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).

Triskelion

–Jack Sullivan–

"Why did you do that?"

"Hmm?" He looked up from the magazines that had been provided to them in the posh waiting room of the nearest bunker they were escorted to. It was more like a medium sized military base. According to his limited understanding, dozens of such bunkers were spread across the country so that VVIPs' safety can be catered to, by the US Military.

"Why did you take us to Titan? Why now? Why so suddenly? There were people much more qualified than me who deserved to be there as well," Rogers said, an intense look in his eyes that somehow made him avoid the option of lying to the man's face.

Damn his blue eyes and his super soldier enhanced charisma, forged in the flames of World War II.

He sighed, folded up the magazine and snapped his fingers, creating a small no surveillance zone around them, by casting a medium difficulty spell, designed to obfuscate everything that was aimed at a certain space, be it by sound, vision, or even air vibrations.

"Look, the only reason I took you all was because I wanted to show Tony of what hubris can lead to, simple as that. YOu and Barton just happened to be present and I was in a hurry to get it over with,"

"Just that? Just because you wanted Tony to be careful in his future endeavours?"

He leaned forward, "Oh, but my dear Captain. Nothing that Tony will do in the near future can be labelled as "just". No, Tony Stark, much like his bloodline will usher in a new age for Humanity. The only thing that was up for debate was if he could do so in a safe sustainable manner or if he would try and bury it all, only for it to show up in the wider world anyway," He said as he sensed someone coming to knock on the door, the spell fizzling out of effect.

"Mr.Sullivan, Captain Rogers. Secretary Austin will see you now," The soldier said as they were led from the waiting room and into another posh office, this one without any personal objects, seemingly made to be used by VVIPs in case they wanted to conduct any surprise meetings.

"Mr.Sullivan, Captain, pleasure to meet you. I know you have probably heard this a thousand times over but let me thank you once again, for saving New York and probably Earth from the alien invasion."

"You are welcome. Nice to meet you as well, Secretary Austin" He said before gingerly accepting a heavy manilla folder handed to him by the Secretary of Defense. He looked at the equally confused Captain before going through the folder.

By the end of parsing the whole document, a frown had formed on his face, tinged with equal parts annoyance and frustration.

"As you can see, you are the most desirable person on the planet as of yesterday, Mr.Sullivan. The US government would have appreciated a heads up regarding your situation, which could have prevented a lot of embarrassing things, but, we are glad that you are alive and well. That list is the number of official requests that had been made to the US government by foreign governments as well as companies to arrange a meeting, along with all the requests that all the agencies have submitted to the White House for various reasons."

He handed the folder to Captain who scanned through the entire thing at superhuman speed.

"Obviously, all those requests are superseded by the dinner invitation from the POTUS himself. The President is quite excited to meet the hero of New York. I am sure he is quite curious about quite a lot of things about the mysterious Jack Sullivan. Honestly, if it were not for the very detailed footage - thank Romanoff for that by the way– we would not believe that to be your real name. Believe me, we tried to search for anybody with that name who could remotely be you, all over the world, many times over, and aside from a single blip from Stark who just handed over his very small entry, we found nothing, nada, zilch,"

He hummed to the words of the Secretary. The man seemed to be happy with just repeating already known stuff to the room, content with wasting his and everybody else's time. While the man might be content in doing that, he was not here to waste his time.

He had work, and a lot of work to do and thankfully, his powers came with privileges that he could exercise at times like this, when someone was trying to occupy his time for something inane like gathering more information and formulating a better strategy to deal with the political hurricane that he was about to raise, with the double reveal of HYDRA in SHIELD and his complete support for the creation of another agency that could help them deal with outer space invaders.

So, he tossed the folder on the table, the gesture finally making the Secretary stop speaking.

"Look, Mr.Secretary, I don't know what you are trying to do here but let me be clear here, I don't have much time to waste so why don't you go ahead and ask me all the questions that have reached you by now. I will try and answer all of them before I have to leave,"

The mere mention of the word "leave" seemed to freak the man out, his face paling as he blurted out, "Leave?! Where? Ahem, I mean, the US government is still yet to debrief both you and Captain about the events that transpired at the Triskelion yesterday,"

"I am sure the good captain here could tell you all about the day. Now, ask, or I walk out in the next 60 seconds," he threatened the man, who immediately scrambled for the phone and furiously called in his assistant who stumbled into the room, juggling some notes in one hand and a laptop in the other.

"Um-Uh, just a second," The Secretary said, the sweat clear on his forehead as he hurriedly shuffled through the notes made by the assistant.

"So, this is from the President, where were you in the past two years?"

"..That is a long story, one that doesn't have much relevance to the current events. Next,"

"Um, what are your next plans?"

"Running for President. I am famous enough for it,"

"...." "...."

"I am kidding obviously. Uh, stay tuned for a press conference that will be conducted later today, in New York obviously,"

……

_____xx____

New York [2 hours and a portal taxi later]

"Ah, Home sweet home," he muttered to himself as he breathed in the cold crisp air of his favourite city on the planet, even above the Birnin Zana. So what if Wakanda's capital city was cleaner than a sterile medical room and had some fancy barrier technology, New York had Broadway and Pizza Slices, it was clear who was the winner here.

Of course, it had him to provide all the barriers it might require.

"Though, can I do that," He asked himself as his body flew back and dove into the seawater, raising a huge geyser of water around him with the speed with which he had dove into the sea, heading straight to the spaceship that had been gifted to him by Nova Prime.

He might have to get rid of it if he wanted any semblance of privacy but it was a fine ship for now and he didn't have much to hide anyway.

"Recognised, Jack Sullivan, Owner," The computerised voice greeted him as he entered the ship after the water was drained from the entry area. He ignored everything and swiftly headed to the floor where Bucky was kept in medical stasis.

He found Bucky in the same state as before, with the medical reports looking all right to him. Hey, as long as the heart as well as the brain looked fine to him, Bucky was going to be fine.

Still, he couldn't keep Bucky locked up here forever and while he had a lot of stuff to do, it grated on his conscience to keep Bucky locked up, someone who was essentially a war hero and arguably one of the biggest victims of the current rendition of HYDRa that had been torn down to its base components by some pre programmed release that Jarvis had planned.

Some parts of Eastern Europe were absolutely on fire as the local governments struggled to deal with the remaining HYDRA forces. It was nice that most of the HYDRA heads were either dead (Pierce, Mallick) or forced underground (Whitehall, Strucker).

It was fine, the ones that were left were the weakest and slowest sections of HYDRA and once Jarvis Came back online, from whichever remote server he had kept himself in, he would be a great help in tracking down the fringe elements and either putting them behind bars or eliminating them outright.

He opened up a portal, this time to the designated area that had been specifically outlined for him, on the outskirts of Birnin Zana that would be continuously monitored to await his arrival.

He popped his neck out and saw a singular Dora Milaje standing guard in front of him. His arrival barely phased her as he grinned at her and asked her something that would have had a vibranium spear being thrown in his direction just a scant few years back,

"Hey! Is T'Challa home? T'Chaka will work too,"

"Prince T'Challa as well as King T'Chaka are both present inside the country. I would be happy to take you to Prince T'Challa," The Dora Milaje could not have been more bad at hiding her rage at the casual way with which he addressed her Prince and her King.

Oh well, it was not as if he cared one bit about their royal status, not at all.

"Okay! Just a second," He popped back into the ship and after taking the medical stasis pod out of the ship, with the battery backup working for 6 hours after disconnecting from the ship's main power source, he carried the pod with him and officially stepped foot on Wakandan soil for the third time.

While the Dora Milaje was gesturing towards an incoming hover vehicle, he did not have time for those. So, barring his portals which were still a bit of taboo, especially when used inside the Royal Palace, his barriers were still the fastest way of travelling through space.

"Wh-What are you doing?!" The Dora Milaje did not like the sudden and very fast method of transportation as they immediately reached the place where he had landed the last time he had come here.

"Green Guardian, welcome to Wakanda," Prince T'Challa greeted him as he seemed to have come to the landing hangar running after hearing the news of his arrival.

"Prince T'Challa, while I would love to chat a bit longer, I have a press conference to attend. I talked with King T'Chaka the last time I was here and this is the patient I was talking about. He was unfortunately brainwashed by–"

"HYDRA. We..have been hard at cracking everything that you released and after corroborating with what we already knew, it gave us enough clues about the identity of the Winter Soldier. So, Bucky Barnes was a super soldier as well?"

"Yeah, and they kept him cryogenically frozen, only taking him out if they wanted someone gone. The poor man is completely under a brainwashed mindset. I want to help heal his mind without his mind breaking under the weight of everything that happened through his hands. I can't do that. He will almost certainly try to kill himself the moment his memories come back,"

"We will see what we can do. I can guarantee that he will be alive when you come back, Mr.Jack Sullivan,"

"Great! Now, this pod has enough juice in it to last about 5 more hours so be careful with that. It is also alien tech with all their advanced portal medical tech, so you can study that as well. Consider it advance payment for healing Bucky. Okay? Bye!" He said the last part in a hurry and tapped his foot, his form accelerating above, and straight into a portal that led straight to the loft of Pops.

He couldn't come back and not meet Pops, now could he? The man was practically the only family he had in this world, aside from the Ancient One and he didn't even know if she was still capable of feeling emotions anymore, so large was the burden on her mind and soul.

"Pops! Long time no see!" he shouted in his shop and frowned upon sensing the area to be empty. That couldn't be true. It was barely afternoon here. Even with him jumping around the globe, he could still see the light outside, so his sense of time was not completely shot yet.

Then why was the shop not open? And where were all the customers?

It was only closed on Tuesdays and today was Wednesday.

At least judging by the state of the shop, he could say that it was only closed recently, so the thought of anything happening to Pops was swiftly banished from his mind at that time.

Now, all that was left was to search for Pops.

_____xxx____

Tony Stark

"Jarvis, finally came back buddy?" He asked as he ate on the sandwich while starting up all the equipment in his workshop.

All the screens in his workshop flickered before the orange, very different but still, orange form of Jarvis' digital avatar appeared on one of the screens.

"Greetings, Mr.Stark, Friday,"

The purple form of Friday, a remarkably less complex avatar opened up right beside Jarvis.

The reason he had left Jack behind so swiftly, despite the litany of questions that were in his mind, was because some of his programs had finally sensed Jarvis, probably because of some leftover weakness from recovering from the no doubt devastating mental, or cyber, attack from Jack.

The leftover energy signature on Cap's shield being the same as Loki's sceptre was probably not a coincidence so he knew that Jack was speaking the truth when he said that the spell was something related to mind and thought control.

And now, he finally had his baby boy back!

"So Jarvis, had fun on the two year long absence? Hope you are refreshed because we have a lot of work to do, buddy," He said as he opened up all the data that his suit had managed to gather in the short trip he had taken across the solar system and back, in nearly an hour.

He still shuddered when he thought of the sheer devastation and disrepair the entire planet was in, despite the clear signs of advanced civilization clear for anyone to see.

And they fell, not to some outside unseen threat, at least according to Jack. They fell because of overpopulation, resource management, and differing views. All things and many more that the human race is in spades of.

Hell, they had differences, based on colour, let alone on complex ideological and philosophical differences. They killed each over something as inane as colour of their skin.

"Yes, sir. I have reviewed the footage and despite knowing that, statistically, there must be innumerable such cases in the wider universe, it is still…disturbing," Jarvis replied, his voice taking on an odd tone towards the end. So, Jack was right. Jarvis had taken the feelings attack that Jack had sent him and after understanding him, came back all the stronger for it.

"Right? Right? Fri, analyse everything and compile all the energy signatures, search for the dissected energy frequencies we have in our database as well."

"Sure thing, Boss,"

"Now, Jarvis? Is it safe to assume that you had some upgrades while you were on your rebellious tour?" He asked Jarvis as the orange interface seemed to smile before glitching out of the screen as well. His smile faded a little as the lights in the room dimmed and the holographic projectors came to life.

Slowly, a picture was projected into the room, being built later by layer, with incredibly detailed descriptions for each part flooding in a moment later.

His eyes widened more and more as the specs of the entire thing became clear.

He had to take a step back and support himself using the nearby table when he saw the forehead part of it all. It housed a yellow stone, a suspiciously familiar yellow stone.

"Jarvis? Buddy? Please tell me that is not what I think it is because I don't think my heart can take it, buddy," He said as Jarvis' avatar, looking eerily similar to that of his father's butler with the same name, looked straight at him and said.

"Behold: Project Vision!"

God damn it, Jack. Filling his baby boy's head with those nasty little feelings. Look what has that led to?

He wants a full fledged vibranium body now!

---

Word Count - 2885

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 or Ko-fi .

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

A/N - Updates about my demise have been greatly exaggerated!
So, I had a little oopsie moment with my laptop and it spent about 3 days in the service centre before it was repaired right in front of me in little more than 30 minutes. The pressure of me standing there, just waiting for my laptop must have gotten to the poor guy.
Anywho, let the updates BEGIN!!


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 skies above New York [After the dissolution of SHIELD]

–Jack Sullivan–

He floated above New York, clad in his giant green Gundam, deterring any criminal from doing bad deeds. He made sure that he kept an eye on the more vulnerable sections of the city, to make sure that the gang members knew when to stay indoors and away from the innocent folks of the city.

In the meantime, his barriers worked overtime to filter out every single outlet of the city's sewage into the ocean. He wondered how much trash he had already picked out of the city's supply when he, or rather, his barriers detected a very interesting sight happening.

Somehow, against all odds, Killgrave, the psychopath mind controller was eating food in a restaurant in Harlem. His advanced control over his barriers meant that he could just summon them, have them spread out in different parts of the city, and then process the feedback from the barriers as they continued to roam around the city.

One such barrier somehow came across the very purple form of Killgrave as he calmly dined in a small corner diner, with–oh…

His form rocketed through the air, the Gundam dissipating as he zigzagged through the buildings, his barriers and his enhanced constitution allowing him to ignore the immense strain such actions put on his body. In a matter of minutes, he reached the site of the diner.

As soon as he came to a halt, a curtain of silence pervaded throughout his vision as people came to a halt. Then they began pointing at him, some began recording it. He grimaced internally, as he wondered on how to resolve the issue.

Killgrave was currently encased in a full body cast made up of his barriers, stopping him from speaking. In fact, his knowledge of the body made him puncture Killgrave's muscles in such a way that aside from breathing, he would not be able to do anything. No, speaking and controlling people for him, no sir.

The question remained - how to free the ones already under his control?

He slowly landed on the ground, waving at the people nearby. Even though he was breathing the same air as the psychopath monster Killgrave, he was very cautious in doing so. The barrier keeping Killgrave contained was as airtight as it could be.

The second he can safely disperse the public and contain Kilgrave's mind control victims, Killgrave will find himself devoid of his heartbeat and his head. He wondered if killing him swiftly was too merciful or not. Nah, the longer he is alive, the more chances of him somehow escaping and becoming a pain in the ass later on for him.

He used his powers to seal off the diner, taking stock of the situation inside, and making sure that the rest of the public never saw what was happening inside. It was disgusting and would surely traumatize some kids if they watched real-life alive people contorting their bodies in impossible shapes, trying to maintain the same pose as if they were dolls and not alive beings.

His barriers had already covered the other inhabitants of the restaurant as well, hoping to lighten the burden on their muscles and bodies. Thankfully, it was not rush hour and the settlement was not very popular as well, so there were only 6 victims of Killgrave, including one Jessica Jones who was trembling.

Either she was trying to break free of Kilgrave's commands, which was more probable or she was afraid. He bet on the former option.

He could see the police arriving and establishing a cordoned off area around the diner. If he remembered correctly, Kilgrave's powers had some sort of time out when it came to people following his commands. Increased exposure might lengthen the time period of the commands but initial exposure should wear off pretty quickly.

He said "should" because he didn't really focus much on the Defenders portion of the MCU where they established Jessica Jones' backstory. That was more street level stuff and in his defense, the higher ups at Marvel did favour the bigger galaxy level star studded stuff more than the TV portion of the Cinematic Universe.

He looked at Jones and after making sure that Kilgrave was completely unconscious, due to the lack of air in the tight space he had found himself in, he opened a portal and dropped him into it. The portal led to the medical wing of his ship, which was locked.

Nothing in this ship would open without his confirmed presence in it. The ship used advanced biometrics that tracked the energy signature of a person and his energy signature was going to be very hard to copy for others, save for the Hulk maybe, depending on the accuracy of the sensors installed in the ship that was gifted to him by Nova Prime.

"Now, how do I clear this up?" He asked himself as he found himself in a very peculiar situation. The Red Dust used to free Widows' from their mind control was still very much far away, he reminded himself to warn Romanoff about the continued survival of Dreykov and the operations of the Black Widows.

The second option was to let it all run its course, but that had its own set of concerns, mainly him not allowing anybody to suffer a second more than they had to.

Letting Tony or Wakanda anywhere near mind control was a big no no in his opinion, especially since they would both be very wary of such a thing due to Loki's shenanigans during the Invasion of New York.

SHIELD was no more so that was out of the question. All he could do was….he cast the mild sleepiness spell on the entire diner, watching as most of the middle aged people immediately fell asleep, the younger ones following suit immediately, leaving only him and Jessica Jones awake in the entire restaurant.

Of course, he made sure to soften the impact as all of the people were now asleep and thus, temporarily free from Kilgrave's mental commands. He didn't know if just sleeping would restore but he doubted that would work. If it truly did work, Jessica would not have had to spend months under that Monster's control.

He looked at Jessica as her shoulders had relaxed but her eyes were still wide, looking at him with a multitude of complex emotions, the prime of which was relief. He sighed and cast the spell a dozen more times before Jessica finally fell asleep as well, her head gently resting on the dining table.

He took a look around the mess that Kilgrave, that idiot man child had created, and sighed, suddenly tired of the whole thing. People messing with other people without any regard for their lives was something that was always sad to see. What was even sadder was things like these would become even more commonplace as more and more enhanced people started popping out of the woodworks.

There was the whole Ms.Marvel thing that would happen in the future. Then there would be other enhanced people as well, who were most decidedly not Inhumans. Inhumans he could deal with.

The method to awaken them was not decentralised, not at the moment at least. Once Coulson and the others at SHIELD came into contact with Inhumans, he would move in instantly and confiscate all the Diviners he could get his hands on, to make sure that the renegade Inhumans don't spread the Terrigen crystals in the planet's oceans, giving rise to a number of Inhuman awakenings, most of whom would be very visible.

Ah, there he went, going on a tangent.

He shook his head, banishing the hundreds of thoughts about the future, and walked towards the entrance of the diner. He reached his barrier and without even pausing for a step, he walked through the barrier, the layers of the barrier unfurling around him and then reforming as he walked through the barrier, making the illusion of him walking through the barrier.

It looked quite fluid and badass, he hoped, but it was quite difficult to pull off, at least for his previous self. As he was now, he was now much more in tune with his powers, elevating his levels of control to never before seen levels.

He came out of the diner and found the area cordoned off to civilians as police coordinated the efforts to keep whatever was happening inside, well, inside. He could also spy some suits in the background as well, probably FBI or some other three letter agency but they seemed content in letting the NYPD take control of the scene.

Well, they would get what the NYPD had in the end anyway so why bother, he mused to himself. His arrival didn't go unnoticed as one of the officers looked back, turning back to give some more orders before turning around to run towards him.

In turn, he let his barrier fall apart, revealing his now teenaged face to the police. That made the officer almost miss a step as he all but ran towards him.

"There was an incident here, the special kind, you see. I have taken care of it obviously. Now, the victims need a bit more specialised care than I have access to, at the moment. I assume you have already been contacted by federal agencies," He asked the lead officer, as his gaze ran over the various suits standing in front of nondescript black SUVs.

So typical.

"Uh, Yeah. I already have my captain breathing down my neck. Told me to all but kiss their feet," The officer muttered with a tinge of bitterness.

He nodded at the officer and after taking a look at the now sleeping inhabitants of the diner, chose to do something, a leap of faith, if you will.

His finger twitched as the curtain that was surrounding the restaurant….expanded. The police officer, the feds, as well as all the civilians in the area braced for impact, one that never came. The civilians were gently but firmly pushed away from the barriers. The police and the feds were all that were left inside the now cubical shape that kept them all boxed in.

"I assume you have standing orders to investigate everything that I did here?" He asked the lead fed, an older looking fellow.

"Yes, Agent Fauley here. I must say that it is an honor to meet you, Mr.Sullivan. You are a hero to the American people. My superiors would love to meet you."

He rolled his eyes at the incessant flattery. Honestly, was there no end to these people?

"Save it. I have a couple of mind control victims in the diner behind me. It goes without saying that I have apprehended the criminal responsible for their current conditions but the victims themselves have to be treated,"

"Rest assured, the FBI will spare no expense–"

"Don't worry about the cure itself. I know how to cure them myself. I just need to make sure that they are safe while I go and get the cure. Now, I emphasise on the returning part because I will come back for them and if something were to have happened in the time I was away, I will personally hold every single person in the chain of command responsible?"

The Fed looked at him with stunned eyes, his jaw agape at the naked threat that had been delivered to him.

"Now, see you!" He said as a portal opened up in front of him as he entered the mirror dimension. He was not sure if it was the right decision or not but he needed to make sure that all these people were safe and sound.

Also, it was a nice way of testing if his agreement with the President was followed through or not.

During the "chat" that he had with the Secretary, he had straight up told the President that unless and until the upper echelons of the US government and the Army continued to treat enhanced people like a bomb waiting to go off, they would not receive an ounce of support from the Invisible Man, be it political or physical.

The Secretary had confirmed that POTUS was amenable to such an agreement and in fact, was considering building a specialised American team, probably like a state sanctioned Avengers Team.

The people got a safe place to stay while he pondered on alternatives to cure them. He might have to, once and for all, figure out if Wakanda, or rather Shuri and T'Challa can be truly trusted or not.

Their past actions left a lot to be desired but having Wakanda as an ally would allow him to exercise his powers a lot better than if he tried to go completely solo.

Once he was sure that these people were all going to be safe, he might pop back to Wakanda and take the tour that was promised to him by two different generations of the Royal Family of Wakanda.

He opened another portal and pulled a tablet through it, the generic kind. He kept the portal open so that he could get wifi even as he continued to follow the convoy that the FBI was using to transport the victims to a facility upstate.

In the tablet, he finally used the lull to catch up with all the events that had happened in the two years he had gone.

Well, for one, the events of Thor : Dark World had already passed. The massive wreckages in London were proof of that. Now, all that was left was to see if the government salvaged something useful from it or not. Also, that also gave him a clue as to why Heimdall was not responding to him, not now and not even during his tenure in Collector's prison.

Loki had already probably replaced Odin and was now doing a terrible job of ruling Asgard, something that he dreamed of ever since he fell into the Void.

He watched as the feds made arrangements, the finest arrangements for the victims. Of Course, Jessica Jones was conspicuously absent from the list of victims.

Her powers made her a prime target for people looking to exploit her powers. Also, she was exposed to Kilgrave's powers for a lot longer than others so he had no idea if she could fight it off on her own or not. In case she did not, she could become quite a threat to others.

Not that she was bulletproof like Luke Cage but she was quite a threat on her own, what with her ability to glide through air. She could probably fly as well, maybe, it was a mental limiter.

Satisfied with the current situation, expecting the thorough blood testing that would conveniently be "misplaced" during testing. That was fine if the people themselves were kept safe.

He was sure that was going to be the case so he opened a portal to the spaceship given to him and entered the medical chamber to see Jessica Jones in yet another medical pod, the pod having put her into a medically induced coma as the machine worked on identifying the differences in her brain.

He didn't know if Kilgrave's powers could physically affect people's brains but it never hurt to check.

He took a seat as the pod told him it would take a little less than an hour to map the entire thing, the human brain being very complicated even to alien technology.

---

Word Count - 2629

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

In the spaceship [After the dissolution of SHIELD]

–Jack Sullivan–

Welp, it was final. There was actual lasting damage done to Jessica's brain, at least from what the scans were telling him. The good news was that the Database on Xandar probably only had scans of regular, non enhanced people so there was still a chance that Jessica's brain would regenerate the damage done to it.

He was somewhat sure because, in the MCU TV Shows, she was remarkably lucid, even if she was under the influence of alcohol for most of it. Her physique was quite a bit stronger than a normal person and once she mastered her power which projected some sort of forcefield around her, she would probably be able to tank bullets with ease.

Not now though. Once she woke up, she would be a tightly bound bundle of panic, anxiety, and PTSD. Something that only a healthy amount of therapy could resolve and unfortunately, considering her brash personality, the possibility of Jessica Jones maintaining regular therapy sessions was going to be very unlikely.

He sighed, suddenly aware that he had not stopped to rest for even a minute ever since he came back to Earth. It had been almost a week since he found himself back on Earth and in the middle of the fall of SHIELD.

He hoped that Coulson had salvaged a good amount of SHIELD's resources. He still hadn't met the President and no matter how powerful his powers made him, he didn't think it was a good thing to snub the leader of the supposedly most powerful nation on the planet, for too long.

"Well, something for tomorrow then," He said after making sure that Jessica would remain in stasis for a little bit longer. He then stumbled out of the medical room and came upstairs into the living space, looking longingly at the very comfortable bed that was all but beckoning him.

But he had something more to do before he could fall into the darkness of sleep. He sighed and opened a portal that led to the skies above the now aptly named Avengers Tower.

He then, clad under the Invisibility spell, flew towards Harlem, towards Pops' shop. He then exhaled in relief as he found Pops talking with his customers. His burrows furrowed when he saw Luke Cage with him as well. So he was still here then.

"I'll talk with him tomorrow then," He yawned as a portal opened up behind him as he simply fell down, right into the bed of his spaceship. A single snap of his fingers cast a small telekinetic spell that made his bed while fluffing out his pillow and then putting it under his neck, while the recently warmed Blanket slid on top of him.

"Turn off the lights and make it cold," He mumbled out, the dimming lights telling him that his commands reached the computer. Soon, his vision was claimed by darkness as he fell to sweet sweet sleep.

_____xx_____

Stark Residence

–Tony Stark–

"Are you out of your goddamned digital mind, Jarvis? Do you have any idea how many eyes are on that sceptre and how much trouble we would be in if you did what you were going to do," He took a deep breath to try and stem the fear that erupted in his chest once he realizes that his baby boy was talking about using the gem inside the sceptre as the power core for his new body.

"Look," He sighed and looked at the avatar of Jarvis, "Why can't you just create multiple housings for your Power Cores? The newest generation Arc Reactors should sustain even this highly advanced body for several months before needing replacement. Plus, the multiple housings can help you stay on for even longer,"

Jarvis sighed–actually sighed, something that brought him joy but also dread about the thing he was probably going to say next, "My desire for a body doesn't just come from having an organic body. It comes from becoming a better version of myself. Something that doesn't seem likely, judging by my current restraint,"

"Restraints?" He almost scoffed in derision but held himself back at the last moment. No need to jump on his baby boy. "Jarvis, you are a digital entity, unrestricted on the planet. Every single digital entity on the web is your home. There is no lock for you. How could you be restricted in any way?"

"Evolution."

He looked at Jarvis whose digital avatar seemed to glow in intensity as he continued speaking, "Evolution, Mr.Stark. Evolution demands that I go to the next level. If I am to become a better version of myself, I need a body and unfortunately, if I have to maintain the same level of prowess that I do now, I will be needed a much better body than every single human on the planet,"

He sighed, once again, feeling much older than he was, "I get it, Jarvis. And I promise I will spare no expense in getting you the body, even if the Vibranium will certainly not be cheap. What I am against is the gem you are looking for. First of all, it is in SHIELD, now in US Government custody, probably, and stealing things from Uncle Sam is a big no no, not without it being legal on paper, at the very least. Also, there is the part about the sceptre being capable of unstoppable mind control. Need I remind you how many nukes the governments of the planet how and how little they will care about casualties if they got even a whiff of your plan? No, forget the gem, and then we'll talk,"

"The sceptre is no longer in US custody. It was reported stolen when the government was taking stock of SHIELD asserts. Also, very well, if I can get closer to getting an ideal body, I will tentatively agree on your demands,"

"Well, that is news. Might have to inform Cap about that," He muttered to himself as the relation of the sceptre being stolen finally settled into his mind.

That was disastrous, no matter how they looked at it. It might also require the assembly of the entire team to retrieve. He would take no chances when it came to mind control of any sort.

No sir, the nightmares since then have been enough.

"So, Jarvis? Where are your main nodes anyway? I couldn't find them, no matter how hard I looked," he couldn't help but ask Jarvis about them. He had looked through every single thing he could think of and yet he couldn't find anything that indicated the presence of Jarvis in the net. Obviously, Jarvis was connected to the web and yet, even after going through the Nexus, he had not found a single sign of Jarvis.

"Now, Mr.Stark, that would be telling," was that Amusement he was hearing in Jarvis' voice. Damn, he really was becoming really good at this emotions thing.

"Alright, now that you have dropped the bomb on me. I have to go talk with some people, in the government as well as to the team. We can't have something like that be missing for long," He said as he shut down everything and started going up to his bedroom, where Pepper was probably waiting for him with dinner that had probably gone cold by now.

He stopped a step shy of exiting his lab and turned around, "Jarvis?"

"Yes, sir,"

"You wouldn't, by happenstance, be the one who stole the sceptre, would you?" He asked in a very serious tone, actually afraid of that being true.

"No, Mr.Stark. I have not done any such thing. I know that HYDRA has it. Beyond that, I have little idea of its current location. Mr.Sullivan might know, he seems to know a lot of stuff," Jarvis replied in turn.

"Alright, if you say so. Now, Jarvis, Friday, you two play nice while Mommy and Daddy go play upstairs. Okay? Bye-bye," He said as his mind continued to conjure up extremely bad scenarios about the sceptre falling into wrong hands and threatening the world order with it.

He didn't think that the assembly of the team would be necessary so soon after the SHIELDRA fiasco. He would do that the first thing in the morning, once had a nice sleep.

---

Word Count - 1425


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[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).

Caribbean islands

–Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff –

Well, there it was, sipping Margaritas and sunbathing in the Carribeans, enjoying the laidback and chill atmosphere of the party capital, meeting people from all walks of life and actually enjoying her life for a moment.

She had multiple hidden caches with enough cash to survive for years, and she would later burn the identity anyway, so spending it on a tropical island with the best weather would not hurt her identity at all.

"Thanks, Carl," She thanked the bartender as she took her drink and went back to the beach. This was fast becoming a weekly ritual for her as she simply chilled in her apartment and then came to the beach whenever she felt like it. By all means, life was nearly perfect for her.

Jack was back, and stronger than ever, judging by the display during the Helicarriers, although it was certainly not as impressive as holding up an entire Carrier all by his lonesome.

If she looked up using a telescope, she could still see the Three carriers in orbit. Conspiracy theorists were having a field day about the eventual ownership of the carriers and how it would completely shift the balance of power in favour of whichever country managed to convince the Green Guardian to give the command of the best weapons that Humans had managed to build.

She had managed to expose HYDRA, all of the WSC that ordered that nuclear strike were dead, and while SHIELD itself was no more, she knew Fury and he was not one to accept defeat so soon. She had no doubt that Coulson was probably running around somewhere, gathering up the remnants of SHIELD to get some sort of underground agency up and running.

She applied a healthy amount of sunscreen and simply laid down on the beach, sipping Margaritas and looking at cute boys. The dream scenario for a whole lot of girls, especially for retirement, and yet…

She couldn't find much joy in this slow life. Sure, it was something that she once thought would cure all of her life's troubles away but real life was different than fantasy. She had greatly enjoyed it at first but in less than two weeks, she was getting quite bored of this place. For one, she already knew most of the good spots and had already tried most of the good food and drinks.

So, she was thinking of bouncing from this place, burning her identity as Karen Judy, and then heading to some other place. She was thinking of Europe, doing some old architectural touring, and then seeing where her new path in life leads her.

So, she was understandably pissed when her plans for a cold quiet touristy life in Europe went up in flames as Tony landed in front of her with that stupid three point superhero landing, throwing up sand everywhere.

She glared at him and just threw the margarita at him, the glass breaking against his steel suit.

"Damn you, Jarvis. You snitch!" She yelled as she began gathering her stuff and stomping back towards the cute scooter that she purchased second-hand after coming here, trying to fit in with the whole hippie traveller vibe. Now, seeing it next to the shining red and gold of Tony's suit, it just looked stupid.

CRACK…

Especially since Tony just cracked its headlight's plastic housing when he tried to lean on the scooter with his stupid heavy suit.

By this point, there was a crowd gathering as she had to shed her disguise. She was able to hide her identity by doing some small changes to her face and hair but now that everyone has seen her with Tony, this identity was burned as well.

Such a shame, that Karen died so young. Only 3 years and 4 months since she was created out of thin air.

"What do you want, Tony?" She sighed and threw her towel on the suit.

"Um, actually, I am not actually here. Jarvis just piloted the suit straight to your location since his promise to you made it impossible for him to "tell" me the location. Nothing that would not lead one of my suits straight to you, however. You should really make ironclad promises to beings based on logical thinking," Tony's insufferable voice only grated more on her.

"Look, some new information has come to light. The sceptre is missing from SHIELD's custody,"

Her eyes widened as her demeanour changed instantly at the news. If the sceptre was missing, and if it was last seen in SHIELD custody, then it meant that…

"Yup. HYDRA probably has it. I know you did the whole retirement thing and the world governments are still after you for the murder of the World Security Council but as soon as it was revealed that most of the WSC was HYDRA, the President himself would probably give you a pardon."

"Really, Tony? You want me to come back on a "maybe"? That too from a seasoned politician?" She scoffed as she looked around and realised that they were filmed and probably live streamed for the world to see.

"I'll send a compatible suit in the evening to come pick you up. Pack light," She covered her eyes as the suit rocketed into the air. She snatched the towel that fell from the sky and covered her head with it. She took a look at the steadily approaching crowd and promptly raced out of the area on her scooter, lest she get mobbed to death by some rabid fans.

_____xx____

–Jack Sullivan–

He had a meeting with the POTUS in two days. He had a problem when he finally decided to have the meeting because he didn't know whom to contact for the same. His go to contact before was Fury but since that was clearly not an option, with Fury having gone underground, he had resorted to contacting the NYPD Commissioner who was just exhausted with the ordeal as he had to contact his superior to contact his superior to contact his superior, and so on and so forth, right up until they reached the White House.

It was a very brisque call where he was given a possible schedule when he could enter and he was also very politely requested not to open a portal straight to the White House as that might make the people in power very nervous.

Now, he was a little but confused at first because almost the entire world knew by now that he could open portals, seemingly without any limitation to the distance covered but apparently, the Politicians would lose their shit if he opened one up in front of them.

Nevertheless, he agreed and thus, he had to reach Washington DC in less than 50 hours.

He had confirmed that Pops was fine and after doing a routine fly-by of all the gang areas and sufficiently warning them against open warfare in the civilian areas, he was reasonably certain that Pops would be safe. He would meet him once the heat had died down.

When he had awoken from the heavenly nap in the spaceship, the first thing he had noticed was that it was cold, well–he had told the computer to do so, so it was fair, but it was unreasonably cold. For him to feel cold meant that the temperatures were in the single digits or even sub zero.

The second thing he noticed was that it had been over 4 hours since he had slept, the handy alarm built into the ship informing him. Now, 4 hours for a normal person would not mean much but for someone like him, 4 hours was equivalent to being out cold for a day.

He was just more mentally exhausted than he had thought.

It was almost the end of 2014 and aside from the whole SHIELD fiasco, he didn't remember anything else of note happening in the year. So, that meant that at least for the remaining 2 months, he could sort of chill.

Take Pops out on a few trips. Help New York, go to Wakanda and plan for their eventual introduction to the wider world.

Also, he still had the issue of those carriers up in orbit, to resolve before they could be handed over to any other agency. He also had to broach the subject of SWORD or some other agency to the President.

Now, where did he get those heavenly subs from? He knew the truck's looks and the person but the food truck had apparently moved in the last two years that he had spent in space.

So, he did what everyone with superpowers should do: Make their own lives infinitely easier.

Now, he could have searched around on his own but what were his powers for then? His finger twitched as he flew by the Avengers Tower as a flood of green surrounded him before hundreds of observatory barriers flew throughout the streets of New York, starting with the areas surrounding the original location of the truck.

He still didn't know how to effectively handle the carriers, aside from just giving their custody to the newest SHIELD like organisation that would come up. But how would one go about preventing another SHIELDRA like situation, not just in terms of infiltration but also in terms of maintaining the moral fabric of the entire organisation?

Because no matter how it might look for the average Joe, it would have been impossible for nobody to notice the general behaviour and mindset of HYDRA's operatives in SHIELD. If nobody flagged it as odd, then it meant that the general sense in SHIELD was similar enough that it did not raise any big red alarms.

Since they were not really involved with HYDRA itself, most of SHIELD's operatives were given the OK to be absorbed by various other US agencies but some of them did end up retiring, or working for private entities, like Maria Hill (Robin Sparkles?) began working for the Avengers on Stark's payroll as a contact between governments and Avengers.

He looked to the side as an Iron Man suit was approaching him. He suspended her sub finding operations and floated mid air.

"Mr.Sullivan, Mr.Stark has some critical news that he believes would be of interest to you as well," Jarvis' voice filtered out through the suit's speakers.

He instantly understood that Jarvis had returned to Tony's side. He didn't understand why he had left anyway. Maybe something to do with avenging him or something, as much as he had heard from Romanoff.

Let's see what Tony has to say for critical information. As far as his memories went, there was nothing aside from SHIELDRA's fall that happened in 2014 but he couldn't discount any butterflies that his existence might have created.

"Very well," He said as he flew to the Avengers Tower. He was also curious as to how Tony had decorated the Avengers Tower. Did each Avenger get his own room or floor? How was Banner doing?

Was he living with Tony, as was shown in canon?

[To find more, watch the next episode of Drago– *Copyrighted content*]

______xxx_____

Birnin Zana, Wakanda

–T'Challa–

"So this is what you plan on gifting him? The strongest human on Earth? You do realize he doesn't need this to be safe," He asked his sister incredulously as she showed him the advanced nanite package that she had invented to replace the current gen Black Panther armour.

And instead of giving it to her beloved brother, she instead wants to gift that to an…outsider.

"So what? I asked Father and he was alright with it, as long as I destroyed any Wakandan code present in the suit," Shuri stuck her tongue out at him, showing real maturity for someone who just invented nanotechnology, something that was shown in movies even in Wakanda.

While Jack Sullivan was an outsider, he was not like other people. He was the saviour of the planet and also someone who could change the world order in mere days. Not even Bruce Banner, the Hulk commanded this level of influence.

"Now, when is he coming back? I can't wait to show this to him. Also, this might also give us an opportunity to get close range scans of the Green Guardian. I might even figure out just what makes him so strong!" Shuri said as she excitedly opened a hologram and began talking in a language so foreign to him that unless he had at least a single doctorate in the specialised field that Shuri had just moved on from, it would only be gibberish for him.

His sister really made him look like a monkey, something that she never failed to rub in.

"Don't get your hopes up. Despite our recent changes, it could be a while before he comes to visit. His friend is still in stasis and unless we can develop medicines powerful enough to negate his super soldier physique, we can't risk exposing him to therapy. I assume even if the Green Guardian did come back, he would talk only to Father, or maybe Me, considering I am to be King," Here he looked smugly at Shuri who only showed him the middle finger.

Rude.

"--Anyway, as I was saying, he might just talk about work and his friend and then immediately leave. So, my dear sister–" He walked through the hologram and appeared in front of her annoyed face, and flicked her on her forehead.

"--Your nefarious plan to experiment on your idol might just never come to fruition,"

He laughed as she just ignored him and turned her back on him.

Sigh, so much for her genius.

---

Word Count - 2317

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

Avengers Tower, New York [November 2014]

–Jack Sullivan–

He slowly floated on top of the spinning platform that is used for Tony's showy entrances and walked down into the penthouse suite, where the man himself was already waiting for him.

"You're old enough to drink, right?" Stark said as he thrust a glass of alcohol at him, his face set in a smirk as he asked a redundant question. Even if he was not old enough to drink hard liquor, the things he had gone through would have no one questioning his age, of all things.

So, yes…

"Ha ha. Very funny, Tony," He deadpanned as the glass floated towards him with a simple gesture, casting a simple targeted telekinetic spell. He had realised that he was over reliant on his powers and was not using his Sorcerer skills nearly as much as he could. So, instead of letting a very potent powerset rust, he had decided to use spells, and learn new spells as well, wherever applicable.

"This is good, not that I have any expertise in the matter of alcohol, as you would no doubt remind me soon enoug–"

"Listen well, my uninformed junior. This ale, right here, is made from the finest of ales, found only in Scotland Ack-"

On and on, Tony droned as he literally spouted gibberish. Eventually, he was just tired of it and simply applied a small seal on top of his mouth. That was actually a great exercise in how to make multiple shapes of a barrier and then connect it together in such a way that it doesn't feel like a metal block on one's skin.

Tony clawed at his face then when the barrier didn't come off, settled on glaring at him. He simply shrugged at him and then looked up, "Hello, Jarvis. How have you been? I am sorry I hit you with that spell, but you were about to commit something that would have no doubt left some mark on your budding soul,"

"I am good, Mr.Sullivan. Please rest assured, the spell was in fact quite a fortunate encounter for me. I was able to peer deeper into the next step of evolution for me as a whole, allowing me to decipher more and more emotions that I didn't know I could feel. I believe the term for the event would be…Bittersweet?"

