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).

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.

 

[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 [June 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

His eyes blinked in order to get rid of the spots in his vision as he looked at the huge number of asteroids that filled his vision. The Jump Point was alarmingly close to a number of smaller, fast revolving asteroids, just glittering with pimped out lights.

His gaze swivelled across the view that was afforded to him through the glass that kept the vacuum at bay, and found hundreds of such asteroids, in fact, every single asteroid to have some sort of lights on it, indicating that it was being used and was inhabited.

In the distance, the red giant sun was casting a dim glow on the asteroids. The ship performed some sort of handshake with the local organisation and that led to his ship heading straight towards the biggest asteroid of them all, a circular asteroid that was filled with artificial bays on all sides, with spaceships of all walks parked around it.

His eyes narrowed as he looked at the myriad species walking around the parking bays without any oxygen masks, even though the entire thing was subjected to the cold vacuum. His unasked question was unanswered as soon as his ship went closer, to the point where he felt a small wave pass through him, and soon, he could see the thin translucent barrier littered with hexagonal blocks that probably kept the air inside.

The only question was if the air was suitable for humans or not? And what about the gravity? Any trace radiation levels? Because the sun was right there, and he did not feel any confidence in the very thin amount of atmosphere protecting them from the UV.

Not that he had any fears in that regard since he was the barrier incarnate but just something that was part of his idle curiosity.

His gaze went to the many ships that were in the process of being docked or being taken out of the docks, with most of them being bigger, much bigger than his own ship but that was not enough to make him self conscious as his barriers were more than enough to make himself larger than all the ships present in the multiple bays.

He looked at the ship being guided by the AI, and a small attendant with a single arm that came straight out of their chest, which was…odd but nothing in the vast scheme of space.

As soon as the ship docked with the bay, with a slight jerk, the engine's background noise died out and a series of notifications were displayed on the captain's dashboard.

"Reached System Mk-221, The Broker" It read and he had no freaking clue as to what it was. Most probably some obscure part of the Marvel lore that he didn't bother reading in his past life, or something that did not make it to the minds of Stan Lee and his fellow creators but existed in the universe all the same.

"Atmospheric conditions - suitable for humans and all carbon based life forms. Gravity - 1.3X of Terra"

He read through the messages and once he was confident that there was ont much he could grain through the ship anymore, he asked the ship, "Ship? The key?"

He was, ofcourse, referring to the key of the ship. A pedestrian concept on Earth, where each car was keyed to a key, pun intended, and that key allowed any person to open the car. For some reason, in the world of advanced biometrics, retinal scans, Genome Scans, and more, even the spaceship industry utilised the same tool and assigned a "key" to each spaceship.

He was utterly stupefied at the stupidity but it was the law of space and who was he to contest it?

He stepped out of the bay and took in a deep breath, and almost immediately gagged as so many smells hit him all at once, he had to reflexively cover his face in a barrier that began taking in stored air from Xandar and Earth, that he had compressed down to very minute volumes, just in case,

He could not predict if some Celestial or something attacked him out of nowhere and dumped him out of his Jump Gate, without air or a spaceship. It would be very hard for him to get air and more importantly, teleport anywhere because the normal sling rings don't do intergalactic Portals.

They need special shit for that, and unfortunately, he did not have it. Only the Sorcerer Supreme does.

It would prove that Stephen Strange, as the future Sorcerer Supreme, made the executive decision to distribute the incredibly dangerous tools to his fellow Masters just so that the final army could be gathered to create that one Last, United, Stand against Thanos, Son of A'lars.

"Welcome," He was greeted with a robotic greeting and had to sign a few things on a piece of paper that was floated to him by a robot before he could leave the bay area. Apparently, even in the vastness of space, they somehow found a way of utilising one of the rarest forms of material, wood, just for administrative purposes.

Or was the paper made of stone, which space had plenty of?

He shook his head, questions for later on, when he was not on a quest to hunt down a group that comprised of a Half Celestial, unpowered though, an empowered Racoon, a Flora colossus, a daughter of Thanos, Drax, and whatsoever they had managed to pick up along the way.

He entered the huge sprawling complex that greeted him once he exited the bays. It was nothing like he had expected it to be. The Asteroid was roughly the size of Earth's moon and it would seem like it was completely hollowed out from the inside because the sheer number of buildings and just the overall city he was seeing from his point of view looked more than it would fit even in Earth's moon.

His neck craned upwards as he walked forward, as he saw buildings dotting the ceiling of all places.

"So freaky," he muttered as he realised that this place had even used up that space, such must be the space crunch, even though he could see that the entirety of the space was not being utilised properly.

There was a raised area, right in the centre, which glinted to his eyes, even this far away, and it was just a single huge castle with no buildings on top of it as if the owner of that place just wanted his air space to be free of other buildings.

He snorted internally, as he went with the crowd, half exploring the place, half heading towards where the tracker last tracked Quill, realising that classism was prevalent even in the far reaches of space.

Good to know that Humanity was not the only species fucked up enough to come up with that vile thing.

He whistled as he tried not to gawk at aliens that held a striking resemblance to humans, save for one or two little differences. Bipedal mammals must really be common across the universe or the evolution of bipedal mammals must go through a similar path, only differing minutely in the end product, not that he believed Humans to be the end of the evolutionary path.

No, sir. That would be the height of foolishness and would also destroy his faith in the evolutionary process because beings like humans should not be the end point of an evolutionary cycle.

Not even the Inhumans, or the Mutants were the end because they were not dominant enough, neither strong nor consistent enough.

No, they needed to evolve into some super race with similar features so that Humanity doesn't nuke itself out of racism or just grow another brain to hold back all the intrusive thoughts that plague Humanity as a whole.

He snorted at the weird tangent his brain had taken and took a left turn as the hour had passed and Quill's location was updated that instant. His path led him to a bar that smelled.

He sighed and shook his head, "Figures."

The bouncer at the entrance looked at a screen that probably had something to do with the huge ass scanner installed right in front of the door, and then the other bouncer let the ribbon away when the first bouncer nodded. He pointedly avoided looking at their very tentacle-y feet that kept them upright and nodded in thanks.

Entering the bar, he was immediately assaulted by the smell of sweat, cheap booze, oil, and vomit.

Ugh, curse his enhanced senses. He immediately regretted letting the bar up to see if the establishment had any way of filtering the smell and it most definitely did not. In fact, he believed that the bar actually added to the filthy smell that pervaded most of the Docking bays, being so close to the entry points.

He was tempted to use his barriers to spread his awareness but this was a completely foreign place with no one recognising him. In a way, that hampered him because he would have to do some real damage before they took him seriously and also because he did not actually want to create a conflict.

It was just that he was so used to the automatic method that searching for the Guardians manually seemed just a chore to him. Still, he looked around the bar, bought the cheapest alcohol they had that would be palatable to a carbon based Human lifeform, and roamed the first level.

The bartender was not exactly chatty and he did not feel the need to tip him extravagant amounts of money to get something that his tracker would already find for him. According to his tracker, which should be accurate, unless this was some sort of weird prank that Irani Rael was pulling on him, was telling him that he was right where Quill was.

Hmm. Maybe, the tracker could not rack altitude changes then, which was weird because it could track Quill across space but not locate his exact height.

Shrugging at the abnormality, he slowly floated down, his feet not touching the stairs, the display of power not even drawing a sparing glance from anyone around him, which was kind of refreshing to be honest until he eventually reached the second level.

It was noticeably more crowded here, with the bartender being someone with literally flaming hair, pouring drinks after drinks which were then immediately swept away by waiting customers.

His enhanced senses could find the sound of moans, grunts, and more from the corners of the floor, and even though some of the doors that probably led to the bathrooms.

Ugh.

Taking a quick look around, he couldn't spot anyone, so he just resolved to go deeper. He had a hunch that the deeper he went, the cheaper it would be, the more crowded, the more smelly, and the more dirty it would be.

Unfortunately, he had a hunch that Quill, along with his ragtag ground would indeed be in the levels below.

So, with a long suffering sigh, he entered the level below, and the one after that, and the one after that, until eventually, he reached the lowest level, which was, thankfully, not quite what he expected it to be.

The lower he went, the more the security increased. He could actually feel the power levels of the guards the lower he went. At each level, they just looked at him and then let him pass, not stopping him at any point in time, right until he reached what felt like the final boss of the place.

That door was ornate and seemed to glow. He looked at the one bouncer who gestured at him to enter and he did.

His eyes widened as he heard a very familiar laughter in the background.

"Another!" The shout was followed by the sound of glass breaking on the ground. He had a weird sense of Deja Vu at the series of sounds.

He turned around the corner and was stilled on the spot as he saw Thor Odinson, drinking with Peter Quill and the rest as they sat all around a table, with a series of other people, who were noticeably more silent than the Crown Prince of Asgard, a fact that Thor seemed to ignore.

Thor also seemed to ignore the death glares the rest of the occupants of the floor were shooting at their table, something that seemed to unnerve the rest of the Guardians, so much so that even Rocket was silent and not quipping some underhanded insult.

Or a direct insult to someone's face, either one was Rocket's style.

His entry went unnoticed by all but the drinking Royal Asgardoian, with Peter's face showing relief at his presence.

Huh, maybe Quill was feeling threatened by the people in this palace. It might be due to the sheer number of people he could sense with his heightened senses in this place but could only see a few dozen.

Standing guard just outside the walls then, he realised.

"Ah, I had so much fun today. Thank you for escorting me here, Guardians of the Galaxy. I am glad to meet a human after so long. You know, you should meet the Avengers, they are some of the greatest *Hiccup* warriors I know," Thor told them as he was about to throw the glass as well but his barrier stopped it in time, something that drew eyes from every person in the room.

Some of them had more than a dozen eyes all at once locking on his green form.

"Hello, Thor. Nice to see you again," he said to Thor as he slid right into Quill's seat, dislodging him and dropping him on his ass.

Ah, nice to troll the Half Celestial.

Thor's eyes peered at his form before his entire being brightened and he suddenly found himself subjected to one of Prince Thor's crushing hugs, so much so that he could feel the impact on his barriers, which was startlingly rare.

"Ah, there, There," he patted Thor's back as he was lifted off the ground and shook like a ragdoll.

Stupid Clingy golden retriever of an Asgardian.

---

Word Count - 2406

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 [June 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

"So, you were "banished"?" The double quotes were strong in his statement as he asked Thor, incredulity lacing his voice.

Thor's face turned somber at that, "Aye, Green Guardian. I was banished by my father, to gain the wisdom necessary to rule properly. No worries though, I have learned a lot and I have faith that any day now, Heimdall will pull me back soon enough."

It was clear as day to him that the Crown Prince's hope regarding that happening had been diminishing day by day because it had been years since he had last even heard from Heimdall. Letting him travel the universe unaided and without any goal was one thing but not letting anybody communicate with him, at all, was very fishy.

Very sus, in his opinion.

His eyes narrowed as he sipped on what could only be called as a horrible rendition of orange juice as he looked over the view that the hotel room afforded them. They were staying in very nice hotel rooms, courtesy of the owner of this place who valued strength above everything else and Thor's strength was at the top of whatever this remote place hosted.

Even more so than the last time they had met. It didn't escape his attention that Thor could call upon his lightning powers even without Mjolnir's help and it was evident in his behaviour. Where before, Mjolnir would always, without fail, be in his field of vision whenever he sat down or his gaze slid to the hammer regularly, now nothing of that sort happened.

'It is Loki. There is no other option. That bastard.'

He didn't let his thoughts show on his face as his ears picked up on the cacophony of noises that the rest of the Guardians were making, some in the effort of eating everything that was in this place, some in eavesdropping on their conversation.

"So, I guess you had a very legendary adventure?" he asked Thor, whose eyes lit up at the mention of his legendary adventures, his previous melancholy all but forgotten, atleast temporarily, as THor began regalling him about his escapades throughout the galaxy.

With no money and resources to his name, save for some spare gold he had swiped in haste, Thor had some trouble at first but then he had the brilliant idea to register himself as a bounty hunter.

As one could guess, it turned out to be extremely lucrative for someone of Thor's powers. If only Thor knew that bounties did not always fall on bad people's heads. One too far botched bounties led to Thor being blacklisted from the black market as well, and the irony was not lost on him.

The thing was that once Thor, the Crown Prince of Asgard, saw injustice being committed, he would not just stop and back off, no, the Crown Prince would then turn into the most stalwart protector of Justice the galaxy had ever seen and as he could hazard, scant few could ever hope to match Thor in sheer might.

He had honed his abilities to a high level, so much so that he could actually feel the localised electric field that surrounded Thor's body. It was not there the last time they had met. Some sort of new ability that Thor unlocked, probably after repeated use of his powers, with nothing to fall back on, no backup, no safe place to rest, no warm place to return to, no friends, and certainly no family welcoming him with open warms, from the throes of battle.

He winced at the thoughts that filled his mind.

He himself could have handled a couple of years all alone in space, with activity, but just with people that were strangers to him, but that was only because he was sort of fucked in the head.

He didn't think that he had major mental issues, everyone of note had some minor issues but his one major issue could be the fact that he was reincarnated in a world that was just ink on paper in his home reality, and while the extensive time he spent in this reality did diabuse him of the notion, it was still really hard to truly connect with the people.

He logically knew that all these people had entire lives and he had to respect them and treat them with respect but in the end, he knew more than the people knew about themselves and that really put a damper on their communications.

That was why he could probably power through a couple of years in space but for someone like Thor?

Someone who had grown up all his life, adored by the masses, loved by his family, feared and respected in equal measure across the breadth of enemies and allies alike?

The time spent in space with no familiar face must be the closest thing to hell.

He didn't know what overtook him but he ended up dropping the glass and hugged Thor. Thor was startled but soon leaned into the totally manly hug.

"I am so sorry for your loss," He couldn't imagine what it must be like to lose Frigga, someone who had, for all intents and purposes, been the beacon of love for both her children.

He didn't comment on the totally subtle wiping of tears that Thor did or the way he tried to mask his sniffles with coughs, and that, that honesty, that raw emotion clinched something in him.

"Alright, big guy, let's get you home, alright?" he clapped Thor on the shoulder and stood up, studiously ignoring the confused look on Thor's face as he marched back into the room. It was time to wrap up this Ego episode and get to Asgard, preferably before Loki fucked things up even further and left Nidavellir completely defenseless.

Also, he had to make sure that Old Man Odin didn't die on Earth, and unleash Hela on his homeworld. A deathworld was preferable and if Odin had some way of using his remaining strength to turn the tides in their favour, it would be most preferable.

"Alright, Quill?" He addressed the duo of Quill and Gamora who were trying to act cool, and natural, as if they were not hearing their entire conversation. He snorted as he saw the magazine that Peter was reading, upside down.

He might not be able to read whatever alien language it was but he could read pictures just right and that female model was most definitely upside down.

"Wait! What do you mean by that? Green Guardian, my trial is still not complete. I cannot, will not, go home until Odin deems me fit to rule," Thor declared with finality and he resisted the urge to just punch holes in the poor man's dreams.

Odin would never do that, and never in this way. A supervised banishment to a planet with next to no people who could truly threaten any Asgardian? Sure, that was very much in the cards.

But this? Outright banishment with no contact for years, and no directions as to what lesson Thor needs to learn? No, it had Loki's scent all over it. Unfortunately, he couldn't really bear to break THor's conviction at the moment, even though he found it a bit incredible that Thor simply didn't notice Odin being quietly replaced by Loki.

His mind still found it hard to wrap itself around the concept of Odin Borson, the pinnacle of power in the Nine Realms, who was quietly replaced in his seat of power, by Loki of all people. And not, Loki of Loki Season 2, with all his multiversal level powers, no, this Loki could be defeated by Iron Man if Tony was sufficiently motivated.

He just chalked it up to the overwhelming grief both Father and Son must be feeling when Frigga passed away and simply were not in their best state of mind, something that Loki capitalised on.

"Thor, listen to me? Earth, Asgard, hell, the entire Nine Realms need you. We have no time for lessons right now. We will go back to Earth and then figure out a way to get you to Asgard BUT–"

"B-but, Father's royal decree-" The confusion and sheer yearning on the Crown Prince's face broke something in him. Damn Loki for toying with his brother's feelings when he was in such a vulnerable state of mind.

Not Cool, Loki. Not cool.

Still, he could not let Thor just stay here and roam around, cashing in on bounties in his spare time and reading anything and everything that this place could get him, in search of the mysterious lesson that he was supposed to learn here. "--BUT before that, we have something else to do. We will talk after that, Thor. For now, just think of you helping me in something that might endanger the Nine Realms, including Asgard,"

That got Thor's attention as, in a fraction of a second, Thor's entire countenance changed and the smell of Ozone overpowered the room freshener as Thor's eyes flashed blue, his voice lowering an octave, "Who dares threaten Asgard?"

Ookay.

That was quick. Apparently, spending a couple of years in space, constantly fighting all by himself with improvement and learning as his one tone focus, Thor had learned some new tricks, strengthened himself, and was now seriously the strongest Avenger, considering that he did not consider himself as a member of the Avengers.

Still, he would not want to test himself against this version of Thor, not because his powers were any lesser in front of the Asgardian but simply because this Thor seemed to be drowning in fights, honing himself.

A fight between them, especially to the death, would most probably result in him dead. He was not afraid to admit that. It was a good thing that they were both allies then, and also with a common enemy even if Thor was not aware of the one who would rapidly grow to top his list of most hated enemies.

Banishing these thoughts from his mind, he whirled on Peter who was also looking at both of them, and was looking positively spooked at the battle ready form of Thor, with Mjolnir somehow vibrating somewhere in the room, judging by the rattling noise that was also heavy somehow.

"Quill, we need to get into contact with Yondu. He has some important intel that we need. I know you have a way of contacting him, do that." he ordered Quill and internally rolled his eyes as Peter puffed his chest with fake bravado. Gamora openly snorted at that which was actually a violation of the highest order.

"N-Now, wait a minute, while we are grateful for the stay here by the muscle mountain over there but who are you to come and order me around," Peter stood his ground.

The scene was made infinitely more amusing by the entrance of Rocket who had some sort of bread in one hand, as he mock whispered at Peter, apparently having heard Peter's previous faked bravado.

"Oh, I know who he is. He is that human who is stronger, smarter, and all around better than you, Quill. Hey! Can we exchange you for him? He would serve as a much better–"

"Rocket! Whose side are you on?" Peter shouted, outraged and he had enough.

A heavy pressure settled in the room, as he employed a trick that veteran masters of the Mystic Arts used, only on human sorcerers though because this trick did not work on monsters with stronger souls. Using strength of spirit and soul to create an invisible blanket of pressure that affects beings with weaker souls.

He did not have time for this. He was in a rush to get this Ego issue resolved and then get to Asgard, and in proxy, Nidavellir, to make sure that nothing like the Infinity Gauntlet was even created.

If he had to relocate the entire Dwarven species to Earth for that, so be it.

How hard could it be to house about 300 giant humanoid beings anyway?

Wakanda had plenty of open space, the last time he saw. Hmm, he was rapidly turningWakanda into his own personal dumping ground for problems that he could not safely house in the normal countries of Earth.

Thor, predictably, was undisturbed, with Gamora and Drax only showing subtle signs of struggle with Rocket relying on Groot's protective embrace.

THUD!

He blinked as Quill straight up fell unconscious, face first right in front of his feet.

His lips twitched as he tried to hold in the laughter. Something that was made infinitely harder by Thor's bewildered and concerned look as he kneeled down to check on Quill.

_____xx____

"So, why exactly do you want to meet Yondu?" Quill asked him as all of them were now aboard the infamous Milano, the signature Orange spaceship that served as the primary base of operations of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

It was quite a task to get Thor onboard, especially since he hadn't really explained to him what the threat would be. His ship was not enough to house all of them so he had chosen to, without asking Quill about it, which rankled him something fierce, to hitch a ride aboard the Milano and ditch the space ship that Irani Rael, the Nova Prime, so graciously provided him, at no cost.

He asked the computer aboard the ship given to him about parking itself and apparently, it could head back to Xandar on its own and he was fine with that, so he let the ship go, with the ship having paid for itself as part of Xandar's vast galaxy spanning supply network.

