage of the room service. He will call you when he has something for you. Room service is on its way with a small wardrobe of your size,"

He beamed at that news. It had been getting a little sparse in the apparel department. "Thanks, Jarvis!"

"You're welcome. Feel free to call upon me if you have any more queries. Good day, Mr.Sullivan," Jarvis said and the screens of both the TV and his mobile turned back to normal though he was not foolish enough to believe that Jarvis' presence had completely receded. He must be listening in on everything in the background.

"Ah!" He sighed in contentment as he looked at his flat stomach despite him demolishing all that food. He was finally feeling full after eating enough food to feed a family of 5. God, his metabolism was so messed up. It would have been the worst situation if he did not have the big fat wallet of Tony Stark to fund his food otherwise he would have eaten through any money he might have acquired on his own. If things went the same way, the salary that Tony promised to him might also not be enough. Ah, he will figure that out when the time comes. He can afford to live in a slightly unsafe neighbourhood because of his powers if the rent comes out to be low.

He went to the window and looked at the street below, as cars and people continued to pass by, unaware that a storm was on the horizon, and in less than one year, the worldviews of the majority of the people on the planet were about to change. Taking a deep breath, his eyes flashed green as his skin turned green as he activated multiple barriers behind him, in the living room. He looked back and pressed the button to activate the shaders that covered the entirety of the windows that dominated an entire side of the living room, allowing natural light to filter into the room.

He plopped himself down on the sofa and looked at the dozen barriers that had manifested in front of him which he then manipulated to become smaller and larger, practicing his powers in this way. He had no real way of practising the weight-lifting powers of his barriers as they were already absurdly high and doing that might bring undue attention to him. For now, all he did was manifest multiple barriers and then try to manipulate them. He had noticed something when he used multiple barriers at once that were out of his direct field of vision. They gave him some feeling about crashing into each other or crashing into walls, allowing him to manipulate them properly, without it looking like a blind person was piloting them. He was sure that someday, he would be able to form complex shapes from his powers, allowing him to create incredible constructs like a car or even a robot mecha suit.

That would be so awesome! Alas, as he looked at the dozen barriers whose shape did not go beyond simple ones like square, rectangle, and circle, he sighed in resignation. It would be a long time before he would be able to make something more than a four-barrier shape, resembling a car, let alone something as monstrously complex as a robot.

But! He would do it. No matter how hard, arriving in a robot suit of your own powers would be so awesome and he wanted to experience that no matter what. Sweat appeared on his forehead as he continued to practice with his powers, quite aware that Jarvis was spying on him through the cameras but what he did not know was he was also practising with micro barriers. For example, he had multiple barriers sitting right underneath him, creating a grid of sorts that lifted him just above the couch, allowing him to practice that aspect of his powers.

He could imagine that being necessary someday because with the speed his barriers could move about, creating a razor-thin barrier and then accelerating it to the speed of sound would make a hell of a sword, allowing him to cut through nearly anything without any hindrance. Hell, it might even be able to injure the thick skin of Thanos or even Hulk, well, before their body healed that damage in real-time.

As was the norm with his power usage, the body armour had appeared on his skin, making him appear completely green to any would-be observer. It was really a second skin, indistinguishable from real skin. It was also incredibly tough. Stark had shot a point-blank repulsor at him and the shield did not even flinch. He was not exactly happy with Stark but at least it gave him the peace of mind that conventional weaponry would not be able to harm him very easily.

Combined with his ability to fly unaided, escaping from any would-be pursuers without them having any specialised equipment to contain him would be very easy. That alone gave him incredible peace as it would help him sleep at night.

_______xx_________


The building in front of the hotel, LA

–Phil Coulson–

"Sir, you need to see this," He blinked the sleep out of his eyes as one of the people on his team had found something in this stakeout. Somehow, somebody had gotten close to Stark without them having a single clue about it. That person also did not have a digital presence at all.

"Yeah, coming," He muttered and got up from the makeshift bed. At times like this, he was reminded of the unfairness of the world. There he was, their target lounging in the five-star penthouse suite without a care in the world with all the luxuries imagine available and there he was, having to sleep in something that could hardly be called a bed.

"What do we have?" He asked and was rewarded with the information that only worsened his headache.

It would seem that Tony Stark had gotten tangled with someone who was not just someone with powers, he also had powers that were emitting the same energy signature as that of another troublesome individual. If both of them had anything in common, things had just gotten a lot more complicated than he had thought. This mission just went above his pay grade for now.

"Spoof his energy signature. We don't want other parties snooping around before we are ready to do so. Also, find a way to fit us into Tony Stark's schedule. We need to get to the bottom of this," He ordered his team before heading out of the makeshift office. He needed to talk to Director Fury about this. Unfortunately, he was a little busy with Project PEGASUS at the moment and he had issued strict orders to not disturb him for the next three days.

He would have to try and get a meeting with the man himself but judging from past experiences, getting a meeting with Tony Stark was a pain but it was even more painful dealing with the man himself. It was a good thing that it was he who was assigned to this mission. If it was someone else who ended up presenting a strong front to Tony Stark, they would have lost any hope of an amenable meeting.

He just hoped that having Pepper Potts in the meeting might help mellow out the more…eccentric tendencies of Stark.

---

Word Count - 2255

If you guys want to read up to 15 extra chapters or just want to support me - P*treon

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

LA

–Tony Stark–

Come on, not this.

"You know, Pepper, when I made you CEO, I thought I was taken off their list by default," He did not NOT whine to Pepper as she had all but dragged him out of his lab and forced him to come to the office to attend some sort of important meeting. He had even given it in writing a few months back that Pepper Potts represented him in all its entirety, even for shareholder meetings. That made sure that he did not have to leave his lab to attend some useless meeting where the agenda for the meeting had already been voted on before the meeting and only the formal voting was left to be done. He thought that those dull meetings were behind him but apparently, he thought differently. When he had been told by Pepper to prepare for an outing, he had gotten excited, thinking that it was some sort of impromptu date but apparently, it was some sort of meeting at the office. The same office space where his ex-father figure had hatched multiple plans to kill him.

Suffice it to say, he was not a fan of the current campus and would have ordered a whole other one built on the other side of the state if he had to come daily to the office but thankfully, being a majority shareholder meant that he had certain rights which he could exercise. Which is why he couldn't understand why he was being dragged by Pepper to.......

"Wait, that is not where the boardroom is. I thought we were going to the board meeting?" He couldn't help but question Pepper who was busy talking with her PA.

"Hmm? Oh no, this is not a board meeting. This is something that you would have flown away to avoid," Pepper replied. That was when he realised why Pepper currently had him in her ironclad grip.

He had a bad feeling about the meeting and he couldn't even ask Jarvis about it because apparently, his son had designated Pepper above him in terms of non-emergency commands because she was technically, Jarvis' "owner". Traitor.

"Nope. All kinds of nope. Who gave him entry?" He pointed at the suit and exclaimed loudly just at the door of the office.

The suit did that annoying thing where he maintained that same disarming smile as if he had not been insulted in broad daylight. God, he would love to someday visibly annoy this unflappable man. Alas, today was not the day.

"Nice to see you too, Mr.Stark," was the suit's response as the door closed behind them and Pepper pushed him into one of the nearby seats. She sat beside him and the suit sat in front of him with a file pushed towards him. He looked at the file with an eyebrow raised. The suit looked back at him. This went on for a full minute before Pepper sighed a sigh full of resignation and lifted the file and started reading through it.

He was sitting close enough to Pepper that he could feel her tensing up for a brief second before things went back to normal. Internally, he ruminated about the range of topics that could make Pepper tense up.

"What is this, Phil?"

What? He looked at Pepper with wide eyes. She was on a first name basis with the suit?!

"This, Ms.Potts is all we have on the person Mr.Stark met the day before yesterday,"

"Jarvis, remind me to hack SHIELD and delete their databases once I reach home, will you?" He said out loud.

"Affirmative, sir. Geo sensitive reminder set," Jarvis piped up from the speakers they had installed into Pepper's office.

"None of that, Tony. We both know that they cannot not keep you under constant surveillance," Pepper swatted him on the arm and said in resignation.

"Who we meet and what we do in said meeting is none of your concern, Phil. I hope you realise that you are violating Tony's rights when you conduct surveillance without a warrant," Pepper said sternly.

"Ms.Potts, please forgive me but if the person you are meeting turns out to be an enhanced individual, it becomes our duty. We are specially trained for these situations. Now, this person has no digital footprint whatsoever which raised some alarm balls of their own but the real kicker was the photos we have in that file there. This person is enhanced in some way and I am sure, Mr.Stark, you understand our caution because of the person associated with the colour green. I am sure you know of another such person who has green skin and has powers," Phil reminded him.

He winced internally. Bringing in the Hulk angle complicated things. There was currently a standing arrest warrant for Banner and nearly all spy agencies in the world were actively looking for him. If he so wished, he could have found him within a week at best but he was sure that if that happened, somebody else might find it and that was the last thing he wanted. Bruce Banner was a science bro and he did not deserve to be hunted like some rabid animal when it was the Army and General Ross that was at fault. He had hoped that they would not make that connection at all but if it had come to that, he would have to do something to stop them from arresting Jack.

He sighed openly and said something that was sure to bring about a visit from Old One-eyed himself, "I am only doing this because you brought this on but that kid is under my protection. If you want to get to him, tell Fury to come to me. I'm sure we can come to an agreement and if push comes to shove, I am sure that apprehending an individual of such calibre will be very difficult for you. He might even be fleeing as we speak," He supplied helpfully and was rewarded with the widening eyes of Phil in front of him who immediately stood up and began taking out his phone to check in on his agents who were presumably, on watch duty for Jack.

"Calm down, Agent," He said and waved Phil down, "Nothing like that has happened. I am going to officially employ him. His powers are very useful and while I am sure that you would want nothing more than to induct him into your ranks, I have something else in mind for him. Look, he could be an Avengers candidate and as such, I want to talk face-to-face with your Director. Now, if you guys will excuse me, I have to go meet my friend," He said and stood up.

"Jarvis?"

"Mr.Sullivan has been accounted for and has barricaded himself in his bedroom once he was informed of a potential ambush. He has used his powers to barricade himself and as such, I believe he will be fine until we reach him,"

Attaboy.

Now, he had to explain this situation to Jack and hope that he did not run away.

Just as he was about to enter his car, "Sir?" Jarvis' voice reached through the car speakers.

"What? Did something happen?"

Instead of telling him, Jarvis activated the car's infotainment centre and showed him something that made his blood boil. Apparently, Phil had not taken the news about Jack being in his care well and had ordered his stooges to assault Jack's room and ambush him. Evidently, they were trying to capture him rather than kill him but that was of no relief since it was still unknown if Jack could transform like Bruce in which case, he had to be there pronto.

"Jarvis!" He exclaimed as the tires of the car rushed as it rocketed out of the parking lot and right into the street. Righting the car, he immediately pulled up the most direct route and cursed out loud for LA traffic as it showed a minimum of 1 hour before he could reach the hotel, even with Jarvis conveniently hacking into the traffic system or rather, him nudging some things in place because Jarvis had always been there.

"Mark VIII suit inbound. It will meet you halfway sir," Jarvis intoned even as he watched with increasing anxiety as Jack's face showed signs of anxiety and panic, even though his barriers held against everything the agents could throw at it. He could see police at the entrance of the hotel, barricading it against entry and Jarvis had logs of at least 2 police helicopters enroute.

Shit, this was going bad fast. He had to reach the hotel soon to at least try and reduce some of the fallout from this event otherwise it would become too hot for even him to touch. Already, the President was not in a forgiving mood regarding the Hulk incident. This might just set him off. Jack was strong but even he would not survive a prolonged confrontation with the US military. The only reason Banner was able to evade them for so long was probably due to some third party's intervention, most likely Old One-eyed's help. Fury could be counted on in the difficult times, his organisation, however?

Well, the result was clear. The suits had resorted to bombs and bullets now. Whatever Jack had done to his room created an extremely strong barrier that even the weapons that the agents had pulled out, that looked suspiciously like energy weapons like his repulsor arrays, failed to breach them.

"Oh thank god," He exclaimed as he swerved his car to the side and stopped, just in time for the suit to land in front of him and open up from behind. He jumped into the suit and rocketed away to the hotel where Jack was staying. Jack had not been lifting his phone for some reason and when Jarvis had overridden it, he had just thrown it to the ground. He had a feeling that Jack was about to flee and in his opinion, that would be a very bad thing to do at this point. Even if he was arrested, there was no charge that they could make it stick on him, aside from illegal immigration but that was something that did not carry that strict of a penalty, especially if the party was a minor. On the other hand, the calls that Jarvis had intercepted were very much worrying.

Just as the hotel was in viewing distance, he got a call from the President at the worst possible time. He could have let it go to voicemail but he did not want his company's stock to tank and sour his relationship with the White House.

"Mr.President," He greeted POTUS and slowed down the speed of the suit since he was sure what it was going to be about. Multiple inbound bogies from the nearest military base meant that the President's stance about this was clear.

"I want you to help the military subdue this criminal and if not, eliminate him, Stark," He said that and just hung up.

He just floated mid-air at that moment and then, rocketed straight to the hotel. Jack had broken the bulletproof double-reinforced glass of his bedroom and was now floating in the air.

"Shit, just stay there, Jack," He heard the roar of the engines as multiple birds were now nearing the area around Jack. The President clearly did not want this one to get away and had sent some pretty heavy-handed insurance. He could also see Phil's face that was one of panic as he rushed out of Stark Industries HQ with his phone constantly buzzing. So, maybe Phil did not have a hand in informing them?

Soon, he had to slow down as he came to a halt right at the end of the street, in direct line of sight of Jack. Jack's neck snapped towards him as he looked at the Jets circling above, the police gathering below and the agents swarming the hotel room.

A bad feeling pooled in his gut as he saw Jack dispel all the barriers save for the one that protected his body. His arrival had stopped the shooting on Jack but the energy readings he was getting from Jack had him point both his repulsor arrays at Jack.

"Stop!" he shouted through the external speakers, hoping Jack would listen but the energy buildup continued to happen as Jack's skin gained an even darker green hue to it. Jack then looked straight at him and the next moment, Jack was gone, leaving behind a sonic boom that shattered all the windows around the block.

"Sir, above!" Jarvis' words helped him locate Jack. He had rocketed straight up at speeds exceeding Mach 10. He smiled under the mask as the Jets began pursuit even as it was clear they had no chance of ever reaching him. There was no manned aircraft on the planet that could catch up to those speeds.

He ignored the calls from the White House and from the police nearby and just went back home. He might have to lay low but searching for Jack should not be too difficult, especially with his energy signature already in their database, safe and secure.

"Sir, Mr.Sullivan's energy signature has disappeared,"

What? He looked at the feed which showed a bogey going extremely fast, straight up, and then instead of stopping or turning, Jack just disappeared from the radar. The speed with which he was going, he would need a lot of power and that power would leave traces. The only reason Jack would disappear from the sensors was if he completely deactivated his powers but doing so at that height could only mean certain death.

"Ah, so troublesome. Should have just left him in Canada," He lamented but stopped as he realised Jack probably would have gotten in the same mess anyway.


_____xx____

Jack had chosen that way of leaving precisely because he wanted to leave an impression. He was sure that had he chosen to fight his way out, they would have figured out a way to label him as a terrorist. They might still do that but at least this time, he would have no casualty figure to his name.

It was exhilarating. Using up so much of his powers. He had chosen to pour all the energy he could muster up into his barriers and then use that energy to just push. He pushed himself straight up. He couldn't even see what had happened before he found himself looking at the curvature of the planet.

So majestic and beautiful was the sight that he lost sight of what was ahead of him until his powers alerted him to something as his barrier jerked a bit to the side. Evidently, even that was not enough as he saw the orange sparks of the portal closing before he could come to a halt.

He looked around, ready for an attack of some sort but none came. Instead, he looked at the smiling figure of the Ancient One, floating placidly in front of him with a disarming smile on her face.

"Hello, Otherworlder. Come, we have a lot to talk about," She said and then gestured behind him. He peeked back to see a portal already opened.

He sighed in resignation. It seemed he had no other way then.

"Lead the way," He nodded to her.

---

Word Count - 2611

If you guys want to read up to 15 extra chapters or just want to support me - P*treon

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Kamar Taj, Kathmandu

–Jack Sullivan–

He was tense. His entire mind and soul were screaming at him to get away from the woman in front of him. Logically, he was aware that the woman in front of him was one of the good guys, even if she leaned more into the grey than the light but he was alright with that. The world didn't need to be defined in the colors of white and black. More often than not, the situation and the world were more grey than people like to acknowledge.

So, despite his instincts warring with his logical mind, he followed behind the Ancient One, the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, badass extraordinaire and stealer of Dormammu's energy. For her to show her back to him was a sign of trust that he would like to reciprocate so he deactivated the multiple barriers he had summoned around himself in preparation for a confrontation and entered the barrier and found himself in a medieval courtyard of some sort. The green skin stayed on because it was completely reflexing on his body's part and since he was still feeling a little tense and afraid, it continued to stay on. It was night time here in Nepal so there were hardly any people present but he could somehow feel the presence of many people in the place.

"Welcome to Kamar Taj though I have a hint that you knew of this place beforehand," The Ancient One dipped her head toward him and beckoned for him to follow her to one of the many rooms of Kamar Taj. The entire place was like a maze to him. He wouldn't even find his way back if that route even existed in the first place. He would not be surprised if they had not made liberal use of the spatial magic they had access to and expanded the place from the inside though he imagined that too would come at a cost of some sort.

Soon, they reached a hut that already had some sort of tea setup already present on the table. The Ancient One sat on one of the chairs that looked and felt older than he was and he was counting the memories he had gotten from the previous owner of this body as well. He sat gingerly on the chair, not sure if he should do it, considering that the chair probably deserved its own place in a British museum at this point. Finally, he sat down and looked at the Ancient One who was looking at him with a faint sense of amusement. He ducked his head a bit at that.

The woman had a way of making him feel like a school kid. Unsurprising, considering her true age.

"So, why have you brought me here?" He asked her straightforwardly, not beating around the bush. He did not have a plan in place for his life after having been spotted but that certainly did not involve the Ancient One. He would love to learn magic but he felt that there was a certain quota of powers that one gets and he had a feeling that he already filled his. He didn't even have his first powers in control.

"You tell me, Mr.Sullivan. You come blazing through in our reality and replace a soul that was about to be extinguished, only to re-emerge with a glow that only the oldest of Elder Gods remember and thus, fear. So, let me ask you this, what are your intentions towards Earth?" The Ancient One leaned forward and asked him with an utterly serious face. The shadows in the room seemed to lean away from the scary woman. He understood, he would do that too.

He gulped at the question and paused as he realised what she was referring to. She was referring to the Hulk's connection to an entity on par with the strongest beings of the multiverse. He feared taking his name even in his mind because names have power in this universe and he did not want to get ganked before he could even reach level 100 of his powers.

"I have no harmful intentions to Earth. The denizens leave a lot to be desired and some might get hurt but not all of them. I want to understand and use my powers for the good and to be honest, creating barriers seems like the perfect recipe to become someone who protects rather than attacks," He blabbered out, hoping that she would not try and imprison him.

She openly scoffed at his words, "Barriers? Please. I admit that your Power cosmic constructs are impressive. Capable of withstanding blasts even from the likes of Infinity Stones but they are certainly not just for defence and you know that too. I am sure you must have thought of hundreds of different scenarios where your powers can easily perform the role of a knife or a sword instead of a shield," He paused a bit at the power cosmic bit, and then he begrudgingly nodded at her insinuating about the offensive aspect of his powers. He had noticed that too.

"As for your intentions regarding Earth, this room seems to detect no lies and I am inclined to believe it for the time being but make no mistake, Mr.Sullivan, I will be keeping a close eye on you during your stay in Kamar Taj," She said and stood up, the tea setup having disappeared during their conversation. And she didn't even offer him a cup of tea.

How rude!

Wait! Stay at Kamar Taj?

"What? Why would you let me stay here?" He questioned her as he followed behind her. As soon as he crossed the door, the entire hut shimmered and then disappeared as if it didn't even exist in the first place.

He stood there with his mouth agape but then remembered his previous words and ran after the Ancient One.

"Isn't it clear, Mr.Sullivan? You have nowhere else to go and what sort of Sorcerer Supreme would I be if I let you go straight into the jaws of rogue sorcerers and witches without training you first and turning you into a fine defense for Earth," The Ancient One delivered that dialogue smoothly and turned right into a path that he was sure didn't exist a few moments ago. He ran after her after a moment only to see a dead end.

"What the…" He murmured to himself as he turned around and tried to find his way back.

It would seem that he had a place to stay after all.

"Oh, thank God, or the Vishanti?" He muttered to himself as he tried to find the way out of this maze he was trapped in.

He would have some sort of breathing room after all. Kamar Taj seemed like the perfect place to step back, take a breather, and then go on to the next phase of the plan.

There was just one small problem.

He had no damn plan!

"Oh My God what am I gonna do? It hasn't been even a week since I came here and I have just gone with the flow so far. I can't do that. The New York Invasion is coming. The Chitauri are coming. Loki is coming. What can I do? What can I-"

"Excuse me?"

He mechanically looked at the apprentice who looked somewhat weirded out by his behaviour.

"Y-yes?"

"Are you lost?"

"U-Um, Yes?" He hesitantly replied, his mind still shaken from that mini panic attack he had or was still having.

"Let me show you the way. I assume you will be staying at the dorms?" The apprentice assumed something and he did not exactly correct him either. Technically, he was at the lowest level in Kamar Taj, probably even lower than apprentices since he had not been formally inducted into the ranks of Kamar Taj. The apprentice took him to a small hut that seemed just as old as everything in this place, i.e., Ancient.

"Thank you," He thanked the apprentice and then awkwardly bowed back as the apprentice bowed to him. He looked at the hut's door which seemed somewhat intimidating for him. He gingerly crossed the threshold and was surprised to find a room with more than enough space for a single person. There was a small futon laid out for him and then there was another room which presumably led to a bathroom. There was also closet space for his clothes or his other belongings. He did not have much in the way of that so that was not a constraint at all. There was some sort of envelope on a table near the futon so he chose to see what that was about before taking a nice hot bath, maybe if it was available to him.

He opened the envelope and caught the ring that immediately fell out of it. He held on to the ring and shivered as some sort of wave passed over him. He then saw another piece of paper and opened it to see it read in italics: SHAMBALA. It was the classic wifi password that was also given to Strange as well in the movie as well.

He sighed in relief and then immediately headed to the bathroom and was sufficiently delighted to find a somewhat old but functional bathtub which was already filled with hot water and smelled like heaven to him.

"Ah! That's the stuff," He exclaimed once his body hit the optimal temperature and he would have just passed out there had his body not been sufficiently enhanced by that god-forsaken procedure that HYDRA had done on him.

________xx_____

Triskelion, Washington DC

–Nick Fury–

"What the fuck happened that day, Coulson? I thought you knew how Stark would react if you came on too strong," He couldn't help but curse out loud as the metric ton of shit that had piled up on his desk in the two days he was not available due to the work going on at Project PEGASUS. Apparently, Selvig and his team had some breakthroughs in the energy synchronization process but the side effect of that procedure was that the very air around the entire base was suffused with the Tesseract's energy, making external communication impossible.

Coulson's grimace was clear for him to see. He was still staying in LA, hoping to get a meeting with Start before he could retaliate in some way. They still wanted to maintain at least cordial relationships with Stark because, as much as it pained him to admit it, Stark's genius was something they could need at any possible moment. He was also very pissed as to who informed the White House about a potential enhanced, an underage enhanced at that. That was a whole nother can of worms that he didn't even want to get into.

Just what had gotten into the head of POTUS to order a strike on an underage kid who showed signs of having powers with none of the mental instability that Banner exhibits when he turns into his alter-ego. This could have been a tremendous opportunity for SHIELD to gain another Avenger candidate and they did not even have to do anything in that case since Tony himself had expressed a strong desire to take on that kid as a mentor and he would be more than happy to have two of his biggest problems in a single place where he could have easily monitored their progress.

But nooo. Somebody had to open their big mouths and report that incident with the photos to somebody high up in the chain of command and with the President's known distaste for enhanced people, he had overreacted and directly mobilised the Army. The event that transpired later on was a whole different thing.

The enhanced, Jack, from the name that Stark had given the White House, had chosen to stop hiding in his bedroom and had come out, floating right outside the hotel, above a very crowded street that was being rapidly emptied by the local PD. Their efforts were not very fruitful as the general public, curious as they were, had gathered around the blockade and recorded the whole thing. Jack had chosen to come out of the hotel and then, like a rocket, went straight into the stratosphere at speeds exceeding Mach 10. The Jets that had been circling the city immediately chased after him but their speeds meant that Jack was soon out of their sights.

Sometime later, Jack had disappeared from their satellites as well and the POTUS had launched a nationwide manhunt for him. Suffice it to say that Stark was very pissed at them and rightfully so.

"Sir, I didn't know that the WSC would directly take over command of my then team and order them to detain the individual without informing me," Coulson said, his accusation clear. What was WSC doing having direct contact with agents under his right-hand man's direct command? That was bypassing his authority and he did not like that one bit.

He sighed, completely drained from the ordeal, "Just, stay there, Coulson. I will be there as soon as I can and hopefully, we can put this whole thing behind us and have Stark track down Jack and give him the Banner treatment. I also have multiple pending meetings with the POTUS as well as the WSC. I have half a mind to ignore all of them but duty calls, Coulson. Stay safe and keep your eyes peeled. We can't really ignore other members of your team spying on you for the WSC as well,"

Coulson nodded tersely and ended the call.

"Hill, please tell me you got something,"

Hill turned around, looking away from the screen that had all kinds of data on the impromptu flight that Jack kid took. It still boggled his mind thinking about the kind of mobility that kid has at such a young age. Imagining that with a trained agent made him shudder. He had to get the kid before anybody else did.

"Sir, we tracked Jack till a certain point then he disappeared, as was recorded by every other agency. What we have recorded is a very similar energy signature to that of the Hulk. We tried to match his energy signature to that of the ones we have in the database and we have a match,"

He immediately leaned forward in interest. Hill opened her tablet and showed it to him.

It was the Experimental Base in Canada.

"You don't think…." His eyes narrowed as he looked at Hill. They were still searching for the person who had blown up a significant portion of their base. That portion was hidden even from him and had been specially made on the orders of the WSC. The energy signature they had found in that area matched with Jack's nearly completely.

He leaned back as his thoughts ran a mile a minute.

"Delete this. Nobody aside from us knows about this. Got it, Hill?" He pinned her with his stare.

She looked back fearlessly and then nodded, "Understood,"

"Dismissed,"

---

Word Count - 2554

If you guys want to read up to 15 extra chapters or just want to support me - P*treon

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Stark Residence, LA

–Tony Stark–

"Like I said, you can go shove your head up where the sun doesn't shine, Fury. I am not helping you," He said in the video chat that Pepper had just dumped on to him in the middle of his work in the lab. Apparently, Fury had pulled many of his favours with Pepper to make sure that the meeting happened and he only agreed because Pepper told him to but nowhere was it written that he had to be nice to him.

The sigh of resignation and frustration that escaped Fury's mouth was like music to his ears. Sweet sweet music that didn't help one bit in lessening the regret he felt with how he handled Jack's case. Sure, he lied about his amnesia but he was still, in the end, a kid and he had just put him on the hit list of the biggest military in the world.

Uncle Sam was known for many bad things but if there was one thing that they could be counted on, it was the fact that they always got their enemy. In the rare cases where it looked like Uncle Sam had lost control of the situation, it was only because of the higher-ups holding back the army otherwise there was probably nowhere in the world where one could hide from the might of the US military. Such was the might of the Military-industrial complex that ensured the hegemony of the United States of America. Knowing that the President had ordered for no expenses to be spared in containing this new threat was something that made his anxiety rise day by day. It had been 3 days since Jack had fled the hotel and in the process, broken a dozen different Aviation laws. That's what they were using to declare him a criminal, not that they would need a reason but it always helped their conscience if they did have proof of a crime committed. Not that it would matter if the matter ever made it to court. They were in denial of Jack being a minor but once the matter came to light, there would surely be protests in the street against trying him as an adult no matter the dubious circumstances surrounding his powers.

"Stark, again," Fury's tired voice spoke from the laptop in front of him, "Is there any way you can track him? We need to get to him before anybody else does?"

"And then what, Fury? What if you do get to him? What will you do then? Even if I do believe your words, what's stopping your superiors from kidnapping him right from under your eyes or better yet, order you to do it yourself? What then, Fury? Would you do it or would you rebel?" He snapped at Fury and then took in a deep breath because he had just let the anger get the best of him.

The silence he received from the other side was damning. "I thought so," he muttered and he slammed the laptop shut.

God, what a shit show. There were probably a dozen different requests from all the different three-letter agencies requesting his help in locating the new threat to US democracy. The media was as usual doing its best to fan the flames in that regard but the fact that Jack just fled and did not engage with any of the military assets present in the vicinity meant that it was a little harder for the Media to just blame him for everything. The only thing was the damage done from all the windows shattered because of the sonic boom he left in his wake which was an easy fix for him. He wrote a cheque, and instructed Jarvis to make sure that everyone either got their brand-new windows installed or got compensation. That shut up all of the clamouring building owners who went back on their days once they got the money and that was that.

All the data that he had on Jack was sealed away in a server that was located somewhere deep in the sea or even in some iceberg, for all he knew. He was very specific in coding that part in Jarvis. One of his magnum opus, if you will. The ability to create pseudo-random code by observing dozens of different natural and man-made phenomena that happen around the world and then basing the algorithm on a pattern using those events. It could be the interval between those events, their sounds converted into binary, or even their colours or a number of other parameters. Based on that algorithm, Jarvis decided on the place to store the Black Box server that he had. That place too was changed based on that algorithm at seemingly random intervals. Now, if someone had complete access to Jarvis' source code and was present when he coded that thing so that person would know just what the source pattern was, then there was a chance that it could be cracked but that was based on the assumption that Jarvis had not taken that code and upgraded it to kingdom come.

Then there were the readings he had gotten from the base that had burned down. He did some digging and found out that they were experimenting on something in that base. It was a collaborative effort from the Military, SHIELD, and a dozen different private companies, for what, he could only guess.

Super soldiers.

God, when would the world move away from flesh and blood soldiers, no matter how enhanced they might be? No matter how strong, smart, blonde, and just absolutely perfect Steve Rogers was, he could kick his ass with ease, even with the Mark II. There was nothing exceptional when it came to Captain America if he thought about it in the modern context but if they were able to come up with someone like Jack in a lab?

The mere thought of that was terrifying enough. A mass-produced army of Jack's power level would be disastrous for everyone, even the US military, no matter how delusional they might be to realise that. Despite the impressive powers that Jack's shields had, they were certainly not equipped to handle Nuclear Weaponry and certainly not equipped to handle the aftermath of those nukes.

He would have loved to get to the bottom of that base if not for the multiple warnings he had gotten from his contacts in the Army, warning him to stay away from Jack since the military was of the opinion that the Hulk was multiplying somehow. Some of the more outrageous theories suggested that Bruce Banner had somehow transfused his blood with that of someone and that someone was Jack. He had snorted at the mere thought of that despite not having the DNA of Jack because he knew, with almost certainty, that Jack was a product of the experiments done at that Canadian base that was no longer on the map. In the span of his bringing Jack to the US and Jack being discovered, the base had been completely destroyed and covered with Snow. It would seem that the Canadian government worked fast in covering up their shitshows.

He had chosen to take a step back from the entire matter, not only due to the warnings from his contacts but also from Pepper who was of the opinion that Jack would be more than capable of handling the threats coming his way if he acted smart and stayed away from urban areas and used his powers to a minimum, thereby camouflaging him from the military scanners. Also, she was sure that Fury would know about Jack being captured as soon as that happened and Fury would do something about it.

He was 90% sure that Fury was the reason none of the agencies in the world were about to find even the shadow of Bruce Banner. He could understand why though. Bruce being in the middle of an altercation was the sole reason the Hulk was triggered and in all the fights that he was able to get the footage of, he had noticed one peculiar thing. The Hulk, as fearsome and rampaging as it was, never hurt a civilian or someone who was not in his way. That meant that the Hulk was not some mindless beast but someone who responded in kind to the threat it was subjected to.

He sighed and closed his eyes, letting them rest from the torture that he subjected them to, every day. Despite his considerable advances in the display field, there was not much he could do to mitigate the limitations that came with age. He could understand the thoughts of politicians and the other rich people who wanted to live forever and hold on to their powers for a longer period of time and honestly, with what he had seen of Bruce, he was probably the closest thing to an Immortal that he had seen but he was not that tempted. Sure, having fewer growing pains as he aged would be nice but that was just a part of living life that he had to accept. He didn't want to become like those monsters in human skin in the pursuit of a longer life. He was content with what he had and would be fine being a rickety old man with a killer sense of humour. With all his wealth, creature comforts would be a finger snap anyway.

"Anyways, Jarvis, bring up the scans of Jack's shields. I think I got it. We should be able to strengthen the projected repulsor barrier by at least 15% if we imitate the same energy structure,"

"Affirmative, sir….."

_________xx_____

At the same time, Kamar-Tak, Kathmandu

–Jack Sullivan–

This sucks. So Hard.

He panted and gasped as he did the same katas as all the apprentices that he was paired with. The Ancient One had given him a bracelet that increased the pressure on his body so much that he was probably weaker than an average adult at this point, despite being a literal Super Soldier. She had said that it would help train his CHI to not be in imbalance with his Gamma Energy and Power Cosmic.

Ah yes, the Power Cosmic. According to his spotty comic knowledge, Power Cosmic was a type of energy that was unique to Galactus as he was the being that would bring about the Big Bang of the next universe after the inevitable heat death of the current universe. Apparently, his barriers were somehow made of the same stuff. Those barriers were then covered in Gamma Energy that his body produced according to his demand and then there was CHI which was there in his body in excess quantity because of the Super Soldier serum that was used on him. The Ancient One had been very forthcoming with information right up until he asked her about the specifics of his experiment where she shut up and asked him to join the training that was mostly reserved for unpowered newbies, not someone Awesome like him who could lift a car with a thought.

He was not moronic though. He realised the meaning of the training soon enough and within a day of training, he had already learned how to open portals using his bare hands. The energies already present inside his body did present a challenge which is why he had to focus very hard on the place and even then, the portal that opened was barely enough for him to fit his arm through but hey, progress was progress.

According to the Ancient One, with enough mastery of the Sling Ring, one could open portals with just a wave of their hands and even employ portals as a weapon in their arsenal. It was just a shame that the event horizon of a portal would cancel out depending on the density of mass and energy it encounters.

So no Thanos killing easy machine, sorry HISHE.