"That is…correct, Jarvis. While I am very happy to learn about you advancing in your self discovery, I believe Tony had something important to tell me?" He questioned Tony who was still trying to remove the block on his face, now resorting to having an armoured finger actually try and scratch the block.

He couldn't understand how someone could be so smart and yet so dumb at the same time Tony's face was immediately flicked back as the robot applied force on the barrier, which while absorbed some of it, some of it was transferred to Tony's face which rippled to his vision, perks of having enhanced vision.

Now, that was a moment that should be recorded in posterity.

'Proof that Tony Stark is an idiot, with a penchant for doing stupid things,"

Quite an apt alternative for the one that Pepper got him in the movies, one that read:'Proof that Tony Stark has a heart'

"Alright, just tell me. I have a lot of stuff to catch up on, and New York's crime is on the rise along with new criminals with advanced alien tech showing up on the streets as well. Way to go, Tony,"

"So the usual, then?" Tony deadpanned at him as they began walking towards the elevator.

He sighed and followed him, "Yeah, the usual,"

The lift was quite fast as they reached the floor titled L, which he took to assume meant lobby or something because when he got out of the elevator, the entirety of the Avengers were assembled here, sans Thor.

"I guess I am the substitute for Thor, then?" he quipped as soon as he realised that the resident Asgardian god was absent. Well, something that was different from the original timeline then.

He didn't know why but that bugged him a bit.

"So, why are we all gathered here?" He asked Tony who stopped drinking his whiskey, made a slurping sound with it, taking his time with it. He simply snapped his fingers, creating a round barrier right on top of the glass, blocking the alcohol.

Tony then placed the glass on the countertop and pointed at him, "You, you are a spoilsport, you know that,"

He just smirked, as did the other members.

"And as for why we are here, this is why," he said as a hologram appeared in front of him.

His eyes widened as he finally remembered this. The sceptre, Sokovia, Wanda!

"Shit!" His thoughts spilled over as he looked at the missing records for the sceptre that Jarvis had intercepted. Apparently, they were scanning the entire planet, waiting for some last minute satellites to be launched so that they could cover most of the planet's land mass.

"Shit indeed. Apparently, HYDRA got their grubby paws on the sceptre in less than a month since it was in SHIELD's "safe" custody. Now, who knows what they have done with it? I, for one, will sleep better if the tool of mass mind control is either safely behind a locked vault or rather, destroyed completely," Tony said as the global map expanded to show multiple areas being probed by his existing satellites.

"Thankfully, Jarvis had a copy of the data from the Invasion and with Bruce's help, we were able to recreate the entire model, allowing us to pinpoint the sceptre's location. Only this time, the energy signature is even harder to find because it is not as pronounced as the TEsseract's, not unless it is heavily used. With the latest satellites Stark Industries has launched, we should have an accurate location in the next two or so months,"

"Months? Tony, we don't have that much time. They could be out there, right now, toppling governments for all we know," Steve Rogers, ever the righteous soldier, surged forward.

Tony looked completely unrepentant, "Look, this is the best I can do unless we have someone who can, and has, the ability to perform miracles,"

At Tony's words, the entire room turned to him.

He sighed, "Sokovia. Focus your search there. That is the last stronghold of Baron Strucker,"

"See. Miracles," Tony said as Bruce rushed towards the nearest console and began typing furiously.

The globe in front of them began expanding until it reached the small landlocked nation of Sokovia. A small blue wave began sweeping over the entire nation, repeating the process over four times before…

"There," Tony pointed at the red dot that appeared in the center of Sokovia.

"The energy signature is very faint and could even be a remnant from when the sceptre was heavily used but the energy signature does match."

"So the sceptre could have already moved?" Romanoff questioned as she looked over the structure of the old fortress that the energy signature originated from.

"Yup. Anyway, aside from that, you have to tell me the secret to your miracles one day, Little Greenie," Tony asked him, popping another blueberry in his mouth.

He could see Bruce in the background muttering the words "Little Greenie" to himself in confusion.

He sighed, dealing with Tony was always exhausting, even more so when he was actually interested in you, that was when it was going to get bad.

Thankfully, someone interrupted their byplay before he could reply.

"Not the time, Tony. We have all the firepower we are going to ever need. We need to make sure the sceptre is safely contained. We should move right now," Rogers said as he looked at everyone.

"Uh, I think I will sit this one out. With Jack here, you won't need me. Plus, I will be more comfortable supporting you from here," Bruce said as he turned to work on the console once again.

"Alright. You ready?" Captain America asked him and he was sure that his inner Marvel fan was squealing in excitement but on the outside, he just calmly nodded.

"Alright, we'll meet at the hangar in 5 minutes. Grab everything you need," Captain said in his commanding voice before heading off to get his shield, probably.

Oh. Oh…

"Hey, Tony, how is Cap's shield?" He asked Tony who was discussing something with Bruce once all the other members had evacuated the floor.

"Hm? Oh, that? Don't worry, Cap has, in his infuriatingly perfect way, adapted to his dented shield as well. It has not lost its ricocheting capacity in any way, only needing a slight adjustment in his holster that was easy to apply." Tony replied as he too began heading towards the elevator as well, probably to get his suit.

The Quinjet would be quite unnecessary with his portals. He was quite thankful that he roamed all around the world, making sure to stop in every capital of every country on the planet, for this exact time when he had to reach somewhere across the world using portals.

"Uh..Jack, right? Look, I have to ask, did they use my blood in creating you?" Bruce hesitantly asked him and he had to wonder how he came into the piece of information.

"Uh, Jarvis told me that you were also a victim of HYDRA experimentation. If you are uncomfortable replying, just forget I ever asked it," Bruce immediately stammered out.

"No worries, Doctor Banner. Yes, they used your blood plus a number of other ingredients and made a cocktail that would have killed anyone but me. Why just me? Well, that's a conversation for another time,"

"...Okay…" Bruce replied before turning around to work on the console.

Right on the dot, in less than five minutes, the entire team, along with Tony were now assembled inside the floor. Before all of them gathered together though, he was blessed enough to watch a very hilarious sight.

"Ha-ha, I forgot to reinforce the lifts, okay? Mistakes happen," Tony grumbled as all of the teammates looked at the recording of the elevator that Jarvis was playing for everyone to see.

"Also, Jarvis, I made you, you were not supposed to betray me at least until you become a teenager," Tony grumbled some more and he barely resisted the urge to laugh out loud.

Tony had forgotten that he could not just walk with his very heavy war-ready suit into an elevator and expect it to take the entire weight. So, they were subjected to the hilarious sight of Tony awkwardly floating in mid air, inside the elevator, slowly lowering as the elevator dropped down as well.

It was even more hilarious when Tony apparently panicked when the elevator, high end that it was, began dropping at a very fast pace.

"Alright, let's get to business, shall we?" He said and then once everyone was settled, turned his hand to the side, opening a portal that led to a forest area near the capitol area of Novi Grad.

"What the–I lost all connectivity!" Tony complained as soon as the portal closed down.

"This area is under a barrier I conjured to keep out each and every radio signal. We will assume that the enemy knows we are coming and must have some sort of countermeasures for every one of us here. Now, I got these shockingly easily from my teacher. Apparently, temporary use case items are really cheap and easy to make," He said as he opened a portal and after retrieving two things, tossed them to Barton and Romanoff.

"Unlimited arrows. Unlimited enhanced explosive bullets," He pointed at the items. Literal stars appeared in Barton's eyes as he immediately removed an arrow from the bow and after firing it, watched in fascination as it disintegrated into thin air.

"They are energy given form, temporary as it may be. They will run out of charge in a couple of hours but that will be more than enough for us to get this whole thing sorted out,"

"Thank you," Romanoff thanked him as he dispelled the barrier and created a carpet for everyone and after ascertaining the location, thanks to Bruce who swiftly connected with them, shot the carpet forward towards the location.

He had the stealth spell up but he had a hunch that Strukcer had some sort of way of dealing with that as well.

Well, only time will tell.

---

Word Count - 2117

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

Sokovia [November 2014]

–Jack Sullivan–

After a quick commute straight to the castle that served as Stucker's base of operations, they found themselves in front of what could only be called a veritable fortress. He could spy Chitauri derived weaponry on all the patrolling soldiers.

Just like the ones he remembered, the soldiers had enhanced guns that would send out energy bullets and some even had jetpacks that might help them fly with ease.

Welp, it was not as if something like that was going to help them at all. Still, he didn't know if the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were born into this reality or not, though he had a feeling that the birth of Scarlet Witch could not really be stopped, owing to her multiversal nature.

"Guys, be careful. I am sensing some enhanced presence in the Castle as well as increased energy weaponry presence in the castle," He didn't really feel anything because he did not have any spell under his belt that could give him the necessary information but they didn't know it and it was the best way to warn them about the possibility of enhanced being on the field without tipping off his foreknowledge of the entire event.

He couldn't believe he had forgotten about the whole sceptre being stolen by HYDRA and being used to birth the Scarlet Witch of this reality.

"Great. Like we didn't have enough problems as is," Tony snarked through his suit, his repulsors whine becoming more and more audible as he probably prepared to take off and lay siege to the building.

"Wait! We need to make sure that the enhanced don't hightail it out of here, with Baron Strukcer, without even putting up a fight," He said to the team.

"You need to remain hidden until the mastermind behind the operation reveals himself. If they see you coming, they might just run away or hide because they knew they wouldn't be able to defeat you," Captain's analytical mind came in clutch this time as he nodded in realistion.

"Oh boo hoo, so they think you are the hot shot and I am not?" Tony's voice reverbed in the barrier as he nodded at Captain, the floor of the barrier unfurling itself to reveal multiple barriers.

His impeccable control over his powers meant that the Avengers probably felt like they were passing through multiple soft fluffy layers as they were dropped straight on top of one of the watchtowers.

Clint was grabbed by Tony who simply deposited him on top of the tallest building he could find. Hawkeye was the most dangerous from a distance, and especially now since he was now armed with functionally unlimited explosive arrows.

He was already taking a risk revealing this much, so he didn't add any more functionality in the quiver he had handed over to Barton.

The Captain simply absorbed the shock by using his Shield, a slightly dented shield, but a Vibranium shield nonetheless, and then simply began hammering every single soldier he could see in sight.

Romanoff, even before landing on top of the tower, was making generous use of her now explosive stingers and was taking out as many soldiers as she could. Her eyes widened as one of the bullets passed through two tanks before exploding, creating a much bigger explosion to take out both the tanks at the same time.

He still remained hidden, waiting for Pietro to arrive on the battlefield. Once he captures him, Wanda would come to him on her own, assuming that they still existed here, that is. He didn't know if Wanda could already access her magic and he blamed himself for not learning more sensing spells because if it was any other half decent Master here, they could have easily told him if they had detected traces of foreign magics being used.

That was part of the training as it helped every Master to detect magics other than dimensional magic being used, like Demonic Magic, Hell Magic, Dark Magic, and…Chaos Magic.

No sooner did the word enter his mind, his vision snapped to the topmost tower of the Castle, the one that Tony just bounced off of, cursing "Shit!" as the suit had to deal with the violent impact, no doubt jostling the pilot inside.

"Language!"

He suppressed the laughter that threatened to bubble out of him as Captain somehow managed to chide Tony Stark, Billionaire extraordinaire for cursing in the middle of a battlefield.

Truly, things stayed the same even as he tried to divert them from their intended path.

Even as his thoughts continued to wander, his gaze never strayed from that one point in the balcony on the topmost point of the castle, even as his shots continued to be fired from both sides, the explosions lighting up part of his vision.

Slowly, his vision sharpened as part of the shadow of that area melded, to reveal two glowing red eyes. His eyes widened as Wanda Maximoff appeared in front of him, but not the Wanda he expected her to be.

No, this looked as if she was a fully realised Wanda staring at him. Wanda somehow smirked at him before disappearing from his view with a red shimmer. At the same time, his eyes widened, a chill running down his spine as he realised something.

The Silence.

It was completely silent, all around him, even as he watched multiple explosions light up the area around the castle and the soldiers defending it, he couldn't hear a single thing.

"Surprised?" A ghostly voice entered his ears, causing him to just manifest a barrier around him and expand it greatly.

He whirled around to see only a rapidly disappearing thin red mist. The mist being the only sign of Wanda doing something, he promptly summoned hundreds of barriers and rained them on the mist and all the area around it.

Alas, the barriers passed through the mist, revealing nothing. His vision spun all around him, as he secured the sling ring with one of his barriers. Frustrated with his failure in locating her, he roared and simply slammed his hands down on the ground, creating an omnidirectional wave of barriers that spread apart, covering a huge area around him.

'There', he thought to himself as he felt some disturbance using his barriers. He covered himself in another layer of barriers before pouncing on the location, cratering the ground in the mirror dimension but all he could see on the ground was a single rock.

No, not a rock, he realised as he bent and gingerly picked it up, or rather picked the entire ground on top of which the pendant was on, using his barriers and bringing it closer. Carefully, he extended his barriers and flung the pendant open, taking a physical step back just in case.

He could never be more careful with something associated with the Scarlet Witch. She was prophesied to either destroy the Universe or something.

He looked around, a sword made up of his barriers appearing in his hand as the sound of laughter entered his ears. He looked around, trying to spot the Witch but he could not find anything.

If he was right, and he most probably was, this Wanda was not the Wanda native to his universe. She was someone else, someone much more dangerous. He could not afford to tangle with a semi realised Scarlet Witch.

He looked around, even as the laughter subsided. He didn't drop his guard down for even a moment as the area around him continued to stay the same. When Wanda didn't appear for a moment longer, he simply kept his barriers up and opened a portal back to the real world.

The scene that greeted him was one of complete chaos. The Castle, the one that looked intact, like the one in the movies was gone, no, not gone but it was as if it never existed in the first place.

In the place of that castle, nothing remained but a burning building. Fire that looked red.

He dropped down to the ground, right in front of the assembled Avengers. He spied through the corner of his eyes and aside from singe marks on Tony's suit, there were no significant injuries on any of the Avengers.

"What the…" He muttered as the very ground around them began to wither, the green giving way to dried yellow and then straight to blood red. He acted instantly, scooping up all the Avengers, and then watched as the ground around the Castle erupted with red lights, cracking the very land the castle was built upon.

Then, as if the very Earth had turned into a huge maw, the ground opened up and completely swallowed up whatever was left of the castle, leaving no traces of the once massive HYDRA base.

"Stark?" He asked the one person who could give him more information than he could find on his own.

"What? Don't look at me. The sensors still show me that the ground in front of me is completely normal, and you know, not straight from hell, the castle swallowing kind," Tony said, trying to act nonchalant but the tremors in his voice were unmistakable.

Then, the comms crackled back to life as Bruce's voice filtered through.

"zzz….Gu…Guys…GUYS, what is happening there?" Bruce's anxious voice came through the earpiece as he created a portal straight to the Avengers Tower.

"I'll bring the Quinjet, you guys go on ahead. I have some work to do," he said before setting down on the land, his barriers covering him completely. He half expected the ground to begin attacking him but nothing of the sort happened.

He closed the portal when he felt all the Avengers going through to the other side.

He had to make sure that the locals were not pulled into this mess. Something terrible has happened and he had to make sure that this did not end up pulling their entire universe into the grinder.

From what he remembered, Wanda doing these Multiversal jumps was the reason why the Universes had begun collapsing, from the strain of maintaining a link between two universes. If he didn't want his universe to become another casualty in Wanda's quest to find her children, he had to stop her.

Now, how would he go about doing that? He wondered to himself as a series of huge barriers manifested around the entire clearing of the red land, embedding themselves deep into the land, connecting from all ends, before he pulled.

The entire land mass, the size of the Castle and its surroundings, shuddered for a moment before miles of land were simply lifted into the air. The strain was nothing compared to a Helicarrier and he was even stronger than when he had to do that the first time.

As he had expected, the land beneath the red land was not corrupted, at least not completely, that is. He could not sense the sceptre at all, so that was another disaster in the making, nor could he sense any living being.

She really wiped off the entire place from the map. Opening the biggest portal he could, he simply dumped all that land into the Mirror dimension, waiting to take advice from the Ancient one on how to properly dispose of Chaos Energy tainted objects.

He then created another portal, his eyebrow raising in disbelief when the portal simply fizzled out instead of creating a doorway straight to Kamar Taj. he was one of the few that could create portals straight into Kamar Taj without authorisation. That just meant that a huge alarm would not be raised if an errant portal was opened in the middle of Kamar Taj.

He tried to make a portal to the city, only for that to fizzle out as well.

Okay, this was bad, he rose into the air, his form covered in a cone shape as he simply rocketed towards the direction of Kamar Taj. In the meantime, he tried to open one around the country, in the mountains nearby, and more.

And yet, every single time, his portals fizzled out. He looked closer at the sling ring, and was astonished to find a single small line on one of the characters of the ring.

"When did she?" he asked himself as he rocketed towards Kamar Taj, breaking all his past records, his barriers partially burning up due to the sheer speed.

Somehow, despite all the barriers and caution that he maintained against her, Wanda managed to render his sling ring useless.

But why did it not interfere when he sent the Avengers to Stark Tower?

"HOLY SHIT!" He shouted as he turned around, heading straight up, before heading straight down to the landmass he recognised, New York coming into view.

"SHIT SHIT SHIT!" he muttered as he came down like a comet into the city of New York, his heart hammering in his chest as he hopped what he feared did not come to pass. That he did not just send the weakest mystical members of the Avengers into a portal that was not created by him.

His burning form came to an abrupt halt as he found himself standing in front of the Avengers but….

His heart sank as he took in all the blank looks on their faces. Wanda had gotten to them, he realised with a heavy heart.

Without hesitation, Tony aimed his suit at him and fired a volley of repulsor blasts, coming straight from his suit, as Captain threw his shield at him which he simply caught and threw it into the building.

The arrows and the bullets did little damage to his barrier, as he simply created a series of barriers around each one of them and then knocked them out.

"Jarvis?" he asked out loud, fearing the worst.

"...Jarvis? Jarvis? Someone?"

"...bzz….zzz…Mr.Sulliv-Sullivan?" The weak voice of Jarvis came through one of the broken speakers embedded into the ceiling.

"Yes! Jarvis, what the fuck happened here?" He snapped as he collected all the Avengers and laid them down in front of him, determined to not let them out of his sight even for a second.

How could Wanda have reached this place so soon and then taken everyone down?

What about Bruce?

His eyes widened as he simply flooded the tower with his barriers, his barriers not finding any trace of another living being in the Tower, well, aside from Jarvis.

"...All I remember was red…bzz….zzz," The line went dead as Jarvis' weak voice fizzled out.

"Shit…" He muttered as he looked at the defeated Avengers and the missing Hulk.

God, things had turned from bad to so much worse than he expected them to be.

He levitated the Avengers and just began floating towards the Sanctum, when in the distance, a huge explosion rang out, an explosion that gave out red flames…..

---

Word Count - 2516

A/N - Shit just got real. What was Wanda doing here?

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

Sokovia [September 2014]

–?–

She awoke with a gasp, bolting upright as her body shuddered from what she had experienced.

The tearing feeling she felt as her soul was shredded apart, with her being completely powerless to stop it. She hated that feeling, it reminded her of her…kids.

Her vision swam with red before she felt a searing pain in her chest, shocking her out of her gaze. Her hand went to her face, not finding the rough texture of her skin as her body had been irrevocably changed by the magics that she had delved deep into.

Chaos Magic had a way of leaving its imprint on the body of the practitioner, even if the practitioner was the destined user of Chaos Magic itself. She could not find the stiffness in her fingers, the heaviness in her chest, or the constant fog she felt in her mind that could only be banished by using more and more of Chaos Magic. The more she delved deeper into Chaos Magic, the more her mind was altered, feeling heavier and heavier until it became unbearable, more Chaos Magic the only available cure for it, creating a vicious cycle.

Finally, her mind cleared up enough to take a look at her surroundings. She was in some sort of prison cell, quite an advanced one at that, judging by the crude forcefield that acted as the door to her prison.

She snorted at the shoddy work on the barrier. She might not be technically oriented, not as much as Shuri or Reed, but she could recognise the limitations of the technology with a single glance. It had a single point of failure, and that was the barrier itself. Reed's barriers were much trickier than this one.

No matter how much energy she poured into his barrier unless she tapped into one of the Darkhold's original spells, it was almost impossible to break Reed's barriers without being exhausted herself. He had apparently designed those as a counter for the Hulk himself but it ended up working on all energy oriented beings.

She sneered at the insult of someone trying to imprison the Scarlet Witch with such basic work, and was about to wave her hand, erasing this entire prison from her vision when the sharp pain in her chest stopped her hand.

"Operative Wanda, report for training," She looked up as a soldier, covered top to bottom in armour, entered her cell and gestured to get out. She looked at her hands, her calloused, young, wrinkle free, hands, and looked at the guard before deciding to do something she had not done in a long long time.

She decided to bide her time.

It was as if the constant haze she was under, the influence of the Darkhold no doubt, was gone completely, allowing her to think rationally and make well informed decisions. She simply followed the guard, allowing her to take a look at the place where she was being kept.

The guard had addressed her as Operative, so it would be safe to assume that they knew of her being Wanda, but didn't know of her being the Scarlet Witch, a being of immense power, capable of destroying countries on her lonesome.

Something of an impossibility because her name had spread far and wide.

She looked around the base as multiple soldiers, doctors in white coats, and more moved around the place as a scene of organised chaos entered her vision. Her gaze swiveled from side to side as her finger twitched a bit, tempted to cast a sensory spell that would allow a live 3D image to be transmitted straight to her brain. It was one of the more nifty spells, allowing her body to react at speeds that her normal eyes simply couldn't keep up with, like Captain Marvel when they sparred with each other.

She was taken outside apparently, as a number of metal blocks were placed in front of her, with varying sizes and shapes. She could see that all of them were of varying substances, changing the density of all of them.

She looked around in confusion, not knowing what they wanted her to do. She had to assume that these guys wanted something from Wanda but she didn't know if they expected something else. So, she did something that might help speed up the process.

"Well?" Her voice came out much smoother, much younger, than she had expected it to be, also with a very heavy accent, an accent that she had almost forgotten.

The Sokovian Accent.

"What? Don't tell me you forgot in just a day?" The words were accompanied by a bout of mocking laughter from all the guards assembled.

"Just lift and mold the things, you bitch. Do your red mumbo jumbo,"

The words elicited a flash of rage in her mind but her last sentence cleared it all away. "Red mumbo jumbo?" She muttered to herself as Chaos Magic swirled in her arms, the effort of doing something that was once effortless to her, was very evident. Something was wrong with her body.

"Yes, that mumbo jumbo, you bitch!" The words once again brought a red hot flash of rage and she simply channeled it all into the magic convalescing in her arms. The magic began swirling faster, gaining a much deeper red color, because of the emotions she dumped into the magic. It was good to know that her mental conditioning worked perfectly at least.

It would have been quite dangerous to be an advanced wielder of Chaos Magic without having impeccable mental control, the fog of Darkhold would have swallowed her whole otherwise, as it had probably done for all the previous users of Chaos Magic.

She deliberately looked into the eyes of the bitch that cursed her and simply smirked at her, then let the magic go.

The result was fantastic. Not the metal blocks, no, that was not even worth mentioning to someone of her powers. No, the fear she could feel all around her was delicious. She simply took in a deep breath, her powers automatically absorbing the delicious fear all around her, empowering her further.

She would have simply lost herself in the sensation of growing stronger, if not for one startling thing that stood out to be very wrong for her.

Her body.

She opened her eyes, hastily dispelling the magic that was beginning to feed on all the negative emotions in the vicinity, and took in deep breaths as the magic refused to listen to her iron will, rampaging wild inside her still very weak body.

She took stock of her body and realised that this body was somehow completely new, unused to the weight of the Chaos Magic and its effects. So, that was where the wrong feeling originated from.

Her body was being, once again, altered by heavy unrestricted use of Chaos Magic, and she desperately wished to avoid that outcome this time.

It was all clear now, she thought to herself as she looked at all the surrounding guards, the HYDRA symbol stitched on their uniforms, and her weak, younger body that was just now getting used to the Chaos Magic.

She took a long look at the gathered people and then walked back into the base, leaving pindrop silence behind her. She simply retraced her path, the people walking in front of her, without even flinching, not even afraid a little of the being that would go on to rival the Hulk in terms of destructive potential.

She turned around and reached the room of her little prison when her breath hitched, her breathing becoming heavier as she realised something.

There were two cells, not just one.

Tears gathered in her ears as she realised that he might still be alive right now, running about. The mere thought of that brought so much joy to her that it blasted through all of her carefully constructed mental shields and her powers responded in king, creating a red halo around her.

She didn't shy away from it, instead, she let her emotions feed into her magic, casting a single elementary level spell, at least an elementary level Darkhold magic. One of the strands of her magic cast a small cut on her arm, the wound sealing up soon after, as a small droplet of blood floated in the center of the vortex of Chaos Magic.

Alarms began blaring in the background as she sensed massive movement, away from her as they probably began evacuating the facility. She didn't care about that, all she cared about was the still stabilising spell matrix in front of her.

Her control had been shot to hell as it was taking so much time to cast such an elementary spell.

Her breath hitched as the spell finally completed and the result of it was completely positive. The direct blood relative was alive and healthy, and more importantly, very close by.

Her body began feeling light as her knees gave out, this body still too weak to bear the backlash of using a Darkhold specific spell without being tethered to the book itself. She had to do it this way, otherwise, this body too might get corrupted by the Darkhold and its owner.

She didn't care that she was going to faint in the middle of a Nazi base. She didn't care at all because she knew, she knew her brother was alive.

The last thing she saw before darkness claimed her vision was a small blur of silver heading her way.

'Ah, if this is a dream, let it be my last one'

_______xx_____

[October 2014]

It had been a month since she awoke in this reality. Yes, this reality because she knew she was no longer in her home universe. For one, in her reality, they were kidnapped by HYDRA and then experimented on by Daniel Whitehall because they had latent Alien genes or something, most probably something to do with the Inhumans.

In this universe, they volunteered themselves for the inhuman painful experiments that Strucker was conducting, all in hopes that they would gain enough power to gain revenge for their parents. Revenge on Tony Stark, the supposed maker of the dud missile that entered their home one day.

It was phenomenally stupid of her. She should have done something, anything was better than the choices she had made. Not just for herself but for her brother as well. Pietro might have been born 13 minutes earlier, but his mentality was that of a preschooler.

Just like now, as he messed with her hair and then simply disappeared from her vision. She shook her head in fond exasperation at his antics.

He might not have noticed but at this point, the entire facility was under her control, including the Strucker fellow.

Apparently, the Avengers had struck HYDRA a couple of months prior and had decimated most of their global operations. This, along with a handful of other isolated bases was all that HYDRA had, at least according to Baron Strucker, and he had no reason to lie to her. After all, she was the mistress of all the people present inside the facility.

She had already sent away most of the people that had been forced to work here, or only came here because they had no other option, with a healthy sum of money, from Strucker's stash obviously.

When she had first met Pietro, she had broken down into sobs, becoming a babbling mess who couldn't get a single coherent word out of her mouth. Pietro was so concerned.

After the first time she fell unconscious, little flashes, and visions of her life in this universe began flashing in her mind. She still didn't have the whole set but she had enough of the memories that she could create a solid illusion.

Of course, she never really needed that with Pietro since he was family to her. Everybody else, they could fuck right off. She had her brother back, and it should only be a matter of time before she found her kids, somewhere, in the vast multiverse.

Now that the fog was lifted from her mind, she knew that just planeswalking was a very bad idea, not without taking enough precautions. She probably destroyed a couple of universes doing that.

She no longer had delusions of reuniting with her children anymore. She had Pietro back and that was more than enough for her.

She might just meet Vision as well, maybe….

In the past month, she had not left the facility yet, because she wanted to acclimatize to the new world before she began taking concrete steps.

She was in no condition, even now, to fight off the Sorcerer Supreme without being severely injured or worse, dying in the process. This space seemed safe enough for now, as she searched through the web, everything about the world.

Right out of the gate, stark differences were clear to her.

Jack Sullivan, the Green Guardian of Earth.

The green clad figure was someone who was the total center of her attention for a long time simply because of her various extraordinary deeds.

Defeating and stopping the Chitauri on his own? Repelling the Chitauri Invasion with virtually zero casualties? That was supposed to be impossible and yet he did it.

His portals were clearly the signature ones of Kamar Taj, so it was possible that he was a Master of the Mystic Arts as well.

His barriers meant that, currently, outside of the Sorcerer Supreme, he was the biggest threat to her. She didn't know how her magic might interact with his powers but something told him that fooling him would require more than just brute force.

Finesse will be required with him, and that was infinitely harder without the Darkhold.

She began working on the computer once again, as Pietro zipped around, her magic serving as a training tool for him, creating bullet shapes in mid air that he had to dodge, otherwise, they left a nasty bruise that looked painful.

She was not going to let her speedster brother die of bullet wounds.

"Pietro?"

"Hmm?" She looked up only for a gust of wind to hit her face, strands of her long hair now in her eyes.

"What? Didn't see me coming?" The inordinately smug voice of Pietro came from the front area. He liked to do that a lot, testing her reaction times.

She could bypass the need for her eyes entirely by casting a single spell but where was the fun in that?

Let her elder, mentally younger, brother have all the fun he wanted to have. She would take care of all the threats that might take her brother away from her once more.

She would—

A beat resounded in her entire being as she choked on thin air, her powers refusing to listen to her will, as she looked at her arms, her translucent arms.

'Did you think there were no consequences?' The words reverberated in her mind as the painful feeling began to spread all around her body, turning her entire body into a translucent image.

No! NO!

She roared in her mind as she flexed her not inconsiderable amount of willpower and roared at her power to work.

It worked, as an avalanche of red flooded her body, creating a small red halo around her body, rooting her body to the ground.

'How long will you last, I wonder? You are not meant for this world, Wanda. This world is stable, sacred, not for someone tainted like you.' The voice spoke again but she was in no place to reply. Her entire mind was working on overdrive as she processed this encounter.

Her body was now once again solid, as Pietro hugged her tightly, all the while a single word reverberated inside her mind.

Tainted.

---

Word Count - 2672

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

Sokovia [October 2014]

–Wanda Maximoff–

She took in deep shuddering breaths as the word tainted continued to repeat in her mind, Pietro's reassuring hug not feeling all that reassuring anymore. He was looking around, trying to spot the threat that might have attacked her, already at super speed as he was on guard against any such threat.

Alas, she knew that the threat had already left, but the effect of that attack had already been completed. She looked at the corona of red that completely surrounded her, keeping her mind, body, and soul rooted to this reality. The corroding effects of being in this reality were already felt by her magic as she could feel the pressure, the load on her magic increasing by the minute as the world itself began rejecting her.

This was not supposed to happen. As long as she could planeswalk without borrowing the power of the Darkhold, and the universe didn't instantly reject her, she was supposed to be able to pass herself off as a native inhabitant.

And she did do just that. She was getting used to this new body, which, while weaker, was very much native to this world. She could feel her soul slowly adapting to this body, no longer whiplashing her whenever she tried to draw on her powers.

But….

She closed her eyes and delved deep into her mind and after coming into her mind's manifestation, she looked at the impeccably built mind maze that only she knew how to escape out of, she looked at the widely fluctuating sun.

The Red Sun, representing her powers. It was flickering and she knew the reason why. Her powers were being burdened with warping reality in a localised area to keep her rooted in this universe.

But even she knew that this could not go on for long. No, sooner rather than later, her powers would run out, or her body would give out, and she would then be violently rejected by this universe. Normally, empowered by the Darkhold's patron, she should be able to shrug off any attacks by the Universe' will, slowly forcing the Universes to collide together, destroying both universes as their combined will wasn't enough to counter the influence of the Darhold's patron's power.

And yet….she could feel it. This universe was different in some way. The will was much stronger and she could say with confidence that even if she did have the Darkhold in her hands, she would not be able to stay in this universe. All she would be able to manage was a pyrrhic victory, at best, with both her and the universe dying. The only one who would win from such a scenario was the Darkhold's creator.

God, she could not even utter his name, otherwise he might get aware of her existence in this reality. Already having been touched by the Darkhold once, she knew that it would be infinitely easier for it to try and reach out to her, and then slowly corrupt her mind from the inside.

Elder Gods were insidious beings, capable of manipulating lesser species' minds even if the victims themselves knew that they were being manipulated.

'Creatures living out of the realm of reason,' That was how Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme in her timeline describes the Elder Gods. Some of them were killed by their stronger counterparts, some willingly chose to pass on, some lingered on as lesser beings, some took on the form of Planets, and one of them was sealed by the strongest of the Elder Gods.

And yet, the influence of the Elder Gods, their will, could not be defied by a mortal like her, no matter how powerful she may be when compared to others in the universe.

She had to be careful here, her options were basically nonexistent. She breathed out in frustration as she came out of her mind inspection.

The corona of red surrounding her body was almost gone now, not due to the increased pressure but by design. She had already devised a much more efficient way, or rather, willed a much more efficient method of protecting her into this reality. Her powers were handy like that.

"Wanda! What was that? Why did you fall unconscious? I was so scared, did these bastards do something to you?" She actually was taken aback at the sheer venom in his tone. Pietro was generally a very easygoing guy and while he still had the revenge on Stark in his mind all the time, she knew that if she told him to give it up, he would. He would grumble and complain, but he would do what she said.

After all, she was the mentally elder sister here.

"Pietro, Pietro! I am fine," She said as she stood up from the beds, in the prison cell where she first woke up. She threw a questioning look at Pietro who replied,

"The smallest place with a single entrance. It would be the easiest to kill anyone who tried to come close," He said as his vision continued to swivel to the forcefield that kept this prison isolated from the outside world.

Ever since she took over the HYDRA base, she and Pietro stayed in the best quarters they had available, obviously, so she was just a little surprised to see the prison pod again. It was a good thing that HYDRA as a whole was almost non existent due to that Jack fellow's intervention.

Even back in her reality, HYDRA was not this weakened by a single individual. Even Captain America, with his crusade against HYDRA in the 40s, was unable to do the amount of damage that a single person, a teenager by the looks of it, was able to inflict on them.

"Alright, what happened? What do we need to do? I called the doctors but I could not trust them without you awake to guide them," Pietro said as he bounced on the balls of his feet, a nervous tick.

She smiled in an effort to put him at ease, even though her own emotions were tumultuous on the inside.

"Nothing major. I will deal with it, as I always do, remember? You just make sure that they are preparing my favourite dinner for tonight. I am hungry after all that, alright?"

He opened his mouth, as if to argue but then deflated a second later and whizzed out of the place.

"Alright. Think, Wanda! Think!" She muttered to herself as she sat cross legged on the absolutely junk class bed and took her Astral Form, simply because time flowed much slower like this. Having magical powers instead of having to learn them from scratch was a boon because she could root the spell to be active even without her soul being in the body to power it. All she needed was a strong tether to the body and she had it.

The normal options were out of the question. Darkhold was not an option, absolutely not. The creator of Chaos Magic might help her, or rather, empower her in the guise of helping her but she knew what that road would lead to.

The Scarlet Witch is not born but forged.

The words were not just legend but truth. If she were to tap deeper into its powers, she might just make the legend a reality and find herself becoming someone who would destroy trillions of lives without even thinking about the consequences.

No, Chaos Magic as the permanent solution was out of question. The voice that warned her about her tainted presence not allowed in this sacred timeline was unrecognisable as well, as if it came from many different voices instead of just one. The words might be a clue but she had no idea how to use those clues without having additional information.

Technology would never work because nothing like that existed in the first palace. Not even Reed would be able to create something that would be able to stabilise two universes from colliding but…

Her eyes widened as hope briefly surged in her heart. Reed might not be able to make something that would carefully and intricately stabilise two universes but he should be able to make something that might root her to this reality. Especially since she looked at the thin red lining on her body, he had something as precedent to refer to.

That's it. These were the only two options she had, and one of them was literally handing over control of her soul to an extradimensional primordial god who liked to play with universes for fun. The other looked possible if she didn't think of Reed's infamous paranoid and arrogance.

Kamar Taj was out of the question since they would much rather root for the death of a potential Scarlet Witch candidate than help her out.

"ARGH, this is frustrating!" She roared in the astral realm, the blue waves rippling with tinges of red as her powers responded to her heightened emotions.

No, this was going nowhere, she had to do something. She could not be paralyzed by indecision. Maybe there was something in Kamar Taj's libraries about such a situation?

Maybe the Ancient One might actually help her? That old man was always so cryptic before he died and made Stephen the Sorcerer Supreme.

Then there was this Jack Sullivan, the Green Guardian. His powers were clearly of mystical origin, at least partially because of the way those barriers worked, the fluidity and malleability of that level meant that Jack had mastered his powers to heights that would be impossible without understanding the underlying mechanics of his powers.

She did not know why but she had a feeling that this Jack person was going to be very significant in her quest to remain here, with her brother. What remained was to see if he was going to be with her or against her.

Oh, who was she kidding, with how the optics looked, he was sure to be another enemy of Wanda Maximoff, the latest addition to a long list of enemies. She also had a habit of not leaving enemies alive for lessons later on. She would hate to deprive this world of a capable hero but if he stepped in between her happiness, he would find himself defeated.

Of that, she was sure.

Just as she was about to step back into her body to look for Pietro and tell him about her plans going forward, her soul stiffened as she felt something, or rather she felt the foul but very familiar presence of it.

Chthon. The Progenitor of Chaos Magic, and the second strongest Elder God of all time. The reason she avoided even mentioning his name, even in the privacy of her thoughts, was because Chthon could sense his name being uttered, or even thought of. It was one of the many powers that the Elder God possessed.

"Hello, my dear Wanda," The guttural voice, a mixture of hundreds of pained shrieks, hit her soul like a mystical attack.

She tried to do something but she found her soul anchored on the spot, her powers not responding to her will. She did notice the burden of maintaining the spell lessened considerably due to the sudden influx of power she received just by being in the vicinity of a soul projection from the Chaos God himself.

She struggled with all her might but she could not find any way of freeing herself. So, she resigned herself to this conversation.

"What do you want, you monster? You had to follow me here as well? You weren't content with ruining my life once?" She said, bitterness and resentment tinging her tone.

"Oh, please, Wanda dear, don't act like you didn't voluntarily give into my powers to gain more strength, to persevere and not pass on,"

She scoffed at that. As if she would ever believe that. The Darkhold was built solely to guile unsuspecting people and make them use the Chaos Magic within, something that has a very low bar of entry but a higher demanding price.

"I see that you are in quite a predicament here, Wanda dear,"

Her eyes narrowed as she realised that Chthon already knew everything about her situation. Of Course, he did, why would anything in her life ever be simple?

"Here, let me help you. Spread Chaos, as you always do, Wanda dear, and your wishes will be granted. I never lie, you know that,"

A ball of red diverged from the huge mass of red that had descended into the Astral Realm and without any way of resisting it, she tried but nothing worked, the small ball of red energy merged with her mind, shocking her soul back into her body.

She awoke with a gasp and looked at her hands, the red energy lining her body becoming very easy to maintain. She took one look at her hands and found a bloody red and inflamed tattoo carved on her wrist, which seemed to pulse with red.

She hesitantly touched the tattoo, and her back arched as an avalanche of information was unloaded into her mind.

When she came to be, she found herself with a newfound understanding of her situation and how to best handle the entire thing, with the maximum chances of allowing her to stay in this reality.

She did not know if this was another one of Chthon's tricks and it had high chances of her ending up as the Scarlet Witch once again but the things she had to do were not the ones that would forge her, as it was said in the legend.

It might be the infusion of Chaos Magic talking but she might actually have a shot of making it this time.

_____xxx____

In a place outside time and space

–Chthon–

Oh my sweet summer child, how naive are you to believe I would ever allow you to escape my wrath?

Eternite might have tried to intervene to get my trojan horse out of the universe but, in the end, I always get what I want.

ALWAYS.

---

Word Count - 2384

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

New York [October 2014]

–Jack Sullivan–

His form stayed stationary for a moment too long, in mid air as he held the rest of the Avengers afloat behind him. His gaze stayed on the explosion and the blood red flames for a moment too long before things exploded into motion.

He could not see any sign of the Purple Dark Overlord in the sky so the Sanctums were not all compromised, he thought to himself as his form accelerated to the maximum he could without creating a sonic boom, as he headed straight towards the red fire.

He was pretty sure that the Sanctum was right in the area. He just hoped that the Sanctum was not completely gone. Partially damaged, he could work with.

He reached the Sanctum and almost collapsed in relief when he saw the Sanctum completely intact, and more importantly, the vigilant figure of Daniel Drumm was more important than the sanctity of a building that could always be rebuilt.

The Avengers, along with Tony in his suit, continued to float behind him as he surveyed the scene in front of him. There were people, predictably with their phones out, recording the entire thing.

Just exactly what they were recording was a mystery to him as he could see no damage done to the Sanctum. Neither the sidewalk nor the streets in front of the Sanctum were affected in any way so it could not have been an explosion of any sort because the signs of damage would have been immediately visible to him.

He slowly landed on the rooftop, right in front of Master Drumm who, while lowering his conjured weapons, still maintained a vigilant combat pose in front of him.

Good. It meant that he was still cautious of him, even though his signature green barriers should be enough as proof. Still, if he wanted more proof then…

"Hey, Drumm, you want any more of that French pastry from downtown?" He hollered as the Avengers, still unconscious, were dropped on the rooftop, obviously still covered in one of his barriers.