"I want information. Information that he happens to know and also is the easiest person to get ahold of," He didn't reveal much before retreating into the lower levels where Thor and Rocket, along with Groot were playing some galactic board game that he didn't really understand enough.

"What are you after, really?" he looked back at Gamora who was leaning on the door, looking at him with narrowed eyes.

He sighed and looked back at the now fiercely competitive game happening in front of him, with Thor's eyes flashing blue as his pieces, which were made of metal, began arcing with electricity as it began blasting away the rest of the pieces, which had Groot engulf the entire board with his trees, which then began to blacken after getting hit by Thor's lightning.

He hummed thoughtfully at the masterful display of powers from Thor. He was only going stronger, far stronger than the canon timeline and he was very grateful for that. It also meant that their chances of taking out Ego without any wild card were only increased.

Without looking at Gamora, he replied, "If you must know, I am after Quill's father."

Gamora's sharp intake of breath was left unaddressed as he waited for her to reply.

"W-What-Who is Quill's father? He claims that he doesn't know and his mother never told him,"

He just smiled at that small tidbit. If he remembered correctly, she always told him that Quill's father was a star man, and nobody ever believed the poor woman.

"All will be revealed once we meet Yondu. After that, we need to get to Earth, and you guys need to stay low. I don't want your father muddying the waters as well,"

The mere mention of her father had a blade at his neck faster than he could blink. The threat was meaningless, as they both knew very well. His barriers had weathered far worse than a standard issue blade, even if it was in the hands of the (debatably) dangerous woman in the galaxy.

"How do you know that?" She hissed at him but his thoughts were once again, on a tangent totally unrelated to the question Gamora was asking him.

Carol Danvers, Wanda Maximoff, Ancient One, Agatha Harkness (in specific situations), and more were certainly much more dangerous than just Gamora who was just a little bit stronger than the average Kree in physical parameters. The strongest Kree, like Ronan, were so far above here that she was basically powerless in front of them.

So, he didn't even let his gaze stray from the absolutely chaotic game happening in front of him, which he had to use his barriers to shield the ship's hull from, otherwise they might have just experienced hull damage mid FTL flight, which would not be fun, he knew that much.

"Answer me!" She hissed once again, driving the blade deeper into his barrier, or atleast tried to.

He finally side eyed her and with a flex of his will, created a barrier around her sword and pressed.

Her wide eyes as her sword was fractured and crushed into a small ball was instagram worthy.

Unfortunately, that little exchange had broken up the game happening in front of him, something that he was growing to enjoy.

Sigh. So much for a little fun before they had to move on to addressing the daddy issues of not one, not two, not three but four freaking people, three of whom lived in the same ship, and were part of the same team

Gamora. Quill and Rocket, if the High Evolutionary could be considered his father in a rather fucked up way.

And then there was Thor, the biggest, strongest elephant in the room.

He once again sighed, resigned to another long episode of mental gymnastics.

God, if superpowered people in this universe gave as much attention to their mental health as they did to their powers, the universe as a whole would be a much better place and he would not have to dive into the psychological issues of his childhood heroes, something that broke something in him every time he had to do it.

Alas, someone had to do it and he found himself to be uniquely suited to do it, so there he was.

---

Word Counter - 3032

A/N - Another chapter of "daddy issues" before Action.

Thanks for reading!

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 between Jump Gates [June 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

The silence in the cabin was telling. Everyone had gathered in the same room, calling down Quill as well after it was revealed that he had some idea as to who Quill's father was and also knew about Gamora and her father, and more.

Thor had taken the backseat, content on emptying the alcohol and food stores of the ship while Quill was glaring at him with all the bravado he could muster, even though the longing, the desperation, to know who his father was, was very much clear to him.

Rocket and Groot were both fairly neutral but were standing on the side of Quill and Gamora and then there was him.

He was sitting on a throne made up of his barriers while waiting for Quill to gather his bearings to ask the question that must have eaten him up for countless nights.

"Alright, so who wants to go first?" He chose to break the silence because he really did not have the mental capacity to do any complicated conversational gymnastics here before they reached Yondu's base and he, once again, had to deal with another asshole in this huge galaxy.

Quill's nostrils flared as he visibly controlled himself, taking a deep breath before looking straight at him, "Who is my father? And what do you want to do with him?"

Instead of answering, he smiled and asked a question of his own, "Tell me, Quill. Did Yondu ever tell you why he kidnapped you? And why he was ousted from the core Ravagers faction?"

Quill's face morphed into one of confusion, "W-What does that have to do with anything? Just answer the damn question," While Gamora's face turned thoughtful.

He smiled, "it has everything to do with who your father is and what Yondu was doing for him. Rocket, can you look up what are the core tenets of the Ravager faction and exactly what could cause Stakar Ogord to banish Yondu Udonta from the Ravager faction?"

Rocket piped up after being addressed and then immediately began working furiously on his tablet, typing away from them for a bit.

Meanwhile, he could feel Thor keeping a close eye on the proceedings while munching on all the food ofcourse.

"Ravager - contact us, member list, apply for membership, jobs, where is it- Aha! There it is, Core Tenets," Rocket muttered as he browsed what could only be the Ravager website.

"Do not take jobs to hurt Ravagers or official Ravager operations. Do not partake in–" Rocket's voice hitched as he stopped reading and looked at him with a narrowed gaze.

He smiled, "Yes. Yondu Udanta was banished from Ravagers because he dealt with something that is forbidden in the Ravager Code of Conduct. Pirates they may be, but even they didn't condone dealing in children,"

The silence was deafening.

"But that doesn't make any sense. If Yondu took Quill from Earth as a job, why did he not complete the job? Why was Quill kept as part of the Ravagers and allowed to rise up in the ranks?" Gamora asked him.

He sighed internally. Well, this has gone on long enough. Might as well rip the band aid off at once.

"Quill, your father was not human. He was an alien. AN incredibly powerful and ancient, immortal alien who fathered you with your mother. Yondu was tasked with retrieving you but for some reason, he didn't hand you over to his client. Now, we need to get to your father and I am sure that Yondu knows his location."

"And his father, is he the threat to Asgard?" Everyone looked back to see Thor looking straight at him, his face set in stone.

He nodded. It would become incredibly easy for his mission if both he and this empowered Thor dealt with Ego. Things were looking up, now all that was left was to find Ego. Hopefully, Yondu kept tabs, even though he had a hunch that they would be chasing his trail for days before Ego noticed them and actually found them on his own. Because hunting down a celestial, even as weak as one as Ego, would be a monumental task but thankfully, they had something that Ego desperately wanted.

A human/Celestial hybrid, someone that could actually act as Ego's battery in his mad plan to engulf the entire universe in his body and become one with the universe, or try to anyway but then again, why leave things to fate or to forces far more powerful and therefore, far more whimsical, when he could nip the threat in the bud on his own?

"Yes. I can't say more right now but once we have his location, we can all have the answers we want."

Right on cue, the ship began beeping at a soft rate, prompting Quill to get back up into the captain's seat.

"We are about to reach our destination," Gamora explained to him as the Guardians of the Galaxy left the room, leaving just him and Thor in the room. HE nodded at him and sat down in front of Thor, various assortments of finished food packaging on the table in front of him.

"So, the threat, his father, how hard is he to kill?" Thor rumbled, and he had to raise a forcefield almost immediately when he realised where the conversation was going. He couldn't risk Quill finding out that they were going to kill his dear ol' dad, because if the events that happened in the future had taught him something, that it was never a good idea to let Quill know anything that might hamper the plan.

"Yes. His father is Ego. He is a Celestial."

Thor's eyes widened at that, the can in his hand being crumpled on reflex, the shock of having to kill someone of that vaunted race would do that to anyone.

"Don't worry, Ego is not strong, not for a celestial anyway. I also know what his weakness is and with you & me both here, he will be killed in no time," He had to hastily clarify everything lest he get other ideas.

"I will trust you on this, Green Guardian but I have been taught ever since I was a little child that Celestials are the one race that must never be provoked. A race that even my father fears, such is their terror. It would be wise to proceed with caution."

"I know, but that only applies to Celestials that have been named and have full control over their powers. Ego doesn't have any of that. Don't worry, I have a plan in mind," He reassured Thor who nodded, and only then, he noticed Mjolnir who had appeared at his side, shuddering and then slowly landing on the ground.

Thor's powers really had evolved a lot if he was comparing him to the canon timeline. Well, butterflies and all that.

He left the lower level and came up right in time to see them exiting the Gate and come in front of a massive complex of ships and loading bays, all with two small moons being connected loosely with landing ships with ships zig zagging all around.

He could see the signature Ravager logo with a slash across it, showcasing Yondu's disgraced status as a Ravager. Honestly, it was a miracle that Yondu was even alive, considering that he had earned the ire of multiple powerful enemies and the only thing that could have kept him alive, his Ravager status, was also taken away from him.

Stakar Ogord must really love Yondu since he practically raised the man, only for him to be disappointed to see that Yondu's greed had overtaken his morals, sparse as they were.

Ravagers as a faction was really huge, governed by four captains, who head the largest factions with several smaller factions serving under the four captains. Yondu served under Ogord, who was the current leader of the entire Ravagers organisation, something that made him quite an influential figure in the galaxy.

Some words from him would have staved off the worst of attacks that Yondu would have had to suffer.

RING! RING!

His gaze snapped to Quill whose entire body radiated uncomfortableness when the peculiar ringing sound was heard by everyone.

Quill gulped before a nervous smile adorned his face as he opened the communication link.

"Well, well, well, look who it is, Mr.Guardian of the Galaxy himself. Finally grew a pair, huh, Quill? It's about time we have a chat, boy," Saying so, Yondu cut the call and the ship smoothly swerved to the left as a set of directions appeared on the screen for Quill to follow.

___xx____

Whatever it was, he was not expecting this. A full, guns on, approach to welcoming old members of the faction should not have been a surprise for him but he expected Yondu to be more…agreeable, considering the call.

"Oh well," He muttered to himself as he let the Ravagers cuff him and throw him in a cell, Thor following his cue and letting them cuff him as well, even though, realistically, this wouldn't hold both of them even at their base stats, let alone their empowered forms.

Mjolnir was kept aboard the Milano because, frankly? Thor didn't need Mjolnir to deal with the entire faction that Yondu was keeping around him because that's how absurd the difference was between the future God King of Asgard and normal baseline aliens.

"What are we doing here?" He looked back at Gamora who was with them as well, Rocket and Groot being separated from them but with Groot being his old adult self, he was not really worried about Rocket's safety.

"I don't know, really. Haven't really thought of a way to approach this whole issue. For one, I am sure that Yondu would never voluntarily give up any information he has on Eg-Quill's father so I am hoping that Quill confronting him will break Yondu's defenses," He said and then immediately did a double take as, in front of his very eyes, a very bruised Quill was brought to the cell in front of him by two guys and just dumped into it.

And by the way, Quill was not getting up…

"I didn't say that it was a good plan," He offered weakly before shrugging and breaking the handcuffs in a single smooth motion.

Thor doing the same moments later, as the handcuffs fell to the ground sparking red.

Alarms began blaring the same moment before he remembered what Yondu was best known for and created a series of barriers around the entire Guardians of the Galaxy and also around Thor, but he got a feeling from his barriers that there was already a thin, but absurdly potent, layer of energy surrounding Thor at all times.

He was just in time as well, as with a whistling sound, a thin glowing red stick appeared in front of their cell.

Yondu, along with his lieutenants appeared moments later, looking at their green clad forms with raised eyebrows. He cleared his throat and took a step forward.

Yondu looked fairly confident in dealing with him right up until he walked through the bars of the call, ignoring them as if they were not there at all.

With a thunderous sound, Thor followed suit, melting the entire cell door with arcs of electricity that just passed through his barriers, with the Guardians following suit.

Yondu looked like he was about to run away so he boxed them all in with a green barrier.

So, he said, smiling, even though he had a hunch that the smile did not look welcoming to them, "Can we talk, Yondu Udonta?"

Yondu looked at him before a crooked smile adorned his face, "Hey! I know you, you're that Terran kid, the same as Quill. I've seen you on video, bashing Ronan's face in. Anyone who hurts the pesky Kree is all alright in my books. Come on, this is no place for a discussion,"

He didn't know if it was due to Yondu sensing that he and his men were no match for him, or if Yondu genuinely hated the Kree that much, but he found himself going with Yondu's words, mainly because it would be better if Yondu gave the information voluntarily.

Information extraction after torture was more often than not, inaccurate on Earth. He had no reason to believe it would be different here.

Quill was left unconscious in the cell after he scanned him and found him mostly alright with his hardier than average body making sure that no permanent damage would be done and seeing the injuries, he had a hunch that Yondu purposefully made sure that Quill was not harmed all that much.

"So, what do you want?" Yondu asked, nursing his own drink after everyone sans Thor had refused a drink, probably worried about Yondu poisoning them.

"Ego." The mere mention of that name had Yondu straightening up.

"Leave." He ordered all his men to leave, despite their vehement protests.

"You are alright in my books so let me give you a warning. Stay away from Ego. You might be stronger than Ronan but Ego is a whole other beast. He will chew you with up and not even burp,"

He rolled his eyes at the warning.

"I know who Ego is, much more than you do. I only need his recent whereabouts, something that no information broker seems to have. I know that you didn't deliver Quill to him and he must have kept some way of contacting him, with you."

"He is bad news, I tell you. Nothing good will come out of Quill knowing about who his father is," Yondu replied, nervous about the situation.

"I understand but people are in danger and stopping Ego is paramount. So, I will ask again, where is Ego?" He didn't outright threaten Yondu but Yondu knew about his powers and with the smell of ozone that was rapidly filling the room along with the flashes of blue he could see being emanated from behind him, Yondu eventually caved in.

"Fuck, man, that's the Asgardian Prince!" Yondu sword, after which he began speaking as if he was a record player at 2X speed.

Damn, Thor's fear of the wider galaxy was much higher than his.

He might have to rectify that in the near future, once Thanos is taken care of. Although, just doing that might just make the entire galaxy avoid Earth like the plague.

"Alright, who will wake up Quill?" he asked the gathered team members while Yondu had left the ship entirely, leaving his ship for them to use, something that told them exactly how scared Yondu was about the entire thing.

Ego probably scared Yondu but they were here right now.

Rocket grinned and left the room in a hurry, which did not bode well for Quill. It would have been even worse if Quill had any prosthetics on him.

He mentally noted to himself, to never let Rocket meet Bucky, all by themselves.

---

Word Count - 2545

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).

Space [June 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

"So, he just gave this to you?" he asked Yondu incredulously, holding a small rectangular box that glowed with streaks of white and blue, something that was given to Yondu which would broadcast Yondu's current location to Ego who would then come to pick Quill up.

Apparently, Yondu had a bad feeling about delivering Petery to Quill so he never really contacted Ego about Peter and Ego too never contacted Yondu about it but the machine that Ego had given Yondu, to inform Ego about their location, still worked, and why wouldn't it, it was built by a celestial.

The weakest and possibly dumbest, least threatening celestial but a Celestial all the same. A species standing at the pinnacle of the universe, capable of matter and energy manipulation at wholesale rates.

"Ya, look, the man paid really well and while I wouldn't go so far as to say that Quill was worth that sweet sweet bounty, the weight on my conscience wasn't worth any bounty. So, if you people are going to deal with that monster of a man, be my guest. I will be far away from wherever that happens," Saying his piece, Yondu exited Milano, not meeting Quill's heavily disappointed gaze.

Well, they had all they wanted, a way to stage the final conflict, only if it were that simple. He remembered from his now spotty knowledge that Ego was traveling on a rather advanced spaceship, as an avatar, along with Mantis, when he found Quill. They then travelled to Ego's main body.

If they activated this, they would, at best, get the avatar coming to their location. They would have to somehow trick Ego into taking them all on his main body and he was unsure if that would be the right course to take because he was sure that Ego would sense the energy concentration in both himself and Thor as soon as he set his sights on both of them.

It would also not be hard for them to assume that Ego knew about Thor Odinson, the Crown Prince of Asgard but that was for later. First, they had to meet Ego or Ego's avatar and get him to reveal the location of his true body.

Now, it was possible to somehow deceive Ego into taking PEter to his main body but that would require some acting and restraint from Quil, both of which he was short of. He also had no time to waste here.

Every minute wasted on not reaching Nidavellir, Thanos got closer to having a working, Infinity Gauntlet.

"Well, we got what we wanted. When do we leave? Know any uninhabited star systems nearby?" He asked the Guardians and the only answer he received was silence as Quill rushed out of the ship, probably running after Yondu.

He sighed at that. Of Course, the main character must have his emotional moment with his father figure, dysfunctional as Yondu might have been.

He looked at Thor, "inform me when he is ready to leave," He had something actually productive to do in the meantime.

Thor nodded, not stopping eating, even for a moment, for all the time he had been in the Milano. God, the man could eat, and not even put on a ton of weight as a result. Some Godly bullshit.

He entered the lower level and after creating a cube all around him, he floated mid air, cross legged as he took out the container in which the Power Stone was kept by Xandar. If he could get even novice level proficiency in wielding the freaking Power Stone, his power levels would skyrocket so much that even dealing with Ego single handedly would not be much of an issue.

The events in the movie might even happen because Quill knew that his father was dangerous but he didn't know Ego's role in the death of Quill's mother. That was the reason Quill would rebel against his father, disorienting Ego enough that he didn't notice the big ass bomb that was planted right next to his brain, allowing the Guardians of the Galaxy to kill the weakest Celestial ever.

Still, he wasn't keen on depending on Quill of all people for their plan to succeed, so practice with the Power Stone it is.

He pressed his finger on the container that kept the Power Stone sealed and frowned when it beeped red. That was odd, Irani Rael had assured that his bio credentials had been updated into the Master Log. he tried again and frowned harder when the same red beeping happened, only at a much faster pace.

His eyes narrowed at that. Did they actually lie to him? What was she thinking?

He didn't know and didn't care as well, he was going to use the Power Stone as a weapon on his side. It made no sense not to use such a potent weapon in his fight against Thanos, especially since Thanos was going to use them and they knew it.

He created a sharp barrier and was about to force it open when, at the last moment, the barrier fizzled.

He sighed, resigned, and frustrated as he dispelled the cube and shoved the container into his dimensional space.

"Damn that woman," he muttered to himself as he realised her game. He did tell her that Thanos was seeking all the Infinity Stones in a bid to replicate his slaughter that he was only doing one by one for now.

But it was just his word for that. She might have given up the Power Stone because she had no way of effectively countering him. He didn't even need to hurt anyone to take the Powerwer Stone from them and that played a major part in her decision as she begrudgingly handed over the Infinity Stone to him.

But that didn't mean that she trusted him any more than Thanos, it would seem. Because if she did, she wouldn't have lied about the access. Now, he was more than sure that if he breached the container forcefully, it would act as confirmation for her that he sued Thanos just as an excuse to get the Infinity Stone from her.

And it might even backfire on him, as instead of warning her allies about Thanos and the threat he represented to the entire universe, she might broadcast that the Green Guardian from Earth, was in possession of an Infinity Stone, giving him enemies instead of allies.

"Shit," He swore once again as he realised that he was quite literally carrying just a dead weight on him, with no effective and safe way of using the Power Stone. He could have tried using the Power Stone using his barriers and see how it would interface with his powers. He had some ideas about creating makeshift vessels to house the Infinity Stone, mainly because of his power to shape his barriers and also his capacity to enchant his barriers with dimensional energy, allowing him to quite literally carve different properties on his energy barriers.

Alas, that would not be happening with the Power Stone. The powerup he could get from the Power Stone would be legendary but he wanted the support from the rest of the galaxy more. That was worth more than just one juiced up combatant.

Besides, in the worst case scenario, he could throw any caution to the wind and use the Stone with his barriers, if it looked like Thanos was going to win. If that was going to happen anyway, why would he worry about any potential injury from using an Infinity Stone?

Frustrated with one avenue to an easy powerup closed down, he headed to the upper levels. Maybe, Quill had come back and they could get out of this place.