He had also figured out a way to stop his second skin from appearing on reflex. Now, he could activate it on demand and then deactivate it with some effort as well. Next, he was working on activating that skin on only specific portions of his skin instead of his entire body.

He had almost 10 months to train himself and he was sure that Kamar Taj was the best place to be for that. Not only did he get trained in the art of hand-to-hand combat by Mordo himself, but he was also trained in fighting hard and brutally by Kaecilius. He knew what fate awaited both of them but since they were useful to him at the moment, he did nothing to dissuade them from their probable future.

Their heads were still getting away from their bodies if they met on the battlefield as enemies, though. Mama raised no coward and letting them go instead of solving the problem once and for all, if you knew what was going to happen later on, was definitely cowardice for him.

He had tried getting his hands on some artifact but so far he had no luck. He passed his downtime, which was sparse considering the absolute ton of books he had to read, and he practiced with his powers. According to the Ancient One, the eldritch constructs that each master made had varying levels of strength, based on the strength of the Sorcerer casting it. In the entirety of Kamar Taj, only the Ancient One, Mordo, Kaecilius, Wong, and a dozen other oldies were able to create constructs that could give his barriers a challenge. He had tried it with the Ancient One and was successful in cutting through her barriers but the only reason he was able to do that was because of that Power Cosmic coursing through his barriers.

In their spar, he had seen that all of the green energy surrounding his barrier had been stripped away by her spell but the core structure of the barrier remained which was then deflected by another one of her spells. God, she was so strong.

So, he practised with his barriers with all that he had. He was not sure of any major events that happened between now and the Invasion of New York so he was wary of venturing out and missing out on precious training time. He had decided to spend the time leading up to the CHitauri invasion with his training so that when the time came, he would be all ready with a power-up.

He had entertained the thought of stopping Loki and preventing the Invasion if that was in his powers anyway, but the Ancient One had stopped that train of thinking in its tracks. According to her, that invasion must happen and it was a fixed point in history that would shape the world for centuries to come. She had then gotten all scary and then threatened him that if he tried to stop that from happening, she would have to hunt him down as a time criminal and he had stopped thinking about that from that point onward.

So, no stopping Loki from opening the portal. The next best thing he could do was reduce the casualties or prevent them altogether. He knew he could not save everybody but one could hope.

He had then set two goals for himself -

1. Be strong enough to stop the Leviathans and their energy weapons with ease.
2. Be able to create multiple barriers at the same time.
3. Pilot the barriers to evacuate citizens without being in the vicinity, i.e., increasing his spatial awareness.

The task was tall but he was determined to do it. After all, one extra hour spent training could mean the life and death of someone 10 months later.

So, he went back to training. Despite his muscles protesting with all their might, he picked himself back up and went back to training, even as the mere act of performing the katas left small craters on the training floor, due to the sheer weight he was subjected to.

---

Word Count - 2716

P*treon Progress - #24

If you guys want to read up to 15 extra chapters or just want to support me - P*treon

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Kathmandu [10 months later (March 2011)]

–Jack Sullivan–

So peaceful.

The procession that the family took when one of their loved ones died in Kathmandu was very peaceful and serene in a way. They are wrapped in a white cloth and then a mourner would light the funeral pyre. It was poetic, in a way.

There were texts written in the various non sorcery tomes in Kamar Taj's library which depicted the way through which life came to be on Earth. As he had read about in his previous life, the Celestials were the reason that humans came to be. But not in the way that he had thought. Somehow, out of 5 species that Celestials had made out of the early primates, only the modern Homo Sapiens had inherited the malleability, the sheer adaptability of DNA that they had expected from lifeforms that were born on a planet that was once bathed in the lifeblood of a dying celestial. There was only a single difference in the way Homo sapiens were built, different from the other 4 experiments and that was the use of Phoenix fire. The Celestials, in their bid to create intelligent lifeforms, exceptionally intelligent lifeforms, by using the remains of one of their fallen brethren, had used a small amount of Phoenix fire they had in their possession.

Phoenix fire, coupled with remnant celestial DNA was the reason humans were born so adaptable. The very DNA that humans shared made it so that some humans had the potential to surpass even the very celestials that birthed their entire species. It was the reason humans, when encountering some exotic energy source or mutagen, turned into monsters or gained powers all of a sudden because the default initial reaction of human DNA was to adapt. Adapt, adapt, and evolve, was the motto of human DNA and that was the reason they were the most sought-after experimental commodity in the universe, at least to the people in the know. The High Evolutionary, for example, worked extensively on human and animal DNA to try to create his perfect utopia. The Sovereign, the race famed for their advanced research into biology, also found their inspiration for their perfect creation from an empowered human.

Fire was what brought humans to life and fire was what they used to say goodbye.

"Ready?" He glanced back at Mordo who was silently waiting for him. He nodded and then looked back at the mostly empty funeral home.

"Yeah, I'm ready," They floated on top of one of his barriers and rocketed towards the snow-filled mountains where the next meeting of the Masters of the Mystic Arts was going to happen. He was finally going to become a Master of the Mystic Arts and he was excited for it.

"What is the procedure to become one anyway? Care to share?" He asked Mordo as they sat in the cocoon he had built for themselves using his barriers. He had grown closer to Mordo and the others in the time he had been in Kamar Taj but he was mindful of the future versions he knew of them and thus, had made sure to maintain distance in case shit hit the fan early.

"Everybody has to go through this without any guidance. I had to and you have to too," Mordo replied calmly. A little too calm.

He was not exactly worried because gaining the Master title would just be that, a title. It was not as if he was looking to climb up the ladder of Kamar Taj. He had already succeeded in completing two of the three goals he had set for himself when he had first arrived at Kamar Taj.

He could now summon hundreds of different barriers and then pilot them remotely while each of those barriers was strong enough to withstand direct blasts from the Leviathan with ease. Well, he had not tested them against the Chitauri but the Ancient One was certain that not even the strongest armies of the galaxy had a weapon that could break through his barriers. Granted, Infinity Stones and weapons powered by them were the exception but for most of the things out there, he was golden.

The third goal that he had set for himself was being able to create a hive mind of sorts with his barriers and that was what was proving to be exceptionally difficult to do. You see, the brain has a limited number of lanes it could use for different multitasking purposes. He was a super soldier so he had more "lanes" than normal people anyway but even he had a limit. He was not an Asgardian, those people sure had all the good luck when it came to genetics. He had trained as much as he could to reduce the number of "lanes" required to operate a barrier while getting sensory feedback from it but there was just so much to process that his brain just isn't capable of handling. He can barely do a dozen barriers if he wants to have comprehensive sensory output from those barriers straight to him. He doesn't know how the link works but at this point in his training, he can conjure those barriers and send them 10 miles away from him and still, he would be able to get a somewhat clear picture from that barrier. The range and the number of barriers actively in use are inversely proportional so he has to keep that in mind.

In addition to that, he has also fulfilled his small dream of being able to create a mid-sized Gundam that was taller than a 10-storey building, which was his current limit if he wanted to sustain that form for a long fight.

Other than that, he had also discovered another very useful aspect of his powers. Kaecilius was actually the one who had discovered that when his energy spells hit his barriers, a portion of that was actually being absorbed by the barriers themselves. He had then conducted numerous other experiments with all his sparring partners and had discovered that his barriers were capable of absorbing any type of energy with ease. It was just that it could not absorb all of it. Most of it was sustained by the barrier and then the rest was deflected. Only some amount of it was absorbed but even small quantities can add up in case of a fight. And in the case of the Chitauri Invasion, the hundreds of blasts that would hit his barriers can generate enough energy for him to hit them back with a huge energy beam of his own.

Ah yes, that was also something he was surprised to know about. Wong was the mastermind who had suggested it because he was of the opinion that all that absorbed energy had to go somewhere and since he himself was not ballooning out of proportion, it was probably going to some alternate dimension. They had put meditation as a mandatory task for him in his daily timetable and voila, in less than a month, he had figured out how to use the absorbed energy.

The trick was that he had to conjure multiple barriers at the same time and keep them active if he wanted to use that absorbed energy. They had conducted an experiment in which Mordo and Kaeciulius had hit one of his conjured barriers with an energy spell that they could sustain for long periods of time. It was mostly just an overcomplicated portal spell that opened a gateway to a realm that contained nothing but energy beams that contained just kinetic energy. It took a while but soon enough, he felt an alien sensation from the other barrier that he had conjured. There was the feeling of something bursting out from the barrier and lo and behold, a similar energy beam exited his barrier, blasting through the barrier straight into the wall of a nearby hut. He had hastily shut down the barrier but the wall was still left glowing as the protections on it had activated at the last moment. Ever since then, he had made generous use of the mirror dimension to practice the energy-absorbing ability of his barriers. In one of the incursions that he had been a part of, he had even absorbed hellfire of some sort, scaring the demons who had tried to attack him and the apprentices under his protection, thinking him weak. As it turned out, hellfire was not just fire, it was an energy attack that his barriers easily deflected. Also, that hellfire was somehow enough to satisfy whatever criteria it was that his barriers had to be able to reflect that energy so he had used their own attack on them, startling some of them. He used that moment to conjure dozens of small notebook-sized sharp barriers and send them at their necks, killing over a dozen demons in a single strike. That was the day he had taken his first life and he had never looked back since in the three different demon invasions he had repelled single-handedly.

Sensory output from his barriers brought him out of his retrospection as the peak of the mountain came into viewing distance. Both of them slowly landed on the snow-laden path. Once he dismissed the cocoon, he was pleasantly surprised by a warm atmosphere. He dismissed it as a creature comfort using runes as a medium and followed Mordo as they entered an ancient-looking cave.

Mordo stood at the end of the cave and gestured for him to go ahead. He nodded at Mordo in gratitude and stepped into the light that was there at the end of the tunnel. His vision almost immediately adjusted to the rapid changes in brightness as he found himself standing in the middle of a huge circle. There were raised platforms on which dozens of different people sat. Most of them were very old, some of them were familiar faces like Mordo, Kaecilius, and Wong. He raised an eyebrow as it seemed he had no test to speak of, other than a vote as he could feel nothing in the room. No spells being activated, no traps, nothing.

"Jack Sullivan," One of the oldest Masters who seemed to have no difficulty standing, stood upright and said, his voice booming in the small enclosed space they were in.

"The slayer of demons, Shield of Kamar Taj, and now, the youngest Master of the Mystic Arts, welcome to the hallowed rank of being a Master of Kamar Taj," The old man then continued in a surprisingly gentle tone.

He raised his eyebrows in confusion. Wasn't there supposed to be an exam before he was officially declared a Master?

"I know what you are thinking. The reason there was no exam for you was because there was no reason to. Your combat ability alone places you far above all of us present here. The only reason your promotion was delayed was because your ability to cast sorcerer spells was in question and yesterday, when you cast your hundredth spell, you satisfied those conditions. Congratulations," Mordo stood up and bowed at him. All of the others stood up and did the same with him mirroring their actions as well.

____xx___

Later, at his accommodations, Kamar Taj

"Leaving, Master Sullivan?" He turned around from his activity of packing all of his meager belongings into a depressingly small bag to see the Ancient One standing at the entrance of his hut. He hastily closed the bag and bowed to her.

"Ancient One. And yes, I am leaving. I believe I have achieved everything I can at this place and going out and doing things will be more beneficial for me at this stage,"

She smiled at him and then waved her hand, placing both of them in the mirror dimension.

"What?" He smiled and asked her as they found themselves floating above the open ocean as far as he could see.

She took a combat stance and he smiled in excitement as he did the same, a green armour appearing above his skin. It was a far cry from the second skin that used to appear on his skin whenever his body's fight or flight instinct was activated. Now, it resembled more like dragon scales in their appearance and thickness and ironically, he had taken inspiration for them from a dead dragon that had been slain by him during one of the demon incursions.

"Here I come," He declared before creating a small Gundam around himself and rocketing straight at her with his first outstretched, leaving a sonic boom behind him.

He didn't know what happened. One moment his fist was about to hit the Ancient One right in her face, the next he was looking at a vast expanse of blue as the plating on his barriers had been broken from whatever the Ancient One had done to them. He willed more plates to appear and created an even bigger Gundam around himself and went even faster toward the shining beacon that was the Ancient One.

She was wielding what seemed to be a burning Hammer that looked comically large in comparison to her slender frame and yet, she wielded it with ease all the same. He cocked his fist, ready to hit her as she twirled the hammer around her small frame, leading to the situation where a small hammer absolutely broke through his large Gundam and hit him straight on his chest plate which broke down and actually transmitted the force to him, causing him to spurt blood. In that small instance, he could see her actually smile at his reaction. His eyes goggled in amazement as he looked at the burning hammer.

The moment which seemed to stretch far longer than the split second it actually was, creating a shockwave so big that even as far as he was from the ocean surface, he could see the literal Tsunami that had formed because of their clash.

Just what the hell was that hammer?

He willed his barriers to come to a stop and absentmindedly rubbed the spot on his chest that was being healed due to his sturdy constitution. He had definitely felt his bones being rattled along with at least one rib breaking. He set the rib back in place with a pained grunt and slowly floated down to the Ancient One.

"What the hell was that hammer?" He asked her in between coughs. That was the single thing that was able to break through all of his barriers and then make him feel pain.

"That, Master Sullivan, is one of the many tools we have that have been infused with a shard of Eternity that allows it to channel a fraction of a fraction of Eternity's power. That power is what allowed me to breach your barriers and injure you. Be at ease though, there are few of these in the universe and even they are long lost to the annals of time. Also, it took more energy than it was worth it to hurt you. I could have just as easily transmuted a portion of your blood into lead, poisoning you with ease. It would have taken the same level of energy as well," The Ancient One said to him, almost mockingly.

"You can do that?!" He exclaimed and she just laughed it off and opened a portal back to Kamar Taj.

He came out of the portal only to see himself at the door of Kamar-Taj with his packed bag dropped at the door already. He cackled out loud at the prank as there was a note on the bag which read - "With Eternal Love, Kaecilius,"

Knowing what was to come in the future, that note made for a very practical joke.

With a snap of his fingers, his attire changed into a T-shirt and Jeans as he picked up his bags and opened a portal straight to Manhattan.

He exited the portal into a shady alley and took in a deep breath, reminding him of the filth that existed in the city.

The sounds of cars zipping by, people talking and swearing, hit his enhanced senses as he was finally exposed to the cacophony of modern cities. He had hoped to avoid this but alas, fate was not kind and he had to face his fears in some way. It was good that his fear was just a bad living environment in general. Not some deep-seated childhood trauma. No sir. His fears could be easily solved by a wave of hand as a portal to Antarctica was just that far away for him.

He hoisted the bag on his shoulder and exited the alley. He looked up to see a huge building being constructed that, once completed, would take the crown for being the tallest building on the New York Skyline.

Honestly, overcompensating much, Stark?

He then whistled as he set out to look for accommodations in the Big Apple. After all, he was sure that New York was the place where all the major shit in Marvel went down. There must be something he could do in the meantime, instead of just sitting on his hands, waiting for someone from SHIELD to show up at Stark Tower so that they can get Tony Stark for their Avengers team. He would have to look for something either very close to Stark Tower or very high so that he could spy on the building from far away. Getting access to the building would be a blessing as he could then set up surveillance spells but Jarvis probably knew his face and would instantly alert Stark about it and he did not have the transformation spell handy because it was ridiculously hard. No other spell was as hard as the transformation spell and that was why, everyone preferred wearing magical masks to hide themselves, instead of using that stupidly overcomplicated spell.

Also, it was very easy for Masters of the Mystic Arts to just flee using portals instead of hiding their faces.

He would have to make a name for himself in the meantime as some vigilante with powers so that SHIELD could approach him as well. Someplace where there was someone who would know about his powers and would not discriminate based on that. Someone who could be trusted. Someone who was well-connected enough that he would not have many problems, at least in the beginning. Once his power was showcased sufficiently, the voices would die down anyway. Now, how would one go about doing that, he wondered.

As he ate the signature 1$ New York Pizza slice, his brain lit up.

That was how he found himself in Harlem. The place that had been battered by the battle between the Hulk and the Abomination. The place where there was a lot of crime that could be stopped by him. The perfect place for him to set up shop.

"Come on in, young man," A middle-aged black guy greeted him as he knocked on the glass doors of the shop. To be fair, it was pretty early in the morning to have customers.

That place was Pop's barber shop in Harlem.

---

Word Count - 3227

If you guys want to read up to 15 extra chapters or just want to support me - P*treon


A/N - Dayummm. I was in some sort of trance as I just wrote this absolute behemoth of a chapter in just 2 hours whereas before, it used to take me that much time to write barely 2k words. I am pumped!

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Pop's Barbershop, Harlem [April 2011]

–Jack Sullivan–

It had been over a month since he had arrived at Pop's shop with all his belongings in a small black bag that looked suspiciously similar to a garbage can.

Pop was a good man. He had taken him in and given him food and shelter without ever asking for anything in return. It was he who had insisted on completing the small tasks around the shop in exchange for letting him live behind the shop in the loft. Pop had a small area set up in the back of the shop where anybody in trouble could rest, regardless of their affiliation with any criminal organisation.

Pop's shop was a neutral zone of sorts. That truce was respected by all the players that did business in Harlem and in return, Pop made sure that anybody who came to his door for help never returned empty-handed, even when most of the time the situations devolved into life-threatening ones. Most of the ringleaders that ran crime around Harlem were little kids when Pop had returned and set up his shop. Most of them still visit his shop regularly, as if it were a ritual. Pop was respected around the neighbourhood not just because his area was known to be a small void in an area where violence had become increasingly common but also because he was a big philanthropist. The crime lords made sure to donate generously when they came for a haircut and Pop made sure that he donated the lion's share of his earnings to the neighbourhood because according to him, they needed that money more than him.

Honestly, Pop was a man after his own heart, an even bigger inspiration now that he was seeing him in real life, instead of through a screen. He seemed even larger than life now that he could see him in action. Doing so much as an act of repentance was honestly worthy of respect and it was not as if Pop did not have his fair share of darkness, it just made him even better of a person.

Judging from his clothing, Pops had made the judgment that he was an orphan and offered to call CPS [Child Protective Services] to make sure that he had someplace to say but he had requested to stay at his shop and he did not know what Pop had seen on his face, but he had agreed almost immediately. The aftermath of that was that he now had a place in the loft to call his home. He was responsible for guarding the place after hours and making sure that Pop was safe and secure. He was free to do as he pleased throughout the day, provided he informed Pop about it first.

It was honestly a little shocking how much freedom Pops had given him but he could think of a couple of reasons why Pop would not want to restrict him. His powers for one would give him ample confidence about his safety. After all, Pop had multiple guns in his stash and he had made him test them against his barriers and it was safe to say that there was nothing he had to worry about. At Least not from the gangs that roamed the streets. He was more than capable of taking them all out and he even offered the same to Pop who denied it. He had asked him for the reason and was told that there was a delicate balance between the powers in the city and that change was coming. He could see it but it would take time. If he did what he had offered to do, it would not just disturb the balance, it would destroy it in its entirety, and then, the death toll would be much higher than it would be.

"The world has not yet fallen to such a level that the burden of helping people would fall on such young soldiers," Pop had said to him and then sent him on his merry way.

That was part of their routine. Of course, this freedom was conditional as it was based on the multiple assessments that Pops had one of his friends teach to him. If he failed in any of those tests, his privileges would be removed and he agreed to that. Obviously, since it was not as if those tests were hard. Those were average maths, English, and Sciences and he could literally do those in his sleep.

Like clockwork, Pops woke up in the apartment upstairs and he came down to the shop at 8 AM. By that time, he was already up and cleaning the place. Then, Pops would give him breakfast and he would be out of the shop by 9. That was when his true job began.

See, for the past month, he had just been roaming around the city. With the help of portals and his barriers, it was safe to say that his mobility was off the charts and he used that to patrol almost an entire borough in a single day. 5 boroughs for five days and then he used the weekends to practice his powers, explore the world, and taste the local cuisine of the world. He had not yet told Pops about his magic since that would be a little hard for him to believe so Pops did not know that the cheesecakes he bought for him last week were from a little bakery in Germany that was known for its world-class limited stock cheesecakes.

He visited all the wonders of the world and as was the case with him, made sure to put his nose where it doesn't belong and made sure to stop dozens of crimes from happening throughout the world. Most of them were believable.

Some were not.

"Authorities are still investigating the freak accident that happened in Paris last week. According to video testimonies and independent verification from our team, we have confirmed the presence of an individual who was instrumental in preventing the further collapse of the Eiffel Tower in the direct aftermath of the terrorist attack that caused the deaths of 12 people last Friday," He winced at Pops' judgemental look as he looked at him pointedly after shutting off the TV. He had hoped that it would not reach Pops' ears but apparently, his good run had ended and he now had to explain to Pops why his seemingly underage charge was gallivanting on the other side of the world and was using his powers to extraordinary effect in public view.

"Um, oops?" He said in hopes that the lashing would not be too harsh.

"Oops? Is that all you have to say for yourself? What were you doing in Paris? How did you even get there? Where did you even get the time to do all that?"

The rapid-fire round made him finally decide to come clean to Pops, once and for all. So, that day he told Pops of his ability to open portals to wherever he wanted to, with a wave of his hand. He still did not inform him about magic though. No need to needlessly endanger the old man.

"This is nice. So, this really goes straight to Africa?" Pops pointed at the now-open portal and asked him.

He shrugged at him, "Try it,"

"Okay," Pops took a deep breath and just jumped into the portal. He followed suit as well.

"Well?" He asked Pops as he was busy looking at the rainforest surrounding them in awe.

"Well, the air's fresher here, I'll give you that much. How can you do this?" Pops asked him the same question again.

His only answer to that was a shrug. "Don't know what to tell you, old man. I just can do all of this,"

Pops just accepted that answer and then went on to enjoy nature for a while. After a while, Pops turned around to see him following at a leisurely pace, utterly unconcerned with their situation. Pops, however, had beads of sweat on his forehead as he seemed stiff like a stick due to the wolves surrounding them.

Oh, so he was worried about them.

"Don't worry old man," He said and snapped his fingers, boxing them in a cube. The sudden appearance of a green cube around them startled the wolves into attacking them. The scene of multiple wolves just jumping on them and then having their faces stuck on the side of the barrier as they slid down was hilarious.

"Oh, *huff* I forgot about those," Pops collapsed on his butt and said.

"L-Let's go home. That's enough adventure for one day," Pops said and he obliged.

"Now do you think I am ready to take down Cottonmouth?" He asked Pops once they were back in his apartment. He had chosen to bring them here instead of the shop because Pops looked like he needed a rebreather.

Pops raised his finger and was about to say something before he paused and then looked at him intently. "How do you know that name?"

He whistled innocently and looked away at that question.

Pops sighed, "Never mind. Just make sure that no innocent is harmed?"

"You got it, Pops. Firstly, I will be establishing a no-crime zone around the street. I will publicly use my powers but won't reveal my face. In the meantime, I want you to do business as usual,"

"Fine. Do as you wish. Who knew kids were so troublesome even at such a young age? Thank god I never had to raise….him," Pops' voice took on a melancholy note at the last sentence before he wiped his eyes and then hustled down the stairs, to the shop.

He sighed internally. He was aware of the difficult past that Pops had. He had a child and a wife but they distanced themselves from him due to his past and he could not bring himself to blame them for that decision. Pops as he was now would have made a fantastic father but the reason he is who he is is because his family left him.

"Alright, let's get started," He snapped his fingers, changing his attire to that of a ninja. Well, it was a full-body suit that was made up of light-absorbing materials. It was something he had commissioned to be made in preparation for this day. It was currently day but it was not as if crime took a backseat during the day. With a thought, a portal opened up in front of him and he floated through the portal, finding himself standing right above Stark Tower.

He was sure that Jarvis had already recognized him and was informing Tony. He wanted to make an appearance here to inform Tony about his presence in the city. Before Tony could come out, he opened another portal and then made his exit. He was sure that seeing his portals in action should give Tony another round of surprises, which made him feel good inside. Just imagining Tony scratching his head in wonder as he saw a teenager make wormholes with his hands was calming.

He then appeared above Pops shop and then began floating just above the city, looking for any crime that he could stop. After a while of just floating around, he felt rather stupid as all he had done was stop a car chase by creating a barrier under the car and then floating it to his level. Then, he ripped the doors off its hinges and then deposited the car and the robbers in front of the legion of NYPD officers that had gathered in front of them with all their guns pointed at him.

"STOP! Hands where I can see them," Someone in the lead shouted and he snorted in disdain. There was nothing they could do to stop him and both of the sides knew it. He made sure that they knew it by waiting mid-air with his hands crossed in front of his chest. He was wearing the suit which was magically enchanted to interact with his powers so that when he projected the skeleton of a slightly bigger person on his smaller frame, the clothes adjusted their size accordingly. It was a very good thing that only had the flaw of being pretty weak and could not be stressed during combat.

Everybody gathered around the blockade and kept looking at the situation. They looked at the lead officer who was still pointing his gun at him and shouting for him to surrender himself while everybody else had lowered their guns, knowing that there was nothing they could do to him.

Slowly, the lead officer realised the situation and turned red either in anger or embarrassment, he did not know.

"Like I thought," He snorted in his modular voice and then left the scene. He gained an altitude and then sighed as the distinctive voice of repulsors reached his ears. He looked to the side to see Iron Man flying right alongside him, waving at the people gathered below.

"So, when did you grow so big, Kid? And what's up with the ninja outfit?" Tony's voice filtered through the external speakers of his suit.

He chose not to reply to that question and instead, he created a portal in front of them and then leisurely floated through, taking both of them straight to the Himalayas.

"Learned new tricks, I see," The forced nonchalance in Tony's voice was clear for him to hear.

He snorted, "Don't pretend that this isn't awesome, Tony,"

Tony waved his arms, "Yeah yeah, I am not denying that wormhole creation and manipulation is not awesome. It's just that you are cheating with your powers. I don't know how but you are. It would be much more interesting if there was some sort of machine that did this but I am not into biological enhancement much. Now, where have you been, Jack?"

He ignored Tony's question and then pointed straight up and then slowly began floating up. He increased his speed as Tony followed.

"Where are we going exactly?"

"Just…Up,"

"Uh-huh,"

They continued to fly up until they reached orbit, as the vast expanse of blue became visible to them.

"Okay, not that this view is not great, I have not yet tasted this suit for space operations so whatever it is, make it quick," Tony complained.

He waved his arm, creating a cube that enclosed both of them. He slowly dropped on the floor and so did Tony, who checked the floor integrity with both of his feet before doing so.

"Look, Tony, I have learned a lot in the past months and it has led me to one conclusion. We are not ready, not by a long shot. We need to be ready,"

"Uh, ready? For what? You are not making a lot of sense here, buddy,"

"I won't say much right now. You will learn about it sooner or later but let's just say that The Hulk is not the only one the world has to worry about. There are things much worse than a green Hulking rage monster that we have to worry about. I would just say that be prepared. You'll know in due time and I will be staying in the city for the time being. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask,"

"Well, the minor vigilante around the city will certainly be well accepted and when did you become the adult in our relationship? Also, quit talking cryptic shi-"

That was all he could say before a portal opened right underneath him, dropping him straight on top of his almost complete tower.

That was fun. He should do that again.

"Now, back to work," He opened a portal and he found himself floating above the city once again. He chose to make a statement this time as he created a mid-size Gundam around his form and continued to float around the city in that form.

At first, people were terrified and ran screaming whenever he approached but after the first hour of him just floating there and stopping violent criminals, the people only continued to record and then point at him. He even had the privilege of rescuing a cat stuck on a tree and then, a balloon that had escaped a little girl's hand.

Tony, for some reason, did not come back to bother him. Probably holed up in his lab trying to make sense of his words and powers.

The helicopters were annoying at first but then he just began stopping their rotors and depositing them somewhere nearby and then they stopped bothering him. He had been hailed multiple times by the NYPD but he just ignored them and only deposited the subdued criminals to the nearest officer.

As the sun set, creating an orange ocean, he created a portal inside his Gundam and then left the scene.

"So, I see that you had an eventful day?" He looked at Pops' who had already set up a couple of sandwiches on the table. Good, he was famished.

"I assume you saw everything?"

"Oh, son. Everyone saw what you did. Just…. be careful," He nodded, heeding Pops' advice, and jumped right into the sandwich.

Thus ended his first day as an aspiring vigilante starting his career in The Big Apple.

---

Word Count - 2927

If you guys want to read up to 15 extra chapters or just want to support me - P*treon


A/N - Ha! An aspiring vigilante. I crack myself up sometimes.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Triskelion, Washington DC [April 18, 2011]

–Nick Fury–

"So you mean to tell me that the kid that escaped the encirclement last year can now do that?" He pointed at the video feed showing the latest escapades of the now renegade vigilante who had escaped the clutches of the Military almost a year back.

"The report states the same, sir," Coulson replied to him. The response further aggravated him, a vein appearing on his forehead due to that.

"How do you explain the portals?" He asked the question that had set the pants of the World Security Council on fire. They had gotten so paranoid that all of them had gone into their bunkers, afraid that the now very powerful Enhanced would open a portal to their location and crush them in the hands of his suit that he could make now. Apparently, the kid had gotten very creative with his barriers and instead of just sticking to traditional shields, he had now opted to make giant humanoids by stacking those barriers and then patrolling the skies above New York and stopping crime wherever he saw it happening. On the plus side, violent crime across the board had dropped to pretty much zero but that has gotten the Mayor, The Senators, The WSC, and even the President on his ass, ordering him to figure out what to do with him.

"Those….are new developments that we are still looking into, sir,"

Coulson's reply made him rub his forehead in stress. That was just official talk for that they had nothing on that. He didn't actually expect them to crack portal tech but at least, some sort of energy signature they can trace would have been helpful. Apparently, he expected too much.

"Any countermeasures?" He mused as he looked at the activities the kid had done ever since he came back into the city. He had still not found where he lived but that was to be expected with his ability to open portals to orbit with ease. He could be living in the Himalayas for all he knew and could be commuting to the city daily for his "Day" job. So far, in the seven days he had been active in the city, he had stopped over a hundred robberies, stopped a dozen shootouts, and who knows how many car chases and accidents had been stopped by him. It was as if the kid was just hell-bent on stopping crime in that city for some reason.

"Unfortunately, whatever the boys in the labs have been able to cook up is untested and is unlikely to work on him, other than angering him, maybe," Coulson replied and he just sighed for the umpteenth time. This was not good for his stress and it didn't help that Stark was not very forthcoming with information. The entire world had seen their meeting and then them going through a portal that somehow went straight to orbit, according to their satellites. What happened in that meeting, he did not know but after that, Stark never came into the city with his suit and he could see why. At the rate things were going, the majority of the people at NYPD were pretty soon going to find themselves out of a job. That would not bode well and he was not opposed to the kid doing some good but there was some procedure that had to be followed.

"Any updates from Stark?"

Another sigh as Coulson shook his head in negative.

"Alright, I want you to go see if we can secure a meeting with him."

"Affirmative,"


_____xx___

Pops' Barber Shop [April 25, 2011]

–Jack Sullivan–

"Oh, who is this fellow?" He looked up from his sweeping and was surprised to find himself in front of someone who would not look out of place in a place full of the world's biggest bodybuilders accompanied by a much older person. Just that the old man was so much smaller than the bodybuilder next to him that he hadn't even noticed him.

"That is just one of the kids of the neighbourhood who help make my life easy. Come in, Jordan," Pops emerged from the back and gestured for both of them to enter.

"...I hope you pay him for that otherwise…"

"Oh, calm down, will you? Yes, I pay him more than minimum wage for that, and Jack?"

"Yes?" He responded as he twirled the broom in his hand like a pro.

"You're done for the day. Go do whatever it is that you do,"

"Okay!" He said and just dumped the broom at the entrance of the shop and ran out. He heard Pops sighing explosively behind him accompanied by the laughter of that old man, Jordan.

He was pretty sure that the giant of a man was Luke Cage. What he did not know was if this was before he gained his powers or after. He had never seen the before V/S after photo of Luke Cage after his experiment. The experiment that made him bulletproof.

Speaking of bulletproof, he had not yet tested if he was bulletproof or not. He had noticed his strength increasing so to speak but he had not tested his resilience and if he had his way, there would be no need to. The Ancient One's hammer blow was enough pain for him for the rest of the year. He was not a masochist to try and purposefully hurt himself to find out his pain tolerance. Though, knowing his limits should help him immensely if he ever was pushed to such a level that he had to go all out and meet someone who was capable of bypassing his barriers and hurting him directly. Aside from Thanos, he did not know anybody who would soon come into his life who could hurt him. Loki, with his sceptre, probably could but that thing was so nerfed that he could not foresee Loki actually breaching even his gamma barriers, let alone his core barriers, and then hurting him. Though, he would not grow overconfident in that regard and would probably disarm him from the distance the first chance he got.

It was a shame that he would have to let the Invasion actually happen but he could not risk himself being sealed away by the Ancient One because he was sure that she would do it. The look in her eyes as she had told him had cemented that fact in his mind. She would seal him away until the invasion happened without even hesitating because according to her, the invasion must happen and it will be, in the long run, a good thing so me ruining that good thing was a big no-no for her.

"So many lives lost," He muttered to himself as he stopped another car chase. This time, they were fleeing after some cop discovered them with a car full of drugs.

"Here you go, officers," He said with his "outside" voice and deposited the subdued criminals and the crumpled-up car with a crack right in front of their largest precinct, which also had a large impound for cars. He was helpful like that and it helped that he could just create a barrier and then navigate it through his extra senses. Once again, he thanked the person who dropped him here for giving him his powers.

He waved at the many people who continued to wave at him. He had a fan following at this point. It had been almost 2 weeks since he started doing this, going out in the day and stopping all crimes. Then he found out that the criminals adapted and began doing their deliveries in secret, aided by the darkness of the night. He didn't find out about that because the smarter criminals figured out that as long as they didn't raise too much noise, he would not know. Then, one day, just for shits and giggles, he just didn't go home. Informing Pops that he was going to stay out all night, he just willed his barriers to become much brighter, making him pretty much a giant green bulb in the sky and then patrolling the skies. It was hilarious to watch all the surprised looks on the criminals' faces as his barriers dropped from the skies and stopped them in their tracks.

That was also the day he had been approached by multiple SHIELD agents. He had not recognised any of them aside from Coulson and even with him he was not sure if he had some HYDRA agents mixed in his team, so he had just ignored them.

Tony has been suspiciously silent all this time. The Stark Tower was coming along nicely and he had been treated to the spectacle that was the Iron Men suit being used to perform construction duties as Tony seemed to be in somewhat of a hurry to finish his Tower. Well, from what he could remember from his memories, Tony had just finished disconnecting the Tower from the city grid when he had been approached by Coulson in regards to Loki. So, he had that in mind as a frame of reference for when the INvasion might happen.