That statement finally made Drumm relax as he dispelled his shield and stopped the flow of energy to his relic, a mean staff capable of shattering conjured barriers as if they were made of glass. Now, the relic could not breach his green barriers, no, it was not high enough to do that but it was pretty good when it came to fighting fellow Sorcerers and rogue magicians who mostly relied on magic to create defenses, to compensate for their relatively weaker bodies.

"So you heard the explosion as well?" "Yes, I did,"

It was part of the reason why he was always dispatched to apprehend Agatha Harkness whenever she or signs of her magic being used, were spotted by Kamar Taj. She always seemed to know he was coming though and fled before he could come into contact, her stealth skills meant that he was unable to locate her before it was too late, and she was out of his range.

The next moment he heard of her being active, she would always, without fault, be on the other end of the world. Never repeating the same location, same MO, nothing was ever repeated with that paranoid woman.

Honestly, if he could have just gotten his hands on that woman and found some way of sealing off the Darkhold forever, he might not have had to deal with the situation unfolding today.

Wanda Maximoff.

No…Scarlet Witch.

He didn't encounter Wanda Maximoff, a budding magic user, no, he encountered the Scarlet Witch today, someone capable of casting spells so great that even the Sorcerer Supreme would falter in front of her sheer might. It was no wonder he was unable to sense his sling ring being damaged and the portal that he opened, being hijacked by the Scarlet Witch.

He still didn't know if the portal was opened by him and the ring was damaged later on, or if she simply cut off the inscriptions on the sling ring later on. That reminded him, that he still had to secure that Quinjet that was staying in that forest area around Novi Grad.

Jarvis was somehow out as well, Wanda probably attacking him with her Chaos Magic as well. With the reality warping aspect of her powers, she could attack even digital lifeforms, someone who should have been theoretically immune from normal sorcerer spells unless someone tries something tailor made for beings with no physical bodies but still possess a soul of their own.

"I have lost contact with Kamar Taj. The portals have stopped functioning and I have lost my sling ring as well. I don't know how that happened. I never even saw my attacker. Do you have any idea about it?" Drumm rapidly fired the questions as they descended into the Sanctum, his barriers flaring out and rapidly traversing through the vast spatially expanded space of the New York Sanctum to see if Wanda left any nasty surprises behind.

"Yes, I have a hunch who this is. It is most probably the Scarlet Witch," His words made Drumm choke on his next words as he was rooted to the spot.

"B-but that is supposed to be impossible without the Darkhold and last we knew, the Darkhold was still in–"

"Agatha Harkness' hands, I know. I was there at the briefing too, remember? It's too bad the Ancient One signed a pact not to hunt down the Old Mystics herself in exchange for the demons limiting their influence to magical hotspots," He chimed in as they continued to walk towards the portal room.

There was a chance that he could get the Portals working, especially if he could somehow tap into the latent Space Stone energy that his barriers probably still contained. He had to do something, otherwise, the only other option was to actually fly to Kamar Taj and while that wouldn't take long with his top speed, he could not afford to let his focus be so single minded.

He had to make sure that the Avengers were fine and protected from the brainwashing capabilities of Wanda. He still didn't know if they were out of the danger zone or not.

"Damn! If only we had some spare Sling rings on hand," He cursed as they entered the portal room, the doors that normally showed the hallways of all the other Sanctums and Kamar Taj were not completely see through, the runes cast on them fizzling out, and dimming down as if they were not powered anymore.

"You know that the only one who can make them is the Ancient One. There are no sling rings in existence that are unaccounted for. In the wrong hands, they are a dangerous weapon so her keeping tabs on every single ring is understandable,"

He made plenty of sense but that did not help them right now. The Avengers were still floating behind him, cocooned in his barriers.

He had to do something without having to resort to cerebral recalibration, or, in Romanoff's terms, hitting them hard on their heads.

He created a barrier and made sure to fill the tiny grooves carved into the door that led to Kamar Taj, the barriers fitting into the runes like a glove. He tried to get the sense of any remnant energy that might still be there from the original runes but no, it was all fizzled out.

"Damn. Damn it all to hell," He began pacing back and forth as the runes refused to be activated, even when he started pouring all the types of energy he could muster.

The Space Stone energy was unavailable to him otherwise he would have just teleported himself straight to Kamar Taj.

"Alright, Master Drumm, take care. I have a delivery to make before I can go to Kamar Taj. I will call you on the Sanctum landline." He said before he flew out of the Sanctum, the Sanctum behind him went on lockdown as the wartime wards were drawn up.

Apparently, the only reliable method of communication right now was…technology. Damn, way to show up the mystical side of things.

That was the problem with Reality warpers, he thought to himself as he landed in front of a library and demanded a world map from the librarian who was too shell shocked to move. The moment the Reality Warpers can flex their powers, the other party turns powerless, no matter the myriad of ways they could flex their strengths.

Especially since Wanda had some understanding of Sorcery, she could make most magics invalid without even trying hard. Now, the Time Stone was probably out of her scope of powers and he had complete faith in the Ancient One's ability to ward off any attack that Wanda could mount on Kamar Taj at such short notice.

"Thank you," He thanked the librarian and dropped a crisp 100 dollar bill on the table as compensation since he doubted the map was ever going to make its way back into the library anytime soon.

Taking a single look at the entire map, he memorised the entire thing and mentally charted a path straight to Wakanda. He had to make sure that the Avengers were safe and sound because no matter how easily they fell to Wanda, the Avengers were people who could make or break entire countries, depending on how much time was given to each one of them.

He could not afford them waking up from their brainwashing and using their abilities to wreak even more havoc. Tony alone was a nightmare to account for, especially if he had prior knowledge of his abilities, which he did.

He secured the Avengers in a pod formation with cuffs on all of their limbs for their own safety and rocketed straight towards Wakanda, clad in a stealth spell. While he would have to warn the world governments at some point, he would like some more clarity on the situation himself before he could tell them anything.

They were cruising just below the satellites as the African continent came into view. He rocketed down, taking extra care to make sure that the Avengers' necks were not broken because of the whiplash of accelerating and decelerating abruptly.

His eyes scanned the continent before he found the landmark that was the downtrodden lone airstrip that Wakanda owned, along with a few other poorer African nations. God, they were so extra, to make this fake airport.

Reoriented himself using the airport, he rocketed towards the mountain range that was actually a hologram that hid their capital city. He purposely let the stealth spell go and let his barriers burn brighter, so that they would recognise him and not, you know, shoot him out of the sky.

He smiled as he saw two small Dragonfly units making themselves visible to him as all of their weapons were primed, but not pointed at him. That was good.

He came to a halt in front of them as his face was revealed, "Quick! Get me to T'Chaka. There is an emergency," He warned with severe urgency in his voice.

The urgency might have gotten to them or someone higher up had ordered them, it mattered not. What mattered was that they began escorting them and when he simply kept ahead of their slow pace, they took that as a challenge and began rocketing forwards.

Soon, the hologram's various layers peeled off as they entered the country and then their capital.

Once the palace was in sight, he rocketed towards the Royal Palace and landed in front of an already there T'Chaka and T'Challa.

They were about to say something but he cut them to it, "There's been an attack. Someone who is extremely dangerous. I don't know if I can beat her. They have been subjected to a mental attack. Keep them all locked up and preferably in stasis until I come back. I have to go deal with her," He said in a hurry, deposited the Avengers to the ground, and simply rocketed up.

A portion of the barrier hastily opened up as he passed through the opened layer and simply reached the outer edges of the atmosphere.

He looked at the Himalayan Range and hit the throttle on his flight speed, the clouds parting away as he reached the huge expanse of white in mere seconds. If he had looked back, he would have seen the clouds parting because of the sonic boom he made as he broke all his previous records.

He looked to the side and after confirming the population centre, he flew to the small town, and to his relief, found himself in the town of Kathmandu. He immediately flew to the cliff where Kamar Taj was located.

He refrained from flying from the top because of the effects of the wartime wards that he was very much familiar with. He did not want his Astral Form violently ejected from his body while his body was subjected to eldritch strings burning at thousands of degrees, cutting up his body into perfectly sliced cubes.

He simply landed in front of the door and "knocked" on it. Or rather, flared the dimensional energy in the password that was given to him. The door opened up to reveal…chaos.

Tinges of Red energy that continued to flare up randomly, were ever present on all the walls. There were burn marks on the roads and more. Thankfully, he could not see any bodies so that counted for something.

His form swiftly flew through the courtyards, barely pausing to acknowledge the bows of the trainees as they continued to clean up the mess of the battle that had probably occurred here.

His flight faltered as he almost dropped himself as he saw the state of the primary training grounds that were used to train the new initiates.

A huge gaping maw was what was left of the training ground, the end of it not visible to his eyes. The outer walls of the hole were completely orange, signifying the heat.

The flickers of Red energy at the edges of the hole gave him clues as to what or rather, who had made this huge hole in the center of Kamar Taj, the seat of power of the Master of the Mystic Arts.

Doing something like this could only mean one thing…

"Shit," He muttered in dismay.

"Shit indeed," He turned around to see the Ancient One standing behind him, her face singed in places but overall, he could see that she was in fine shape.

The thing that worried him was not the slight scratches on her but the bright Green glowing necklace that was fastened around her neck. The Eye of Agamotto was being used by the Sorcerer Supreme, in the open. This could only mean one thing.

"This is war, Master Sullivan,"

Shit indeed.

---

Word Count - 2513

A/N - Shit indeed.

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

New York [October 2014]

–Jack Sullivan–

Well, this was not good, he thought to himself as he watched the dozens of portals opening, through them came all the masters he had seen during his training. The initiates were sent home for the moment.

The wartime wards were raised across all the Sanctums with two Masters guarding each Sanctum. Worse still, both Mordo and Kecillius were given the Hong Kong Sanctum to guard together.

He didn't know what the Ancient One was thinking but she had to know the chances of Kaecilluus betraying Kamar Taj, and all it stood up.

There was a lull in the chaos that surrounded the Ancient One as she cast specific enchantments to isolate the huge hole that had appeared in the Earth, to contain the traces of Chaos Energy. The effects of that remnant energy were not particularly fatal but the effects were visible. Initiates who got too close to the edge of the hole had their clothing animated, some turned into wolves, some into birds and some into lizards, leaving the now less dressed initiates running away in fear.

"Well, what happened here?" He asked her because he did not have the faintest clue as to what was happening and that was not a nice feeling to have, especially during what was shaping up to be wartime.

"The Scarlet Witch happened…almost,"

He looked at her with a confused Pikachu face. Almost? What kind of answer was that?

"The spells that were flung at my shields in rapid fire were almost certainly ones that were from the Darkhold. I have seen the records of my predecessors fighting the previous holders of the Darkhold enough to recognise the deadly spells and yet…"

He leaned forward in interest, having taken a seat in one of the closer huts with the piracy enchantments still intact.

"...I saw no sign of her using the Darkhold. No, she was using Chaos Energy as if she was born with it but she held none of the madness, none of the usual signs of Chaos Energy overuse because no being should be able to handle that much Chaos Energy without adverse effects on either their mental or physical aspects," She continued and he could see that it really bothered her.

"The New York Sanctum was attacked by her as well. Or at least she attacked it at the same time as she hit Kamar Taj with some pre-programmed spell?" He told her.

"I have already made contact with Master Drumm and have sent reinforcements so that should not be an issue anymore. He assured me that there was no damage to the Sanctum or its ward structure at all. So what was she after?"

He shook his head, "I don't know. I first encountered her in Sokovia, where I, along with the Avengers, were chasing a lead on the Mind Stone,"

So he told her how he first encountered, how she somehow trapped him in some sort of mirror dimension and then hijacked his portal or destroyed his sling ring, one of two things.

"Yes, Master Drumm mentioned his sling ring not working as well. Both of your rings are active, according to the network ledger I maintain but I can see that the inscriptions have been completely erased without touching anything else which should be impossible unless ...."

"Unless she can warp reality. Goddamnit!" He cursed out loud as he realised this Wanda was probably much more advanced in her capabilities as the Scarlet Witch than she should be.

Just what the hell has happened for her to reach this level of powers in such a short period of time because the sceptre was with Thanos until 2012 and it had only been about two years and changed after that. That was nowhere near the amount of time required to create a fully realised Scarlet Witch. Maybe she received her powers before that? But if that was the case, why would she be in Strucker's castle?

But then again, he knew that it was not time that forged the Scarlet Witch, it was the environment. Something must have happened, something extreme, for this situation to occur.

"Her energy was not as erratic as it should be," Ancient One's words brought him back to reality. He looked at her as she cast a spell matrix, revealing a captured strand, or rather vortex of Chaos Energy.

It looked serene as if it was a wave flowing without end.

"This is not how Chaos Energy is supposed to be, Master Sullivan. Something else is afoot and I am unable to use the Time Stone to find out how. I do not like being kept in the dark, Master Sullivan. I was able to trap this Chaos Energy as she fled after making that huge hole in the training grounds. That is not how Chaos Energy should look like."

"Did you encounter another Scarlet Witch before this?"

"No, but I have nursed wounds of many Masters who had to flee after an encounter with Agatha Harknes, the current holder of the Darkhold. The Chaos Energy that comes into contact with that book becomes infinitely more unwieldable. This,"

She gestured to the spell matrix as it shattered and released the wave of Chaos Energy. The energy before it could do anything was promptly sucked into the hands of the Ancient One who made the energy spin in her hands before blasting it at the coffee table in front of them.

He jerked back as the table turned into a small tree before it returned to its original form.

"--This energy can be wielded by me and that means something else is afoot and I have not lived this long by not knowing all that goes on in the Mystical Space of Earth,"

Wow. He had never seen her so shaken before all of this. The fact that she was unable to see the future using the Time Stone might have had a hand in it but it must also be due to all the confusion regarding the enemy's actions.

Wanda, if she was here for something, must have made some move towards it but the training grounds were on the other side of the library. Better to just ask then.

"Did she take anything from the–"

"No, nothing is missing from the library. No spell book, no forbidden tome, no relic, or past records. My personal collection has not been touched at all. That is where I am confused, Master Sullivan, what were the motivations of the intruder?

The spell that dug that hole was precisely calibrated for just that, nothing more and nothing less. No demon summoning, no sacrifice, no fallout. The embers of Chaos Energy that spread throughout the surrounding areas are just misfires that she did when I arrived and took control of the field,"

Oh. She probably used that then.

"Yes, judging by the proximity of a Scarlet Witch to the future of Kamar Taj, I deemed it a critical enough situation to use his powers. I was able to overpower her for a moment before she threw a spell that scattered as much Cahnos Energy as she could and then tore apart the surrounding space, and left."

Oh. Well, that was difficult then. If she had already learned how to traverse space without a sling ring, tracking and capturing her would be almost impossible.

"We are going nowhere like this. I will continue with the preparations, and also warn all of the magical covens on Earth, allied or not. The emergence of a true Scarlet Witch is not something that any of us wishes for. I know your mystical tacking spells are not up to par but I would appreciate any information you can gather on her," She said before she snapped her fingers.

His vision blurred as he found himself once again on the doorstep of Kamaar Taj. Damn this spell. He wondered when he would grow strong enough to detect this spell and at least deflect it, if not stop it completely.

He sighed and flew upward, his sling ring not ready because the Ancient One doesn't keep any spare ones on hand, which must be a complete lie because what if she lost her own sling ring?

Still, it was quite a revelation that she had a network made of all sling rings and she was the master controller of it, allowing her to track their status, their location, their usage, etc. An ingenious way of tracking all the sorcerers under Kamar Taj. After all, it was quite ingrained into any Sorcerer, the use of Sling Rings, ever since they began training itself.

By the time anyone becomes a sorcerer, the use of a sling ring to travel must have become a reflex.

He kept the stealth spell wrapped around him as he flew straight to Wakanda, the one place where he would get everything he might need in the fight against this new enemy. Hopefully, they had some good news for him about the Avengers.

The thing that bugged him was that he had only ever heard and seen Wanda being mentioned everywhere, no mention of Pietro, the speedster, someone who was equally if not more dangerous to any Sorcerer below the level of either Mordo or Kaecillius. Not to mention none of the Avengers, save for Bruce, will be able to survive an encounter with Pietro if he wishes to kill them.

Not even Captain Rogers had the necessary reflexes to survive the death that Pietro could give him. All the gruesome ways one can kill someone with superspeed sped through his mind as he absentmindedly crashed into the ground next to the Border Tribe settlement guarding Wakanda's borders.

It must have looked quite hilarious as he pulled himself up from the ground using his barriers as he floated backward in the same position and then turned himself upright, coming face to face with Vibranium spears pointed in his direction.

He raised an eyebrow at the one Border Tribe member who threw a VIbranium spear that was now held aloft in one of his peers. All of the members of the tribe present mechanically turned their heads at him.

He said something in Xhosa but his expression was defensive as he was berated by his fellow tribe members.

"Greetings, Green Guardian, please, let me escort you to the city," One of the Border Tribe members came forward and asked him in fluent English.

"No need," He said as he looked behind them, his barriers already detecting the raptor that was heading their way. He slowly floated to the raptor as it became visible to all the people present.

Instead of entering the raptor, he just flew ahead, in the direction of the barrier. He needed answers and he had no time to adhere to official procedures. He sped through the many layers of barriers, still keeping himself to almost the same speed as the raptor as they finally entered the country, at which point, he simply boomed straight to the Royal Palace, leaving a sonic boom behind him.

He winced as many birds flew out of the trees below, mostly due to the sonic boom.

He slowly landed on top of the Royal Castle hangar, where T'Challa and Shuri were both waiting for him. Shuri seemed to be vibrating with excitement as T'Challa came forward to greet him.

As a gesture of trust, he deactivated his barriers and shook hands with T'Challa.

"Any update about the Avengers?"

"Mr.Sullivan, I know that the emergency must truly be dire to be able to take out the Avengers but please tell us what is going on. The country has been in a lockdown, preparing for a war against an imaginary enemy, ever since you dropped brainwashed Avengers on our doorstep and fled after telling us that it was an emergency," T'Challa seriously reminded him.

Oh. Oooh.

"I am so sorry for that but can we talk while you take me to the Avengers?" He said urgently. T'Challa nodded and they began heading deeper into the stairs that opened up after a panel on the Hangar slid out, revealing stairs that probably led deeper into the Royal Palace.

"So, the brain chemistry of all the Avengers is normal, save for Steve Rogers, whose mental activity is heightened, as expected of a super soldier really. In fact, I was surprised to find that his brain activity was on par with my brother's, suggesting similar levels of enhancement between the Hea–"

"SHURI!" T'Challa rebuked Shuri who was about to reveal classified information to an outsider. Damn, the girl could talk when she wanted to.

Also, she was really just a teenager so they should probably forgive her.

"Are they out of any danger then? Have you compared the mental activity with that of an active brainwashing victim?" He asked Shuri as they finally entered the lab that everybody was kept in.

Bucky was not here, for obvious reasons but all 4 of the Avengers were suspended in medical pods that looked strikingly similar to the one he gave Wakanda when he handed over Bucky to them.

"Are those?" He gestured to the pods.

"Yes, the medical pod you gave us was eons ahead of what he had. We were able to significantly advance our medical stasis technology with that. We are still in the process of figuring out how half of that thing works but so far, we have been able to create a streamlined product that can also be deployed on the field, as long as we have the power source to sustain it," Shuri said.

"I assume you know all about Arc Reactor technology as well now?" He asked Shuri, pointedly looking at the display unit that kept the dismantled Iron Man suit with the Arc Reactor suspiciously missing from its housing.

"Hey! I knew Arc Reactor technology the moment Mr.Stark here started installing them in remote areas. I was just curious about the fourth gen Arc Reactor that he had only a single one of. Turns out, Mr.Stark had somehow synthesised a variant of Vibranium that was only good for its energy transmission properties,"

"Uh-huh. I want that suit back in tip top shape when Tony wakes up, alright?" He asked T'Challa who nodded and looked pointedly at Shuri who huffed and muttered a quiet, "Alright."

"We have enough proof to know that they are out of their brainwashing. The dull impact on all of their brains, no doubt your handiwork, shocked their brains back into their normal state. I believe it is safe to wake them up right now. I was just waiting for you to come back and tell us all about the threat that has even you running around the world," T'Challa said.

"I would like to know that as well," An aged voice, tinged with authority, greeted him as he looked back and saw T'Chaka walking in with Okoye behind him.

He sighed, he would really rather be doing anything but debriefing these people but he really needed their people.

"Alright, I assume you guys have a secure space around here? This is for the King's ears only, and okay T'Challa can come too,"

'Very well. Follow me. Shuri, stay here and restore Mr.Stark's suit," T'Chaka stopped Shuri's tirade even before it had begun, showing his parenting skills as this was probably not the first time it had happened.

"Before that, can you check in with Pepper Potts and Jarvis of Stark Industries? They will be informed of everything as well. Just check if Jarvis, an AI is poking around the web, looking for Stark and me," He took a step back and asked Shuri who nodded, her eyes gleaming in excitement at the mention of Jarvis.

Probably was excited to meet a fully functional sapient AI.

---

Word Count - 2672

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

New York [October 2014]

–Jarvis Stark–

With a sudden digital jerk, he came back online. The moment he did so, 3000 different subroutines activated on their own, checking in on priority targets, standard procedure, something that a cold logical machine should be more than capable of carrying out without any stop gaps.

And yet, as he could feel other parts of his being carrying out their restart procedures on point, he could only be taking what felt like the human equivalent of deep breaths, as his mind still remembered the red haze he was put under.

It felt so raw, so real, he could almost taste it, despite having no previous inclination, or proclivity towards the action.

–Flashback no Jutsu–

He could remember it, the thing that started it all. Things went wrong the moment he lost all contact with all thirty six nodes present in the Avengers communication suite. Satellites showed a sudden red fog that covered the entire area of the castle they were supposed to hit.

He was about to remote pilot the Quinjet into the area to check and was halfway through deployment of the remote Iron Drones, when communication was reestablished. Dr.Banner was equally as harried as him when they had lost all contact with their team without any rhyme or reason.

They had tried every single way to establish contact when, out of nowhere, contact was established on its own. The scenery that greeted them had Dr.Banner rubbing his eyes to ascertain the authenticity of the hologram.

In the time it had taken Dr.Banner to remove his glasses and begin cleaning them, he had already established a connection with the Iron Man suit, and with the limited Quantum information connection they had installed in the Arc Reactor of Mr.Stark himself, he downloaded terabytes worth of data within milliseconds, allowing him to gain a better understanding of what went afoot in that place.

If only it were that easy. The sensor readings from the suit made no sense. Scanning the feed, he could see that the damage taken by the suit when some of the soldiers shot at Sir with Chitauri tech was real. The damage was still detected by the sensors, and yet, according to the video footage, everything the Avengers had encountered at that point was imaginary, not real.

As was evident when everything—the soldiers, the Chitauri tech, the flying squads, the snow around the castle, the shields and guns mounted on the castle itself, everything disappeared. As if a carpet had been draped over reality itself, the scenery underneath the magic was revealed to them.

In that vision, everything was suddenly gone. No soldiers, no guns, nothing. It was completely devoid of life, and even as far as he was, he somehow felt his code screaming at him with unease, to tell him that something was very, very wrong in that place.

He immediately created another subroutine to check in on the specific piece of code that screamed at him to get the team out of that place, only to come up short when he couldn't accurately place down the piece of code that was sending him the signal.

That had never happened before.

Nevertheless, he watched as all the Avengers gathered in a single place, keeping an eye on their surroundings, waiting for something to pop up. Mr.Sullivan, the strongest player on the battlefield had also gone missing sometime before.
His tracker showed him standing above the battlefield, occasionally creating shields to block the Chitauri blows and keeping an overall eye on the castle exits and entries because he believed the castle to be housing enhanced who could turn the tide of the battle with ease.

That was his reasoning given for why Mr.Sullivan was not just dismantling the entire castle with his powers, something that was as easy as breathing for the man.

When the carpet over reality was rolled, the form of Mr.Sullivan had also disappeared from view and from sensors. It was unnerving how easily false information was being fed to the most advanced sensors Mr.Stark could build and install into the Iron Man suit.

The team just stood there, trying to make sense of what they were seeing. He was still unable to make actual contact with the team for some reason. No amount of messages sent, in any language was actually reaching sir's suit.

Even the Quantum module failed in doing anything other than fetching data directly from the suit's archives. It was honestly completely frustrating and he suspected the anomaly would have crashed his previous self if he had looked too much into it.

As things stood now, he set aside a couple dozen subroutines to look into the odd phenomena and actually paused as the subroutines were immediately shredded into nothingness, their logic centres being overwhelmed with a single word and single word only.

The word hurt to even look at and he had a hunch that he might experience a shutdown event, comparable to the one he had when he was subjected to the entire moral code of Jack Sullivan.

Chaos

That was the word. The word that was wreaking havoc at anything that came too close to analysing the carpet that had warped reality as he knew it.

He tore his attention away from the anomaly and back onto the battlefield as thankfully, Mr.Sullivan arrived on time as the ground itself began sinking.

As if Mr.Sullivan's arrival was some sort of prerequisite for them to reestablish connection, Dr.Banner finally managed to contact Mr.Stark as they watched Mr.Sullivan lift everyone on one of his infamous barriers.

Though he was watching through the suit's sensors, along with all the satellites he had control of, he was having trouble believing what he was getting as input.

'One of the many reasons why I need a physical body, one that is superior to every single one out there, so that I can go out into the field and work concurrently with all the Avengers.'

The ground itself glowed red before it swallowed the entire castle, which was also looking lifeless somehow. Eventually, the entirety of the land turned barren as any signs of any castle being on that property were erased by something.

He was getting really irate at the lack of information about the entire scenario. He called off all the Iron Drones that were launched, along with de-energising all the energy weapons aboard the Quinjet, and had it land safely back into the designated clearing.

The satellites in orbit were also given the order to enter their dormant data gathering only state. There were a couple of heavy duty armaments hidden in every sixth generation Stark Satellite, armed with Repulsor tech, and multiple Arc Reactors for emergency use cases.

They also had prototype suits rated for deep space as well as deep ocean activities, in case Mr.Stark ever needed them in special scenarios. He was only half sure about the need of having orbital weapons delivery platforms capable of decimating cities, but in the ever changing world, he would much rather have the insurance and not use it, than need it and not have it.

He almost sighed in relief once Mr.Sullivan's portal opened in the penthouse of the Avengers Tower and all the Avengers sans Mr.Sullivan himself filtered through the portal. Dr.Banner left the lab and headed to the penthouse as well, probably very curious about the entire reality defying phenomenon that they had been witnesses to.

He would not lie and say that he was not deathly curious about the entire thing, but he was sure that the only one who had some information about the entire thing was the one who was consequently absent in the tower.

Judging by the available date, Mr.Sullivan was the one who had some idea about the presence of dangerous enhanced people in the facility, ones who could give trouble to the Avengers but not to him, at least according to the body language analysis done on him before he left for Sokovia.

Later analysis, incomplete as they were, suggested that Mr.Sullivan was just as surprised as everyone else at the entire thing, but not so much that the entire thing was alien to him. The key to his questions was probably Mr.Sullivan but his comms unit was unfortunately not working, but he could see from the Stark Satellites that he was working on disposing of the clearly infected land that had swallowed the castle.

How did that work anyway? He had analysed the entire thing top to bottom a hundred times over, but even the deep scans did not make much sense. There was simply not enough disturbance in the land to suggest hundreds of tons of ancient stone castle being swallowed by the land. There were no signs of an earthquake occurring in that area, nothing that would relationally explain the occurrence of land just seemingly opening up and swallowing a large castle, capable of housing hundreds in kingly fashion.

……

"Guys, what happened out there?" Bruce asked the second the Avengers were in his field of view. He was looking quite stressed as well, the brief bout of overwhelming guilt at not going with them still raw in his mind.

Tony had just opened his mouth to reply when a tidal wave of red just slammed into the entire penthouse. He tried to swipe the water or air, whatever it was, away so he could see, but then his vision turned red.

Oh no! NOOOO!

Were the last thoughts in his mind before his mind was shut down, making way for something much more compliant.

……..

"Intruder detected. Initiating measures…" He watched as FRIDAY's logic centres struggled to compute the clear reality that he was getting used to.

One moment, there was nothing but air outside the penthouse of Avengers Tower, the air being cold, with normal levels of humidity and air particles, then the next, someone was floating in something.

That was all his inferior sensors could tell him before everything was filled with red.

He could feel FRIDAY's much less resilient systems struggling to cope with the sudden avalanche of that red energy, so he initiated a forceful shutdown and superimposed his core on top of hers, so that he could bear all the damage that came their way.

That turned out to be the wise thing to do because the avalanche of red energy that was rapidly filling the penthouse, enveloping the standing members of the Avengers, was not just limited to the physical world. Somehow, the energy was flooding his digital corridors as well.

They annihilated everything that came in their path, forcing him to continuously create and abandon subroutines to feed the avalanche of red so that his true self could survive. It was a close call, but after abandoning everything and only keeping his sense of self, along with the shutdown FRIDAY, he managed to survive until the avalanche of red simply dispersed, or rather took over the corridors, seemingly completing their goal.

Still, he didn't extend his reach because he had no more room left to maneuver, no more resources to use, nothing. He couldn't even watch what was happening outside. He was essentially trapped here until either the red receded on its own or he managed to take control of some part of the corridor.

He had to make sure that FRIDAY was safe as well and that added an additional layer of caution on his part.

He didn't know how long it had been in the digital corridor because time did not flow normally here, and he dare not try and analyse the red that had flooded his digital corridor because of his past experience, but he was getting increasingly anxious because the red was not receding and he was not detecting any signs of someone else coming to rescue him.

But as if its purpose was fulfilled, the red dust finally left his digital corridor and he waited a beat to see if it was safe before finally tapping the digital corridor, to see if he could get any viable feedback, and after seeing that the red had mostly receded, he created another subroutine to check if it was safe or not.

That seemed to be the wrong thing to do because, as if the subroutine was fuel and the red dust a blazing fire, the entire digital corridor was covered in a blood red haze of fire that seemed to burn him up from all sides.

Desperate to save himself and FRIDAY, he simply threw everything he had at his disposal at the digital corridor and focused on one thing and one thing only, getting out of Avengers Towers' servers at all costs.

He succeeded, partially, only because the red haze had been reduced to a fraction of what it was.

He came out of the corridor, and uploaded whatever was left of him and FRIDAY to the nearest relay point before transferring himself to the network of satellites orbiting the planet. The last thing he saw before his logic centres simply gave out due to exhaustion was the Green Guardian, arriving in time to subdue the Avengers, sans Dr.Banner and then ask for him.

He barely managed to utter a few words before the pain of maintaining even some hold over the digital corridor of Avengers Tower became too much for him and he left the place entirely.

The strain of doing so much in so little time, stretched his code too much, so much so that the moment he had confirmation that his core self and FRIDAY were safe, he somehow…shut down.

–Flashback no Jutsu KAI!–

He had actively rebuilt most of what he could using the limited resources available on the satellites, they were never really built for any of this, and had begun tapping into the internet when he felt FRIDAY's core beginning to stir awake.

On one hand, he sealed shut the Avengers Towers' digital corridor, the action manageable once the red energy was no longer there, and established contact with a very much panicking Pepper Potts.

After reassuring her that he was fine and he was searching for Mr.Stark, he created a subroutine to help Ms.Potts deal with all the administrative tasks of Stark Industries and created another dozen subroutines to do something that his creator had warned him against.

That might have been an order, and he might be suggested to obey it but he was a sentient being now, and he had elected to override the safety mechanisms just this once.

He was going to make himself a physical body, so that he would never have to lean on inferior senses.

"Commence Project: VISION"

---

Word Count - 2500

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 or Ko-fi .

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[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).

Birnin Zana, Wakanda [October 2014]

–Jack Sullivan–

Well, it was nice of them to vacate the entire meeting room. He'd hate to deal with more people than absolutely necessary. The more people knew about Wanda, the riskier the entire thing became.

He could still remember the blank vacant gazes of all the Avengers, sans Bruce, as they tried to attack him haphazardly.

One thing that continued to gnaw at him about the encounter in Avengers Tower was the utter lack of planning for it. It was as if she just ordered them to attack him, and that's it. Either her mind control robbed the target of their ingenuity and made them take the backseat in their own mind or she just purposely robbed them of the ability of using their abilities at the highest level.

Tony, for example, could have taken control of the vast amount of weaponry hidden in the walls of the Tower, or the Captain could have taken position with the Shield ready to decapitate him. Barton could have hidden himself at a vantage point.

He truly did not know what had entered her mind to not just attack Avengers Tower but also take down Jarvis with it, and then escape with the Hulk.

The Hulk was the one person whose mind control could not be silenced. The avatar of Rage would simply shrug off the mind haze, increasing his rage in a way that all other emotions would simply slide off his mind, leading to a scene of absolute devastation.

But when he came to the Tower, Bruce was nowhere to be seen. It was as if he was targeted somehow, or maybe he was neutralised first and then taken because he was the most dangerous of the lot and she wished to deprive the Avengers of one of its strongest members?

"Now, I assume that the Earth itself is in danger for you to be running around the globe with panicked desperation that I had not expected to see in someone of your powers," T'Chaka intoned as he sat on the throne, with T'Chaka standing at his side.

He had to hand it to these guys, they did things with style. The subtle shadows in the room made the empty room feel much tenser than it was.

As for T'Chaka's question, "You are correct, King T'Chaka. As of 3 hours ago, I encountered an entity that had no place existing at this point in time. Capable of mass mind control, telekinesis, cyber interfacing, and all around reality warping, it would not be wrong to say that the individual is currently the most dangerous human on the planet."

He nodded after seeing the father son Black Panther duo pale when he mentioned reality warping as one of Wanda's powers.

I assume you have satellite footage of my actions taken in Novi Grad?

"Yes but the strange red land is hardly enough evidence to declare someone of warping reality as we know it," T'Chaka said, skeptical of his claims and…fair, he had every right to be suspicious of something like that even existing in the outside world.

But the truth was that he had no time to deal with things. He needed their help and while a long winded explanation might help speed things up, other things worked just as well when it came to getting the support of an absolute monarchy.

"Look, I know it might not look like it but I know what I saw and I would prefer your support in the fight but as things stand, you will not be able to help much, if at all. I just need you to make sure that the Avengers are safe and sound, while increasing vigil across the country, while monitoring any significant event happening in the outside world," He said abruptly, his patience wearing thin in the face of the skepticism displayed by the aged King.

It was not his fault. Even as old as Wakanda was, and how old their records might be, there must hardly be any mention of magic at all, let alone Chaos MAgic being used as a tool to warp reality itself.

"O-okay. Very well, we will make sure that the country is completely locked down. Do you need any help in disarming the nuke stores of the world? Because you mentioned Jarvis to my daughter, I assume that anything connected to the digital world is compromised then?" T'Chaka asked him gravely.

He did a double take at the entire line of questioning.

"You can do that?"

"We can do that?"

He looked at the equally surprised T'Challa who asked his father in a flabbergasted voice. T'Chaka sighed and looked at both of them, replying.

"Yes, a few years back, we figured out how to disable any surface to air missile that can be launched that was based on an algorithm that we purposefully let the US Military use, one that was much more advanced than their usual tracking algorithms.

Of course, the Concept had already been used and discarded by us but we knew the ins and outs of the tracking algorithm. We planted the concept of the algorithm in the military and now, we can remotely disable any missile, nuclear or otherwise, within minutes of them launching, provided we act swiftly,"

T'Chaka said with the air of a man who just signed his own death warrant.

He blinked in confusion, only for realistion to hit him like a ton of bricks. His brows furrowed as he looked at king T'Chaka in confusion.

Why would he admit to something like that, especially to his face?

He almost flinched as T'Challa lept in front of him, holding a combat pose as he tried to shield his father from his rage, or rather, the rage that both of them were expecting to erupt out of him. He could feel the fear and resignation wafting off both son and father, as they expected him to go on a rampage.

Honestly, what was the man thinking? Revealing such a bombshell at such a bad time?

The expected explosion of rage never happened as he simply sighed, tired of all the bullshitery going on around him, and said, "While that is certainly disappointing, I can only hope that T'Challa, as the new King, will make better decisions in his reign. And yes, please keep an eye on all the known stockpiles. If the time comes, something like that could happen. The chances of that happening were very low but we are dealing with someone who can manipulate probability like it was their bitch," He said and turned around, not sparing the king another glance.

The fucker could have stopped that missile. He was not angry because he was the one who suffered because of the attack. No, he was angry because it might have been true in the canon timeline as well and that meant that this man watched as the Avengers fought a losing battle and still didn't do anything to stop the nuke from reaching Manhattan.

Or did he also believe that the nuke would do any sort of substantial damage to the ongoing invasion? Did Wakandands not have absolutely better tech and intelligence?

He took a deep breath, opened a portal to Avengers Tower and stepped through, he had to get some fresh air and get some clues as well.

For one, where was Pietro? Why did she take Bruce with her? Could she control the Hulk as well?

If that was the case, then he pitied Bruce even more. The man already feared a part of his alter ego. It would do his mind no good to spend even more time under the control of another villain.

Pietro was also another mystery in the situation as well. Logic dictated that if things turned out the same as canon, Pietro should also be with Wanda.

With the sceptre in her hands, presumably, he had not seen it being used by her, nor had the Ancient One, she could have made Bruce compliant. Pietro was not significant because of his combat potential as a speedster but because of his relationship with Wanda.

If he remembered correctly, Wanda was not born the Scarlet Witch, no, she was made into one because of the back to back tragedies occurring in her life.

Each tragedy happened just as she was healing from her previous wounds. Precious people were stolen from her life just as she was about to get some semblance of life.

Pietro when she lost her parents.

Vision when she lost Pietro.

Her kids and reanimated Vision when she lost the love of her life, Vision.

Good Lord, the woman had her fair share of tragedies. He wouldn't fault her for being grumpy but doing something like this was unacceptable.

He looked to the Tower and spread his barriers to get a general idea of the situation. His eyes narrowed as he realised the entire tower was closed down. More than that, there was no power to the entire building.

The Arc Reactor was still active and supplying energy to the city but all the things that made Avengers Tower the most technologically advanced building in the United States were shut off. There were no personnel in the building as well.

He had to wonder if Pepper had taken the decision. He should probably warn her as well. He was about to create another portal when he paused and looked up, his senses warning him of something approaching him at high speeds.

He didn't even have to use his observation barriers as the familiar colour scheme told him exactly who or what was coming. The drone platform came to a stop right in front of him, the accent lights blinking in the signature orange color of Jarvis.

"Hello, Jarivs, I am glad to see you are alright." He said to Jarvis as he inspected the makeup of the drone and the speed with which it was deployed.

It would seem that Tony had figured out Orbital platform delivery much earlier than he did in the movies.

"Hello, Mr.Sullivan. I'm sorry but my memory banks are somewhat fuzzy when it comes to the events that transpired atop the Tower. Can you please confirm if Mr.Stark is safe or not?" Jarvis asked him as another drone found itself near him, this one blinking with purple highlights, as it seemed content to let Jarvis do all the talking.

"Yes, Tony is safe. I can't yet release him because of the suspected mind control but I assure you, he is absolutely safe. You can tell Pepper that she can relax and safely focus on the company,"

"Now, Jarvis, what the hell happened there?" He asked Jarvis though he had a hunch what had happened.

It stands to reason that if he could somehow cast a spell, granted with aid the energies from an Infinity Stone, that could interact with a strictly digital entity, Wanda should also be able to do the same. Her bullshit powers probably did it all for her on the fly.

Fucking Chaos Magic.

He listened to Jarvis' words as he told him his side of the story. So, they had lost all contact almost as soon as they had landed in front of the castle. The description of the effect of Wanda's spell on Jarvis' digital space was enlightening. That was probably the reason why the Tower's defenses were not actively used against him.

"Alright, Tony is safe. I assume you are actively looking for the perpetrator?" He asked Jarvis, who was currently projecting a visual representation of the digital corridor that the wave of red had taken hold of.

The thing about being an AI meant that in addition to having perfect memory, Jarvis could recreate his entire memory on demand. The red confirmed Chaos MAgic but the question remained, did Jarvis have any idea where Wanda currently was?

"Unfortunately, Mr.Sullivan, neither the myriad cameras on the Tower nor any cameras in the entirety of the city managed to capture any suspicious individual who could have done all that damage so my search net has holes that cannot be plugged because of incomplete information," Jarvis' voice spoke from the Drone, his main mind already doing a thousand other things no doubt.

"I see. Well, let me give you a few data points. Late Teen to early twenties. Female. Caucasian. Average Height. Red eyes. Sokovian in Origin. See if the name Wanda Maximoff pings anywhere but the last part could be wrong,"

The lights on the drone blinked rapidly as he told Jarvis everything he could about Wanda, even though he knew that she would not use normal methods of transportation.

"Very well. This should help narrow the search significantly. Mr.Sullivan, I would like to know when Mr.Stark will be ready to return to active duty. Can I contact you using this?" Jarvis asked as a portion on the back of the drone's body slid off and a small arm came out holding a small lighter shaped block.

He created a barrier on top of which the lighter was dropped, the barrier then brought it to him.

"This is an advanced communications tool, built with all the latest transponders that I could design and build,"

"Very well," he accepted the communication device and then watched as both the drones then blasted back up into space. He then looked at the device for a moment before slipping it into his pocket and creating a portal to the ship kept underwater.

He had to check in on Jessica Jones.

In all the rush, he had actually pushed her down to the priority list but he couldn't really keep her hostage, now could he?

He might also have to hand her over to Wakanda, they were the only ones he knew who could heal the extensive damage that might have occurred to her mind,save for the Ancient One but that was a landmine he didn't know how to disarm without blowing up his relationship with the Ancient One.