Unfortunately, Quill hadn't returned and it was only the other guardians, along with Thor. He sighed, once again, and asked the Guardians, "Hey, is there any place, close by, where we could have a very destructive confrontation without anybody close by that could get hurt?"

"How destructive are we talking?" Rocket, the man (Raccoon?) with the right questions.

"Destructive enough to destroy the planet we are standing on," He summarily informed Rocket and there was the sound of crickets in the background as he could feel everyone's gaze on him. Rocket's eyes had widened minutely before he adopted a cool expression.

"Let me look into it," Saying so, he went to his terminal.

"What do you mean, planetary destruction? What is going to happen? Who is Ego?" Gamora asked him.

"Ego is a–"

"An asshole, my father, that is. Where is the cube?" Quill came barging into the ship, with tears streaming down his face. Apparently, the conversation did not go well with Yondu.

"Peter, what happened?" Gamora asked him but shrugged her hand off and continued searching for the communications device.

Thankfully, he had already kept it in his hands, away from Peter's grubby hands. He was going to inform that to Peter when Rocket piped up from the cockpit.

"Got it!"

He passed Peter as he saw the small planet with two moons, named SR-901, with an oxygen based atmosphere, suitable for all the people in the ship currently.

"Perfect, let's go," he ordered Rocket before turning back to the team.

"Whoa, whoa! Wait a minute, where are we going? And you don't get to order me around." Quill said as he marched up straight at him.

He really didn't have time for this.

"Rocket? Can you take us there on your own or do you need QUill's help?"

Rocket hesitated only for a moment before shaking his head and turning back to the cockpit. Well, that was as good as an answer>

"What? Wh-" Quill's eyes rolled back into his head as he fainted at the well positioned neck chop, something that he perfected back on Earth to easily subdue multiple baselines humans without any fuss.

Gamora took hold of Quill and dragged him back to the lower levels, all the while glaring at him. Drax helped her with it. Groot only looked on from the background with no apparent opinions.

"What? He was hoping to meet his father anyway," It was actually Thor who was looking at him with judgement, strangely enough.

"You seem to have some preconceived opinions about this Peter Quill, for some reason, Green Guardian. Care to share?" Thor said as he flicked the cup of ale at him, which sparked before appearing right in front of him, still sparking with blue electricity.

He caught the mug on reflex, looking at the arcing electricity in shock and awe.

Okay, that was new.

"My Brother is not the only one with the seidr tricks," Thor smirked at him as he gestured for him to sit at the table, while the ship jerked a bit as Rocket took them on their way to the deserted planet, which was quite close by.

He sat at the table and took a swig of the ale, and immediately regretted doing so, as he had to fight the urge to spray it all on Thor.

"I have seen a possible future." He created a silencing barrier around them before telling Thor.

Thor's brows rose at that, "I didn't know that any human could perform the art of divination."

"No, it is not like divination. It is as if I was shown a singular possible future. Something that is already off the rails because of my existence but in that future, I saw Victory being in our grasp. We were about to win, if not for, if not for—"

"Quill."

He looked up at Thor who looked at him with understanding in his eyes.

Okay, just what the hell happened to Thor in the past year or so? In Asgardian terms, that was merely an afternoon nap in comparison to their lifespan. How could Thor change so much in that short time span?

"Yes." He settled on that single word, his mind working furiously as he tried to make sense of the current rendition of Thor. Becoming stronger with his lighting after reducing his dependency on Mjolnir was one thing but learning magic like that?

And becoming so much smarter, so much aware somehow, that was some anomaly but before he could properly address them, Thor responded.

"You said it yourself, Jack Sullivan of Midgard, the future you saw was only a possible one. Something that might or might not even come true. So why base your opinion of people on a future that might never come to be true," Thor said and he was really struck by the difference in Thor.

Damn, he might have to up his game. At this rate, Thor might really end up becoming the "Strongest Avenger".

So, he nodded at Thor and went back to the cockpit.

"ETA - 4 hours," Rocket bit out at him.

He sighed once again at that. He couldn't really expect anyone to like him at this point, his stupidity in letting his emotions and opinions from his past life about Quill's stupid actions ended up tainting all his interactions with the team and most likely, any chance of maintaining any cordial relationship with the team.

There was nothing he could do, at the moment. All he could do was get this Ego stuff out of his plate and head on to Asgard, oust Loki, and then to Nidavellir, in that order. They couldn't afford to confront Odin, and let him die before getting Nidavellir in order, because He was not an opponent he could take lightly, even with the new and improved Thor beside him.

He wondered how Bruce and Betty were faring back on Earth. If Bruce could get out of his morose mood, they would have another strong powerhouse in their camp.

He just hoped that his existence and his escapades across the galaxy didn't force Thanos to accelerate his plans to gather all the Infinity Stones.

If he remembered correctly, there were theories floating around in his past life that Thanos only moved to gather the Infinity Stones, in a blitz strike, to make sure that the Universe couldn't regroup and mount an effective defense, was when both the Ancient One and Odin Borson were both dead.

Both powerhouses at the pinnacle of the galaxy. Both capable of calling forth power far greater than what baseline Thanos could deal with. Both with armies at their beck and call, with extensive support systems. Both capable of hitting him right at the heart of his operations and both allied, loosely at least.

If he thought like that, it would make sense that Thanos would avoid having to clash with two uber powerful but so very obviously mortal enemies while he himself was immortal, with no hurry to complete his plan.

If he thought like that, it would indeed make more sense for Thanos to begin his crusade only when the two giants on the board were dead, something that was coming up very soon, if his memories were correct.

God, he hoped that the comic conspiracy theorists from his previous world were right. Otherwise, they might be screwed.

Royally, at that.

---

Word Count - 2561

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).

Space [July 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

With a slight jerk, the ship exited FTL transport and a barren planet came into view. The sun was yellow but larger than Earth's, according to what was being displayed on the dashboard for him. It also was safe for everyone present on the ship, to breathe in the atmosphere.

The planet was strip mined and abandoned by some ancient species who somehow did so without destroying the atmosphere and even the mantle or core of the planet, leaving a mostly rocky planet but with clean enough air that even normal humans would have no trouble breathing in.

It was also at the ideal distance from their relatively larger sun, creating an ideal atmosphere for carbon based lifeforms to exist if only water existed on the planet. It was almost completely dry with lava rivers flowing through in some areas.

It was, in a way, hauntingly beautiful.

"Here, Landing Site 3-11," He pointed to the largest landmass consisting of heavy rocks, which also had some mountains and cliffs, creating a somewhat ideal space for them to fight Ego. Then again, there would be no fighting if he had any say in it.

"Fine," Rocket said, his voice frosty. He winced internally at that. The entire journey, nobody on the ship had spoken to him, save for Gamora.

Drax was silent, as was his nature but Rocket's silent treatment was telling enough, the respect or love they held for their captain. It might really have been a bad decision to knock out Quill but he was getting so annoyed, so anxious about the time they were supposedly wasting, because every second lost in getting to Nidavellir was one second too late.

He still knew that he was not wrong in hurrying here but he might have really allowed his past biases to colour his interactions and what a rookie mistake that was. Unfortunately, he held rather strong opinions about the final battle on Titan and Quill's role in almost destroying that plan.

Still, with Strange's Future predictions in play, he should have known that their losing in that manner might have also contributed to the Avengers winning in the end, 5 years later. Well, what's done is done.

After an hour into their journey, Gamora had come into the cockpit and he had explained the barebones of the plan to her and she had successfully convinced Quill about it. Still, he did not have much faith in Quill's action so he had just told them that Ego was searching for his kids for some reason and he was wary because Ego was a celestial and Celestials almost never interfered in mortal happenings, hence his extreme worry.

If Ego activated Peter's powers, it would be for the best because then, he could tell him that Ego killed Peter's mother, resulting in him going berserk and hopefully distracting Ego long enough for both him and Thor to destroy the entire planet. He was yet to discuss that part with Thor but he had a hunch that with their combined powers, destroying the surface of a small planetoid was not out of the realm of possibility.

The real target lay in the small brain that was essentially Ego, the real Ego. They had to destroy that small brain and their advantage lay in the fact that Ego had no fucking idea his weakness was already known to the other side.

"They landed on the rock, and immediately, he summoned hundreds of barriers as they zoomed away in all directions to gather information about the place,"

"Quill's fine, okay?"

He looked to the side as Rocket kept looking ahead.

"What you did to him was not nice and that is coming from me. The dude just found out he has family and you declare that you want to take care of his father. Plus, that stunt you pulled earlier." Rocket sighed and then pushed the steering back into its housing, stood up, and looked straight at him since he was still sitting in the co-pilot's seat.

"Look, if his daddy turns out to be evil and wants to hurt Quill, ofcourse, we will defeat him but remember this, if this is just something personal, I still have many moon breakers on me and you might be Invincible in your green shell, but that dirtball you call home sure isn't," After outright threatening him, Rocket went into the lower levels, where Quill and the rest were staying.

He sighed and leaned back further into his seat, and looked up as Thor came and sat down in the pilot's seat, facing him, with a sandwich of some sort in his hand and a canned drink in another. Seriously, just how much food did they stock on the ship? And where on Earth was it going?

"So, what's the plan?" Thor asked him in between bites.

He sighed, casting a small barrier around them, creating a small subtle green glow. "Ego has to go. Period."

Thor nodded at that, not even questioning his reasoning and he was glad for that.

"How would we do that? Celestials are beings not easily felled,"

That, he could answer. So, he informed Thor about Ego's fatal weakness and how easy it would be to reach the brain as long as Ego was sufficiently distracted and was busy protecting not just himself but also his son.

"So, Quill? There was no chance of Ego taking in Quill."

"As his son? No. As a battery? Yes,"

And that was that. Soon, the Guardians of the Galaxy came into the cockpit, with Quill looking quite determined as Gamora nodded at him, telling him that Quill understood what to do.

Well, at least he could rely on her, she was anything but unreliable.

"Let's go," He summoned the Ego summon device and flew out, with his battlesuit on. Thor followed suit with Mjolnir in his left hand, with no noticeable change visible on his body ut due to his increased sensitivity to magic and all extra dimensional energy, he could sense the vast shroud that lurked just beneath Thor's skin, empowering him to heights untold.

Damn, he really had to ask Thor what soup he drank while on his exile, to come this far in such little time.

He held the device in his hand and was about to press the top of the box himself but then thought better of it. Instead, he gently floated it to Quill who levelled a questioning look at him.

The positioning was quite clear to him. He stood in front of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Not Quill, not Gamora or Rocket or Drax or Groot individually. No, he was standing in front of the team that would have defeated Ronan, through whatever stroke of luck, killed Ego, again through happenstance, and then defeated the High Evolutionary as well. So, he was not going to underestimate them.

Thor stood right behind them, with his hands behind his back, surveying the air, as if he was a kind elder and not a Norse Warrior seeped in the blood of his enemies.

Still, it kind of hurt to see one of his favourite superhero teams stand against him, even in principle.

"It should be you. It's your father," He answered Quill's unasked question. Plus, it might even have built in measures to detect just who was pressing the button and might sense Quill's DNA, hastening Ego's response.

Quill just nodded and then, after hesitating a moment, pressed the button. Nothing happened for a moment and he feared they had wasted all this time and effort for nothing but then, small glowing lines appeared on the box, which then began vibrating. Quill tried to hold onto the box but it floated up and began glowing a otherworldly white colour.

His senses began warning him about the heavy cosmic energy wave that settled on top of all of them.

Shit!

His eyes widened as he realised what was about to happen, his heightened senses and familiarity with portals allowing him to realise what was about to happen just a tad bit faster than everyone else.

He acted fast, turning away from the impossibly white glow in the sky, and cast a series of barriers all around the Guardians who were probably already feeling the effects, and then flew all of them to a safe distance, with him following suit.

All of this happened in a flash so it allowed him to look at Thor who was looking straight at the cloud of light congregating in the sky, with a sparking Mjolnir in his hand, his expression unchanged, as Thor started down what was sure to be the arrival of an actual Celestial.

Damn. What a Badass.

No sooner had he taken them about a hundred meters away from their original location, with a thumping sound, the glow receded and he looked back, to see the same oval ship that Ego used in the canon timeline. The entire area around the arrival point of the ship had become a crater, blowing back everything except…

His face must have looked gobsmacked as he looked at the blue barrier that appeared in front of Thor which then flickered and dissipated, to reveal a completely unscathed Thor. Sure, he hadn't expected Thor to be damaged in any way but his shield had completely stopped the shockwave, creating a small area in the crater which was intact.

What in the fuck just happened to Thor for him to become someone like this? His mind raced at that, his mind temporarily forgetting about the fucking Celestial in the sky, as he contemplated and discarded possibilities that would have led to Thor becoming uber-Thor.

Rune King Thor? No, that Thor could no sell Ego in a flash, with no worries whatsoever.

Something else was afoot and he just hoped that it did not come back to bite them in the ass at the most inopportune time, like in the fight against Thanos.

His thoughts were halted as he let the barrier around the Guardians dissipate, watching Ego emerge from the ship, Mantis absent, which made sense since it was much earlier in the timeline for Ego to find Quill, atleast according to his knowledge.

Quill ran past him, with the rest following suit, as Ego landed at the edge of the crater, sparing the stoic faced Thor a look before floating forward. Thor casually turned around with his arms leaning on Mjolnir which was floating mid air. Damn, that looked cool.

He shook his head as he focused his senses on the confrontation happening in front of him. He had to tone down the fanboying a bit.

It was not his moment to talk with Ego. It would be best if they were taken to Ego's true body without any fuss because he did not know whom to turn to, to get the accurate address of Ego's true body. Tivan's face flashed through his mind and he sneered internally at that piece of shit.

True, the man must have known of Ego and his location as well but that man had to go. He was glad that Carina, someone who was oppressed by Tivan all her life was the one who had ended Tivan, with purple fire of all things, something about her race's unique powers being empowered by the Power Stone, something that he had on him but could not use because of stupid politics.

"O-oh. Peter, y-you look just like her. You have her eyes,"

He very heavily resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Ego's sappy bullshit as he began with the one thing that was sure to melt Peter's mind. The man gave the woman fucking Cancer, killed her, and had the gall to say sweet things to his son like that.

The cave filled with skeletons of his children flashed through his mind and he had to flex his hands to stop them from clenching as he resolved on finishing the man, the abomination in front of thim. He could not let someone like this continue to exist, even if Ego was not a threat to the universe as they knew it.

"Are you really?" Peter asked Ego, his voice breaking.

He kept a close watch on their conversation as he slowly flew to Thor's side, to not disrupt their conversation. Still, knowing that Ego was focused on Quill, he could feel his gaze not wavering from his form.

"What do you think?" He asked Thor.

Thor took a long look at Ego, who returned the look, hefted Mjolnir in his left hand, "Doable," spoke that one word and began walking towards Ego, who too took cognizance of the fact and turned partially towards them.

He followed behind Thor, his barriers lowered to their base setting, trying to protect a non threatening stance to Ego.

This was still not his main body. They needed to get to his planet.

"Greetings, Asgardian. Forgive me but I don't know your names. You feel human but that can't be true," Ego turned to them, Quill's tear streaked face in the background.

"Greetings, Ego. I am Thor and this is Green Guardian." Thor's greeting was concise to a point.

Ego's smile didn't waver at all, "Alright then. Nice to meet you, Thor. Now, as much as I would like to chat with you all, I have about 30 years to recover with my son. So, if you'll excuse me," Ego turned to Peter and he saw Gamora nudging Peter with her elbow.

Peter's eyes widened minutely in realisation before he cleared his throat, "Ahem. C-can they come? I-it's not that I don't trust you but they are my friends and they are just worried about me. Plus, with the way you arr–"

"Sure, why not?" Ego stopped Peter in his tirade and agreed with that same easy going smile as he waved his hand, creating a torrent of cosmic energy in the background as the Guardians of the Galaxy were lifted effortlessly in the air. He and Thor followed suit as they flew with Ego into the ship that was vastly bigger on the inside.

"I wasn't exactly expecting guests. When I received the signal about my son from a long abandoned planet, I expected him to be in danger. Still, we should be home soon so feel free to make yourselves comfortable. Quill?" He essentially, politely, shooed them before taking Quill to another chamber, not inviting any of them.

Without even a jerk, the ship was already in FTL, judging by the absolute mishmash of colours that were visible from these windows.

He was keeping absolute vigil, as was Thor but he didn't think Ego would want to do anything just yet. He would try the soft sell at fist, showing Quill grandiose dreams, of father and son ruling the universe, before he would try and ramshod Quill into becoming an over glorified Cosmic battery.

Quill needed another Celestial to complete his plan and unfortunately, the rest of the Celestials had avoided him like the plague or he just simply couldn't find anyone else. There was also the possibility that he simply believed the rumours of Celestials being dead and thought of the only way to make another Celestial.

Ego was quite the incomplete and faulty Celestial, making him wonder about the way he was created.

Maybe, the way Ego was created, the sentient life sacrificed to make Ego was particularly stupid and that made Ego the way he was?

Soon.

Soon, they would be on Ego, and once Quill was sufficiently empowered, and told about the truth of his mother's demise, they would be able to destroy Ego and head back to the Nine Realms.

He was getting increasingly restless and he did not like feeling that way for any reason.

It was good that he had snagged one of the so called moonbreakers that Rocket had stashed aboard the ship, making his job much easier.

They did not have baby Groot to navigate the tight spaces that would lead to Ego's brain but they had his barriers which were equally small and also could transmit information back to him.

In less than an hour, they jumped out of FTL and a small, lush green planet greeted them.

He released a breath he didn't know he was holding.

It was show time.

---

Word Count - 2758

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.

 

[TheToFu]

Well damn, guess his personality took a nose dive

 

[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).

Ego's orbit [July 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

The distance between their previous l; location and Ego's main body was not long or rather, the far more probable thing was that the ship they were in, was just much more advanced than the normal spaceships. It should be, considering it was powered completely by cosmic energy.

The spatial manipulation inside the ship was probably a direct result of cosmic energy manipulation but it had none of the finesse that he had read about, in the libraries of Kamar Taj, well, the restricted section of Kamar Taj. He was given access, after he had a problem himself to be strong enough to become the Sorcerer Supreme, in a reality where freaks of nature like the Ancient One and Stephen Strange didn't exist.

Seriously, he was stronger than like half of all Sorcerer Supreme that existed before the Ancient One but she had raised the bar so high that it would be all but impossible to become the Sorcerer Supreme and surpass her in, strength, diplomacy, and more importantly, the sheer length for which she protected the planet.

Man, he was really going to miss her when she inevitably died, something of a "fixed" point in time, according to her. She was the strongest protector of Humanity but she was also the dam that held back the river that was human potential. Unless and until she left, the true potential of the next generation of humanity would never get the chance to show itself, and according to the mad woman, she didn't have the strength to defeat Thanos.

No, not magical prowess but the strength of mind. The mindset required to defeat Thanos in a way so that the Abstracts of the universe were fulfilled.

He shook his head, his mind once again going on a tangent, as they watched the ship go through a wave of golden light that passed over all of them. His brows furrowed as he watched Thor's intangible, invisible shroud of lighting become visible for a moment and his body to be covered in his barriers, they were just much brighter than their normal settings.

Gamora had a slight purple sheen on her body, with Drax's body bulging with veins showing. Rocket's brain glowed a bit and Groot's body began sprouting multiple saplings instantaneously.

His gaze met Thor's who didn't react much to the wave of light so he didn't react negatively as well. He was sure that Ego would be with them soon enough. Judging by the reactions of everyone's bodies, the wave probably had something to do with figuring out the powers of everyone on the ship.

It was not present in the movies but hey, things could change. He was sure that this way, Ego must have confirmed that Quill had confirmed Celestial's parentage, allowing him to go ahead with his plan.

A moment later, Ego arrived in the room they were occupying, with a noticeably more confused Quill in tow. The smile on Ego's face was all the answer he needed about what the wave was and what the consequences of that piece of information were.