He was still undecided on whether to join Tony and the others on the Helicarrier when they tried to pitch it to him because he was unsure of how things would turn out.

He had even dropped by the New York Sanctum for some delicious cakes that Master Drumm liked to bake in his off time. They were to die for and he had even brought in some for Pops who, in spite of eating the best pastries that Paris had to offer, fell in love with Drumm's cakes. Master Drumm had confided in him during one of their tea and cake meetings that he had hoped to open a cake shop when he was still young and unmarred by the vicissitudes of life. That had put a damper on things until he had told Master Drumm that the day he would become Sorcerer Supreme, he would give Master Drumm his own cake shop and he would be semi-retired to function only as a reserve. Master Drumm had laughed it off as just optimistic rambling but he was sure that was going to be the case.

He was going to become the strongest Sorcerer on the planet and then save Drumm. He was sure that preventing the rise of Stephen Strange was going to be impossible and the Ancient One would forbid him from interfering in that but that didn't mean that he couldn't stop some of the casualties that happened in the period where Strange came to Kamar Taj and he became the Sorcerer Supreme.

Well, all of that was in the future. Right now, he, or rather, his Gundam, was standing on water near the docks where he could see a burning ship. Apparently, there was a batch of electric cars on that ship and the shipping company had cheaped out in the protections, resulting in a huge chemical fire that refused to go out. He had been roaming in the skies above, listening in on one of the police radios he had gotten from a police officer who had been all too glad to give it to him when he saw a fire in the ocean. When he went to the port, he saw them panicking and running around like headless chickens because that ship was running on autopilot as the crew had all jumped out midway. Their only option was to either remotely pilot it to stop it in its course but the software was not working for some reason or blow it to kingdom come. That, was undoubtedly the last resort due to the sheer environmental damage that would occur when tons of heavy processed metals from the lithium batteries would burn and mix in with the ocean water.

The ship was being hailed by multiple Coast Guard ships but the fire had spread to the entirety of the ship so nobody could actually get aboard it and stop it manually. That left only him who could do it. He was actually using the radio to talk with the police on how to best handle that scenario. According to them, the fire will keep on burning and give out toxic fumes for days to come so the best case scenario was to keep it in a vacuum and they had suggested the vacuum to be a cube created by his barriers.

"Oh, I don't have the time for that. I have something else in mind, don't worry," He said and then cut off the radio, muting the police officer who was probably getting more panicked as he willed the Gundam to become larger.

He could hear the Gasps from behind as he was now a giant taller than most buildings in Manhattan. The next second, he gracefully floated in the sky and set off towards the ship. Reaching the ship, he could see the panicking coastguards as they tried to extinguish the fire using water but that was not going to happen and they knew it.

He had always wanted to do something so he did. He mentally willed for multiple arms to appear behind him, bringing his total tally to six arms. He then extended one of his arms and then simply grabbed the container ship as if it were a toy and then lifted it straight out of the sea. Of course, the ship would have simply crumbled had he done that but he had subtly created barriers that covered the entire ship as soon as his hands had made contact with it. Soon, the air in the barrier ran out and the flames were snuffed out.

That didn't mean that the thermal reaction within the batteries had stopped but just that the fire had gone out for now since there was no oxygen to feed it. Amidst the gawking gazes of the coast guards, he lifted the ship and then floated back to the docks. The only reason he was able to do that was because he had learned how to harness potential energy with his barriers so in a way, he was using the ship's weight against it otherwise lifting that ship would have been out of his current capabilities. Mid-flight, he dispelled the Gundam and just kept the small armoured plating he kept around himself and landed straight in the port, in front of the authorities.

The scene must have been incredulous from their point of view, a massive 10,000 container ship being held in a hand that was coming from a six-foot guy. Their reactions were appropriate for the occasion as all of them collectively took a step back as he slowly landed in the port, the container ship held by the arm above him.

Hah, he still could not do it on the same level as Hashirama-sama, The First Hokage. He still had a lot to learn before he could create a golem with a thousand hands like Hashirama-sama did before he grabbed Kurama like a common house cat, he mused to himself before focusing back on what the people in front of him were saying.

"Where are you going to keep the ship now?" The portmaster asked him nervously. Actually, he could see that everyone there was nervous.

"Um, where would this be safe? Anywhere I put it, it will just release toxic fumes in the air. I don't want to do that," He said out loud then disregarding whatever they were saying, he snapped his fingers and acted as if he had a very brilliant idea.

"That's right! Space. I will throw this away in space. No environmental damage there, right?" he asked them rhetorically before the authorities looked behind them as they heard the sound of people gasping, pointing at his hand. They looked at his hand, only to goggle in surprise. His hand had crushed the container ship to a pulp. It was now a ball in his hand that he tossed up and down using a gesture of his hand.

His form then rocketed straight up into the air and right at the edge of orbit, he cocked his hand back and then threw it straight into the darkness of space. Even if it did collide with any other planet, it was very small in comparison to a planet and would do no damage anyway. Besides, it was not as if there was any intelligent life on any other planet other than Earth.

He then made a portal and stepped into his room in the loft, suddenly feeling very hungry. "I feel like eating Butter Chicken for dinner today," He declared to himself and then removed the ninja clothes, hoping to freshen up. Then, he would go to India and have a feast for himself.

He was sure that he would need that good feeling because he had a feeling that Stark was going to approach him tomorrow and dealing with him was always a headache.

---

Word Count - 2878

If you guys want to read up to 15 extra chapters or just want to support me - P*treon

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

New Delhi, India [April 18, 2011]

–Jack Sullivan–

"Ah, that's the stuff," He sighed contentedly, patting his full stomach as he looked at the massive pile of dishes that had piled up once he had started eating. Apparently, his appetite was becoming somewhat of a problem due to the sheer energy deficiency in the food of the mortal world. Kamar-Taj had that problem sorted long ago as they were sourcing their nutrients from mystically rich places that were full of CHI, the life-giving force of the universe. The normal food that he was eating was way off when it came to his dietary requirements. Not to mention the processed crap that had found its way even into the most luxurious of hotels. One such 5-star hotel was the one where he was eating his food. He had found a contact in New York who worked as some sort of Black Market concierge, willing to provide any and all services in exchange for money.

It was neat for him because he had lots of money to spend because of all the drug busts he had made because even after giving away literal millions of dollars in the span of weeks, he still had millions of dollars of hard cash on him and the person did not mind taking it off his hands in exchange for some top-notch services. Of course, that didn't mean that the broker had gotten off scot-free. He had destroyed his base of operations from the inside and only stopped when the Broker agreed, on threat of death, to stop slave trade rings in his contacts. Human trafficking of any sort was banned by him and thus, Broker, the single biggest neutral party of the Black Market in the USA stopped dealing in humans, giving a big blow to the human trafficking rings. It didn't help their cause when he gave all of their bosses a visit and killed the ones who were less than amenable, providing their rivals to take over their wealth and allowing them to pursue alternate means of business. That broker was the one who was also eating with him at the same table.

Well, eating would be a bit of a stretch since all the Broker had touched during the hour-long binge eating session was a glass of water, and even then he didn't drink it. The Broker had expressed interest in having a face-to-face with him to discuss their future endeavours and what not to do since the Broker did not want any confrontation with him. He had obliged since he was not exactly worried about anything and even if the Broker did anything, well, he was just a portal away from the cold darkness of space.

"What?" He finally asked Broker who was constantly staring at his face. Well, it was a face mask that was basically capable of moulding itself to his face, allowing him to eat and drink like a normal person.

"I was thinking, just where is all that food going? You don't look all that big to me,"

"Ah," He chuckled and then wagged his fingers, "Well, Broker-kun, if you must know, it is because my body needs very high energy to function properly, and well, as you probably know, food isn't all that nutritious these days, not to mention the toxins added in between," He went on a tirade about the diminishing nutritional value of food as the output of agricultural activities continued to increase exponentially, even though it took more and more food to reach the same nutritional macros.

"Alright, fine. You are passionate about food, I get it," The Broker interrupted him and then leaned on the dining table.

"What is your end goal?" The Broker waved away the waiters from their private dining table and once the door was firmly closed with his bodyguards standing guard outside, he finally asked the question that must have been bugging him all this while.

"Hmm? What do you mean by that?" He tilted his head to the side as he ate the absolutely delicious ice cream.

"Don't make a fool of me, now. Nobody gets that strong without some sort of goal in their mind. I have a few enhanced people in my employ and I know what sort of training and determination it takes for someone to reach the pinnacle of their power, even after having the best resources available."

He raised an eyebrow at the Broker and continued to slowly eat his ice cream, all the while maintaining eye contact. He enjoyed the way the BRoker sweated.

After a while, he finally gave mercy to him, "Look, you are a criminal. The lowest of the low. The only reason I am even talking with you is that you proved to be adaptable enough and stopped doing those awful trades. More than that, I don't have anything to say to you and I don't think you will want to know as well. Just stop doing human trafficking of any sort and we'll be fine. Of course, sexual assault of any kind is forbidden, as I have made clear many times, as is evident by your very dead former competitors."

"Y-Yes, Thank you for that again. Don't worry, your will will be done," The Broker bowed at him and didn't lift his head for a long time before finally looking as if he was hesitating to ask something.

"What is it?"

"It's the Russians, sir. Despite my warnings, they have some sort of shipment with girls inbound tomorrow. I don't have the pull necessary to stop that as the order seemed to have come from high up. They are bypassing all the red tape and bringing in everything legally, somehow."

He leaned forward in interest, "Any suspects?"

"Aside from some rich fuck having pull with some senators? None. I don't think it is them either because organising this would be very risky for anyone in the government save for the CIA, maybe," The Broker replied fearfully, carefully wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Alright, I'll do it,"

"Wh-what?"

"That's what you wanted me to do, right? Take care of your competition. Why go through all these roundabout ways? They tried to do something that I expressly forbade in my city and they are going to pay for that. Simple as that. Anywho, I guess you got the bill? Take it out of the next shipment of cash I give you. Bye now," He waved at the Broker as he slid right into the portal that appeared beneath him. He promptly found himself covered in his barriers, right in the middle of snowy nowhere. He never really went straight to his home or any of the places that could connect back to him without taking a stop first.

He snapped his fingers and the next moment, found himself buck naked in the middle of snowy Canada. It was a good thing he was a super soldier otherwise this would have been enough to give him frostbite. Then, the clothing came back on. That was a complete sanitation spell that removed everything except the things that had the owner's DNA on them. It was fantastic for removing any bugs that others might have slipped into his food or water. It even removed microscopic bugs that were invisible to the eye.

Tony really had come far with nanotechnology because while the bugs were not quite at the nanoscale that Tony would make in the future, they were much smaller than even the tech SHIELD had access to.

"Hmm, Russians, huh? Well, they fucked around, now they will find out," he muttered to himself before writing a note about getting the details of their shipments and flung it straight into a portal that led to a cave in the Middle East where another portal opened up which sent the note to the Brokers' mailbox that he had installed specifically for his requests. It was safe to say that the Broker was very much terrified of him and would do everything he could to stay on his good side and while it did disgust him at the beginning, to let him go despite knowing all the bad he had done, it was, in the end, a net positive as he had gone on to become the single biggest player in the city, allowing him to create a very silent atmosphere in the criminal underbelly of New York. Well, that was his good deed for tomorrow decided. What should he do today? It was the weekend so he had taken a little break from his daily sky patrolling and he usually practised with the advanced applications of his powers on this day but he just didn't feel like exhausting his mind to enable more and more complex applications of his powers. Creating an incredibly realistic Godzilla and then creating three more of them, while piloting them at the same time was his current limit and he felt that it should be enough, at least for the

Chitauri.

"Jack, get your little ass down here!" He snickered as Luke's enraged voice entered his loft. He had a great time tormenting Luke during his brief stay in Pops' spare room and now that he had moved to his own place, he felt as if he owed something to Luke, as a farewell gift.

He went down and absolutely howled in laughter as Luke Cage, the Future Power Man, overall badass, was completely covered in pink from head to toe with a paint that the Broker had assured him was extra hard to remove. He had employed the classic bucket on top of the door and was rewarded with the absolutely mad face of Luke Cage.

Finding out that Luke Cage did have his powers was a very simple matter as he had noticed glass shards that should have penetrated his skin, at least a little bit, just hitting him and falling down. His enhanced reflexes allowed him to see that even the ones that hit part of his face fell down all the same, confirming that Luke Cage did have his powers at the moment and that realisation was both sad and delightful for him. Sad because it meant that Luke was now a fugitive and was on the run after being illegally experimented on and delighted because he was going to see the real live-action hero Luke Cage in action. After all, Luke Cage was actually bulletproof.

He jumped above Luke's outstretched hand as he tried to grab his collar and then after kicking Luke's shoulders for extra measure, he landed right in the shop, which was thankfully empty because, for some reason, the weekends were really slow in the evening.

"Tada!" He presented himself like a circus performer and bowed to the slow-capping Pops who was trying to contain his laughter.

"Take it off, Brat!" Luke shouted as he tried to, once again, get him from behind. Well, he just ducked at the last moment and jumped back, straight into his stomach.

"Oww!" He said as he stumbled back from hitting Luke's iron stomach. He rubbed his forehead as it stung for a few moments before it healed completely but he kept up the charade for a few more moments.

"What are you made of, iron?" He asked Luke as he pretended to be hurt. Suddenly, Luke got all flustered and left the shop in a hurry, completely staining parts of the floor pink.

He and Pops looked at each other and the pink stains on the ground and then vice versa a couple times before he sighed, shoulders drooping, "Fine, I'll clean it,"

"That's more like it. Come on, I have a customer coming in around 8,"

"Yeah yeah,"

_____xx______

Stark Tower

–Tony Stark–

"Sir, I believe that it would be safe to call it a success"

"Uh-huh. Well, let's just call it Mark I for now, shall we? It is still nowhere near the strength of the real thing,"

"Sir, we are already past the strength of six inches of steel at this point. Going any further will increase the strain that the Arc Reactor simply cannot sustain," Jarvis' words only seemed to increase his determination.

There was a small inconspicuous-looking block of blue energy floating in front of them and that same small block of blue light was what he had been laser-focused on for the past week or so. It was a cheap imitation of the real thing.

Jack's barriers, even when he was not uber-powerful like he was now, were stronger than anything he had ever seen in the world. The one in front of him, while not as strong, was capable of being projected from his suits without giving them any additional bulk. The Third Generation Arc Reactor was a necessity for them but just these barriers meant that he was now essentially capable of tanking even the strongest of the weapons the US Military had to offer, save for the nukes. He was somewhat certain that the shield could even take a few of the Hulk's punches if need be.

He was also doing some parallel research on the portals that Jack opened and aside from figuring out that he was creating stable wormholes with safe event horizons, he had not made any further inroads with that. It was understandable because figuring out instantaneous transport across even the planet would be enough to guarantee even his death. Nothing would save him from that level of technology and in a way, he was glad that it was so incomprehensibly difficult to achieve what Jack does with a wave of his hand because imagining terrorists getting their hands on such tech made his spine shiver. Being able to transport troops, resources, bombs, and more while ignoring distance and time would be the only advantage that any nation would need. It would mean that the concept of people being safe behind borders would become a thing of the past.

"I don't think how much of a threat he has made of himself by showcasing his ability to create portals," He muttered, mostly to himself as he thought about the threat ratings that the US Government had assigned to Jack. Ironically, his ability to create portals that turned him into the single biggest threat that the country had ever come across, also made it so that the government finally stopped their efforts to contain him. They realised that trying to catch him would be a fool's errand and if, perchance he wanted revenge for doing so, it would take nothing more than a portal to their home with a grenade to give them a quick death. The alternative methods that had been proposed by some of the military analysts had been very creative in their methods of ways Jack could grant someone a very slow and painful death. It ranged from exposing them to the extreme colds and then the extreme heat and then watching them die from shock or just leaving them in an extreme environment.

He had stopped reading after a while but it would seem that the US government would not be bothering Jack for a while. They had even placed him above the Hulk as a threat.

"Now, Jarvis, how close are we until the fourth gen's parts arrive here?" He asked Jarvis as he closed down every single screen open in front of him with a wave of his hand. He had done it. He had built a fourth-gen arc reactor. A large arc reactor capable of creating so much energy that the entire city of New York could double its annual consumption and the reactor could still continue to supply it with clean energy. He had used up all the vibranium he could find in the Black Market but he had finally built the core that would never extinguish itself, a true unlimited energy reactor. Of course, the rest of the parts would need frequent replacement, especially due to the excess energy coursing through them but the core of the reactor would stay the same for decades to come. Apparently, his father was trying to create an artificial replacement for some element that was alarmingly closer to Vibranium.

He had then attended a few black market auctions and then scooped up all the vibranium he could find, which amounted to little over a kilogram. He used all of it to make that core and it was now the single most valuable thing he owned.

Once that Arc Reactor was installed in the building, the energy consumption would be a negligible issue as the building would be able to shield itself from everything short of a thermonuclear weapon. Oh, he could not wait to surprise the flying Greeny with his shield.

"A little over a week sir,"

He closed his eyes as he began to doze off on the couch nearby, "Alright, wake me when Pepper's home, will you, J?"

"Alright, sir," His eyelids felt heavy as he finally succumbed to sleep after over 30 hours of being awake.

---

Word Count - 2872

If you guys want to read up to 15 extra chapters or just want to support me - P*treon

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Manhattan, NYC [May 1, 2012]

–Jack Sullivan–

"Damn, not even today, huh?" He commented to himself as he completed his patrol over the skies of New York and decided to stop for the day. He had seen Stark waving at him through his penthouse bar when he had done a fly-by later in the day and the sun was setting on the horizon, signaling the end of the day. According to his memories, the invasion was supposed to happen somewhere in the month of May 2012 and now that the month had begun, he had begun feeling jittery all at once. It was kinda ridiculous how much the Chitauri were going to be out of their depth once they reached Earth but even still, their sheer numbers intimidated him somewhat.

He had gotten confirmation from the Ancient One that none of the sorcerers were going to participate in that war, on her express orders and she herself would only allow him the use of portals and his innate powers. No sorcerer spells in front of the mundane people, got it?

It kinda limited his options but they limited to his strongest spells anyway so he was fine with that. He was sure that Stark Tower was going to be the spot where the Chitauri would gather and while dealing with a major population centre was going to be a pain in the ass, he had to do it, for the sake of the innocents.

He might have to see how effective the evacuation strategy was in New York in case of a natural disaster. Though, it rained pretty heavily and snowed pretty heavily in NYC so it must be somewhat thorough, at least that's what he was expecting. He would double-check with the Police chief, just in case though because dealing with an alien invasion would be a first of many firsts that Clark would have to go through.

Yeah, he was on a first-name basis with Clark, the NYPD Police Commissioner. Oh yeah, it was a chance meeting where he had to drop off a couple of crumpled-up cars to the police impound when he was stopped by the people there. He had wondered what was going on when in came the NYPD Commissioner who wanted to have a chat with him regarding his activities. He discussed his recent pursuits and the way he kept his eyes on the city below by flying above the city in his green Gundam.

Clark had also told him that even without him doing anything, just the sight of his giant green avatar flying overhead makes even the most hardened of criminals drop their weapons and surrender. Their cases of injuries on active duty have dropped to record lows and contrary to news pieces who said that the Police officers wanted him gone, almost all of the officers and even their families were very grateful for the hero to help keep their city safe. It was getting so easy for them that some of the officers had begun slacking off during the day because they knew most of the violent crime had gone underground.

"Hmm?" He stopped abruptly in his tracks as he saw something very peculiar. A very buff blonde man. Now, that would not have been an odd occurrence, especially in the area he was in but something about that muscle machine stood out to him. He turned around, his face already disguised to one of the burner masks he kept on hand, and saw the man was wearing a hoodie and had already turned around the corner. He ran after him and saw him entering a gym. A very old gym from the looks of it.

He ran to the entrance and saw that Goldie's Gym was closed but the door was left slightly ajar, probably by the person who had entered before him.

He looked around shiftily and after seeing that nobody was paying even the slightest bit of attention to him, he realised that he was in New York and straightened up. Grinning toothily, he opened the door and entered the gym. The gym was apparently on the first floor and the door just led to a stairway. He climbed the stairs, already hearing the dull sounds of something hitting something.

Or rather, a very special someone hitting a punching bag.

"Bingo!" He shouted once he entered the gym and saw Steve freaking Rogers, the OG Captain America punching the shit out of the punching bag. Judging from the creaks of the chain holding it, he was sure that it was going to come off its hinges soon enough.

Captain America was in the middle of one of his very heavy punches when he heard his voice. He paused mid-punch, which looked super cool, and turned around.

He had to say, despite being vastly more powerful than the super soldier in front of him, he was still somewhat intimidated by the intense stare that he was subjected to by the blue eyes of the man lost in time. An awkward silence formed in the gym as Captain America looked in his direction with his hands still raised in his punching motion.

It didn't look like the Captain was going to say anything so he fidgeted a bit under his gaze and then waved his hands, "Hi!"

The Captain looked very confused but nevertheless still returned his hand wave by waving his boxing glove.

"Um, you shouldn't be here, the gym is closed," The Captain said as he began removing his boxing gloves and went towards a bench where his water was kept.

"Uh, yeah. I kinda know that. Sorry for coming in but technically the door was left open so it is not breaking and entering and besides that, I was not going to let something as pesky as a creaking door come between meeting one of my childhood idols," He kind of blabbered on and looking back, he was not exactly proud of the way he just fell short of words in front of the legend himself.

The captain stiffened slightly as he realised that he was recognized as the Captain America, someone who was supposed to be dead. He tried to play it off but he was very persistent in that regard. When it looked like he wouldn't take no for an answer, he began packing up.

"Alright, kid. It's time to go home. I am just an ordinary soldier, not whoever you think–"

"Which is exactly what Captain America would say. He was just so obnoxiously humble that he would say that he was just a soldier for the Army instead of the super soldier he is. That's why you survived, right? The serum saved you from dying in the snow, right? Right?" He got right into his face and nearly vibrated in excitement.

He couldn't help it. Despite knowing intellectually that he would meet the Captain someday, now that he was finally in front of him, he was just saying whatever came to his mind. It was kind of nerve-wracking.

The Captain paused in his efforts to stuff all his gear into his box and then sighed as his shoulders drooped. "Alright, kid, what do you want?"

He pointed a finger at him and then said, "Okay, first of all, I am not a kid, just a big fan. Secondly, I just wanted to talk. I know it could not have been easy waking up in a world that has moved on," He said and sat down on one of the stools nearby.

The Captain looked amused as he said the bit about him not being a kid but he immediately tensed once he saw him using his powers to move the stool from one corner to under him as he seamlessly sat on the stool.

"Relax, I am the Green Guardian that you must have seen flying in the sky. Although I hate that name and have never and will never respond to that moniker, I will allow you to call me that," He said and leaned forward, both of his hands under his chin as he looked at the wary Captain.

"You are the one who has been fighting crime? You are a kid!" The Captain took one look at the small barrier still floating behind him and then exclaimed.

He sighed, "Oh, come on! I am not a kid. This is not my original appearance. I just wanted to meet you so I donned this disguise."

"You can do that?" The absolutely confused look on the Captain's face was absolutely photogenic. Come to think of it, his face would be photogenic in every single situation. What an enviable ability to have, you know, aside from the extra strength, speed, and overall awesomeness.

He chuckled, "Yes, I can do that aside from a number of other awesome things I can do. Now, Captain, I am sure that you have a ton of questions about the modern world that you haven't yet asked your minders at SHIELD. I would be more than happy to-"

"You know about SHIELD?"

"You're kidding, right?" He deadpanned at The Captain.

"I was told that SHIELD is a very big secret and the common people know nothing about it," The Captain said as he leaned on the wall and crossed his arms in front of his chest as he assumed a thinking pose.

He scoffed immediately, "Captain, I am sure you have seen various enemy strongholds in your days. Tell me, how can an agency that has a huge HQ in the middle of Washington DC and Virginia? Do you think a location like that can be kept secret? They have huge concrete logos built on the side of the buildings there. They couldn't be screaming harder to the world if they tried to. Secretive? Please,"

"I…did not know that,"

"Well, you do now,"

"Thanks, I guess. I am going home now. It was nice meeting you and thank you, I guess, for all the work you do,"

He shook the Captain's extended hand and watched him leave the gym. He sighed in disappointment. As far as the first meetings went, this was not what he expected it to be. He totally destroyed all the mystery factor he was going for and came on too strong.

The next time he would come here, he would probably come face to face with a SHIELD battalion instead of the CAptain, or the Widow. He didn't know what was worse between the two.

He sighed and snapped his fingers, creating a portal, and stepped through straight into the African continent. He had not been thinking much and stepped straight into a swamp.

"Eww," He muttered as he immediately covered himself in a barrier and tried to take all the gooey stuff off his legs. He immediately regretted doing so because somehow, despite removing the stuff almost immediately, the smell still stuck.

*Sigh*

He sighed and looked around and paused as he realised where he was. He was in the vicinity of that small dockyard where he remembered Klaue was hiding. He was looking into that area using Google Earth View and that was the first thing his mind must have come up with when it came to South Africa. Klaue was hiding out here with the quarter-ton of Vibranium that he had stolen from Wakanda.

"Wakanda, hmm. What to do?" He hummed to himself as he sat cross-legged on one of his barriers as it began taking him through the swampy land he had found himself in. Any of the branches that came into contact with his barrier found themselves promptly cut by the razor-sharp edge of his barriers.

Well, one thing was clear at least. Now that he was here anyway, he was not going to let Klaue get out of here scot-free. Taking the Vibranium would be somewhat counterproductive because while he was smarter than average, he was not Tony Stark level who could make adequate use of all that vibranium. Selling it would do him no favours since having that much vibranium in the first place would be a huge red flag in the first place. He did not have the contacts for that anyway and handing it over to Tony would be the epitome of foolishness at this point. He had not yet evolved into the dependable self-sacrificing type long vision type of guy that he would turn into in the upcoming years.

Tony was out of the list and there went his list of contacts. He could try and offer it to Kamar Taj but he had a hunch that he would be laughed out of the compound if he offered them something that they probably had ample reserves of. After all, the Ancient One, or at least one of the previous Sorcerer Supremes must have realised that they could mine them from asteroids that roamed around space. Giving it to any governmental organisation was out of the question for obvious reasons.

"Hah, I can't believe I am about to do this," He muttered to himself as he stood up from the barrier and covered himself in the basic barrier, which still looked quite badass in his opinion. It was inspired by the Power Rangers suit that he loved to watch in his previous life.

He closed his eyes and concentrated on the coast where the dockyard was and opened up a portal. He opened his eyes and found himself floating above a bunch of rickety old ships that looked as if they would fall apart at any moment. Well, that might be the point of the hideout. After all, Wakanda would not search for merchandise worth 2 billion dollars in these ships.

"Well, might as well do the good deed for the day," He muttered to himself as he sent microscopic barriers into the ships to check them one by one. He would probably find Klaue in one of the ships, drinking his ass off. Disarming him and securing the Vibranium should be easy enough and then going straight to Wakanda would be a bit more complicated but that was a problem for future Jack and he trusted future Jack immensely.

---

Word Count - 2393

If you guys want to read up to 15 extra chapters or just want to support me - P*treon

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Africa, [May 1, 2012]

–Jack Sullivan–

"Hmm, this is taking longer than I expected," He muttered to himself as he floated on top of the dockyard with the ships littered below. It was pretty late in the night here so he was not expecting any activity on the ships but it would seem that this entire area was a budding area for shady activities so he could see almost all of the ships having armed people. People were armed with rifles, and pistols, and most of them had those in their hands, ready to aim it and blow someone's head off, instead of having them concealed. Well, it was not called no man's land for nothing then. So far, his barriers had scanned all of the ships by flying overboard which yielded zero results so he began scanning them from the inside which was very slow going. So far, he had scanned about half of the ships, and the sun was already rising. If he went at the same pace, something unaccounted for might happen and he did not want that to happen. He had already wasted way too much time on this.

Klaue was not the person he would become in the future, armed with enhanced tech that would increase his danger rating. At this point, all the people below him had guns and grenades, at best. Things that could not breach his barriers even if he stayed in the same place and let them shoot continuously for hours on end.

He was hesitating because he or rather his signature green barriers were known globally now and while he had given no interviews where he had given the slightest hint of his whereabouts, he was pretty sure that SHIELD was actively tracking his energy signature to figure out where he was stating. That would mean that the moment he would use his bigger avatars, SHIELD and HYDRA would know and then they would investigate. He did not want that. For one, bringing more attention to the hidden nation of Wakanda would not go well with their ruling council, he would wager. Secondly, he would have to someday answer some questions that the government would have for him and he did not want them to come even closer in their quest to find Vibranium. After all, he still remembered the reason why Namor had come out and slaughtered the royal family of Wakanda. It was because of increased human activity searching for Vibranium deposits outside of Wakanda. So, keeping the government's eye as far away from Vibranium as possible would be the best.

"Sigh. This sucks," He muttered to himself as he increased the amount of barriers searching for Klaue. He had no other way of figuring out his location because all he knew was the face of Klaue, none of his subordinates was well-known or explored in the movies. He didn't even know if Klaue was here or not but if the movies were to be believed, he did not move from this place for a long time so there was a pretty good chance that Klaue was…

"Got him," He dispelled all the barriers except the ones that showed Klaue speaking with someone on his laptop at his desk. He carefully dropped himself in the water far away from Klaue's ships and slowly began making his way towards him. His barriers meant that he was now in an airtight enclosure with enough oxygen for minutes for a normal person. He was not exactly a normal person so he could stay in an oxygen-deficient environment for far longer so that was a non-issue for him.

Slowly, he swam parallel to the ground as the downside of Klaue's ship became visible to him. He could sense Klaue was done with his talk and was now smoking in his office. He conjured a small barrier right on top of his head to get a better view and saw that his office was completely empty. By now, he was right under Klaue's ship. All he needed to know before he took action was to find out the location of the Vibranium, otherwise, this whole thing might turn out to be a failure because he was not very adept at interrogation techniques.

Well, that would be a lie since had multiple memories of Jack Sullivan, the HYDRA soldier who was trained on that and more but the memories were so brutal that he had already consciously suppressed them. He had a hunch that someday, in the future, he would have to consult someone about that because just letting that sit in his head without addressing it did not seem healthy but all that could come later. Now, he had to catch an actual terrorist and give back the Vibranium to Wakanda. Vibranium that could later be used to create an asteroid falling on Earth situation by a hyper-advanced AI who was convinced that humanity needed to experience an Extinction level event to evolve and become stronger because its code was completely compromised by some sort of failsafe that Thanos put in the scepter as part of its defenses.

Dispelling the barriers around Klaue, he created a minuscule one right below the ship and had it drilled right into the ship. His eyebrows shot up as he encountered resistance. Normal wood and steel would not give that much resistance. He willed the barrier to start spinning as a makeshift drill was made. As soon as some progress was made in the barrier, he could see that Klaue was startled as he immediately stood up from his chair and started shouting at his men. Also, the sirens that immediately rang and were now audible even underwater made him aware that Klaue was aware of the breach.

Good news, it meant that the VIbranium was probably here. Bad news, he might have to go for the flashy approach right now.

Okay, no problem, he would just have to hit hard and fast. Take the Vibranium, knock out Klaue and his crew and once that is done, just take them all underwater. Then, he could figure out a way to bring them both to Wakanda's borders.

OR…

His eyes crinkled mischievously as he abandoned his previous plan. Instead, the barrier manifested above Klaue was dispelled and in its place, a much larger one appeared and covered Klaue completely in a cube. He could see Klaue's eyes widening in realisation as he began banging on the barriers. Huh, so he was recognised then.

The next moment, multiple large barriers appeared underneath the ship as big holes were drilled into the ship, letting water into the hull. He then placed the same barriers in the ship and pulled.

He had already come out of the water and was not floating far above as he watched Klaue's crew panic as his absence only exacerbated things. With a loud groan, the ship began falling apart as the water in the ship began doing its thing. Seeing that their boss was nowhere to be seen, the skeleton crew that manned the ship began jumping out of the now partially drowned ship. Some of them got lucky to find lifeboats but the majority of them just began swimming back to the shore. He would let them go, he had no plans of taking them with him after all.

He looked at the ship that was now completely submerged, along with Klaue of course. Klaue had stopped banging on the shields as he sat on the ground, looking oddly calm as he looked at the water gathering around him. Once the entire ship was underwater and even the bubbles had stopped coming, he willed for the barriers surrounding the Vault to break away from the ship, along with Klaue. In a matter of moments, the very big Vault was taken miles away into the ocean at top speed with him following suit.

He then willed the vault and Klaue to come out of the water. Klaue had long since stopped struggling and didn't even show much of a reaction as he finally saw his abductor. Well, he then promptly began laughing loudly as he pointed at him.

Well, he was insane anyway, everyone knew that. You had to have the guts to steal from Wakanda, especially in the year he did. In 1992, America was way behind Wakanda who already had stealth fighters that didn't need jet fuel to function. Even now, in 2012, the government did not actually have a viable way of running jets without burning fossil fuel. Well, Tony should have something soon but it remains to be seen if the stubborn government and Army would accept that or not. Plus, that could be seen as manufacturing weapons which was a big no-no for Stark and anything associated with his name. That was kind of his whole shtick for now, not manufacturing weapons for anyone else while he himself was in possession of arguably the most revolutionary weapon since the Nuclear Weapon itself.

He sighed and shook his head, ignoring Klaue as he focused on the Vault itself. It seemed very advanced for something that was installed on a ship that was half rotten. The unlocking mechanism seemed very advanced and had slots for fingers and even eyes. So, biometric unlock with a keypad for extra codes. Klaue apparently paid top dollar for something like this to be made. Made sense with the merchandise that was inside.

He looked at Klaue who raised his chin while smirking defiantly, thinking that a lock of this size would stop him. Did he not see him lifting an entire container ship, granted it was not exactly using his powers and the strain was immense but he could do it, granted conditions matched.

The smirk was soon wiped off Klaue's face as he watched his precious Vault deform and crumble as four barriers appeared around it and then pressed on all sides. The thing about such advanced Vaults was they usually had some sort of failsafe in the event of forced intrusions like the one he was doing but they usually did one of two things. Either they destroyed the materials inside, depriving the intruder of it forever or they exploded the vault, taking the intruder along with the merchandise.

In the current situation, the thing was that the intruder was him, someone with near unbreakable shields, so he was unscathed from the ensuing explosion. The merchandise inside was Vibranium, the strongest material on the planet so damaging it was out of the question.

This led to the current situation. Klaue looked on, resigned as the Vault he had paid probably a million dollars for, fell apart in pieces and dropped into the ocean below as all that was left was an entire row of shelves filled up with containers having raw untreated Vibranium inside them. The shelves seemed to be Wakandan-made as well, judging by the various symbols carved on them.