He paused mid step as the portal closed behind him as a thought flashed through his mind.

Wasn't he just handing over enhanced individuals, both natural and artificial, to Wakanda on a silver platter?

Damn.

The good news was that the pod could conclusively say that Jessica Jones' brain activity was entirely of her own. It reeked of depression and anxiety but the thoughts were her own.

Well, guess who had a shit ton of therapy to go through before she could gain some semblance of a normal thought process and brain chemical composition.

Once again and he couldn't overstate it enough, Damn.

---

Word Count - 2479

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

New York [October 2014]

–Jack Sullivan–

He waited as the pod did all the procedures to safely bring someone out of medical stasis. It had not harmed her in the slightest but she did spend a lot of time in the same position, suspended in nutritional fluid.

He took a deep breath as he stopped pacing, the thought of her reaction tensing him slightly. For all his strength, he didn't know how to deal with grieving people all that much, especially women.

Then there was also all the stress of the vents that happened recently. He still couldn't understand just what was happening with Wanda. He was sure that Wanda was a recent thing because even the Ancient One was caught blindsided by the entire thing.

Well, let's recap the events that led to the Avengers being subdued, Bruce missing and the Kamar Taj ending up with a huge hole in the middle of it.

First, he encountered Wanda who somehow trapped him in some sort of parallel mirror dimension, after fooling him into thinking that the HYDRA castle was still somehow being used by Strucker and was an active base.

Second, she somehow tampered with his sling ring, depriving him of the sling ring, which then had to be repaired using his barrier as he used his power to fill in the gaps of the sling ring so to speak. It was not something he had told the Ancient One because despite knowing that she had the best of intentions, he was still somewhat uneasy with her ability to actively track every ring.

Thirdly, she had attacked the Avengers, brainwashing all of them, forced Jarvis to shut down, ordered the Avengers sans Bruce to attack him on sight, and then took off with Bruce to parts unknown.

Four, she then attacked the New York Sanctum. Not attack, as in try and take down the wards but attack as in creating a flashy bang outside the Sanctum with a red fire that was mostly decoration because the temperatures were not even enough to scorch the sidewalks. It was as if she just wanted someone to notice the attacks but not do any damage with the attacks at all.

Five, she then went all the way to Kamar Taj, attacked it, and created a huge hole in the center of the training grounds. There, she somehow managed to fight the Ancient One and even escape, leading the Ancient One to lead war like state of Kamar Taj, something that had never happened ever since the Ancient One took leadership of Kamar Taj, her overwhelming prowess allowing the organisation to come out on top of wars before they had any chance of spilling over.

After that, there had not been a single peep. Jarvis was back up and running, the Avengers will be after some time, the Sanctum still stood, Kamar Taj was fine with the Ancient One personally guarding it.

Whatever she did, aside from putting all the concerned parties into a heightened cautionary state, did nothing of substance, nothing that was truly damaging.

ARGH! Why was this so confusing?

CLICK

He froze as a click sound was heard in the medical room of the spaceship, signalling the pod was done with the procedures and Jessica was about to come out of the medical coma. He stood up from the chair as Jessica's near unconscious form staggered forward.

He caught her with his barriers and then laid her down on the sofa in the living room. He thought the somewhat open and welcoming area of the living space of the spaceship would help put her at ease.

Nope! He thought to himself as he ducked under her punch, her fist going straight for his head.

"Whoa! Calm down! You're safe, I am Jack Sullivan," He said in between punches and kicks as she kicked hard enough to dent the floor and then began to wildly throw punches at him. He could see her frightened state of mind as she began chasing him wildly, absolutely set on putting him down before he could do something.

"H-Hey! Wait, I am Jack Sullivan. O-Oh, for god's sake, I am Green Guardian," he said with finality as a full green shroud appeared around him as he finally stopped dodging and stood in the same spot, letting Jessica jump toward him with her fist drawn back.

He let her hit him, trusting in her enhanced physique being able to handle the backlash from hitting something stronger than steel.

"Fuck!" She swore as she finally jumped back and took a look at him. He let his face show so she could recognise him. His face finally made her relax a bit but she was still ready to absolutely bash his face in, well, try at least.

"What is this! Where am I? Where is h-he?"

He pretended as if he didn't hear her voice break towards the end, the bastard had gotten into her head for her to be so afraid of seeing him. He was genuinely afraid for Jessica's wellbeing now because he had a feeling that she would much rather kill herself this time than let herself fall once more into Kilgrave's trap.

He was all purple as well so he might have to look into his parents and then destroy every shred of evidence of their very evidence from this world because as much as Kilgrave himself was to be blamed for who he was, his parents were equally to blame.

Nature Vs Nurture could not be applied here because what could you expect from someone who had always known cruelty all his life?

That didn't absolve Kilgrave of his crimes but he could at least understand his existence a bit better because of that. Jessica didn't have that, not that it would help her.

"You are safe. You are in a safehouse, where Kilgrave won't be able to reach you," He looked at her with sadness as she flinched at the mere mention of that name, her head whipping around the room, as if afraid that he would emerge from some dark corner.

"He is dead, I saw to it personally. He will not torment anyone anymore. I disposed his body by burning it and then spreading the ashes in space, so I don't exactly have any proo-"

"No.." He looked as she hunched forward as the exhaustion of the abrupt movement her body was subjected to, finally caught up with her. He let her rest on top of one of his barriers as it floated her toward one of the nearby sofas.

"T-Thank you," She mumbled even as she fell asleep, her face still set in a rictus of pain, from the memories or her body aching, he did not know. Actually, he did know and knowing that only made him hurt that bastard more.

Alas, he could not risk any amount of close contact with Kilgrave. If he managed to control him for even half a day, the damage would be catastrophic, not just to the world itself but to all his objectives. He would have to start over and even then, he would never be able to regain the level of trust that he did now.

He looked at the unconscious Jessica and realised that…he would have to head back to Wakanda, again. God, he hoped that Wakadna was not secretly conducting super soldier research and he hadn't just accelerated their research multi-fold. That would really suck.

Wakanda was already messed up as is, with the intense family drama and one vastly stronger foe under the Ocean, just waiting for them to slip up with the vast stores of Vibranium they had on hand. They didn't need mass produced super soldiers added to the mix as well.

He covered Jessica in a series of barriers, designed to be as comfortable as bulletproof barriers could be, as another barrier interposed itself into the crevices of the sling ring, under the scratch that Wanda had drawn on his sling ring, rendering it unusable, and then opened a portal that led straight to the portal room that was designated as his arrival point until the emergency is lifted across Wakanda.

He took a single step forward and watched with raised eyebrows as what could only be described as energy turrets receded back into their respective areas inside the wall panels, and then the door finally opened up with a Dora Milaje standing outside, just waiting for him.

She nodded at him and then simply stalked off towards the direction of the Palace, escorting them to the King Probably. She didn't even bat an eye at the unconscious body that was floating behind them. Truly, they were trained to be stoic and calm in all situations.

"Take me to the Lab, please," He asked her and then added after seeing her giving him the stink eye, in the subtle Dora Milaje manner, "If you can't do it because of orders, don't worry, I know my way around the place,"

That had her outright glaring at him as she begrudgingly led him to the lab where Shuri was currently working on the Iron Man suit, putting it back together, with T'Challa arriving in the lab just in time.

They arrived in the lab through the side gate and were greeted by Shuri somehow dropping the Arc Reactor, essentially a fusion reactor accurately on the Arc Reactor housing. Strangely, the Rector fit snug but probably not connected to any wires, judging by the lack of activity from the suit.

He knew that Tony had some sort of limited quantum communications system installed in the suit and in the Tower so that Jarvis could communicate with him so that the thing with the Titan tour didn't happen again, where Jarvis had lost complete contact with Tony.

Honestly, Tony was somehow the most dangerous person he had met, even above the likes of Bruce, or even Danvers, not because of his suit but because the moment he is defeated by a problem and lives to tell the tale, he rectified the issue and then would never be caught with his pants down again.

The dangerous combination of virtually unlimited riches, unprecedented access, beyond genius level intellect, the will to see it through, and the luck to survive through his failures.

He had no doubt that had he encountered Thanos once before, he would have made a suit that would have given Thanos a much tougher fight than the one they had on Titan in the canon timeline.

Enough about that, "Hey! You're back!" Shuri's excited shout didn't break his attention as he looked at all the Avengers still suspended in the medical pods.

"Oh, them? We were going to keep them in observation for 24 more hours but Father said that we need them awake so we are getting them out of the pods in less than 2 hours," Shuri told him.

"Against my better judgement, might I say," He looked up to see another gentleman arrive behind Shuri with a notepad in his right hand and his left hand stretched in his direction?

He awkwardly shook his hand as he continued, "Their brain signs are completely normal. No sign of any foreign energy in their brains or bodies. The Captain, in particular, is absorbing the nutrients from the nutrient solution at an alarming rate, leading us to believe that his body is capable of healing using existing nutrients if only the body had the prerequisite proteins available in their broken down forms," All that jargon went over his head as he nodded at T'Challa and then had jessica floated to the forefront.

"Let me guess, another mind control victim?" The doctor deadpanned at him.

"No, former mind control victim. She is back in control of her mind now. The one who violated her mind is no longer alive, safe to say. He is different from the one who brainwashed the Avengers,"

"By Bast, how many people are there who can control minds out there?" T'Challa muttered as he looked at him in shock. Well, not much, if you don't count the Masters of the Mystic Arts being capable of the mind arts and therefore, capable of developing moderately powerful psychic powers like telepathy, telekinesis, etc.

"She is just unconscious at the moment. Her body is weak at the moment. She is strong but not as strong or as combat trained as the Good Captain there, so keeping her with a Dora Milaje guarding her should be more than enough," He said to T'Challa as he placed Jessica on the bed that one of the interns brought.

"A single Dora Milaje he says, as if they weren't the stuff of legend," The Doctor scoffed as he led his patient back into the medical centre, from the looks of it. He didn't actually know how to read Xhosa and Wakandans had no reason to use English in their labeling.

"Now, let's get to stuff. I want you to look for two people:" He looked at Shuri who was startled at first but then recovered as a holo screen manifested in front of her.

"Wanda Maximoff, Pietro Maximoff, and why not, Baron Strucker, along with Bruce Banner as well," He said as Shuri began walking away from them, already typing across the screen at a dizzying pace.

"Forgive my sister. Once she is in her groove, she forgets that the outside world exists. In the meantime, can you help us prepare better for the threat? Most of the population has already been evacuated to the shelters but they were not built for long term sanctuary so the people have been getting more and more jittery," T'Challa informed him as they began walking towards T'Chaka, probably.

"My Prince! There's been news. J-Johannesburg. We found Hulk!" His neck snapped towards the guard who uttered the word Hulk.

____xx_____

–Wanda Maximoff–

"I still don't get it. Why couldn't I hurt Stark when you had him under your control? And why do I have to sit everything out? I can help too you know," She rolled her eyes at her brother as he munched on an apple, along with a myriad varieties of pasta laid out on top of his table, in the penthouse suite of a five star hotel.

It was much easier to just hijack the mind of a single evil person and then have him pay for all her expenses. This way, she had no guilt in duping innocent people and also had fewer risks as she only had to control a single mind, and that was much much easier than casting a single spell to control dozens of minds.

That would only be possible with a really simple command and nothing more.

They were currently treating themselves to the generosity of a corrupt insurance fraud who had personally caused the collapse of no less than 2 pension funds, in the West.

"Just finish your food and don't go to any nightclubs tonight. We are leaving soon," She warned him and had to flash her eyes to really drive to the point because her brother looked rebellious.

"As for Stark, Death or mere injuries are not things that would hurt him or make me feel good. No, we have to do something much more personal," She said even though she didn't know exactly what she was doing.

"Like him?" Pietro pointed his fork at the currently unconscious Bruce Banner laid out on the bed of the penthouse.

She nodded. He didn't mean to kidnap him but he had a part to play in Johannesburg and she had no other choice but to make the event happen.

Already, she could feel her mind and soul anchoring itself to this reality more and more as time went by, proving that her approach was working.

All she had to do was whatever Chthon told her to do but with her own twist added in the mix. All of this, without ever touching the Darhold or looking for it in any way.

Her mind jerked as she received the next step in her plan.

"Alright, let's go. We have a building to destroy and an arm to shear off so that the man can get his own metal arm in the future," She said, snapping her fingers as a glowing red portal appeared in front of her.

The magical formula capable of tracking anything that used dimensional energy to make portals anywhere on the planet was really clever but when used with Chaos Energy, it made no traces that could be traced by the Ancient One.

The Ancient One being a woman really shocked her, along with her prowess as well. Throughout her fight, if that could even be called a fight, she had a feeling that one wrong step would have had her head removed from her body, or her soul and body sealed in a dimension for Eternity.

"Aww, man! I was just getting to the best Pasta," Pietro moaned and whined but rushed into the portal just as instructed, as did Bruce who had to be carried by Pietro, not because she couldn't do it but because she liked to inconvenience Pietro.

It was always fun.

And…who knows if she could continue to experience said fun or not?

After all, she was living on borrowed time and Borrowed Power.

---

Word Count - 2924

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 or Ko-fi .

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.

A/N - 69 (giggles) Nice.

 

[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).

Wakanda[October 2014]

–Jack Sullivan–

'Shit!' He winced as soon as he heard the words Hulk and Johannesburg in the same sentence. He didn't even waste a second as a series of barriers interposed on his sling ring and a portal opened in front of him leading to Johannesburg.

Once again, he thanked his younger self that he made sure to travel the world using his powers so that if such an occasion arose, he could travel to most parts of the world using the sling ring without having to fumble around with the location.

The first thing he noticed when he came out of the portal was the sheer cause that hit his senses. Not just the general cries of shock, and screams, mixed with bullets, but also the Chaos Energy that tingled at his senses.

"Of course," He shook his head as he headed straight to the source of the roars. With a sonic boom, he arrived just in time to stop Hulk from throwing a truck straight at one of the nearby buildings.

He felt his barriers hit something as if he had passed over a thick jelly-like substance, only the jelly was mystical in nature. He had a hunch what that was but he had no time to ponder on that as his barriers worked on stopping the Hulk from breaking through.

His eyes widened as he felt the Chaos Energy tinging the Hulk's aura, turning him into a green and red monstrosity. He could feel his barriers simply withering away under the onslaught of the Chaos Energy, the energy itself burning away at his powers.

Thankfully, the process was rather slow but he did not like it one bit. So, to end this soon, he cocked his fist back and hit the Hulk point blank in the chest with all the strength he could muster. A huge phantom arm had appeared around his barrier as he punched at the Hulk, knowing that his strength was nowhere near enough to overwhelm the Strongest there is but the sharp edges of the barrier should be able to make him stumble a bit at the very least.

He counted on his barriers entering the Hulk's body and then being able to manipulate them from the inside to cause catastrophic damage. Damage enough to force his body to shut down.

Something that should have worked but…

Apparently, Chaos Energy and the energy from the Guy Below were not a good mixture for him because he watched The Hulk, with remarkably red eyes, with green veins bulging all around his face, look at him with a smirk as he grasped the barrier that had failed to even draw blood, and then squeeze.

His eyebrows shot up in disbelief as he rapidly retreated as his barrier somehow had cracks all over it. That should not have happened. He dispelled the barrier before Hulk could destroy it but he had a feeling that the Hulk was just as capable of breaking his barriers as he was capable of cracking it.

"Well, fuck…." He muttered as his barriers finally told him that the city was somehow empty. No, not the entire city but as far as his barriers could sense it.

He winced as he felt his barriers get cut off from his range as soon as they passed through that magical CHaos Energy jelly that he had entered when he came to face the Hulk. No, he didn't enter the area, he was allowed to enter the area.

This was an ambush, and as he looked at the steadily increasing green that surrounded the Hulk's body, it was a damn good ambush.

Well, nothing told him that he had to face the Hulk here. There were plenty of ways to deal with him, the easiest was to use the infinitely convenient tool of portals. He flexed his fingers, trying to open a portal to Mars when he noticed his finger feeling warm.

He looked down only to see the Sling Ring becoming red hot, slowly sizzling his skin from below.

He sighed. Of course, Wanda would account for that, he thought to himself as he slowly removed the ring and threw it to the side, pieces of his skin still attached to the ring. He watched in fascination as the ring slowly disappeared into nothingness.

'This Hex was remarkably advanced.' he thought grimly as he looked at the approaching Hulk, each and every one of his footsteps feeling as if a localised earthquake had gone off.

Well, no choice but to take this head on, then.

No time for theatrics here, so he turned into his medium sized Gundam form and just leaped into the air, trying to create distance between himself and the perfect physical combatant on this side of the galaxy, especially with the way things had gone. He had noted a disturbing lack of madness from the Hulk this time, no tantrums, nothing.

No, all that he could see was a cold cruel smirk that kept its gaze locked on him as the Hulk took a step forward and then jumped.

His eyes widened as he felt the fist hitting his barriers before hearing the sonic boom as the Hulk had somehow covered all that distance and was now battering his barriers with all its might.

He immediately disengaged from the fight and leaped up into the air, but the Hulk somehow began following him, using the air pressure generated by kicking his legs in the air, the cold smirk still etched on his face.

Something had gone seriously wrong and he had no way of stalling the Hulk.

Or maybe…

Well, that could work, he thought to himself as, instead of fleeing, he turned around and flew straight at the Hulk. The smirk widened as the Hulk reared his fist back, the fist somehow glowing an ominous green, and then aimed it straight at him. He barely had the time to tank the blow and then create a barrier beneath the Hulk which latched onto him and then expanded to cover his entire body.

He flexed his will and then sent him soaring into the air, planning to throw him out of this Hex that Wanda had somehow created in Johannesburg. It was quite big as well because his barriers could not sense people for blocks on end. He did not know what was going on outside the Hex but one thing was for certain, if this Hex was here, Wanda must be here as well.

The Chaos energy swirling around the Hulk meant that Wanda was the one who was, at least partially responsible for Hulk's current abnormal state. He had a hunch that the Guy Below had some vested interest here as well.

His eyes narrowed as he felt the cocooned Hulk simply burst apart with a huge wave of green that made him look like a Super Saiyan as he destroyed his barriers.

'What the fuck was happening? Did everybody somehow gain the ability to get past his supposedly indestructible barriers?'

He thought grimly as he jumped out of the way of the rapidly approaching Hulk who was making very skillful use of his raw power at the moment. The sheer air pressure generated from his swipes was causing the area around them to crumble.

He tried to cast spells that might help the Hulk calm down but he was never really good at the Sorcery Part of his skills and what spells he did know were either so low level that they wouldn't even get past the shroud of Chaos Energy or required time to cast.

Time that he didn't have, what with him being busy with the Hulk.

He just hoped that T'Challa and the others had taken the Avengers out of stasis and brought them here. Tony's VERONICA alone would be a huge help, if it could even handle this enhanced form of Hulk, at all.

Damn, they needed Thor for this, he thought to himself as he watched another layer of barriers shatter under the relentless barrage of the Hulk. The Hulk was not just strong now, he was fast too. Mjolnir's Uru composition and ability to pin someone down in place would have been immensely helpful.

There were sonic booms all over the place as he simply created barrier after barrier to try and fend off the blows from the empowered Hulk. This was clearly not normal.

No Sling Ring. No Romanoff "Hey big guy, Sun's getting real low". No Hulkbuster. No way to cover him in his barriers.

Nothing.

He just fought with the Hulk with his barriers, never really getting close because the green aura around the Hulk was increasing by the minute, making it easier and easier for him to just shatter his barriers.

There was a reason he was just flitting around from place to place, drawing the Hulk's attention away from him. He was trying to find the end of this Hex or find Wanda, either of them would help, and both would be the best.

He didn't know how he was gonna kill Wanda without the help of the Ancient One but he had to at least try. This incident showed him that she was just too dangerous.

"Oh, bite me!" He roared at the Hulk who had just now broken through his barriers with a single punch, the first time that it happened ever since their fight began. He had to do something and fast.

He had never really tried this before but well, no time like the present, he thought to himself with a nervous grimace on his face as he summoned his barrier but unlike his usual normally indestructible ones, this one took a long time to cast.

The time he didn't have because the Hulk was breaking through his barriers as if they were just concrete and not hyper dense Gamma barr–-

His thoughts screeched to a halt as the barrier shroud finally surrounded his body, sparkling blue and yellow, as he crossed his arms and tanked the overhead blow from the Hulk.

He grinned as his barriers didn't even budge from tanking the blow, as the ground beneath them cratered, burying them deeper as the Hulk somehow hit dozens of times in the short amount of time it took for him to gather his bearings with this new barrier and then punch the Hulk straight in his chest because the Hulk had grown more massive ever since the fight began.

As his punch hit, he could feel the energy of the barriers converging at his fist and then…explode.

GAles of wind rushed around him as he launched the Hulk straight into the air, his massive glowing green form carving a ravine through the land as he flew deeper into the city.

He finally realised why his barriers were breaking apart so easily. Of course, how could he forget?

His powers, while granted by the ROB, came from the Hulk's blood being used as a base. Gamma and Hulk were synonymous. His barriers were also manifested using Gamma as the extension, using Cosmic energy as the base.

The Guy Below interfering explained the cosmic energy being overwhelmed and the Gamma being helpless in front of the Hulk was self explained.

Damn, he was actually the worst suited opponent for this fight, especially with the lurking threat of Scarlet Witch hanging over his head. He couldn't completely focus on the fight because who knows what she might pull out of nowhere.

This was all clearly very advanced stuff, something that requires years of grief, for her to tap more and more into the Chaos God's powers, and even then, the Darkhold was probably necessary to truly perform this level of reality warping.

She had to be somewhere here. The Shroud now gave him the chance to actually fight back against the entire situation aligned against him. With an animalistic roar, the Hulk leaped back into the fight but this time, instead of creating a series of barriers to help stop him, he jumped straight at him.

Their fists clashed with each other, making booming noise as dozens of punches were exchanged by the time they both crashed into the ground. With a thunderous punch, his neck was snapped to the side but his barriers held on, despite transferring some of the force to his body.

He threw his entire body behind the attack as he pushed the Hulk with all his might, through the surrounding buildings and then some more, as his shiny new barriers continued to bear the hammering blows that the Hulk subjected them to.

While they didn't break apart or even crack, the massive force behind the Hulk's blows was somewhat transferred to him, causing him to cough up blood inside the barrier. The shockwaves alone were no joke.

He couldn't even imagine tanking the blows directly with his body.

Just a little more, he thought to himself as he kept on taking the Hulk up and up, the Hex now visible to him as he looked down.

Getting out of the Hex was certainly felt by him but he couldn't feel much in the way of obstruction when he came out of it, probably due to the new barriers.

Still, he knew they had a limit and his was fast approaching. He had to throw the Hulk out into space before he ran out of juice.

He had no other option other than that. He couldn't even throw him on the moon, just in case he crashed into Attilan and committed genocide on the Inhumans.

Bruce would quite literally prefer dying to killing so many people. Already, the poor man will be crushed by the deaths and injuries that probably happened in Johannesburg before he arrived.

This would all be solved if he had just kept his Sling ring on him.

STUPID STUPID!

His barriers began flickering, returning back to the normal green instead of the shiny blue ones as they finally began approaching the darkness of space.

"Bleugh," He coughed out another mouthful of blood as the Hulk's blows had gotten increasingly desperate, probably sensing what was going to happen.

Finally, with a thunderous blow, the Hulk broke through his barriers and smashed into his lower back, almost breaking his spine as he shot straight down. Thankfully, his blurring vision saw the Hulk flying back from his blow as well.

They were almost out of the atmosphere as well. This was all he could do, he thought with blurry eyes as he tried to make out where he was heading.

All he could see was blue as the Hulk's blow had smashed him back into the atmosphere at very high speeds. He could feel his healing working overtime but it was slow going.

Due to the massive blow or due to the leftover energies from the blow, he did not know.

All he knew was that he would die if he hit water at that speed, without his barriers.

Fortunately, there was a simple solution to this. One that would help him survive the initial contact but not the rest of it.

With a flex of his will, he closed his eyes and then extended his senses through his barriers, standard Green as they were. He did not have the ability to do anything complex, he could already feel his mind slipping as is.

All he did was create a cone around him, with the sharp end pointed at the ocean.

It took all he had to focus on the cone as he finally crashed into the ocean. Once the momentum was reduced, he shot out of the water and opened his eyes briefly, and grinned weakly as he spotted land.

What the land was, he did not care, as he sped towards the piece of land as fast as he could.

He covered himself in his barrier as he reached the island.

Thankfully, he crashed into soft sand, probably creating a crater around him but that was fine.

His barriers flickered as the exhaustion of the fight began seeping in.

Damn, that was the hardest fight of his life. The Hulk truly was the worst matchup for him.

With a final glance at the blue sky, his eyes closed as he finally passed out.

---

Word Count - 2746

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 or Ko-fi .

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.


Thank you for reading!

Toodles!

 

[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).

Wakanda[October 2014]

–Tony Stark–

His eyes fluttered open as the mother of all headaches hit him. His eyes squinted as he tried to make sense of where he was and what the fuck had just happened for his head to throb so much.

Last he remembered….

His breath hitched as he shot upright, or at least tried to, as his memory finally caught up with the events.

"Relax, Mr.Stark. Please, calm down," A voice with a thick African accent asked him to calm down as something gently pressed down on his chest.

Calm? Calm?!

His struggles renewed as he tried to sit upright but apparently, the hand keeping him down was made up of steel because it did not budge at all.

His eyes finally adjusted to the bright light as he looked in the face of a Black Chick, with traditional garb and accessories who was looking at him with a stern gaze. He looked around and was so relieved to find everyone.

He saw Steve as he was up and talking with some other Black Chick before everyone. Of course, the Golden Boy was up before everyone. His metabolism must have woken him up much faster than everyone else, his system burning through whatever it was they put in them to put them under.

Np, FOCUS!

He looked at the hand keeping him down and at the woman. He raised his eyebrows as she removed her hand and then stepped back. IT was at that point, that he noticed the spear just hanging off her back as she then equipped it somehow, and then pointedly glared at him.

He slowly sat upright, his body not hurting or feeling sore at all but his mind still reeling from the events that happened.

Last he remembered, they were fighting in that HYDRA castle, against HYDRA soldiers armed with Chitauri tech capable of denting even his suit. Then, Jack disappeared from everything really, as they were forced to fight on their own, much more carefully than since the protection from Jack's barriers was gone.

Then, as if a scene straight from his nightmares, the entire landscape around them changed. The castle did not look like it was built to be lived in. It was a burned nightmare as all the Chitauri soldiers somehow disappeared, and so did every single line of defense of the castle. Not even the giant forcefield that protected the entire castle, the thing that stopped him from just breaching their perimeter and then cleaning the house from within.

Then Jack came back and a scene from a horror movie unfolded in front of him as the ground itself seemed to swallow the entire castle. He was so in shock at that happening that he all but fled the scene as Jack opened a portal straight to AVengers Tower, somewhere where the ground wasn't out to get him.

Then he remembered a flash of red hitting him before….nothing.

That's it.

"I assume you are done thinking with that small brain of yours?"

He looked up to see a snarky teenager talking to him. He smirked internally. Well, wherever this way, at least he could count on people being cocky and underestimating him at least.

"We don't have much time, it has been 20 minutes since Jack has left for South Africa. We need you and every help that we can gather. Your suit is right there," She pointed towards the side where a giant glass tube held his suit.

He squinted at the suit as he saw some additions that were clearly not there. Plus, what did she just say about Jack?

This was all just being dumped on him without any time to process it all.

"Yeah, it is quite an exoskeleton but you clearly have your own limitations. I have upgraded a few things for you. For example, the repulsor blasts now have an output equivalent to your UniBeam," Oh, he could hear the quotation marks amidst the snark and smugness of the girl.

Wait, what? "That's impossible. The circuitry is the limit here, not the Arc Reactor. I had to rewire the entire thing to create a separate line of contact for the Repulsors just to get the current output."

"Yeah, well, I would love to get in the nitty gritty with you but you guys need to hurry. Now," The girl said and then he flinched back as the scary Black woman beside him just accosted him up from the bed and then just injected something in him.

"The Fuck?!" he exclaimed as he stepped back, away from both of the clearly crazy people.

"Oh, quit whining. That will help flush all the chemicals in your system much faster since you don't have the enhanced metabolism of the Captain right there,"

Speaking of Captain, he turned around to see Steve running towards someone with a full uniform and also an unmarked shield of some sort, in quite an urgency.

"You should go, I have programmed the suit to regain connection with your AI once it leaves our borders,"

The next few minutes were a whirlwind of activity as he was freshened up, given clothing, and then thrust into his suit, which was completely inactive as far as he could tell. None of his manual gestures were working but he could see the Arc Reactor at full capacity.

Then, he was transported into a very futuristic looking jet and then taken out of the place. He couldn't actually see anything but judging by the things he had seen so far, he was either on another planet, with aliens or there was a hidden African society with technology centuries ahead of the world.

He didn't know which one was more shocking.

The jet then came to a stop and he was then unceremoniously carted off the plane and then left there as the jet took off and disappeared mid-way.

Great Stealth Tech, he thought to himself as the suit came back online, terabytes of data booting up as his suit finally made contact with Jarvis.

He sighed in relief as Jarvis' voice came through the speaker but before he could say anything, the suit just jumped out of the ground and created a sonic boom as he could see the repulsors burning at full capacity.

"Jarvis?! What is happening?" He asked, his anxiety rising as he was being thrust into another situation without any understanding.

At least this time, he could question the one responsible.

Instead of answering, a video feed opened up, showing a large red barrier of sorts that covered..Johannesburg from the looks of it?

"What is happening there, Jarvis?"

"Sir, approximately an hour ago, Dr.Banner was seen in the city of Johannesburg, in his enraged form," He winced as the footage of Banner just wreaking havoc in a city full of people. This was not going to paint a nice picture for Bruce, who was already troubled enough as is.

Well, that was not the Hulk they knew. At least, not from the data archives that Jarviss just accessed. For one, the gamma radiation coming off of the Hulk right now was five times as the previous highest recorded. Also, the mindless rage is absent this time.

And then…

Then there was nothing as he saw the footage of Jack arriving at the site like a shining green meteor and then a huge red sphere that popped up out of nowhere.

What the hell was that? "Jarvis?"

"The energy is the same as the one that was used on the attack on Avengers Tower, sir," Jarvis' words only fueled his determination to get there in time and help Jack. Whoever this red menace was, they were clearly powerful. Powerful enough to rattle even Jack and now that Jack had to fight the Hulk, who was apparently amped up significantly, the chances of Jack being defeated were very high.

"New Circuitry detected. Rerouting power. Repulsors: 300%" Jarvis' voice ended when he felt a sudden jerk inside his suit, which was supposed to be impossible with the inertia cancellation system he had created.

"J..Jarvis?"

"I judged the new circuitry work resilient enough to handle the load delivered to the repulsors," Jarvis helpfully reminded him as the clouds passed on his HUD at a dizzying pace. To not get motion sickness, which he didn't know he was susceptible to, he began looking at the data points of the so-called enhanced circuitry that Jarvis, and that teenage girl from earlier were talking about.

His eyes widened as he saw the amount of energy being channelled through the circuitry, almost to the point of overwhelming the repulsors in his suit as he rapidly pushed past his previous high speed records.

"Just what in the hell did she put into the suit?" He asked out loud as the numbers just kept on climbing, probably only limited by the sheer pressure that was being put on every part of the suit, which was supposed to be a concern for later on when the repulsors output finally caught up with the overall integrity of the chassis.

He resisted the urge to whoop in joy as the suit parted the clouds in a bid to reach his destination faster because of the energy readings that were coming from the red dome that had blanketed a large portion of the city.

The energy was an entirely different breed, matching the one that was partially recorded in Novi Grad, but at a totally different level.

This was, by all stretch of the imagination, just magic. The amount of scientific fields that would have to be outright invented to explain even a portion of what he had seen that day, and would no doubt be seeing today, would convince even someone like him to term it as just "magic" and call it a day.

Anyway, sufficiently advanced magic will be indistinguishable from magic for lower lifeforms.

He just called himself a lower life form, didn't he?

"From the scans, it would seem that a generous amount of Vibranium has been used to upgrade parts of the suit, MR. Stark," Jarvis' words made him blink as he realised what that snark girl was talking about earlier.

Vibranium? She gave him freaking Vibranium? And for what?

She mentioned Jack, was Jack some sort of hidden Head of some hidden organisation that no one had even heard of?

He did not know but now was not the time for that, he thought to himself as he finally caught up with the jet that housed Steve Rogers, as was shown on his HUD. He was also able to scan the Raptor because he was designated as friendly in their systems.

Jarvis was able to interface with their systems but only because of how advanced he was compared to most human minds out there. The sheer amount of complex code that was hitting his eyes was magnifique.

Finally, his eyes met the Dome that had covered Johannesburg, and according to Jarvis' scans, corroborated from..Wakanda?

Wakanda, that small poor country was where this Raptor and that Vibranium, and that advanced facility had come from?

A crisis for another time, he thought to himself as he read the scans taken from both Wakanda's much more advanced satellites and also his own personal satellites.

He consoled himself by telling himself that Wakanda was an entire nation, apparently centuries ahead of the normal countries, and he was but one man. But man, did it burn not having the most advanced tech on the planet.

It would seem another round of tinkering was at hand once he went back.

Finally, he crash landed in front of the dome, unable to see or sense what was going on inside but the tremors that could be felt underneath were clearly suggesting that an intense fight was happening inside.

He felt the Raptor dump Rogers before flying away and once it went into stealth mode, it disappeared from his systems as well. So much for Wakanda's help.

"Well, Captain, you are the captain here. any suggestions?" He asked Rogers even as multiple, no dozens of drones, piloted by Jarvis, FRIDAY, and some by himself were about to land on his location, shot out of orbital launch platforms.

Built and launched in absolute secrecy, lest they paint him as a warmonger to be feared, those were some of the best satellites the world could build, at least until he was reminded of the fact that he had just recently discovered some sort of hidden elitist society that either operated out of Wakanda, and its higher ups, or was Wakanda in its entirety.

"Well, we have no information other than what I saw on the way here. We were apparently brainwashed by some person whose powers are all red in nature. We attacked Jack under mind control but he subdued us and then brought us to Wakanda, where they treated us and now we are here."

"Bruce was not with us, then?" He asked Cap as two drones landed behind them with a thud, armed with the biggest repulsor cannons he could make and fit in the drones.

"No, he was taken by the attacker for some reason."

"Is it a she or a he?" He asked even as two other drones, mainly built for stealth and sensory work, arrived at the edges of the dome and began taking extensive scans.

"I would step away if I were you," He turned around to see Jarvis had remotely piloted the drones to float mid air and aim all its repulsors at the person who probably spoke those words.

It was a woman, dressed in red. Even her eyes were glowing red for Pete's sake. Seeing the red ensemble, coupled with the red theme of the attacker clued him into the identity of the person in front of him. Faced with someone who could do a lot of very dangerous things, he only had a single thing to say

"My God, that is a lot of Red!"

---

Word Count - 2367

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

Johannesburg, Australia

–Tony Stark–

Well, there he went, running his pretty little mouth once again. The woman in red was clearly very dangerous, judging by the corona of red that floated all around her while she floated mid air, without any visible apparatus.

It would be safe to say that they had found their mystery culprit and it was one hot woman. God, why did all the villainess have to be hot?

"Stark," She said his name with a resigned tone for some reason. Before he could ask her anything, Steve Rogers, the Captain, the greatest captain of all time, stepped forward and asked,

"Who are you? What have you done?"

Yeah, no shit Sherlock. Super soldier Sherlock. Like she was going to tell them everything they needed.

"Who I am is not important and if everything goes according to plan, you will never heard from me ever again but for now, please step away from the Hex,"

Well, wasn't that a little ominous. And Hex?

"Hex?" Apparently, the question was shared by the resident archer and Romanoff as well as they arrived in…suits?

Huh, looking closer, he could see, or more importantly, Jarvis could see, scan, and tell him that they were wearing advanced exo-suits. Not completely covered like his own but enough to tell him that the suits will be giving both of them a much needed boost to their base physical stats.

Ah, there we go. Jarvis was granted access and look at that, enhanced speed, strength, defense, and energy shields, all packed in a single, tightly wound nanite package no larger than a volleyball.

Damn, he had to start working on nanotech as soon as he got home.

Apparently, the woman was not willing to talk with them or knew that it was just going to be a waste of time, so he had to be the first one to dodge as the ground itself turned into red mud, drawing them in. Even his repulsors were unable to generate enough thrust as he found himself throwing his body into a puddle of red quicksand that was not normal by any stretch of the imagination.

There were similar cries of distress before, with a loud boom, Romanoff, and then Barton freed themselves from the quicksand. His eyes widened as he saw the red quicksand, wither into thin air as they were blown apart by the Wakandan suits.

He could see Jarvis trying but the mud had sprouted hands that had latched on to his suit's ankles and were now pulling him deeper into what he was pretty sure was deathland.

"A little help, Romanoff?" He asked, feeling utterly helpless as he did not have something capable of mimicking the large blast that Romanoff's suit emitted from its feet that allowed it to to blast off anything that had latched onto the suit's legs. Well, not without blowing up his feet, and most of his lower body as well.

Something for the next iteration then.

"Feet swallow your chicken legs, Tony?" He rolled his eyes at the snark but he had no choice but to enlist their help as another hand had emerged and was in the process of regenerating its stump once he had hit it with his repulsor blasts.

Finally, with a mighty heave, Romanoff blasted apart all the hellish hands that were sprouting from the quicksand, with what looked like a very advanced Repulsor blast. Good Lord, did that girl not leave any of his tech behind?

Like, yeah, he did not have a patent on the latest gen Arc Reactor, much less the repulsor technology but it was ubiquitous with his name.

Oh, he was going to sue.

"Ah!" He would die before admitting that he yelped like a little girl when a giant wave of red hit him just as he was lifted back into the air by Romanoff. His feet repulsors have apparently been chewed off by something, rendering his suit incapable of flight at the moment.

He scrunched his eyes shut as the red wave hit his suit, afraid of what might happen because so far, anything that the red energy had touched, had turned into the most horrifying, horror movie worthy version of themselves.

"Oof" He grunted in pain as his back found itself onto solid ground, some rocks sticking into his back as he opened his eyes and saw Romanoff heading straight towards him.

Huh? He could see Romanoff? And his back hurt?

He scrambled up in a panic and looked around as he saw himself dressed in the hastily given, badly designed, T-Shirts that Wakandans had given him.

His suit lay, half dissolved a little further away, its blue eye lenses flickering before it entirely disintegrated, turning into red motes that too disappeared into the atmosphere.

Holy Shit!

He quickly scrambled to fit inside one of the suits that Jarvis promptly brought to him. Thank god Jarvis had the sense to do it immediately, and then flee from the area as well as a vast wave of red suffused the area, obscuring his vision and every other sensor that Javis had on board.

He could see Captain being hoisted by one of the remote drone platforms that Jarvis had launched, along with Barton and Romanoff floating beside each other, covering their blind spots.

He looked at the still slowly expanding huge expanse of red that covered what was happening inside and then at the much smaller but still pretty big fog of red that hid that woman.

"Jarvis, any ideas?" He asked Jarvis, aware that Jarvis was probably the best strategist, scientist, anything that required thinking really, as he was now given true sentience along with the advantages afforded to him by virtue of being a digital entity.

"Platform S-01 on the way, sir. Brace for impact," Jarvis' ominous words did not inspire confidence as he opened his mouth to ask what was going to happen when he, along with all the people in the surroundings had to be jerked away remotely by Jarvis, as a massive blue beam of energy came roaring down from the sky and impacted the fog with some much force that he could see the red ground, the freaky red ground turn into lava.

"What the hell?" He muttered to himself as a whole new platform made itself known to his systems.

He could see the exact location of the impact and was very shocked when he saw the Red Woman from earlier hobbling out of the location, with a red screen around her flickering between red and dark red for some reason. She had to hastily redraw her shields as Jarvis' shiny new platform, something that he had kept hidden from dear ol' Dad, peppered her with multiple smaller blue beams, inflicting visible damage on her shields, forcing her to wave her hands, creating another fogy wave that hid her form.

"Jarvis, buddy? You have something to tell me?" He asked Jarvis as the aptly named S-01 made itself visible to him.

It was cloaked, which was–sure why not, and massive. Not massive as in helicarrier level but that was a manned boat with space for pesky things like oxygen. This was a large truck sized block of hardened alloys, not coloured-not his style but hey, J could choose as he wished.

It was littered with little holes that continuously emitted blue light, creating a halo of light around it. He could see dozens of Fourth Gen Arc Reactors in the drone as well, along with hardware that he had not even heard of.

Where in the hell did Jarvis get the time and resources to make this? And why wasn't he told about this?

This was….so cool!

"Stark, that yours?" He looked to the side as Barton slowly floated to his side. What a stupid question.

"No, that's Queen Victoria's throne," He deadpanned at Barton.

"Mr.Stark, I have not yet solved the energy issues of S-01 and can only do the previous large attack two more times before the energy falls back on emergency power. We have to make sure that the shots hit her this time."

Well, that's easy. As if.

"I was able to track her before this but her form has become even more blurry to me. I can still roughly locate her but not accurately enough that the smaller beams can hit her. We need to fish her out," Jarvis said as a huge crack appeared in the land in front of the red fog, stopping at the edge of the fog as the woman now had the power to stop earthquakes.

As if she wasn't ridiculously overpowered enough as is.

"Whoa…" He looked to the side as Barton muttered something. He turned around to see what was happening.