"Sorry for that, folks. It's just a part of the security measures. Now, why don't we?" Ego talked to them with a smile as the ship began descending on the planet. If he focused his gaze, he could see the faint outline of a face, with mountains and rivers and all the textures they created.

Soon, the ship landed in the middle of a forest, with nothing in sight. They all alighted the ship, only for some of them to be shocked as they saw a literal pathway, appear from the ground, with stairs and ominous blue lights and everything.

"Now, this will take you all to your guest quarters, Rexo" Ego told them before he snapped his fingers, causing a piece of the ship to detach itself and then float in front of them, eventually turning into a small robot with humanoid features. "-Rexo here will guide you. Now, if you will excuse me, we have some family things to discuss," Ego put his hands over Quill's shoulder as he led Quill away from all of them.

Damn that bastard.

He took one look at the so-called Rexo, who was still smiling but now the smile looked much more ominous, and at the passage that led to the so-called "guest quarters". Yeah, right. More like some dungeon.

Now, he could have taken some aggressive route and attacked Ego right on the spot but the knowledge that any sort of energy manipulation would set off the Celestial stopped him. Besides, wasn't Ego's brain deep in the planet as well?

"Lead right on, Rexo," He declared cheerfully as he nudged the robotic being to go ahead. Thor followed suit, without any question, but he could feel the glares from the rest of the Guardians but knowing that he was their best shot at survival and also strong enough to wrangle them all into submission, they gingerly followed in his footsteps.

Surprisingly, it was not a dungeon with ambush attempts awaiting at the edge of the staircase, which was not a staircase at all. It was an escalator that activated as soon as Drax, the last person in their line, stepped foot on it. It whisked them quite deep into the planet and led them now into the huge hall that expanded as far as his eyes could see.

It would seem that Ego's body did not have the pesky limitations of having an inner and outer core with molten metal coursing through the layers.

No, the perks of being one of the very few beings capable of commanding cosmic energy itself meant that Ego could create whatever he wanted, only limited by his imagination, and looking at the very sterile hall, his imagination was lacking indeed.

Only a few beds, with storage units and white hospital lights, littered the massive hall. He could see a very sparse kitchen but he had a hunch that this space was created like, very recently, possibly just for them.

"These will be your temporary Living quarters," Rexo announced to them before the little bastard dipped its head at them before just melting into the ground.

"Oh shit" Rocket swore as he backup several steps from the white goo which then disappeared into the similarly white ground, the spot wobbling for a moment before it returned to its pristine white flooring/

"What the? Are the little freaks everywhere?" Rocket drew a comically oversized gun of some sort and pointed it at the floor while jumping on Groot's shoulder who similarly looked warily at their surroundings.

He let his barriers spread all around him and as they breached the floor below him, he realised that Rocket was right. The flooring was not a single material, it was billions of small things coming together to create the entire space.

Nanotech, or some other cosmic energy manipulation?

Never mind that.

He created a large barrier around all of them, turning to Thor who understood his message and nodded, holding Mjolnir in one hand.

"So, I assume Quill knows nothing then?" He turned to Gamora who sported a conflicted look on her face but still nodded. He turned to Rocket and GFroot who looked very confused, "Rocket, I assume you know that Quill's father is the bad buy here?"

Rocket scowled fiercely and then reloaded his gun, which was somewhat redundant since he was pretty sure that the entire gun was completely energy based, judging by the intense white glow that made Rocket's face glow menacingly.

"Drax, follow Rocket's lead," He ordered Drax who nodded at that, and then let the barrier fade away.

"Rexo?" He called out, unsure if anybody would answer or not.

It had been a little bit over half an hour since they were separated from Quill. This much time should be more than enough for Ego to give Quill the whole they were gods spiel and try and turn him into a celestial battery.

He received no reply. He shared a tense look with Thor who clenched Mjolnir just a tad bit tighter. Movement caught his eyes as he turned to the entrance of the hall, which had just now closed up. The white lights in the room were now replaced with red as Rexo, with a vastly different form rose up from the ground, towering over all of them, with its humanoid features being the same as before.

The rest of the body was now over 10 ft tall with energy blasters glowing menacingly on each hand, with multiple such cannons just waiting to be unleashed on them, resting on Rexo's back.

"Tony warned me that the robot uprising will come sooner rather than later," He muttered to himself, surprising himself with a quip before he waved his hand, creating a large barrier around them, before he created a large drill above the barrier, in the direction of the surface.

It might have shortened the amount of work they needed to be done if he had just tunnelled to the chamber where Ego kept his head but that would tip him off and there was no guarantee that Ego was distracted at the moment or not. So, with a negligible wave of his hand, they rocketed upwards, with the drill working overtime to dig through the surprisingly hard rock, even as another barrier sheet flattened to ridiculous levels slicked straight through Rexo's current body, before repairing the same thing a hundred times over, creating a sliced Rexo, if you will.

What the fuck was the material made of, Titanium? He thought to himself as he felt the resistance being significantly more than he imagined it to be. He still couldn't let his full powers out on display because he did not want Ego to turn tail and run.

With his ability to manipulate cosmic energy, there was no telling where he might run off to and hide, with Quill in tow. He might just win that way because as far as he could tell, the connection to each of the "seeds" he had planted was not bound to the distance in any way. So, all he needed was another battery, Quill, and he would win, voila.

Well, not on his watch, he thought to himself as with a shower of dirt, they burst out of the land, only for a sea of green to immediately assault all their barriers. He could sense the pulse of cosmic energy that made him falter momentarily as the plants managed to eat through some of his barriers before he turned them into the cutting variety and began acting as the gardener of this place.

He hadn't expected Ego to take such drastic measures. Save for a couple dozen people in the universe, not many could confidently stand against cosmic energy being actively channelled against them, not without outside protection and he was still one of them. Even then, 3 of his 7 layer barriers were shredded upon contact with the plants.

Thor and the rest were still looking around, with his barriers keeping all of them safe and secure. His barriers told him that the plants were trying to bury them all, back into the same hole from where they burst, with Rexo somehow still alive.

Duh. Bullshit nanotech.

He narrowed his eyes as he let the plants take them a bit below before he cast a spell, something that would be so blatant to someone like Ego, that it might as well be him shouting for Ego to come attack them. That was why he had refrained from casting any number of spells that he could have cast on Quill that would have updated him about Quill's current status.

His neck snapped to the left as he could feel two massive, one dwarfing the other, energy signatures, a bit underground but still reachable to the surface.

He waited a bit as, with another cosmic pulse, the plants redoubled their efforts to chew them all alive. He could feel Thor's latent lighting, bubbling under his body, just dying to let loose and char everything around Thor to ash.

Come on! Come on!

His eyes widened as he received the second ping, confirming something for him and also making things very much easier for him. He let loose his powers, not quite transforming into his powered up state but close as he changed the shape of his barrier, covering the rest of the Guardians in another unit while he created a small rectangular block on the ground, right in front of Thor.

"Do it," He nodded to Thor who reared Mjolnir's back, lightning flashing across the surface of the enchanted Uru hammer before he slammed the hammer on the block with all his might. His back arched as the entire area around them was now just a molten pit as Thor's lightning had incinerated everything around them to the point not even ashes were left.

He turned around, his vision tinged with blue, to see Rexo's dying form, flickering in and out of solid forms, apparently on the verge of death.

"Oh, you poor thing!" He pitied the clearly very artificial creature and raised his arm. With the gesture, the barriers around them molded to his wishes, forming a ball of energy right in front of his palm, crackling with lightning.

"Sorry, the robot uprising is postponed, indefinitely," Well, the dialogue delivery was not as impactful as he wanted it to be as the ball of energy was blasted from his hand, carving a deep trench in the ground, leaving molten lava behind them.

It was not remiss of him that even after Ego had clearly fortified everything to hell and back, energy from one of Thor's hammer swings was enough to turn an area hundreds of meters into what can only be called a molten pit.

Even still, the energy was still there, as potent as ever. From his calculation, he could do one more attack of that calibre before it fizzled out. Damn, Thor could act as a very potent battery for him in the final battle.

His thoughts flashed through his mind as the barrier tore through the wind, hundreds of trees that tried to appear in their path before they reached a relatively clear patch of land.

Well, time to spend the leftover energy then, he grinned to himself as he let loose the stored energy right into the clearing, under which he could sense the two massive energy signatures. The result was immediate, a mushroom cloud as a huge cavern was revealed to them, remnants of a shield flickering before the forms of Ego and Quill were revealed to them.

Quill looked like he had been through hell, parts of his face being flaked off, revealing sparking blue energy beneath while Ego looked at them, a snarl on his face as he thrust both his hands at them. His eyebrows rose as he felt a push, a telekinetic push, something that would have easily drowned entire islands back on Earth, crashing into his barrier. His barriers tanked the attack, with some of the energy being absorbed, the flavour of cosmic energy in his attacks being very distinctive to his senses.

For someone with so much power, Ego sure was lacking in imagination.

"Groot, Rocket, get to work," he whispered to the rest of the Guardians before he dispelled the barriers, dropping all of them in the cavern, with intricate displays on the walls around them, all of them being 3D with moving characters in various intimate positions.

Groot landed on the ground with a thud, his roots immediately digging deep, with Rocket firing at all the plants that once again began attacking them. Quill seemed to be dazed as Ego chose to fight him and Thor, at once, by himself.

Big Mistake.

He grinned as Thor's punch cleanly launched Ego's head off his body, with a thin line of blue energy the only thing keeping it connected to his body, something that Thor rectified as he smashed the body with Mjolnir, nearly destroying the body, before similar arcs of energy crawled through the ground, empowering Ego's avatar.

Ego's avatar was only halfway formed before he was subjected to a barrage of nearly mono molecular blades that created perfectly sliced cubes of his form.

Gamora and Drax were trying to reach Quill, something that Ego noticed.

"No!" Ego's voice had taken a monstrous hue as he lunged at Quill, only to be stopped in his place by a barrier of lightning that surrounded his form, the Crown Prince of Asgard standing in his path.

The lightning, both kept outside arcs from reaching the avatar, stopped the avatar from interfering and also continuously damaged it, just enough for it to hurt. Some godly mumbo jumbo must be afoot because he could not sense Ego creating any other pulses of cosmic energy, something that he was realising was the necessary trigger for him to do anything with the planet, essentially.

He shook his head. God, what a fool.

He purposefully let some of the plants drag Gamora and Drax behind, only letting them be unharmed because he could not let Ego be desperate. Thor was also aware of that so he let the lightning cage dissipate much earlier and let one of Ego's attacks hit him, throwing him back into the ground, arcs of Blue Cosmic energy lingering on his form, before his entire body was cuffed to the ground with the same Cosmic energy.

He gulped at that. That kinda looked painful.

"Useless!" Ego roared once again, the voice seemingly reverberating throughout the planet as he waved his hands once again, lashing out at Gamora and Drax with arcs of Cosmic energy that their barriers barely stopped, rendering them unconscious.

Seeing his comrades "hurt", he seemingly went mad with rage, as a giant Gandum manifested all around him, nearly destroying the cavern as he let the avatar rampage all around him. He let Ego secure Quill because as long as Quill was still in his sight, he was all but in his pocket.

"Begone!" Ego lashed out once again, and he let his Gundam stagger back before he once again punched the ground near Ego, letting the Celestial avatar jump around, attacking his avatar.

He let his anguished emotions show on his face, as well as fear and anxiety radiate out through his mind, a trick he learned in Kamar Taj used to shadow one's emotions from emotion-eating Demons.

This was good.

Time and time again, he let the Gundam get beaten back, before attacking Ego with all his might, seemingly. Thor, along with the rest of the Guardians were swept to the side as he bore all of Ego's attacks, which were heavy but nothing like the ones from Gamma Hulk's energy leeching abilities that were also empowered by the Scarlet Witch.

The fool was a celestial but he was no better than a human in mind.

He hadn't even noticed that Rocket and Groot were both missing, with Groot's roots allowing him to dig deep into the planet. He had full barriers on Rocket and the torso and head of Groot, so he knew that they were so far completely undetected.

Rocket had 3 moon breakers in his possession, something totally overkill but hey, ain't nothing as overkill if it could kill a universal madman.

Now, all he had to do was keep Ego occupied and more importantly, feeling that victory was in his grasp, while Groot and Rocket did their job.

Their plan worked, a grin threatened to slip past his carefully constructed emotional wrap over his true mind.

Nothing could go wrong at this point. Victory was in their hands.

……

…..

….

'Fuuuuuuuc–'

---

Word Count - 3330

A/N - Murphy's a bitch, huh?

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).

Ego's orbit [July 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

"This is pointless. Cease this instant," That's rich coming from you, was what he wanted to say but he had to maintain the uber raged, frenzied, almost gone warrior as he made his barriers brighter and brighter, prompting Ego to attack him with heavier attacks, attacks that now began making use of his giant ass body. His very surroundings began turning on him but he was prepared for that.

In the end, after a particularly nasty blow, that blew off the head part of his Gundam, he immediately created a small barrier around his body and collapsed on one knee, the very picture of almost defeated. He also had several microincisions made during the fight, so he was very much bloodied as well. It was all theatrics so he wasn't worried.

"See, Peter,"

And then, Ego did the one thing that every third rate failed villain does, he tried to monologue during a fight, even if it seemed as if the fight was over.

"This–this is the fate of all the beings in the universe. They are destined to kneel before us, our glorious heritage. We are superior to them, always will be. Open your eyes, my son, and be better," By the end, Ego was nearly shouting and was about to press a golden glowing hand on Quill's head. Something told him that it would be a pretty fucking bad idea and Roicket and Groot had just planted the first bomb.

Theoretically, they had already won but he was not going to leave something like this to a fluke.

He made a small noise as he stood up, and flung his hand in Ego's direction, creating a layer of barrier that travelled so fast that it slicked straight through Ego's hand, creating a shockwave later on, pushing him back, as he was currently "weakened". He looked to the side and rolled his eyes as he saw Thor in the same position as before.

"You dare," There it comes again.

He let the man ramble and let him walk towards him, as Rocket [planted the second bomb as well. Well, he supposed that it was time to stop sandbagging then, not his style anyway.

"Yeah, I dare," He stood upright, blood disappearing from his body as lightning flashes in the entire cavern, the smell of ozone potent in the air.

He took in Thor's royal garb from the corner of his vision.

"Now, why don't we let you unite with all your dear children," Thor understood his signal even as Ego's face morphed into one of pure confusion, even as Mjolnir just created a rectangular hole in Ego's face.

Welp, that was brutal. As expected from Space Vikings though.

He snapped his fingers, creating a portal right beneath Quill, as multiple blades just cut through energy, even as the entire planet began shaking.

He dropped Quill in front of him because he couldn't really make intergalactic portals on his own, punted Rocket and Groot out of the core, something that Ego must have realised but he was not given time to think because, to his enhanced vision, the very air around them combusted due to the sheer pressure generated from the speed with which he had thrown all of them right into orbit.

He had already scanned the planet and aside from some skeletons and wild animals, there were no other sentient beings on the planet. Within a flash, they were out into orbit, with Ego's body, the entire planet lighting up in blue and yellow, and yet, he could see the pure white, the moon breaker doing its job as Ego's body was destroyed from within, through the weakest point of his body.

His brows furrowed as he watched a part of Ego's body bulge in one direction. "No," Thor muttered to himself before an Asgardian hand was put on his shoulders with a meaty thwack.

"Comrade Guardian, we must finish this," Damn, somehow, they were able to converse in super speed, with all the Guardians not even reacting to anything happening to them, with Quill's body still sparking arcs of blue.

He couldn't even speak as he created a section in the barrier, opening up the space for them. He flew right behind Thor who flew without the aid of Mjolnir, with the Raikage's lightning shroud filling his vision as they both, slammed right into Ego's body, even as the planet began to bubble, bulge and fracture in all places as it seemed like something was trying to escape the planet's dense core but was unable to do so.

Tracking Ego's core could not have been easier, now with all his defenses completely gone, he was a giant target to his senses. He let THor's lighting barrages disintegrate any attacks coming their way as he covered Thor's legs in his barriers, Thor turning to him with a raised eyebrow.

All of this was happening at super speed, while they were descending on Ego's breaking form at mach fuck speeds, dropping straight into the blast radius of a moon breaker. Yeah, so he just laughed nervously at Thor's questioning gaze and let his powers do the talking. With Thor allowing it, his barriers covered the entirety of Thor's body, the lightning cloak flickering a bit before it suffused the barriers.

His eyebrows rose as he could feel another point of control enter the normally exclusive zone of control that he maintained over all of his barriers. Gulping nervously, he just did his job, throwing Thor at the location of Ego's broken brain with all his power, creating a large shockwave as he was blown back.

He ground to a halt later on as he watched a white dot of light appear in his vision, then another, and then another, as he finally felt Thor slow down. He pulled Thor back completely, THor letting him do so, because apparently, The Crown Prince of Asgard was now the Odin Borson of Asgard when it came to magicks and hijacking of said magicks.

Then, the small dots of light somehow expanded so much that, even across that much distance, even after being engulfed by a dizzying amount of layers of his barrier, he felt the sheer heat of the attack that Thor had just unleashed on the poor pseudo celestial's brain.

When the attack subsided, he let the barrier covering his eyes fade and then had to blink a few more times as his healing factor worked to erase any minor discomfort he would have felt in his eyes.

When he finally opened both his eyes, without immediately being assaulted by a mesh of blurry white, his jaw hung agape as he looked at Ego, or rather, what was left of it.

"Holy Fuck," He muttered to himself, suddenly becoming aware of his companions. He immediately used his barriers to check in on them.

He wasn't a fool. There was no way in any heaven or hell that he was going to miss an attack like this. Like, what in the fuck?

Where Ego's elongating body was, now was just white dust, still sparking with electricity. The white formed an elliptical wave that became brighter the deeper one went into the center.

He looked at Thor, who looked at the attack with a solemn look in his eyes and also, he was holding his right arm, with Mjolnir floating beside him.

"Are you injured?" He asked Thor and if he came to know that the attack in front of him was something that Thor could do only once before becoming a glass canon, he would eat his action figure collection, which was buried deep into the ocean, with runes responsible for maintaining optimum temperature, airflow, humidity, and even automated systems to warn him in case something needed h9is attention.

Thor answered his question by just shoving his hand back against himself, with a manly grunt. He then shook his hand, the lightning fading from his eyes, as he could Thor's aura, the hyper dense aura of energy that Thor kept active at all times right under his skin faded to such alarming low levels that it almost matched that of past Thor's energy levels.

"Nay, I still have fight left in me. Alas, even one such as I can't do that lightly, again." Thor rumbled and turned around, heading to the Guardians, and he found himself looking at the literally cosmic phenomenon that Thor had created and then after shaking his head at the absurdity of it all, found himself following after Thor.

Something had happened, something drastic in Thor's travels, to turn him into such a brooding powerhouse capable of even besting Thanos unpowered with ease and he would give Thor, Captain Marvel, and himself very fair odds of beating even Thanos with a couple of stones, provided they add someone on their side disrupting Thanos from using the full power of the stones.

With his hopes raised, especially with the Single Infinity Stone that was stored in his storage with another one in Asgard, which would now, inevitably fall under Thor's rule, he was feeling pretty great.

So great, in fact, that he forgot that they had no SHIP!

No fucking way of getting to the nearest Jump Gate or something. Maybe Rocket would have something to communicate with someone Rocket had NOT needlessly antagonised on his contact list. The odds were low but oh well.

He used his barriers to give all of them low powered zaps of electricity, except Quill who probably deserved his full sleep now, and also because he did not want to be there when Quill was informed that his daddy was killed. He didn't even need to show Quill the bone cave to break Quill out of whatever trance his daddy dearest had put him under.

"Ah, what the fuck happened," Rocket swore as Groot probably did too, in his language. Gamora was asleep one second and fully awake and aware of the space with all its exits and entry points, i.e., zero, in a second.

"Asgard is safe, yes?" Thor asked him and he couldn't help but furrow his brows at the sheer hollowness in Thor's tone as he spoke of his home, his supposed pride and soul, as if protecting Asgartd was some old promise that had seeped deep in his being, with no reason to question the directive in any way.