He glanced at Klaue who glared at him and with a gesture, created a barrier behind him that promptly dropped on his head, knocking him out. He had gotten a lot better with that gesture. It is really hard to accurately regulate the force needed to just knock out a person, instead of giving them permanent spinal damage. Dozens of rapists had died in his efforts to learn to subdue people non-lethally. Their sacrifice will be forgotten, as it should be considering their crimes and their non-repentant natures.

"Now, Wakanda. I really don't want to deal with their xenophobia. It's hypocrisy in its most ironical way," He muttered to himself as a cocoon covered himself, Klaue, and the Vibranium as he opened a portal to the area where Killmonger had first introduced himself to the Border Tribe. God, it was going to be so exhausting dealing with them and he was an all-powerful super soldier.

Crossing the portal, he was immediately treated to the sight of dozens of Border Tribe members scrambling to gather in front of the road that led to their fake "third world" country. It figures they detected the portal.

They probably have been researching ways to neutralise him. Well, he hoped that they did not find much success in their endeavour, not that he was expecting this to turn into a fight.

He dispelled his Power Ranger armour and reverted back to the second skin he kept on himself, well, sans the mask of course. He was not going to reveal his face to a foreign nation, one that had killed hundreds of scientists around the world just to maintain its technological lead over the rest of the world. He really hoped that T'Challa would put an end to that ignominious practice because he would have some choice words with him if he did not do it.

He then slowly dropped down on the ground in front of the gathering Border Tribe members. He was sure that there were probably Raptors being mobilised in case things turned out to be bad but he was hoping not to go to that level.

"Greetings," He bowed to the man who seemed to be in charge. He did not look like the Border Tribe head who was shown in the movies. Made sense as it would not be the same person who would be responsible for staying out and guarding their utopia without ever getting to experience it. That would suck.

"Outsider," The person said as his gaze rolled over the blocks of green behind him. Oh yeah, he could turn his barriers opaque or translucent on will so he had hidden them for a grand reveal but judging from the reactions he was getting from the people here, he would have to show them Klaue if he wanted any chance of meeting T'Chaka or T'Challa. Come to think of it, shouldn't T'Challa be in college or something?

"For what purpose have you come here? We do not welcome your people here," He said and bared his teeth at him in a threatening gesture, the people behind him tensing as well. Well, there goes his grand reveal.

"Well, I have a gift that I am sure King T'Chaka would appreciate," He said as he brought Klaue's cage to the forefront, the mere activity of doing that without moving any part of his body causing the warriors behind him to draw their spears. The cage stopped the moment the first spear was drawn, causing the person in front of him to raise his hand, making the others calm down.

He raised an eyebrow internally. He must be someone influential if they were listening so easily to him.

Once the people calmed down, he brought and dropped Klaue's cage in between both of them. He then willed the barrier to become translucent, the action once again startling some of the soldiers behind. Seriously, how trigger-happy were these people? It was like they were Americans, which was ironic since they were the "backward" people in the opinion of Wakandans.

"Who is that?"

He looked at the person in confusion. Did he not recognise the biggest criminal in Wakanda?

He looked at the cage only to see Klaue had collapsed on the barrier, face first. He rolled his eyes and waved his arm, the first visible action he had done since he landed here. The action even caused the pretty calm person in front of him to tense slightly but he soon calmed down as he saw that the only changes happening were to the cage as the barrier dispelled and Klaue collapsed on the ground, groaning in pain.

"All yours," He gestured to Klaue. The person looked at him and then waved his hand once again, causing one of the people behind him to break the flank and come forward to check on Klaue. He slowly rolled him over and gasped as he saw Klaue's face.

Ah, so he remembers then.

"Chief, it's Klaue. Ulysses Klaue,"

"What?!" The Chief, as he was addressed, snapped towards Klaue and then after taking one look at him, ran towards Klaue and then opened his mouth to see the brand.

"Arrest him. Alert the King. We have Klaue in custody," He declared which caused all of the men behind him to breakout in excitement. Some of them came forward and snapped on some cuffs on Klaue as they dragged his unconscious ass to prison.

"What do you want? Where did you find him? What is behind you?" The Chief came back and asked him. He raised an eyebrow internally as he was expecting him to demand something of him.

Apparently, his powers must have spooked them into actually behaving. What a great thing because he was sure that had it been anybody other than someone of his not-insignificant powers, they would have been either turned away or put into handcuffs and arrested on the spot.

"I want to meet King T'Chaka. Tell him I have very important news for him," He said and then turned around, deliberately showing his back to them as a sign of trust not that they would have been able to do anything to his barriers. He did not exactly have a way to test his barriers against Vibranium spears but he had multiple layers so he supposed that he would be fine.

He then floated up to the block that had the stolen Vibranium in it and lay atop it.

"Tell me when he is ready to meet me," He said and then closed his eyes. He was actually ready to leave altogether but it would be a waste if he could not squeeze some advantages out of this and barging in with force would destroy any chance of a diplomatic relationship between them. Well, that and he was unsure if there was another genius of Shuri's calibre in Wakanda who could whip up some crazy out-of-this-world weapon that would breach his barriers.

As far as he knew, there were theories thrown around that Vibranium was actually the flesh of Celestials. That was why it had all those miraculous energy-manipulating properties, because it was made from beings who were once masters of energy and matter manipulations, making them gods. Celestials were also known users of cosmic energy, something that was so heavy that even most immortals are unable to use it properly. That energy was also very close to the Power Cosmic in terms of density and impact so he did not want to take any chances with Wakanda having some sort of super weapon that involved cosmic energy, however unlikely it may be.

Sometimes, it is better to just take a step back and let them take the next step. Especially, when it came to monarchies of the level of Wakanda. They most certainly have a very huge ego and if it were not for Klaue and his public status of being perhaps the most powerful known human on the planet, they would have dragged him in with Klaue as well and treated him as a criminal too.

He spread out his barriers around him and had them move around constantly, as a way of detecting their raptors and also increasing his awareness range. As far as he knew, they had a holographic shield generator but he had portals that could easily breach through them. They probably knew that but barging in straight into their kingdom and opening a portal in the city and then handing over his gift would have most certainly looked rude and even treasonous in their eyes, leading to deteriorating relations with Wakanda.

Ah, he hoped that the younger generation soon took charge of Wakanda. It would get so stuffy dealing with the older generation with a stick in their butts the whole time. Hopefully, T'Challa was already the Black Panther, which would make some things easier and some even more difficult.

He was still unsure of how to deal with the information surrounding Killmonger. It was not as if the King would take it kindly to him airing out his family laundry to everyone in the Kingdom but having a private audience with him would be difficult to get, especially with his powers since that might make King T'Chaka uncomfortable. After all, being in the presence of someone who could easily kill you in a moment would always be nerve-wracking for anyone, let alone someone like T'Chaka who had everything to lose and nothing to gain, from his perspective, from a meeting with him.

---

Word Count - 3443


If you guys want to read up to 15 extra chapters or just want to support me - P*treon


A/N - Biggest Chapter of the story yet.

Next - Wakanda meeting.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Africa, [May 1, 2012]

–Jack Sullivan–

"Hmm," He yawned as he kept his gaze on a specific spot that was right above the primitive-looking Border Tribe settling. He was doing that on purpose because his barriers, the hundreds of minuscule ones that he had conjured and had them move around his position, had given him the feedback of multiple objects hovering silently in that place. In response to that, he had also beefed up his protection as he was once again back in his Power Ranger armour. He was sure they knew what he was looking at so he was once again subjected to the barely hidden hostility from the border tribe members who kept looking at him and did a very poor job of keeping their anxiety hidden.

Honestly, what was taking so long for T'Chaka? It had been over 20 minutes since he had handed over Klaue, arguably their biggest enemy in recent times, and yet, he could see neither hair nor hide of either T'Chaka or T'Challa or even the Dora Milaje. He could understand them maintaining the pompousness of their post but he could have at least sent the Dora Milaje to invite him inside or just come down here if they did not want someone of his powers inside their kingdom.

"Oh, finally," He said and jumped down from the block of Vibranium as he saw that the Dora Milaje had arrived in one of their hoverboats. He could not see any of the members of the Royal Family but that was quite understandable considering the security risk it represented. He stood in front of the block of Vibranium, which was still opaque so they had no idea what was inside the block but he had no doubt that they would sooner than later ask him about the stolen Vibranium.

"Outsider," Okoye, the general of Dora Milaje, nodded at him and that was probably the most respectful greeting he was going to get from these people, it would seem. He smirked under his mask and decided to mess with them a bit as compensation for all the waiting he had to do in this hot sun.

"General of Dora Milaje, Okoye," He nodded his head while laughing his ass off inside. The effect was immediate. The light tensing and the minute flinching of all the people who had accompanied her was very much evident to his enhanced eyes. A normal person with normal eyesight might have missed it but he was so far above them that it was not even funny.

"You…know of us?" Okoye, after taking a pause, asked him and it took all he had in him to not just blurt out, 'No shit!'

Instead, he leaned on the block of Vibranium behind him and said, "Yes, I know of lots of things. For example, you, Okoye, are arguably the strongest warrior in all of Wakanda save for the Black Panthers. Oh, is King T'Chaka still the Black Panther or did he pass the mantle on to T'Challa yet? I also know you guys are not the poor African country you try to pass yourself as although you probably already knew that considering you brought in vehicles the outside world would not even see for another what? 10-20 years?"

The more he spoke, the tighter the Dora Milaje held onto their Vibranium spears. He had also tensed internally in preparation for some confrontation but on the outside, he kept on babbling sensitive information about Wakanda that should not be known to any outsider. They had killed people for less and here he was, spilling out information like it was just worthless candy and not something the Western world would sell their firstborn babies for.

"Stop!" Eventually, Okoye's patience ran out as she waved for her fellow Dora Milaje to lower their spears. She then turned to him and ground out her next words, "WHAT.DO.YOU.WANT,"

Oh, that was a lot of venom in that tone and a lot of restraint as well. Well, color him surprised as he felt more and more of those jets arriving in front of him, probably in preparation for a fight but Okoye was doing a splendid job of holding it together. Probably because she was aware that any fight between them would bring about the ruin of Wakanda. Though, he was not sure if the barrier that surrounded Wakanda would hide his energy signature or not, or if it just muted it so that nobody would find anything. His energy signature was pretty distinct though and doing any sort of high-handed movement would be very easily traceable. That was why he had limited himself to just 5 barriers at any given time when he had stolen Klaue's stash.

He waited a bit to reply before making a dramatic show of shaking his head and then floating back up to sit cross-legged back on the Vibranium block, "Like I said, I just want to talk to King T'Chaka. It doesn't matter if it is here or in Birnin Zana. I just want to talk. Look, you do realise that if I wanted to, I could have just opened a portal straight into your city? Just relay my message and then tell me what your King decides. Honestly, I thought he would have come here personally. Go. Shoo shoo," He mockingly waved at her and then went back to laying on his back with his hands behind his head. The sound of teeth grinding could be heard all the way up as Okoye just stomped back with all the Dora Milaje following her.

Honestly, this might have been the first time that Okoye had felt that powerless. Being powerless was not a nice feeling and Okoye's feeling that if she made one wrong move, her country might fall into the horrors of war made her conscious enough to stay her hand otherwise if it was someone else who was outright threatening her, she probably would have driven a spear straight through their heart before asking any questions.

He could hear animated arguments from their side before the jets that were cloaked began disappearing one by one until only a single one remained that revealed itself and landed lightly 50 feet in front of him. Huh, so they chose that path then.

"King T'Chaka has granted your request for an audience," Okoye came up to him and ground out. He raised an eyebrow at the phrasing of that sentence but he was alright with them posturing a bit. Everybody knew who held the real power between them so he was alright with that.

"Lead the way," He bowed at her and then floated in the air, along with the stash of Vibranium. She probably expected him to just get in the jet but he shook his head and flew straight ahead and stopped just at the edge of their barrier. He heard their jet turning immediately and even some of the weapons activating but they stopped midway when they realised that he was waiting for them and not attacking their shields. The jet then came in front of him and the hangar behind him opened up, revealing Okoye who was standing at the edge, tethered just by her spear, which was badass in his opinion.

She glared at him, "What is in that box?" She shouted and he obliged her question as the shields surrounding it became translucent. Okoye squinted her eyes to look closer and then her eyes widened as she realised what it was. She took another long look at him and nodded her eyes. She then immediately turned around and started barking orders, the hangar closing up right behind her. The jet then slowly began moving forward and he did the same.

It was an odd sensation, going through the barrier that separated their city from the rest of the world. The barrier itself was different from the ones he had sensed being used in Kamar Taj. It was a physical barrier as well as an illusion shield. As he passed through the multiple layers of the barrier, he realised that the barrier had other functions as well. Apparently, it had some sort of filter as well. It would make sense considering that the water and air in Birnin Zana was purer than everywhere on Earth, owing to their barriers and advanced filtration technology. He passed through no less than six different layers of the barrier before the picturesque country of Wakanda became visible to him.

The difference was like day and night. Outside, there was vegetation but due to the presumed scarcity of water, it was mostly grass and a bit of light tree cover. Inside, however, it was a whole nother story. Entire mountains were covered with greenery as far as his eyes could see. The city itself was awesome to look at too. Sprawling buildings were very few as most of the buildings seemed to only be about two or three stories tall.

Of course, the Royal Palace was another thing altogether. IT stood on elevated land, placing it far above even the tallest building in the city. Then the palace itself looked fairly royal but also modern. There was a small airstrip where there were already people and an entire squadron of Dora Milaje waiting for them. Of course, before landing, his eyes glazed over the huge mountain that seemed to block out the sun. That was probably the mountain that hid the Great Mound that Wakanda was blessed with.

As soon as the jet landed, he lightly landed in front of the waiting jet, right in front of King T'Chaka who was in his royal garb. T'Chala was waiting at his side, in a formal suit, not in his Black Panther suit but judging by his age, he must have the powers for a while now.

"King T'Chaka," He nodded at King T'Chaka, acknowledging him as an equal instead of someone with higher authority than him. He could hear some of them hiss but it stopped when the King nodded back at him.

"Greetings, Outsider. Forgive me for the less than adequate welcome but we are thankful for the gift you have given us. Come," T'Chaka said and gestured for them to move inside.

He obliged and started following him only to stop when he stopped as well, "Ah, Can I ask you to uncover the stolen Vibranium?"

He emphasised on the stolen part more than he should have, probably because he thought that he might ask for something in exchange for the Vibranium. Well, jokes on him because he had no interest in Vibranium at the moment so he just nodded and then dispelled the barriers surrounding it. He was pleased to see King T'Chaka's eyes widening minutely at the display but he didn't call him out on it.

Soon, they reached the Throne room where Queen Ramonda and T'Challa were waiting for them. As soon as T'Chaka sat down on his throne, he bowed slightly, "Queen Ramonda, Prince T'Challa"

"And therein lies the problem, Green Guardian of New York," T'Chaka said as his gaze sharpened on him, even as Dora Milaje flooded the Throne room and positioned themselves all around the room.

Ugh, he hated that moniker. What the hell even is a Green Guardian? Stupid media do not know how to do their jobs and create a catchy name. Now, it was stuck, and seeing that even the king of foreign countries addressed him with that name, there was little chance he could get rid of that moniker, even if wanted to.

"How do you know so much about Wakanda? No outsider is privy to the information you are and yet, you stand in front of us, revealing information that would have normally gotten you killed," T'Chaka continued, Ramonda and T'Challa nodding along even though he saw T'Challa's brows furrowing as T'Chaka said the killing part.

Good, at least there was a chance the new generation would not repeat the same mistakes that their ancestors did. All that was left was to figure out if T'Challa knew about the killings of prominent scientists and see how to go ahead from there.

As for the question from the King, he sighed and answered, "Well, King T'Chaka, I know far more than I should and I guess that would make you nervous but I can assure you, I am not your enemy,"

"Empty words. How can we trust the words of a stranger who even refuses to show his face," T'Chaka scoffed at his words.

Hmm, that was true. What to do now? He couldn't show them his face because that would just needlessly endanger Pops and that was the last thing he wanted to do. Honestly, he had no need of Pops. With his powers, he could have made himself a home anywhere in the world and operated from there without anyone being the wiser. Defeating street-level unpowered criminals was never supposed to be his job. He was just…lonely. Yes, he was lonely. With his powers, he could have gone anywhere and he would have gotten anything he wanted but he could not get someone who would truly listen to him. He had gone to Pops because he knew, he knew from his memories that Pop would accept someone who was not normal. Someone who had powers beyond the ken and even then, Pops would consider them as fellow humans and help them out of the goodness of his heart.

So, no, he would not endanger Pops. Nothing will make him do that.

But, it was not as if he could not have some fun with the situation. So, he sighed and dispelled the mask around his face, causing the Queen to gasp.

His entire body was laid bare for everyone, well not truly, but to the visible eye, it looked the same. His face was now completely green but it was not exactly a face. It was just a flowing green flame-like pattern with two glowing dots in the middle posing as eyes. He also had a rectangular slit where his mouth was supposed to be. All in all, a pretty ghastly inhuman presence.

"This is my true face, King T'Chaka. You can understand why I choose to hide it,"

"Are you even…human?" T'Chaka leaned forward and asked him as he once again donned his masked armour.

The sigh could be heard by everyone in the room, "I suppose I will have to answer that question many times so might as well get it out of the way. Yes, I am human. I was born human but once I activated my powers, my face changed to become this. Yes, I bleed red. No, I will not tell you more."

"Very well, I thank you for returning the stolen Vibranium, even if some of it is missing, and Klaue, our greatest criminal, to us. You wanted an audience with us, speak your mind,"

Well, here goes nothing.

"Well, first of all, I just wanted to ask if T'Challa already is the Black Panther or not?"

It was T'Challa who responded this time, "Yes, I am the current Black Panther, Guardian of Wakanda,"

He nodded, "Good good,"

"Okay, I don't have anything specific to ask of you. I just wanted to ask if you have ever tried to help the outside world?" He asked the entire room.

"I am not asking that of Wakanda. I am asking if you, outside of official channels, have ever helped the outside world advance in some way. Maybe not in military or space matters but at least in medicine? Or in clean energy? Water? Food? Anything?" The more he asked, the darker everybody's faces got. T'Challa in particular was looking down with his fists clenched.

The resounding silence in the room was telling enough.

He sighed as his shoulders drooped in resignation. "I see. Well, I guess I understand, your country would be in danger if it was ever revealed to the world and I totally understand not helping officially but there must be something you could have done?"

Still no response. Well, he had no patience to deal with spineless cowards anyway.

So, his tone grew icy cold as he continued, "I see. Well, can't say I didn't see that coming. Hopefully, the next generation will change things. I brought you Klaue because I do not want Vibranium to be available in the black market for nefarious entities. I also had hoped that you would listen to my request but judging from everything I have seen, it would be too outrageous for you. I just…hope that you try. At Least try and help someone. Even if it is little. I know you guys already have the cure to cancer, global warming, clean water, and more. Millions of people die every year because of one or more of those reasons. Just..something to think about."

He waved his hand and a portal opened on top of him. The response was swift. Energy weapons emerged from the ceilings as T'Challa and the Dora Milaje took on combat positions even as T'Chaka remained still like a statue.

"T'Challa, I hope you do better. Until we meet again," He said as the portal moved down, transporting him to an underwater cave he had seen in a documentary once.

Once there, he gave himself a once over, checking to see if any bugs had been planted on him and seeing that nothing was detected even from his spells, he opened another portal to his loft and promptly dumped himself on his bed, mentally exhausted from the ordeal.

---

Word Count - 2967

If you guys want to read up to 15 extra chapters or just want to support me - P*treon


Next - Wakanda Shenanigans

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Throne Room, Birnin Zana, Wakanda, [May 1, 2012]

–T'Chaka–

The silence in the room was suffocating. It had not been the first time that particular matter had weighed so heavily on his conscience. He remembered the silence in the jet when he had come back after killing his brother with his own two hands. He wasn't worried about the soldiers leaking information about that incident. No, he was assured of their loyalty like he was certain of his brother's loyalty as well. And yet, he was betrayed the same. So, he did something that he never told anyone. He killed everyone. Every single person who came with him on that trip ended up dead. Not on the first day but over the course of a week, he had made sure that the only alive soul who knew of that accursed day was him and him only.

That was the first day that question had taken root in his mind. What if he had actually helped the outside world? Not something as narrow-minded as helping just one race but the whole world. Even in small minute places where it would not have endangered Wakanda's secrecy. Events of historical importance that he turned a blind eye to, or even helped orchestrate. Like Howard Stark's murder for example.

He was aware of the continued existence of HYDRA and how it had infiltrated the only agency on the planet that had the muscle necessary to rival Wakanda in all of its connections. Howard Stark was someone who was smarter than even the smartest of Wakandan scientists. Even his scientists could only dream of the stuff he could have created had he been given access to Wakanda's resources. But no, his scientists might have been starstruck by his intelligence, his war council was very much content in letting a third party handle someone who was on track to create technology capable of rivaling theirs. So, he had let the brightest mind of the century die on the streets.

Combined with the hundreds of state-sanctioned murders that had been done on his orders simply because they were coming too close to their technological superiority or their technology was something they needed, his hands were drowning in the blood of the innocents.

Ever since he had been given the reality check that was his son and daughter, he had hardened his heart against all the things he had to, against his morals. He simply assumed them to be the weight of the crown and trudged along, day by day, hoping to bear the burden for one more day until T'Challa could take it over from him. To be honest, he didn't really feel like much of a king these days. He had offloaded all but the most sensitive of his duties to the Council and Okoye handled most of the military stuff. The role of the Black Panther was also passed along to T'Challa at the first opportunity he could. These days, all he tried to do was spend more and more time with his family and hope that he tried his best with his kids while imparting them the morals and knowledge necessary for them to one day rule Wakanda better than he ever could.

When T'Challa came back from college, he had also begun telling him about the state of the outside world. He did not understand how T'Challa could have developed so much of a radical mindset just because he went outside. He knew all about the reality of the African Continent when he did his schooling here and yet, the rhetoric that T'Challa began spewing when he came back home was alarming to him for many many reasons. Especially the talks of using their standing military to push back against the warlords and stop them from selling out the natural resources, along with their people, to the colonisers for mere coin. That had been the last straw for him as he had snapped at T'Challa right then and there, on the dinner table, and told him, in no uncertain terms, that as long as T'Chaka was king, Wakanda would remain an isolated society and once T'Challa gained approval from the people of Wakanda, he could then ascend to become King and then decide what Wakanda will do with its not inconsiderable resources. The parallels that T'Challa had drawn with N'Jobu were hard to ignore and thus, he had almost destroyed his relationship with his son that day, if it were not for his Queen.

She was the one who had helped mend things between them and even then, things had never gone back to the way they were.

Over the years, that reflected in the frankly, absurd amount of work that T'Challa put into the country. Every waking moment, for the past 5 years, T'Challa had spent in some form of governmental organisation. Coming up with a way to neutralise the recurring threats that occur on the borders of Wakanda to training himself to the bone, so much so that he became the top most combatant of Wakanda, T'Challa had taken his words to heart and had truly become someone who was worthy of becoming King. Far more worthy than he would ever be and yet, today's conversation with the Green Guardian had once again sowed seeds in his mind. T'Challa's reaction to his words was telling since he had just stormed out of the throne room once the Green Guardian had left. His wife followed suit and all he was left with was a squad of Dora Milaje, headed by Okoye as they waited for his command.

And what command could he give them that wouldn't break up his family? He could not order them to go after the person who had just exited his throne room because that would just spell doom for the entirety of Wakanda. Speaking of the threat…

"Okoye, threat rating?" He asked her after taking a deep breath and leaning back on his throne, hiding a wince as his back pain flared once again. Hah, even being the King, it would seem that he would not be able to escape from the confines of being a normal human, and honestly? He would not have it any other way. He deserved this and he was resolved to see it all the way.

"The Highest, The only person comparable to him in threat level is Carol Danvers, My King."

"Any countermeasures we can build around his powerset? How did he gain them anyway? Do we have any clue?" He asked Okoye who immediately brought up a hologram using her Kimoyo beads. They showcased multiple documents that revealed what he had already feared.

HYDRA.

Ah, another one of his mistakes coming back to haunt him. Realistically, he knew there was nothing he could have done to prevent their uprising. He could have slowed it down immensely, sure, but stopping them without bringing everything into the open was impossible and even if he did try and do that, it was almost certain that HYDRA would not go down without a fight, possibly bringing down the world with them. After all, his WarDogs had already dismantled or otherwise disposed of no less than 16 nuclear weapons that HYDRA had tried to get their hands on. They stopped trying these days, not because they didn't need weapons but because they figured out an even deadlier weapon.

Information.

HYDRA had their hands in every single information-gathering agency in the world. They decided what intel would reach the military, what intel would reach a warlord in Africa, or what intel would reach the ears of a corporate stooge. With such an extensive network, it was inevitable that they would put their dirty fingers in the state-sanctioned experiment to create super soldiers. He had ordered his WarDogs to supervise it in the beginning but once it had become evident that they had no clue how to create stable super soldiers, he had relegated that to second priority and had almost forgotten about it. Until today, when Okoye brought it up as the energy signature of the barriers that they had seen matched with the deeper Gamma signature that Dr.Banner emitted when he was in his alter ego.

All that was left was to figure out who it was but that was easier said than done since the base was already destroyed and nobody knew why. Well, he had an inkling about that and it was probably the person who got turned into some sort of living energy as a consequence of those experiments, creating someone who was an even bigger of a threat than the Hulk.

"What are the chances, huh?" He said wryly. He did not get a response but he did not expect one anyway.

"What is the verdict from the lab? Is there any way we can stop him from portalling in the country whenever he wants to?"

He sighed in resignation as the tightening of her face was answer enough for him. Over the years, they had figured out multiple ways to manipulate energy, owing to the miraculous properties of Vibranium but figuring out a way to block something that was outside the conventional understanding of science was understandably going to be hard for the scientists. Even Shuri would have a hard time understanding something as abstract as that and she was arguably the most intelligent person that had ever been born in Wakanda.

"My King, do we need to track him?" Okoye's question brought him out of his musings. Hmm, he actually did not know the answer to that. Tracking him was easy enough since anytime he used his powers, his energy signature popped up on their satellites. But he knew Okoye's question was not just that. She wanted to know if they were to get ready to fight and even take down someone who could destroy a small town all by his lonesome. That was a daunting task and yet he knew Okoye would try to fulfill it with all her might.

The only question was, was Wakanda strong enough to bear the anger of him along with the greed and cruelty of the rest of the world?

The answer came as easily as breathing to him.

"No."

They would not instigate any fight with him and he hoped that the other side reciprocated because he did not have it in him to go out and fight enemies of Wakanda.

"As you command, My King."

"Hmm. Go look for T'Challa. I am sure he has some opinions about today's meeting. Make sure he doesn't beat up all the new initiaties in frustration. Again,"

Okoye bowed and left the room and after a gesture from him, the rest of the Dora Milaje left as well. He had no need for guards in the center of Wakanda or so they had thought but the power to create portals to anywhere on the planet was something that would keep all of the Dora Milaje up at night.

"Bast, give me guidance," He muttered and leaned back even further in his very comfortable throne. He was just so so…tired already.

He looked at his Kimoyo beads and with a wave of his hand, the interface opened up, allowing him to manipulate everything about Wakanda with a tap of his finger. From the weather to the barrier functions to the filtration installed in the barrier, he could control it all. Through it, he could see the multiple bogies stationed all around the globe, along with a dozen of them in orbit, always ready to rain down hell on their enemies without anyone being the wiser.

But that was not what he was searching for this time. He swiped his fingers and that relayed the overall medical health of Wakanda to him. It was sitting at a very healthy 99.2%. The rest of it was mainly due to the stress and anxiety of the job wearing down their bodies slowly from the inside. Even as advanced as they were, they had no cure for stress, anxiety, and depression. Temporary suppressors? Sure but no definitive cures for the various mental health diseases.

He opened up a couple of menus and saw the list of cures they had for diseases that were thought to be incurable for the rest of the world. This, this right here is what is going to be the downfall of Wakanda, he realised to himself. His breathing grew heavier as he realised the path Wakanda was on and how it would only lead to a single destination.

Their complete and utter doom.

This is what the outside world will rally for. Not vibranium and not the pristine environment they had on the inside because of their barrier technology. No, that was all for the military and the handful of corporate mafia. The real kicker was going to be the list he was staring at. The medical cures that would be advertised to the rest of the world, even though most of the cures would never see the light of day, instead of rotting away in the patents list of some Big Pharma company.

And yet, the common public would not listen to that. They would only hear one thing and one thing only. That Wakanda had cures to fucking Cancer and still let millions of people die instead of sharing their medical cures.

Things would have to change and change immediately. There was going to be pushback, immense pushback from this but he would have to see this through, even if it turned out to be his last act as King. He would have to figure out a strategy for the eventual reintroduction of Wakanda as a country to the global stage. He had to figure it…out.

T'Challa, he sat upright as he realised the solution to this problem.

T'Challa would know what to do and as a bonus, if it helped mend things with his son, nobody has to know about that.

So, he taped the beads and said, "Okoye, once T'Challa is done with his spars, send him to the throne room,"

"Hah," He chuckled wryly to himself and relaxed into his seat. He had to make sure that Wakanda was the first one to make a move instead of being forced to do so. T'Challa will be the face of the new Wakanda and a golden age of collaboration with the outside world. Judging by the words of the Green Guardian, he was sure that sooner rather than later, Wakanda was going to be exposed to the world and he would rather it be on his terms rather than the world's. There was not much they could do to stop the Green Guardian from doing what he wanted, after all.

Let's just get it done before some sort of major event rocks the boat that is the sensitive status quo that the world is in.

_______xx______

Harlem, [May 3, 2012]

–Jack Sullivan–

"44, 45, 46…." He counted to himself as he performed push-ups in the river. Oh yeah, he was currently doing pushups in the river, while the barriers were pushing down on him. He would have let the water do its work but the flowing water was fast but not that deep that it would create sufficient weight for his workout. So, he was performing his daily workout so that he wouldn't become rusty even though he did not know if it was possible for him to lose muscle or not.

It had been 2 days since he had come back from Wakanda and he did not know what had overtaken him that day. Intellectually, he knew what Wakanda had done and yet, he went there and soured any chances of a diplomatic relationship with them. Now, he was out of the Vibranium as well as any chance of some concessions from them. Ah, better get that out of his mind, he thought to himself as he exited the river and went back to his loft, of course after taking a stop in the Atlantic Ocean using his portals.

It had become second nature for him. Opening multiple portals to travel through different areas to throw off any tails on him.

"Hmm, Coffee and Croissant sounds good, today," He muttered as he entered the shower. There was an awesome cafe that served the most heavenly croissants right across the street from Stark Tower. Apparently, Tony and Pepper both got their daily orders from the same cafe. It was a matter of pride for them. He would go and visit the cafe, and see if he could drop in on Tony as well, if he is there.

It was currently 11 in the morning and he was sipping, in his opinion, the best coffee on this side of the coast.

"Ah!" He sighed contentedly as he bit into the croissant.

"Hmm?" His attention was drawn to the sound of tires screeching as he looked at half a dozen blacked-out SUVs stopping right outside the entrance of Stark Tower.

"Uh-oh," The Croissant slipped from his hand as multiple suits exited the SUVs, all in their stereotypical black suits. That was not the reason he was shocked though.

The reason he was shocked was because of the person who had exited the first SUV. The agent with the most disarming smile was now looking extremely solemn as he made haste towards the entrance of Stark Tower.

"Shitshitshit!" he muttered to himself as he slapped down a bill on the table and began running away from the cafe.

Phil Coulson had arrived at Stark Tower on May 3, 2012.

It looks like Loki has arrived and it was time for him to BEGIN.

---

Word Count - 2979

If you guys want to read up to 15 extra chapters or just want to support me - P*treon


A/N - And so it begins.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Stark Tower, [May 3, 2012]

–Phil Coulson–

Well, this was not good. Not for his sanity but when has that ever stopped Director Fury from sending him on an assignment for Stark? But this time was different. The enemy was someone who they had never prepared for. They had just barely gotten to know some of their abilities and had started developing weapons for the same and yet, they were still caught with their pants down. This was code red and every single able hand was on deck to resolve the situation.

Not only did the enemy take Tesseract, arguably the single greatest artifact that had the potential to either become the engine that drove humanity into the next stage or a bomb that would destroy human civilization as they knew it but Loki also took Clint with him and you just did not do that.

Honestly, if the Tesseract was that dangerous, they should have just left it in storage. Alas, he knew the kind of bosses that his boss had to answer to and so, here they were, in a situation that could not be solved by just SHIELD. They needed people, experts on deck for this, and as much as it pained for him to admit it, Stark was an expert on so many disciplines of science and technology that it would hurt him to list them all.

So, there he was, walking into Stark Tower, knowing full well that Stark was not lifting his calls even though he was in the Tower.

"Ex-excuse me, you do not have permission to go back-ack!" Whatever the receptionist was trying to say was stuck in her throat as one of his team members showed her his ID as they bypassed her and entered the elevator. Of course, the receptionist was the first and the easiest of the obstacles. The real security for the Tower was….

"Agent Coulson, I am afraid that sir is really busy at the moment. There is an opening in his calendar about 3 months from t…o—bzzz" Jarvis' dry voice was stopped midway as he simply inserted a USB into one of the terminal that was present behind the panel that one of his teammates just removed. The tangled mess of wires was messy but it got the job done so who was he to complain? He was sure that Stark would send an inflated bill to them later on and that was going to be Director Fury's headache and he took in a small amount of satisfaction at that. Soon, the elevator dinged and his team stayed at the entrance as he alone approached the richest couple on this side of the world, the word was still on about the Middle Eastern kings but the recent advancements in clean energy that Stark was going to peddle to the world would soon correct that list anyway.

"Phil! What are you doing here?"

"Ms.Potts," he greeted and hugged her back as she beamed at him. They had a much more cordial relationship since Tony Stark was almost impossible to get ahold of and SHIELD still had multiple contracts with SI that needed a personal touch due to their nature. Unfortunately, that task had also fallen on him so he had developed somewhat of a rapport with Pepper Potts, the CEO of Stark Industries.

'What are you doing here? I thought I told Jarvis to give you an appointment. I believe I am free sometime next year. What?" Stark said as Potts deadpanned at him.

"Mr.Stark, there is an emergency and we have a need of your expertise. I have standing orders from Director Fury to escort you to–"

"Yeah, well, I don't listen to Fury, and neither do I take things from strange unknown suspicious people," Stark said and he resisted the urge to take in a deep breath in frustration. Thankfully, Potts was there so she took the tablet from his hand and showed the content to Stark. Technically, she was a civilian and did not have the necessary clearance to see that but they were on a timeline and that was the fastest way to get Stark to see the Tesseract.