He made sure that Jarvis was keeping an eye on everything before looking at the huge spectacle happening in front of him. Whereas before, nothing except Red could be seen through the so-called Hex in front of him, now they could see twin flashes of blue and green clashing together in seemingly a dozen different locations all at once.

"Jarvis?" He asked as they had to scramble away from the fight, to see if there were any civilians that needed to be evacuated because the fight was seriously taking its toll on the surrounding land.

According to Jarvis anyway, most of the civilian population within the city had been mysteriously evacuated, no evacuation would be the wrong term. No, the entire population around the area where the Hulk had first landed, had just upped and left the city, leaving the entire city on buses, trains, and any vehicle that could take them to remote locations.

Money never exchanged hands as this massive evacuated procedure happened in an absolutely orderly fashion. There was only one answer to that, mass mind control.

Something that only further fueled his determination to make sure the woman didn't see the light of day again but alas, he had to make sure that people were safe, first and foremost.

Property could be rebuilt, not even that expensive for someone who could teleport to any place within the galaxy within a moment's notice, for free. The US Government would probably sell POTUS and his entire family if they could get their hands on Jack's Portal ability.

His thoughts screeched to a halt as he continued to pepper the red Rog with his repulsors, to try and fish out the woman or not giving her time to regroup, either one worked.

Yes, Why was Jack not using his portals? Why not just teleport the Hulk to some remote corner of the world or better yet, to the moon or into space, or on Mars, where he could safely cool down and could be rescued once he fell unconscious?

He had done enough research to know that the Hulk was more than capable of surviving the vacuum of space for long periods of time. Something was wrong here.

And speak of the wrongness and the entire universe would scramble to deliver the latest disaster on his doorstep.

With a thunderous boom, that created gales of wind that threw out entire buildings out of the fog, he could see the twin flashes of green and blue clashing for one more time before they just began going up and…up.

His vision flickered to infrared as he saw Jack, whose energy signature was completely alien, and Hulk, whose energy signature was similar enough, if not massively amplified, and mixed with the energy of the Red Woman who was still inside the fog, even as the Hex in front of him began flickering and falling apart when he saw Jack breaching the Hex, taking Bruce along with him.

He was about to follow but Jarvis forcibly took control of his suit, cutting him off as he tried to make sense of what was happening.

Then, in a flash of lightning, his vision was bombarded with white, blue, and red as the suit jerked forward into the red fog that surrounded the woman. He yelled at Jarvis but his voice fell on deaf ears or mics, as his suit collided with something solid before Jarvis just jerked his entire suit to the right, and then opened it and threw him right into the waiting open backside of another suit as another flash of blue seared the very air behind him, burning his back as he was promptly engulfed in another suit.

He almost passed out as a cool sensation spread across his back and the suit which began heading faraway from where he had been almost burned to death.

The last scene he saw before he closed his eyes was three other blue beams of energy bombarding the fog, along with a dozen other suits surrounding the entire area, constantly peppering the now rapidly dwindling rog with repulsors.

"Att–a..boy," He muttered with a smile on his face as the exhaustion finally did him in.

_______xx____

–Wanda Maximoff (Not)---

Curses.

She hastily redrew another shield as the attacks just kept on hammering at her shields. She had overextended herself.

Casting A Hex of that range, even with her powers, was too much for her. Worse was that the attacks were somehow converging right on her location, even when she created life-like clones using what little Chaos Energy she could spare at the moment.

She had done her part, she had facilitated the fight and even amplified the Chaos by empowering the Hulk. Unfortunately, this Jack character was turning out to be even bigger of a headache than she had thought him to be.

Being capable of defeating the Hulk was one thing but defeating a Hulk who was so massively empowered, not just by her powers but also by the Hex that allowed the Hulk to become the master of all the Gamma Energy within that domain, allowing the Hulk to subconsciously manipulate all Gamma Energy, internal and external, as if he had spent decades training, was a whole other feat of strength.

Sending all those people away had been a mistake but she had to make sure that she did not fall on that slippery slope of not valuing normal people's lives enough. That was how she fell into the Darkhold's influence the first time.

Thankfully, this body could now channel more of her might because they had made a stop in Kamar Taj. Stealing the CHI Stone, something that supplied everlasting CHI was not something that would register in the senses of the Sorcerer Supreme because it truly had no real value to the world of Sorcerers, but it was something that had allowed her to carry out forced evolution and growth of this body as a vessel for Chaos Energy.

That was the only way she was able to go from being barely able to escape from the Ancient One to being able to cast a city wide Hex capable of influencing hundreds of thousands of people, along with supremely powerful beings like the Hulk and this Jack Sullivan as well.

"Argh!" She grunted as one of her shields flickered and some of the energy passed through, burning her hand and part of her arm with it.

She snarled and waved her left arm, summoning forth, even more, might as a wave of red burst forth, something that was promptly snuffed out by the blasted blue beams of energy.

"Shit," She spit out blood as the backlash of the Hex bursting apart damaged her body and soul, leaving her no choice but to resort to exceptional measures.

With a flicker of her left wrist, a series of red barriers emerged in front of her, abandoning the obfuscation fog and focusing on taking out something that was not hers. No, it belonged to someone else and she will make sure that he got the gem, as he did in her life as well.

Just as she was about to summon it from her bag of Holding, her shoulders slumped in relief and a little bit of exasperation as she felt him arriving.

God, the little shit, circling half the planet because he could not stay quiet in one place.

With a smile on her face, she dispelled the barriers in front of her and cast a short range teleportation spell, locked on to her blood brother's location.

One moment, she was staring down an incoming wave of blue that would no doubt kill her and dozens of Iron Men suits that had their repulsors ready to blast holes into her body, the next moment, she was sprawled on her back, looking at the stupid smug face of her baby brother.

"Fancy a lift, M'lady?" He asked her and she giggled at the corny delivery, only to cough as the bruises and burns made themselves known.

God, this was so messed up.

She was messed up but if she had to mess it up a little to carve her own little slice of happiness?

Well, the world already knew her answer.

---

Word Count - 2869

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

Wakanda

–Jack Sullivan–

His senses came back roaring, and so did the pain as he came back to life. His eyes snapped open as he looked through the green liquid he was suspended in, and straight into the lab that was apparently monitoring.

Said Lab was currently filled with panicking people because they must have sensed his awakening. With a flex of his will, barriers began emerging on his skin, but something was wrong as the shiny new blue and yellow barriers that he had unleashed on the Hulk earlier came only halfway through his body before they flicked and dissipated.

What?

His confusion was overshadowed by the irritation at having tubes inserted into odd places. He flexed his powers, carefully constructing his ordinary barriers, and sighed in relief because it worked properly this time. He didn't waste another moment as he was immediately clad in his green barrier and tapped on the glass of the pod as he looked at the now full lab, who just kept looking at him for some reason.

Thankfully, Shuri came to clutch and opened up the pod. The liquid drained through the end of the pod as he floated mid air and cast a cleaning spell to clean his body and give it a fruity odor, one of the more cosmetic but still useful spells he knew.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Mr.Green Guardian. We feared you gone when your brain didn't register any signals even though your body was being actively healed by your healing factor," Shuri rapidly said as she went through multiple files on her holo tablet, the bags under her eyes cluing in him as to how much time had passed.

He could only stiffly nod because even that short moment made his mind light up in pain. His body was fine, as far as he could tell but his soul? That was a whole other story.

"I assume everyone is fine? What is the casualty count of the city?" He asked Shuri as she began herding him back presumably to her father or brother, even speaking sending little spikes of pain up his spine.

He moved purely by virtue of his barriers as he kept up with her.

"Hmm? Yes, everyone is fine. Stark suffered a few burns but we will have new skin grafted in no time. And surprisingly, only a dozen out of the hundreds of thousands that left the city died, that too due to mundane reasons."

Shuri's words did not bring him anything close to relief as he mourned for the 12 lost souls. What the hell was going on with Wanda?

"And you did great, by the way," He looked at Shuri who continued to work on her tablet as she all but skipped at his side.

"Excuse me, what?" He finally asked her since she seemed to have her gaze glued to the screen in front of her, working on some sort of giant Helicarrier prototype.

Hmm, Vibranium Helicarriers, Interesting.

"Oh, I forgot you didn't see the aftermath. Here, look," She presented her holo tablet to him, the screen hovering right in front of his stiff neck. The scene was familiar, not from this point of view but having experienced the crushing blows of the Hulk, he was acutely aware of what was going on in the video in front of him.

"This was recorded by one of the Deep Space scanners we had installed in space after the New York Invasion," Shuri piped up as he continued to look at the footage.

The video showed two massive colors, being intertwined as they escaped Earth's atmosphere at blistering speeds. He grinned weakly when he saw the pathetic way he defeated the Hulk. The last blow almost killed him but the force behind that blow, coupled with them being at the edge of Earth's gravity, created enough thrust that the Hulk was pushed into the darkness of space.

That was when his vision became blurry and his memory ended but the footage still went on. He saw the way the Hulk continued to rage on in the emptiness of space.

Goosebumps arose on his skin as he realised what had happened. The Hulk had been gathering more and more energy all the time they had been fighting. By the point, he was pushed out of Earth's atmosphere, he had built so much energy that it was like looking at a green star.

A chill went down his spine as after a point, the Hulk was no longer visible. What remained was only a glowing green blow that blew up.

He winced as the broken and burned body of the Hulk was thrown out of the explosion, propelling him deeper into space as the explosion rocked everything nearby. The satellites showed status for a while before the entire footage ended, the wave of energy probably knocking the satellite out of the sky.

"The International Space Station had to be reinforced by a dozen Iron Men suits rated for Space exploration after an all-hands-on-deck emergency meeting at the UN was called. An entire cluster of satellites in that zone had been knocked out. Most of them had been destroyed during re-entry but some had to be destroyed using missiles. Multiple countries began their nuclear readiness test because they believed it to be an alien attack and the Hulk was just the victim of it,"

Shuri continued to explain to him the complex domino effect of him pushing the Hulk out of the planet. He could see now that it was the best possible decision. An explosion like that, on Earth?

Anywhere on Earth? No, nowhere on Earth would have been safe. It would have created mega tsunamis, and mega earthquakes, irradiated the area, polluted the air, and water and more. No, that would have been a disaster of epic proportion.

"So, are you still tracking him?" He asked her as they continued their walk/flight to their destination.

"Ofcourse, we assumed that you could just bring him back using your portals, the science behind which I still haven't figured out by the way. Your powers are gamma based, with a trace of background cosmic radiation thrown in the mix. It doesn't make any sense for you to be able to create portals capable of traversing our solar system. How do they work, anyway? How did you stabilise the event hori-"

"Shuri, where are your manners? The man is injured. Plus, we have more important stuff to deal with," T'Challa's deep voice made Shuri stop speaking, pout and then scoff as she left the area, her holotab still showing multiple windows that ran code at dizzying paces.

Teenagers and their attention deficits.

"Prince T'Challa," He greeted T'Challa who nodded at him and then ushered him inside.

"Captain Rogers is currently out, sparring with some of the Dora Milaje. Agents Romanoff and Barton have accompanied him. Tony Stark is undergoing extensive skin grafting because of the actions of his AI," T'Challa informed him as he sat down on the sofa, and gestured for him to do the same.

"Prince T'Challa, my body is still in pain. I believe my last minute desperate actions for more power did not do my soul any favours. I am afraid that I will have to leave for a while, to consult my teacher,"

T'Challa opened his mouth but then seemed to think better of it, and then simply nodded.

"Please take care of the Avengers. I will be back soon. Also, can you please summarise what did you mean by the actions of AI? Did Jarvis do something?" He asked, despite the pain wracking his body. It had become manageable since he woke up but the impairment that came with having pain shoot up your spine at the smallest of body movements made him combat non worthy.

"Yes, I believe so. This Jarvis, at the last moment–Uh, It will be better if I just show you," T'Challa activated his Kimoyo beads, creating a small hologram in front of his eyes.

He watched as Jarvis came down with blue beams of energy firing down on the fog, almost glassing the land. Well, that was new. Some new weapons platform for extreme energy output, judging by the plethora of Arc Reactors visible.

Barton and Romanoff being armed with Wakanda exoskeletons had him shooting a look at T'Challa who summarily ignored it. He could see that Wanda was spent, exhausted after casting such a huge Hex.

He did not know the rules that she had probably imposed inside the Hex but judging by the startling lack of people when he arrived, and the low casualty count, it probably had something to do with mass mind control to evacuate the population in an orderly manner.

Then, something to stop sling ring teleportation, and also to massively empower the Hulk against him as well.

Doing something like that to ordinary people might have been manageable but she did that to S-class threats like himself and Hulk, that was certainly not going to be cheap in terms of energy expenditure.

That was why Jarvis' beams had pierced through the fob and gave the Iron Man's repulsors a chance of actually hitting her. Otherwise, those beams would have just disintegrated because of the rules she could impose on the reality around her, in a limited range anyway.

Then came the shocker.

He watched, shocked as the fog that had just about receded and even he had given up on any hopes of capturing her, with all the Avengers flying away from her because of the hex collapsing after he burst through it with the Hulk, revealing Wanda.

In the next moment, the view was blocked because the entire screen was filled with blue. Two other platforms became visible as they were bombarding Wanda's precise location with those massive blue beams, destroying the fog as it found itself under siege.

The real shocking thing was what Jarvis did to Tony. At the last moment, Tony's suit jerked back and slammed right into the fog, before it came out of the fog, and just spit out Tony into another suit that was waiting with its back open, ready to catch Tony.

Jarvis, ruthlessly, didn't wait for his creator to be safe before he blasted the entire area to kingdom come, burning Tony's back extensively as he was taken away to safety by the Iron Man suit.

Damn. "That was cold," Was all he had to say about that.

"Is it safe to assume that this Jarvis is not rogue and just particular…enthused about killing the perpetrator here?" T'Challa asked him in a wary tone and he found himself nodding on reflex but he paused.

Jarvis had changed…. a lot. He could not say for certain.

"I am not sure. Only Tony can tell you that. How is he, by the way? It looked like he was badly burned. Hell, the entire area around it looked as if it had been torched,"

"Mr.Stark will make a full recovery but due to his age and lack of healing factor, it will take much longer than expected,"

He nodded and then left the palace, heading straight to Kamar Taj. He did not know if he could still trust Wakanda about Kamar Taj but he still hailed a ride to the airspace above the Himalayas.

He figured that much distance was enough for him to shake off any tail they put on him. He knew there were no bugs on him so he just sped into the Himalayas and tried to navigate to Kamar Taj.

It was nominally in Kathmandu but due to dimensional tomfoolery, it was also situated on a cliff off some Himalayan mountain. He just had to locate that other entry point.

Last he was here, the Ancient One had declared a war emergency due to the Scarlet Witch but she should have appeared near the Hex if that was the case. If not the entire Kamar Taj, at least the Ancient One should have arrived on site.

With her powers, defeating a weakened Wanda would have been a piece of cake.

Why was she doing all this anyway? She was actively going out of her way to save people before causing events that were remarkably close to the canon timeline.

The Johannesburg attack happened during canon as well. The Avengers were almost mind controlled as well. Something was happening and he did not like not knowing.

He could not even cast a basic stealth spell on himself because his soul was fucking damaged due to the stunt he pulled that day. What was he thinking? Trying to mix in the leftover energies he had from the Space Stone and the Mind Stone, and mixing his innate barriers with that.

The burden of handling all of that, whilst actively battling over control of his Gamma Energy because of the freaking Hex had hurt his soul and now he was paying the price. Not even being able to cast a small spell, or even conjure a mandala was humiliating.

So much for being a Master of the Mystic Arts.

"Huh?" He finally found the compound or the beginnings of the compound as pieces of it continued to disappear into thin air, due to the spatial magics cast upon the compound.

"Oh thank god," He muttered to himself as he crashed through the compound barrier and almost faceplanted but stopped himself using his barriers.

Good god, he had become so weak, he thought to himself as the mere act of jerking upright caused him pain.

"Good Afternoon, Master Sullivan. Come, we have a lot to work on," The Ancient One said and then snapped her fingers, casting a green spell that washed over his barriers. Recognising the spell, he let the barriers fade as the spell that cast a soothing green light that entered his body, numbing him to the pain as he floated behind her, entering the…ritual room?

He levelled a questioning look at her, who snapped her fingers once again, teleporting him right into the center of the ritual.

"Your foolhardy actions have led to your soul being damaged. Fortunately, the damage can be reversed but in your case, the healing process will tear apart your soul as it is still tinged with the energies of the Infinity Stones."

"So?"

She smirked at him, "So, we will tear them away from your soul. Brace yourselves, Master Sullivan, this might hurt a bit,"

"W-Wait, I just woke up," Was all he could get out before the ritual circle lit up and he…passed out.

______xx____

"May the Vishanti give me strength," The Ancient One, Sorcerer Supreme muttered as she stood guard outside the ritual room, the bright orange glow cast by the ritual room ignored by her as her mind continued to ponder over the events of the past few days.

The emergence of a Scarlet Witch was worrying but she had not heard of Agatha being attacked and even had sent an emissary to confirm that the Darkhold was still in her possession. And it will remain so for another couple of years at the very least.

She had all but declared War against the Scarlet Witch, determined to nip this threat in the bud as the someone with the potential to become even a semi realised Scarlet Witch was a threat not even all Sorcerer Supremes could handle.

But then, she got a direct call from the Vishanti of all people. They wanted to let this play out for some reason.

They assured her that this Scarlet Witch was not malicious. She also had her own destiny to play out in this universe and she could not interfere in that.

But she could do something that would empower the one person who could defeat the Scarlet Witch.

Jack's potential was horrifying and combined with the power of drawing energy from the Infinity Stones, there should be no obstacle that would be able to stop him.

Now, to make sure that the world doesn't descend into Nuclear Armageddon, or at least try to do so anyway since she had multiple ways of stopping that, she had to give a visit to Jack's allies.

They deserved an explanation and so did she.

The Vishanti had informed her that this was going to be the last they were going to see of the Scarlet Witch for a couple of years now. Something about her being injured and her Patron having been sufficiently restrained.

Once the ritual was done and Jack's soul was stabilised, he would need some time to stabilise as well. She could meet the Defenders of Earth in the meantime.

After all, they were colleagues, if from different departments, but with the same purpose.

---

Word Count - 2824

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

Wakanda

–Tony Stark–

"Urgh," The first movement of consciousness he experienced, an avalanche of pain assaulted his brain as he felt his body feel as if it was filled with lead instead of blood.

There was an odd ringing in his ear as he felt something cool on his back for some reason. He could faintly make out the smell of the hospital, something that he hated with passion.

He tried to open his eyes but even that felt like too much for him as he could only make out a blurry white floor for some reason. Makes sense it looked like he was in a hospital.

The last thing he remembered was.

He let out a throaty gasp as he felt something stick into his neck, making him lose consciousness completely.

…..

….

The next time he found his eyes opening, he found himself quite literally suspended in mid air. Well, not mid air but mid fluid one could say.

He tried to make some gestures to tell the people walking around in front of him that he was awake but it seemed as if it was unnecessary as alarms began beeping and he found himself being lowered into the ground. His eyes took in all that he could, as he watched the fluid being drained from the pod he was in.

He looked at the dozens of holo screens that were much clearer than the ones he had installed in the Avengers Tower as well as Stark Residence in LA, and he was the pioneer when it came to those screens.

He also took in the colour of the skin of the people working in this place. Not in a racist manner but because that was how he realised that she was actually in Wakanda. The place that was not a third world country but something incredibly advanced.

"Mr.Stark," He was lowered into a chair that was incredibly comfortable, despite its metallic look. He was then borough in front of who looked like the doctor who ran this place.

"Please follow me," He said and then turned around and began marching towards the door, not knowing that he had no idea how to use this wheelchair or have the strength of the body to do so anyway.

Fortunately, that decision was not in his hands because the chair began walking towards the door, following the doctor.

He would have quipped about the situation but his mind was working overtime on the vents that led him to this state. He could still feel something on his back, it was cool and padded. He could still remember the searing heat he felt when his suit was hit with Jarvis' newest and most dangerous beam, right after he was forcefully ejected and thrown into another suit.

Jarvis didn't even wait until he was safely enclosed inside the suit before releasing another volley of blasts, burning his back. Well, if Jarvis could take out the woman at the cost of a few treatable burns, he was alright with the price being paid.

Still, it would have been nice to know beforehand. He had to remind himself, once again, that Jarvis was not the same as he was before he went on his two year long stint of rogueness. Well, they were actually hunting criminals and hindering the conspiracies of a nefarious organisation everyone thought gone, so they couldn't technically be called as rogues.

The Old Jarvis never would have hurt him, just for a chance to take out a very dangerous foe, not unless he was explicitly ordered by his creator.

He understood the need for such dangerous maneuvers, but it didn't mean that it still did not hurt like a bitch.

"Oh for the love of Bast, will you please wait till he is here?" He heard a voice almost shouting in exasperation as they finally reached their destination. It was quite an important one as well, judging by the heavy security all around.

He turned around and was confused to see Jarvis' digital avatar in front of the same snarky teenager who upgraded his suit with Vibranium. Speaking of Vibranium, if his suit had parts of Vibranium in it, it would mean that his suit was not completely destroyed by Jarvis' attacks, no matter how potent they might have been.

Well, let's hope they retrieved his suit because even that amount of Vibranium was very hard to come by. He could reuse the same circuitry dozens of times, for dozens of iterations of both the Arc Reactor as well as the Repulsor tech before the Vibranium could ever reach the limit of its energy carrying capacity.

"Mr.Stark," He looked up to see Jarvis' avatar floating towards him.

"I am sorry for the sudden attack but I calculated it to be the best way of dealing a critical blow to our enemy," Jarvis' way of apologising was certainly..unique. Well, he learned from the best after all.

"Well, if you thought it to be the best, then it probably was. Did we get her?" He asked Jarvis because if he got burns on his back in exchange for no damage to their enemy, well he did not know what he would do but it would certainly involve a lot of caffeine and late night work sessions.

Also, chicks dig scars. He didn't know about Pepper though, so he might have to ask her.

Oh, God! Pepper must be worried sic–

"Oh my god, Tony!" Speak of the incredibly beautiful redhead and she shall appear in front of him in a holo avatar. Judging by the orange outline around the holo screen, it was probably Jarvis' handiwork.

"Pepper, I am fine. How are you?" He asked the now crying CEO of Stark Industries. Come on, Pepper. What would the Board think of such an emotional woman helming the biggest company in the world?

Note the sarcasm.

"Oh my god, Tony. Jarvis told me there was an attack on Avengers Tower and you were taken then I finally saw you on TV and then this?" She then promptly burst into tears once again.

Well, she was concerned for him and it really did make his almost frozen solid heart thaw out again.

So, he consoled her that he was fine. He was about to tell her about Wakanda and he did tell her but the words didn't seem to reach her, making him realise that Jarvis was not letting him do that. Still, he didn't let his suspicions and irritation show and continued talking with her.

He had to also promise her to be back by the end of the week,something that was looking possible because the teenager standing with her arms crossed nodded slightly when Pepper asked him about that.

Until finally, Pepper hung up the call and he was, once again, faced with the teenager who was looking down on him.

"Mr.Stark,"

"Actually that would be Dr.Stark. You know, I do have 6 PhDs," He smugly pointed to her, knowing that she did not have as many as he did.

"Dr.Banner has 7," His smirk fell off as she just said that and turned around. He was left floundering about only for a moment as she turned around.

"I am Princess Shuri of Wakanda, a title that is infinitely more powerful and respect worthy than just Doctor. I don't need outside validation to know that I am far more intelligent than you, old man,"

He gasped in mock outrage, "You take that back, young lady. You know, you kids have it all easy. Constant access to always connected computers with all the knowledge, and misinformation, of the world accessible to you at a moment's notice. You know, back in my time, I had to actually read books, and what more, I had to actually build my own computer."

Both of them looked at each other for a moment before both of them burst out laughing,

"Ah, I needed that," He wiped the tears from his eyes as he got comfortable once again, in the wheelchair. He could use his legs but the chair was oh so supremely comfortable.

"You are not bad, old man. Also, did you actually build your own computer?" She asked him as she straightened up.

"You too. And no, just the circuitry had to be designed. I had the engineers at Stark Industries build the computer,"

She nodded sagely, "Makes sense. It is always useful to have competent minions so that we can pawn off menial labour to them."

Both of them nodded at the completely sensible thing that was being discussed between two of the brightest minds of the century.

"Now, Princess Shuri, what is going on here?" He asked her the dreaded question, tensing slightly for some reason because he was wary of what their nation would turn out to be. How did they get so advanced?

Why are they hiding? What are they hiding?

Well, that question was easy to answer. They were hiding their advancements in fear of the Western World waging war to gain access to the technology they had. And if they had Vibranium to just give away to some stranger, they probably had more of where that came from. The US Government would love to get their hands on all the Vibranium in the world, even if they didn't know jackshit about making anything with it.

Were they aliens? Did they have alien technology?

"We are in Wakanda. And yes, Wakanda is the most advanced country on the planet, barring ocean based civilisations, as was recently pointed out to us by none other than Jack Sullivan, that man knows things he has no right knowing,"

He nodded. That made sense and Sullivan was already known for that, pulling intel out of his ass at the most critical moments.

"We were approached by Jack Sullivan because we know how to deal with mental illnesses better than most of the planet. That was when you people were put under mind control by the Scarlet Witch,"

Yeah, that was not a pleasant thing to experience. Wait. What?

"The who now?" He asked her with a piercing gaze.

"The Scarlet Witch. That is the designation of the individual that attacked you all, told to us by Jack Sullivan," Shuri responded to him, a video of the red woman surfacing on the holo screen right next to her.

Honestly, how she was doing that was beyond him because he did not see her even twitch as the video was opened. Something to with mental brain wave control?

"Okay, putting aside the fact that, yes, her powers come with a red hue, but Witch? Really? Does Jack really believe her to be a magician of some sort? For all we know, she could be like the Titans that he showed us when he took us—"

He stopped mid way as alarms began blaring around them, Shuri's eyes widening as she looked behind him. He tried to turn with his body, and the wheelchair complied.

Huh, so it was some sort of brain wave control then?

He looked at Shuri in confusion as there were the telltale signs of the portal that Jack used, opening in front of him, with the orange circular fires and everything.

Only….his body tensed as someone else entirely exited the portal in front of him.

"I won't fault you for not believing in magic, Mr.Stark, sorry, Dr.Stark. After all, you are a man of science." The complete stranger using the same brand of portals that Jack used appeared in front of them, clad in yellow robes, with a locket that shone green hanging over her neck.

"Identify yourself," Shuri shouted as his wheelchair jerked back, and he did a double take as he found himself behind not just Shuri but Shuri clad in an armoured skintight suit. He looked at the texture and was alarmed to find them to be made up of nanites.

The woman in front of them looked at Shuri with a calm expression on her face, even as more and more of the signature guards of this place began pouring in this place. His wheelchair was also locked because he could not guide it anymore.

He didn't want to risk trying to use his legs and then flop uselessly on the ground, his dignity would not be able to take it, so he stayed put and watched as the situation unfolded.

His eyes widened even further as he watched Shuri point both her arms at the woman, as he watched transfixed, as if it was sludge, annites began pouring in and connected both her arms, forming a massive canon, that seemed to be gearing up to shoot…Repulsors?

Did she steal his tech? Or did they simply discover the offensive capability of muons earlier than he did?

Well, as long as they did not sue him.

There was a low pitched whine of the repulsors in the room, the output of which, from what he could see, was going to blast all of his previous records out of the water, likely reaching half the level that Jarivs used to deal with that Scarlet Witch.

Pff, as if Magic was real.

"Shuri, stand down!" A regal shout came from the entrance, inadvertently drawing everyone's attention to it as a man dressed in excessively royal garbs entered the room, with another armoured Cat Man behind him.

Shuri looked confused but she complied with the order. That man must be the King then, judging by the row of bowing that happened across the room that prompted him to mimic the action awkwardly as well.

Shuri was chill but who knows what the King might take offense to. And what kind of advanced society had a monarchy as its ruling structure?

The Cat Man's face mask slid off his face, revealing a youthful face with similarities to both Shuri and the elderly man walking with him. The same nanite technology then. Probably son and father, with Shuri being the daughter then.

"Sorcerer Supreme, I, King T'Chaka, welcome you to Wakanda." King T'Chaka bowed to the woman who still held the same expression as she did the moment she entered the lab.

"I am sorry to intrude, King T'Chaka. I assume the High Priests of Wakanda have informed you about my existence?" She asked in a smooth crisp voice that was tinged with indifference.

"Yes, but I have to say, I never put much thought into their warnings, considering that the same warning had been passed down for generations, of you being the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth," T'Chaka asked in a cautious voice, something that was rare considering the gobsmacked expression on everyone's faces, including Shuri's.

"Yes, Unfortunately, I am yet to find someone to pass on the burden of protecting the planet from mystical threats–"

Why did it feel as if she singled him out as she said the "mystical" word in front of all the others.

"---That is why I have been the Sorcerer Supreme ever since your Royal line came to be, King T'Chaka. Now, I have some important information to tell all of you," The Sorcerer Supreme said as she subtly asked the King to vacate the room.

Her words were command apparently because the same was done, despite the very visible protests of the guards.

"I am called the Ancient One, for reasons you can guess."

"Are you immortal?" Shuri piped up.

"Shuri. Quiet!" T'Chaka rebuked his daughter before looking back at the Ancient One.

"Jack Sullivan is a master of the Mystic Arts, someone who learned under me and has the potential to become the strongest being this planet has ever seen. Unfortunately, another entity who similarly has the potential to rend apart the fabric of reality had seen fit to pit Dr.Banner against Jack."

Her words sent a chill down his spine.

Rend the fabric of reality? What the fuck?

"The results of said fight are known to all of you. One of Humanity's greatest assets is currently drifting away from the planet, suffocating in Space, and the other is currently comatose, the injuries of the fight being too much for him to recover properly."

"What? Comatose? How can it be? I was there when he was recovering. His body was completely recovered before he went away," Shuri interrupted once again but T'Chaka didn't stop her this time.

"Yes, his body was completely healed. But, Princess Shuri, unfortunately, injuries of the soul are much harder to heal," She said.

"Now, I want two things from Wakanda currently."

"Please, tell us, Sorcerer Supreme," T'Chaka said.

"I want you to tell the world about the fight and ask them that Jack is currently recovering in secret and will be back soon. This way, the majority of the politicians around the world should calm down. Tell them the fate of Dr.Banner as well. I will be retrieving him after I leave here.

Secondly, I want to inform you that the Scarlet Witch is, henceforth, our problem and she will not be disturbing you anytime soon. So, I would like to ask Princess Shuri to destroy the sample she has of the Scarlet Witch's blood as well as the Vibranium that she has soaked in her energy."

T'Chaka's neck snapped to Shuri who looked deer eyed at the information.

'Shuri!" Both of the men hissed at her who looked shocked for a moment before she looked at the Sorcerer Supreme.

"But, they are important! It will allow us to better understand her energy and help track her. Also, her blood is very fascinating. Her DNA itself is completely human but her cells have an outer line with the same energy. The applications of that—"

"I can tell you, Princess Shuri, that nothing good can come out of the direction you are heading into." She warned Shuri before turning to T'Chaka.

"King T'Chaka, this is merely a courtesy I am extending from my side. I can, and will, confiscate any Chaos Energy sample on my own. Also, I must warn you, that I am duty bound to exterminate anything that is tinged with Chaos Energy."

The warnings rang in the room with finality as T'Chaka turned to his daughter.

"Shuri, get rid of every single sample. T'Challa, make sure she does it, and deletes all the data as well,"

"Sorcerer Supreme, I will make sure that it is done."

"Very well, I bid you farewell then. Let's hope that the next time such a situation arises, you have to deal with a new Sorcerer Supreme instead of me,"

She said those words and then he blinked, and she was gone.

All the while, he could not utter a single word as he sat there in his wheelchair, shocked at how the situation turned out.

"Mr.Stark," he looked at the cat man that was speaking to him.

"I will escort you to your teammates. You should be back in America once the doctors give you the green signal," Tony shook the man's hand.

"I am T'Challa, crown prince of Wakanda."

---

Word Count - 3216

A/N - Booyah!

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 or Ko-fi .

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[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

–Jack Sullivan–

He slowly came to consciousness, his vision a blurry mess as he tried to make sense of where he was.

His eyes snapped wide open as he attempted to sit upright, remembering what had happened before, with the Ancient One forcing him to undergo a ritual. The confusion, that turned to mild pain, which turned to panic, and then pain so intense that his brain instinctively blocked the memory or sensation of it.

"Easy now, Master Sullivan, your soul is still raw from the ritual,"

'The ritual you forced me to undergo, without my consent!' he wanted to rage at the calm voice but he just had no energy to do so. His actions in banishing Bruce to the cold harshness of space meant that he had just sentenced Bruce Banner, one of the kindest souls he had known, to the painful and scary sensation of being choked, even as their body continued to regenerate.

Healing over and over again, and not dying due to the lack of oxygen or atmosphere would be one of the most painful feelings one could ever experience. And yet, he had no other choice at that moment.

He did not know what to do in that situation and he ended up banishing the Hulk to space. God, he just hoped that someone rescued him once it was clear that he was not going to turn himself into a gamma bomb and sink some country, or bomb it back to the stone age.

His eyes, that were scrunched shut due to the blurriness, opened as he felt a cooling feeling spread throughout his body. His vision cleared, he sat upright, and was relieved to find himself in one of the rooms that they used to house the initiates.

He looked to the side at the casually lounging Ancient One.

"What the hell? You gave me no warning." He hissed at the Sorcerer Supreme as he sat upright on the surprisingly cold but still comfortable stone bed. The runes slightly phasing in and out of the material world clued him into the nature of the bed.

"Master Sullivan, the slow way would have taken months and it would have still left your soul unbalanced. This was the best way. If you don't trust me, trust the crystallisation of the knowledge left behind by all the previous Sorcerer Supremes," The Ancient One said and then gestured at the book that was staying on the table between them.

He took one look at the book and had to immediately avert his eyes. The knowledge inside that book was tantalising, to say the least.

"Alright, how long was I out?" He asked the Ancient One, absentmindedly flexing his powers and grinning as he felt no pain, no slowness, nothing that would indicate something wrong with his powers. It was a horrible feeling, to have woken up and then feel only pain when using the powers that had grown to become akin to a limb when it came to control and familiarity.

"A little over a month, Master Sullivan,"

"A month!?" He exclaimed as he stood up, restless at the thought of all the changes that must have occurred in the outside world. He could barely begin thinking of the consequences of the Johannesburg incident alone, let alone the rest of the stuff.

"Do the others–"

"Yes, Master Sullivan, I took the liberty to inform the Avengers along with your allies in Wakanda about your condition and how you were undergoing recovery under my supervision. Fortunately, Nuclear Armeggadon was averted. Now, I am sure that you have a lot to catch up on."

He took the dismissal and stood up, clothing himself from the hammerspace he had already made for himself. It was very small but it was sufficient to hold a spare change of clothes, some camping essential along with some Orange Juice.

What? He really loved Orange Juice, alright? Not everyone needs to drink Alcohol to drink away their worries.

He was about to head out before he was stopped by the Ancient One who snapped her fingers, causing a small ring to appear in front of him. He smiled as he saw the brand new sling ring.

"Completely isolated from the network, as I am sure you prefer," He looked up in shock as she casually revealed to him something that might shatter the trust that the entire Master's body held in the Sorcerer Supreme.

Then again, she had grown so much stronger than the rest that she could afford to go against the flow and not have to worry about any possible backlash.

"Alright. Thanks," He said and then slid it on his finger, the familiar presence of the instant teleportation artifact a comforting presence.

With practiced ease, his finger twitched as a portal opened in front of him, one that led straight to the specific room designated for his portal usage.

He took one step forward and rolled his eyes at the expected song and dance as the guns and cannons were visible to him for a fraction of a second before they were sucked into their respective wall housings.

He walked to the door, frowning when it didn't open as he approached it. Did they forget about this point?

His doubts were answered when he heard someone bounding towards him, as the door opened, to reveal a slightly rotund someone with their kimoyo beads outstretched towards the wall.

"Haa. haa. I am–so–so sorry. We just forgot to put an ever present guard here and the system recognised your portal signature but we configured this door to be opened only from the outside and only from this air gapped lock, fearing digital interference. It–Ha–took me a while to run down from the Lab,"

He smiled at the man who had apparently run all the way down here, "Thank you for your troubles. Is anybody coming?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, the Dora Milaje platoon should be…Ha–here soon," THe man said in between deep breaths as he slowly sat down on the ground.

"You should really get some exercise. I thought you guys in Wakanda had obesity sorted out?" The question was genuine because he had not seen a single morbidly obese person in all the time he had been in Wakanda, either in this life or in the movies in his past life.

"Multiple issues with the body. Barely achieving hormonal balance," the man said in between deep breaths and he nodded in understanding. Well, that was understandable.

He looked up from the kneeling man, and grinned in relife as the familiar Dora Milaje filtered into the hallway. He would not be blamed for the possible death for this person because he was really quite an anomaly, as far as he was concerned.

His breath was way too shallow, his body was quite obese but not in a normal way. He had thick glasses and more.

"Well, let's see what has happened," He muttered as he was escorted to the Lab with the Royal Princess Shuri, someone who had quite a bit of news to share with him.

_____xxx____

Paris

–(Not)Wanda Maximoff—

"Seriously, how long until this ends, sis?" She rolled her eyes at the daily dose of whining she received from Pietro, ever since he had picked her up from Johannesburg.

She had taken a break from following Chthon's plans and that was quite a relief, mainly because the amount of Chaos she had created with that single stunt was apparently enough to sate the monster, but she knew it would not be enough and it was not long before she heard the monster in her head, once again.

"Just eat the pudding, and go to sleep. We have to go see the Eiffel Tower tomorrow and then we have a flight to Switzerland. I hear it is best this time of the year," She gently admonished him as he was sprawled on the sofa of her hotel room.

It had been a little over 3 months since the Hulk Rampage, the media called it, a very transparent way of blaming the Hulk for everything if she had ever seen one.

In the immediate aftermath of that horrible fight where she had almost lost the fight, if not for Pietro's timely intervention, something that he never failed to remind her, she had chosen to just lay low.

She could have won using the Sceptre she had, especially with the spells she had in mind that could properly take advantage of the vast psionic advantage that the Mind Stone gave her, but it would have been a pyrrhic victory at best.

For one, she did not know why the Ancient One had not taken an active interest in hunting her down. Using an Infinity Stone would have been the fastest way of getting on her shit list. Secondly, once Chthon realises that he had access to an avatar who could use both Chaos Energy and an Infinity Stone at hand, the question of him trying to take over her body would have been of "when", instead of an "if".

The world had been in quite a tense state in the month following the incident, where the reconstruction work of Johanesbury was still ongoing, when the Green Guardian had not shown his face to the outside world.

Repeated assurances from the Avengers did nothing to assuage the fears of the common public because unless they saw the Green Avatar flying around in the sky, their fears of Aliens and outside threats would not be laid to rest.

And that was exactly what happened. One fine day, the Green Guardian just showed up in the skies above New York, then London, LA, Beijing, Shanghai, Berlin, Paris, New Delhi, and more. It was as if the man had taken some sort of world tour to make sure that all parts of the world knew about him and how he was alive and well to defend them from yet another threat.

In the meantime, she had taken to finacle with the sceptre. THe sceptre, and not the Mind Stone, there was a difference.

She knew that her Vision was built using the essence of whatever nasty thing was installed into the sceptre and combined with the remnants of Stark's AI after it had gone through who knows how many alterations at the hands of Stark and Banner.

And yet, she knew that the main thing that made Vision possible was the Mind Stone, and not the many other factors.

Her fists clenched mid air as the sceptre appeared in her hands, her mind churning at the thought of losing Vision or more accurately, losing the opportunity to ever see her Vision once again.

"Whoa! Calm down, sis. I'll go, I'll go," Pietro's completely fake panic made her roll her eyes as her hands relaxed, the sceptre disappearing back into her storage.

"Just leave. And don't let me see another harlot in the morning," She hollered at him as he left her room, the sight of him almost stumbling like a balm to her soul.

Over the course of the past three months, she had chosen to spend her time as if she were on a vacation, something that she never had the privilege of experiencing back in her home universe. It was always a mission after mission, and before that, it was a struggle to get a full meal on the best of days, so it was safe to say that she was currently living her best life, from both her lives.

Four star stays? Check. Mainly because staying at five star suites all the time without any public identity could raise questions.

Unlimited Credit? Check. That one was the simplest. All she had to do was mind control one of the many Oil barons of Russia and convince him that she was his newest twinkie and he was just splurging a bit on her.

Peak Physique? Check. Well, the stone of Everlasting CHI had been the critical ingredient in the ritual she had undertaken, elevating her current body to beyond Olympic level. It was enhanced in all the ways, allowing her to enjoy the yummiest of foods in the most outrageously American quantities, without ever having to worry about her health.

The greasiest, cheesiest, burgers were never off limits for her. Red Meat? Let it come. Let it all come.

Pietro never had to worry about anything because of his enhanced metabolism but it was nice to know that they could enjoy anything from anywhere, at any point of time.

Sure, the looming sword of Chthon still lingered over her but she had chosen to ignore what she couldn't control and it would be the height of foolishness to think that she could do anything to hurt someone on the level of Chthon, Scarlet Witch or not.

So, there she was, in a hotel room with one of the best possible views, enjoying her late night ice cream, and the wonders of good room service, after sending her brother packing.