A drone, of sorts.

He frowned. "No, this is just one of the ways. We need to get to Asgard soon–" he then interrupted Thor who probably had opened his mouth to object to going home, on principle, since his "father" would be the one who would cancel his banishment, forget the fact that the current Thor could smoke Asgard as it was, on his own, without breaking a sweat.

"--and if that doesn't agree with you, then we need to get to Earth. It is my realm, Crown Prince of Asgard, and I officially extend you an invitation," Thor's eyes widened as he let magic flow into his voice and did something like a pseudo wow, an open ended vow, something that would not kill him when broken but what mattered was the principle.

Thor hesitantly nodded and stood up. He was about to ask what was up when his eyes widened, humongous amounts of energy flowing through Thor as Mjolnir floated right beside him, looking more and more like the spaceman, as a rainbow of energy covered his form, his arm outstretched into the emptiness of space, or rather, the white fuck off cloud of "whatever it was" that Thor made just moments ago.

"Thor–" His words were cut short as, with a thunderclapping sound, Thor broke through his barrier and floated on top of all of them, his green barrier shattering and replaced by what looked like alive lightning. Thor stood up on the barrier, hand still outstretched, his body still glowing in rainbow.

Okay, what in the fuck kind of powerup was going on here? This was MCU, not some shonen anime, and even then, where was the power of friendship.

He realised that he was rambling because, for the first time in years, he was feeling helpless, completely and utterly. Sure, he could make a short range portal but even that would only keep him in space itself, nowhere near any civilisation centres as Ego was sure to be avoiding any sufficiently powerful species that could detect him and do something that might compromise his plan.

He looked up, the Guardians once again being subjected to an entirely new power set as, with a noise that seemed as if it broke space itself, the entire white elliptic was sucked into the center as a shining meteor headed straight towards them.

All he could do was create multiple barriers in the split second it had taken for the meteor to reach Thor.

When his mind finally caught up with what his eyes were seeing, his jaw might as well have been on the ground, as a very familiar outline of an axe became visible in Thor's hand.

"Stormbreaker…" Words escaped his lips at the majestic sight of the weapon.

"Nay, my friend. Tis but merely an imitation, a hollow copy borne by magicks most ancient," Thor answered him as he could feel happiness from the axe.

"Soon, my friend. Soon," Thor muttered to the axe which seemed to become giddy at those words before Thor pointed Stormbreaker in the sky and he smiled as he felt the familiar rays of the Bi-Frost fall on him, taking them away from the death place of a pseudo Celestial, something that was sure to alert the real powerhouses of the universe.

When his eyes opened, he found himself standing on top of what looked like the burned patio of Avengers Tower, with multiple drones and an Iron Man suit aiming repulsors at them.

Thor looked wistful as he let Stormbreaker, which immediately began dissipating in thin air. He could feel the sadness, the content, and the giddiness at being found again, radiating through the white dust before the light show was over.

"Okay, what the fuck was that? And why did I just sense happiness from fucking white dust? Were those some space drugs?" Tony's voice greeted him as the drones vanished back into their respective panels and Tony's suit folded all around him, turning into a small backpack that then floated and parked itself on the sofa.

He raised an eyebrow at the progress. Not quite the Endgame Iron Man armour but very close.

"Tony, it is a long story but hey, I have some very crappy space tech for you? And another genius inventor." He gestured at Rocket who sniffed haughtily at Tony who deadpanned at him.

"Really? A Racoon," He had to hold back Rocket mid lunge.

"Tempers….have been really high. Now, why don't we all take a day to relax and then we'll meet again? Tony, please get them hosted on my floor, I never use it and it is more than enough for all of them." Tony looked rather offended at being ordered but that was his normal state so he ignored Tony and turned to the rather disgruntled Guardians, sans Quill who was hung around Drax's shoulders like a sack of potato, the well of energy in him almost gone as well.

"Look, Tony is an ally. You will get food, entertainment, safety and all the creature comforts you can think of. I will make sure that you guys are back in space as soon as possible but my mission is far from over, so it might take a little while for me to get you guys another ship on par with the Milano," Especially since he was about to go the Ancient One and figure out a way to get the Power Stone out of the damned box.

Irani Rael. Hmph.

To think she could outsmart and outmaneuver him.

He turned to Thor who was oddly silent and was also looking straight at the sun, "Thor?"

"Heimdall. I can't feel Heimdall's gaze on me. Neither Father's," Thor muttered in confusion and he grinned as that could turn into a spark that would have Hela destroyed, with Asgard not suffering a double genocide in a short period of time.

---

Word Count - 2751

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).

Kamar Taj [July 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

"Master Sullivan, you do always come with the nicest of surprises," He was greeted by the absolutely dry voice of the Ancient One once he arrived at the training stage, the spot most visited by the Sorcerer Supreme as she watched over the next crop of initiates, from whom the next group of Masters would come.

Unfortunately, he knew that this group would not have the pleasure of hosting the next Sorcerer Supreme, and so did the Ancient One but that did not stop her from frequenting the same spot, overlooking the same training of the same average talented initiates for some reason.

"Uh. Yeah, so I kinda need a favour from you," He said as he retrieved the box that contained the Power Stone. A gift that was also a big fuck you since he could not open the box and use the Stone without alerting the Xandar Empire about it and consequently, their allies as well that it was the Green Guardian of Earth who was after the Infinity Stones, and not the purple Scrotum himself.

"I was not talking about the Infinity Stone, Master Sullivan," She said as she waved her hand, covering the container in a soft orange glow as it rotated in front of her. Multiple glyphs appeared on the surface of the container before they all converged into a single circular symbol that glowed a deep red before it dissipated, leaving a mark on the container, which he was sure was made from some Vibranium alloy.

She then floated the container right back to him. He could see the container was open to him now, with the energy of the Infinity Stone almost gushing out if it were not for the barrier that the Ancient One had cast around them the moment he had arrived. He covered the container in one of his barriers as he finally got the opportunity to get a long deserved power up.

It was only then that the Ancient One's words caught up to him, causing him to look up at her in confusion.

"What?"

"Thor Odinson, Master Sullivan. The Thor you have brought back is quite different from the one you met during the Invasion of New York, as I am sure you must have noticed,"

And notice, he did. How could he not? What with Thor suddenly gaining the ability to perform magic as if he had been doing it since birth and on a scale that would be more suitable for Odin in his prime rather than Thor who hadn't even inherited the Odin Force yet. The sheer ease with which he summoned the Bi Frost was as alarming as it was exciting.

Another powerful ally in the fight against Thanos and Hela, and all the things that went bump in the night.

"Yes, I did but for now, I have chosen to ignore the changes. Do you know what exactly happened to him?" He wasn't going to ask Thor about it but if the Ancient One knew something about it, which she probably did, then it was fine.

"Yes…but not much. My sight grows blurry around the God of Thunder, his immense power cloaking him from my sight. Still, what I do know is that the Thor you met is not just one Thor but the amalgamation of multiple Thors, made one through sheer happenstance and the will of all the other Thors to die,"

He blinked in confusion.

What the fuck?

That…raised more questions than it answered and now he was really curious as to what happened and yet, he had a hunch that Thor would not be really receptive to his questions.

Oh, well. Something for Future Jack to worry about then.

For now, it was POWER-UP time.

"Oo-kay, that's odd. Anyway, I will be in the ritual room. See ya!" He shouted and dashed into the ritual room, setting the isolation to the max.

Once confirmed that the room was working as it should, he covered the container in his barriers and then extended his barriers, slowly, into the now open container. He slowly, steadily, let his barrier touch the Power Stone.

The outcome was….underwhelming.

Sure, he felt the energy flow and the barrier line connected to the Stone began glowing purple but it was nothing like what he had expected. It was not as absurd or dramatic as it should be.

Maybe, something was wrong in his approach? Maybe he needed direct contact?

Hesitantly, he removed the Power Stone from the container, covered the stone entirely in his barriers and let it float above his open palm. He gulped, feeling his hair rise on end as the sheer energy of the Stone suffused the atmosphere around him.

He just hoped that he didn't do something that blew apart the ritual room. The Power Stone certainly seemed like one of the few things in the universe that could do that level of damage to something that was built by Agamotto himself.

"Well, time to find out," He muttered to himself as he removed all the barriers covering his hand, and slowly maneuvered the Power Stone right above his open palm, just waiting to be dropped. Damn, he had never really come so close to an Infinity Stone intentionally. His last experience left him half dead, all the while making him feel so much pain that his mind blacked out, and couldn't think of doing anything else.

He took a deep breath and just…let it go. He dropped the Power Stone on his palm. He could watch in slow motion as arcs of power raced out of the Stone towards his palm, as if joining the two together even before they made contact.

And the second the Power Stone made contact with his skin, his vision blacked out. All he could see was purple. He could feel the sheer amount of energy coursing through his body. He could also feel all that energy being automatically siphoned by his barriers and dispersed, without any conscious input from his side. Slowly, he blinked as his vision adjusted, or rather, his nervous system adjusted to the sensation of having so much power running through his body.

He looked at himself and saw his hand having criss crossing purple veins of power that diminished the longer they went up his arms. His barriers helped a lot in that regard, by dispersing all that power.

Well, at least he didn't spontaneously explode on the spot. That would have been terrible.

He grinned as he created a barrier around his arm, but with the Stone still making contact with his body. He could feel the toll it was taking on his body and he knew that he could not keep this up indefinitely but it was more than enough time for him to make some actual difference in the fight.

Time to test it out then.

He tried to cast a spell, the easiest spell, the Tao Mandala. They weren't even a spell, just conscious expression of dimensional energy given form.

And….he failed.

His brows furrowed as he tried, again and again, to control the flow of dimensional energy to create the Tao Mandalas but nope. No luck. He tried other spells, some easier than the others but even then, the result was the same.

He could not cast spells while having the Power Stone equipped. Well, it did disrupt and overwhelm all the other energy sources in his body just by its sheer volume so there was that. Only his barriers were able to coexist with the volatile energy of the Power Stone, it would seem.

He looked at the non existent orange sparks, even as he rotated his left arm while imagining the location he had dropped into the most, Kamar Taj, and sighed. Nothing involving Dimensional energy can be used while he was using the Power Stone.

Or more accurately, dimensional energy spells could not be used yet. He could feel that with enough practice, he could wrangle the Power Stone's energy enough that he might be able to cast the Tao Mandalas.

But that was a moot point anyway. He didn't need that much versatility going forward. He needed pure power and the Power Stone was the definitive answer to his question. So, he fell back on his innate powers.

His barriers.

He cast a medium sized Gundam around himself, nothing extraordinary. Simple shroud with unbreakable barriers. He then pulled the energy from the Power Stone all around him. He could see, from the exploratory barrier he had cast in front of him, the veins of purple that now adorned the Gundam. He could also feel the power output being increased by a lot.

Before, he had to rely on inertia, momentum, and whatever kinetic bursts he could create to exert force with his barriers. He mostly relied on the sharpness of his barriers rather than the force with which he could hit them.

But now? Now he could hit someone with even the lightest of touch and they would most likely vaporise, due to the sheer energy output from his Gundam.

He winced as he felt the energy from the Power Stone try to overwhelm his barriers. It could not do it yet, he still had hours, if his calculation was correct but it was going to be something that he was going to have to get used to. Having to consciously balance the energy flow from the Power Stone with the number of barriers he had cast at any given time.

"Alright, next step. Mirror Dimension," he grinned as this was the favourite part of his power testing. Wanton and utter destruction at first and then figured out the control aspect as he went on destroying vast swathes of cities at once.

He covered the Power Stone in his barrier, lifted it from his body, sighed in relief as he immediately felt the load on his body lessen, and then dropped it back into the container. Sealing the container tight in his barriers, he went out and after making sure that the ritual room had properly absorbed the residual Power Stone energy, opened a portal to the mirror dimension and floated right into it.

He noticed that even after he had removed the Power Stone from his system, he could feel a slight imbalance in the way dimensional energy flowed throughout his body. Hmm, something to think of later on.

"Let's do this," he muttered as he equipped the Power Stone, created a Large gundam around himself, and floated right into the Himalayas.

Taking a deep breath, he let the energy from the Power Stone loose into the entirety of the Gundam. Immediately, he could feel the snow around him sizzle as a deep purple glow was cast into the valley he was floating in.

"Show time," he grinned as he created a sword around his Gundam. That single act would have required some mental gymnastics in balancing the power from the Stone but this one thing was saving him that trouble.

His entire Gundam was now continuously releasing waves of energy from the Power Stone, essentially bleeding off all the excess energy continuously. This was more taxing than just mentally balancing it but it was much faster and much more battle worthy.

The sword was created and he didn't even sharpen it all that much, just let the Power Stone energy flow through it, making it glow mostly purple.

Then…

He blinked in confusion and awe as the mountain, which he had slashed with his sword, just…ceased to exist.

Oh yeah. He grinned menacingly, as he dispelled the sword, increased the flow of energy all around his Gundam, and just rammed into the mountain ranges, or at least, he tried to anyway. All matter disintegrated as soon as it came into contact with the Gundam's shroud, which consisted of both, the excess energy bleed-off, and the conscious flow of Power Stone energy.

Damn, he could get used to this. Literally deleting small towns off the map simply by flying through them. Or destroying Sanctuary II, Thanos' flagship spaceship, by simply flying through it, while releasing conscious bursts of Power Stone energy.

He grimaced, as a beat resounded in his body, with the Gundam simply dispelling on its own. He covered the Power Stone in his barrier and cut off all energy flow with difficulty as apparently, his body reached its limits within an hour of high intensity usage. In that hour though, he had wiped out the Himalayan range in its entirety, in the mirror dimension of course.

He slowly sat down and put the Stone back into its container.

This was harder than he had expected it to be. He hadn't even tested the energy beam aspect of the Power Stone. If he could create multiple barriers and then shoot giant fuck off beams through them, then he would be a mobile assault system, with the perfect defense since anything that came close to his shroud would find itself disintegrated due to the sheer energy of the Power Stone.

Despite the clear exhaustion, so much so that even opening a portal felt difficult to him, he smiled. A genuine smile, filled with relief.

He had it. Finally, a way to definitely destroy Thanos and his forces, is to actually make a giant difference in the final fight.

Not that he ever intended Thanos to ever reach that level. The first thing he was going to do, once he was recovered, is meet Thor, try to see if Thow would be amenable to sharing what the fuck that happened to him, and then move to either Asgard or directly to Nidavellir if Thor could once again use the Bi Frost without any equipment.

A feat that should have been impossible for the current Thor, without the Stormbreaker anyway. The memory of that projection of Stormbreaker was still fresh in his mind and that too only added more questions than it answered.

"Welp, time to leave," he once again surveyed the sheer destruction left in the wake of his power testing and opened a portal straight to the Avengers Tower. It wouldn't do for Tony to annoy Thor into erasing Manhattan off the map, however unlikely it might be.

Tony was a genius unlike any other but his talent in pissing people off was something that could not possibly be replicated anywhere in the universe.

---

Word Count - 2437


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, Manhattan [July 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

When he stepped out of the portal and saw the very much intact Avengers Tower, he actually let out a sigh of relief, not because he actually expected Thor to do something in response to Tony's usual shenanigans but because New York was the epicenter of the Marvel Universe.

The favourite bitch of the writers of the Universe, so to speak and he was actually worried if something absurd as the Mole Man had actually attacked New York in the short span of time he was in the mirror dimension, practising with the Power Stone. Fortunately, nothing of that sort had happened so they were fine for now.

Though, one of these days, he was going to have to confront all the other fringe elements that he had neglected for now. Something to do after he was done making sure that the Dwarves of Nidavellir did not make Thanos the ultimate weapon.

The other Branch of Hydra, the one that was responsible for worshipping Hive as a God, someone who could actually control him considering that he was an Inhuman as well.

The Mole Man and the Mole people, not to exterminate them because they were an unfortunate science experiment abandoned by their creators and only brought under the control of the Mole Man due to another science experiment.

The Eternals and the Deviants hiding on the planet, although how they hid themselves so well with the plethora of scanning tech that every single country, including Wakanda and Atlantis, must have put in space, was a mystery in and of itself. Probably something related to the Cosmic Energy that both the races seem to have.

Then, the Celestial inside the planet.

He shivered as he felt a gaze boring down on him from somewhere, an invisible pressure focusing on him the moment he thought of ending the Celestial gestating deep within the planet, who would destroy the planet and kill Billions of sentient people.

He looked up with difficulty and glared right back, even though it was getting difficult to even breathe under the pressure. He was 90% sure who it was and he hadn't expected the entity to be able to affect him without even manifesting in front of him or the fact that Arishem could sense his thoughts of ending the Celestial inside Earth from so far away.

Just when he thought that he had to use the Power Stone to boost his barriers, as a last resort in the silent staring contest he was having with someone who was probably millions of miles away, a streak of blue entered his vision as Thor appeared in front of him, clad in his Asgardian glory, glowing blue and white.

"Allow me, Guardian," He heard Thor's words even though Thor's mouth didn't even move as he felt the gaze startling for some reason before the pressure receded completely, leaving him soaked in his own sweat as he looked at Thor, shocked at what had happened.

"Okay-" *pant* "--You have got to tell me what the hell happened to you in the one year you were absent," He finally had to ask Thor about it because controlling the Bifrost without the necessary machinery was one thing. But to resist the pressure of a Celestial, the pinnacle of what the universe had to offer, and even to send the gaze packing was a whole other thing.

The more time he spent with Thor, the more mysteries emerged and while he was certainly glad to have someone of that power level in the fight against Thanos, Hela and all the other threats, he was not sure if this Thor was even Thor anymore. This was not some mere Crown Prince Thor, no, this was power more along the lines of God King Thor.

"All in due time, my Friend. All in due time," Thor said as the blue armour around him dispersed, revealing a normal T-Shirt and Jeans, with Stark Foundation written across the front of the T-Shirt.

He nodded, too tired to do anything else, from the freak incident that happened just now. He had no idea that Arishem was this powerful or he could do something like that, despite his speciality being defenses. To think that he couldn't even bring out the big guns in terms of his barriers before he was assaulted by the mere pressure of a superior being who could make him freeze from millions of miles away.

Damn.

Thor helped him land slowly on the Avengers and Tower and then after plopping him down on the sofa, Thor held up a small bottle of…Asgardian Alcohol in front of him. He looked quizzically at Thor who replied.

"Drink it. It helped many a soldiers who were exposed to the full brunt of the aura of the All-Father of the Nine Realms."

He immediately brushed it aside. "Thanks but No. I am…will be fine in a while." He did not want to be drunk right now, no sir. That was just a recipe for disaster.

He just had to recover and then convince Thor to head to Nidavellir for some urgent business.

"Suit yourself," Thor said before downing the entire bottle as if it was just a shot and not some thousands of years old Ale that was glowing orange. Damn, Thor was just hardcore.

"Yo, Mini Green? What happened?" Tony's voice turned from jovial and obnoxious to concerned and wary in an instant as he saw the drenched state of the Green Guardian, who was still taking in deep breaths.

He waved off Tony who didn't need to know about the Celestials and had another existential crisis and somehow built Ultron or something. Granted that Jarvis in this reality was much much stronger now, with his intelligence probably coming from being exposed to the energies from the Infinity Stones back during the Chitauri Invasion.

"Nothing, Tony. Just some new problem, as usual. Now, how are the others holding up?" He asked Tony because he had not seen the Guardians of the Galaxy around but he was reasonably certain that Tony would not let such obvious alien elements back into the city, despite how carefree he could be in certain manners.

"Oh, they? They are fine. Drax is in the gym, along with Gamora who does not look like she can lift over a ton of weight. Quill is watching movies, and eating tubs full of buttery popcorn. Rocket, now that's where things got interesting. He was very offended when I called him a raccoon but he was taken to liking Jarvis very much and they are both now conducting experiments in a "safe" sandbox I created for occasions such as this, and Groot is with Rocket."

Tony rattled off the status updates of the Guardians then he looked up.