His gambit proved correct when Stark took one look at the figures on the tablet and immediately began going through the specs on the tablet. The Tesseract was bad news. Bad enough that even someone as flippant as Tony who would flip death in its face was forced to take it seriously.

"Pepper, this is serious stuff,"

"Just go. I'll be right here, waiting,"

He looked away from the lovely couple and signalled his team to evacuate.

"I have already sent Jarvis the location. Try not to be too late, Mr.Stark," He said as the elevator doors closed on them.

"Hmm, Maybe some of you could have taken the stairs?" He mused out loud as they found themselves standing way too close in the cramped elevator.

Now that his job was done, he immediately went on his next assignment.

"Where to, sir?"

"Just get the car started. I am sure we will see him soon enough," He looked at the tablet which showed an elevated map of New York City. He then swiped the map to show a different map of the city. It was an energy readings map from the SHIELD satellite that was responsible for tracking the enigmatic new hero of New York known as the Green Guardian. The name was tacky but it got the point across. The person mainly used shields and he was green.

Honestly, he was the hardest of the Avengers candidates to get a hold of which was ironic because they knew where he was going to be every single day and yet, they could not pin down his location. His powers made it impossible to confront him head-on on and any attempt from their side to establish a connection led nowhere. They had some success when the NYPD Police CHief managed to get some sort of working relationship working with him but even that was strictly restricted to ways the Green Guardian could make things easier for the blue boys. Their psychological profile, incomplete as it was, indicated that the Green Guardian should be more than on board to help them with the current crisis. He was diagnosed with a bit of a hero case and was someone who would go above and beyond to help someone. Why he chose just NYC was beyond them but their analysts say there must be something that tied him to this city when he had the ability to open portals from one end of the planet to the other, making him capable of instantaneous global transportation, making him the current biggest threat to the US government in their list. They had some theories as to why he was never seen using his powers beyond that one night but now was not the time for that. He was going to roam around the city for a bit in wait for the giant green avatar to fly above them and if that didn't happen, he was going to the NYPD Police Commissioner. He would rather not because the information was above classified and the fewer people came into contact with the better, as per Director Fury's orders.

BEEP!

He blinked as the tablet began beeping furiously. He hurriedly looked at it to see a giant green spot appearing just a few miles away from their location.

"Floor it, NOW!" He ordered as he swiped the location of the Green Guardian to the car's infotainment systems. After a while, he could see the green silhouette floating in the sky, multiple small green blocks continuously floating around the giant. He could see most of the smaller blocks continuously flitting around the city as they stopped a car crash somewhere, a robber somewhere, or rescued a cat from a tree. Honestly, that single person was a reliable replacement for a major part of the Police Force, Ambulances, and even FireFighters. Some would think that it would create friction with the city's forces but the truth was that most of the police appreciated the extra safety that his mere presence guaranteed. They had to work a bit harder in the night but during the day? Criminals would just give up at the mere hint of green filling the skies above them.

"Um, how do we get his attention?" One of his teammates asked him and they all looked at him and then at Coulson as they all had the same question in their minds. He cursed internally as he had nothing as well. The answer to that question never came because, with a jerk, their car jostled around as if it was flipping over as all of them braced for impact.

"What is happening?" He heard his teammates yell but he knew what was happening as he looked at the buildings passing by as his car came closer and closer to the giant Green Avatar.

"Holy SHIT!" Most of them exclaimed as they readied their weapons. He rolled his eyes at that. As if pistols were going to stop something that hadn't even flinched at advanced military weapons hitting him. SHIELD had been stopped by Directory Fury from retrieving those experimental weapons as he wanted to see what the Green Giant would do and the answer both terrified and delighted him. The barriers didn't even flinch after taking rounds from experimental weapons that were capable of breaching bulletproof cars as if it was just a small sheet of iron instead of reinforced metal, many times over.

The car was brought over most probably by one of the barriers that usually inserts itself under the car and then just lifts it from there, to the eyes of the Avatar. Actually, he was wrong. They were not going to the eyes, they were going into the mouth of the avatar.

The yelling in the car reached a crescendo as they passed what passed for mouth for the avatar and they entered a mostly empty space. He noted the hundreds of different smaller barriers that littered the inside of the Avatar, moving in tandem with the movement of the giant.

So he had made the avatar completely solid from the inside. That meant that he had both exceptional control and the creativity to use it properly. A devastating combination in the case of this person. It was good news for them because they needed someone with devastating powers on their side who was also not a loose cannon.

Soon, they crossed a sea of green and came face to face with a person. Only the person was completely covered in green and the face…

He raised an eyebrow as he opened the door of the car and experimentally checked on the floor that had literally appeared underneath them a moment before. After finding the floor to be trustworthy, he stepped on it and turned to the person with a flaming face.

"What can I do for you, Agent Coulson of SHIELD? I heard you were looking for me," He closed his mouth shut with an audible clack as he was interrupted. That first greeting told him a number of things but now was not the time to dwell on how and why the incredibly dangerous person in front of him knows him by name.

"We have an emergency. The kind that requires all hands on deck," He says and hands over the tablet to one of the barriers that appeared in front of him when he tried to reach towards the person. The barrier took the tablet to the flaming person who manipulated it using his barriers and blazed through the information on the tablet at blinding speeds before the entire sea around them began receding, exposing them to the blue skies once again. He looked at the car to see that none of his supposedly elite team members had stepped down on the floor.

Cowards.

"This Tesseract? What were you doing with it?" He leaned away from the green giant who was only a few feet away from him. Due to the sheer size of the person, he was forced to look up at him.

"It was supposed to be a source of unlimited clean energy," He said in kind as he took a few steps back.

The figure floated above him and then snapped his fingers, creating a giant portal at the end of the flooring. He steadied himself as the temporary flooring, along with their car jerked forward to enter the portal with the Green Guardian floating a few feet away from him, facing the portal. Soon, they found themselves floating on top of a very familiar building as the Triskelion came into view.

"For the record, I have zero trust in any of you. I will, however, help you, because this Loki seeks to harm my planet," The Green Guardian said as the portal closed up and they started to slowly float down.

"I assume that I am to act as the muscle for the trip and for that to happen, you people need to track down this Loki. Is it safe to assume that Dr.Banner will be present as a member of this…team as well?"

"Yes but not for the reason you are thinking of. Dr. Banner is the world's foremost expert in Gamma Energy and the Tesseract emits a faint gamma energy signature that–"

"That you need his help to track. Got it. I assume there is a place where everybody will be gathered? Perhaps that flying boat of yours?"

He was jolted out of his thoughts at the words he had heard. How in the world did he know so much classified information? That must have reflected on his face as well because he chuckled.

"The rest of the world is not as ill-informed about your actions as you believe them to be, Agent Coulson." By this point, they had landed on the ground and were about to be surrounded by a small army of armed guards.

"I will be performing my duties in the city. Call me when you have Loki's location," He was tossed a phone as a portal opened in front of the Green Guardian.

Just as the sound of tyres screeching was heard, the Green Guardian entered the portal but not before he heard what he had said the moment before he entered the portal.

"Unlimited Clean energy, ha! Who are they trying to fool?" he scoffed, shook his head, and left.

---

Word Count - 2456


If you guys would like to support my writing, or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head to my P*treon.
Every bit helps. Thanks in advance!

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Manhattan

–Jack Sullivan–

He threw the phone into the river once he replied to Tony's message. He had conveyed the seriousness of the situation and had actually asked for him to tag along because Loki was not exactly someone like Thor or Hulk, who would use mainly brute force before using strategy. Tony had reviewed some of the footage and was convinced that while Loki himself was probably completely bat-crap insane, he was also cunning and ruthless. That, combined with the historical lore surrounding Loki, which Tony had to take seriously now because of the uncanny resemblance with the real-life Thor, Tony was of the opinion that Loki's magic might give them somewhat of a hard time, and at that point, having an unbreakable barrier surrounding them would be beneficial for everyone involved.

Basically, it was just a long assed way of asking him to join him at SHIELD, mainly because he believed that this time SHIELD was actually up to something good rather than the shady activities Jarvis had flagged down for him.

After confirming that he would be joining him as well as telling him not to inform anyone about his identity or real age, he threw the phone in the river and after opening a portal, entered the courtyard of Kamar Taj.

"Here for advice?" He turned around as he heard her speak as soon as he arrived. It would seem that she had expected this visit, which was to be expected.

"Less for advice and more for assurance," He said as he floated over to stand right next to her as they looked at the training apprentices. He was actually still of the opinion that he should just get over to Germany where Loki would look for the Iridium and then crush his scheme right then and there. Clint could be taken care of later anyway. Even if they did lose him, it was a sacrifice he was willing to make if it meant thousands of people would not die.

"I have assurance," He looked at her as she spoke those words. He did not understand what she was getting at when…

"I have you there. That is all the assurance you or anyone else might need," She said and then raised her arms toward him. He looked at it to see a small coin in her hand, that was tied to a small string. It looked very ancient and very important as well. He looked at her in confusion as he took the surprisingly heavy coin in his hand and felt the inscriptions cast on it.

"The city might not need assurance because of you but you might end up needing that. Keep it," She said and then looked back at the initiates, all the while maintaining the same calm serene expression on her face.

He looked at the coin and after looking back at her, clenched it in his fist and turned around, determined to end the fight without there even being a single casualty on his side.

If she was so certain that the reason it was fine for an Invasion to happen, was because of his mere presence, he would do all he could not to fall short of those expectations.

He opened a portal and entered his loft, blazing in green as he took a bath and then warned Pops not to leave the area. After that, he did his usual routine of opening a portal in the Alps, and then after admiring the view for a moment, he opened another portal, this time leading straight to the Beach, the place where the Helicarrier is docked, when not in flight.

As soon as he started floating down, blazing in green, alarms began ringing but they soon faded away as he slowly landed on the concrete surface of the helicarrier. He could see the Captain and Dr.Banner heading their way, along with Natasha Romanoff, someone who was probably on her way to seduce him.

As flattering as that would be, he was not here to mingle. While getting to interact with his childhood heroes would be magnificent, he had something else to do at the moment. The burden placed on him was heavy at the moment so he was not really in the mood.

So, before The Widow could get a word in, he extended one of his giant arms towards the Captain, "Captain America. Never thought I would see you again outside that gym of yours,"

The Captain gripped his hand, "I wish we didn't have to meet again in such circumstances."

Me too, Captain. Me Too, he thought to himself as he mused on the possible consequences of his actions.

He then extended his hand towards the average-looking person who could grow up to dwarf his current size and smash everything in sight, "Dr.Banner. I hope they did not pressure you to come here. If you ever feel the need to get away from the situation, just tell me and I'll make it happen,"

Dr.Banner shook his hand as his eyes then widened in realisation, "Ah, your portals. That is…nice. Really nice of you to offer that but I am hoping that we won't have to witness any unpleasantness during my, hopefully, short stay here?"

"Nevertheless, the offer's open whenever you want to," He said and stepped back and then looked to the side as the entire ship jerked as if some ancient beast had been awoken from its slumber.

Well, to normal humans, this might as well be the biggest monster that they had ever made or laid eyes on. A flying aircraft carrier, something like this back home would have ironically been the cause of World War III, especially with the stealth tech.

"Boys, might wanna get inside. The air thins a little bit after this," Romanoff said and then walked towards the comms tower, her hips swaying hypnotically behind her. He was sure she was doing that on purpose but eh, who's to say that you cannot enjoy that which cannot (and should not) be touched?

"Shall we?" The Captain asked him and he nodded as he followed Romanoff.

"So, your portals. How do you keep them from falling apart? How do you know the location is the one you wished it to be?"

He sighed as all of them headed inside as the helicarrier began taking flight.

"Dr.Banner," He stopped the babbling man in his tracks, "Once this is over, I will be more than happy to answer all your questions. For now, let's focus on stopping a megalomaniac from using something that our resident megalomaniacs would have used to make weapons anyway," He said and walked ahead.

He noticed Romanoff faltering a bit at his words and even the Captain pausing a bit. He would have to be daft not to warn them about SHIELD and the dirt they were hiding.

Ugh, this is so dumb. He could have just opened a portal to Stuttgart and then waited for him there but he could not be sure about the butterflies flapping their wings. He was not sure about the future and would like to be close to the action so that he could be deployed at a moment's notice.

He was also reasonably certain that Thanos had not noticed him on Earth yet and must not have given Loki some counter weapon for him so he was safe in that regard. What he was worried about was Clint or rather, the intelligence access Clint had. He surely knew everything SHIELD knew about him and so Loki looking for something to take him out of the picture was not impossible.

He would have to be on his most alert as he apprehended Loki. He was reasonably seasoned in the art of illusions and how to see through them but all of that training was done with other fellow sorcerers, not an Asgardian god with the potential to become a multiversal god-like entity. In short, he was not sure if he could see through Loki and his illusions, and if Loki had something that could pierce through his barriers, he would not be able to save himself in time let alone others.

He had a strategy in that regard but it was kind of a foolish one. For one, staying above ground meant that he would have to command all his barriers remotely and secondly, Loki could cloak not just himself but others as well. What's to say he would not be using one of the Chitauri chariots to float right beside him and stab him through his heart?

He might be enhanced by the Super Soldier Serum to levels he had not really found the limits of, but even he would not survive if he was stabbed through the heart or the brain. That would be a sure-shot way of killing him.

"Gentlemen!" The voice of Nick Fury greeting them brought him out of his reverie as they finally reached the bridge, the center of command of arguably the most advanced weapons ship on the planet, well, after whatever Namor has in the ocean, anyway. Walanda had yet to come up with something of that size mainly because they were very inexperienced in the art of war and thought that just their army, armed with their ridiculous weapons, would be enough in war. Well, they would have been in quite a rude awakening if war happened but thankfully, that would never happen….hopefully.

"Captain, Dr.Banner, and you, what do I call you?" Fury arrived in front of him and glared up at him with his one eye, making him quite an intimidating figure, for an average-sized human maybe. For someone like him, who was currently over 8 feet tall and was built like the Hulk with a pump, it made a hilarious sight.

Still, he controlled himself and replied in kind as he made a show of looking around the bridge and all the people who looked at him with undisguised interest, fear, and some hidden hate as well. Well, can't expect everyone in SHIELD to be good guys then, especially with the snake hanging over all of them.

"You can call me Green Guardian. That is the moniker I go by. Now, is there somewhere around here where Dr.Banner can work and I can stay with him there," He said and gestured to Banner who looked uncomfortable at the sudden attention of the entire room. Standing next to him, he looked quite small and unthreatening but then people remembered the utter destruction he could cause and then he was subjected to the same looks of fear and judgement.

Looking at the shrinking man, he gestured to Fury who was currently impotently glaring at him.

Gritting his teeth, he ordered Romanoff, "Widow will show you to the lab,"

"You will love it, Dr.Banner, we have all the latest toys," Widow's voice faded over the distance as she and Banner left the bridge.

The Captain looked at him and then at Fury who refused to stop glaring at him and then, after a moment of hesitation, left to go to the Lab as well.

"Well, what do you want, Fury?" He crossed his arms as he sensed the way they were taking through the labyrinth of rooms in the carrier through his enhanced senses until they too faded away and then he focused his attention on Fury.

Credit to the man, he didn't back down even when two burning flames of green which were his eyes in the current form, bored into him with all their might.

"What I want to know is how you came to be. How did someone of your might remain unnoticed in all the time between your last sighting and the day you choose to literally prop up the Eiffel Tower? I want to know how you seemed to have grown exponentially stronger in a matter of months and also gained the ability to make portals capable of transporting not just you but even entire cars through them. Do you have any idea of the danger you represent by your mere existence? In the wrong hands, your powers would spell the end of national security." Fury's tirade went on as he listened to his questions that had been burning a hole in his gut.

He scoffed at the last bit, "Wrong hands? I can assure you, Fury, my powers are in my hands. If not me, then who is supposed to be the right hands? You? That's a nice joke,"

"What Directory Fury means to say is that when someone of your powers just pops up in a major city without anyone knowing anything about you, the people in power get nervous and when they get nervous, they tend to do spectacularly stupid things," Coulson, ever the peacemaker, flashed him a disarming smile as he subtly positioned himself between Fury and him.

Fury scoffed behind Coulson but did not correct him or make any effort to stop him. Well, two can play the game then.

"Well, Agent Coulson, might I remind you that the supposed people in power just lost something that has the potential energy to crack the planet in half? And for something so powerful, where the hell did you guys get the guts to try and tamper with it? If it were truly in the "right hands" as your Director here states, that thing should have been on the first space flight, on its way to the Sun or something, not here on Earth, being experimented on, to do God knows what. Don't give me that crap about clean energy, I am not a child."

His words seemed to have struck a chord in Coulson as he too stopped arguing. Fury looked pensive as well, as the entire bridge was shrouded in silence at his statements.

"If you'll excuse me," He nodded at Coulson and then left in the direction of the lab. Midway through, multiple minuscule barriers exited his back and scurried their way through all the possible ways and looked for Banner until he found him. He then dissipated all his barriers and then quite literally floated his way straight to the lab, at speeds that made a gust of wind appear in the bridge.

_________xx_____

In an undisclosed location, a person of Asian descent was whistling as he was standing on the edge of a tree that was only rooted to the ground by its old withering roots as it hung over a valley. There was a shallow river at the bottom of the valley which ensured that the man would meet a swift end if he found himself slipping off the tree trunk.

He was tottering on one of its edges, as if drunk, then at the last moment, as he was just about to fall down to his death, he stumbled back on the tree trunk. This went on for a while before the man, as if realising something, jerked and then jumped off the tree to gracefully land back on land, right in front of a slowly landing Quinjet.

The man leaned forward as he looked at the jet in intrigue, completely alien to his previous drunkard behavior.

"Well well well, what do we have here? It has been ages since somebody came to entertain me," He whistled and said as he looked at the people alighting from the jet in interest.

He could feel some of their strength and he had never felt someone so far out of his league before. Well, aside from their leader but she was not strong, her power was. One shot and you were dead. Bah! Where was the fun in that? Where was the long passionate fight that nobody knew the outcome of? The fight where both of them would titter on the edge of victory and defeat, life and death, only for the just party to win, right as he was about to drop dead.

"Is this the one? Doesn't seem to be much," The strangely dressed person, who held some sort of ancient cosplaying staff in his hand, looked at the person standing behind him and asked him in an incredulous tone. He would have dismissed him had he not seen his eyes and seen the madness that resided inside.

No, it was not just some crazy strong person. It was a kindred spirit he was meeting.

Ah! How exciting!

"I assure you, my Lord. This person has the highest chance of solving our biggest problem. He just needs a push in the right direction," The ass-kisser bowed and the cosplayer (haha!) nodded and then pointed his staff at him.

He was about to laugh at him when his eyes widened as a blue blast came out of it, souring past the place where his head would have been. It was his luck that he ducked, otherwise little Wei would have been a headless corpse today.

"Hmm, he will do," The cosplayer nodded imperiously as he looked down at him with his chin up.

He looked kinda funny. Just as he was about to point that out, his heckles rose as he immediately jumped from his place. He jumped full throttle and managed to jump almost 10 feet in the air and then landed with his guard raised against the cosplayer who somehow appeared right behind him with the outstretched staff.

What in the world was that? He could not even sense him until the last moment. That had never happened before. Even dear ol Gordon was unable to escape his senses this much.

What in the world had he stepped into? The danger of the situation became apparent to him and that only served to fuel his excitement.

"Finally, someone worthy," He said and lunged at the cosplayer, two daggers suddenly appearing in his hand as his hands took on a ghastly appearance as if they were dissolving right in front of him.

The cosplayer raised an eyebrow and that was all the warning he got before the cosplayer appeared in front of him like he had teleported and the staff he was wielding was stabbed straight through his chest.

Ha, no worries. He had taken pre..caut..

That was the last thing that went through his mind as darkness overtook his vision.

"Hmm, Interesting," Loki commented as he pulled the sceptre out of the man's chest which didn't feel like pulling it through flesh, disgustingly weak that it was anyway. It felt more as if he was pulling the sceptre through sludge.

The man's chest lost the dissolving aspect as it returned to its normal appearance. He tried to stab the person once again and was proven correct in his assumption that the man could not be stabbed to death, even with his sceptre.

"Hmm, how amusing," He muttered and then stopped stabbing the sceptre into the man. Instead, he pointed it at the man's head and after charging the spell longer than normal, due to the unexpectedly hardy (compared to humans) constitution that the person had, let loose the small blue orb that had accumulated at the edge of the sceptre.

The result was a small blue cloud that dissipated, to reveal the now naked person.

"Your will is my command, my Liege,"

Gone was the laidback look in the eyes of that man, replaced by an unyielding, almost rabid worship of the person in front of him, along with a healthy fear of his master.

"Rise, my servant. We will see mortals freed from their perils as I have done with you," Loki said and was satisfied to gain another powerful (once again, compared to regular humans) minion who would help him conquer this dirtball of a world.

---

Word Count - 3322

If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Onboard the Helicarrier, May 4, 2012

–Jack Sullivan–

"So, I read about you. How strong are your powers really? I saw the news about the container ship and then did some rough calculations. If you could really do that, I can't imagine anything on Earth being able to stop you. Well, maybe, except-"

"Except you,"

Dr.Banner looked kinda resigned as he said, "No, not me. The Other guy. How could I stop you? The Other guy, however, has no limits and if he does have some, I have yet to find any," He then cleaned his glasses incessantly as he squinted at the dozens of displays laid out in front of him.

Apparently, SHIELD had the gamma readings of the Tesseract but they were not exactly the right frequency if he heard Banner's murmuring correctly. He needed fresh readings to track the Space Stone and that was just not going to happen until they had the mind stone in their possession.

Which would not happen until they met Loki and so far, SHIELD had not found Loki or any sign of…

"We need to go. Loki has been spotted," Captain America barged into the lab and said, all decked out in his uniform with the iconic vibranium shield in his hand.

"Let's go," Finally, some action.

"See ya, Doctor," He nodded at Banner and then after opening a portal in front of him that led straight to the bridge, entered it to see the bridge a whirlwind of activity.

"You! What are the limits of your portals? Can you make one to Germany right now?" Fury stomped towards him as soon as he spotted him and Captain America exiting the portal.

"Sure, where is Loki?" he asked him as he made the show of extending his left arm in front of him, facing towards the huge glass windows that showed the clouds floating outside.

"Wait! We don't want the entire Helicarrier going to Stuttgart," Coulson exclaimed as he came running after him.

"Oh, you don't? Stuttgart it is then," He said purposefully, enjoying the way Fury's eyes widened dramatically at the implication that he could open a portal large enough to transport something as big as the Helicarrier, to potentially any location in the world.

"Come on, Captain, we don't have time to waste," He gestured to Captain as the portal opened in front of him.

He then turned to Fury as another portal opened up in front of the Helicarrier, much smaller than the one he would have made had he needed to transport the entire ship. This one was just large enough for a skilled pilot to take a Quinjet through.

He then fixed it so that it would remain geo-locked to The Helicarrier's position and just before entering the previous portal, he pointed to the portal that had appeared on one of the bigger screens and said, "For the jet,"

The next moment, he found himself standing in front of a small forest. He…probably should have taken a look at the exact location of Loki. No worries, an easily solvable problem.

"Where are we? Where is Lokiii," The Captain certainly did not take it kindly that he covered him in a barrier as they rocketed towards the area where the city was most congested.

"You are in the right direction. I am right on your tail," His comms crackled to life as he looked back to see a Quinjet hot on their tail. The Captain, having recovered from the surprise rocketed takeoff, responded, "Copy that, Romanoff. Prep for prisoner transport,"

"YOu sound confident, Captain. This is someone who was hailed as a god one day," Romanoff's voice sounded amused as they soon came across a large courtyard currently filled with people and a bunch of Loki copies.

"Well, I know one thing, Mam. There is only one god and he does not look like that," The Captain said and gave him a look. He obliged and dispelled the barrier, but not before giving him a little boost.

From the looks of it, the Captain was not expecting his fall to turn into a boosted one instead of a free-falling one but even then, he acted remarkably quickly and turned himself into a battering ram, with the Vibranium shield at the peak.

In the meantime, he had already cast a spell that was basically a fancy heat camera that allowed him to see what was Illusion and what was Loki, allowing him to accurately shoot the Captain towards the real version. He had to say, real sloppy of Loki to cast an illusion that could have been unravelled by someone with a heat camera. Shows the extent to which his mental state must have destabilised because of all the things he went through under Thanos' tender mercies. He had to pity Loki, but not the Loki who would gladly sacrifice a bunch of mortals to get a win over Thor but the one who understood the sacrifice he had to make, in order to ensure the stability of the multiverse. The Loki who realised the burden of being powerful, of being the only one having the power to make it right, the burden of not giving oneself any other choice than the right choice.

Meanwhile, the severely mentally deranged Loki was standing in the middle of a couple of people and was pointing his sceptre at an elderly person who had stood up.

"Look to your elderly, people. Let him be an exa–ghh," His speech was cut short as the Captain slammed into him with very high speed, allowing him to throw Loki's real body across the courtyard, away from the congregation of people around him that Loki could have used as hostages. Of course, he had discreetly used his barriers to remove the people as soon as Loki had noticed something coming at him at very high speeds otherwise many people would have been caught in the ditch that Loki dug into the ground as the Captain kept pushing Loki as far as he could, clearly understanding Jack;s intention to separate Loki from the normal people.

Unfortunately, Loki managed to free himself and shoot at Captain who promptly ducked behind his shield and created a distance between Loki and himself, coming to stand behind his own floating form and the Quinjet looming behind both of them like a shadow.

"Give up, Loki. You are outnumbered,"

He left the talking to the Captain since he was the higher-ranking officer on the ground and he had no interest in talking to this version of Loki. He was just an abused venomous snake as of now and not even the majestic god-like snake he would become later on. Right now, he was not even a shadow of his full potential.

Loki stood up and surveyed the forces assorted against him and made the very stupid decision to engage with them.

"Ah, the soldier lost in time and the enigma," Loki said even as he charged his sceptre which glowed with an ever-increasing blue glow. Still, he had the sceptre pointed downward so neither he nor the Captain reacted beyond subtly tensing his body on the Captain's part.

"I know all about the soldier, it is you I am inte-"

Loki's tirade was cut short as the cloaked form of a very surprised Loki appeared a mere foot away from them, his sceptre stopped a mere inch away from his forehead by a green barrier.

He looked Loki in the eyes and after noting the blueness of his irises, pushed the barrier away violently, flunging Loki directly into another one of his barriers which then proceeded to crush him flat against the ground, cratering it even more.

"How did you know about his illusions?" The Captain asked as he continued to look around, trying to spot Loki's next tricks. He was also very startled when the barrier that was suppressing Loki and rubbing his nose in the ground was shattered into pieces as Loki, with a particularly high-pitched snarl, jumped out of the crater and aimed his sceptre at him. He could see that his last attack had damaged him a little as his hands trembled a bit as he charged up another one of his attacks.

He purposefully let Loki break through his barrier that time. Though, he did make him struggle a bit and call upon more of the spectre's powers before he did so. No reason to show Loki all his cards, especially since the time to shut down this entire time had not yet come.

He looked at the charging up blast and smiled upon hearing the faint whine that was identical to that of a repulsor array running at full throttle, along with the AC/DC that began blaring in their comms, and waved his arm, creating a large block of green and just dropped it in between Loki and them, creating a large horizontal line in between.

Loki faltered as his attack just hit the barrier and dissipated harmlessly, leaving nary a trace on the huge barrier he had summoned wordlessly. He had not even moved from his spot ever since landing here. Technically, he was not even on land as he was floating above the land minutely.

Before Loki could do something else, Stark, in all of his gold and red glory, landed in front of him and then pointed a plethora of weapons, most of which promised painful injuries, at Loki, who immediately pointed the sceptre up and began kneeling down with his hands up.

"Yo, greenie, mind lowering the huge block?" Stark looked up at him with his face plate up.

He groaned internally at the lackadaisical approach. Hawkeye was still in Loki's grasp and lord knows how but that man was the best known sniper this world had ever seen. Even enhanced people did not have as good of an aim as he did. Probably something to do with minute genetic advantages that allowed his brain to evolve into a point-and-shoot calculation machine, probably one in a billion chances of that happening and the man took full advantage of that to turn into the gold standard of sniping.

Honestly, it was as if the writers gave him the bow and arrow more as a nerf tool rather than a standard weapon choice.

Even so, he did as Stark asked and willed the barrier to disappear. Stark's suit rather clumsily walked to Loki's location and pulled out something from the surprise storage container located on his back and slapped it on Loki's hands. So they were just fancy handcuffs on them.

Still, he was surprised to see this new barrier. It was significantly bulkier than he remembered it being. It also housed a bigger block at the back, probably both as an armour and a place to store things. He wondered what else had Stark added this time. Probably added a few things to work against him if needed, not that it would work anyway.

"Boys," Romanoff greeted them as the Quinjet landed, its ramp lowering down in their direction.

"Mr.Stark," The Captain greeted Stark as Iron Man pulled Loki up and then strapped him down in one of the seats, again using some sort of specialised rope that Stark pulled out of his back storage pocket.

"Will they hold?" Romanoff looked back and asked, as the Quinjet began taking off.

"Please. I made them. They will hold, Romanoff, don't doubt me. By the way, miss me?" Stark said as he sat down in one of the seats. Or rather, tried to anyway. Upon realising the weight of his suits, he just leaned against a wall and just froze his servos or something, to relax. Honestly, he should just come out but his ego would not allow him to admit any fault in his designs.

Romanoff just rolled her eyes and focused on piloting the jet.

He looked at Loki who was currently glaring daggers at him. He was tempted to bind him with his barriers as well but Thor was coming and no point coming off as too aggressive at the get-go. So, he just sat there cross-legged, floating in the air, seemingly meditating as he willed for his flaming eyes to close.

In reality, he was concentrating on his senses and flaring them outwards through the dozens of small barriers that littered the area around the Quinjet. He wanted to see if he could get a glimpse into the Bi-Frost and see how that worked out. He expected it to fail obviously but there was no harm in trying, especially since the event of Odin using his Odin Force to force open the Bi-Frost would not happen ever again.

"So, any reason we are not on an expressway to the base using the portals that our resident Green Torch can just summon at will,"

Of course, expecting to be able to focus on something else with Tony Stark sharing the same place would have been a fool's errand anyway.

"Doesn't work that way," He rumbled, using his extra deep voice, and then went silent, hoping against all odds that Stark would take the clue, not that it would ever happen.

As expected…. "So how does it work, then? Can't open a portal to a place that is constantly moving? Hmm, then technically, the Earth is also moving so how do you decide which place to open a portal to? Also, how does that work anyway? How do you make the laws of physics your bitch every time you open a swirling orange hole in the sky?"

He sighed internally and his shoulders drooped a bit, visible even to the outside. He was really hoping not to encounter mad scientist Tony today.

THUD!

Oh, thank god. He tried not to let his relief show too much as thunder rumbled all around the jets. His barriers detected a huge spike of energy that temporarily overwhelmed all other data he was getting from his barriers before the sound of impact over their Quinjet. It was too short of a spike as Thor was transported to the exact location of Loki.

His gaze snapped to the ramp as it was forcefully lowered and Thor came stomping in, straight towards the currently strapped in Loki.

Stark tried to stand in between but Thor just shoved him back which, combined with the haste with which Stark had stood up from his servo lock, caused him to take back several steps uncontrollably.

Thor took one look at the straps and handcuffs and ripped off the straps with contemptuous ease. He then grabbed Loki's suit and just jumped out of the Quinjet, all the while ramp's servos sparked as they tried to deal with the sudden application of the strength of Asgard's Crown Prince.

"Stark, you said they would hold," Romanoff quipped as she tried to steady the Quinjet amidst the turbulence they were experiencing.

Stark did not reply, probably nursing his bruised ego, as he stood up and stomped towards the ramp, evidently intending to pursue Thor and Loki.

"Performance issues? I have heard they are more common in men your–" he quipped at Stark, taking great pleasure in the way he paused and turned around to glare at him menacingly. No, literally, that petty man had inserted LEDs into his headpiece that increased their brightness to really deliver the fact that he was glaring at someone, not just looking at them through the eyepieces.

He then turned around and flew into the clouds. His eyes widened minutely as he noticed the huge block on his back also activating auxiliary repulsors to increase the overall thrust as Stark almost immediately broke the sound barrier, adding to the turbulence they were experiencing.

He moved his finger and the turbulence instantly stopped as the entire Quinjet was covered with his barrier, allowing Romanoff to steady the jet.

"Thanks," She muttered to him as he sat in the same place, cross-legged, looking at the ramp which was trying to close itself but clearly failing.

The Captain, in a rare fit of decisiveness ever since he woke up in the modern world, donned a nearby parachute and looked at him, "Well?"

"You should go. Stark would probably need you," He looked past Steve to look at Romanoff who smirked at him, "After all, men his age do indeed have performance issues,"

Steve looked confused at the byplay but he nodded as his eyes flamed back to life, his form unfurling to stand back at his almost 8 ft height. He looked at the strapped with parachute Steve and willed for two separate barriers to envelop their forms and slowly exited the Quinjet. He then turned around and forced the ramp to close up and used some of the debris to create a lock around it.

After seeing that the ramp was closed, he turned around and zoomed towards the area where the thunder was most rampant, his speed creating a sonic boom even bigger than Stark's as he had long since controlled his flight speeds. At this point, he could do sustained flights of speeds exceeding Mach 6, which was pretty good.

He arrived on the battlefield to see Loki standing over a rock, clearly having fun as he watched his brother and Stark duke it out.

Well, that would just not do, he thought to himself as another barrier appeared on top of Loki and just…pressed.

Once again, bullying the current Loki was funny even if his condition was pitiful.

After subduing Loki and assigning the Captain to watch over him, he turned his attention to the aforementioned duking it out that was happening in front of him.

In the canon timeline, the fight in front of him would have been much less of a duking it out and much more of one side trying to survive the blows of the other party. It was clear that had Thor truly wanted Tony dead, Tony would have been dead, no ifs and buts about it.

The scenario in front of him was quite different. Thor was apparently hitting Tony with Mjolnir and lightning full force and he even had some scuff marks on him, which was surprising.

Tony, was apparently sporting a barrier that glowed a very subtle blue in one of his hands, which was doing an admirable job of blocking Thor's lightning and absorbing enough of Mjolnir's blows that Tony's suit was not instantly going out of operation in a single hit.

He could see Thor growing frustrated at the constant repulsor attacks that Tony was subjecting him to, not to mention the mounting frustration at not felling someone who was a mortal with just fancy technology. His doubts were proven true, when in the next moment, Thor just whacked Tony's shield so hard that it shattered but it did its job, allowing Tony to survive that blow.