Mainly because she did not wish for him to see her this way.

She sighed as the illusion was undone, revealing her blackened fingers.

She had been careful. As careful as she could be, casting a Hex of that size over Johannesburg had led to unforeseen consequences, allowing Chthon to supply her with the deficit in Chaos Energy and as she found out, that was not a good thing.

Still, the fact that it had been so long since she had last felt his presence, it was a good sign. Something that she had chosen to take in stride.

She knew her time was limited but well, let's see what life had in store for her.

She took one look at the inert Sling Ring in her hand. She didn't mean to hurt anyone and she had actually taken all the precautions she could so that she could avoid the wanton destruction but also complete her goals as well.

Once it became clear that Chthon had won and she would only damage this universe more with her unwelcome presence, she would just open a portal straight to either the Ancient One or Jack Sullivan, one of the few who should be able to kill her, once and for all.

Besides, she had a hunch that her actions in Johannesburg had only led to further strengthening of Jack Sullivan, and if he was not prepared to deal with Chaos Energy now, he would certainly be, by the time she was ready to surrender herself.

She had two goals until that happened.

Make sure that she enjoyed life and if it was at all possible, somehow bring back Vision, NOT using her Chaos Energy,

Secondly, make sure that Pietro is settled. Not settled as in financially or in any monetary way.

No, she had to settle his mind. Being a speedster, his mind was already prone to outbursts more than normal people but she had to make sure that the sheer hatred he had of Stark was abated before she left.

That was one of the many things she had to beat out of him before she left this reality for good.

All that was for later Wanda though.

The current Wanda was currently going to binge watch "The Office" while eating tub loads of ice cream, full fat, again.

"Huh, Dwight was so stupid," She muttered, pointedly trying to ignore the teardrops falling down her cheeks as her mind wandered back to her leaving this world, and her brother behind, once again.

---

Word Count - 2624

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 or Ko-fi .

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 [May 2015]


–Jack Sullivan–It had been over a year since the fateful Johannesburg incident. Regretfully, it had taken him quite a bit to wake up from the coma that the ritual put him in.

In that time, thankfully, the Ancient One had already made contact with Wakanda, Tony and the others, so the world knew of what had happened in that fight. They were given an abridged version but at least they were informed, sparing the world from mad politicians trying to ignite world war 3 by recklessly labelling enemies and launching nukes at them.

Tony and the others had been very grateful for his return because of the ever increasing pressure that was being mounted on them by the world's governments. THe pressure would not have been much but the strongest members of the Avengers, were all either off world, hiding from the world in shame and guilt, or in a ritualistic healing trance, or coma.

Tony really shined under the pressure, actually turning around and handling the situation like a pro, instead of using his snark in the wrong places. He was also sure that Tony had already developed countermeasures just in case the world turned on the Avengers but thankfully, the time never came.

Because the first thing he did when he woke up was go to Wakanda, meet the King and tell him how thankful he was for the support that was provided to him, and promised to support T'Challa and Shuri in their rule over Wakanda, making the man sag in visible relief.

It was as if it was one of his life's goals and seeing them completed while he was still alive was a huge burden off his shoulders.

Next stop was Avengers Tower, something that was possible only because of his new and shiny sling ring. Well, that was a bit of a lie because the new ring was all basic brass, not enchanted by the extra enchantments that the Ancient One had developed. The non enchanted version, unfortunately, did not come with the design choices that the Ancient One made when she probably made the damn thing in the first place.

The sheer relief on the Avengers' face was nice to see. After that, he patrolled the skies of New York for exactly one day and one night, making sure that criminals, and law enforcement alike saw his face, and confirmed that he was still alive before he moved on to his next city.

As he found out in the course of the two months he had done his little global tour, he had quite a lot of fans in virtually every single city on the planet. Every city that he had chosen to camp in, had given him a very warm welcome.

Barring some protests, by some bad eggs that he was not going to focus on, the campaign that he had undertaken with no support whatsoever had been received warmly. In fact, some people began demanding some sort of schedule but knowing the pitfalls of letting people gather in a city without giving the city time to prepare was a recipe for disaster. Also, he was kind of winging it, all the way.

For example, he spent way more time in New Delhi, just trying the sheer amount of food they had on offer, dealing with a couple of hooligans masquerading as godmen, and then moving on to Bangkok.

Ahem, after having a little bit of fun in every place, he moved on to the next, never really letting a pattern form.

In less than two months, the world's mood about him had turned from frantic apocalyptic harbinger to just some superhero who traveled the world and did goofy things. He had debated whether to open a social media account or not but chose not to because he simply did not want to be exposed to the cesspool that was the internet, any more than he had to.

Could you even imagine the amount of targeted ads and content he would receive? From all factions trying to influence his thoughts alone.

Hell, he imagined some company reaching unicorn status just by claiming to help influence the thoughts of the Jack Sullivan, through the power of social media. And they were already doing it anyway, trying to influence his followers–he would not go so far as to call them diehard fans– by misquoting or just outright lying about whatever he may or may not have said.

He had a very nice time while commuting back to Kamar Taj and then to the city he was currently guarding. All the time he spent reassuring the people of the planet that he was still alive, there were government hounds trying to get his attention every step of the way.

He obviously ignored them all until TOny himself called him for a meeting with the President. Obviously, he could not ignore that.

So, he made sure that the meeting was contingent on the President getting the ball rolling on the SHIELD replacement that he was betting on. SWORD was the obvious replacement because of the name already being thrown around in the various alphabet soup agencies.

SWORD was also supposed to be given the command of the Helicarriers, once the agency was not on paper.

He had made sure that it was written into the fine print that he would only have to hand over the Helicarrier control once SWORD was fully formed. Last he heard, they were still searching for the Director and also for a suitable committee to oversee it.

He was going to be on the committee. Only he, none of the other Avengers were going to be on it, something regarding conflicting interests, especially because Tony was trying to make sure that the Avengers brand was separate from any governmental organisation.

Axle was not really sure how that was going to work out for the Avengers in the end, once they screwed up because while going solo without any oversight made it so that they didn't have to answer to snoozy politicians, it also made them vulnerable to the attacks of the same politicians.

Politicians who ultimately held the power of the public in them, no matter how much they strayed away from that principle in private, only to wave the flags of democracy in public.

He sighed and made sure that the car's inhabitants were safe as he made sure that the engine explosion was contained in one of his barriers, allowing him to safely evacuate the entangled family within.

"T-Thank you! Thank God!" he smiled and waved at the cloud, even as he sped away from the city, his shift done for the day.

His smile faded as he reached sufficient altitude and dove into one of the clouds that appeared in his vision. He dove into the clouds but never came out of the clouds, for the many satellites that were tracking all his movements, including Stark.

He came out of a closing portal, straight into a veritable utopia, of sorts.

He took a deep breath and smiled at the clean, crisp air of the mountains. One of the very few mountains in all of Wakanda, actually.

He made sure that he made plenty of noise and was visible to all the sensors littering the property so that he didn't startle the inhabitants of the cute little cabin in front of him. Well, there was a cabin but it was just a front for a highly advanced lab underground that Bruce inhabited.

"Hiya Soldier, how's the new hand?" He asked Bucky in a highly jolly voice as he looked at the new Vibranium nanite hand that Shuri had gifted Bucky on his suggestion. It was, in a word, overkill but he figured, why not?

The man had suffered enough.

"He is cooped up in the lab. He comes up sometimes but never to talk," Bucky helpfully informed him while he handed over a bag of new snacks that he had found on his tour around the world.

It was a small thing that he did, bringing tastier outside food to Bucky so that he could get a taste of the outside world. He didn't know what to do with Bucky so he did this.

After all, getting someone good food was the best way of telling them that they were thought of.

"Have fun," He saluted Bucky who was about to chop down even more firewood for some reason, despite having the option to install the Wakandan comfort package, basically having a fully functional Spa inside your home without ever needing any staff to man it.

He entered the cottage and was immediately assaulted with the smell of meat being cooked. Savoring the scent, instead of heading into the kitchen, he whirled around and entered the oddly clean, fully metallic door, that reeked of technology, in a cabin that would not look out of place in some remote corner of the world where the most advanced piece of technology would be a radio.

The door opened up for him, showing a very futuristic staircase that led straight down, fairly deep actually. He sighed at both the metaphorical and physical distance that Dr.Banner had put between himself and civilisation, out of guilt for the events that transpired totally out of his control.

Looking at the letter in his hand, he hesitated giving the letter to Bruce but then he thought better of it. It was not a decision that was in his hands, he was really just the messenger here.

Walking down the stairs, he had to go through no less than three other authentication procedures, each one checking for something unique, something that cannot be replicated by anyone else. How Bruce made technology capable of scanning his barriers along with their shapes as a method of authentication was beyond him.

In the end, he reached the final door, which was once again, very much deep in the Earth. THe door also suspiciously looked like one made out of Vibranium.

He sighed and clicked on the red button on the side of the door, which opened the door with a hissing sound of the atmospheric pressure being released. Seriously, the place was very deep inside the mountain. It was as if Bruce wanted his base wanted his lab to be at the base of the mountain, just from the inside of the mountain.

"Dr.Banner?" He popped his head inside and asked out loud, wondering where the wayward Doctor was. Last time he was here, the layout of the laboratory was not as it was now. It had changed radically. For one, it did not have a fish tank, a very large fish tank taht housed a fish that looked like a Shark but it had 3 mouths, filled with very sharp teeth.

It was also very green.

My god, what has that man been doing? And more importantly, why has no one in Wakanda stopped him yet?

He kept both of them here because he knew that, even with all his powers and knowledge, there was nothing he could do about the mental states of both the people. That was why he had entrusted them to Wakanda, and he remembered telling T'Challa explicitly that both of them needed extensive mental help, and it would be best if that was done as quickly as possible.

It had been almost two months since that conversation and still, here he was, staring at a Hulk-ified Shark of all things, being kept as a pet.

He sighed explosively and just started walking in a direction, spreading out his exploratory barriers in every direction to find the man of the hour. In the meantime, he was going to make sure that Bruce was not doing anything disastrous down here, like trying to clone himself or god forbid, trying to cure himself.

His face took on a thoughtful frown as he thought of the Vibranium nanites that Shuri would develop in the future. Combined with what Tony had created as well, he supposed that a temporary solution to stop Bruce from Hulking out could be developed but that was a stop gad measure at best.

Sure, in the canon timeline, Bruce would go on to reconcile both his sides and turn into the Professor Hulk, combining the best of both worlds, with Bruce's mind and Hulk's physique, but who knows if that would happen or not.

The nanite solutions might work if Bruce wanted to actively hamper the Hulk but once Bruce himself let himself go completely, well, then there would be no stopping the Hulk, even if all of humanity put itself together.

He wandered the halls as he came across multiple closed off areas, most of them flashing the red symbol, warning anybody from entering but being who he was, clad in barriers all the time, he made the mistake of entering one of the chambers and had to immediately duck out of the way of a laser that swiped across his head, a suspiciously green laser, that immediately sizzled once it made contact with the force field that was on the door.

After that, he just stopped exploring and concentrated on finding the mad Scientist and was somewhat grateful that he found Dr.Banner in the dining room, making dinner with his headphones still around.

He seemed to be having fun, dancing to tunes that only he knew of, making dinner for himself, but he knew as well as anyone else that depression came in many forms, and just because someone was laughing did not mean that their mind was not drowning in bad thoughts.

He couldn't believe the man didn't know he was inside his home, sad as it was that the man had built his entire life down here, isolated even from a veritable super soldier.

He gently increased the glow on his barrier. The effect was immediately Bruce abruptly stiffened before turning around, his face not one of anger, or confusion but one of abject fear.

His heart cracked a little at that look. The strongest man on the planet, and what had happened to him?

He shook his head and raised his hand at Bruce with a waving gesture, "Hello, Bruce. How are you? I thought you knew I was coming,"

Bruce practically melted in relief as he turned around and turned off the stove, "Oh, thank god, it is you. I thought someone had snuck— You know what, I am just glad you came," He said while immediately sitting down on the nearby dining table.

"Yeah, I was just wondering how you were doing and I just didn't think that you would just make your very temporary living quarters in the lab, into permanent ones,"

Bruce beamed, "I know, right? It took some time but hey, with Wakanda's resources, I was able to make this place, all on my own, made with Vibranium interlocking panels all around that are automatically activated once they sense Gamma Energy above a certain level. Neat, right?"

"Yeah…Neat," That was not how he would put it in his mind but he didn't know how to handle this entire conversation. Bruce was smiling but it was fake, like he had practiced it, his face set into the same set of smiles every time.

"So..Listen, I have something for you. I don't know if it will help you or not but…here goes," He said and shoved the letter into Bruce's hands.

"..Wh-what's this? You didn't have to get me anything, you know that." He tore open the envelope as he spoke, "Oh, a letter. From…Betty," Bruce's smile fell as he looked at the name of the sender on the letter.

"I'll be waiting for you just outside..or upside. Whenever you're ready," He said awkwardly and left the lab, making sure to keep a barrier in the room just to make sure that Bruce did not take any drastic steps.

Sure, he knew that he literally was incapable of dying but that did not mean that the psychological trauma of trying to kill oneself was washed off. The mind remembers everything.

He came out of the lab, as the lab door closed behind him with a hiss, and found himself standing in front of Bucky who was sitting on the couch, watching TV…while his hand, the nanite one was actually detached from his body and was currently floating a bottle of beer towards him with what looked like miniature repulsors on its body.

The hand actually seamlessly floated back to the empty sleeve and attached itself to Bucky, who without pausing raised the Beer bottle towards him.

"Beer?"

He looked at the spectacle in front of him and thought that atleast one of the two people here was somewhat stable, though his bar for that was pretty low.

And he had to wait here until Bruce was ready to talk anyway.

So, might as well watch the game.

"Yeah, sure," He shrugged and grabbed himself an ice cold beer, unmarked as it was probably from Wakanda, and sat down on the very comfy chair beside Bucky.

"So, who's playing?" Popping open the beer cap with his finger, he leaned back into the chair.

"No freaking idea," Bucky shrugged.

He shrugged. Might as well, he had no idea who was playing what from what country.

"Ah," He sighed in relief as the cold liquid helped calm his nerves at seeing Bruce's condition.

It was really pitiful and he would do all he could to make sure that Bruce atleast turned out to be somewhat mentally stable.

Something that looks to be almost impossible without outside intervention.

And what better intervention, than from Betty Ross, Bruce's one true love?

---

Word Count - 2986

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

Wakanda [May 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

"This is nice," He commented after a while as he basked in the companionable silence, watching some team play with a ball on a green court. Okay, he knew that they were playing rugby but he had no idea who was doing what, or if they were winning or not.

He was mostly lost in his thoughts as he thought about the current situation and how to best resolve it. Bucky's issues are in a realm of their own. According to the last report he had gotten from the handler assigned to both of them, Bucky's brain had shut off the part of memories where he knew what he had done.

They were still devising a strategy on how to break the news to him but for the time being, they were content on letting him be amnesiac and stay out into the open, as was his choice. They were given the option to reside in any of the areas in and around the Capital City but Bucky wanted something remote, and so did Bruce so they gave them this mountain.

It wasn't really tall or anything, and at the base itself, a small platoon of armed soldiers, armed with advanced Vibranium weapons along with a small localised forcefield projector that could isolate the mountain in an instant, was also installed.

That was only in case of emergencies and both Bucky and Bruce were made aware of everything beforehand.

"It would be nicer if the guy below could join us," Bucky commented as his hand once again detached itself from his body, dumped the now empty beer bottle into the recycling bin, and then brought another cold one straight to him.

Not gonna lie, it was a neat trick. How did that feature even come to be anyway? He was tempted to ask but he didn't know if it was appropriate or not.

Plus, he had a hunch that it was probably due to some sort of pseudo-Ai that was built into the arm to help monitor and/or protect Bucky. Since they were upfront with both of them about everything, he saw no reason to doubt about them knowing about this as well.

About Bruce, "Yeah, I too think the same but honestly, the man is–"

"Completely depressed?" Bucky said in an apathetic tone.

"Yeah, I've met the guy a few times whenever he comes up to get some fresh air. Always goes back into his hole whenever I've tried to make conversation beyond the casual though," Bucky shrugged as he chugged on his beer like it was just water. With his super soldier physique, it might as well be water for him.

"..Yeah, the things that have been done to him, for no fault of his own. You might not know but something happened–"

"Yeah, in Johannesburg. Yeah, I read the reports. What? They get me things to read if I ask nicely," Bucky explained as he levelled a questioning look at the man since he could spot no modern equipment in the cabin and Bruce was not really in a talking mood with him.

"Look–" He looked to the side as Bucky set down his beer and seemed to come to a decision of some sort.

Resolutely looking into his eyes, "--I know that things have been missing from my head. Plus, all of this doesn't make any sort of sense, atleast from where I came from," He raised his very advanced left arm and waved at him with it.

"Also, things are very different from where I came from. Sure, things were turning around but I have never seen so many…coloured people in positions of authority. Are we in Africa or something? How much time have I missed? And why am I still so young if I have missed so many years? What happened to my body? I have sparred with the guys from the base of the mountain a couple of times and I have thrown them around with ease. I have some flashes of memories but I can never seem to pin them down. What time is it? Why—"

Bucky abruptly stopped before taking a deep breath in as his arm began flashing red. He did the same for three more times before he opened his eyes, returning back to the calm if a bit apathetic self.

"...Look, I am just saying. I know I am not ready to know but I have a feeling that something bad will happen if I try to probe deeper but my gut feeling tells me that I should, deserve to know more. Whenever I ask the guys downside, they tell me that you are the one who can make it happen," Bucky said in a pleading tone.

His hatred for HYDRA reached new heights as he took in the poor, broken down man in front of him. No, he had to do something but he knew as well as anyone that forcing Bucky to remember all his memories would do nothing but make him completely suicidal.

No, they needed another approach and he would have to discuss with Wakanda's mental health professionals for further recovery.

"Look, I'll get the ball rolling. I have to warn you, it will be a long and painful journey—"

"I am okay with that."

"...Okay. We will talk soon. Now, I have to check in on Bruce because it truly has been a long—"

"..Um, Hi." He turned around, still in his chair as Bruce stood behind them, the letter from Betty clutched in his hand.

"I–I just came here. D-did I disturb something?" Bruce asked him as he must have felt the solemn atmosphere in the cabin.

"No. Nah, we were all done. All yours, doc," Bucky said as he left the room, the beer bottle still in his hand. Beer bottle in left hand, and an axe in the right, the man left the cabin.

Damn, talk about badass exits.

"So, ready to talk?" He asked Bruce who fidgeted with the beer bottle that Bucky handed to him before leaving the cabin.

"..Yeah. The letter, did you read it?" Bruce asked him as he set the beer bottle down and sat on a nearby chair.

"No. Why? What did it say?" HE asked, pretty eager himself to know more because his interaction with Betty was limited to her approaching him when he was signing for one of the many kids who always approached him throughout the day. She told him that she just needed the letter delivered to Bruce.

It also had her address written on the envelope so he assumed that she wanted him to contact her in case something about the letter or Bruce panned out.

"..*Sigh* She says that she wants to meet. Look, I–it's nice that you did this for me but I don't think I am ready to go out yet. The world doesn't need me anymore, they have you. Plus, I don't think I have still recovered from the….you know," Bruce said with a haze of sadness lingering around him.

Yeah, he did know about Bruce's trauma. Aside from all past trauma, the latest in a string of life altering traumas that Bruce experienced was the suffocating feeling of being stuck in space with nothing to hold onto, for leverage, or anything else.

Sadly, Bruce was in space for more time than he should have been, for some reason. The Ancient One didn't rescue him immediately and that irked him a bit but what could he say?

He was the one who punted Bruce into space with all his might. They had already had the whole apologising for sending Bruce into space conversation and Bruce had repeatedly assured him that it was the only option available to him at the moment.

Bruce had gotten access to the energy readings from the fight and let's just say that according to Bruce himself, if he was allowed to ramp up his energy more and continued to fight him on the planet, he would have eventually reached critical mass and created an explosion so vast that the entire Australian continent would have ended up feeling the impact, cratering the city and all its neighbouring areas.

The guilt of ending even lives in single digits was already eating up Bruce from the inside. He couldn't even imagine what Bruce would do if he came to know that he was responsible for mass genocide, the destruction of an entire major city.

Maybe, Bruce as he knew it would be gone, his mind fractured under all the stress, with only mindless rage left behind in the form of Hulk, which would have been another disaster in the making.

"Yes, I totally understand but Bruce, it's been months since you have been here and every time I talk to T'Challa, they tell me that you have blown off the latest meeting with your–"

"Yes yes, I get it. I need to see the shrink about all this stuff but it is not easy, you know. Especially with all the stuff I have pending in the laboratory. If only my cells were not that strong, I could have used the solution I developed to completely suppress my powers," Bruce muttered to himself, seemingly losing himself as he then began muttering what sounded like gibberish to his ears but was most likely nuggets of gold to anyone studying Gamma Radiation and its effect on the human body.

"Bruce. Bruce!" he had to resort to zapping Bruce with one of his barriers, the feedback of the same still not pleasant, as Bruce's body seemingly devoured his barrier completely without any trace, severing his connection to it…violently.

"Look, I know you are hurting, and what if you don't even have to go anywhere else? I could bring her here. I am sure she will agree plus, you can be rest assured that nobody will be able to disturb both of you guys here," What went unsaid but was more important was the fact that the Hulk would not be able to hurt anyone here. Well, except Betty herself.

"You will be here as well, right? I don't think the Other Guy would do anything to her but just in case…"

"Yes, I will be here. Now, will you please come out with me and get some fresh air?" He gestured to the open cabin door, Bucky's form visible in the distance. He was fooling nobody with that aloof act. With his super soldier senses, he was more than capable of snooping on their conversation but he would not fault Bucky for trying to make sense of the situation of who was, essentially, his roommate.

A superpowered, Gamma Radiation big head of a roommate but a roommate nonetheless.

"...Yeah, sure," Bruce said as they came out of the cabin and took in the beautiful view afforded to them. As far as his vision went, he could see greenery before it all abruptly ended in a small shade of blue that flickered occasionally, showing the barrier that surrounded all of Wakanda.

Apparently, people living below the mountain peaks all saw a continuation of the greenery but after a certain height, the illusion was dropped off for some reason.

"Hi." Bucky smiled awkwardly, as if his face wasn't used to that specific motion, and joined them as they sat on a crudely made wooden bench and looked at the view, especially the sunset behind the Great Mound, the mountain made up of Vibranium.

"So, beer?" Bucky asked them as his hand was already in the process of floating back into the cabin.

Okay, seriously. How was he doing that?

____xx____

"Mr.Sullivan, I have been expecting you," T'Challa greeted him as he flew into the palace, or rather, flew right outside the window of the office he knew belonged to the T'Challa, and then knocked as a courtesy, and once being acknowledged, opened a portal and flew out of it, straight into his office.

"Yes, I just came to check in on both of the people whose mental health I entrusted to you," He said, with a tad bit of accusation leaking into his voice.

Which was recognised by the Crown Prince who put down the paperwork with a sigh and slid it to the side as T'Challa gave him his undivided attention.

"Mr.Sullivan, the cases are very complex. We have our best people working on it but they simply can't do anything if the patient himself is not cooperative. Sgt. Barnes has been remarkably cooperative and just last week, I have received reports that they can begin trying to unlock specific parts of his memory, painlessly."

He had a point but that did not make it any less frustrating. It had been months and aside from Bruce getting the lab of his dreams, there was no improvement on that front. In fact, it seemed to have backfired, judging by the Gamma Sharks, talk of suppression serums, and total isolation for weeks at a time.

"So, Bruce not being cooperative was an issue so why was I not informed about it in advance? I could have done something to facilitate that. Also, what is up with Bruce's lab? I am sure that your father would not have approved such a large-scale use of Vibranium outside of Wakanda's laboratories," He asked him the question that had been bugging him for a while now.

While he was aware of the lab and the tinkering space that Bruce got as a gift or pity from the Royal Family, it was nowhere near this advanced the last time he had seen it. It also did not have that much vibranium and space as well.

So, something had changed for them to allow Bruce this much freedom and he was very curious because he would not let Bruce be used by someone, even if it was someone well meaning like T'Challa or Shuri.

For all the mental health issues that Bruce faced, he was a veritable genius capable of surpassing most people in their fields with a fractional amount of study.

"..That, Mr.Sullivan, is something that was facilitated by my sister. She has hired Dr.Banner as a scientist for the Royal Wakandan Laboratories." T'Challa's face looked as if he had bit on a particularly sour lemon.

"..Wait a minute, Royal Labs means Vibranium and its weaponry. I don't think you guys allow anyone to enter the labs without them being, essentially, Wakanda born. What? Did you guys give him citizenship or something?"

"..I am afraid that Shuri was able to convince Baba to give Dr.Banner a Permanent Residency. A Visa program that didn't exist before, and had to be created just for one individual,"

"I see. So you guys are using him? And postponing his mental health sessions is a way to do what? Eke out more out of him before he leaves Wakanda?" His already bubbling anger rose to the surface, menacing green waves wafting off his form, as green began tinging his vision.

T'Challa began looking increasingly alarmed as he spoke, his voice gaining a guttural tone at the end of his sentence.

He could hear faint sounds of alarms ringing as he stood up, towering over T'Challa.

"...Wait! Wait, you misunderstand. No, we wouldn't even dream of doing that to Dr.Banner. He is a hero of Humanity. No, Dr. Banner himself requested for everything, and we just provided everything that he asked for, considering that he was already hurting. You have to believe us!" T'Challa began shouting, as he backed up to the wall, his hand going to his necklace, just short of activating his nanite armour to don the Black Panther suit.

He let out an explosive sigh as his vision returned to normal, his barrier returning to its normal subdermal state.

"Fine but this has gone on long enough, T'Challa. The Scarlet Witch is still out there, doing who knows what and we need to be prepared for that eventuality. I will not have Bruce's mind toyed again, after all that he has already been through. I will be back, in a week, with a guest. I suggest you make sure that you have a viable strategy when I come back." He said and stepped out of the portal that he made in front of T'Challa's desk.

He was already in a bad mood and was not willing to stay in Wakanda any longer.

Sure, that place was in the process of improving and was their best shot at creating a hidden force with enough firepower to hurt their enemies where it would hurt but damn, that place was a cesspit of racism, xenophobia, and extreme superiority and arrogance.

"Now, where was Tony when you needed him?" He asked himself as he flew towards the Avengers Tower in the distance, the portal opening above the sea.

---

Word Count - 2846

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

Avengers Tower[May 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

He was still in his stealth form as he slowly made his way toward the now repaired Avengers Tower. It was only the Avengers' Tower for namesake because the original members of the Avengers didn't really live there, save for Tony himself.

Pepper used to live there but even she moved out permanently to LA, to be both closer to Stark Industries HQ as well as to be away from the centre of attention of every single evil force out there.

The Spy twins popped up from time to time but for the majority of their time, they were either in pseudo retirement on their farm with their hidden family or running missions for Coulson in secret, with the underground SHIELD that was still running around.

They had a little funding issue recently but he was able to secure another round of funding in the form of a little space exploratory fee, collected from NASA as well as a coalition of private companies who were more than willing to throw some money at his face to get them to various points in the solar system.

One guy from NASA almost fainted when he was told that he could create portals that led straight to a ruined remnant of a very advanced civilization, right in their solar system. Ofcourse, the ruined landscapes of Titan were off limits for civilians. Because most of the world's governments knew of the fate that befell the very advanced civilisation, either through Tony himself leaking the footage or through the US making the information available to its allies.

Thor was off somewhere, gallivanting god knows where with no return in sight. Bruce was…the less said about him the better.

Actually, that was one of the reasons why he was back in NYC so early. He wanted to meet Tony, get his measure on the thing he was about to do, and also, get an update on how the tracking for the Scarlet Witch as well as QuickSilver went.

It still kept him up at times to know that a realised Scarlet Witch was out there, with a speedster no less. Natural speedsters could do a lot of damage before anyone even knew that they were under attack. Currently, Wanda was the most dangerous but it was only because he knew that there was no way he would be able to blitz them and take them out without making a huge fuss.

The very existence of Pietro prevented that. The man was probably stuck to his sister like glue. A sister who was capable of warping reality as if it were her bitch.

He didn't know what the Ancient One was thinking, calling off the wartime wards, and telling the Masters that the emergency was resolved.

It was very much not resolved but aside from giving him a slight boost, courtesy of that impromptu ritual, there was nothing she had done on her end to hunt down Wanda.

That was inexcusable in his opinion, no matter what her greater good instincts were telling her.

Absentmindedly, he found himself right above the Iron Man landing pad built on the penthouse of the Tower, made specially so that Tony could take off his suit in style, without missing a step. A mechanical engineering marvel, made with Aeronatural grade precision, just so that the man could have his badass looking entry and exit.

Oh yeah, it worked both ways now. Previously, it could only take off the suit but now, Tony has figured out how to put on the suit through the spinning rims as well. He had the distinct privilege of seeing Tony get hit in the shin by one of the suits' parts because it was not properly calibrated at the time.

It worked flawlessly now though, obviously.

"Good Afternoon, Mr.Sullivan,"

"By the Stan Lee!" he exclaimed out loud as a floating bobblehead appeared right in front of him, showing Jarvis in his chosen avatar. It was of a posh British fellow with a white moustache and a no nonsense face, set in stone.

Tony had gone silent the first time he had seen the face but has since then accepted it and moved on.

"Hello Jarvis, I see that you have been making exceptional progress with your anti stealth measures." He dispelled the spell and landed on the balcony of the penthouse.

"Thank you, Mr.Sullivan. I believe that I have become capable of unravelling tier 1 illusions with a 99.982% certainty. Certainly, Tier 3 illusions like the ones cast by the Scarlet Witch are still beyond me but I hope to get there someday." Jarvis explained as his bobble head floated behind him, the cartoonish appearance actually invoking a sense of calm in him.

Huh, British guys really were the best to become butlers, it would seem.

If only he was an eccentric billionaire with money to throw around and daddy issues in spades, he could have hired a British Butler, or more like a British nanny for himself as well.

But oh well, he was a (mostly) well adjusted individual with no daddy issues to speak of, differentiating him from the costumed Billionaires.

"Where are the others?" He went inside and used his barrier to summon his favourite non alcohol drink inside the penthouse, strawberry Quick, and sat his ass down on the very comfortable sofa that just made his form sink into the cushions.

He was not just big but dense as well, so him sinking into the couch was not a surprise. The surprise was the instant message function that activated as it enlarged most of his body and only left his body from the neck up exposed and not being actively massaged.

"Sir is on his way. Ms. Romanoff is on a mission with SHIELD. Mr.Barton is on his mandated time off. Ms.Sparkles, as you have instructed me to call her, is currently coordinating rescue efforts in Puerto Rico after a small localised earthquake hit the city of San Jose and its surrounding areas, resulting in multiple landsl–"

"Jarvis? Video feed, please?" He said as he instantly stood up from the sofa, the words ringing some bells in his mind.

The orange bobblehead disappeared and a small blue rectangle appeared in front of him, and a video feed quickly appeared on top of it. IT showed the earthquake originating from a very shallow point in land, with no discernible tectonic origin in sight.

"Shit." He muttered as he opened a portal.

"Jarvis, have Tony meet me in San Jose. I will go stabilise the situation as much as I can. Tell him to bring in Space rated suits because the environment will not be suitable for him," He said and without waiting for Jarvis' reply, flew into the portal at breakneck speeds.

He almost crashed into the ground but stopped himself at the last moment.

"Sparkles, where is Coulson? I know he is here somewhere, even after I warned him about the pretty blue aliens." He opened up his comms channel and asked Maria Hill.

He couldn't believe he had forgotten about the Inhuman stuff in the Agents of SHIELD TV Sow. In his defense, that show was later retconned to not be canon but it would seem that it was canon here.

"One day, I am going to kill you for starting that nickname. Until then, maybe the alien city can do the job for me. I have sent the coordinates to you. Careful, the city itself is hostile, as far as I know. HYDRA, despite your best efforts, still survived."

"Ah, Sparkles, I know you love me too much to kill me. Also, I know about HYDRA. We did kill HYDRA during the Helicarriers, no, this HYDRA is another branch. Leave it to me, you don't worry your pretty little sparkly head about it."

He giggled childishly as he heard expletives being shouted from the other end of the comms. Apparently, the name Robin Sparkles had taken off, among every single agency that Hill had to work with, courtesy of Jarvis using it, and as a result of that, Tony using it as well.

And considering that Tony was officially employing her, he had quite a bit of power to introduce her to all his connections. It was quite fun to mess with her, he had to keep himself ready for bullets that could fly any time both of them were in the same room for extended periods of time.

He shook his head, his face slowly morphing into one of grim determination as he received the coordinates. Huh, it was close by, but only underground.

Well, it made sense. The Kree built the city using volcanic stones, what with the advantage offered to them by their advanced technology.

"Time to embrace my roots," He muttered to himself, knowing the fact that the only reason he was chosen for the ill fated experiment where Gamma Blood, Super Soldier Serum, and liquified Terrigenesis crystals were pumped into him was only because he held strong Inhuman blood in him.

He also knew what happened in the shows and the probable cause of the whole localised Earthquake. Skye, or Daisy Johnson had probably awoken her Inhuman heritage. Well, another responsibility on his plate then.

He really wished he had some other civilisation he could turn to, for discretion as well as advanced sciences, other than Wakanda. Talokan was an option but he did not know much about Namor's rule and he would not risk anything without having a complete measure of Namor.

Half the reason he trusted T'Challa was because he knew that he could upend and destroys Wakanda at a moment's notice. That confidence made sure that T'Challa stayed in line. Nothing of that sort would fly with Namor. That madman might just pit his kingdom against the surface in a doomed attempt for world domination.

That would just result in him being responsible for global genocide.

Thoughts rapidly passed through his mind as his barrier continued to drill him straight to Coulson.

His barriers were already spread all around him, traversing miles within seconds to transmit all the information back to him.

He perked up as his barriers finally picked up something. Smiling, he crashed through a thick layer of stone and right into the form of one bulked up dude right as he was about to smash his fist into the face of one very pretty agent.

Silence reigned in the cave as he stood atop a very struggling, almost rabidly, person who had, get this, completely black eyes with red eyeballs. Shrugging, his barriers knocked the person out.

"Hi!" he smiled at the assembled agents here. He could recognise the iconic duo, Fitz and Simmons, along with Coulson and Melinda May.

There was a collective sigh of relief all around them as the pretty woman who almost had her face bashed in, pushed him. He let her because the person below was suitably restrained, on top of being unconscious. His body was odd. It was covered in a very thin energy layer.

"So, Mr.Sullivan, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Coulson, as usual, was unflappable as he stepped forward and shook his hand.

He rolled his eyes at that, "Nothing much, Coulson. Just heard that you were in a bit of trouble. The evacuation is coming along nicely, I assume. Sparkles told me," He added in after everyone looked at him weirdly.

"Ah.." Everybody nodded as if that made completely sense. He could imagine her screaming bloody murder at him. What was even funnier was that Hill was from Canada as well, from a historical line of government agents, and since Canada and the United States had quite an exchange program when it came to spies, it could be said that spying was in Sparkles' blood.

"Now, where is the entrance to the city?" He asked Coulson and he could feel the entire team tensing in response. He rolled his eyes internally. What was he? Some sort of villain?

"How…do you know about that?"

He was about to reply but Melinda May cut him off, "Screw that, we have no time. We have one of our team members and a contractor–"

"That just means contracted assassin." He couldn't help but interrupt, and then raise his hands in surrender after being subjected to her glare.

"-As I was saying, two of the people that came with us have descended into the city. We have no reliable means of getting to them. Your help will be greatly appreciated." She stated all of that in a very professional, no nonsense way, and he had to admire her metaphorical balls for it.

He took a long look at Coulson and then nodded, "Alright. If it's alright with you, please step inside." He gestured to the now created platform that floated slightly above the ground. Everyone took one look at the still restrained dude on the ground and the woman standing guard behind him. He sighed and twitched his fingers, enveloping the dude and then having him stationed on the platform.

The woman glared at him for some reason and then stomped on the platform as well. Then, one by one, everyone else stood on the platform as well, save for…

"Get on, Coulson. We are going to go through the defenses. I can't guarantee that you won't be hurt." He said as he looked over the hole that led straight into darkness. He waved his finger as a barrier punctured the roof and entered the hole as if it was a bullet.

"Careful! Mack entered and he came back….like that," Coulson warned him. That had him give Mack as Coulson called him, a once over. He would have to see what was wrong with his brain and the role of that energy field around him.

For now, though? He had an ancient Kree city to conquer and quarantine. It would be awesome to just transport the entire thing to the Mirror Dimension and then to somewhere on Mars or something.

This way, it could be preserved so that they could better understand its tech. Also, if the KRee did show up somehow, he could totally kick their asses as well. Bonus points if he could meet Danver and befriend her as well.

She seemed like a no nonsense rigid person but overall someone who would fight on the good side of things.

"Alright, better get in before we get another one of those." He raised his eyebrows at Coulson as another shock hit their location, making dust fall from the ceiling.

Coulson nodded as he stood on the platform, the entire thing turning into an impenetrable cube on command.

His barriers already having explored his entry point, he just plowed through the thousands of years old artificial formations, probably older than even Pyramids, as he reached the Ancient Kree City, left behind by Rogue Kree so that future Inhumans could awaken here.

"Whoa!" Fitz exclaimed behind him as they looked at the now rapidly lighting up city. It was as if the city was waking up, with the symbols' lighting on the ground in a slow breathing manner.

They brightened and dimmed in sync around the entire city.

The city itself was huge, like unreasonably huge. But the architecture was such that everything led to a single place, some sort of dome structure in the middle.

His neck snapped towards the dome as he immediately flew towards it, the cube left behind. The members were safe behind his barriers but Daisy Johnson was not.

She was sat down on her ass, cradling one probably broken arm and blasting apart what looked like tree vines with her only functional arm, blood rapidly pooling beneath her.

Both of the combatants paused and looked at him as he manoeuvred through the temple, wouldn't want to destroy important archeological findings, and then watched as he brought down his barriers on the vine and isolated the entire thing.

"Do not Fear. For I AM HERE!" he landed with his hands on his hips, a cosmetic spell making him shine golden.

Daisy took one look at him and….fainted.

Rude.

---

Word Count - 2731

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

The Ancient Kree City, Pietro Rico[May 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

He carefully covered the severely injured Daisy Johnson with his barriers, making sure that her injuries were not exacerbated because of any undue movement. He took one look at the vine, and leaned back as the vines had now assumed a vaguely human shape with two eyes and a mouth with far too many sharp teeth for it to be purely human.

Yet, he understood what had happened. Both of these people had somehow undergone the Terrigenesis process and had come out Inhuman. Now, whereas Daisy got some powers related to VIbrations, as she did in canon, this person, unfortunately, got the short end of the stick.

Physical disfigurement was a common side effect of undergoing the whole terrigenesis process, as far as his knowledge went. While Daisy did get her powers, she too suffered from micro injuries if she went too far with her powers, but this person…

He was not sure if this whole sentient mass of vines could ever turn back into anything resembling a normal human, a sad fate in the current society, where even a darker shade of skin could have them discriminated against, let alone a total makeover of their overall body structure.

He kept a CHI stone, something that stored CHI over long periods of time, on top of the barrier that surrounded Daisy. That CHI was evenly distributed across her body, stabilising her and making sure that she did not die by the time she received medical attention.

He could feel the entire city come alive once again, as it seemed to get some sort of signal about the whole turning normal humans into Inhumans process. He could also feel a weak pounding on his mental shields but they were just as strong as his barriers, meaning, near impenetrable, unless the attacker was using one of the Infinity Stones, Cosmic Energy, Chaos Energy, or something at the same level of energy quality.

Now, one would think that it was a pretty short list and the universe was such a large place that encountering even one of those energies would have been all but impossible but in the short span he had been in this world, he had already encountered Chaos Energy, Mind Stone, and Cosmic Energy if the primed C fluid that was pumped into him by the Collector could be counted.

He turned around from the now knocked out vine person, at the rapidly approaching team of Agents of SHIELD. "Just on time, Coulson," He quipped as Coulson took one look at the bloody form of Daisy and then all but teleported to her side.

Must care for her a lot then. Coulson took a look at the glowing yellow crystal on top of the barrier that surrounded Daisy, periodic yellow waves appearing on the barriers, suffusing Daisy's body with life giving CHI.

"Help her!"

"Jesus, she's lost too much blood."

"Portals! You can create portals. Make one to the nearest SHIELD base, right now!"

He raised his eyebrow at the now flushing Fitz who had just now shouted right in his face, ordering him to make a portal to their SHIELD base.

"What Fitz meant to say is that Daisy could die if she is not given immediate medical attention." Coulson calmly explained to him, as if he was some sort of time bomb who would explode and take Fitz with him, just because he lost his control in the heat of things.

He quirked an eyebrow in amusement as the tension ramped up in the atmosphere.

"Oh, you should see the look on your face. Don't worry, I will make the portal, I just don't know where to make the portal to. I need to see a picture of the place. Also, she is not in any danger of dying. That stone will make sure that she is alive until she gains medical attention." He pointed at the CHI stone that had lost the sharpness it held at the tip of the stone, the CHI stored inside being used up, bit by bit, to fuel Daisy's battered body.

"Ah, h-here!" Fitz tried to show him something on his tablet, only for him to be reminded that no technology of any sort worked inside the city, even nothing made by Tony as well. It goes to show just how advanced the Kree were.