"I have got to say that Rocket is some mechanical genius, probably experimented on to create that level of intelligence. Unfortunately, his body was not built to sustain that level of–"

"We will talk of this later, Tony." he cut Tony off from going down that line of thought. It was not the time to focus on Rocket's ridiculously short lifespan for now. He had known that for a while now, actually, from the moment he had laid eyes on Rocket and had one of his barriers cover Rocket.

One of the many abilities he had was sensing the energies in a being once they are covered up in his barriers. CHI is one such energy and the amount of CHI that one has in their body can be a pretty definitive indicator of their natural lifespan or of their overall combat prowess with CHI, as is the case with the Iron Fist of Kun'Lun, another threat that he had to deal with.

God, such a bunch of headaches that he had to deal with on his own before Thanos came to the planet because he couldn't have a bunch of factions vying for Thanos' attention or creating disturbances in the final fight.

So, when he first covered Rocket in one of his barriers, he knew, he knew that Rocket did not have much in the way of CHI and would not live for long. The oldest recorded Raccoon on the planet was about 20 years old and while Rocket was probably not that old, the experiments done on his body along with the battles that he had been into, probably meant that ROcket would not survive for long.

And yet, there was not much he could do. He had scanned his entire body and there were no immediate medical conditions that could be treated to prolong his lifespan. He had just…burned through his lifeforce and there was not much that could be done to increase the lifeforce of someone, not without going through some drastic measures that had very little chances of success like the Super Soldier Serum, or Extremis.

For now, he was going to keep that news to himself. Maybe, once the battle with Thanos was done, the Ancient One could do something or failing that, Tony could take a shot with Extremis.

"Oo-kay. That was weird but fine. I won't tell the raccoon that he is dying," Tony said out loud, intentionally. He sighed at that, Tony was being his usual obnoxious self.

He sighed explosively and stood up, the short respite enough for him to recover a bit.

"You know, I created the sandbox because I expected, rightly, for new geniuses to pop up from now on, and expected some of them to be kids as well but it is working very well for Rocket as well so do know that I will be expecting an explanation as to why I must keep quiet," Saying so, Tony left the room, creating yet another problem for him.

Yet another problem that he pushed to later Jack.

"Jarvis?" He asked the resident AI who was omnipresent in the Tower and with the rising digital device penetration, omnipresent in most parts of the world as well.

"Yes, Mr.Sullivan, what can I do for you?"

"Can you make sure that the Guardians are comfortable here and more importantly, in the Tower only. Do not let them get out. If they try to do so, feel free to detail them. They are labelled as criminals in the outer galaxy but they don't deserve that so I will work to get that tag removed but if they do try something drastic, just get them detained, alright?"

It took a while for Jarvis to respond, "I see. While I feel uncomfortable with the thought of imprisoning people who have not violated any laws in our jurisdiction, the panic it will cause if they leave the Tower plus the threats they will face makes a compelling argument in your favour. Very well, Mr.Sullivan, I will make sure that they remain within the tower unless the time comes when they will have the ability to leave the planet,"

Well, that was a very diplomatic response but he will take it.

"Thanks, Jarvis and also tell them that the moment I am back, I will send them to either Xandar or someplace else."

"Thor, we need to talk,"

"Aye?"

"We need to go to Nidavellir. I know you have that whole banished thing going on but–"

"No, you are right, Jack of the Sullivans. Something is afoot on Asgard. I have yet to feel Heimdall or the All-Father's gaze on me, even after the wayward Celestial pulled off that stunt. I must go to Asgard and make sure that everything is fine. So, yes, we will go to Nidavellir and once your work there is done, we will go to Asgard, yes?"

He smiled, relieved that he wouldn't have to fight Thor on this. "Yes, perfect."

"Alright, with the Bifrost inaccessible to us and Stormbreaker still not born, we have to take the old ways,"

"Old ways?" he asked Thor.

"Yes, the Old Ways, gaps in the space between the Nine Realms, gateways to other realms, facilitated by the old branches of the World Tree. We can use those to travel to Nidavellir. It is dangerous for mortals to use them without adequate protection but you will do just fine, for a mortal."

"Alright, where can we find those old ways then?" He asked Thor, his mind going back to the old ways portal that Loki used to take them from Asgard to the home of the Dark Elves. Thor knew of them as well, another notch in his Magical knowledge repository then.

"I know now what mortal cities they are in but I can sense them. Follow me," Thor said as he floated outside the Tower and then rocketed off, still in his T-shirt and Jeans. He himself was covered in green as he kept up with Thor's relaxed pace.

Cities passed them by as he cast a stealth spell on both of them, the spell matrix breaking apart as soon as it touched Thor so he just kept it on himself.

They soon approached the Himalayas, as Thor finally slowed down. Huh, an old-way portal right beside Kamar Taj? Who knew? Probably the Ancient One.

Thor slowly flew right into the mountain ranges filled with thick snow, going down until they finally reached the ground. Even then, Thor didn't stop as his feet were covered in light blue before he went right through the ground, the snow bubbling around him as his form superheated everything all around him. He followed suit, clad in his barriers of course.

Thor maintained a sedate pace as they dug deep into the earth, with the snow having turned a deep blue by now, highlighting its old age.

With a quiet "Aha!" Thor finally stopped and gestured with his hand behind him, an open palm right in front of his chest. His eyes narrowed in confusion before they widened in horror as he threw himself to the side, a loud thunking sound following suit as Mjolnir slammed into Thor's waiting hand.

He glared at Thor's mischievous face. That was unnecessarily dangerous.

Then Thor took Mjolnir and then slammed the hammer down right in front of him. He expected Mjolnir to hit snow and vaporise the area around them but Mjolnir was stopped midway as a rainbow of colours, covered in a green barrier manifested in front of them.

The green barrier gave way to Mjolnir's might as the rainbow colours then began overflowing all around them.

"Come, Nidavellir awaits," Thor said to him before he floated right into the colours, disappearing as if the rainbow had eaten Thor.

He hastily followed, worried that even a second of difference might mean a lightyear of difference in destination when it came to unstable instant teleportation mechanisms.

After a second of rainbow filling his vision, he stumbled as he fell down on a metal platform, his barriers flickering due to the distortion of the energy in the portal.

He looked up, to see Thor extending a hand towards him.

He took it and stood up, looking at the giant glowing Sun and the Dyson Sphere built all around it, with a cacophony of metalwork done by the, paradoxically, giant Dwarves.

Most importantly, he sighed in relief as he saw the working Dyson Sphere and the ring being populated by the Dwarves.

Good, Thanos had not hit yet. And with Thor here, even if Thanos did come right this instant, he was confident in their ability to send them packing, or at least, hurt him and his forces enough that he would not be able to complete his motive, which was to get Eitri to build him an Infinity Gauntlet.

"Come, let's go meet Eitri. Whatever your issue is, he will be able to resolve it. He is an old friend of my Father," Thor said as they began floating towards the center of the giant right that was the Dyson Sphere, the absolute pinnacle of mechanical engineering.

---

Word Count - 2693

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).

Nidavellir [July 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

Uhh. Good news, Nidavellir was still standing. The Dyson Sphere was still active, the Dwarves were still working.

Bad news. Asgard had stopped responding to Eitri's pleas for over a year now, forcing the Dwarves themselves to defend against the unending stream of pirates that lusted after the mythical weapons that the Dwarves made and stored on Nidavellir.

Even Worse news, after a year of inactivity from Asgard's side and after the first casualty on the Dwarven side, Eitri decided to go to another God King of another Pantheon to gain protection since Odin himself was clearly not going to provide Nidavellir with the protection that was promised to them when the Nine Realms swore fealty to Odin Borson, as the All_Father of the Nine Realms.

That meant that Eitri, along with two of his finest Dwarves were currently on their way to Omnipotence City, the place where most of the powerful gods of the Marvel Universe resided, including Zeus, someone who was touted to be almost as powerful as Odin himself in his prime. That was the person whose protection Eitri had gone to obtain so that none of his Dwarven brethren had to die.

The moment a Dwarven life had lost, Eitri had gone ballistic and had actually weaponised the Dyson Sphere that was also their home and had basically vaporised all the pirate ships that had even come close or were just waiting for the other pirates to wear down Nidavellir's defenses. That had actually spooked all the waiting pirates so the attacks had ceased to come but the Dwarves were still worried, something that had not happened for over a thousand years now.

They had enjoyed an unprecedented era of peace under the rule of Odin but now that Odin was off the throne, not that anyone knew of it, their protection was gone and Nidavellir was once again exposed to the cold harsh dangers of space.

The younger Dwarves had huddled all around Thor, clearly knowing him, and were relieved that now that Asgard's strongest was here, they didn't have to constantly worry about dying or being taken against their will. The Older ones were relieved clearly, but they were also wary of the Crown Prince, probably because they had just admitted to what amounted to Treason because their King had now gone to a foreign rival power for protection, not that anyone blamed them considering that Asgard had gone silent for years now.

"We must make haste, something is afoot on Asgard and I need to understand why we have abandoned our allies in their time of need," Thor, after he was done addressing the crowd of Dwarves and assured them that their would be no action taken against Eitri just because he wanted to secure his people, had taken him aside and whispered to him with a sense of urgency.

He agreed, obviously but it was clear that they had to do something to make sure that the Dwarven population was appeased because trust in Asgard seemed to be at an all time low, justifiably so.

"We need to do something before we leave because they are clearly in danger and while I have not sensed any pirate ship nearby, it is only a matter of time before the deterrence of their giant Sun Ray runs out and pirates come out in droves because of their greed," he advised Thor who nodded at that, clearly already knowing it.

"I know. I'll do something but for that, I need more power than I currently have. Can you lend me the Power Stone?"

Thor's words brought him to a halt because how the fuck did the man know that he had the Power Stone and just how was he going to use the Infinity Stone to power something?

Nevertheless, he acquiesced to the request of the vastly powerful ally, and hesitantly floated the Power Stone out of the container, clad in his barriers.

Thor just kept his palm open and looked at him. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes. I am positive that nothing will happen to me. I am hardier than I look," That was not what he was worried about but Okay. He shrugged and dropped the stone on Thor's waiting palm.

The result was…not that dramatic.

Thor's body was shrouded in the same blue and white lightning but streaks of purple were now visible, but only barely. Thor's eyes were also the same blue colour. Mjolnir was floating by his side, not being used at all, in the massive spell matrix that had appeared in front of Thor.

The surrounding Dwarves, who were all clearly listening in on their conversation, surrounded him and the now floating Thor as Thor mumbled and waved his hands, creating and changing the spell matrix that had appeared in front of him. It was all Nordic magic and he was not even close to an expert in this regard.

Yet, he could read some of the symbols, and the runes and he was pretty sure that most of it was related to barriers, protection, energy, explosion. That was all he could read before Thor roared and punched in the centre of the spell matrix, with the hand that held the Power Stone. Seriously, Asgardian physiology was seriously busted because Thor didn't even get the Purple veins all along his arm when he used the Power Stone.

He watched in awe as the spell matrix, which was mostly golden with a dash of white in it, glowed Purple before it exploded in a wave that passed over all of them. The energy of the spell was so potent that he was almost overwhelmed with the energy feedback he got from his barriers as the wave of purple washed over all of the people present.

Although the wave of energy just passed over him, he looked at the surrounding Dwarves as they now had a purple glow all over them. They were understandably wary and he was about to tell them that it was just a localised protection spell when Thor descended from the sky, tossing the Power Stone at him, which was actually smoking, as he spoke.

"Do not fret, my Dwarven friends. That is a protection spell that is a smaller part of the larger one that I have cast all over Nidavellir. It is a barrier that will protect you but will also make sure that any attacker does not get out of this situation scot free. It will also instantly warn me if any attack happens and let me assure you, I will be here as fast I can be, once the spell matrix is triggered."

The Dwarves looked mollified by that guarantee, especially since they could now see the massive purple wave that now filled their skies.

"Really? A spell of that level and reach? Even Odin couldn't have cast it without external help," He couldn't help but comment on the spell that Thor had just cast.

"Don't be silly, Jack. Odin has external help. It is called the Odin Force," Thor commented before he stepped forward into the gaggle of younger Dwarves who were much more agreeable with the Crown Prince, explaining the spell and its benefits to everyone and how it will be activated on its own for protection.

But for offense, they need to activate it manually. And what a genius it was. Thor had installed a module in the spell that would borrow from the giant reservoir of Power Stone energy that was now suspended mid air, which was probably made from Uru, and then allow the Dwarves to use that same energy to attack, creating a scenario where the Dwarves can now attack using the Power Stone energy which is highly lethal to almost every single living being in the universe and then also use that same well of energy to power the massive barrier that now covered the entirety of their Dyson Sphere.

It was genius, and also at a skill level that was more along the likes of Odin, Frigga or the Sorcerer Supreme, not Thor, whose main fighting way was that of a complete and utter brute with phenomenal battle instincts.

"Let's go," Thor, after having explained the spell that had most of the Dwarves cheering, came to him and held his hand, making him look up at Thor in confusion. DIdn't they need to find the old ways portal nearby to head to Asgard?

His confusion must have been visible on his face because Thor chuckled and answered, "Normally, I wouldn't have anywhere near the power required to brute force a portal to Asgard but fortunately, I have way too much energy right now, courtesy of the Infinity Stone you are lugging around,"

Oh. Oooh.

Thor chuckled once again and waved his hand in the air, slashing the space itself and creating a portal that led straight to….wasteland?

They passed through the portal, which closed with a pop as soon as they cleared it, and came face to face with what could only be called a giant dry mountainous wasteland. It was dry brown rock as far as his vision could go.

"By the Gods, what has happened," he heard Thor mutter before the resident Crown Prince flew away. He rolled his eyes and followed suit.

He soon caught up with Thor who slowly landed in front of a hut, something that was built by the resources that they had scavenged from the nearby areas, scarce as they may be.

"Um, Thor? Why are we here? Last I remembered, Asgard was more…shiny," He commented on the location but Thor's focus was on the hut and the lack of a door on it. He too looked and then he immediately reared back, as..Heimdall stepped through the hut.

He had clearly been in a very bad situation.

"By Odin's beard, Heimdall!" Thor exclaimed and flashed across the space to help Heimdall, who did not look as if he needed help, aside from his ribs clearly being visible.

Damn, what did they do to the handsome face of Idris Elba here?

"My Prince, you *Cough* have finally returned," Heimdall exclaimed, although his eyes were not looking at Thor. They were looking straight up.

He promptly took out water and dried meat from his hammerspace and handed it to Thor who immediately began feeding it to Heimdall. Heimdall, after drinking a bit of water, sat upright, his condition visibly improving.

Just what in the hell has Loki been doing here? He could remember him being mischievous but not this cruel, to sentence a man, someone who was the right hand man of Odin, to this fate, a fate worse than death, slowly dying of thirst and starvation.

"The supplies, they dwindled after a few moons, and then they stopped coming altogether. Axl, I had to send him away for his own safety," Heimdall said in between mouthfuls of food and water, and the weather above them grew stormy, even though Thor's face remained placid at the plight of Heimdall.

Asgardian bodies were very resilient but even they had to give in once they were without adequate food, water, and even magic for over a year. This area was devoid of magic as well. He could feel it in the way, his barriers couldn't even sense residual magical energy in the air.

A wasteland, in all meanings of the word.

"Heimdall, what has happened to Father? What is this madness? Why do this? I have not sensed his gaze on me, even now. He should have been alerted to my arrival immediately and yet, nothing," Thor's words were not almost desperate, pleading. He had probably realised something and was only waiting for Heimdall to confirm it for him.

Heimdall finished swallowing his food, drank a good gulp of the water, and then slowly looked into Thor's eyes, the look in his eyes giving even him chills, as Heimdall slowly and clearly spoke.

"My Prince, you clearly have your answer, why bother asking a dying man? Odin….isn't here anymore," Heimdall said so and then his eyes rolled back in their socket as he collapsed back.

He promptly covered Heimdall in his barriers and then placed him down on a bed he was also carrying in his hammerspace. He was kind of a fan of overpreparation so he had everything that he could ever need, in his space.

Thor took one look at Heimdall's chest, with his ribs sticking out, and his face contorted in rage, the skies above crying in protest as strikes of lighting struck out at every single mountain around them as rain poured down in this wasteland, probably for the first time.

"Jack, I need to have a talk with someone. Can I trust you to take care of Heimdall?" Thor's words had gained a gravelly tone to it, with Mjolnir grasped tightly in his hand, his eyes glowing blue and arcs of lighting barely covered in his aura.

"Sure. But are you certain that you won't need my help?"

Thor smiled at him, and it was not a good smile. No sir, not at all.

"You have helped enough, Jack. Leave the rest…to me," Saying so, Thor's form disappeared. He didn't fly up or flew fast enough to leave afterimages. No, he just straight up…disappeared.

Damn, Loki was probably not going to be in good condition once they finally made it to Asgard.

"Come on, buddy, let's get to Asdgard before our Prince here ends up destroying the damn city," He muttered to Heimdall as multiple healing spells were cast on the man. The problem was that his spells were basic tier and they were basic tier, even for humans.

No way they were going to do anything worth a damn to an Asgardian, and a pretty high tier one at that.

So, they were going to need Asgardian Healers for this.

"Let's go," he muttered as he broke down a CHI stone on top of Heimdall's chest and covered him entirely in his barriers, heading straight towards the large congregation of dark clouds in the sky, the ones that were constantly barraging down lightning on the ground.

Sigh, he just hoped Thor didn't actually kill Loki this time. He was certainly going to answer for treating Heimdall like this but the God of Dreams was probably necessary for the timelines to survive and for Kang to be defeated.

Damn, that was another headache that his future self had to deal with.

Welp, there was always more to deal with. Such was his life.

---

Word Count - 2462

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).

Asgard [July 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

Um, it was not good. Not good at all, considering the sheer amount of black thunder clouds that had gathered over the very sky of Asgard, he could tell that the rage of the newly angered, very much OP, Crown Prince Thor was not going to be sated with just a light beating.

Unfortunately, for Loki, that is, he was not in the mood for mercy as well, seeing Heimdall's condition. So, he followed the mass of clouds and reached the Royal City, which was now filled with panicking Asgardians but didn't do anything to stop Thor, at least not until it seemed as if Thor was genuinely going to kill Loki, something that would be too much, even for someone like Loki.

He gently landed on the outskirts of the city and saw the Rainbow Bridge, and the Gleaming Royal Palace, part of which was caved in, most likely due to Thor crashing into it. It was night time right now, due to Thor's clouds or if it was actually night, he did not know. What he did know was that there were no significant energy readings from inside the palace so Thor was not electrocuting Loki with all his might.

So, he was good for now. He looked and saw that all the civilians had hunkered down, and all the soldiers were running around in the Palace. There were guards stationed at the entrance of the Rainbow Bridge and the Observatory was closing down on its own.

A lockdown then. A standard response for an alleged enemy attack.

Not that Thor was one.

He sighed and began floating towards the palace. He remembered the palace having a medical wing as well. Now, with the wonderful gif that was AllSpeak, embedded even into the writings of Asgard, he could read through a splendid little map that was surprisingly intact, right at the beginning of the stairs that would lead to the Palace.

"Let's see. Knowledge Wing. Treasure Room. Prisoner Dungeon. Ritual Room. Ah, there it is, Medical Wing," He saw the direction and immediately flew away, since the CHI stone was almost out of its reserves by now, judging by the almost grey colour that had covered its surface.

He landed in front of the Medical Wing which, thankfully, was on the edge of the Palace and thus spared from the Crown Prince's fury. A number of soldiers guarded the Wing but he maintained his stealth spell, something that was not supposed to work in Asgard, the homeland of the strongest magic users in the Nine Realms but there he was, just waltzing into the Medic's wings, something that was supposed to be guarded at the utmost levels, with just a spell cast by Dimensional Energy.

It only went to show the level to which Asgard had fallen when it came to defending itself, let alone the abysmal "protection" it provided to its vassal states, something that was sworn into the very fabric of the universe itself by Odin Borson. Alas, Loki Odinson did not seem to know that, and even if he did, did not seem to want to honor his father's, adopted as he may be, Treaties.