He could see smoke coming out of Tony's backpack as it fell off his back, the red in it visible even from so far away. So, that was how Tony had achieved the power necessary to power a shield capable of taking hits from even Thor.

In the future, Tony would certainly have the tools necessary to sustain such a shield but seeing it today meant that Tony had certainly taken inspiration from his own barriers and from the looks of it, succeeded.

Thor, apparently eager to finish the troublesome fight and get back to his brother, called upon lightning and after lighting up a significant portion of the forest, threw the same lightning at Tony who braced for the impact.

Why was he not flying? His eyes narrowed as he looked at the deformed hands and legs. Ah, Thor must have grown wary of them.

"Hah, serves him right," he muttered to himself as he stood on the same ledge where Loki stood a few moments ago.

The ensuing impact lighted up another significant portion of the forest. Thor turned around, assuming that the job was finished but he was surprised as he looked behind. He must have sensed something.

Right in front of a very braced-for impact Tony was a huge barrier that had tanked Thor's attack and had broken down from it. Well, at least that was what it looked like. He was so going to make fun of Tony for trying to brace against lighting by putting his metal arms near his metal head. Hah, what a rush!

Thor's gaze snapped towards him as he floated down to him.

"Prince Thor, I am sorry you had to see your brother captive but he has something that is incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands and we must retrieve it. I suggest we cooperate because that is in everyone's best interest, including Loki's," He said and inclined his head towards a handcuffed and strapped Loki who was, once again, hatefully glaring at him.

Unsurprising.

"Release my Brother!" Thor roared as he jumped up in the air, hammer drawn and lightning dancing on top of Mjolnir.

He sighed internally. Why did he expect them to act like their mature selves?

The ones that had matured due to the losses they had suffered. Losses that they had yet to go through yet and hopefully, never had to go through, courtesy of him. But then, would they even become the same beacons of hope and strength that they would turn into, in the future? Or would he be worsening the future if he tried to make their current lives easier?

No, he cannot think like that. He must believe that there is a better future there and he would do everything in his power to make it come true.

Those thoughts ran through his mind in an instant as he raised his arm towards the falling form of Thor as a huge barrier sprang forth from his hands, enveloping the crashing form of Lighting, lighting up the entire barrier as arches of lightning danced around it.

There was a huge gonging noise as Mjolnir, the closest thing to an unstoppable object in the Nine Realms, met his barriers, the closest thing to an immovable thing.

The result was……

---

Word Count - 3725

If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.

A/N - This, in my opinion, is the best chapter I have written to date.

Enjoy!

P.S - Longest chapter yet. Am I on a roll or what?

The average Word Count so far is almost 2700 words which is insane to think of when the first ever chapter I wrote was only about 1100 words and in my mind, that was enough as a chapter.

Now? That would be a synopsis.

Ah, how the days go by.

P.P.S - Anyway, it is 3 AM here and I am rambling. Good night.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Stuttgart, Germany May 4, 2012

–Steve Rogers–

When he had first awoken in this strange new world, he was surprised, wary, a bit glad, and a little sad. Mostly because he had a date he needed to get to which he missed. At the same time, he was also a little glad because he got to live again when he had crashed the ship into the ice, fully prepared to die.

Because that's who he was, the perfect soldier, the person who would not hesitate to sacrifice everything he had to make sure that good prevailed over evil.

Except…he did not feel like that guy these days. The war was over, the good guys won and everybody got to go back home. Except…him.

He had visited his old house, to see if he could feel some sort of familiarity with it but that turned out to be a lost cause. Sure, the buildings looked the same from the outside but the people, the feel, the noises, the kids, the cars, everything. Nothing was the same.

So, he did what was expected of him. He tried to move on, to get a handle on this new lease of life that was given to him by God's grace.

Except….he did not know how.

All his life, he had been the scrawny one. The little one. And even then, the war had been a major part of his scrawny life where he had wanted nothing more than to join the war efforts and help the good guys win. Then, he had met Doctor Erskeine and war only became a more important thing in his life.

So much so that at this point in his life, he had…forgotten. Forgotten how to live without having the constant shadow of war over his head.

He tried. He really did. To live in a world that didn't need him anymore. That didn't need a super soldier to win wars because the wars he was used to, didn't really happen anymore.

Sure, he was still stronger than anyone the Army could throw at him, but he had seen the news on the strange thing called the Internet. Stark, for one, had suits that could fold him in half from far away and do the same to dozens of others, all without needing to undergo any life-threatening procedure.

Whereas he was the same, capable of taking down platoons by himself but that's not how the current wars were fought. There was no large-scale war where he could be deployed. No, as far as his SHIELD handler could explain to him, there were only small battles, not even between countries but between organisations that could be declared as rogue at a moment's notice if their dastardly deeds ever came to public attention.

Then, he encountered the Green Guardian. He had seen him fly around the city, patrolling the city and stopping many crimes on his way. Almost like clockwork, the Green Giant would come floating in the air during the day and would descend with the sun, making the city a supremely safe place during the day.

He had even met him briefly but he did not get much out of him and honestly, he was also not in the right space of mind to perform a subtle interrogation. He was just happy that even after having such tremendous powers, the person chose to use his powers for good.

The SHIELD interest in him was warranted but he never gave them anything beyond him spotting him and coming to meet him in his gym, the same gym that Bucky used to go to, when he was enlisted in the army and he was but a scrawny man.

He was already feeling out of place in this modern world, wasting away slowly but surely with nowhere to apply his skills when the call for this mission came. He had been a little happy about it at first then he realised who the other members were. He had already been feeling a little useless in the entire scenario but seeing the scenario play out in front of him just drove in the fact.

Seeing Stark and Thor's fight had already proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that even with his shield, he could probably only barely survive even one of their onslaughts.

Then he was surprised to see Stark's shield breaking and Thor just sending a vast amount of lightning at Stark's suit. He was about to say something but stopped when he saw the Green Guardian move. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the green barrier which protected Tony from the attack.

He secured Loki and stood on the edge of the cliff as he saw the Green Guardian float down to the ground, requesting Thor to cooperate with them. His words were true but Thor took one look at the restrained Loki and not liking what he saw, jumped up with his hammer glowing white from all the lightning falling down on it from the sky.

He tensed, even though he knew within that even if there were a hundred of him, there was no way to truly stop that attack. Even then, he released Loki and reached for his shield to try and throw it in between the attack to give some breathing room but before he could even get a hold of his shield, he saw the Green Guardian with his arm outstretched towards Thor as a huge green wall appeared in front of him, tanking all the lightning attacks and in the next moment, Thor's hammer struck the barrier, lighting up his vision with white.

He shielded his eyes and dropped his shield, to hold onto Loki as well. The task was made harder by the shockwave that appeared after the loud noise which destabilised the entire hill, making them fall down on their butts.

He hurriedly blinked the spot out of his vision and sat upright, looking at Loki who was looking at the scene with wide eyes.

Seeing that Loki had not fled the scene, he looked in front of him and his jaw hung agape as he looked at the absolute devastation that spread for miles. Where before there was a huge vibrant green forest, was now a ravine that seemed to stretch for miles.

He looked at the green glow that appeared out of all the dust that had been raised and was relieved to see that everyone was still upright, standing in the crater that had formed.

Thor was shaking his hand as he looked at the still-standing shield with wide disbelieving eyes. Tony was standing behind a smaller green barrier that seemed to have protected him from the worst of the shockwave.

_________xx_______

–Jack Sullivan–

"Can we talk now?" He asked as the barrier that had just tanked Mjolnir's attack dissipated. Well, that was not exactly true. Thor had unexpectedly broken through six of the seven layers of barriers that he had cast, in the expectation that Mjolnir would break through some of them. The last barrier had then flung him and Mjolnir back.

Good to know that he could stop even Mjolnir if he wanted to. Well, a Mjolnir that was being wielded by the current Thor. When he grows into his power, he is sure that no amount of stacked barriers will be able to stop his full strength. After all, Old King Thor could wield cosmic energy with Strombreaker.

"Aye," Thor nodded as he continued to shake his numb hands. Huh, this must be a first for him. Someone stopping Mjolnir aside from the All-Father must be a huge shock.

'Just wait till you meet Hela then' He thought to himself but did not say out loud. No need to reveal that tidbit of information and send Odin to Valhalla prematurely.

He waved his hands and the barrier protecting Stark broke apart in little shards that then dissipated into thin air. He then gestured to the Quinjet that arrived behind them a moment later, "Shall we?"

He said as he floated up and created two barriers that Loki and Captain stood on, bringing them up to the ramp that he had to force open because the mechanism was all busted. Eventually, he just removed the ramp and tossed it aside, seeing that its structural integrity was busted beyond repair.

He then looked down to see Tony and Thor standing side by side, looking up at them.

Ah, Tony did not have his repulsors and Thor cannot truly fly. Once the Captain and Loki entered the Quinjet, he waved his hand, sending the barriers flying down to stop in front of Thor and Tony. Both of them stood on it as the barrier began, slowly, taking them up to the Quinjet.

Once they were all in, he dispelled the smaller barriers and summoned one big one to cover the entirety of the behind of the Quinjet, airlocking it.

"Good to go now, Romanoff," He said as he floated cross-legged and "closed" his flaming eyes to show he was meditating. In truth, he was looking at the situation unfolding as Tony tried to remove his bunged-up suit but all its release mechanisms were partially compromised, it would seem. He could come out of it but doing so was unnecessarily risky considering he would get access to proper tools on the Helicarrier. He was also keeping a close eye on his mental shields as he had the Sceptre in a green barrier, encased under multiple layers of barriers. Hopefully, it did not affect his mind and it should not, considering his training but one could never be sure with Infinity Stones in the mix.

"Roger that," Romanoff muttered as the Quinjet rocketed off, straight to the Helicarrier.

…..

…

"Hello, I am Steve Rogers," The Captain said as he looked at Thor, trying to start a conversation.

"Well met, Steve Rogers. I am Thor Odinson," Thor greeted back as he fiddled with the straps.

The conversation died there with the occasional sounds of something sparking in Tony's suit or the back plate he was carrying disrupting the awkward silence but that was more or less how their entire ride went to the Helicarrier.

Soom, they found themselves landing on the Helicarrier. It was a surreal sight, to see a floating ship in the sky as the ramp was completely transparent, only tinged with green as they slowly positioned for the landing.

"Uh, Romanoff? Are YOu sure this bunged-up thing can land properly?" Stark asked Romanoff as he looked at a display that his suit was projecting, showing the Quinjet and the data from various sensors.

"Says the man wearing metal armour," Romanoff quipped as she focused on the landing.

He sighed and waved his arm, covering the entirety of the Quinjet in his barriers, "Just cut the engine, Romanoff,"

"Well well well, look who can talk now," Stark snarked but he stayed quiet and waited for Romanoff to shut down the engine.

As soon as she did that, red alarms began blaring in the Quinjet but he slowly lowered the jet to safely land on the landing strip. They were surrounded by platoons of heavily armed SHIELD agents as he created a makeshift ramp using his powers and alighted from the jet.

The agents took Loki to take him to his special prison, most probably. All the others waited at the Quinjet for Romanoff to come out and then followed her in the opposite direction.

"Gentlemen, Stark, this way please," She said and took them to the bridge where Fury was, once again, waiting for him. He had a sense of Deja vu as Fury glared at him and Thor for some reason. Stark had already slinked off to get out of his suit and would probably join them or Banner after that, he did not know.

"Do you have any idea how much money the Germans are asking for? You guys damn near destroyed one of their protected forests during your slug match," Fury did not shout but it was a close thing.

"What?" Was the only thing Thor could say to that because to him, destroying a couple of trees must just be another Tuesday. For a civilization that had no appreciation for nature's gifts, it was an outrage. They probably could have destroyed a small town and would have gotten less flak because of the insurance payments they would have gotten. The buildings could be built in years but the trees, especially those old-growth forests could take centuries.

"Just pass on the bill to Stark. We all know he was the one who started the fight,"

"Aye, Metal Man ambushed me," Thor said and he could see Fury process the gal on that man as Thor had been the one who had just ambushed a Quinjet and ripped out Loki, his seat included with him and just flown out of the jet. Tony was just going after the person who just broke a prisoner out of their custody.

"Whoa, whoa. Why me? Most of the damage occurred because of Point Break's hammer fight with Greenie here. Why do I have to foot the entire bill," Stark said as he entered the bridge, a pack of strawberries in his hand as he snacked while walking along the command bridge.

"Well, I suppose you can take out my share of the fine from all the royalty you owe me," He rumbled as he stood there, ramrod straight. The Captain just looked confused at the by-play, as did everyone else.

Fury turned to Stark, only for him to narrow his eyes at Jack, "What Royalty?"

"Oh, don't play coy with me, Stark. I saw the barriers you used. It is so obvious you got the inspiration from me," He said.

"I am not even going to dignify that with a response," Stark said as he strutted to the command console where Hill was standing. Then, he did the iconic scene where he subtly placed a bug on the console stand as he distracted everyone by the insensitive act of placing one hand on his eye and then asking how Fury saw the other display.

"Stark, now that you are here, I want you to help Dr.Banner track down the Tesseract,"

"OK, I don't take orders from you…but it does seem infinitely more interesting than seeing your face," Saying that absolute banger of an insult, Stark turned around and went on his way, presumably to the Lab.

"Stark, this will help," He said and floated over the Sceptre to Stark who leaned away from the pointy staff. He rolled his eyes and then walked towards him.

"Let's go," He said and started walking ahead, leaving Fury and Thor to discuss. He was not inclined to listen to the interrogation. Prioritising Banner was the smart thing to do. He was the most destructive person on the ship, after him of course.

Romanoff would warn them about Loki's plan to release the Hulk on the ship soon anyway. He was more curious about any countermeasures that Loki might have devised for him specifically considering he was now intimately aware of his strength. For all of Loki's life, Thor was considered the gold standard for strength. That standard was raised even more when Thor got Mjolnir. Mjolnir, in Loki's mind, must be the symbol of invincibility, and seeing that get stopped right in its tracks must leave some sort of mark on Loki's mind.

He was curious as to how Loki might respond, considering the big variable in plans that was his existence.

"You seriously think I copied your powers?" Stark said as they entered the Lab. Dr.Banner looked up from his display and was very startled when he saw the Sceptre following them into the lab, probably already knowing its mind-control properties.

"Didn't you?" He said and then floated over the Tesseract and deposited it on the empty table nearby.

"Dr.Banner, match the readings from this sceptre and then search for them. The Tesseract and this worked very similar so I believe they have some sort of connection that allowed Loki to arrive at the same spot as the Tesseract,"

Dr.Banner nodded and got to work on setting up the scanners.

"...Okay, you could make the case that I got some inspiration from your barriers but you have no patent to speak of. How would you even patent your biological powers anyway? Anyway, if you really need the money, just tell me and I can set you up. You know, I have hit a roadblock in strengthening the shield and cannot think of any other option other than throwing more juice at it. Any chance you can-"

"Do you ever shut up?" Tony leaned back, very surprised by the insulting question.

He sighed, "Look, we can talk later, once the Tesseract is secured. I am sure you know how much damage it can do in the wrong hands. Especially with the data you will get from Jarvis once he is done running through SHIELD's database,"

"What? You are doing what?!" The Captain said as he entered the lab.

"Oh yeah, in about a couple of minutes, I will have cracked the mother vault and know every deep dark secret of SHIELD. Blueberry?" He offered it to Steve who just looked outraged and confused at the same time. It was kind of amusing to watch the perfect soldier's brain stop for a split second because the person in front of him was just so good at doing that to people.

"And you support this?" He turned to Dr.Banner and Jack.

He didn't have anything to say but Dr.Banner did, "Just look, this seems suspicious. What was SHIELD doing in the energy sector anyway? And if they were, why not bring in the world's foremost expert on clean energy right now?"

"Exactly! I am so glad someone speaks my language here. Blueberries?" Stark exclaimed as he thrust the pack of blueberries at Banner who just waved it off.

"Just, Steve, doesn't it look at least a little shady to you?"

Steve's face looked conflicted as he said, "Just…find the Tesseract," He then stormed off, presumably to look for evidence, as he did in the movies.

Now, all that was left was Romanoff and Fury coming here to isolate Banner, to ignite the spark that would end in Loki escaping his prison.

---

Word Count - 3103

If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

SHIELD Helicarrier, [May 4, 2012]

–Jack Sullivan–

Hmm. THis was interesting.

He was currently floating cross legged at one corner of the lab where Tony and Banner were working furiously on their screens. Tony was probably trying to accelerate the hacking of SHIELD databases and Banner was actually trying to find the Tesseract so he could get out of this place as soon as possible.

This must have been so out of his comfort zone, it was not even funny. The man was happy treating patients in a remote corner of the world and SHIELD had pulled him in, that too with a proposition that would have been impossible to ignore for someone with his morals.

He was currently sensing the mystical undercurrents in the room and somehow, the moment he tried to expand his senses, he could find traces of the sceptre's influence, minor as it was, on both Bruce and Tony. Strangely, he could not find any deviation in their behaviour but that must have been due to most of the sceptre's powers being confined in his barriers.

Once Dr.Banner had taken the necessary readings, he had swiftly contained the sceptre in one of his barriers and had him float right beside him, making it clear to anyone watching that he did not trust anyone with that sceptre. In the minutes it had been out of his barriers, it had already taken its poisonous roots in the minds of both Banner and Stark.

He did not want anybody else to get influenced by it, however minuscule the chance may be. He was already taking an immense risk being so close to the sceptre itself but he had no choice. He had to make it very clear to the people in the know about the dangers associated with the sceptre and without him being around on the Helicarrier, who knows how many lives the Hulk would claim before he was thrown off the Helicarrier, not to mention the damage done and the sceptre itself being stolen.

"Green Guardian," The sound of the doors opening brought his attention to Maria Hill, who was standing at the door and looking straight at him.

He willed for the two flaming eyes to open, signalling that he was looking at her.

"Director Fury would like a word," She said, as her gaze slid to the sceptre almost automatically. Huh, so even this wasn't able to completely stop its insidious abilities. Makes sense since it is powered by an Infinity Stone.

"Very well," His form unfurled as his head almost touched the ceiling due to the height of this avatar.

"Lead the way," He made to follow her when Stark called out, making both of them stop in their tracks.

"Wait! We need the sceptre for more readings. You can take the Green Gundam but leave the sceptre behind," Banner nodded alongside Stark, giving credibility to his statement.

Sigh, so this was the universe's way of making things happen the same way? He could try and force the issue but no point stopping things from happening when he was but a portal away. Besides, he had to stop the Helicarrier from just tipping over once the engines gave out and he was not sure if he could get enough time to start one of the engines as well as throw Hulk out of the ship.

Huh, who was he kidding? He could and would totally do both with ease. After all, he had yet to find something that could easily break up his barriers and he was not expecting someone to just magically pop up who could do that now.

…….He just tempted Murphy, didn't he?

"Fine," He willed the barrier to drop the sceptre on one of the tables, where it rested with a clanging sound. He could almost feel the immediate change in the air as the sceptre was now free to do its bidding as it pleased.

Both of them maintained silence as they walked back to the bridge. He did not have much to speak of anyway.

As they reached the bridge, he could see the whirlwind of activity, along with someone playing Galaga on their primary screen, which seemed to go unnoticed by everyone involved or the more likely scenario being they knew but they tolerated it for some reason. Something to figure out later on.

The more important thing was…

"Where's Fury?"

He looked around the entire bridge and failed to spot that walking talking mass of paranoia.

"Uh, he was just here. I do not–"

"Agent Hill, Director Fury, and Agent Romanoff just departed from the bridge," One of the no-name agents came close and whispered to her, even though he could totally hear everything. So, Romanoff had figured something out from Loki then. They were probably on their way there to isolate Banner from the rest which would go sooo well now that everybody in that room was dosed with mind-tampering energy from the sceptre.

"Hill, look for any anomalies. I will go and see what has happened," He said and began floating to the lab when, as if the universe had time it exactly, an explosion occurred as the entire Helicarrier groaned.

Showtime!

He smirked as his form glowed as he breached the walls like they were wet tissue to reach the lab to find the lab to be nothing but a giant smoking crater. He looked at Tony who was just getting up from the ground and gave him a little boost, nudging him towards the place where his suit was kept. He didn't even know if it had any flight capabilities left or not.

"Fury, go, I'll handle him. But just in case, send Thor,"

Fury nodded and after taking a deep look at him and the departing back of Stark, ran back to the bridge, barking out orders after orders into his comms. He looked at the hole and slowly dropped down into it to see the same scenario from the movies.

Romanoff was trapped under a ton of rubble and Banner was on the verge of Hulking out. His neck had already turned green as Romanoff tried to say something to him. Apparently, she said the wrong thing because Banner's neck suddenly snapped out as his entire body started hulking out.

So much for the "sun's getting real low" talk.

He waved his arms and cast ultra-thin small barriers that entered the small crevices around Romanoff and then lifted the rubble off her leg. She looked at him as a barrier covered her form and flicked her off to the upper floor. He was confident in her ability to stop Hawkeye.

He would have to handle Banner before he ended up destroying the rest of the engines. He looked at the raging snarling Hulk who jumped out and tried to punch him right in the face.

The keyword here being "tried". A barrier stopped his fist as a huge shockwave wrecked what was left of their surroundings. He looked wide-eyed at the fist that had breached almost all of his barriers before it was stopped.

He looked at the raging Hulk as he once again tried to jump him but this time, he was ready. He summoned two barriers around his ankles and then snapped them together and then…pulled.

Hulk's face was one of surprise as he was pulled straight into the floor, into the lower levels which he knew were evacuated. Those were the floors where the jets and the military vehicles were kept in storage, making it mostly empty at most times let alone now when there was an evacuation order in place.

He jumped down in the level to see the Hulk's face set in a rictus of grimace as he pulled at his bonds and to his surprise, managed to break them apart with a roar that seemingly shook the entirety of the Helicarrier.

No, it was not his roar that shook the Helicarrier, he thought to himself as he watched everything begin tilting to one side. The engine had shut down, most probably due to Hawkeye's intervention.

He had no time for this, he immediately "Hulked Out" as well, assuming a much larger frame, and just tackled Hulk through wall after wall, his back barriers breaking with the Hulk's punches only for another to take its place. Even through the barriers, along with their capability to absorb part of the blow, he could feel the shockwaves of his punches.

Man, he really was the strongest there was.

Fortunately, strong he might be but he was no strategy expert. He was able to push him through a dozen walls before they exited the Helicarrier. The Hulk continued to punch and break his barriers as they exited the lower levels of the carrier. He looked towards the Helicarrier, pushing away Hulk from him by disengaging most of his barriers and slipping through the underneath of his avatar and his eyes widened to saucer-like proportions as he saw that the Helicarrier was tilting dangerously to one side.

No, he thought to himself as hundreds of barriers immediately covered his form, as he rocketed to the top of the Helicarrier to check on the situation. He froze in shock to see two engines down from the four but the situation now was different, he thought to himself as he gulped, his throat turning dry from the stress of the situation.

Both of the failed engines were now on the same side, ensuring that the Helicarrier and everyone on it were now headed to a fiery death. He waved his hands and as if swatting away annoying flies, he destroyed two Quinjets which were firing at him.

He had no time to worry about them as they most probably fell to their deaths. He flew underneath the Heliacrrier and once again, cursed himself for not having one of their comms. Stupid rookie mistake!

He could not spot Stark anywhere near the engine. He must be down here by now, working to force start the engine to make sure that the Helicarrier could make at least a controlled landing.

"Fuck this!" He exclaimed as he spread both his arms apart, creating the densest, strongest layer of barriers he had ever made.

"More!" He cursed himself as thousands of large barriers layered on top of each other, attached themselves to the underside of the Helicarrier.

"Bleurgh," He puked out blood as the barriers began breaking apart one by one as the weight of the Helicarrier settled on top of his barriers.

"Come on, Stark. Anytime now," He just needed one of those two engines online and he would be free to kick those bastard's asses to hell. Fuck the plan, he would bitch slap Loki and Hawkeye the moment he got out of this fucking situation. He was stretched so thin that he could not even focus on the senses granted to him through his barriers, so great was the pain from maintaining all these barriers. He had to constantly make newer ones to replace the ones breaking down from all the weight. The situation had come to the point where the sole protection he had for his body was the standard second skin which was his powers' automatic defense protocol and nothing more. He had not been this vulnerable in months. He made sure to keep the size the same as his Gundam to hide his identity but at this point, it would not take much for his identity to be revealed.

He kept looking at the undersides of the engines to see if he could spot any Red or Gold.

Unfortunately, he did not find Iron Man but…..

"NO!" He screamed with all his being as a jet, seemingly on a suicide mission, rammed itself into the housing of one of the engines, lighting up the entire thing as the ensuing explosion, broke that part away from the entire Helicarrier.

His neck snapped to the other side as he saw another jet about to do the same to the other engine, "NO!"

He screamed as he willed for one of his barriers to stop the jet. A single tiny barrier was all he could build, in the middle of building and rebuilding thousands of large barriers as they broke down from all the weight.

He watched as the small barrier, seemingly tiny in front of the huge expanse of green behind it, was about to breach the jet's nose when his entire form jerked forward because of another explosion that happened right behind him, as another large part of debris hit his head and tumbled down from the sky.

He looked behind to see a hangar with jets exploding one after the other. The lapse in concentration cost him as the jet successfully rammed itself into the other engine as well, destroying any chance of him getting free from the Helicarrier.

"Holy Shit!" He heard someone exclaim behind him. He turned to see only to freeze in shock as something went right through his chest. His barriers were bypassed entirely as a knife was now poking out of his stomach.

He slowly looked behind him to see a mass of brunette hair and blue eyes looking menacingly before they were blasted apart by the telltale sign of a repulsor array.

The person was grinning maniacally at him before another repulsor blasted him at center mass. He watched, transfixed, his injury temporarily forgotten, as the man's chest turned into fog and the repulsor blast passed straight through, his chest turning to normal later on.

"Jack!" The worry and fear in Tony's voice was clear to hear. He kept on looking at the person though, making sure to memorise their features in his mind. The person took one look at Tony and him, mockingly saluted him, and just phased into the ground, his body once again turning into fog as he escaped them.

He coughed out even more blood as the added strain of the stab wound, combined with the ever-increasing weight of the Helicarrier meant that he was currently in his worst-ever shape.

"Shit!" Stark cursed out as he spoke something in his comms.

"Not looking too good, is it?" He spoke in between coughing fits, some of the blood staining the insides of his barrier. He was finding it harder and harder to breathe and sooner or later, he would lose too much blood to continue functioning.

"No! No, this can't be happening. SOMEBODY HELP!" Stark shouted into his comms as he tried to steady his body.

"It is useless," He said as he looked at his stomach wound. The bleeding had stopped and thankfully, the blade was not enhanced or some shit, otherwise he would have been really mad.

"By the All-Father!" Thor exclaimed as he stood on the edge of the hole behind him.

"Loki," He mumbled to Tony, who understood the question and shouted at Thor, "Thor! Look for Loki. I'll do something here,"

Thor nodded hesitantly and immediately ran away.

In the meanwhile, he tried to take stock of his situation and found himself woefully lacking. He was low on…basically everything.

"Stark, is there any other way? Are we above the ocean, at least?" He asked Tony as his mind ran a mile a minute, trying to see if he could figure out a way out of this situation.

Tony paused a bit, clearly trying to figure out the answer which came a moment later, "About 4000, and yes, we are above the ocean. What do you have in mind?"

"Functioning evacuation capacity? From the Quinjets and the other jets?" He asked as he focused on rebuilding the broken barriers as they continued to lose altitude, in a controlled manner.

"It would never work. There is little time until we hit the ocean and even if we did have all the jets active, it would take multiple trips. Fury says that only two Quinjets and two F-22s are operational at the moment.

His heart sank as he realised that he would have to see it all the way.

"Stark, make sure that everybody makes it out alive. OK?" He asked Stark as his form melded back into the line of barriers, encasing him into protective layers.

He could see Stark staying there for a moment before he rocketed away. He looked down as the clouds parted, revealing a blue expanse as far as his eyes could see.

"Goddamn, this was going to hurt," He muttered to himself as he realised the extent of the situation.

Bruce was out of commission, and so was he, if he was lucky enough to make it out of here in one piece. All that was left were the decidedly human members of the team.

"Huh, so much for taking it easy," He smiled wryly, blood spilling from his lips as the entire lineup of barriers, the most he could squeeze out from his depleted stamina, crashed into the ocean. Water that felt more like solid concrete slammed into his barriers as they broke apart like fragile glass but as he drowned into the ocean, he could see that the Helicarrier was stable on the ocean.

His thoughts finally came to a halt as his vision turned blurry, the last of his protection, the second green skin, disappearing from his skin as well, finally revealing his true form to the world.

Unknown to him, as soon as the Helicarrier had crash landed, Stark had dived into the water, hell-bent on finding the kid who had just saved thousands of lives when he could have bailed at any moment, only to see that his energy signature, that Jarvis was tracking just blipped out of his radar.

"No no no no NO! Find him, JARVIS!" He shouted as his suit swam around in the vast darkness of the ocean, even when it was clear that Jack was nowhere to be found and his suit was also nearing its limits. In the end, JARVIS had to take control and bring his creator back to the surface where multiple jets were already converging, followed by warships of all sizes and shapes as the Helicarrier had made safe landing in international waters.

---

Word Count - 3064

A/N - Uh-oh.


If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

SHIELD Helicarrier, [May 4, 2012]

–Nick Fury–

He nursed his wound as he was informed of the situation of the Helicarrier by the analysts. That would not have been something that he would ask on priority though.

"Wh-" He coughed as he interrupted the agent and waved him off, the person getting the dismissal and leaving his side. Hill came to his side as she continued to keep a tally of all the damages on her tablet.

"Where is everybody?" He asked her, knowing full well that they had lost arguably the two strongest people on the team. Sure, Banner was a loose cannon at the best of times but the other person, Green Guardian, he was…

Well, he was quite literally the best combatant he had on the team. Even stronger than Thor, stronger than even Hulk in the application of his powers.

"Stark is working on his armour, the Captain is in the meeting room, accompanied by Coulson, Widow is with Hawkeye and Thor is standing on top of the Helicarrier and hasn't moved since he was found," Hill rattled off as she continued to work on her tablet as well. She was a good find and he was glad to have her by his side at this point.

"What about Banner? The Green Guardian?" He wheezed out, immediately breaking out into fits of cough later on, the goons that Loki had unleashed on the bridge certainly did their number on him. It was good that he did not hesitate in unloading his entire magazine in that bastard's body. Fucker just would not go down, despite sustaining so many injuries. It was as if his mind had been trained to just ignore pain in order to just complete their goals.

"Dr.Banner's flight path indicates a 20-mile radius where he could have landed. As for the Green Guardian, well…"

He sighed in sadness as the silence was damning enough. They had lost him, plain and simple.

Somehow, against all odds, that bastard had done the impossible and lifted the Helicarrier up on his back, allowing it to land safely. Sure, they had sustained quite a bit of hull damage but nothing unfixable, and more importantly, they had not crashed full-fledged nuclear reactors in the ocean along with having the entire crew safe and sound to fight for another day.

"About the assailants?" He questioned her once again as the medic finished dressing him, finally allowing him to get off the gurney. He absolutely hated feeling this weak but he had to work. Now was not the time to rest.

That could wait for the day he died. He was not about to take bed rest when someone out there literally died for their sake, even when he could have fled entirely, without pausing even for a beat. Hell, even killing all the assailants and then saving as many people as possible would have been praiseworthy in his opinion. Instead, they had a mostly intact Helicarrier, a partially broken team, and one confirmed death of an Avenger. The worst thing was there was nobody for Project TAHITI to do its magic, not that he was sure if it would even work on someone of his calibre anyway.

They had all watched the footage where The Green Guardian had spread himself absolutely thin, creating thousands of different barriers that literally propped up one side of the Helicarrier, long enough that the other engines could do their job as they landed in a controlled fashion.

He had watched the barriers breaking down and reforming as the weight of the Helicarrier proved to be too much for him. Even the big armoured avatar he assumed had dissipated as he seemingly used up all of his powers to try and save the Heliacrrier. That, he thought, was the reason for his defeat.

He had spread his powers too thin, allowing the unknown assailant to come close and stab him through the stomach.

They had all underestimated Loki too much. He had overestimated himself. He had never thought, in a million years, that Loki would fell the Helicarrier itself and probably already predicting the actions of the Green Guardian, must have ordered his people to suicide ram both the engines, forcing the one person who could have stopped Loki with ease, to focus his entirety on one thing and one thing only.

The person capable of bypassing the Green Guardian's barrier, thin and flimsy looking as it might have been, was a surprise on its own, even to the Green Guardian, it would seem. It was good that Stark's timely arrival managed to stop him from inflicting even more damage otherwise the Green Guardian would have lost his life and they would have all died as well.

Thinking of Stark and the others just worsened his headache. Thinking of what Loki might be up to, especially now that they had lost the single biggest gun they had against Loki, turned that headache into a migraine.

"The Assailant does not show up on any databases but we are still searching. We have asked Hawkeye about it but he only mentioned something about his memory being fuzzy when it came to that person. We have no idea about his powers but they seem to be able to phase himself both through solid matter like walls and energy constructs like the Green Guardian's barriers. He also seems to have the ability to transfer matter along with himself, judging by that knife,"

"Well, shit," He muttered to himself as he realised that this person was the perfect counter for someone like the Green Guardian. He was probably someone who had never found someone who could so easily breach his barriers, aside from God-like entities like Thor and Hulk.

"Call Thor, I need to have a chat with all of them," He grunted in pain as he stood up from the gurney, limping on one leg.

"But–"

"Just do it, Hill,"

"Affirmative,"

Hah, he just hoped that there was still some way of salvaging this.

_____xx____

Meeting Room, Helicarrier

–Tony Stark–

Tony Stark was not used to feeling this useless ever since he had gotten a second wind from Yinsen's words and the subsequent death of Ho Yinsen in his own arms. He would forever treasure the short time he had spent with Yinsen in that cave as he imparted absolutely life-changing wisdom to him in such a short time period.

Ever since that day, today was the most helpless he had ever felt in his life. He had felt the same when his parents had died and he had found himself completely useless as he couldn't do a damn to save his Mom. The same was true when Jarvis, someone who was like family to him, left him and all he could do was create a small digital interface that replicated his voice. That was how pathetic he was back then.

He had thought that his days of feeling powerless were behind him and yet, as he closed his eyes, the scenes of Jack being stabbed through the chest flashed through his mind repeatedly. The sad smile on his face as blood dripped from his wound and his mouth due to the internal injuries, was forever seared into his mind.

Even if he wanted to, there was not a damn thing he was able to do. He could not help him stop the Helicarrier in any possible way. There was nothing he could do, no suit of armour, no Arc Reactor, and no repulsor array he could build that could have held the weight of something that heavy.