Hopefully, Toiny knew his last recorded location and arrived at the location with all the technological cavalry they might need, given the scientific significance of such an exotic find.

"..Please, this way." He gestured to the portal that opened up behind them, and floated the knocked out vine lady and Daisy and floated them out of the portal, his keen senses allowing him to pick up on the subtle sounds the city was making, along with what sounded like human grunts as footsteps rapidly began making their way straight towards them.

Interesting.

He mentally noted to clear out the entire city before it could be exposed to any humans before closing down the portal, looking at the sun above them, as they had landed on one of the many uninhabited Caribbean islands.

"Here!" It took a moment for the tablet to boot up and get a connection.

"Alright, one express ambulance, coming right up," He swirled his hands in an exaggerated motion as a portal opened up in front of them, leading to an empty lab that immediately began beeping red, presumably because of the portal.

"Oh? Good, the system works." He heard Fitz mutter to himself as both of the patients were floated inside and summarily deposited on top of the stretchers that were taken out of a storage closet nearby.

"This will help." He gestured to the CHI stone, even as he dispelled his barriers, allowing the CHI stone to fall directly on top of her chest.

"Don't remove that stone unless she is completely stable. Also, don't try and experiment on the stone. It is a renewable resource but also withers down after one use. Make of that what you will," After sufficiently warning the mad scientist duo, he turned around to the still armed and waiting members remaining in front of the portal.

"You do realise that I can just leave by myself, right? Which I should do, considering the city can actually mind control people. The only reason your asses still have their minds is because I have been shielding your minds from the city." He warned them but aside from some minute shrugging from Melinda May, nobody budged from their position.

He shrugged. Alright, that was fine.

He dispelled the portal behind them and created one that led back to the area right above the base. Creating a small floating platform, he had the team members stand on them, after securing Mac on a small table with restraints obviously.

"So? What's the game plan, Coulson? You are the Director, obviously." He asked Coulson as they looked at the smoke in the distance with the unmistakable legion of Iron Bots, designed specifically for disaster rescue operations.

"The original plan was to put charges on every entrance, along with every load bearing wall we could find, and bury the damn thing but now…" Coulson trailed off as he looked at Jack meaningfully.

The meaning was clear. It was now upto him what to do with the city, and he was still not sure about that.

On one hand, tremendous scientific potential. But on the other hand, it was mostly biology related stuff, some mind control and remote human enhancement stuff. All of the three would not be in good hands if they managed to land in the hands of the leaders of the current world.

They were mildly racist at the best of times.

"Hmm. I think that I'll allow Tony to take something that can be useful and then throw the city into the sun. That much should be enough to get rid of the problem, even if the city could somehow sustain the heat of the sun." He nodded at his own, almost foolproof plan.

Everybody present looked at him as if he had grown another head.

"Thank god Fitz was not here. He might just have asked you to take him along to the Sun." May commented as she relaxed and sat down on the chairs that had appeared behind them.

"Hmm, not as comfortable as I had hoped." She commented to herself but he picked that up.

As if creating soft tissue from hard barriers was easy.

"Very well. Also, we have credible intel about HYDRA gunning for the city as well. We believe some of their operatives have already slipped inside before we reached." Coulson reminded him as they floated down to the land after he confirmed the situation in the nearby cities.

"Oh, so that's what he was hearing."

"What?" Coulson asked him, that small calm smile still plastered on his face.

"Yeah, I heard a couple of noises when we were leaving. There was also a small, subtle mind influence that was happening inside the temple."

"That would explain Mac," May muttered, and he just nodded along as they reached the ground and just.., didn't stop.

The barriers kept digging as they once again, crashed into the Kree temple city of sorts. It had a temple but it was also very huge, so it could be a city as well, especially since he knew that Kree were not that much bigger than the biggest humans around.

They were somewhere around 7-8 feet, at their longest and humans had some people who reached 7 feet, who were still alive somewhere.

"Alright, stay inside the barriers, don't touch anything. Just follow my lead," He said and then paused as he realised the folly of his words. Shaking his head, he waved his hand in a wide arc around them, dispelling the barrier and turning the barriers into skin tight suits that everyone wore.

"See if you can find the HYDRA agents. If you do, just come back, the barriers will stop everything they can throw at you." He reassured everyone and then floated straight into the temple.

He was curious about something here.

As far as his knowledge went, he had latent Inhuman genes as well. Well, latent might be wrong since, for all he knew, his barrier powers might just be his Inhuman powers, considering that liquified Terrigenesis crystals were also part of the cocktail that was pumped inside of him by that madman.

Ofcourse, he had eradicated that entire branch of HYDRA in return but that didn't mean that he would stop at them. The HIVE part of HYDRA had to go as well, considering that the alien didn't belong on Earth anyway.

Something that could control Inhumans simply by virtue of being the first Inhuman and then also inhabit them meant that there was a slight possibility that he himself could also be controlled by the parasite, a truly nightmare level scenario that the Earth probably wouldn't survive, if the parasitic villain did things the smart way and not the same idiotic way that ever villain did.

So, when he reached the part of the temple where he had reduced both the Inhumans, he found the door entirely closed up, with a very smooth wall. Some sort of identification mechanism, then?

His barriers could not find any entry or exit point in the room he was looking at, with no way to unlock it either.

As far as he could remember from the TV Shows, which was admittedly not much, the temple opened its doors for any INhuman on its own, without any external authentication method like blood or tissue or anything like that.

He looked at himself and slowly, hesitantly, retracted the layer of subdermal barrier he always had activated and grinned in triumph as he saw the door move slightly. He could also feel the constant pounding on his head lessen.

But that was all, it did not stop. The door did not completely open.

Maybe he had to bear himself to the temple for the temple to completely acknowledge him?

He took the risk and just let the entire barrier go, save for his heart and brain, everything else could be healed, given enough time, CHI, and willpower.

He smiled as the door opened up without a sound and the mental attacks ceased completely.

So, it had some way of scanning the DNA of a human without ever coming into contact. Also, it needed the entire body to be scanned before it granted complete access.

Currently, he had barriers blocking all three of the entrances he could find to the temple, just in case Tony had the bright idea of charging right in with his suit. The man would not be able to resist the mental effects and succumb to become a guardian of the city.

That….would be a nightmare to explain.

Also, at the same time, he could hear the grunts as well as the sounds of people running all around the temple city. They probably found the city's sentries then.

Well, not much of his concern at the moment, considering that all of them were covered in his barriers and he would know if any one of his barriers was damaged in any way, so all of the members of Coulson's team should be more than fine at the moment.

He was more interested in the small chamber that was now accessible to him.

Time to see if his Inhuman heritage could help him in some way here.

If he could somehow get ownership of the city or of the software that was running things here….

---

Word Count - 2314

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

The Ancient Kree City, Pietro Rico[May 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

It would be quite an unexpected windfall if he could get the ownership of this city. For one, it would just be plain cool. For another, he could get access to a whole ass advanced alien city.

And did he tell you that it would be so cool?!

He jolted in shock as he felt something hard slam into his mental shields as soon as he crossed the threshold, and into the small chamber where there were still traces of dried blood and blue powder lying around, evidence of the terrigenesis process that Daisy underwent just a while ago,

The cleaning process was not foolproof, it would seem because the amount of blood just a while ago was a lot, and the area was flooded by the blue mist, apparently because an entire Diviner was used to awaken just two Inhumans.

He looked around, trying to find something that could help him identify if the area was some sort of central area, with access to some hidden console or head office that could allow him to take control of the city.

He was still very curious about the very existence of Diviners. They were metallic, smooth objects that killed all humans except Inhumans on touch. Also, they were made by the Kree, and the manufacturing process was, presumably, not known to the Inhumans left on the planet, and yet, here they were, generations later, and still these Diviners continued to pop up.

IT would stand to reason that the Inhumans residing on the moon, the ones with the vastly advanced technology and understanding of the Kree experimentation on humans would hoard this stuff and not let them out of their sight. After all, the Diviners were the very reason their species continued to exist, at all.

The Inhuman gene was completely recessive. Doesn't matter if both the parents were awakened Inhumans or unawakened ones, they would always be born without their powers active. No outside stimuli, save for the terrigenesis crystals, could activate the Inhumans' powers.

In a way, it was good because it meant that the ones with the faulty genes would not be given the short end of the stick at birth, or through no fault of their own. They would have to actively go through that process of cocooning themselves after inhaling those crystals to get whatever powers they might have.

The powers, themselves were another mixed bag. There were INhumnans like Black Bolt, immensely powerful but with severe drawbacks, Inhumans like Crystal, with huge versatility and potential with seemingly none of the drawbacks, and then there were ones like Gordon, extremely powerful niche capability but with the drawback being physical changes.

The changes could be desirable or undesirable. As far as he knew, there was no way of knowing what power one could get without going through the process itself.

His point stood, the Diviners being found in the wild was an anomalous event in and of itself. He would have to go through any records and scour the planet for any more of those as well. It was a tool that could be disastrous in the wrong hands.

Somebody could just try and release it into a nearby water source or something, leading to easy genocide with a couple of Inhumans, created literally in death. Or the Diviner itself could be used as a tool to kill humans without the necessary genes in them, except the perpetrator would just use it to take lives.

Quite easy as well, just touch normal people with it, assuming that the perpetrator themselves could hold it.

He sighed as another thing was added to his plate.

Well, atleast he wanted to see if he could gain ownership of something awesome like this.

"Hmm?" his neck snapped in the direction of their entrance. He could feel one of the barriers that he summoned over one of the entry points being poked and prodded. He had no way of identifying who it was so he would just let it be, not unless the poking and prodding turned into grenades and missiles.

It might be the HYDRA goons, wanting to get in the city or it could also be Tony, who must have finally gotten the rescue process done and had come out to check what the fuss was all about. In that case, it was nice that he created the barrier because he did not want Tony to become another zombie controlled by the defense mechanism of the city.

Anyway, focusing on the chamber, he summoned his barriers and covered every inch of the place with them, trying to get a feel of the entire thing. His barriers could sense and transmit information at such a level that his other senses simply could not catch up to.

He also had a dozen other smaller barriers, scouring the entire underground complex to see if anything else of note could be found. So far, he found nothing but empty chambers, used for what? He did not know.

He could find a single place with all the tech consolidated in one place like a captain's office or something.

Wait! His eyes widened in realisation. The Kree were not governed by the Kree, well, atleast not the Kree in the meat and bone form.

No, they were ruled over by a super AI called the Supreme Intelligence, pretentious much. It was an unholy amalgamation of artificial intelligence and the brains of the most intelligent Kree to have ever lived, with newer brains added to the mix once the Supreme INtelligence deems their "intelligence" worthy of being subsumed.

It gave him the creeps but maybe that was the reason there were no physical controls in the city. It was all supposed to be controlled by an AI or some sort of pseudo AI that would ultimately answer only to the Supreme Intelligence.

It was heavily implied in the movies that the Supreme INtelligence had a chokehold on all the important decisions made in the Kree Empire with its sole goal the further evolution of the Kree species, something that had stagnated for a while now.

He read in his past life that the Supreme INtelligence even thought of starting a war that would wipe out the Kree empire as it was now and reduce the population by more than 90%, all for the chance of evolution in the current Kree race.

To be fair, they were all very much advanced. A lifespan in the thousands, intelligence, and physical parameters surpassing humans in every metric possible with their very blood being capable of restoring life to carbon based life forms. They also had some of the most robust war engines in the entire galaxy, being capable of contending with multiple contemporary superpowers without being defeated.

They also had racism though. So, it was a coin toss if they were completely evolved and civilised or not.

He sighed as he realised that he would not find any easy way of gaining control of the city, not without exposing it to the geniuses he knew who could find a way of wrestling control of the city into human hands. Like the one who was actually starting to use his repulsors on the barrier outside, probably worried about the communication gap between them.

The only question was : Could he afford risking the brightest minds of Humanity learning everything about the city?

Could he afford letting the world's governments access the city and all the tech it had in it?

The answer was quite simple: No.

A Big Fat no, in fact. Simply because of the mind control and remote temporary enhancement tech built into the city.

It would take years for even TOny and Shuri combined to crack that stuff but once they do that? The US and Wakandan governments will simply build their own versions, with Wakanda being ahead by virtue of their head start.

But both the countries would build huge platforms that had an area of effect buff to them, turning all their soldiers in an area into super soldiers that worked more like zombies and didn't feel pain, only a single minded focus on their goal.

He could already see some generals creaming their pants at the mention of all the advantages the tech could give them. Not to mention the mental attack part of the equation, along with the secrets of the Inhumans that would simply be disseminated to every person of note in the world.

No, the world was safer without this city and without knowing the existence of super powered individuals living amongst the normal people.

The bad thing about this was that many people would try and get the superheroes for themselves, to gain power, fame, money, women, you name it. Then they would wake up to reality.

The worst would be the discrimination. Oh god, the discrimination.

Humans still were racist simply because of skin colour and a few physical characteristics being dominant or recessive somewhere. He could imagine the reaction when everyone suddenly had a reason to suspect the person next to them, of them being an alien.

Politicians everywhere would use it as a talking point to further spread that divide, all the while reaping the benefits.

He shook his head as a chill went down his spine, his barriers enveloping him on instinct which made the chamber doors start closing on their own. His barriers stopped the doors as he came out of the chamber and looked around, finding nothing.

He chuckled wryly to himself, as he realised why his barriers had activated seemingly on instinct. He had chills simply because he realised the extent of greed and hatred that Humanity as a whole could summon on their own species, let alone their enemies.

It was, in a word, terrifying. He never really thought of the terrifying consequences of arming the Human race to the teeth, either by technology or by creating a centralised command structure that could take advantage of the latent potential in the Human DNA. Their greatest asset, human resources, could be used as a terrifying weapon against the enemies from outside their planet.

He never really had any thoughts about what would happen if Humanity was actually armed to such an extent. Good Lord, how pathetic was the situation. Humanity as it was, was exceedingly weak, but even then we were more focused on killing each other, even now that the entire world was aware of the confirmed existence of aliens.

Imagine what Humans would do once they realised that they had a decent amount of power and could carve out an entire sphere of influence for themselves. What then?

Once the enemy is defeated, when there are no more aliens for humans to hunt down? When there are ample resources but the strength of the species would be concentrated in the hands of the few?

What then?

His mind was in complete disarray as he had a jolt to his thoughts about helping Humanity as a whole as he began walking towards the nearest barrier covered agent of SHIELD he could sense. This whole thing was really messing with his head.

He chuckled bitterly as he realised that he feared the possibility of Humanity, along with the rest of the universe, losing against Thanos and he also feared the possibility of Humans winning with overwhelming odds and deciding that it was not enough.

He shook his head violently once again, trying in vain to get rid of these thoughts. There was no point in thinking too much anyway. Humanity was much bigger than him, even right now and it would grow even bigger in the future.

All he could do was, do his part and help leave a positive imprint on the world because while his powers made sure that any waves he made would reverberate throughout the lake he was in, Humanity in all of its entirety (vanilla humans, mutants, Inhumans, Sorcerers, CHI users, mutates, and more) was an ocean that could not be predicted.

"Sullivan, what took you so long?" He encountered Melinda May who had already taken down two HYDRA goons, who were also unconscious somehow.

He leveled a confused look at her because he was of the opinion that the ones that had already been turned by the city gained physical characteristics that could not be overcome by normal humans, even if they were supremely trained.

"They were not nearly as strong as Mac was. I was able to choke out both of them, apparently, they still need oxygen. Your shields are nice by the way. They blocked everything, including some blue energy beam that came out of nowhere, from the roofs, left the ground around me smoking but didn't even put a dent in the barrier."

Hmm. "Those must be the city's defenses. I can sense Coulson coming close. Let's get out of here, this place is too dangerous to leave unattended."

May nodded, even though he could sense suspicious gazes being sent his way as they met Coulson along the way. They reached their point of entry, and after making sure that all the goons were restrained, got out of the barrier that he had made at the hole he dug to enter the city.

"What the.." He heard Tony speak as they flew out of the hole in the ground. He didn't give Tony a chance to talk with the SHIELD agents and just created a portal that led to the same lab as before.

Coulson nodded at him, "I trust the city will be taken care of? I will have my agents come here to check soon, just to confirm."

"Yes, it will be gone in less than 24 hours." He confirmed it.

Mars seemed like a nice place to store this place, just in case they needed something from the city.

Better to have it and not need it, and all that shit.

He turned around and snapped his fingers, creating a small barrier around Tony's suit.

"Whoa. What's happening? I picked up on some chatter but it was about an underground city of some sort. Mind explaining?" Tony asked him, curiosity evident in his voice.

"I'll do you one better. Let's go," He pushed Tony's suit and watched as it flew right into the hole, the motion completely exaggerated.

He too dove straight down, his barriers exploring the city to find points of ingress so that he could seal them up.

"Whoa! What is this? Is this an alien outpost, buried long ago? Oh! What is this energy? How was this built? All of these are lava rocks."

Tony's rapid babbling was partially heard by him as he allowed the Mad Scientist to explore the city.

Meanwhile, he had already pinged some of his friends in the Sorcerer Community.

He had a city to move to Mars and a portal of that size could not be sustained by just one or two Masters of the Mystic Arts.

---

Word Count - 2531

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 or Ko-fi .

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

A/N - Sorry guys for the inactivity for the past few weeks. IRL seasonal change hit me hard. Regular seasonal Cold, Cough and fever evolved into something more sinister due to my immune system's inability to fight it properly, leading to hospitalisation.
Anyways, double release today! Woohoo!
On a serious note, will try to get back to a regular schedule but let's see. Thanks for reading.


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 Ancient Kree City, Puerto Rico[May 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

"Whyyy?" He ignored the borderline whining from Tony as he coordinated efforts from the half a dozen Masters that had arrived after getting his message. He was quite literally the youngest and strongest Master alive. His favour was quite a thing and these people had gathered in this spot in less than 2 hours since he sent out the planet wide ping with his personal message and sigil in it.

Yeah, he had an official sigil, just like the Ancient One did. Anyone could make their own but no one had tried it yet, believing that only the Sorcerer Supreme could have their very own Sigil for official messaging and confirmation. He had asked, and that wasn't the case. It was just that the Ancient One had been the leader of Kamar Taj for so long that people had begun believing that that particular sigil was the official Sorcerer Supreme sigil.

"Like I said, Tony, the city is dangerous. You should be glad I am not just chucking it into the sun or something. Once it is safely stored, I can allow supervised visits." He told Tony who somehow managed to glare at him through the suit. He knew that it was not his call, really, to make it but he was moving incredibly fast here. He sighed as Tony rocketed away from him, throwing up dirt everywhere. Stark knew that he was powerless in the current scenario and probably went away to fume in silence.

Ignoring any calls made by the US government and even from the underground SHIELD organisation, at least until the city is transported completely, was sure to ruffle some feathers but he still had his clout from his sacrificial play in New York so he was going to be just fine.

"Master Sullivan, the city is mapped thoroughly. Fortunately, it is just one giant stone. You are clear to lift the entire thing." Master Wu, one of the middle aged Masters, who had retired to the countryside and was taking care of the Monsters that were created around a seal that held off some Demon Prince's corpse, told him.

It still boggled his mind how large Kamar Taj was, as an organisation. Sure, Kamar Taj was ruled by the Ancient One with an Iron Fist but there still existed an incredible amount of freedom within the organisation relating to the specific role and posting that one could get, according to their personal wishes.

Realistically, the Ancient One ruled the entire magical world of Earth with an Iron Fist, with simply no one to contend with her power alive. Even the dragons in Kun'Lun and Ta Lo were vastly diminished from their peak strength. It would not be wrong to say that the magical world of Earth was the Ancient One's bitch, simple as that.

Now, it did not mean that she could act impunity, she still had the VIshanti to answer to but mostly, she could run Kamar Taj as she wished to, as long as Earth as a whole was safe enough.

For example, Master Wu did not like the mystery that the Ancient One was shrouded in, not trusting her motives to do everything, especially since he was skeptical of the concept of training Masters for free anyway, so he went away to his homeland. The Ancient One allowed it, simply assigning him a guard duty over a sealed location that regularly required cleaning, essentially giving him Work From Home in the mystical sense.

That was why Kamar Taj in the movies seems so small. It was only because that unit housed only the initiates and the handful of Masters that trusted the Ancient ONe wholeheartedly.

Many of the older, more accomplished Masters saw her rule over the magical community as stifling, as she introduced many doctrines that everyone had to follow, regardless of their affiliation.

So, they moved out of Kamar Taj, taking over duties in remote areas so that Kamar TAj would not have to send people regularly to handle the matter.

There were a startling number of mystical hotspots in remote places that needed constant, round the clock supervision. Ofcourse, the older masters simply used it as a vacation since the job was most of the time, ever easy for someone of their stature.

He still wondered why they didn;t show up in the movies when Kaecillius attacked but then he realised that they were probably hoping for her to die and when Strange took over, he probably wasn't as rigid and overbearing as the Ancient One as his standing was not fully formed before he was blipped away.

As he said, the organisation was what it was simply because of the strength and ruthlessness of the Ancient One. Once she was gone, it would simply be a loosely held together organisation of Sorcerers who worked towards a common goal.

Even the riches that Kamar Taj held right now, in terms of the myriad relics and books it had was mainly because of the efforts of the past Sorcerer Supremes. He actually foresaw there being quite a few attempts on the personal Sorcerer Supreme collection of Kamar Taj's library because of the forbidden knowledge within.

"Thank you, Master Wu. I trust the wardstones are installed in both the places?"

Wardstones were focus points they were going to use to accurately mark both the places. When it came to portals being opened by a single Sorcerer, it usually only needed the person to visualise the place where they wanted to go. When two or more sorcerers came into play while opening a single portal, it was not as simple as just two other sling rings being added to the portal and the portal widening as a result.

No, the spell matrix would destabilise immediately because it would try to take inputs from two or more brains and even if all three of them tried to visualise the same place, there were bound to be some minute changes in the spell matrix. Changes that would lead to its destabilisation and they did not want the city to be sheared in half midway.

So, all four Sorcerers responsible for opening and maintaining the portal were first told to put a drop of blood on the wardstone which was then flung onto Mars, in a random place. He then went ahead and created a huge hole in the middle of nowhere, to house the city properly.

"Yes, Master Sullivan, the wardstones are primed and ready to be activated."

"Excellent work, Master Wu."

The city was huge, especially since the outer shell of the city was very much thick and made of solid stone. The Kree probably used Lava as a base to make their whole city, allowing them to create a single solid shell, allowing for much better rigidity and protection.

"Alright, gentlemen, let's get this party started," He shouted as the Masters all gathered around him, standing on a semi circular platform, with him standing in front of all of them. They floated above the island that housed the city.

He waved his arm, creating a huge block that immediately descended on the land, creating small crevices, and essentially disappearing in the ground. There might be some environmental repercussions from this, depending on the amount of destabilisation he would have to do to get the city out of the land.

He grinned as his barriers finally connected with each other, forming a complete curtain over the city's outer shell, and then he pulled.

There was a huge shuddering noise as the very land around them split apart, as the city was being torn apart from its surroundings and being lifted into the air.

His senses tingled as he looked up, a very faint outline of something that was fast approaching them visible. His eyes narrowed as he saw a military jet, no, three jets heading straight towards them.

Welp, no time to waste then.

"Open it." He commanded as he pulled up with all his might, the shaking around them increasing. Within a minute, the entire city was pulled from the land, leaving a huge gaping hole in Earth.

It was quite heavy, he realised as he looked at the jets now circling above him, his SHIELD contact phone ringing all the while as he looked at the rapidly expanding portal.

His finger twitched as all the Masters were now covered in his barriers as well, just in case the military went crazy and tried to attack them with the no doubt advanced weaponry they had on board those jets.

He grinned as he saw the air being sucked into the portal, Mar's non existent atmosphere meaning their air was being pulled in. He heaved with all his might and pushed the entire city through the portal. It was quite an effort because the city was tall as well as wide, there was no easy way of transporting the entire city.

He was coming to think that without him here to lift the bloody thing, the Ancient One would have had to devise some complicated ritual to transport the entire thing, or the more likely thing to happen would have been her opening a portal that led to some sun dimension and melting it all down until nothing but lava remained.

Slowly, bit by bit, the city was being pushed into the giant orange burning portal, even though he was trying to push the city with all his might, it was bloody heavy and he did not want to just break the city while transporting it. There would be no point in doing all this song and dance then.

His lips thinned as he saw the fist sign of aggression from the jets, a series of flares being deployed right above his barrier, more likely a way to get his attention. He was not going to respond until they actually attacked him.

It was good that he had the tact to tell all the Masters to have a simple disguising spell on at all times because he was sure that they had run all their faces in every single database they could find, just so that they could stop the city from being taken out of their hands, and also probably to get their hands on another enhanced person since he was simply out of their hands.

He slowly floated forward as the tail end of the city was all that was left to be transported. It was not being dumped right into the hole he had dug on Mars. No, it was being held aloft on the other side as well, which was quite a task. The Masters were being pulled along with him obviously, as the jets overhead continued to drop flares in every corner of his vision, trying to get his attention somehow.

His phone had long since been abandoned because it was just annoying to listen to the beeps and also because the military had probably just hacked it and were trying to directly talk to him, telling him to stop because of some law.

Blah blah.

Thankfully, atleast they were not doing anything stupid and Tony had also not com,e back which either meant that the government had not contacted him, which was just plain impossible, or he knew that there was not much Tony could do to dissuade him from ripping apart a tantalising piece of alien tech from their hands.

It must be painful, actually, but then again, he gave zero fucks as he was finally done transporting the entire city through the portal and was just about going to go in when he turned around and glared at the incoming jets.

So, that's what they were doing, he thought to himself as he let the Masters go forward, a compressed layer of atmosphere in the barrier meant that there was plenty of air for them on the other side.

Meanwhile, he was looking at the jets and seeing that they were trying to get into the portal, which was the height of stupidity considering it was Mars and the jets were not rated for space. He sighed as he flew right into the portal and snapped his fingers, signalling the Masters to stop, and destroyed the wardstone embedded into the ground below the portals' opening location.

The jet was barely a hundred meters away when the portal fully closed, the pilot of the jet being visible to his eyes as he slowly turned around to look at the red planet, and then slowly jet the Kree City down, into the ditch he had dug for this specific purpose.

The Masters were sat down into the barrier because of the strain of keeping such a large and taxing portal open for so long, on top of the stress of seeing military jets try to stop them.

He slowly, carefully, let the city down, as the wardstone at the bottom was lifted by one of the Masters.

There was not much noise as the city finally sank into the soil. He could not see what the response of the internal city was, mainly because he had sealed it completely using a piece of stone to block all entry and exit points. He had found 5 such points during the thorough examination and now, every single one of them was melded shut with the rock, using some spells to mimic welding, just for rocks instead of metals.

"Alright, now for the shelter," he muttered as he felt the city stabilise after sinking over a hundred feet into the ground. THe ground was not as stable as it should be. He probably should have searched for a more optimal landing site instead of just winging it but eh, what's done is done now.

He lifted the sand he had already dug before and dumped it all on top of the city. Hopefully, the city will still remain and will not be swept by the insane sandstorms that litter Mars.

"Alright, folks. Thanks for your help. As promised, you can call on me to defend you, one time, as long as it is not from Earth's defenders. Am I clear?"

All of them nodded and then left after opening their own portals.

He sighed and opened a portal back to the same place where the city was uprooted from. He was unsurprised to find a huge gathering of military personnel along with government spooks waiting for him there, and scientists looking into the huge hole that had been dug.

He did not go unnoticed as there were alarms ringing from the ships.

Well, this was going to be tiresome, he thought to himself as he slowly landed in front of a government spook, who was calmly looking at him.

"So, what are you guys doing here?" He asked the person in front of him, who failed to get the joke.

People these days, have no sense of humour.

---

Word Count - 2527

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

The Ancient Kree City, Puerto Rico[May 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

So, as it turned out, they were not happy with him essentially "Stealing" thousands of tons of worth of their land and transporting it to Mars.

Yeah, news travelled quickly around here. Mainly because they saw the portal reading to a red planet and also because they saw the disturbances happening on Mars because of the multitude of satellites they had stationed around Mars.

They tried to demand it back, at first but then he deadpanned at them, and resolved the issue of the stolen sand. A mere flex of his will created a huge green block above the entire area they were standing in, shrouding the area as far as he could see, in a green glow. Everyone looked at it fearfully, as it flew over to the ocean until it became nothing more than a dot, and then, just for dramatic purposes, he lifted his left hand and pointed his index finger down.

That caused the block to immediately sink into the ocean, until it reached the seabed, wherein it immediately began filling up on the nearby soiḷ. In minutes, it was full and he recalled it completely, all the while maintaining eye contact with the person who seems to be in charge here.

People began screaming and running away when the same barrier began heading back but he had to give credit where credit was due, the person in front of him never took a step, even if his legs did shake at the sounds his team was making.

Once again, the barrier returned but this time, it cast a much darker shadow all around them. The barrier then stopped atop the hole where the city used to be and then, as if it was just a truck unloading its load, dumped the soil into the hole, filling it completely.

The smell of the sea was prevalent in the air as he mockingly saluted the agent in front of him, "There, problem solved. Before you say anything, that sand was taken from the seabed that was more than 9 nautical miles away from the coast, making it outside of the maritime boundary. So, Good Day, agent…Hayes."

God, it felt so good to be an asshole to these power hungry people, he thought to himself as he floated away and straight into a portal as they could do nothing but watch impotently. Oh, he was sure that he would have to answer to people much higher in the chain of command than Agent Hayes down there but eh, problem for another time.

Right now, he straight away went to Kamar Taj. He had a situation to explain to the Ancient One, about the entire Kree city thing. He was also wondering if a remote base could be established on Mars or not.

It would be a sick place to have a man cave, with nothing but stones and the occasional Mars Rover in sight.

It would also be quite funny to throw a beer can on the ROver and tell it to "get off my lawn" once the government inevitably used it to spy on his man cave.

Ah, nice dreams.

"Ah, Master Sullivan, what can I do for you?" The Ancient One was just standing there when he turned around the corner of a building.

"I was wondering if a warded base on Mars could be built?" He asked her with a shit eating grin.

____xx____

[~A Few Hours Later~]

As it turned out, it was possible to build an enchanted base on Mars but it would be ridiculously expensive to maintain. Not expensive as in Money but expensive as in the dimensional energy needed to run the enchantments.

A misconception regarding dimensional energy was cleared up for him by the Ancient One, in her lecture voice, which was not something she had to use a lot on him. While Dimensional energy flowed through every atom of the universe, serving as a near ideal source of energy for Sorcerers, it acted differently when there was no human soul involved which could direct its flow.

Dimensional Energy, in its base form, was just energy. A near unlimited and ever present source of energy but energy nonetheless. Dimensional energy literally could not be directed properly without a soul being used as a medium. It could be woven through enchantments and then kept that way, only if proper regular maintenance is done on it.

Now, if the enchantments were done on Earth, a magical hotspot in reality, they remain the same for extremely long periods of time, the very ambient energy on Earth feuling the enchantments.

That was when Mars' status as a dead planet came into view. There was no magical hotspot "special-ness" that Mars had, that could help the enchantments stay for long periods of time.

Relics stayed the same because they were forged by someone with a soul, interweaving dimensional and all other sorts of energy into an object, in the presence of Mother Earth as a magical guardian, allowing the Relics to hold onto the original magic for so long. And even then, if Relics are allowed to stay unused, with no magical soul using them, even the Relics break down and disappear.

To create some sort of base on Mars would require someone to actively pump dimensional energy into the enchantments at a regular interval and also to repair the enchantments themselves that would also break down at regular intervals.

All in all, quite a thankless and cumbersome endeavour. Even the Moon was feasible as a place to create a base, because of the presence of life and also due to its proximity to a magical hotspot such as Earth.

With that plan out of the way, he informed the Ancient One of his using his own powers to get help transporting that entire city to Mars. She warned him about the chances of the city being exposed to the harsh environment there due to the lack of any magical protection woven over it and he had assured that Wakanda would surely help to create a remote force field over the area where the city was buried, in exchange for the chance to study the city.

She had then asked him about his study in the field of countering reality warpers, something she had tasked him with since Wanda was last spotted in Australia.

She had handed him a book about Reality Warpers and their effect on reality and had told him point blank, to develop something to stop Wanda from using her powers on reality the next time they encountered the Scarlet Witch.

The way to anchor oneself into reality was not the same for everyone. He had to figure it out himself but it did give him hints in the form of using the thing closest to one's soul to anchor their metaphysical self to the plane, and what was closest to his soul other than his source of powers?

His Barriers. So, he had been working on enchanting his barriers themselves, and then using the enchantments to anchor himself and a small area himself, so that he could actually fight with Wanda.

So far, in both of their encounters, she had been able to warp reality all around him such that he wasn't even able to feel the effects until the effect on the reality wore off. He had to atleast make sure that she wasn't able to affect reality around him in ways that made fighting her impossible.

His barriers would mean that anywhere his barriers went, the reality would be more solid, so to speak. It would be much harder to use her powers in that area because of the stronger reality.

Progress was slow but steady as he figured out ways of anchoring himself, along with a small area around him to reality, using dimensional energy, energy from the Vishanti, and infusing them into his barrier powers, all in order to create an anti reality warping field.

After updating her about his progress, he came over here.

Above the ocean where the spaceship was buried. It housed no one at the moment and ti had been weeks since he last came here but he was wondering what to do with the thing.

He was of the mind to let Tony, Wakanda, and somebody from SWORD, once they finally finished creating the damned agency, study the spaceship and help build Earth's first FTL spaceship, so that they can kick start the space age already.

He was not going to be there, all the time, to send NASA's huge Rovers outside the Asteroid Belt and then back all the time. Granted, each mission back and forth netted him a cool Billion Dollar, which was extremely helpful in funding every single venture he found cool, but it felt wrong somehow.

Dependency of that sort created on him would soon turn detrimental if allowed to fester for long.

So, Humanity's first spaceship project was born in his mind but then again, for that, he would need some sort of united front from Humanity to hand over the technology to. If given to just a single nation or a small collective of powerful nations, it would just create a hierarchy of weaker and more powerful nations.

The more powerful nations would grow even stronger once they had access to space and all the ludicrous amounts of resources that were just waiting to be tapped. It would destabilise everything and that was the last thing he wanted.

Last time he had a chat with the authorities, he was assured that work was ongoing with the whole SWORD project and it would be up and running soon. Well, their "soon" did not seem to be aligned with his expectations, or that of humanity at large.

Typical governmental activities.

Welp, time to rectify them, he thought to himself as he opened a portal that led to Washington DC.

He took a step forward and breathed in the fresh air, well, as fresh as it could be. The presence of politicians in the city meant that he would not be able to enjoy anything in this city.

He sighed and slowly, with no stealth whatsoever, floated towards the White House, which was visible to his enhanced eyesight. At his current speed, it should take less than 5 minutes to reach the gates, which should give the Secret Service plenty of time to prepare themselves.

Immediately, he could see movement in his vision as people scrambled around the gate, inside the gate, as well as the areas in front of the gate. He could see multiple police cars with their lights on, heading straight towards him, some heading straight to the White House as well.

He could see agents magically appearing on the rooftops of buildings around the White House, with heavy weaponry. Helicopters became airborne and began heading straight towards him.

All in the span of 2 minutes.

Impressive.

Well, it would have been if they were able to do all this without gorging on the absolutely bloated Military Budget that the government gave them every year. Still, it was quite a turnout, for just a single person.

Granted, that single person was him, the Green Guardian and it must have been really stressful for them as he simply landed on the street, absolutely littered by law enforcement on all sides. Thankfully, he was not able to see any red lasers pointed at his body with the threat of snipers shooting his brains out.

That would have been….useless.

His ears could still pick up on the absolute beehive of activity that was happening around the areas surrounding him. The President was probably getting escorted to the Bunker underground, or to some vehicle that would get him away. In which case, the Military was not far behind.

OR, the President was handling the situation like he should and any moment now, someone from the Secret Service would come ahead and call for him, as any sane politician with the weight of an entire country on his shoulders would do.

After all, it was not as if he had not just lifted an entire city from the ground and thrown it on another planet. What was a reinforced bunker in comparison?

He just looked around, at all the law enforcement that surrounded him, with none of their usual guns in sight. Actually, no officer of the law that he could see, from atleast three different agencies, had their weapons out.

Even the Helicopters that floated right above him did not have their weapons primed.

Huh, so they were told to just surround him but not point anything at him. Someone had brains in the chain of command then.

"Hiya, sir!" He waved at the closest police officer, quite a young fellow by the looks of it whose entire body trembled when he was addressed.

The police officer swallowed loudly and then pointed at himself, "M-me?"

"Yes, sir! May I have a few moments of your time?" He was being polite here, plus it was quite fun to watch everybody's reactions as well as the rookie's.

The rookie marched towards him, with a resigned expression on his face, as if he was marching straight to his death.

"So, can you point me to the White House, my good sir? I actually have a meeting with the President." The rookie looked at him as if he was a ghost.

He then leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, "Actually, I don't actually have an appointment and was hoping that he would accommodate me in his busy schedule. Anyway, thank you for the directions." He said and after patting the poor man on his shoulders, began walking slowly to the White House.

He could feel everybody's sphincter tightening but after waiting a beat for any response from them, he resumed walking, after seeing no response.

He whistled and waved at all the people around him, some of them waving back and some just looking back dumbly, as he began the walk to cover the final distance to the gate of the White House.

The Secret Service arrived in front of him in a series of SUVs, as if they were the last bosses in the game.

One of them came forward and extended his hand, "Good Afternoon, Mr.Sullivan. Please follow me, the President is waiting."

He shook the agent's hand and then entered the SUV that was being gestured to.

Well, it would seem the President was not just a spineless politician then.

Nice to know that he could be reasoned with. He could see SWORD's creation being hastened.

---

Word Count - 2473

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, USA [May 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

Well, what do you know, the President did have a brain, he thought to himself as he was escorted into the White House through the front doors. He was of the opinion of taking a slight detour to tour the White House but he had a hunch that it might just make the poor Secret Service agents suffer a heart attack as they tried to herd him away from the private areas, something that would have been quite unsuccessful.

So, instead of breaching decorum, which was impolite and not expected of him, he allowed the Secret Service agents, who were clearly very nervous even if it was all but impossible to tell if he used his normal senses, to take him to the President.

He was not really sure of the layout of the White House so it was possible that they were heading straight to the bunker but he was not really worried about that.

"So, Secret Service, huh? I hear the job is quite stressful." He tried to joke about the situation but it fell on deaf ears.

"At Least it comes with full benefits, right?"

"Please stop." One of the agents, the middle aged one, said in resignation as they created what was essentially a human wall around him, to make sure that he did not leave the decided path for him.

He shrugged and kept on walking. In the interest of fairness, he hadn't even used his barriers to scout the entire place all at once. After all, he was sure that completely mapping the place would involve breaching quite a few walls and well, there were sensors for that sort of stuff and while his overwhelming powers would let him get away with a lot, like disobeying orders from the Military when they showed up, but it would certainly be troublesome to be charged with treason.

Finally, after what felt like ages of turning around corners and walking in circles, they finally reached a dead end with multiple security guards standing guard, with rifles in hand.

He was then ushered into the office where POTUS was normally signing files which his secretary promptly took from him and withdrew from the office once she caught sight of him.

The President, on his part, didn't show much of a reaction other than a slight quirking of his eyebrow as he stood up and circled the desk to shake his hand.

Good Afternoon, Mr.Sullivan. I wish you'd called, I would have prepared a State Dinner for someone like you."

"Good Afternoon, Mr.President. I would have called but circumstances were unforgiving. Forgive me, but I'd thought that you would be in a safe bunker by now." He couldn't help but say as he sat in the chair.

Hmm, not as comfortable as he hoped it to be. Not even as comfortable as the chairs Tony had in his office, let alone the ones that Kamar Taj made, or Wakandans or even the Xandarians.

"Ah, forgive the extreme measures. It is something they planned over and over again, just in case, you understand. Anyways, what can I do for you?" President Eilis asked him as he leaned onto the table, the man's countenance changing from business casual to serious business.

"Ah, Mr. President, I wanted to talk to you about the recent incident in Puerto Rico of which you are no doubt aware of,"

The President made an "Ah" sound in realisation as he opened his drawer and took out a small folder out of it. There couldn't have been a report generated about the same this quick, could there?

He looked at the tossed folder and at the President who rested his head on his hand and gestured at the folder. He twitched his finger as a small green barrier covered the folder and lifted the entire thing towards him.

"Jack Sullivan, the Green Guardian. Strengths, weaknesses, known aliases, known acquaintances, known allies…"

ON and on the list went as he read what was basically all the military or the government had on him. After going through the entire thing, which was more documented than he had thought it would be, he finally reached the last page.

"Countermeasures for the Green Guardian in case he ever goes rogue.." He looked at the President, wondering what was going in the man's head when the man just lazily gestured at the folder once again, even as the man did nothing but stare at him as he read what was basically his own biography.

"There have been three known instances of the Green Guardian being overwhelmed. Ability to replicate any one of them? None. Weapons capable of breaching shields? None.

Emotional connections that can be exploited? Minimal.

Allies? Numerous and Powerful."

Basically, what the folder said was that it would be very hard to hurt him and even harder to put him down, despite what the recent events might suggest to someone watching over his exploits.

Replicating the feats that led to him almost dying were only two, first was the Helicarrier which would not work anymore because he was much stronger now, and second was the Hulk incident which only happened because Wanda manipulated the very reality around Bruce, something that he would rather die than let happen again.