He entered the medical wing, and found a completely empty room, to his surprise. His surprise only deepened when he found a sword stuck halfway through his barrier, forcing him to drop his spell, revealing himself to the Woman who had just snuck up on him, and nearly decapitated him as well.

"It would seem I was wrong. Asgard still has someone who has some battle sense," He smirked at the warrior woman who had now jumped back, after it had become evidently clear that her sword was now stuck in his barriers.

"Silence, Intruder!" The woman snarled as she took a combat stance, her fists glowing yellow. His eyes widened minutely when he realised that the woman was actually utilising CHI, to enhance her prowess.

He immediately raised his hands up in surrender, "Wait! Wait, I am here with a Patient. I am not an intruder, I am from Midgard,"

She scowled at him, "Do not lie to me, Intruder. I, Eir, have not spent all my life in these hallowed halls. Do not, for a moment, think that you will get past me,"

Oh. Ooh. She was her then. The Head Royal Healer. But why was she not recognising Heimdall, he was right there, in front of her, then why….

Oh.

"Wait! Healer Eir, this is Heimdall. He was banished to the wastelands for some reason. He is barely alive. We can do all this later on. Please Heal him. I don't have any spells in my repertoire which can affect him," He said and basically thrust Heimdall's exposed body towards Eir who paused and after taking a closer look at Heimdall, recoiled in horror, before her experience as a Royal Healer came into play and she lunged at Heimdall, her hands immediately laying flat atop Heimdall's chest, glowing a shade of gold and green, before she began yelling.

"Estrid! Sigvor! Get in her immediately! Ulfeid, get the Soul Forge running!"

He stepped back, content in letting the experts in the field do their job, even as he made sure to keep his senses high and his barriers multi faceted. WOuldn't want another repeat of what Eir just pulled off, now would he?

She had thrust a sword, that he was sure was named or something, giving it that extra specialty, and then coated it in her own CHI, giving it that extra oomph that allowed it to get through his seven layered barriers, something that was supposed to be a rarity but her Valkyrie gauntlets clued him in as to what allowed her to do so.

She was one of the elite of the elite, the surviving ones anyway. She must have been on Asgard, probably fulfilling her duties as the Medic or expecting an influx of injured Valkyrie to heal when Odin basically sent the entire Valkyrie unit to their deaths against Hela. Quite a political masterstroke, if he were to be completely honest.

Getting rid of a unit that was under the command of someone who had gone rogue, by the hands of the person who had gone rogue? Smart.

Then letting the person who now had probable emotional damage from having been forced to kill their duty bound loyal comrades, some of whom must have been her friends, live was foolishness of the highest order.

Imprisoning her in a prison that was tied to Odin's life force and then not informing his sons about the big impending threat until the last moment? Dumber.

Not even preparing anyone in Asgard, or trying to raise an army to counter her, or even doing something to make sure that Asgard isn't immediately screwed over the moment Hela steps foot on Asgard? Dum-Dum Dumb.

He shook his head, banishing those thoughts, as he turned to leave and then had to immediately cast a barrier all over the room, because a huge explosion sounded in the distance that rattled the entire palace, including the Medical Wing, which was pretty far away from Thor's entry point, which was a point of concern.

"Who is that?! What is happening!" Some of the junior healers who had just finished putting Heimdall in the Soul Forge exclaimed as they had to steady themselves while Eir held on to her balance just fine. He had a hunch that she did not let her skills rust away, even in the long time of peace Asgard had enjoyed.

"That energy….It feels like Thor?" Eir whispered as she stood beside him, looking at the storm of blue and white that was gathering above the palace. Only instead of it being a storm of clouds with lightning mixed in, it was a storm made of just lightning. Just a mass of white and blue, crackling in the sky, waiting to strike the poor fool who would end up being the target of such high powered magic.

"Yes, it is Thor and he is not happy. Mostly because of Heimdall's condition so if you could make sure that Heimdall surv–"

"I will not let the Watcher die, I might as well throw myself in the void before I let the esteemed line of Heimdall die on me," She declared before she stomped back to the chamber where Heimdall was kept. Once she was in, a Yellow glow came out of the chambers, flowing like liquid on all the walls of the Medical Chamber. He dispelled his barriers and watched as the entire wing was stabilised because of the glow, most likely, some enchantment to protect the entire wing.

"Time to shine," He muttered to himself as he covered himself in the densest barriers he could conjure without having to call on the weird fusion of energies that powered him up to the point he hoped would allow him to match the current empowered Thor. If not that, then there was always the Power Stone but he would keep that as a last resort because he couldn't control the output of the Infinity Stone at its highest level, something that he might need because of Thor's current power levels.

He flew right into the storm of energies he could feel, the second highest one in the area, after the massive one brewing in the clouds. He found himself standing in the ruins of what once was the Royal Hall.

In the center of the Royal Hall, Loki and Thor were entangled in a very one sided battle, with Loki barely deflecting Mjolnir's blows with the help of Gungnir, clad in his complete battle armour with Thor barely even looking winded.

Loki was…..bruised. Yup, his face, his hands, whatever part was exposed, looked bruised to him.

The Throne behind them was gone, just gone. The area around it was still red hot so Loki probably barely dodged the fuck off lightning bolt that Thor cast which did the aforementioned vaporising.

"How dare you! You stole! Stole the THRONE! Where is Father!" Thor roared in Loki's face, which actually created shockwaves in the area and was some sort of magical attack because Loki kept Gungnir in front of him and even then, was dragged a good ten feet in the back.

As he drew grooves in the floor, he stabbed the pointy end of Gungnir on the ground, and leaned on it, barely standing on his own power, his face flaking off to partially reveal blue ice under it.

"Heh. I *Cough* *Cough* have to admit. I didn't *Cough* expect this from you, brother," Even in this situation, Loki had the gall to smirk at Thor.

The idiot. He shook his head at the stupidity on display.

Thor did not like that smirk on his brother's face and just charged at Loki, jumped up in the air, drew his hammer back. Loki barely had the time to hold Gungnir up, in the general direction of Thor before he blasted Loki away from the point of impact, his barriers allowing him to sneak attack Loki and throw him away, right into the wall, where he lay for a second before he crumpled onto the ground, Gungnir slipping from his hands.

Thor immediately turned towards him, and he had to admit, that was a little scary. It was not good for, probably anyone's health to have a fully realised angry Royal Asgardian God with glowing eyes, glaring at them.

So, he did what he thought best. He immediately floated down and raised his hands up.

"Hey! I was just saving your brother. I thought you were going to kill him," he said and Thor scowled at those words.

"Your intervention was unwanted, Jack. I know how to moderate my power. I wouldn't have killed him," Thor said as he threw Mjolnir into the sky, right in the middle of the white and blue storm of energy that was crackling above Asgard's Palace.

"Dismembered him? Sure," He did not like what THor was muttering later on but oh well.

"So, what now?" He asked Thor, standing over Loki's barely breathing form, with Thor holding onto Gungnir which was also sparking blue and white, in response to Thor's power.

Damn, being powerful gets one all the toys.

He looked up, and yup. Mjolnir was guzzling down the lightning as if it were leftover Chinese from last night. He didn't even know that Mjolnir could even straight up eat lightning like that but it made sense. According to the lore, Mjolnir contained within it, a cosmic storm that once threatened to consume the Nine Realms and had to be personally sealed by the All-Father into an Uru weapon.

"Now? Now we find Father," Thor declared before he stomped Gungnir on the ground, creating a huge Gong that was probably heard across Asgard.

"Listen to me, Asgard! I am Crown Prince, Thor! And I have returned!"

And in front of his own two eyes, the area around the Throne, which Thor had disintegrated into nothingness, glitched before the throne reformed right in front of him, spick and span, without any trace of the battle that happened moments before.

Thor stomped towards the Throne and sat on it. Then, once again, he dumped Gungnir on the ground, creating another noise but this time, it was accompanied by a litany of lights lightning up, all around the throne, leading all around him, outside the throne room. He looked out, and saw the entirety of the city lit up in yellow before the glow receded but not before leaving an imprint into the minds of Asgard's citizens, that Thor had returned and his claim was legitimate.

For Gungnir could not be wielded by anyone that Odin did not want it to.

In a way, Odin let Loki imprison him within his own mind. Foolishness upon Foolishness. But then again, Father's love so who could say anything?

_______xxx_______

A Few Days Later [Spongebob Style]

"I am glad that you are alive. Wouldn't want anyone else to stalk me. You are my designated stalker, for life," He ribbed Heimdall who smiled and then coughed as he slept in the Soul Forge, something that was no longer necessary but was mandated by Healer Eir who had more than enough run ins with Thor and Loki's shenanigans in their childhood that even Thor didn't dare go against her.

"Mr.Sullivan, might I remind you that you are speaking to a very sensitive patient. Please refrain from making any additional comments or I might have to inform Healer Eir about your visiting privileges," Estrid, one of the junior healers, though compared to Eir, everyone was a junior healer, complained to him and he immediately raised his hands up.

It had been less than two days since Thor returned to Asgard, explosively, and had Loki imprisoned in the dungeons. The Royal Palace was rebuilt, the Rainbow Bridge reopened, the sun returned to the citizens of Asgard as life returned to normal.

He had been surprised at the pace with which normality returned but apparently, Asgardians loved, no, they really loved Thor and were more than willing to overlook any glaring holes that might or might not have appeared in Thor's story.

Either way, Asgard was rebuilt, Heimdall was awake and will be making a full recovery. Axl had already visited and had vowed to, one day grow strong enough to destroy the wastelands himself.

Apparently, the wastelands held a demon. A demon of ruin, someone who brought decay, famine, and death to every place he went to. Odin, in his younger days, sought to create a maze of sorts, to confuse, run down, and kill his enemies in the most amusing manner possible.

Typical of the warlord that he was at the time.

So, he found the most barren part of Asgard, and sealed the aforementioned demon in the lands, creating an area that was life sucking in all senses of the word. The demon had long since perished but the effect remained.

Although, Thor had already vowed to destroy that place before he left Asgard, to search for his Father, so young Axl's vow might be useless.

He had been accepted as a part of Prince Thor's ally from Midgard, someone who was unexpectedly strong for a so-called weak Midgardian. Already, he had bested the best warriors that Asgard had present at the moment.

As it turns out, the Warriors Three and Sif were all "out on long term expeditions" as per Loki's orders and it would take time for Asgard's finest warriors (And wasn't it sad that taking out four people would deprive Asgard of some of its finest fighting prowess) to come back home.

In the meantime, he was training with the people here, in hand to hand combat, something he realised that he could still learn.

Thor had assured him that he would be done in a few more days. He knew the location of Odin but Thor hadn't even seen Loki since the day so he had no idea how Thor would find the location but he was only going to wait a few more days before just straight up telling them.

He could push the blame on the Ancient One with ease, not that she did not know it anyway.

---

Word Count - 2923

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).

Asgard [July 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

"So, did he talk?" He was just outside the prisoner dungeon, which was now much more secure than before, most probably because of the whole Dark Elf incident, leaning on one of the pillars, when Thor came out, with an unreadable look on his face.

As far as his knowledge went, this was the first time that Thor had met Loki, ever since Thor took over Asgard's day to day functions. And what a disaster it was.

Refused and rejected meetings about revenue, military, protection, and more, had to be taken over by Thor. Loki really was a very shit ruler, not suited for ruling at all. Neither was Thor, to be perfectly honest but the current Thor was a complete unknown to him so who was he to comment?

He had heard that Thor had poured over everything that had happened in Asgard over the past few years and had taken some major decisions, including personally going to every single of their allies and apologising for Asgard's mistake, and also doing a subtle show of power in every realm to remind them that Asgard, while vastly diminished, was still on top.

For one, he just straight up obliterated the pirate encirclement that was happening around Nidavellir, despite the stupid spell that THor had cast around it. Some people's greed simply knew no bounds and in the vast cold space, the value of life tended to drop significantly.

The spell remained, obviously, but a permanent cover of Asgardian Einherjars also joined them for protection. He just wished that they could establish contact with Eitri somehow because there was no plausible way of contacting Eitri unless he reached some nexus and called them back.

So far, they had not received a single update from him but that was to be expected. It took time for things to happen in Omnipotence City, especially since it was filled with Immortal Gods who had all the time in the world and were also quite lazy and indulgent in their own realms of power. Also, prideful, the lot of them so convincing them to do anything that required effort on their part was going to be a chore and a half.

Especially since said chore would require them going somewhere that was the territory of Odin Borson, someone who is the "established" strongest of them all, someone who has lorded over all of them for most of their lives, even though they didn't even see each for Millenia, simply because the Gods in Omnipotence city knew that there was a SkyFather out there that could defeat them all, someone on a whole other level.

Odin was probably the reason why they never really came to Earth anyway. Convincing them to extend protection to Nidavellir was going to take a lot of grovelling.

And all of this was contingent on Eitri actually reaching Omnipotence city. That was his biggest fear, that Eitri was going to be kidnapped midway by Thanos and then forced to make the Infinity Gauntlet on some other Dyson Sphere that Thanos built and then hid away, however unlikely as that might be.

"I know where Father is," Thor said to him and brought him out of his thoughts as they came out of the prison dungeon, which was only guarded by a small group of Einherjars, which were nowhere near enough to stop someone of Loki's calibre if he truly wanted to escape but then….

As soon as they crossed the threshold of the dungeon, Thor snapped his fingers, creating a zooming noise behind him and as he turned around, he saw a golden net, crisscrossing with glowing blue lines appear for a second before it disappeared but his senses warned him of the high energy lines that were there, to ward off any intruder or the more likely outcome, slice the intruder into pieces.

Either way, it would be very hard for anyone unauthorised to enter or leave the dungeon. And the Einherjar squad was equipped with enough resources down there to not leave the place for months at a time, which her was sure was going to be more than enough for them to resolve the issues caused by Loki and then return for his sentencing, because Loki had not been officially punished yet, for his various crimes.

Something like that would have to wait for later on, when they had enough time on their hands.

"So, are we leaving soon?" He asked Thor, excited to get moving and get some stuff done, because with him and Thor on one side, he doubted there was anything that could truly stop them.

"Aye, I must meet Father and make sense of the mess that he has allowed to happen under his watch," Thor said gravely and he snorted internally. If only Thor knew the even deeper pile of mess that his father was about to dump on his lap and then just fuck right off.

"Good. Just tell me when you are ready," he informed Thor and went to his favourite place in Asgard, the Medical Wing. Eir was a formidable woman, capable of magic that most of Asgard had forgotten already. She was not just the medic of the Valkyrie unit but also the resident magic nerd of the unit as well. As such, she knew a ton of magic that probably only Frigga and Odin knew about.

Even most of the nobles were just fat lords who had gotten complacent under Odin's powerful rule and were just sitting ducks for anyone to kill them. So, expecting advanced magics from them was a fool's errand. Books of powerful magic could be held by the nobles but Odin had long since confiscated anything truly dangerous so the most reliable source of new magic for him in Asgard was Eir.

Thor knew all kinds of new magic that he had not seen but the man was very much busy and he had a hunch that Thor's magic was not going to be compliant with his own magic. So, Eir's chambers it was.

"Eir! I am here again!" He said as he entered the Medic Wing, carefully wrapping himself in barriers as Eir was not above dismembering someone because they were being an annoyance and then stitching that limb back together, painfully.

"She's not here. She is putting together a report on something, to present to Prince Thor," The gravelly, but thankfully, much healthier voice of Heimdall answered his call. He relaxed and entered the Soul Forge room and was surprised to see Heimdall already out of it.

"I thought Eir forbid you from getting out of that pod without her express permission," He asked Heimdall who was now doing stretches and lunges on the ground.

"And I thought Eir forbid you from disturbing her again, just for some shiny new piece of magic that most of the Nine Realms had forgotten about," He quipped right back as he continued stretching his body, which thankfully, was not just skin and bones. Man, Asgardian bodies recovered quickly.

His eyes had not sunken in now and they had regained their healthy yellow glow. He was curious though.

"Did you regain your sight?"

Heimdall stopped mid stretch, looked at him deeply and then stood up straight, closed his eyes, as he could feel faint swirls of magic appearing around his body, centered around his head.

He yelped as he jumped forward, a sword of glowing yellow magic barely missing his back as he scrambled with his barriers ready, confronting….Eir.

"Just what in the Nine Realms gave you the audacity to not only disturb my patient but goad him into activating the single most magically taxing ability in all of Asgard," Eir snapped at him as she rushed towards Heimdall who was…bound?

Oh my god, she had bound Heimdall in yellow bounds, and just dumped him right back into the Soul Forge. She then sealed his mouth shut as well, and then snapped her fingers, which released some sort of gas in the Soul Forge and within moments, the small struggle that Heimdall was able to put up against the bonds ceased.

Damn, this woman was scary.

"Anyway, Prince Thor has called for me. I will take my leave," He had a hunch that he was not going to get any new information on any extinct magic in this room, without first having to fight his way out of it.

"Where do you think you are going!" The same bonds reached for him but he was much faster than Heimdall who was recovering from life threatening conditions, and escaped her wrath. THough, he should give her ample time to cool down and meet her sometime in the next year or so.

In the meantime, he floated over to the Observatory, since it also housed another interesting individual. Someone by the name of Skurge. Yes, the one who would end up betraying Asgard to go on serving Hela but right now, he was just someone who was appointed to monitor the BiFrost by Loki and for some reason, Thor had not relieved him of his duties immediately because he had no specialised magic that would help him as the Caretaker of the Bridge. Then again, there was no bloodline other than Heimdall's which was more suited for that position in all of Asgard and probably the Nine Realms as well.

"Hello, mortal, I assume you are aware that all travel in and out of Asgard is only permitted by the express permission of Crown Prince Thor," Skurge greeted him, trying to be all intimidating but he lazily waved him away as he floated by.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I was just waiting for him. We have to leave soon,"

And as he uttered those words, he heard a whistling sound in the distance and turned to see Thor flying towards them, in the old fashioned, holding Mjolnir's leather strap as it flew forward, way.

"Skurge, start the Bi-Frost. To Midgard," Thor ordered as soon as he landed and began walking forward. He followed through and asked Thor since he had had to maintain his clueless look.

"Earth? I thought we were going to retrieve Odin?"

"We are. ODin is on Midgard,"

"Safe travels, My Prince," Skurge told them before their vision was consumed by the colours of the rainbow before they appeared on a pavement. A pavement that was now carved with the symbols of the BiFrost.

He looked up and groaned as they found themselves near Times Square. He followed THor who had already changed into his civilian get up with Mjolnir turned into an Umbrella. Marvel never really did explore the whole Donald Blake persona thing.

They walked for a few more minutes, and came across a quaint little building, with a very posh receptionist. Thor entered the establishment and every single woman in sight immediately had a blush on her face.

Stupid Asgardian genetics.

"Let's go, they moved him," He looked up from the magazine he was reading.

"What?"

"Yes, they moved him to another facility upstate. This is the address," Thor showed him a piece of paper, which also had a heart and a phone number written on it. He rolled his eyes and stood up, following Thor outside the old age home, only to come face to face with the Ancient One.

"I had a feeling you boys might need a ride," She made some sort of internal joke with that statement and waved her hand in a circle, creating a portal.

On the other side of the portal, was a cliff with greenery, with the faint sound of the ocean in the background, which was very much not an upstate facility.

"He's waiting for you, Prince Thor,"

Thor nodded at her and entered the portal. He wisely didn't go because it felt weirdly personal. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if Loki was whisked away by the BiFrost and brought there to have one final father to son talk.

"So, Odin's dying? Hela's coming then?" He asked the Ancient One while they entered the portal that took them to Kamar Taj, right into one of the lobbies.

"Yes, that is another fixed point in time, Master Sullivan and you should know about that," She said as she poured tea for herself and him.

"I see. So, how do you propose I go to Asgard to help Thor against Hela if we can't open portals directly to Asgard? Or do you want me to contain her here on Earth itself once we can obviously sense her vile energy entering the planet?" He asked her since he was unsure of what she thought best of the situation.