They couldn't even stop Loki from escaping. Now, they had lost Jack as well as Loki's sceptre, along with the Tesseract.

The least he could do was find Jack and bring him back to the surface but even that was not possible because his body, no, he couldn't think like that, Jack was nowhere to be found.

How could he have disappeared so abruptly from his sensors? He was right there one moment and…

"Portals!" He exclaimed as he stood up, drawing confused looks from both Thor and Rogers who were both waiting for Fury to arrive because they had some sort of meeting scheduled.

Well, screw that, he thought to himself as he immediately got to work.

First of all, he had Jarvis work on finishing the three Mark IXs that were currently going through fabrication and assembly in the three different factories, in LA, Stark Tower, and SI HQ. Once any one of them was done, Jarvis would fly them out to his location post haste.

He was already borrowing the sensors of the various warships that surrounded the Helicarrier and despite their best efforts, they could not find any trace of Jack.

"What are you talking about, Stark?" Rogers asked him and he resisted the urge to blow him off. The previous jealousy and resentment seemed so pathetic when he thought of the selfless way Jack had shouldered on a weight that no human could ever hope to handle.

"Portals. Ja-The Green Guardian had the ability to make portals. I want to see if he used the same to escape," He said even though a tiny voice at the back of his mind told him that the problem was not the ability to make portals or escape from the water. The problem was Jack's condition when the Helicarrier was literally dropped on top of his barriers as it crashed into the ocean. God, that impact must have been horrendous. If he could not even sustain a single small barrier to cover his face and then bring him up to the surface, it probably meant that he would not have the energy to open a portal as well.

"Stark, we all saw the footage," Rogers said as he shrugged off his hands from his shoulder.

"Stark, Tony, there is no way he was in any condition to do anything. He is–"

"DON'T. Just don't," He glared at Rogers, daring him to complete that sentence.

"Gentlemen," A cough brought their attention to the entrance of the meeting room, where Fury was hobbling through. The door closed behind him and he sighed once he looked at the screen which showed the final moments before he lost track of Jack.

"Stark, answer this honestly. According to your AI, what are the chances of the Green Guardian surviving with all those wounds, on top of the crushing pressure underneath the ocean?"

He gritted his teeth as he refused to answer the question. He knew. He knew that Jack could not possibly have the power to do that. He was running on fumes as is. In the last moments, he saw his energy signature falling dangerously low before it blipped out of existence as if it was completely extinguished. But no, he would not declare him dead unless he saw his body.

"Not Zero. That is all that matters. Now, Fury, did the search parties find anything?" He deflected the question and looked at Fury defensively.

Fury sighed as he replied, "Nothing Stark. Aside from Debris, they found nothing. The last of the search parties just came back an hour ago,"

"What? Last of them? Why did you stop looking? You can't-"

"Tony…Just..let it go. Things happen. Lives are lost in wars. You have to-"

"No! This isn't one of your goddamn wars, Rogers and we are not soldiers. Not Fury's soldiers. We are just a bunch of misfits brought together because it was more beneficial for us to be together than apart. And look where that brought us? Divided? Or even worse, DEAD?" He just snapped at Rogers who just looked at him with pity.

He hated that look more than anything at the moment. It meant that he was vulnerable. No, he was more than fine.

"Fine. I will search for him myself. Jarvis, Send the Mark IX to this location," He said to his comms.

"Sir, the suit's launch mechanisms are still not-"

"Skip the spinning rims. We are on a timeline here,"

"Very well, Sir,"

He sneered at Fury and was about to leave before Fury stopped him,

"Stark, don't let it go to waste. Loki is still out there. We still don't have the Tesseract. He could be up to some—"

"Well, I have Jarvis on it. Some of the data from the lab was salvaged and Jarevis will soon be done parsing through it. Once we have that, we should have a rough idea of its-"

"Sir," His words paused as he heard Jarvis' distressed voice.

"The Tesseract has been located,"

Jarvis' words echoed in the meeting room as Jarvis took control of the display in the room and showed a map of NYC, pointing at a dot that was smack dab in the middle.

"Son of a BITCH!" His eyes widened as he saw the exact location. He immediately ran to his suit.

"Rogers, take the Quinjet. I'll have Widow and Hawkeye meet you there." Fury quickly ordered the rest of the members as he too saw the location of the Tesseract.

Right there, in the middle of the screen was a blinking red dot, showing the location of Stark Tower.

---

Word Count - 2233

A/N - On the shorter side today

If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Asia [Right after Loki mastered the Asian Dude (#20)]

—Loki—

Hmm. This was quite interesting, he thought to himself as Hawkeye, loyal as he was, showed him the capabilities of the Green Guardian who styled himself the protector of a city.

Granted, the magic was interesting and the way it was used was very crudely done, like the person only knew one single piece of magic and used it all his life, to increase their proficiency in it, to reach that point. Sure, he had a feeling that the mortal would be very hard to beat but that was not his job to do.

The Chitauri will come and they will deal with that annoying green pest for him. No matter how strong he is and no matter how many Chitauri he crushes under his heel, the CHitauri would not stop, not until he was dead and that was when he would win.

When the people of this dirtball would realise that even their strongest combatant, arguably much stronger than the Average Asgardian, fell in battle against his army, that would be when he would make his proposition to this world, kneel or die.

Seeing their greatest protector's dead body skewered on his sceptre should be enough motivation for them to lay down their arms and surrender to their superior. He would make sure that this person survived until then.

But when he conveyed the same to the mortal known as Clint,

"It would not work. We have to break up their team. He, of all the people on that team, is the most dangerous. Even more so than your brother. He is the one we have to deal with first before we proceed with our plan,"

"How?" He hissed at the mortal with the feeble mind. The only reason his head was still attached to his head was because of his usefulness as well as the fact that he had ordered him to explicitly speak nothing but the truth in his presence.

"His portals. They are the worst thing one can encounter in a war. He can also seemingly make them while in the middle of combat. No, if we are to crush them thoroughly, we have to break their tank and no matter how strong Banner is, he will only be a loose cannon that can easily be diverted,"

"Hmm," He mused to himself as he reviewed the footage of that mortal opening a portal to space. Well, that would just not do then. For all their vaunted immortality, even Asgardians would find themselves dying from the lack of Oxygen if exposed to the cold expanse of space.

This mortal was more dangerous than he had expected. Simply opening up a portal to a volcano and letting it drop on him would hurt quite a bit, he had to admit to himself, painful as the admission was.

"How do you propose we deal with him?" He looked up at Clint as they were now in a that would depart as soon as they dropped him in the city. The plan was that not even he would know what Hawketye would do to free him from their clutches but he would trust the mortal for that. So far, he had been proven to be remarkably resourceful, well, as useful as they could be without having a lick of magic in them.

"Well, for that, we have Wei Huyan over here," The mortal gestured to the other smaller, older mortal who was meditating in one corner of the truck. He was "interpreting" the truth that was shown to him.

"He can bypass the barriers and strike the Green Guardian right where it would hurt. We would just have to ensure that the person underneath all those layers of barrier is vulnerable enough to leave minimal protection between his body and Wei. He can't maintain his powers well if he needs to move around a lot. We would have to make the Green Guardian use all of his focus on something else so that we can strike when the time is right,"

"Don't worry about that. I have someone in mind. Go to these coordinates. I will see your will done, my Lord," Wei rose up from his meditation, scribbled something, and gave it to Clint before bowing deeply to him.

Satisfied with the grovelling, he nodded to Clint, who immediately read the coordinates and went to the pilot of these strange flying vessels called as "Jets". They were fast, sure but very loud and impossible to manoeuvre.

After a while, they reached the temporary base that he had taken over. They then boarded another smaller much more manoeuvrable air vehicle and soon reached their destination which was a small dwelling where he could see many people frolicking about.

He had already cast an illusion on their vehicle so they were none the wiser as they flew over the dwelling and reached the section that was situated right at the base of a mountain. They landed but before any of them could get out, Wei had already phased through and was running into the small crude dwelling in front of him.

"Sam!" He shouted as he entered the dwelling and after some time, returned with a person who looked as if he would keel over if a particularly strong gust of wind hit him. Was this some kind of joke? How could he help against someone as strong as that green freak?

"My lord, please show Sam what you showed me,"

His jaw clicked shut but he took measured steps in front of him, the sceptre glowing ominously.

"Wei, what is going on?" The old man spoke in a feeble voice as he tried to back away from his menacing form, even as Wei held on to him tightly.

"Don't worry, this won't hurt at all," He smiled, enjoying the way the mortal struggled, and placed the sceptre's tip on his chest.

The struggle ceased instantly as the old man kneeled down at speeds that should have, for all purposes, killed him instantly.

"My Lord."

"Hmm, now what?" He snapped at Wei, already at the edge of his patience with how he had apparently wasted his valuable time, bringing them all the way here to this remote corner, so far away from their goal.

"My Lord, Sam here has a marvellous power. He can absorb energy, any kind of energy, electricity, sunlight, even kinetic energy, and after absorbing sufficient amounts of it, he can use that energy to transfer that power to someone of our kind. With my power being enhanced by him, I am certain I would be able to pass through any and all barriers."

"Very well, go on then,"

"Errr…My Lord, he doesn't have any energy left in him, as you can see. Our leader comes daily to get her boosts from him, leaving him with nothing but the bare minimum required for him to survive another day. Not many people know of him so this area remains deserted. I was hoping to give him the energy from your weapon,"

He looked at the glowing sceptre and back at the hopeful looks of the people in front of him and growled out, "Fine,"

He immediately placed the tip of his sceptre on the outstretched hands of the feeble old man and to his astonishment, as soon as the sceptre made contact, it started glowing blue and yellow, as the old person in front of him slowly aged backward, eventually turning into a person in his prime, with his veins glowing blue, visible from the outside.

"This power, amazing!" He exclaimed as he examined his body.

"Get on with it!" He snapped once again. He was curious as to where this would lead but he was on a timeline and the Other would be more than glad to remind him of it once again, a particularly unpleasant scenario that was.

"R-Right. Are you ready? This is not like the war. This will probably hurt a lot,"

Wei nodded and immediately jerked back as his body was immediately engulfed in a blue and yellow glow as Sam put both his hands on his chest. Strangely, blue gas was released from the bodies of both Sam and Wei as their entire forms were engulfed into a glowing whitish cocoon, which rhythmically beat with a blue glow as if it were a heart.

He looked at the cocoon, debating whether to just be done with it or not when a thunderous crack sounded in front of him, forcing him to take a step back in surprise.

Soon, the cracks on the cocoon expanded, to eventually break the cocoon, revealing a dead body that slid out of the cocoon, with only bones on it. The bones too soon withered away into dust.

After that, another person stepped out of the cocoon. He looked like Wei but the entire feeling surrounding him was much more dangerous. He also had veins of blue all around his body that he looked at and then grinned, "Thanks, Sam."

"I am ready, My Lord. Nothing will be able to stop me now," He said and took a step forward. His eyes widened, a gust of wind passing him by, as Wei disappeared from in front of him.

He looked back to see everyone who had arrived with him, slowly turning back to see Wei already entering the helicopter.

His shocked look slowly turned into a grin. Oh, this was turning out to be interesting. The sceptre throbbed into his hand as if the Other was conveying his agreement.

"Let's move," He ordered Clint before they left the area, on their way to the Iridium they needed to build the portal.

________xx________

New York Sanctum [Hours after Jack fell into the ocean]

–Jack Sullivan–

He opened his eyes, waking up with a gasp as he took in long deep breaths, his heart shuddering from how close he had come to death. He immediately patted himself down to see that the knife was nowhere to be seen. He saw that there was a scar on his stomach which meant someone had taken it out and healed him. Looking at his surroundings, it meant.

"I am glad you are awake, Master Sullivan," he looked to the door to see the Ancient One walking into the room, her hands in her robe.

"Ancient One, thank you for saving me. I really owe you one," he said to her, his hand going to rub the spot where he was stabbed. That was one hell of a surprise to him.

He had really underestimated this world. How could he have been so foolish? To think that everyone would happen the same way it happened in the movies? The engine's problem was only solved barely, by the skin of their teeth, even when Tony and Rogers both risked their life to do so.

He had foolishly expected for the same to happen this time as well and had waited around for Loki's henchmen to arrive and stop the ship from tilting over.

Never in a million years, he had expected to bear the weight of the freaking Helicarrier using his barriers to make sure that thousands of people did not lose their lives. The worst thing was the injury.

The person who stabbed him, bypassed his barriers as if they were paper and not an energy construct capable of stopping missiles in their tracks with ease. His eyes were also blue which meant that he was under Loki's control. He would have to be more cautious, that person could somehow phase through energy as well, evidenced by him coming out unscathed from Tony's repulsor blasts with ease.

For some reason, he had fled, probably to leave with Loki but he was not sure what he could do the next time they met on the battlefield. Speaking of which, is the battlefield even New York this time? Who's to say that Loki hadn't chosen another densely populated city halfway across the world, not that it would be a problem for him specifically?

He had grown arrogant, plain and simple, believing himself invincible for all but a select few individuals who were capable of willing actions straight into reality, making his barriers moot in those situations anyway. Stopping Mjolnir only emboldened him. He would have to step up his game once the invasion was dealt with.

He couldn't just react to stuff anymore. He had built enough strength to influence any situation he found himself in. He would just have to force his way through.

"Don't thank me, Master Sullivan. Look at your neck," Ancient One said as she sat on her chair and sipped on tea.

"Hmm?" He reached for his neck, only to find the coin. He jerked it forward, as the coin came into his hand. He was surprised to find it complete black and already breaking down. Soon, all that was left in his hands was black ash, which too broke down into magic of some sort.

He looked at her in confusion, "What was that?"

"That, Master Sullivan, is the token of Khonshu, a one-use item that was bestowed upon a previous Sorcerer Supreme, only to be used in times of severe emergencies," She explained as she cast a spell, showing him the ease with which it healed all his injuries with ease, to the point that his second green skin appeared on him involuntarily.

Speaking of his powers, he willed for a dozen barriers to appear in the room and after finding that his powers had not waned in any way and his stamina was restored as well, he looked at the Ancient One, "How long was I out?"

"Just for a couple of hours. Nothing to worry about, Master Sullivan. I want you to remember the lesson you have learned today. You have been passive for some reason and that is not befitting for someone of your station, of your powers." She said as she exited the room. He stood up from the bed and snapped his fingers, changing his clothes, and ran after her.

He recognised the New York Sanctum hallways as he followed after her.

"You see, Master Sullivan, people are like pebbles and the reality we live in is like a huge pond. People without powers, they are just so small that their movements don't make large enough waves, not until they meet another large pebble. Then, they can even change the trajectory of that larger pebble, dictating the waves of the pond. People with powers are pebbles but you, Master Sullivan, are a boulder. People of your caliber are few and far between and your actions sometimes dictate the state of all the pebbles, rocks in the pond, and even the other organisms living and preying in the pond. You can't wait for some other pebble to start making waves in the pond to move."

He didn't really understand what she was talking about as they finally reached the stairs, after going through a labyrinth of rooms. He suspected she went through the long route so that she could give him that long lecture.

"You, Master Sullivan, are meant for great things and while this setback was somewhat necessary for you, don't let it hesitate you from making huge waves in the pool," She turned to him at the last moment as they ascended the stairs and after looking at his combat attire, opened the door.

They found themselves standing on top of the Sanctum Roof, overlooking the Manhattan skyline, Stark Tower included.

"Are they-"

"Yes, Loki and his people are invading that Tower as we speak. Stark's AI would have tried stopping them if he could sense them in the first place. Loki's magic, when boosted by the Sceptre, can fool most people. I don't think I need to tell you this but be careful of the Sceptre. It holds an-"

"An Infinity Stone. Yes, I am aware. I will be needing guidance on what to do with it once we win. I will be back then," He nodded at the Ancient One who exited the roof, leaving him all alone to ponder on his past actions.

He looked at the Tower, to see a glint of blue as his enhanced eyesight allowed him to see from far away.

He covered himself with his signature Gundam Barrier and then had an idea that would allow him to protect himself from that phasing bastard. He would have to be very cautious and do stuff mostly from a long distance.

"Well, this was going to be a very long fight," He said as he covered himself in his standard armour and then floated on top of the Sanctum, eventually reaching the clouds, and looking down at Stark Tower.

He smiled and tensed as a blue beam was fired from the Top of Stark Tower, eventually tearing a hole in the skyline.

"Show time…" He muttered to himself as he was immediately covered in a giant Gundam, only this time he continued to move himself around inside the suit. He could only think of this way to somehow dodge that phasing bastard.

He would need more data to think of a strategy to stop that guy.

He smiled to see Stark exiting the Tower, breaking through the glass, and then coming back up to blast away Loki when his suit finally reached him.

He willed for his Gundam to move and found himself just putting his both hands on the two sides of the beam that kept the portal open.

The energy density meant his barriers were immediately shredded if they came into contact with the Tesseract's energy. He was now plugging the hole, so to speak, to give time for the rest of the team to arrive.

"Stark, evacuate the people. I will stop them for now," He said to Stark as he arrived at his shoulder level and opened that section of his barrier, where Stark was floating, looking at his retreating form in shock which turned into a grin as his faceplate closed and he rocketed back to the streets.

"Now, let's see what you do," He kept an eye on his surroundings, his senses turned to the max as he was wary of being ambushed again.

---

Word Count - 3079

A/N - Things finally getting heated up.


If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Manhattan

–Tony Stark–

"I have tried shutting down the Arc Reactor but it is a self-sustaining reaction now. It cannot be stopped," His suit stumbled around as he heard Jarvis' report.

He should have known Loki would go after his tower. That narcissistic ego of his would not have been satisfied if he did not have an audience to go with his spectacle. What better way to mock the so-called guardians of humanity than to start the invasion by using the inventions of the humans themselves?

The suit itself was not in any better condition. He had three different suits on their way from their fabrication facilities but the closest was one in Stark Tower and he was on his way there himself so he had ordered Jarvis to keep it there and look for Loki.

Locking down the tower did not help, like at all because Loki just performed his voodoo magic and somehow bypassed every single obstacle, only for his entire team to appear on the rooftop, already hooked up to the Arc Reactor.

By the time Jarvis could shut down the reactor, it had already been too late. According to what Jarvis could predict, the machine might have opened a portal before he could even reach the Tower.

He gnashed his teeth as he thought of Jack and his sad smile as he melded in with the huge green shield that held up the Helicarrier, allowing for thousands of lives to be saved. He couldn't even do anything with his stab wound as he somehow mustered forth enough power to stop the Helicarrier's hull from snapping in two if it crashed into the ocean water directly like that.

The majority of the force that the water exerted was borne by Jack's barriers, allowing the water to soften and the Helicarrier to land safely.

He could have escaped, so so easily. He could have escaped hundreds of times before they crashed into the ocean but no, he had to stay. He was in no condition to even protect himself properly as his armour had dissolved, his entire focus being on the carrier.

He had never thought that one person could become so strong. Not even the Hulk could have stopped the carrier, even if he did have the strength to do so. He would always hate Loki for that. He knew what Jack would do to protect people and he exploited that, even so far as to bring in someone who was able to bypass Jack's barrier and almost killed him for it.

"Jarvis?" He took in a deep breath of determination and gave the order for something that he had told himself would never be needed unless Armageddon was on them.

Well, this was war, and…he was fresh out of patience and damns to give.

"Activate project Aegis…."

"....Affirmative. Project Aegis activated. ETA - 119 seconds," Jarvis reported as he could finally see the Tower in view.

"Loki?"

"He is in the penthouse, sir. He seems to be waiting for someone,"

"Well, what are you waiting for, then? Activate the spinning rims," He said as his suit's repulsor arrays gave out, dropping him roughly on the platform he had designed on a whim, to give himself even more of a fancy entry.

Well, it was safe to say that a nice entry was the last thing on his mind as he saw Loki looking at him and then retreating back into the penthouse as he too exited the suit, wincing in pain as some parts came off rougher than expected due to the damage it had gone through.

"I would say welcome to my house but…you did kinda break in without an invitation," He quipped as he slid the bracelets on his wrist. They would help the suits remotely locate him and then just slide on top of him.

"Stall all you want to, Stark. My army is coming," Loki said as he walked back to the balcony, his staff firmly in his hand. That was something that was the most dangerous weapon of Loki. He would have to make sure that he does not get him under control as well. That would not go well…., especially with Project AEGIS on its way.

He took his drink and walked to the lane that he knew was where Jarvis would eject his suit. "Well, you might want to pace yourself a bit there. You pissed off a lot of people back there with your little stunt."

"Oh? And what would those people do to me? I have an army."

"Well, we have a Hulk….and Thor," He found himself saying whatever came to his mind, hoping to prolong this conversation a bit so as to allow Jarvis to perform the final checks.

"I thought the beast had wandered off? Fine work from the Green Guardian by the way. Green Guardian, what an idiotic name," Loki scoffed as he finally turned around to face him.

His smile strained as Loki, that bastard had the gall to say Jack's name. His fists clenched as he stopped himself from doing anything rash. Any moment now, Jarvis would activate the floor defenses and fling the suit at him.

"Besides, who would have the time to worry about me when…." His throat ran dry as he saw Loki marching towards him.

'Any moment now,' He thought to himself as he forced his face into a look of nonchalance.

"....When they will have to worry about you…" Loki said as he tapped his sceptre on his chest. He closed his eyes, fearing the worst but then opened one when he didn't feel any different.

He saw the hilariously confused face of Loki as he charged up the sceptre once again and tapped it once again, right on top of his reactor. Maybe it had something to do with the energy in his reactor. Maybe it disrupted the energy flow from the sceptre? If it was true, then it was one hell of a coincidence.

In the literal life and death scenario, he found himself remembering Jack's stupid comments and he couldn't help himself, "....Performance issues? I have heard one in five men haaaa-"

His words were stuck in his throat as Loki just lifted him by the throat and walked straight to the edge of the balcony.

He looked straight at the release wall and muttered, as he held onto Loki's hand, "Anytime now, Jarvis,"

Loki sneered at him and then flung him off his own tower. He immediately reoriented himself mid-air and spread his arms out.

In the tower above, as soon as Loki flung Tony out, multiple turrets just flashed out of the roof as well as the floor and peppered Loki with the highest caliber bullets Jarvis could find. At the same time, the suit was finally done and he launched it straight at Loki, who dodged it but stumbled back due to the sheer force from both the suit and the Gatling guns on the roof.

While the bullets didn't actually puncture his skin, they hurt a lot, even for someone of his constitution so Loki found himself being pushed back bit by bit. Jarvid didn't let up even as he confirmed his creator had equipped the suit and was on his way to stop Loki.

"And there is one other person you pissed off rather mightily,"

Loki looked to the armoured Stark as the bullets finally stopped peppering him. He lifted the sceptre but he was too slow as Tony just blasted him with his repulsors.

"...Me,"

"Project AEGIS ETA - 30 seconds," Jarvis helpfully reminded him just as he was about to head in and knock Loki out. Jarvis' next update was aborted forcefully as another situation developed right on top of the Tower.

"Better make it quick, Jarvis," He said as he rocketed towards the portal, already seeing the armies that were heading their way.

"I believe that we have just earned ourselves precious time, sir."

What? He was about to ask but the words were stuck in his throat as he saw a majestic Gundam appear out of thin air, holding both of his hands right underneath the portal as if trying to plug the gap.

"JACK!" He screamed as he immediately floated to the head where he hoped he would be.

"Stark, evacuate the people. I will stop them for now."

He had a thousand questions but he nodded and went back down where he could already see people panicking as they tried to run away from the hellish portal in the sky. It was small mercies that they had not seen the numbers of their army on the other side. Even Jarvis' sensors could not tell him the full story and that terrified him.

There were possibly millions…hundreds of millions of them on the other side of that blue hole in the sky.

"Jarvis, hack into everything and tell everyone to evacuate. Contact the Mayor, Army Generals, Air Force, Navy, hell call the President if you have to. We have little time before the fighting really begins." He said as he worked on the strategies.

Project Aegis had to wait for a bit because if Jack himself could handle the situation, there was no need for him to expose that part. That could land him into really hot soup because there was no way in hell he was going to sell that to anyone.

In the meantime, "Showtime," He muttered as what could only be described as a flying hot dog appeared in front of him.

He immediately dove into the opening in the centre. This was a remote weapons platform, designed to resupply him with everything he might need for prolonged warfare situations.

"Rubber Ducky please, Jarvis," he murmured as the suit entered from one side a small humanoid-sized suit and came out the other side a hulking monstrosity not smaller than the Hulk.

Its job done, the platform flew away but still close by in case he needed something.

"Jarvis, how are we on the evacuation?"

He said as he and the other two suits, which had finally arrived from their respective fabrication sites, immediately began clearing the nearby blocks. Stuffing people into cars and then floating them away. Clearing the streets of abandoned vehicles, etc.

"Evacuation roughly 1% done, sir,"

Well, shit.

His neck snapped up as there was a horrible breaking sound as the entire Gundam holding the portal close broke apart as a huge horned whale-like creature burst out of it.

"Jaarvis?"

"Sensors indicate Arc Reactor running out of energy before the armour is breached, sir,"

He goggled as he saw that despite his armour being limbless, Jack had not yet given up.

The whale-like creature had broken through the barrier but not without cost, it would seem. Most of the armour that covered its head had broken apart, even stabbing it but it seemed to ignore its injuries, focusing on escaping the portal and then wreaking havoc on the city.

Well, Jack was not having it because he immediately pulled his other arm back and punched the whale-like creature, straight back in the portal from where it was coming from.

"Sir, we have a situation," Jarvis pointed his attention to the form of Loki who was charging up his sceptre from the looks of it after destroying the floor and ceilings of his penthouse, destroying the guns. It was a mistake on his part not to install repulsor based weaponry in the tower. With the Arc Reactor installed in the building, Jarvis could have waged war by himself if he had been given the weapons for it.

"Jarvis, remind me to install remotely guidable weaponry for you in every home," He said as one of the suits immediately abandoned their current tasks and rocketed to the penthouse balcony, on which Loki was currently standing. It was very satisfying to watch Loki get grabbed by the suit as it broke through the balcony as if it was not there at all and throw Loki in the air with his sceptre falling down on the balcony, its glow dying down as Loki was no longer wielding it.

Jarvis threw Loki towards the hulking form of Jack who promptly understood the assignment and just kicked Loki like a soccer ball, throwing him straight into the building in front of Stark Tower. It seemed as if Jack had held back, perhaps due to Thor so Loki did not exit that building and fly through three other buildings before finally stopping.

Speaking of Thor, he watched as a Quinjet arrived and landed in Central Park. Thor was the first one to arrive on top of the tower, looking at the green avatar with relief and awe clear in his eyes.

He could see that the area around the Tower was cleared up so he headed up to meet up with Thor, Jarvis coordinating the evacuation process with the two other suits.

Two times, Jack's barriers broke two times as the whale-like creatures tried to make a comeback but Jack dispatched them the same, straight back into the portal. The only problem was that Jack was unable to completely close the portal due to the hyper-dense energy in the middle of the beam.

So, small stragglers still got by but Jack got most of them, and the ones that did make it past him, Thor and he took care of them.

"Friend Guardian. He made it," Thor said to him as he threw Mjolnir at the small hover vehicle that Jack missed.

"Yeah, somehow, against all odds, he made it. I don't know how though. By all accounts, he should be dead." He said as he monitored the progress in the background. One of the suits had encountered Barton and Widow and was in the process of bringing them to the Tower.

The evacuation process was only hastened once Jarvis took over traffic management systems of the city and after coordinating with the NYPD which was under the orders of the Mayor, who himself was under orders from the President, to follow his lead and now most of the areas around the tower had been emptied.

That would not be enough though because Jack would have to stop sometime because this was the same situation as before, just the load was little. They would have to look for a way to close the portal because judging by the numbers they had on their side, they could go on for months without making a dent in their numbers and he was sure that Jack could not do that.

"Stark?" His comms flared to life as a familiar gruff voice sounded in his HUD.

"Fury?"

"Backup is on the way but the way things are—"

"Yeah, I don't think jets and missiles are going to help us here. That would damage the city more than the aliens. Still, let them come. We could use all the help we can. Primarily, just flex your muscles and get the city evacuated quickly. The people are just sitting ducks if we cannot hold the portal for long. We are at less than 10% done and Ja–Green Guardian cannot hold on forever,"

"...Got it,"

"Hmm, Thor, can you hit it with lightn—"

"What the…" His words were stopped midway as red alerts started blaring on his HUD as Jarvis detected a truly humongous wave of energy coming from the portal.

He was about to warn Jack but he seemed to have realised it as well as he abandoned his form and immediately crashed on the floor next to them, clad in his armoured form.

He looked up to see a white light fill the other end of the portal, reminiscent of the sun. Maybe he could use Project AEGIS here? But they would not be on time.

He was jerked out of his thoughts as a green barrier wrapped around him and Thor, tightly wounding them up. At the same time, hundreds of small shields appeared in front of them which then moulded around the energy beam of the Tesseract, creating seven blocks of green, that blended in with the blue from the Tesseract.

Not a moment later, he was blinded as he was assaulted by white as far as his vision could go as the beam must have struck Jack's barriers.

"Jarvis? Jarvis?" he mumbled as he tried to cycle through all the sensors available to him only to find most of them giving him nonsense readings.

His heat readings showed temperature readings exceeding the levels measured on the surface of the Sun. He tried to connect to his other suits but all of his signals were jammed.

He could not even sense Thor or Jack standing right beside him, so great was the energy interference.

All he could hear was the sound of something huge breaking apart. That must be the barriers that Jack had conjured to protect them. He counted one, two, three, four barriers breaking before the temperatures around him receded, turning into cooking oil temperature before turning into heat wave temperature before finally receding into a warm bath temperature.

His vision finally cleared up, as did the communication error as his uplink was finally restored.

"...Si…Sir? Sir?" Jarvis' alarmed voice sounded in his suit but he was too busy flabbergasted to reply to him.

All he could do was gape as he looked at the destruction surrounding him.

He looked up to see the remaining three barriers dissipating as the portal was finally left unguarded, causing the Chitauri to energy out of it in huge numbers.

The whale-like things immediately began spreading out to maximize their reach.

He could see Jarvis heading after the whale-like creatures using his suits as he himself immediately entered the resupply platform, and repaired the comms array on his suit. As soon as he came out of the platform, he looked at the surroundings of the tower and let out a shuddering breath of fear and awe.

That beam had enough energy to melt down the surrounding areas on top of melting the streets around Stark Tower as well and that was after the majority of it was stopped by Jack's shields.

The only reason Stark Tower was not a molten piece of slag was due to Jack.

He looked at the ever-emerging Chitauri who seemed to have no end to them and remembered their member lists, half of which were nearly useless in a fight with the whale creature and one of them was even missing.

"Jarvis, alert me once Banner is back in town,"

"Very well, sir.'

"Also, start manufacturing. We are going to need a lot more than just three suits,"

He immediately set out to stop the small hover vehicles from going too far out of the perimeter. That was the best he could do at the moment. Unfortunately, the bigger fish must be kept for Thor, Jack, and Banner when he finally shows up with his green ass.

---

Word Count - 3188

If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.


A/N - The Chitauri must have something of note in that mothership of theirs. In this case, it was an energy weapon of death that was thankfully stopped by Jack. Otherwise, bye bye Avengers Tower.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Manhattan

–Jack Sullivan–

What the fuck was that!?

He slowly collapsed down on one knee as he took in long deep breaths as the energy beam straight from hell finally stopped after breaking through half of his barriers. He really thought that they would die here, well, except for Thor.

That might have come true if the beam had kept coming. Realistically, there was no reason to defend Stark Tower because it was just a building in the end but deep down, he didn't want that.

Losing Stark Tower might mean losing Avengers Tower in the figure and as illogical as it might sound right now, at that moment, he could not let them do as much damage as they pleased. Plus, he had to contain all the heat surrounding them, otherwise the effects on the city would not have been pleasant.

"Friend Guardian, are you alright?" He was brought out of his reverie as Thor kneeled beside him in concern.

He shakily nodded his head and stood up, "Ye-Yeah, I am good. You should go, Tony alone cannot handle the Leviathans. I will join you in a bit,"

He clenched his trembling hands and looked at the portal. The Chitauri were pouring out in droves, just like in canon, but this time, they were not heading straight down. No, they were spreading out in all directions. He counted three Leviathans heading out in three different directions with the small stragglers heading down into the city, to kill and destroy.

Because of their head start, the Leviathans were still in the safe zone but once they reached the evacuating population, the casualty rates would shoot up. He was sure that people had already started panicking due to the Leviathans and that would slow down the process even more.

Cops and first responders too would not be faring any better than the common population because those things were truly terrifying. He didn't even know when he could stop the invasion but the moment he sees civilian casualties, he is putting a hard stop to this invasion.

Doesn't matter what happens, the second he sees the first civilian dying, he will be putting that sceptre right into the Tesseract. He was not going to be responsible—-

Goosebumps rose up on his entire body as he immediately blasted himself away from his position, cratering the roof and creating a sonic boom as he found himself in the walls of the building next to Stark Tower, looking at the balcony of the tower with wide unblinking eyes of fear and hatred.

There, in the place where his armoured head was, was a dagger, in the hands of that same Asian man who almost killed him on the Helicarrier.

The man didn't look surprised as he dodged his attack somehow. Having the dozen different sensory barriers floating around him at all times did make it hard to multitask a bit but it was a price he was willing to pay because of one simple reason.

That man right there with a dagger in one hand, another dagger in the other, looking at him with blue unflinching eyes and a bloodthirsty grin on his face. For some reason, he was able to bypass everything and reach him without him noticing it, not until at the last moment.

This was going to be so troublesome. He didn't even get a chance to talk to Barton about the man and look into his powerset. Experimentally, he sent in a charged barrier, at speeds exceeding the speed of sound and found to his resignation, that the barrier passed through the face of the man, his grin not abating a bit as his face dissolved into fog and then reassembled itself, not a moment later.

Now, how does one go about beating an intangible foe?

Well, for starters, he thought to himself as he immediately flew into the air, figure out the limits of that intangibility. Conjuring a dozen different barriers and then sending them after him didn't help him.

He was constantly being peppered by sharp-edged barriers at speeds nearing the speed of sound and yet, even as his body was constantly in fog form, his grin didn't abate as he walked, step by step, towards the edge of the balcony, his eyes never breaking contact with him.

He could hear his own heart beating as he looked at someone who had a very healthy chance of killing him. Well, he might have to assume a long-range role then. He could bypass his barriers as well but for that to happen, he would have to be in range and that could be solved quite easily. He immediately sent a barrage of barriers at the man and this time, instead of targeting his body, he targeted the floor he was standing on, destroying his footing.