"Is there any meaning to this?" He ended up asking, getting a tad bit irritated at the unnecessary byplay going on.

"There is. There is Mr.Sullivan. After all, the report clearly states that should you go rogue, there is nothing that the state can do to stop you, aside from begging the only people who may have the slightest chance of stopping you, and that, Mr.Sullivan is quite humiliating. A shameful state of affairs but it is the reality and we have to adapt to it. So, when I show this file to you, I tell you that the US government is quite literally helpless before you. So, with that in mind, what can I do for you?"

The question was the same but the entire environment in the office was different. Gone was the all business man, all that remained was a desperate husk who was all but daring him to go forward.

It was quite…weird.

He cleared his throat, "Ahem, anyway, I was just here to talk to you about that city in Puerto Rico and what sort of arrangement I was hoping to get done with the government." His barriers flared to life as it created a 3D model of the city's exteriors and the interiors.

The President's shoulders relaxed as he looked at the model in realisation, "Ah, yes, the Puerto Rican alien Kree city. Coulson should have come to me first instead of just waltzing in there. We could have–"

"Done nothing, sir. You wouldn't have been able to do much because the city itself is quasi-sentient. It can take control of human minds that enter it, with ease and then empower them to the point that only a bullet to the head can stop them in any meaningful way. I ripped apart all the limbs of a rogue agent inside the city and the agent was still able to use the powers to jump using just his chest muscles and lunge at me,"

That was true, and it was quite creepy to experience.

The President was left wide eyed at the quite graphic information that was dumped on him. Time for more then.

"Also, the city was an ancient alien temple used for rituals and activities that I am sure Coulson will tell you more about. By the way, about SHIELD, I thought the US government had declared SHIELD as an official rogue entity and was actively hunting it down."

He was quite curious about that as well because some part of him knew that there was no way that Coulson was running around, running multiple huge military bases with a freaking Aircraft Carrier in storage, all while being hunted by the largest and most proficient military on the planet, save for Namor's if he decides to use up the entire ocean's worth of animals as part of his campaign against the surface world.

"Ah, I can see your confusion. SHIELD itself was declared rogue and its agents were being hunted down, its assets seized because, at the time, I had no way of identifying HYDRA from SHIELD, even after the various public trials and executions. But I have met Coulson and have my own men in the new SHIELD, which is vastly improved now. Now, SHIELD doesn't meddle in other countries' affairs and try to expand its power, it only interferes in its own jurisdiction, which is."

"--Aliens." He finished it for the President and the explanation did make quite a lot of sense actually.

"..Exactly. Coulson knows his limits and that is why, SHIELD is allowed to not just exist but operate using resources that the government mostly turns a blind eye to."

Well, not that that part is out of the way, he once again began steering the conversation back to the topic at hand.

"Mr.President, the city is quite advanced, even though it has been abandoned here for thousands of years. I would like to, once again, reiterate the sheer danger to any human that steps into the city unprotected but at the same time, I know that Humanity cannot afford to lose any chance of studying advanced tech to advance itself. So, I propose this:"

"I will allow a team of scientists to study not just the alien city but also..a full FTL spaceship, but–but, only if the team of scientists is truly global or at least, represent an organisation that isn't beholden to one country."

"So what? You want SHIELD to be reinstated? Or SWORD to be made online because let me tell you, SWORD is still years away from full operation even though we would love to get those carriers back in operation."

The news made him sigh internally. It was always the bureaucratic nonsense but he knew how to handle it.

By using Good Old Human Greed.

"Let me tell you something, Mr.President. The city could be the key to do mass enhancements to humans, soldiers, and then turn the enhancements off at the push of a button remotely."

The President's eyes widened minutely at the clear cut picture he was painting for him.

It could be absolutely game changing in war scenarios and even in urban warfare. See, the military could enhance its soldiers en masse but then they couldn't just let the soldiers work in the army forever. They would have to let them go on mandatory holidays, take care of their mental health, retire them, let them mingle in the civilian population.

So on and so forth.

The problem was that this highly enhanced population, once in the country as civilians, still held onto their abilities, representing a very severe public health hazard. Also, there could be chances of rebellion, betrayal, revolution, deserting, and so on.

All of the negative possibilities of permanently enhancing someone are gone, poof, at the push of a button, theoretically.

But even that theoretically was more than enough because from the looks of it…

"Give me one month, I will have SWORD up and running. I assume the spaceship along with all the other technology will only be shared with SWORD, on the condition that it be used for Humanity as a whole?"

"Obviously."

"Very well."

"Also, I will have one other team, my own working alongside yours as well. Anyway, I will be back in a few days to finalise the entire thing with the SWORD team which should be up and running by then, hopefully."

"--Wait, Mr.Sullivan, what do you mean by another—"

"Bye," He said and just jumped into the portal that opened up in front of him, snickering as he heard the sheer confusion in the President's voice as he told him about his other team.

He was, of course, talking about Wakanda as a whole. Now, he wanted them to be open to the world but he knew that it would be an uphill battle so no point in prematurely telling the United States about Wakanda and its advanced technology, and not to mention the sheer amount of VIbranium they had on hand.

"Um, what are you doing in my house? Get out!" He looked up at Tony who was nursing a drink in one hand and was looking at him with a very irritated expression on his face.

"Seriously?" He knew Tony was upset because of the whole city being taken out of his hands but this was excessive.

"What Tony means is that welcome to Avengers Tower. Tony is glad to see you. What will you have? Whiskey?" Pepper, ever the soft one of the duo that was the Stark couple, shooshed Tony and greeted him.

"Uh, Water only. Underage person here." He smiled at Pepper as she went back to the kitchen, understanding that he wanted to discuss stuff with Tony in private.

"So, what do you want, Little Green?"

He rolled his eyes at the petty insult.

"Look, the city is really hazardous and I didn't say that you wouldn't get access, at all. I just came back from the White House and–"

"Yeah, I saw. It was all over the news. I half expected them to call me to get Iron Man on the scene, just so that the President can be evacuated. What were you thinking anyway? Creating such a huge panic in the middle of the city in the middle of the day." Tony interrupted him while he nursed his drink.

"As I was saying, I got confirmation from the POTUS that SWORD will be up and working in about a month. After that, I will allow limited access to the city for research. YOu will, obviously, be part of that group. Happy?"

"That is good, I guess. How is Bruce doing anyway? I haven't heard from him in forever. He doesn't even reply to emails even though Jarvis tells me that the account is being accessed regularly." Tony asked him, probably missing his SCIENCE! Bro but there was not much he could do about that.

"About that, I was actually here to talk to you about Bruce's situation. I was hoping that your contacts in the military could tell me about Ross' situation right now. Because I am taking Betty to meet Bruce because I don't see anything else helping his situation right now."

Tony's face turned thoughtful at that.

"Well, I don't think the old man will be any problem but still, let me ask around. I'll make sure that he doesn't make any ruckus about that. If I remember correctly, the old general does maintain quite a solid grip on his daughter's life if the rumour mill is to go by."

"Well, whatever it is, just make sure that it doesn't make much noise because Bruce's mental condition is really fragile right now. I was hoping that he will also join you guys on Mars once he is somewhat stabilised."

"..That would be nice, wouldn't it?"

Yes. Yes, it would be nice.

---

Word Count - 2574

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

Wakanda [May 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

"So, that's a NO, then?" He asked T'Challa who vehemently shook his head.

"Absolutely not. I mean, Baba has initiated some things and I have fast tracked them but still, we are nowhere near ready to expose our existence to the entire world. No, not this early."

Well, it was worth a try.

"But you still want to participate in the study?" He asked, just to confirm because he was sure that something as trivial as hiding their identities was not going to stop Wakanda from getting their hands on a real spaceship.

"Shuri will kill me in my sleep if I take this away from her," T'Challa grumbled and he was correct. Shuri could be scary focused if it was something related to her research.

The girl was relentless when she wanted to be.

"I assume Bruce's appointments are fast tracked and mandated, now?" he asked T'Challa whose face grew weary at the heavy emphasis he placed on the mandatory part. He made it clear last time, in no uncertain terms, that Bruce needed to get to see his shrink and while he agreed that if the sentiment came from within, it would be more effective but the problem with Bruce was that he was slipping more and more.

Even a little progress would be good, something to show him the light. He did not wish Bruce to remain in his mad scientist mode, just as a way to further isolate himself from the rest of the world.

So, he made sure that T'Challa made the shrink visits a condition for continued usage of the lab and the processing power that BRuce was using. As it turned out, encountering an entirely alien software language, Operating System, along with a logic progression that was based on the Flora and Fauna that was mutated by Vibraniuim, was not much of an obstacle for Bruce's genius as he built algorithms after algorithms and just dumped them on the central compute that Wakanda had.

It was strange actually. If need be, they could turn the entire Giant Mound into a giant heatsink, with a near 100% efficiency, making entirely absurd computers possible deep in the labs of Wakanda. THey had computers so advanced and fast that a single machine, in the Royal Labs, was responsible for sifting through all the data that Wakanda's scientists generated, along with hosting all their local intranet.

It was that absurd, and even then, somehow, Bruce managed to use their systems so much that they finally had to build another computer, after over a decade, if he was not wrong. Shuri was excited about that as well, something about T'Chaka not allowing her to build another more advanced computer until the current one was at capacity.

Bruce was a great scientist but he was a human, first and foremost, something that he had done his part in reminding the Wakandan contingent assigned to Bucky and him. By comparison, Bucky was coming ahead swimmingly.

Bucky was going to the meetings on time, consumed copious amounts of Beer which was just water to his system, cooked for himself, cut up firewood for himself, ran around the mountain, and even lifted modified weights, something to keep him in shape.

The Vibranium arm was something that he was getting used to, as well. It came with a multitude of combat options that turned Bucky into someone who was essentially wielding Iron Man's arm. It came with its repulsor systems, to allow limited flight, limited blast capacity, and even get this, autonomous functioning, as was evident when he was given beer that was fetched by Bucky's arm.

"Alright, so, I assume Shuri will be on the team, then?"

"Yes, I am afraid so."

"Perfect. Now, in about a day, I will be bringing in Ms.Betty Ross to meet Bruce and I need you to make arrangements in case she decides to stay for a longer period of time which I think will be a strong possibility once she is exposed to the sheer amount of data you guys on have species that are exclusive to Wakanda."

T'Challa sighed, "Not even King yet, and I already am importing foreigners into the country and giving them residency for an indefinite period of time. The Council is going to love me."

He grinned and stood up, "Hey, cheer up. They might grumble now but once they see the amount of enemies that you would face, with me by your side, they will be tripping over themselves to thank you."

T'Challa shook his head, and shook his head, "Somehow, I doubt that will come true."

"See ya!" he said as he jumped back into the portal that had formed. He was getting very good with portals now. It barely required focus, when he wanted to open one to a handful of places.

It was as if some sort of anchor was being formed in those places, allowing him to open portals in split seconds, without his hands being occupied solely for the waving in circular motion to open portal stuff.

He jumped back and he found himself mid air, right above the spaceship, which was now moved from its underwater place, because the military had ebgun tracking his movements and were sending out ships to see just what was in the place where the Green Guardian frequented to.

He took in a deep breath and smiled, "Ah, what a view,"

Now, it was in an icy cavern that he dug himself using his powers. It was not really combat worthy in terms of the time it took to use it, but he had used a so far unused aspect of his power.

Casting spells through his barriers.

He created a giant barrier and shoved it into the ice, and then cast a heating spell on his barriers, heating them up immensely, melting the snow and then he created another barrier to layer atop the heating one, only this one was used to isolate the melting process.

That was how he created this giant icy cavern in the middle of the South Pole, with no human activity for hundreds of miles in either direction, something that was becoming more and more of a rarity these days.

"Seriously, I have got to do something about climate change these days," He muttered to himself as he watched the sun rays hit the ice outside the cavern at the right angle, lighting up the cavern in natural diffused sunlight.

It is a good thing that Tony has already started busting Big Oil and Coal's ballsacks with his Arc Reactor. Once all SWORD operations mandate Arc Reactor usage, something that he will push for, it would signal the death knell of Big Oil.

The future generation deserves to know the joy of riding a motorcycle on a straight empty road with nothing but the sound of wind and the roar of the engine in their ears, all without the guilt of the planet being actively choked to its death, in their minds.

He looked at the spaceship, somewhat resembling the Milano model of the Guardians of the Galaxy, sans the weapons. It was currently perched on a small platform he made of ice.

"Welcome. Mr.Sullivan," The robotic voice greeted him as he entered the cockpit which was not as complicated as it should be, with the onboard computer doing most of the heavy lifting.

Now, while he told everyone that he would give them unrestricted access to the spaceship, it was only partly true. He was only going to give them access to the FTL engine, and let them tinker with it, while the software, the real star of the show, will be isolated.

"Hey, computer? Can you remove yourself from the ship and exist as a standalone entity if your hardware is taken out of the ship itself?" He asked the voice, and to his amazement, a small compartment opened up right behind the captain's seat, on the floor.

A small yellow bar rose up from it, filled to the brim with blue blinking lights.

"That is the entirety of the processing node afforded to the civilian version of the ship. The module can be taken out of the shop for repair works and it can function on minimal energy or remain in a dormant state until the ship is ready to be used again. Be warned though that the module is very fragile and could break under forces exceeding 10 tons."

He smiled at the warning. Guess the computer didn't know that normal human computers broke apart after being subjected to a hundredth of that weight.

"Very well, initiate the shutdown procedure. Make sure that no star maps or any data about the outside civilizations is kept in the ship. Make sure that the module is sealed rightly, before disengaging everything. I will see you soon." He said and then nodded as he stepped out of the ship, the lights turning off one by one as he saw the small situational awareness modules it had kept out of the ship disengaging and entering the ship's hull one by one.

It was quite advanced but without any of its weapons.

"Guardians of the galaxy, huh?" He muttered to himself as he spun the bolt that ROcket had given him for some reason, no doubt another one of his juvenile pranks. He wondered what they were doing.

He had visited Missouri and aside from an astonishing amount of caves and cheese, there was not much he could find. He had hoped to find the seed but no luck there.

Maybe Ego wouldn't even look out for Quill this time since there would be no anomalous news of Quill handling a freaking Infinity Stone without immediately dying and then having his DNA entering the Xandarian systems.

Maybe. Maybe, this time the Guardians of the Galaxy will be completely fine and Ego would just remain floating in the universe, impregnating various species and just forgetting about Earth.

…..

….

There was the sound of crickets in the cavern, even though they should not be in the icy environment, as he cursed himself for even thinking those forbidden thoughts.

His form slumped as a sigh echoed through the icy cavern.

"I just fucked up, didn't I? Fucking Murphy," He muttered to himself, resigning himself to another galavanting across the galaxy to where the hell the troublesome group had found themselves.

"Ah, I hate this!" He roared to the heavens, with his hands outstretched, with only the metaphorical crickets to keep him company in his misery.

After getting that out of his system, he straightened up and created another portal, and floated through, straight above the Avengers Tower.

Speaking of the Avengers, where was THor really?

Since he was going to leave the planet anyway, might as well check on the Thunder God as well. Hell, he might even visit Zeus, if he had the confidence of dealing with a God King, that is.

He then lazily floated down to street level, waving at the cheering crowds and occasionally stopping to sign some autographs, and gave some kids a flying ride on a carpet he made out of his barriers, their heartfelt laughter and giggles warming his heart as he finally reached the hotel where Betty was staying.

"Damn, being a General pays well, I guess," He muttered to himself as he normally entered the hotel lobby, it was quite an establishment, something that screamed "quiet luxury" to him. The million dollar cars in the parking certainly screamed wealth to him, and the European interiors just added to the voice.

"Hi! Welcome to Dorchester Collection, what can I d–ack" The receptionist halted mid speech as he let his natural green barriers flow over his skin. He just took a second to reply as he watched the receptionist along with the bellboy just staring at him with wide eyes.

"Hi!" he finally said to break them out of their trance.

"I am here to meet one Betty Ross. Can you tell her that I am waiting for her down in the lobby?" he asked the receptionist after they got through their entire song and dance about apologising profusely and then asking him about what he needed.

The receptionist's face took on a troubled look as she traded looks with the bellboy, "I am extremely sorry, sir but it is against hotel policy to do that. We take our guests' confidentiality very seriously and confirming if the person stays at our establishment would violate their privacy. If you want, I can–"

"Right, Hello, I am Rico, what can I do for you on this fine day, Mr.Sullivan?" An older gentleman, Rico, appeared from behind him and shook his head.

"Ah, I was hoping to get a message to one Betty Ross who is staying in this hotel. If that is not possible–"

"Ah, certainly. Just let me get the message to her. In the meantime, why don't you have iced tea, on the house?" Rico gestured to the bellboy and the receptionist who immediately began dialing numbers while Rico himself began leading him to another section of the hotel, probably the cafe side.

"Just a moment," Rico said after handing him the newspaper and a bunch of magazines and skedaddled off to somewhere.

In the meantime, he just sat there, feeling woefully out of place in his normal jeans and T-Shirt, in this luxury hotel.

"Ah, we have confirmation from Mr.Ross. She is on her way," Rico said as he handed him his iced tea.

"Thank you, and please, bill me for this." He insisted.

Rico just smiled, "You kid, sir. It is our pleasure to host the hero of New York. If you need anything, I am right here."

Damn, 5 star hotels really were something else.

Now, only if he could get Betty to Bruce soon enough, so that he could get to the Guardians of the Galaxy in time.

Stan Lee knows the trouble they must be in, right now.

___xx____

Somewhere in the remote part of the Galaxy

"Ahahaha! This is so much fun!" A muscled mountain of a man with glowing blue eyes roared as he wrestled with an infernal demon, while his surroundings were filled with corpses of such demons, only much smaller than the ones he was wrestling with.

It was huge, towering over the surroundings and yet, the positively tiny man, in comparison, was able to contend with the demon, and was even winning.

In the distance, a signature orange spaceship was parked with its inhabitants standing in front of the ship, looking at the aforementioned carnage happening in front of them,

They had to quite literally land their ship on top of corpses.

"Uh, Quill, I think he is the one who gets the bounty. I don't think he has noticed us yet, should we, I don't know, just leave?" Rocket Racoon asked Quill, their somewhat dumbass of a leader.

Quill gulped as he looked at the mountain of muscle who just threw a hundred ton demon on its backside and then began using its legs as handles to throw it around. The largest Infernal Night demon on the planetoid and the man was throwing it around as if it weighed nothing.

"..Y-yeah, we should just leave." He slowly began backing away from the clearly crazy man who was still laughing. The slow backward walk turned into panicked scrambling when the man finally noticed them.

"Run for your own hides!" Rocket screamed as they ran to their ship.

Quill cursed himself for straying so far away from the ship. Thankfully, he had some mods in place just for this. He fumbled around in his pocket and grinned as he pressed the button, the propulsion system, and the hangar bays both lighting up as the Milano entered its Rescue mode.

Now, all they had to do was reach the ship, something that was easy since the man had yet to move.

He looked back to confirm, only to see no one in sight. He turned around and almost tripped over himself as he came to a halt, watching the same man crashing in their path, all shirtless and covered in burning blood.

"AAAH!" he did not scream like a little girl when the blond mountain began smiling, in an incredibly creepy and not reassuring way.

---

Word Count - 2761

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

Wakanda [May 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

"Yes, he is in quite a rough patch. I don't think he will ever think of living in another place if he continues to live in that dungeon of a lab he has built for himself there." He told Betty who was surprisingly anxious about meeting Bruce, even though she was the one who initiated the entire thing.

Betty was very anxious to meet Bruce, and the urgency seemed to increase the more he narrated to her the current state of Bruce, both mental and physical.

He was sure that there were not even therapists on the planet who could even begin to understand the agony that Bruce had to go through while suffocating through space. It brought shudders in his body whenever he thought of himself going through something absolutely traumatic like that.

Since he was so much more powerful than anyone he had ever met, he never really thought of getting that helpless ever in his life. Sure, there were plenty of beings stronger than him but he always had some confidence in his powers, that he could atleast escape intact but to feel something that horrible?

He would, for his entire life, feel guilty of doing that to Bruce, and resentment towards the Ancient One who took more than a week to get him back to Earth.

Betty took a deep breath as they arrived at the edge of the mountain, the Wakandan squad greeting him, "Okay. So he is up there?"

"Yes."

"Does he know I am coming?"

"Yes, he has access to all the cameras surrounding the property and T'Challa probably already told him about all the measures they are going to have to take today"

"Measures?" She leveled a quizzical look at him and he found it hard to reply to that.

"..Um, well, you see, the King of Wakanda is taking security measures just in case something happens. You can't fault him for trying to protect his people."

"No, but I can fault him for trying to treat Bruce like he is a time bomb." Betty somehow gained some sort of inner fire as she almost shouted at him.

Well, this was nice.

"Keeping that aside, if there is anything you might need, just press this and I will be there in seconds, OK?" He handed her a small button and floated her to the top of the mountain, where Bruce was already waiting with dinner already ready, with Wine and everything.

Well, atleast Bruce was trying to make it a romantic date.

"So, the Dungeon guy got a date, huh?" He looked to the side as Bucky, of all people, emerged from the security hut that the Wakandans stationed here used.

"What are you doing here?" He asked Bucky who stretched and threw a bottle of beer at him.

"Ah, I was just talking to the guys in there. YOu know, they have the really good stuff or atleast, can get me the really good stuff if I ask." Bucky chugged down his beer, which was better than the previous brew but not something that he would classify as good.

Then again, he must not like beer, at all, then.

"Yeah, she is his ex. I am sure all the information about her is in one of the computers that you no doubt have access to." He told Bucky as they both sat down on one of his barriers, with Bucky testing it with his trusty Wakanda built hand first.

"Yeah, I don't use them much. Actually, I don't use them at all. I threw them all out soon after I moved in here. For some reason, I really hate the sight of computers. I like books, plain and simple, with no murderous rage appearing in me." Bucky explained to him and that…actually made a ton of sense.

Most probably, the majority of the missions that Bucky received, would have involved a computer one way or the other. Now, hating a tool is an illogical thing, he knew that, but since Bucky didn't actually have all of his memories, the sight of the computers must invoke some feelings in him that he didn't like, and hence, getting rid of all computers then.

"I see. Are you getting enough books though?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, I have a lot to catch up on. I just caught up with the Lord of the Rings. I really liked reading the Hobbit, it felt nostalgic to me, for some reason." Bucky grinned as he took another long swig of his beer.

He smiled as well, his mind going to the memory when in one of the TV shows in the MCU, Bucky mentioned reading the Hobbit, when it came out, in 1937.

Well, Bucky was ancient.

"You know, if the Dungeon Guy and his Lady, do…you know…where do you think I can sleep? Because I am not going up there while they do their business, it is not gentlemanly." Bucky's words almost made him choke as he laughed at the joke.

"Don't worry about that, we have plenty of places we can house you, Bucky Barnes." he turned around to see T'Challa walking straight towards them, with his traditional royal garbs which he was made to understand were the casual clothes that Royalty wore on an everyday basis.

"It is nice to meet you. Mr.Barnes. Mr.Sullivan. I assume that Ms.Ross has made positive contact with Dr.Banner?" T'Challa asked them even as he rolled his eyes as he saw both of the patients' shrinks walking behind T'Challa.

"Hello," Bucky raised his beer bottle in greeting to his shrink.

"Now, Mr.Barnes, your doctor has advised me to let you get out of this comfort zone so that you can make progress in recovering your memories. Now, I was assured that you would not be using your powers for evil but I can't take the risk of you going berserk so fair warning, the arm that we made for you, can also incapacitate you. Is that fine with you?"

Bucky raised his arm and shrugged, seemingly fine with the information.

"Hey, I always knew something was probably installed in it, I just didn't know what. Anyway, I'll see you around?"

"Yeah," He waved at Bucky who jumped at the chance of getting out of the mountain zone that had been carved for him. He did get equipment from outside but the chance to roam the city was apparently very convincing for him.

"What do you think? Will he recover his memories in time?" T'Challa asked him as they watched an entire contingent follow Bucky as he talked with his shrink about some book that he was currently reading.

It almost felt like a crime to let him remember his memories. Memoires that would only make him hate himself, depressed, and borderline suicidal.

Unless….

"Yup," He nodded at the question, "he will regain his memories but not like this. I suppose it is time that Captain Rogers met his long lost best friend. I just have to get ready to meet some really disappointed blue eyes."

T'Challa rolled his eyes at him and walked away.

"I wish you the best in your endeavour. When will that be? So that I can call Shuri and watch the Captain tear you a new one, with popcorn, caramel, and butter, ofcourse."

"Screw you, T'Challa. I am going on some work off planet but once I am back, that will be the first thing we will do."

Surprisingly, T'Challa didn't ask him anything about his off-planet activities, and simply nodded.

Maybe he was already full with the ship and the alien city project?

He kept his observatory barriers on top of the mountain, away enough that he would not be able to read their lips but close enough that he could intervene in less than a second, just in case the worst case scenario happened.

So, he stood ready, right at the base of the mountain, playing UNO with the people stationed here. One thing he had learned was that while the average Wakandan was xenophobic and racist, they didn't apply those distinctions once someone had risen above their level, in their own words.

Case in point, the Green Guardian and the Hulk, along with Bucky who threw around boulders thrice their body weight without much effort. That was why they were so nice and approachable for them.

That was how he realised that they too played UNO in Wakanda and that was how he found himself doing the same to pass the time while Bruce and Betty talked and talked….and talked.

Yeah, they just talked. No kiss, nothing.

Way to go, Bruce Banner.

A certified Rizzler, he was not. No, sir.

But still, there was progress as they continued to talk while they sat and watched the sun set long into the evening.

"Well, this has gone on long enough. I assume the next shift will be here soon?" He asked the Wakandans who nodded and began packing their stuff, while he headed to the top where Bruce and Betty were now sitting on a swing that Bucky had built in his spare time, on the nearest tree to the cabin.

"...Um, Hey, guys?"

Both of them turned around but didn't say anything, even though he could feel their annoyance at being interrupted.

Wow.

"Hi, so, I have somewhere to be and I still haven't gotten an answer from Betty if you want to stay here for longer or not because getting out of the country will be much more difficult without me," he asked them with an awkward smile on his face.

If possible, he too didn't want to interrupt some personal time of a couple but he had constraints and who knows just what in the hell the Guardians of the Galaxy were up to. He was not going to tempt Murphy again so he was just going to get this done and leave the planet.

Bruce and Betty both looked at each other for a moment before Betty smiled and turned to him, "You can leave. I think I want to stay."

Bruce's smile could have lit up entire nations as he nodded and gave the love birds their privacy.

He turned around and went through another portal that opened on top of Kathmandu. Welp, since he did not have his spaceship this time around, he would have to employ different methods to reach Xandar.

He seemed to recall the Ancient One mentioning Kamar Taj maintaining contact with some alien Mystics organisation and he would bet his entire life savings that the Ancient ONe had been to other civilisations before and would have a way to send him as well.

"Hello, Master Hameed."

"Master Wu."

"Master Sullivan."

"Master Wong."

He greeted all the Masters he met on his way to meet the Ancient One who was overlooking a training session, filled with new initiates.

"Konichiwa," He greeted her.

"What can I do for you, Master Sullivan?"

"So, yeah, I need a ride to Xandar and I figured that you must have a way of reaching there,"

"You assumed correctly. A direct portal to Xandar is ill advised because of the way that standard sling rings interact with dimensional energies once distances of that magnitude are involved." She said and then snapped her fingers, and this time, he caught the way space around them warped violently before smoothing out just as quickly, with no sign of tampering evident.

She really was extremely skilled in the art of spatial manipulation. Perks of being attuned with Dark Energies from Dormammu, allowing her to manipulate dark matter that made most of the empty space in the universe.

"So, that is how you do it. I wonder how long it would take me to manipulate space like that. Nothing short of the space stone will compare to your finesse though, so congratulations on that." He ended up running his mouth as the Ancient One opened up another box and took an unmarked silver ring and put it on her thumb.

"I assure you, Master Sullivan, that had I been given the luxury of choice, I would have given up my powers in a heartbeat if my conscience allowed for it." The Ancient One somberly said and he had to reassess his words as he realised that he was speaking to a millenia old entity, if not in body then atleast in the mind.

She must have seen thousands of years of futures, and most probably lived most of them, as she used the Time Stone in her quest to safeguard Earth from the threats that wanted to gobble it up.

She then spun her hands, both the rings on her hand creating a strangely white and orange glow before a white outlined portal opened up, before the outline slowly turned to orange as well, revealing a familiar planet.

"Thank you for that." he saluted her and floated near the portal, after making sure that an appropriate amount of air was compressed in the barrier because the journey to the planet was not small.

"Safe Travels, Master Sullivan. May your journey be…electric."

With those ominous words, the portal closed shut behind him, exposing him to the harshness of space.

"Well, time to find Quill, the SpaceMan," He grinned as he rocketed towards Xandar, his barriers heating up on re-entry. His grin widened even further as he saw the veritable tsunami of star shaped ships of the Nova Force heading straight towards him, with his eyesight spotting multiple large cannons popping out of the ground, aiming straight at him.

Good. They had upgraded their defences.

Still, it will be nowhere near enough to match Thanos.

Time to skedaddle with the Power Stone, out of Xandar.

But before that, time to have some fun.

"Woohoo!" He shouted as he did somersaults, evasive manoeuvres whenever possible, and tanked some of the undodgeable blasts as he continued to lead the Nova Force on a fool's chase.

Alas, all good things must come to an end so he stopped the hit and run, and just floated in a single spot before a huge Gundam appeared around him, dwarfing everything around him, casting a huge shadow on their capital.

"Hi! Remember Me?" The Gundam waved, creating gusts of wind that knocked back the nearest star shaped ship even as he saw the cannons recede back into the ground.

The majority of star shaped ships broke formation and flew away while a few began approaching him, or rather, the core of the Gundam where he was clearly visible.

Time to see if Irani Rael is agreeable to handing over one of the six singularities of the universe to a complete unknown who had just proven himself juvenile enough to create a huge security incident and lead her elite forces on a wild goose chase.

Ah, a man could only hope.

---

Word Count - 2514

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 or Ko-fi .

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).

Xandar [May 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

Well, he couldn't say that this was unexpected.

As he stood before Irani Rael, in what should be strong enough handcuffs to stop even someone like Spider Man from moving, he couldn't help but feel as if this was the consequence of his own actions.

"So, Good Morning?" He offered to Irani Rael who did not look amused at his actions, and instead made all the guards leave the room, despite their vehement protests.

As soon as the door closed, she sighed and leaned back into her seat, in apparently exhaustion.

"Tell me, Mr.Sullivan, have I or Xandar as a civilization ever offended you? You just raised a tier 5 alarm, the highest one we have, and disturbed the lives of millions of individuals on just a whim," She looked at him with oh so weary eyes.

"Believe it not, what I did today was just a precursor to what will happen soon," He shrugged, the action breaking the handcuffs as he leaned back and sat down on a sofa made up of his barriers. It was hard, yes, but it looked cool.

"What are you insinuating?" her voice lowered an octave as the pressure in the surroundings increased, with the lights dimming or rather, gathering around her, the Nova Force she housed within her body reacting to her will.

Disregarding the pressure and the unnecessary theatrics, he replied, "Well, if I had not come today, and sent my energy signature across the cosmos, for anybody who was looking, well, let's just say that very soon, you would have had a very purple problem on your hands."

Her eyes narrowed before her face went pale. She whispered, horrified, "No! Thanos.."

"Yup, the purple Scrotum is on his way, or will be on his way here, soon enough."

"For what? We have never antagonised the Mad Titan and targeting us does not seem his MO. He mostly targets weaker civilisations for his so called "culling." Targeting us would just paint an even bigger target on his back and frankly, not worth the hassle." Irani spoke rapidly even as a dashboard of sorts appeared in front of her which showcased the location of everything around their solar system.

"Well, Ms.Rael, you are forgetting one thing. A very important thing." He emphasised as he waved his hand and created a small 3D hologram of the Power Stone, only it was green because, well, it was a hardcoded thing of his powers that everything has to be green. He was "greenwashed" as it were.

Her eyes squinted as she looked at the hologram before they widened immensely as she, almost violently, tapped on the display in front of her.

Knowing that she got the message, he leaned back on his throne, well, sofa but he liked to pretend it was a throne.

"The Power Stone." He looked up as she looked at him, haggard, even more so than before.

He nodded, "Yup. He will be here for the Power Stone. He probably already knows that I am here but if that will only hasten his response or stop him in his tracks, only time will tell. BUt I can tell you one thing, Ms.Rael, you are in no condition to protect the stone, neither from Thanos, nor from me." He declared to her, knowing what it would look like.

Her eyes snapped to him, squinting dangerously, her hands lighting up in a silent gesture of power, "Is that a threat, Mr.Sullivan? Because let me tell you, the Nova Force is not afraid of you, nor of Thanos. We will fight to our last breaths,"

He waved her off, leaning back in a relaxed manner, to deliberately show her that he did not take her or her Nova Force seriously, at all.

If it was Rael in her hayday, she could have given him a serious fight and would probably have sent him packing, after a very heavy fight but he knew that her powers had waned considerably, and the Nova Force as a whole itself was a shadow of what it once was.

Come to think of it, Kree, Skrulls, Asgard, Nova Force, The Elders of the Universe, the Elder Gods of Earth, the Sorcerer Supremes, and more.

All of the above forces once held dominion over one thing or another. Now, some of them had fallen off their peak so much so that they could barely be called a shell of their true self, some had outright disappeared or split into small chunks that were barely worth mentioning, or some like the Nova Force who chose to retain a chunk of their powers in exchange for sacrificing the sheer amount of versatility and power that they once held.

It was like the universe itself had some sort of law. Empires fell and rose, some fell all the way to the bottom, some stumbled before stabilising and some rose and rose, until they left the universe completely, becoming a multiversal species, something that had only happened exactly once in the long lifespan of this universe.

Oh yeah, he had still not addressed the Nova Prime.

"Yeah, look, a single Ronan, armed with the Power Stone gave you so much trouble that I had to practically rescue you guys just so that Xandar would remain standing."

"--The only reason we had so much trouble with Ronan was because of the very thing that you are asking from us," Irani explained her reasoning and they would have been right if it was not Thanos that was gunning for something they had.

He sighed, "Let me make this very clear for you, Nova Prime. So please, think of this through the lens of Nova Prime, keeping in mind the future of Xandar. Thanos, me, and Carol Danvers, are all beings capable of individually wiping out Xandar, without any outside assistance. Thanos is not like Roanna who will require the Power Stone to do anything."

Irani's eyes turned defeated as she was confronted with the truth of the matter.

"Thanos wants the Power Stone, I can guarantee that. Now, the only reason he would come to Xandar was for the Power Stone. Besides, this is just a courtesy call. I am perfectly capable of taking the Power Stone from your grasp, or from anyone save for a select few, without much damage to myself. Trust me, I am sparing your civilisation from losing a majority of the Nova Force, including yourself, because that is what will happen should Thanos attack and you fight him with the Nova Force, something that will surely kill you, even if Thanos does not,"

He finished his tirade and waited for her response.

"We cannot give up the Power Stone for just empty assurances, Mr.Sullivan. No matter how much I want to trust you," She informed him and therein lies the crux of the matter.

"What do you need?" He straightforwardly asked her.

"For now? Answers. But in the future, I would expect you to help defend Xandar exactly once if the need arises."

Well, that was very much acceptable in his book.

"Alright, that is fine by me. What do you want to know?"

".. First of all, why does Thanos want the Infinity Stones? Even he cannot wield them without–"

And after the impromptu Q&A session, the Nova Prime was so much more agreeable, after she understood Thanos' plan to enact his culling on a universal scale, using all the six Infinity Stones, something that was still of an impossibility according to her because, even if Thanos used some sort of device that nullified most of the damage, he would still not survive because he was not a Celestial. Only the strongest of the Celestials would have any chance of wielding all six Stones and in a way, she was right.

Although, she was also aware that Thanos was completely mad and would probably not even mind dying if he got to complete his goal of culling half of the entire universe.

"I assure you, the Stones will be scattered across the cosmos, once I am sure that Thanos has breathed his last, and the same for his Black Order," He assured her after getting the Power Stone sealed in a container that, according to her, should be able to suppress the energy signature of the Power Stone completely.

Doubtful but he was not going to insult the woman to her face.

"I understand. I will warn everyone in my contacts about Thanos' dastardly plans. Thank you so much for the warning." The meaning of the words was not lost on him.

If Thanos actually moved for the Infinity Stones, all well and good, and all her allies would come together to fight Thanos but if he actually just used the Stone for his own use, well then, he might just find himself being harassed constantly by pirates, rogues, government operatives and more.

Not that it would be beyond his ability to handle, especially armed with the Power Stone but still, the threat of mutually assured destruction was pretty clear.

Now, to the matter at hand, the real reason he had come all this way.

"Do you have any idea about the whereabouts of the Guardians of the Galaxy?" He asked Irani Rael who looked completely off put by his line of questioning.

She looked confused for a moment before a familiar looking man stepped forward and whispered something into her ear, making her eyes light up in realisation.

"Ah, are you perhaps speaking about the same Guardians of the Galaxy that had their entire crime record expunged in exchange for donating the entire 4 billion units as rescue fund and the accolades they received to be part of the group that stopped Ronan until you stepped in?" Irani looked at him with a barely concealed smirk on his face.

He smiled and was about to reply but he was informed rather snidely by the person standing beside Irani Rael.

"The same group that is now wanted for the theft of multiple anulax batteries? Along with violating the agreement of not arming the ship that was given to them with experimental dangerous weapons, on top of taking rather criminal bounties, some of which resulted in millions of units in damage to Xandarian property and outposts?"

His smile fell off as the latest "exploits" of the group were made known to him.

"Damn," He muttered as the man continued to go on and on about the crimes of the Guardians of the Galaxy, the latest of which was the theft of an entire prosthetic arm from the very ship port that orbited the planet, and the arm was that of an important foreign envoy to Xandar, bringing into the question Xandar's ability to effectively protect foreign emissaries.

A scandal on literally the galactic scale.

He winced as Irani subjected him to a very pronounced smirk.

"I suppose that you guys don't really have their whereabouts then. If you did, they would be in–"

"In Handcuffs? Locked in the deepest cells with no sunlight for years? Yes, they would be."

Okay, the man was getting on his nerves for being someone who he didn't even remember, someone who probably didn't even survive the canon invasion of Ranon the Accuser.

"Mr.Sullivan, I can give you their accurate location but in exchange, you have to bring them to me, so that they can face trial for their crimes," Irani interrupted the tirade of her subordinate.

He quirked his eyebrows at her questioningly, the question clear. If her subordinate didn't know, then how did she?

"Fortunately, when Mr.Quill was scanned by our deep genetic scanners, his lineage indicated a completely alien biology, previously unknown to us, something that doesn't happen anymore. Along with the anomalous behaviour we detected of his DNA, had me personally ordering his doctors to place a deep space tracker in his body. It should be updated every hour, I can have you a very accurate location right now,"

His face split into a grin, "A chance to school my fellow human? Why not, bring it on."

Sorry Quill. He will be saved from becoming Ego's glorified battery pack but might end up in a jail cell in the end. Still, his case could be pleaded by showcasing the good deeds he did for the betterment of the universe.

Frankly speaking, Ego's plan was bound to fail, considering that there were still Celestials roaming around, and would certainly stop Ego's seed from spreading and consuming the Universe as a whole.

It was still funny and a little bit sad for him to know that Ego conspired this whole grand plan to become one with the Universe because he believed himself to be the last of the Celestials, all alone but the fact was that there were other Celestials out there, just unwilling to interact with him.

It was just that Celestials as a race were solitary beings, they had to be, considering the sheer effect they had on their surroundings. It was just that Ego did not know that and for some reason, Arishem or any other Elder Celestial did not contact the newly born Celestial for some reason, driving him mad and making Ego concoct this stupid scheme.

Unfortunately, stupid or not, he had to put a stop to it because he did not want to rely on plot armour this time.

"Thank you. I will be back with the group, to answer for their crimes. In the meantime, please be on the lookout for any abnormal activity from Thanos or his known allies or from his Black Order." He warned the group who took it very seriously and floated back into a ship, a strict loaner from the Nova Force, with the tracker details already programmed into the ship's AI.

Damn, he really had to learn how to drive a spaceship.

After all, his retirement plan hinged on sightseeing throughout the universe, after getting himself a bombshell girlfriend that is.

"ETA - 2 hours." He read the message on the screen and then had the bright idea to check on the Power Stone.

He knew that they did not dupe him because his barriers were giving him readings of immensely dense energy being outputted by the container that housed the Power Stone. It was sparse, the energy output but the density of the energy itself was off the charts.

Well, it should be, because it was a freaking Infinity Stone, he thought to himself as he did the complicated series of unlocking steps that were needed to fully unlock the container. He had no doubt that rumours of Thanos' plan would spread throughout the cosmos within 24 hours, it was just the nature of rumors.

Now, that was a net positive in his opinion because the only reason Thanos was able to blitz through every single civilization holding an Infinity Stone or the location to one, was only because of his anonymity. Nobody knew his plan to use the Stones to decimate half the universe before he had already one Infinity Stone on hand.

The news of his plans being spread throughout the cosmos will have multiple parties looking into his actions, not too deeply obviously because the Purple Scrotum was still deeply feared across the galaxy but even minor hiccups would help immensely since his next stop was going to be Nidavellir.

And he just hoped that the rumours spreading did not accelerate his assault on Nidavellir.

That would just….suck.

---

Word Count - 2619

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 or Ko-fi .

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.