He expected the man to start free falling but his fears only grew as he found him floating on thin air. Then his eyes widened to saucer levels as he seemingly flew towards him.

SHIT! SHIT!

He immediately started flying away, at the max speed he could without destroying the city or the buildings around him. No, he did not have the time for this, he had a city to save.

He looked around him and saw that one of the Leviathans had gotten very far without its attention being distracted by either Thor or Tony. He could see the Captain, Widow, and Barton helping with the evacuation process and even taking down a couple of stragglers but it was certain that they would not be able to help him.

Not with the Leviathan and certainly not with the crazy Asian man behind him. He was somehow built with the powerset needed to kill him. For now, he was content with leaving that man behind because he did not seem to have the same speed as he did.

He kept an eye on the man chasing after him and looked at the Leviathan floating away, constantly shooting out small stragglers that promptly began open firing on their surroundings. Thankfully, most of it was empty anyway so that was good.

As he came closer, his form buffed up, to match that of the Leviathan's and as if he was a rider and the Leviathan was his steed, he roped around the Leviathan's underside and….pulled.

The sudden force was jarring as the leviathan's armour cracked in places but the effect was not as pronounced as he wanted it to be. In the meantime, the bloodthirsty man was almost on his avatar so he just switched tracks. He shrank his form immensely and willed a small wall to manifest in front of him, all the while he was playing the game of cat and mouse with that man, he would need a name at some point.

He then sped that wall up to rotate around itself at dizzying speeds and just sent it careening towards the Leviathan, creating a saw blade for all intents and purposes.

The effect was apparent. The armour was harder than he had expected but the added rotation made quick work of everything as the Leviathan, with a pained roar, was bisected and fell on top of a building which collapsed on another building, like dominos.

He winced as he flew around the Leviathan, the person still on his back, as he looked at the destroyed block of buildings with the blood that was melting through the building like it was a very concentrated acid. He looked at the Stragglers coming out and thankfully, killing them was very much in his capabilities so he simply willed for another set of barriers to appear and sliced through almost all of them with ease.

The next moment, he turned around and flew back to the centre of the fighting, the man behind him. There was a reason he was not getting rid of this tail on him. The simple answer was there was no other person on the team who could fight with him effectively.

Even Thor might have a hard time, depending on how he takes the lightning attacks or Mjolnir's impossible weight and density. So, keeping his attention firmly on himself was the best way to make sure that the rest of the team did not have to deal with this crazy bastard capable of bypassing their bodies and taking hold of their very hearts.

So far, he had tried everything. Solids, fluids, energy constructs, and everything in between, the bastard phased through all. His body turned to fog as objects passed through him but it was as if he did not lose his senses in that state.

He was still on his tail, even as he saw Stark, now with a new silver armour, taking on the Leviathan. He winced as Stark was successful in destroying one of the Leviathans, albeit in a very unsanitary way. Ugh, he could only imagine the stench that would stick to that suit.

He was surprised to see what looked to be an earlier prototype of Project Veronica landing on top of Tony and leaving him spanking clean, ready to initiate another beat down on the Chitauri. Even then that was not enough apparently because soon another empty suit landed in front of him which opened up to reveal nobody underneath. Tony simply entered the other, never been into a Leviathan's stomach, suit and resumed the fight.

He looked behind him as that man was still after him. His neck swiveled to the side as he heard the sound of bullets and was surprised to see jets flying about the airspace around the city. They were peppering the stragglers and the Leviathan with bullets and the occasional missiles in the areas that were probably already cleared off people.

He needed one of the comms but he could not risk bringing this demon to any of the other Avengers. He could also not spot Banner anywhere and judging from the dead Leviathans around and not seeing any that had its skull caved in, it was safe to say that Banner had not arrived yet.

Loki was probably still out due to his blow and Thor was doing a very good job of downing Leviathans but after seeing yet another lightning strike from the heavens land atop another Leviathan, he wagered that even Thor was tired now.

He had to end this before it went too far. He could not afford any civilian casual–

His mind speech stuttered to a halt as he looked at the blood that was coming out of the small cut on his cheek that the dagger had made. The dagger flew in front of him before coming to a halt and then coming back for more. He promptly dogged it and looked back to see the Dagger person with his arm in the direction of the dagger which flew back into his hand, like it was Mjolnir and he was Thor.

He slowly came to a halt as he faced the person who was responsible for putting the fear of death in his mind.

"Done running?" He mockingly said, with a heavy accent.

He didn't say anything but looked at the situation unfolding around them. He had to neutralise this person. He had to do it whilst keeping the Chitauri in line as well. Both of the jets had been destroyed as well and Tony had rescued both but it would seem that without an active direction from Loki, the Chitauri had started rampaging everywhere.

They spread in every direction, seemingly focused on reaching more and more areas. The Leviathans had even started ramming into buildings after finding that Tony's suits didn't do much damage to them aside from busting up the stragglers.

He took in a deep breath and looked ahead, "What is your name? Why are you after me?"

The man grinned as he juggled his dagger, "Me? My name is Wei and well, you are in the way of truth and that is why I must end you,"

Wei. Huh. Asian from looks and name. Maybe an Inhuman? But he didn't know any Inhuman in the MCU having this outrageous powerset. If he was from Jiaying's camp, she should have won long ago.

He also seemed to have multiple powers that didn't have any relation with each other. They seemed to be completely different powersets instead of just supplementary powers.

The power of Flight.

Intangibility.

Enhanced weaponry (or did Loki grant him the enchanted weapons with similar recall features as Mjolnir?)

The weapons were also infused with his powers because the dagger just sliced clean through his barriers and drew blood. He was not even dodging at that time. He was being toyed with, at that moment and…he did not like it.

Not one bit.

He looked at the blue eyes which meant that he was under Loki's spell. He probably didn't deserve the beating but it was not as if he could do the same as Romanoff did to Barton. To perform mental recalibration, it was needed for the opponent to be solid and this Wei person probably maintained complete intangibility for the entire time he had been chasing him.

His daggers were imbued with his energy so they could probably be intangible with him as well.

So, there they were, standing near the Stark Tower with the Chitauri pouring in droves out of the hole above them and pandemonium around them, thankfully without civilian casualties at least. Occasional explosions rang around them as the military fired at the portal with their missiles. They missed most of the time but without many civilians to worry about, they were probably given free reign.

One moment, he was quite a bit away from Wei, and the next, he had disappeared, leaving a sonic boom in his wake. At the same time, Wei's entire body had turned to fog as dozens of razor-sharp barriers assaulted his body. He tried even attacking the daggers but even they were intangible.

He kept attacking Wei as he kept his avatar quite a bit of a distance away, focused on mowing down Chitauri as soon as they exited the portal. Seriously, it was as if they had unlimited stock.

He also spotted the sceptre which was safely on top of the Stark Tower, right beside the Tesseract.

Loki was still nowhere to be seen but Banner had joined the party, judging by the upturned Leviathan and the Hulk's roar that came at the end of it.

He looked at Wei to see him staying in the same position in the fog form, making no effort to move.

He sighed internally. He was hoping that there was some time limit to his intangibility or some limit to the damage he could sustain, even in the fog form because his barriers could sense some resistance but even that was a bust then.

He dispelled his barriers and saw the same mocking grin appear on that face as he looked languidly. He dispelled the large avatar and settled on his mid-sized Gundam and readied himself.

The next moment, with a sonic boom, he rushed to Wei. The shock on his face was palpable even as he went right through his body before turning back and intending to repeat the same.

This time, though, Wei was prepared as he too flew forward to meet him head-on. He had to lean to the side as he threw one of his daggers and winced in discomfort as he had to pull himself down…harshly, to avoid the other dagger that was about to dig into his shoulder. At the same time, he sent two more barriers through him and found, to his growing frustration, that they still passed straight through him.

So, he would have to sustain some wounds then.

Well, he was not exactly the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze, who could take advantage of that drawback but oh well, who was?

He then rushed him once again, only this time, he too wielded a similar dagger, only it was hidden in his Gundam, poised to come only on his command.

This time, when they clashed, he winced as the dagger was stuck inside his shoulder, scraping the bone very painfully. But his gamble had paid off. His arm, on top of which the dagger was located, was now piercing the chest of Wei. He had hoped to avoid a killing blow because he was under mind control.

He immediately went to capitalize on the shock and tried to hit his head really hard but he recovered faster than expected and turned intangible.

He grunted as Wei turned back from his fog form and called back his dagger. It got out rather clumsily, spraying blood everywhere.

It was fine though, because his body would heal, like it always does. The other party, on the other hand….he watched as Wei put a hand on the wound and when it came off, the wound had turned into fog and he was once again subjected to the same bloodthirsty grin.

"Good. Good Good GOOD! More. Give me more!" Wei said with a mad look on his face as he rushed towards him, wielding both his daggers.

Well, time to test the healing powers of his body then, he thought to himself as he rushed to Wei once again, this time determined to knock him out.

He did not want the death of this person to be on him.

---

Word Count - 2940

If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.

A/N - I promise the Invasion Arc ends next chapter.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Manhattan

–Jack Sullivan–

Huff Huff

He huffed as he sat down on the ground next to the corpse of Wei. Contrary to what one might expect, there was no joy on his face. No happiness at defeating a foe who had given him the hardest fight of both of his lives.

The man just would not go down. Even with his stomach looking more and more like Swiss cheese, the man just would not go down.

Instead, it had seemed as if being injured more only gave him more power to go on.

He sighed in exhaustion and even that small action caused him a world of pain. It was a testament to Wei's prowess that even his healing powers were taking longer than they had ever taken to heal the hundreds of small cuts and stab wounds that had been inflicted on his body.

Dozens of times, he had tried to perform the mental recalibration but the man had somehow caught on to his strategy and made his head intangible. Yeah, he could do partial intangibility as well.

Such a cheat power, even more so than Obito's.

The saving grace was that he could not do that for anything other than his head or it required more concentration or something, he did not know. What he did know was that after the first 30 or so attempts, he had just…given up. He had resigned himself to killing an innocent man today. Probably. He didn't exactly know the person but he did know that his actions in the past few days were not his fault.

He might have to look more into his background and figure out if he had a family or not. They might appreciate something to bury….or burn, whatever.

He encased the body of Wei, who was still smiling even in death but this smile was not the same bloodthirsty grin as the one who was hell-bent on killing him. No, this smile was….peaceful. It was serene and calm in a way that conveyed acceptance….somehow.

Shaking his head, he banished those thoughts from his mind and floated to Stark Tower, coughing out blood as he did so. Yeah, he could heal from pretty much anything but having twin daggers shredding your insides would damage anyone. Hell, he was wondering how the hell he was even awake after enduring that much pain. Shredded internal organs or not, he was now flying wobbly on his way to stop this invasion.

It had gone on long enough. The property damage alone was astronomical and thinking of the lack of support that most communities would suffer from after this event, made him see the oncoming of a hideous Migraine.

"Ugh," He groaned softly as he fell down on one knee as soon as he reached the balcony of Stark Tower.

He heard a thud sound and looked up to see one of Tony's suits. He was expecting it to be either Tony himself or Jarvis to speak up from the suits but he was very surprised to see Romanoff's face after the faceplate receded.

"Romanoff?" He asked her, surprised, then he tried to inject some levity into the situation, "Isn't that too…tight for you?"

He snickered at his own joke. God, the blood loss must be getting to him.

"Come on, we saw the entire fight. Just who is he?" She said as she slid one of her arms under his shoulder and literally propped him up. Good lord, he just wanted to go home and take a long hot shower and then curl up in his bed for a month.

"Who knows? He was under Loki's control as well. Gotta say that was the hardest fight I have been in. I feel like crap," He said and he meant it. He was probably running on pure adrenaline and his battered healing factor.

"ARGGGH!" Both of them paused as they heard a very vengeful scream behind them. He turned back with difficulty and immediately, his shoulders drooped in resignation as he saw who was coming.

"Oh, come on." He muttered as he let himself drop down to his knees as Loki, riding on one of the stragglers that he had taken over, soared over his form and crashed into the penthouse, destroying it further. God, Tony was going to be so annoyed when he finds out that knocking it all down and rebuilding it from the ground up was probably better and cheaper than repairing the building.

"You Tiny Mortals. I am a God." Loki's form swayed out from the dust cloud, as his entire body was one giant bruise at this point. Well, he had kicked him straight into a whole other building. Granted, he had held back but not so much. Loki was a God, after all. He could take it.

"I will not be bullied-Aaa" Loki's words stopped midway as Romanoff just blasted him with a repulsor blast courtesy of Natasha Romanoff.

"Thanks," He muttered to her weakly as she once again propped him up. They slowly made their way to Loki whose chest was smoking although his undulating chest motions meant that he was still alive, thank god for that.

"Stark? Yeah, I got him. He's in bad shape but he will live," Romanoff muttered to Tony from inside her suit. They looked to the side as another volley of missiles struck a flying Leviathan, redirecting its attention away from Stark Tower.

"All this means nothing if we don't close that portal," Romanoff muttered as she set him up, leaning up against a wall. Wei's body followed them to rest right next to Loki's, still clad in the green barrier.

He opened his mouth to tell her but coughed violently instead, coughing up blood that he wiped almost immediately but the action was not left unnoticed by her.

"I know how to close it," He said in between coughs that wracked his entire body. God, it was very slow going, the healing process. He had so many broken bones and stab wounds that it would take the better part of a day to bring him back to peak condition, especially with all the blood loss.

"How?!" Romanoff exclaimed as she once again helped him stand up a bit. With some difficulty, he willed his barriers to operate his body like a marionette.

"Using this," He said as he created another barrier around the sceptre that was just lying behind Loki, stuck in the wall.

"How could you possibly know that?" The suspicion in her voice was warranted but now was not the time for that. He had waited long enough for the nuke to come. The damage to the city was piling up and they had already had a close call with one of the Air Force pilots who lost an entire arm to Chitauri attacks before he was rescued.

Well, he had played his part and he didn't know about anyone else, but he for one was done with this fight.

"I just do," He smirked at her, not that she could see it, what with his entire face having just two flaming eyes. He did not want anybody to see his real face but it would be safe to say that his carefree days of living with Pops were now over.

Pity, he liked living with that whimsical old man with a unique perspective on life.

Slowly, carefully, he floated on top of the Tower and landed harshly in front of the portal machine, housing the Tesseract. He could feel the power of the barrier that surrounded the Tesseract.

"Stark, we have a way of shutting down the portal," Romanoff said as he covered the barrier sceptre into a series of barriers so that he could exert enough force to breach the shield though judging by the movies, even Romanoff could do it so it might not be necessary but it never hurt to be prudent.

"What! WHY?" He whirled on Romanoff who exclaimed very loudly, the duress in her voice very clear to him, making his head dizzy from the sudden movement.

He stumbled back a step towards the Tesseract, "What happened?"

Romanoff's face was revealed as the faceplate receded, showing him a face full of horror and terror.

Her voice was aghast as she said, "N-Nuke. There's a nuke headed our way,"

His pupils shrank as he heard that. No, this was not the time. He could have closed the portal before that and in the first place, the Helicarrier was grounded so where did the Nuke even come from?

The sceptre clanged to the ground as he readied himself to go there and help Stark.

"I have to go. We have to redirect the Nuke," He mumbled as he tried to lift himself but the small action of looking up brought a head-splitting ache along with it.

"What! No. You are in no condition to do anything. Tony is on his way," Romanoff said as she held onto his barrier with the suit, afraid that he would leave anyway, despite his terrible condition.

"Tony, is there any way you can aim the Nuke? Straight into the portal?"

"o–Okay. Okay, he is going to do it,"

He nodded with difficulty as he faced Natasha, the feeling of the barrier behind him very close to his barriers as he had stumbled very close to the Tesseract machine.

He had to wait for Tony and then try and knock him off course without touching the Nuke because there was no guarantee that the man could make the journey back in this timeline as well.

He closed his eyes and tried to summon some sensory barriers so that he could keep a closer eye on his surroundings but before he could even summon a single one, there was a high-pitched whining noise in the air as Romanoff yelled in obvious distress, "NOOOO!"

________xx__________

Deep Space [At the same time]

–The Other–

Useless. Utterly useless.

He had warned his master that Asgardians were little better than monkeys but he saw some value in the second prince of Asgard, probably because of the novelty.

He had the pleasure of breaking him, moulding him, for their purpose for a period of time far shorter than he would have liked it to be but alas, his Master's words are absolute, and as such, he had healed the little prince as best as he could and sent him on his way to Midgard.

Earth. They called their planet itself dirt. Not surprising considering the value of that little dirtball was in fact, less than dirt.

His Master had sent Loki to Midgard with the sceptre, which housed an Infinity Stone, because he had hoped to secure the Tesseract that was on Midgard for some reason.

The All-Father Odin, for some reason, had stowed the Tesseract, an invaluable artifact, on Midgard instead of on Asgard. Of course, it was not his place to comment on the affairs of the All-Father.

As much as the current Asgardians were little more than monkeys, their All-Father, Odin Borson was the furthest thing from a monkey. One of the strongest beings in all of the cosmos, capable of defeating even his Master, in his prime that is.

As much as his previous thoughts could be considered Blasphemy, to the likes of Ebony Maw, he knew, as did his Master, that those thoughts were true. That was the only reason why his Master had avoided venturing into the Nine realms, for they were the territory of a powerhouse on a similar level as his Master, perhaps even above.

Alas, that was the truth when Odin was in his prime. Now, he was barely a shadow of his previous might and even still, his Master was wary of entering his realm and taking the Tesseract from his grasp.

So, they had sent Loki. They had chanced upon the dying prince in the void and had been very surprised to see an Asgardian Prince in such a state but a quick intrusion (which was not at all gentle) into the Prince's mind revealed everything.

The resulting fear from Loki after he had realised the sanctity of his mind had been violated repeatedly was….delicious.

If it was in his hands, he would have tortured the Prince for an eternity, leaving him a husk of his former self, only to then show that to Asgard to destroy their morale.

Oh, what a glorious plan it was.

Only, his Master had other plans and so, he had patched up Loki's mind (after leaving in a backdoor of course) and let him leave with the sceptre, after his Master had ordered him to bring him the Tesseract in exchange for lending Loki the Chitauri.

He had been happy at Loki's progress at first, especially after seeing the powerful (relative to mortals obviously) subordinates that he had managed to secure.

He had been elated to see that Loki had systematically destroyed the burgeoning team that was being built to stop him, whilst also ending the strongest combatant they had.

He could feel the power of that Green Guardian through his connection with Loki and he was…powerful. Not as powerful as his Master but powerful enough that he would have been able to defeat any of the Black Order individually and maybe even together.

It was good riddance but then, that same individual showed up once again, when the portal had opened up, allowing the Chitauri to invade Midgard. Only that the first wave of Chitauri were sliced apart and then forced back into the portal until he had given the order for the Mothership itself to act.

How humiliating. To use that for a planet as backwater as Midgard.

Still, this attack had opened his eyes to the threat the Midgard posed to his Master's goals. Sure, his Master was more than capable of taking down anybody in the Nine Realms save for the All-Father himself but why burden his Master when he could take care of it himself?

The ensuing fight with Loki was pathetic, if it could even be called a fight. The exiled prince lost the fight in a single exchange and was unconscious for most of the invasion.

The fight was dominated by his subordinate who showed startling proficiency with his powers, almost killing the Green Guardian. He would have been a fine candidate for the Black Order had he been raised from birth by his Master.

Alas, the Green Guardian managed to best even him, albeit not without paying a heavy cost in exchange.

He could see that the Green Guardian was on his last legs, the weakest he had ever been in this fight and hope rose in his heart when he saw the little Prince wake up and charge the Green Guardian.

Those hopes were promptly shattered as Loki was immediately knocked out, not by the Green Guardian but by some other mortal.

Oh, how low has Asgard fallen for someone like Loki to be the Second Prince?

Through his connection with the sceptre, he watched as the Green Guardian dragged his battered body up to the Tesseract and a thought entered his mind at that very moment.

It was slightly rebellious, considering that Master had ordered him to destroy any evidence that could lead back to their involvement in Loki's plan for Midgard but the what-if kept lingering in his mind.

What if he could take care of the strongest possible opponent that Master would have to face in his quest to gather the Infinity Stones? What if he could kill the Green Guardian, right there and now, at his weakest?

It had taken exploiting the situation to the best of Loki's abilities and a stroke of luck in finding an exceptionally powerful subordinate with the right skill set, on top of an ongoing Chitauri Invasion, for the Green Guardian to be severely weakened. He could not predict if they would gain a better opportunity anytime soon.

Wouldn't it be better to kill their opponents now, when they were weak and helpless, instead of when they were ready and waiting for them, potentially losing most or all of the Black Order?

Those were the thoughts that rang through his mind as he poured forth all his considerable might into the connection he had forged with the sceptre over all his years of studying it. It helped that his greatest creation, made with the help of the Mind Stone, amplified his connection with the sceptre, allowing him to use more of the Gem's powers.

He grinned in satisfaction as the sceptre was suffused with the yellow energies of the gem and rammed itself straight into the Green Guardian's chest, the positioning of the sceptre making it an even better outcome.

---

Word Count - 2824

A/N - A slight change of plans. NEXT chapter is the end of this arc. I promise

Also, cliffhanger-kun makes a return though this is very small and less frustrating, I Hope.


If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.

A/N - I promise the Invasion Arc ends next chapter.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

TLDR - Down with the flu (manageable), then had a small accident (bad) which fractured my leg (very bad). Admitted into a hospital without my setup to write (WORSE!). Resulting in this delay.
A/N - Anywho, it took me two days to write just this chapter, which is not good obviously.
In my HEYDAY (which was last week), I wrote over 4k words a day (on the days that I posted my content that is) but now, without my trusty mechanical keyboard, I could only do this.
The thing is, that I did get my Laptop and wifi in the hospital room but the ERGONOMICS of the whole setup leave much to be desired.
As such, this is what I could do.
Anywho, good news, I can leave the hospital on Saturday evening, according to my doctor (fingers crossed).
Leaving Sunday as a buffer day, I should probably be back up to speed on Monday.
Until then, I will try to another one of these chapters, as I write them but don't keep your hopes up because my Mom will be arriving tomorrow, and she will absolutely WHOOP my ass (once I'm recovered that is) if she finds out that I was doing something other than resting even when I was hospitalised
Thank you for reading!
Toodles!




____xx___

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Manhattan

–Natasha Romanoff–

"NOOOO!" She yelled as she looked at the sceptre that was now glowing yellow, so much so that even the suit's eyes were nearly blinded, forcing it to switch to other sensors to give her any idea of what was happening outside.

It was just so sudden. She was focused on the horizon where Stark was coming from and the next moment, there was a whining sound.

She lunged at the sceptre and painfully found that she was slow. Too slow for what was about to happen. Fast enough that she could predict the trajectory but not fast enough to do anything about it.

It all seemed to slow down as if the sceptre was travelling in slow motion but it was just a second. In less than a second, the sceptre had traversed the distance and stabbed The Green Guardian right in his chest, skewering him. She looked at the sceptre as it had penetrated the barrier, such was the force with which it had struck the Green Guardian.

The Green Guardian was somehow now stuck on the barrier, the impenetrable barrier made up of pure energy.

"AAAAAAAA" The scream of pain that followed was harrowing but what happened next made her blood freeze in her veins.

Due to the injury or due to the energy field itself, the Green Guardian's armour dissolved, revealing the face underneath.

No. Not this. Not again.

No no no no nonononono.

This could not be happening again. Her body went limp as her eyes grew hazy with shock, even as the suit continued to make its way to the Green Guardian, hesitation and shock evident in its movements.

The barrier surrounding the Green Guardian had been dispelled, revealing the form of a teenager at best, screaming and twitching in pain as arcs of blue zapped him across the body.

The boy could not have been older than 14 years as he gritted his teeth, trying to bring forth his power, only for the Tesseract's barrier to interfere with the process, shocking him once again very painfully.

The sight brought her out of her shock.

"Stay with me, alright? Nothing will happen to you here. I am here with you, alright?" She bumbled out everything she could, all her training forgotten as she watched as a child was skewered straight through, stuck to something that could not be removed, not without killing him.

"Romanoff? You better be ready," Stark's voice reminded her of the fact that Stark was on his way with a freaking nuke of all things. But he didn't say anything about…

"Jarvis?" she mumbled slowly, trying to think of something that could work. Banner was the brains guy but he was in his muscles form as of now and Stark was coming in hot with a nuke that would turn the entire neighbourhood into a smoking crater, destroying the city of New York in the aftermath.

"I felt it prudent enough that Mr.Stark not be informed about the current developments. The task he is handling is paramount, sadly," Jarvis' voice was tinged with pity as he delivered the reason to her, and as much as it pained her to admit it, he was right.

She stuttered out a reply, "Yes, Stark. I am in position," She said and took shaky steps towards the Green Guardian, her hands outstretched towards the hilt of the sceptre.

Her hands trembled as she realised what she would have to do if they wanted the Nuke to not detonate on top of a civilian population.

".....D-Do…it," She slowly looked at the kid who was trying to speak to her, while his body betrayed him as specks of green tried to cover his body, only for waves of blue to disintegrate the green light out, leaving behind painful wounds that immediately cauterized due to the sheer heat.

She was sure that had it not been for the suit enveloping her, she would have suffered second-degree burns standing so close to the Tesseract.

"But you'll die," She was usually not the sentimental type but she did not want another kid's life on her hands. No, she never recovered from when that happened the first time, and doing that a second time might just break her.

No, she could not have that on her conscience, and yet, and yet…

As her hands shook inside the suit, her body trembled as she saw flashbacks of that day. The day when she decided to blow up a five-story building, all in a bid to kill General Dreykov, the big bad of her life, the bane of her existence.

Only doing so did not come without a cost. A mental cost to be precise. She had to use his only daughter, Antonia, to lure Dreykov in that building. And then, she made the conscious decision to blow both of them up.

Her finger never even hesitated as she killed someone who was innocent, someone who had no idea about the dealings of her father. That was the day, more than any other, that cemented the idea of using her skills, these skills that were used to kill so many, to use those skills for the good of the world.

To help wipe off even a small bit of the red-stained ledger that was her life. She knew that it was a fool's endeavour, what with the impact of her kills always being more high profile than any other life-saving mission she had carried out and yet, she could not, would not rest until either her body gave out or her mind finally rested. Finally rested enough once it knew that she had done her part, wiping out the red in her ledger.

And yet, Loki's words on the Helicarrier. It brought back memories. Terrible memories but memories all the same. Memories where she was content to sacrifice someone for the greater good. And here she was, about to sacrifice another minor for the supposed greater good. What good was the greater good if it constantly demanded such sacrifices from her? What good was–

"ETA - 59 seconds," Jarvis' voice snapped her out of it as she looked at the horizon, where she could see a small bright spot slowly growing larger. Jarvis helpfully pointed out the trajectory that Tony was supposed to take.

"Jack," her neck snapped to the Green Guardian who was also looking at the incoming form of Stark.

He then moved his neck to look at her, the mere movement causing the barrier to zap him with even more blue arcs of pure energy, creating even more wounds and yet, there was not much blood as the wounds were instantly cauterised. She didn't even want to imagine the amount of pain he must be enduring at the moment.

"Jack Sullivan. My name is Jack Z. Sullivan. Remember that when you have to write this in your report," He said with a bloodied grin, the mere act showcasing the hole on his right cheek, as his entire face was covered more in blood and scars than with smooth skin as he looked at the suit of Stark which hit the Stark Tower before going straight to the Portal.

She was so engrossed in looking at Tony carrying the Nuke into the portal that she missed Jack's movements. Only when a tint of green entered her peripheral vision along with sounds of energy arcing entered her ears, she looked at Jack who was shining….green.

He was being constantly bombarded with arcs of energy that Jarvis said were enough to disintegrate even the reinforced plating on the suit and yet, he grit his teeth and never stopped looking at Stark's receding back as he carried the nuke on his back.

The area around the portal had been empty, as it had been for a while now since Loki had been defeated and nothing came out of the portal though Jarvis could see that it was mostly because reinforcements were on their way and it was only the first wave that they had dealt with.

She was about to ask him about it but her words were stuck in her mouth as with a pained grunt, Jack shoved his hand in the direction of the portal and dragged it down to the side.

Her jaw hung agape as she watched a small green shroud cover Stark before his entire form was shoved to the side roughly and dragged straight down, all the while the nuke went on, unhindered.

She could hear the agents from the Helicarrer's bridge cheering as the Nuke crossed over to the other side from the portal.

And yet, as she watched the other side of the portal with a small timer that Jarvis overlaid on top of her HUD, she could not find it in herself to bring forth even a smidge of joy.

For the victory, the pyrrhic victory that they had managed to carve out for themselves was not due to the actions of adults, trained adults. No, it was due to the actions of a teenager who had risked his life to save a city.

"...D-Do it, Natasha," She looked on, pained as Jack told her to essentially kill him.

"...Y-You'll die," She stammered as she looked at the tip of the sceptre. All she had to do was push it a bit and it would close the flow of energy to the portal.

"...I-if you d-don't, we'll all die," He coughed out blood as he squeezed out a few words.

He then rested his head on top of the barrier, looking at the sky, as if the pure energy barrier was a cushion and not something that was killing him.

"Ah, I had so much to do but what can you do? I took this upon myself and I guess, these are the consequences of doing so, *Cough* *Cough*," He chuckled wryly then broke out into a fit of coughs.

"You know, I was so sure I was going to win this. I guess we did win but damn did that man put up a great fight. It was as if Loki was the side character and he was the main antagonist in this fight. That makes me the protagonist, then? Nice." He rambled on, his eyes growing glassy as the pain finally got to him.

"Hmm? Oh, I am just rambling, Romanoff. That sun seems to be growing bigger. Better plug the hole be…f..or-" Was all Jack could say before he slumped forward, Jarvis' sensors telling her that his heartbeat was slowing down.

"Ramanoff? What are you waiting for? Just shut it down!" Stark's shouting in her comms jolted her as she took hold of the hilt of the sceptre and grimaced as she looked into the empty eyes of Jack.

She looked away, muttered a muted "sorry" and thrust the sceptre with all her might, assisted with strength of the suit. The sound of the sceptre sliding through flesh made her gag as with a loud gong noise, the machine was cut off from its energy source, shutting it down.

Only instead of that being the end of it, Red beeps began sounding in her suit as Jarvis immediately brought her away from the machine. She looked on, worried, as the barrier surrounding the Tesseract, instead of fizzling out, began glowing brighter.

The scepter too, began glowing a bright yellow as Jack's seemingly dead body was covered in a mixture of green, yellow, and blue, although the green was so small that she would have missed it had it not been for Jarvis pointing it out.

The lights surrounding seemed to grow brighter and brighter, forcing Jarvis to switch to energy sensors which too were overwhelmed, making her feel the heat even from inside the suit until it reached a crescendo.

Before, the lights sounded like something really hard was scraping on top of each other, creating a very irritating noise but abruptly, it became silent. The very air stilled as the energy reached its peak before a thunderous blast knocked her back, on her back as she passed through multiple floors before coming to a rest.

Soon, Jarvis' sensors came back online as he showed her the vision. The entire balcony of the Stark Tower was gone. She had probably fallen through three different floors, all of which held a red smoking outline that looked like the suit. She squinted as a blue object was falling through the floors.

'It was the Tesseract' She thought to herself before smacking the literally celestial artifact with her hands as it was about to fall on her face. She immediately sat up and saw that the Tesseract had settled down on the floor, albeit by making a hole in the floor due to its sheer heat.

"..j-jack? Jarvis?" She queried and the silence was answer enough for her. Just thinking about the burning, bleeding form of Jack….

Once Jarvis confirmed that it was safe to do so, she immediately commanded the suit open and threw up all over the floor, emptying the contents of her stomach. She looked on as tears were mixed with vomit on the floor as the reality of what she had done, what she had to do, finally dawned on her.

She shivered as she held her knees with her hands and closed her eyes, leaning on a wall as flashbacks of all the bad she had done in this world played again and again.

She looked at her hands and all she saw was red. Red of hundreds of people she had killed, some by these very bare hands.

And now, Jack, someone who didn't deserve to die so young, so full of potential, his blood was on her hands as well.

She sniffed as Jarvis stood over her, watching guard as soon as he had secured the Tesseract.

"Jarvis, do you have the footage? Of Jack telling his identity?" She asked him in a cold detached, mechanical voice.

"...Yes, Ms.Romanoff," Jarvis' head inclined in an almost human-like gesture.

"Good. Make sure that it is not buried. The world must know who it was that saved him." She said as she stood up, her earlier breakdown all but shoved back into the deepest darkest crevice of her mind.

She could compartmentalize, it was one of the first things that one had to learn if one had any hope of surviving as a Widow.

"I assume Tony and the others are on their way?" She questioned as she headed to the exit of the floor.

"Mr.Stark and the rest of the Avengers are on the streets, waiting for you. I have already informed them that you are fine and are on your way. There is a working car already waiting for you in the lobby. Unfortunately, this suit doesn't meet the optimal energy as well as structural requirements for safe flight at this moment. Mr.Stark's suit is the same and Prince Thor is exhausted and partaking in a very heavy meal of meat and cheese from a nearby Shawarma shop that was open,"

"..Understood," She muttered as she made steady steps towards the door. Just as she was about to exit the floor, however, she paused mid-step and looked back, "Jarvis?"

"Yeah?"

"Email that footage to my personal server right now. These are the credentials - ***********. Also, where did the nuke come from?"

"....Footage transfer successful. I am sorry but I don't have any concrete information about the nuke and looking for it would violate several protocols that cannot be overridden without Mr.Stark's express permission," The AI sounded truly apologetic as he delivered the news. He could not give her any intel as it was out of his parameters. He thought she would be disappointed and yet…

"Thank you," She said and entered the lift which was surprisingly working somehow. Jarvis' answer was enough for her.

She did not know who ordered the strike and who piloted the plane but she knew where to start. They would have to pay.

Pay for what Jack had to go through. They would have to pay for what they made her do.

She clenched her fists, to the point blood started dripping as she thought of the last ramblings of Jack as he lay on top of the burning barrier as if he had truly made peace with his situation and was content with it.

In the solitary space of the elevator, her frame shook with sobs that she tried her best to muffle.

Even as she cried, tears streaming down her face, her eyes shone with a murderous light.

They would pay. Even if she had to die for it, they would pay.

After all, if she had to live with this much red in her ledger, she would rather not live with it at all. And what was a little more red in that ledger, before she went out swinging?

After all, the kind of red she was going to spill was the blood of someone who deserved to die.

Deserved to suffer in his last moments. As Jack did.

The World Security Council. She was coming for them.

Now, she had to carry out the difficult task of informing the team and the rest of the world as well, about the sacrifice.

The supreme sacrifice of The Green Guardian of New York.

---

Word Count - 2926

A/N - Damn.


If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.