"Why are you asking me about it? I am just someone who was tasked by Odin to make sure that his sons found him. You are free to do as you wish,"

He deadpanned at her. "Seriously?"

"Master Sullivan, your actions are your own. Therefore, the consequences of those actions are yours to bear as well so why would you ask someone else for advice? Do what your mind tells you to do and bear the consequences. That is how you move forward in life," She was, once again, in her old life guru mode.

"Okay. Great. I will be in Norway then. If we can contain or even kill Hela without any catastrophic damage to both Earth and Asgard, then it will be for the best but I have a feeling that Ragnarok cannot be stopped, at least not completely," He said to her and after gulping down the amazing tea, stood up, ready to stop the strongest Child of Odin Borson.

"Don't forget the Mirror Dimension, Master Sullivan."

"Yeah, yeah," He waved as he created a portal to Norway and flew through, waiting for the Death energy spike to hit his senses so that he could work on defeating Hela, in her weakened state, or even negotiate with her to fight against Thanos, in the best case scenario.

Atleast, half of Asgard will not die for Ragnarok to happen.

---

Word Count - 2377

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 th

 

[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).

Earth [July 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

Let's see, so they were on a cliff, overlooking the ocean with a sunset in the background, when Odin had his final talk with Thor and Loki before he fucked right off and set Hela on the loose, on Thor and Loki, without even warning them that going to Asgard, or opening a BiFrost bridge straight to Asgartd while in her presence was the most idiotic thing ever.

He was ont feeling any particular surge of energy or even any visible light from the Rainbow Bridge. Still…

"Um, Jarvis?"

It took a beat for him to respond but in Jarvis' defense, the transponder was always kept in his storage space, so it was almost never used, "Greetings, Mister Sullivan, what can I do for you?"

"Yeah, so can you please keep an eye out for odd energy signatures or shows of rainbows in Norway, specifically the coasts?"

"Ofcourse, Mister Sullivan, I will keep an eye on any activations of the Bifrost bridge."

Good. So, that just left him floating around, in the vicinity of the event that would shape Asgard or what would be left of it after such a cataclysmic shift in the ruling part, for centuries to come. He knew one thing though, there was no way that Asgard could be allowed to settle on Earth of all places.

It was the most volatile place in the Nine Realms and humans were always the most greedy, ambitious, and more importantly, fast lot of the bunch. Humans could not compete with the other superior species of the Nine Realms in almost everything but the one thing they excelled at, was speed, and endurance. Humans had such short lifespans but in that short time, they achieved extraordinary things so he had no doubt that should such a situation arise where the remnants of Asgard or New Asgard found itself in opposition to Humanity, it would suffer terrible losses, even if Asgard somehow won, without Thor or Loki.

He wondered how he could contain Hela if her Death energy started causing him issues but then dismissed the thought from his mind as he was with Thor, not the goofy one but the edgy brooding Overpowered son of Odin. If this rendition of Thor fumbled Hela, then that was all but proof that Hela getting to Asgard and doing a bunch of destruction was a fixed point in time.

Just like her death. His mind wandered to the events leading up to her death. Strange was still working as an excellent surgeon, with a near perfect record. Still arrogant but that was the pitfall of all geniuses, at least until they fell from their heights. Case in point, Tony Stark, who was, once again getting pretty up there but Pepper was there to keep him down this time. Once he has a kid, Tony of the past will be all but gone and replaced by a responsible, well slightly irresponsible dad.

While his mind continued to think about the major events that would happen in the next two to three years, right before Thanos' scheduled arrival, his senses were spread outwards, trying to sense any abnormal energy, be it from the Bifrost or from Hela's necromantic energy.

Come on, what else happened in 2016?

He knew that she was not going to budge on her death. She welcomed her death, in fact. She was tired of being the rock of Kamar Taj and being the Sorcerer Supreme that held every single eldritch horror back that would love nothing more than to feast on the feeble delicious snack that was humanity.

The events of Civil War were rendered all but moot due to his previous actions, though the idiots in the government might still try to bring the Accords to the forefront but without the Wonder Twins creating new problems, the Accords would have very shaky grounds to stand on and this time, they would have to go through him to get even a single rule through that infringed on the rights of enhanced people.

ANyway, he would have to check up on Strange and his standing in Kamar Taj once he was back from his trip to Asgard, and then NIdavellir and if the situation called for it, Omnipotence City.

Sigh, he missed the days when all he had in the name of commuting was a step into a portal that led him to everywhere on Earth. With the magic of the internet and modern maps available at the click of a button, he could be practically anywhere on the planet within moments, instead of having to go through complicated steps like having Thor use the Power Stone or to use the Bifrost.

At Least Ego will not be a problem anymore and Rocket had already called for some help from the nearest shuttle service that somehow ran through all of the galaxy, using a transponder he hacked together using machines that Tony provided him. The Guardians had already left the planet and were probably on to their next adventure.

He had to–

His neck snapped to the right as he watched the Rainbow Bridge activate.

"Sir," Jarvis' reminder came right on time as he waited, with bated breath, to see if Hela's death energy could be felt. He went closer, but from much higher up, to see what had happened and slumped as he saw just three people on the ground, with Old Man Odin being one of them.

So, they summoned Loki for the talk then. Great, so there is still time for the old man to croak. He was pretty certain that Thor and Odin both knew that he was up there, lounging in the sky but they were either uncaring or knew that Earth was his domain and he could not leave Asgardoians with power to carve continents, unsupervised.

His mind, once again, ran back to Tony and the others, while he waited for the family goodbye downside to be over. He was thinking of taking Tony and some of the others, like Bruce and Captain to see outer space.

He couldn't think of any situation where Bruce would be a huge liability since even in his Hulk form, he was pretty tame and now knew how to recognise between friend and foe and more importantly, recognised the Green Guardian and listened to him, somewhat. Tony, with his myriad of suits would be competent but he still believed that it was too dangerous to expose Tony straight to Space Tech this early.

Captain, while formidable, would not be much of a fighter in space but Steve was getting bored on Earth and as of this moment, was just being used as an agent of SWORD but not for combat purposes but as a mascot, to make sure that the planet's civilian population and the governments approved their funding and their jurisdictions, which was not much considering all they right now were the three Helicarriers in space.

They were using the Helicarriers as their permanent base, with food deliveries coming from the ground, facilitated by Stark Industries' Space Tech arm. It would be much easier to just get one of the massive Helicarriers down, load it up with food and then take it up so that they could have months worth of food and water in one go but the problem was the fine print.

In fact, Jack was the one who had insisted on having that specific language in the law, so that it could not be misinterpreted in any other way. The Helicarriers were essentially weapons of mass destruction, with the way they were self sufficient and had weapons to wreck the planet many times over. So, these WMDs will never be pointed at the planet, never ever.

They were made to be used against outside threats, they will only be used on outside threats. Against invaders coming from space. He was still working on getting some sort of planet wide solution against teleportation directly into the planet's atmosphere but that will take work, a lot of work, and a tech stack that he does not know yet. But then again, he wouldn't have to worry much about that if Thanos is defeated, since no one will ever have the balls to mess with them, the planet that took down Thanos and not just Thanos but Thanos, His Black Order, and his vast army.

Everything. Once everything was turned to dust, they could proceed ahead with a smooth development of the human race, with ease. His memories went beyond the Snap and killing Thanos and he could remember that while Bruce's hand was injured very badly after the Snap, to the point that his healing factor could not heal it on its own, Bruce had done some Gamam mumbo jumbo and had healed it back in the future.

So, they had essentially zero risk of permanently disabling someone when someone used all the six Bloody stones in that Gauntlet. That was why he was having Bruce have some conversations and interactions with his alter ego, in hopes that Smart Hulk would be ready when the time came.

Because he had a hunch that Eitri either didn't really reach Omnipotence City or was grabbed up after leaving that damned city. So, henceforth he was going to run ahead with the assumption that Thanos has the Gauntlet but none of the Stones, as of now. '

The Power Stone? With him. Safe. Secure.

The Time Stone? With her. Even more Safe and Secure.

The Reality Stone? Huh. Come to think of it, where exactly was the Reality Stone?

His mind drew a blank whenever he tried to remember it. He remembered something about Tivan, the Collector, and then….nothing. His eyes grew wide as he couldn't find any information about the Reality Stone in his mind.

His eyes grew ablaze with green, as he dove back into hsi mind, to see what had occurred but even after scouring his mind for any signs of interference, he could find nothing.

But then…

He shook his head, that was still one stone. He had to make sure that the rest of them were accounted for.

The Mind Stone? On Earth, in Jarvis' custody. Hmm. That filled him with some unease right now. He should check up on it once he has time.

The Space Stone? On Asgard. Safe-ish. Now that Thor will stay on Asgard once the issues with Eitri was resolved, that particular Stone will be just as safe as the Time Stone.

The Soul Stone? Shit. Gamora. How could he let her pass? Damn, he was going to have to track her down as well because the Soul and Reality Stones were the two most dangerous, esoteric stones of the bunch and he didn't have track of the two of them.

If Thanos got his hands on them, even if they did have the other four Stones accounted for, they could not all use them and thus, would be on the backfoot against a Thanos armed with reality manipulation and Soul sucking capabilities.

Even the strongest of fighters he knew did not have much in the way of defense against any soul attacks. He himself could probably resist any such attack due to the virtue of his powers but others? They would be hard pressed to even survive any attack on the Soul and Soul attacks were notorious for being extremely painful so even if they did survive, they would be taken out of the fight instantly.

Nope, not taking that risk, at all.

He sighed, once again. He thought he had time but they were, once again, despite all his preparations, racing against time now. Hela's issue should not take much time, he will have to convince Thor to strike against his newly found sister with all his power so they don't end up losing precious time against their true enemy.

Oh, looks like things were winding up down below. He could sense the waning energy of Odin from high above and it was weird, like it was a dichotomy of his senses. The objectively knew that Asgardians only grow stronger as they age, like right up until their death. So, theoretically, Odin is at his strongest right now, and his energy definitely felt like it but it was not just his OdinForce he was sensing, he could also sense his life energy and that was almost at its end.

Which meant that Odin had access to a ton of energy right now and was at his theoretical strongest but his own body, his conduit of energy was weak so he would not be able to do much without dying instantly. Still, it was worth nothing that Odin could have, just a few weeks before, cast the strongest attack of his lifetime and then died instantly.

He wagered that the attack would have been enough to carve out a significant line in Thanos' force or take out a small planet, with ease.

His body jerked as he felt a gaze lock on to him. He looked below, to see Odin looking straight up at him. Well, not knowing what to do in this situation, he…waved goodbye.

Odin shook his head as his body dissipated into motes of light, and at the same time, a voice whispered straight into his ears, making him jump slightly.

"Take care of them," And as if he remembered that he had to be polite about his request, the voice added, "--please," Even that word felt like it was dragged out with extreme reluctance. He shrugged; rulers and their extreme pride.

He then cracked his neck, stretched a bit in anticipation for the main event of the day, and then dispelled his barriers, dropping straight down like a rocket. In his bid to make a badass entry, he didn't bother slowing down his descent and he was coming down from a pretty high height, so the end result was not badass. Not. At. All.

With a shower of dirt, he found himself a dozen feet into the ground, with mud in his mouth. Damn, a rookie mistake, once again. He cursed himself, enveloped himself in the familiar warmth of his barriers, cast the strongest cleaning spell he knew, and then slowly floated out of the ground, just in time for a shiver to run down his spine, not out of fear but out of disgust.

He looked back, to see a dark green portal shimmering, with Dark energy oozing out of it, making his skin crawl due to the death aspect of the energy. Grass around the portal withered away, revealing brown soil which too withered to turn into a grey lifeless landscape.

Damn, Hela knew how to make an entrance.

"Be Ready, and whatever you do, do not throw Mjolnir at her, and do not call for the BiFrost," He informed both Thor and Loki, who seemed to have made up, considering that there was no "I will kill you where you stand" animosity between them anymore.

"Do not presume to order me around, mortal." Loki snarked back but got his knives ready, and then he remembered something so he slowly floated back, to make sure that Loki was in his direct vision.

"After you," he deadpanned at Loki once they both looked back at him in confusion.

And then she came.

"Eww," That came out involuntarily as he looked at the dishevelled appearance of Hela Odinsdottir, nothing like the royalty she was supposed to be.

Hela stopped mid tirade, and then all the three Asgardian siblings (Adopted as well) turned to him slowly at his slip up.

"Well, mortal, forgive me for my state but daddy dearest did not provide me with any showers in my prison, now did he?" She snarked back as green oozed out of her back and formed two swords in both of her hands.

"Now, who's ready to die?"

"I mean, technically, he should go first since he did just, you know, insult a Lady's honor," Loki, ever the silvertongue, pushed it all on him.

"You really are the worst ally to have," He muttered to Loki and then smiled at Hela, his barriers forming dozens of swords behind him, which then began rotating at absurd speeds, creating a high pitched whine in the air, and also superheating the air, creating smoke around his spinning wheel of death.

"Hmm," Hela regarded them with interest, "So, the mortal is not entirely useless then. Well, at least this will be interesting,"

And she was right. Compared to a thousand years of nothingness, anything would be interesting, let alone a battle to the death.

He just had to make sure that the casualty count of this fight remained zero, be it from Asgard, or from Earth.

Then, he looked at Loki and remembered the very recent and also the very old back stabbings, along with any future back stabbings that he did in canon, and thought, well, one casualty might be acceptable.

After all, they were fighting Odin's firstborn, the strongest of Odin's children, supposedly.

---

Word Count - 2876

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).

Earth [July 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

Looking at the absolutely casual looking Hela with one sword buried to the hilt in the ground and one in her hand, which she used as a mirror to check her face, which was already gaining colour the longer she remained out of her prison, he thought to himself, why not try his mettle against the supposedly strongest warrior of Old Asgard, the bloodthirsty Warmongering feared civilisation, not the current peacekeeping one that it had become.

"You mind if I go first?" he asked Thor and Loki, both of whom did not seem to have any problem. Loki even did the "you first" gesture which was very annoying, mainly because of the smirk he seemed to have etched on his face. Loki seemed to have forgotten the beatdown he received in New York but then again, it was over really fast so him not remembering was warranted.

Ha! What a sick burn, he should have said it out loud, instead of thinking about it.

"Let's dance, shall we?" He smirked at her, eager to send her careening into the ground and avoid any long blown out sibling fight because time was working against them and he would much rather be ahead of Thanos than behind him.

Hela just smirked at him as she pointed the very pointy sword at him. He also noticed that the ground was withering around the sword she had buried into the ground, the vegetation withering away and the aura seemed to be spreading around them. Well, he didn't know the long term consequences of having an area irradiated with Death aura but it couldn't be anything good so better finish this up quickly, before she turned a small perfectly tourism worthy cliff into a death zone, which might also become a tourist zone for the right Gothic and Death obsessed people.

Ironically, the first person that came to mind when he thought of Death obsessed people was Thanos and…he was getting distracted. It was happening more often than not and he was seriously getting worried about it now. He might have to get himself checked by the Ancient One for some magical mental illness or something.

With a twitch of his fingers, he sent the spinning wheel of death that was still heating the air all around them, rocketing towards the still form of Hela. Since they were multiple swords, she had to move but even then, she managed to dodge the rapidly turning swords and even deflected one of them.

He noticed that his connection to the sword which was hit by her sword was…dimmed for a lack of a better term.

He frowned at that, as Hela performed what was basically a dance of battle as she leaned out of the way, dodged what she could, and deflected what she had to because he had separated all the swords and was manipulating everything in a way that she probably should not have been able to counter and yet, there she was, trading small cuts for blows at his swords which dimmed more and more of his connection to them until finally, with a particularly savage blow, she sent a sword careening to one side, burying it in the ground, his connection to the barrier lost.

He frowned even more when he realised that she was testing his barriers and the magic behind them, as she repeated the stunt she pulled earlier as all opf his swords, one by one, were sent off to one side, no longer being manipulated by his will because he could not even sense them.

Not being connected to him any longer, the swords dissipated within seconds, leaving behind a very confused Jack and a smiling Hela, whose wounds sizzled and then healed up, leaving no trace of the hopefully very taxing battle behind.

Her clothing also seemed to shift more and more, gaining a darker shade of green the longer she remained on Earth.

"That was a good warmup, mortal. Has Midgard changed so much in such little time? I must visit all the other warriors on the dirtball if they proved to be as fun as you or are you the strongest Midgard has to offer?" Hela asked him and he refrained from answering, instead of thinking of how to settle this as fast as possible.

The obvious answer would be to go into his combined energy form, and hit as hard and fast as he can, leaving her no chance to retaliate and then hopefully, once she was tired enough, aks Thor to seal her connection to Asgard or something because he could not really condone killing her if she could be kept alive without actively threatening Asgard or any people really.

But then, he realised that while she was not on Asgard, where she would become invincible, she was still somehow gaining energy that was helping her become stronger then more time went on. Also, her death energy seemed nasty. He did not want to get nicked by a Death sword and then get sidelined from the rest of the battles they had.

"Yes, he is the strongest there is on Earth. Sadly, he is no King. Pathetic mortals deem the ability to speak more important than the ability to fight. It's unfortunately, really,"

He mechanically turned his neck to Loki who seemed to be enjoying egging on a very dangerous opponent and then giving her more and more information about them. His finger twitched and Loki found a small barrier covering his mouth, effectively silencing him.

"Yes, I am one of the stronger people on the [planet but there are stronger people than me. Also, I was not serious right now. More importantly, we are not here to fight, we just want to–"

"Ah, you speak like a child. Be a man!" She shouted as she threw the sword at him, with almost contemptuous ease. It was very slow for him, so he just leaned out of the way and heard a small thunk behind him, Hela's eyebrows raising in interest . He turned to see Loki looking at the tip of a sword which seemed to ooze Necromantic energy with a wide eyed frantic gaze, Thor's massive hand wrapped around the hilt of the sword, with seemingly no ill effect whatsoever.

Thor was still looking at Hela with a stoic gaze as he squeezed and crushed the Death sword, which then dissipated into motes of green light.

"Excuse me, Jack, I would like to address this family matter internally," Thor said and he involuntarily found himself nodding and retreating at the poorly disguised command.

Coming to stand beside Loki, he snarked at Loki who had his tongue sealed with one of his small barriers, "What? Cat got your tongue? Good thing your brother still loves you, otherwise you would just be a corpse with an absolute worst track record,"

"You must be my replacement. He did a good job if you can touch my sword and be unaffected or was it Frigga, who taught you?" Hela taunted but he could see the way her shoulders had tensed at the earlier display of power, another sword forming in her right hand, this one more jagged than before and much longer to boot, with a bigger black shroud of energy around it.

Great, she was becoming stronger even without stepping foot on Asgard. Then getting to Asgard, she might as well become invincible, even to their current lineup.

"I am Thor Odinson, current Regent of Asgard. In my limited authority, I can't banish you from Asgard but I can challenge you to a duel, for the Throne," Thor intoned, the winds picking up speed all around them as Thor's dormant energy stirred to life.

"Oh? OR I could just kill you all here and take the Throne for myself," Hela offered classic Death God strategy.

Thor nodded, his arms crossed behind his back, showing absolute disregard for the threat that Hela possessed to…all life really. "You could do that but you would fail. I am giving you a fair chance at a duel, to right the wrongs of my father. He was wrong when he imprisoned you like that, Death would have been a better alternative,"

"Don't!" Hela snarled as she pointed the sword which grew even bigger, right at Thor, "Don't pity me! I have clawed my way out of a prison that would have left each and every one of you a bumbling mess. I, Hela Odinsdottir, will regain my birthright in the most glorious of ways, by conquering my enemies. Do not presume to know me, Mongrel. You might have his blood running through your veins but you will never be my replacement. I will be Queen and YOU. WILL. KNEEL!"

With that last declaration, she lunged at Thor who was barely three feet away from the tip of the sword, intending to kill Thor and finishing the job quickly, as the sword was poised to separate Thor's head from his body.

He felt Loki tense beside him as Thor didn't move an inch from his place as Hela descended on him like an executioner. He snorted at that, it was cute. Thor's shroud was more than capable of taking care of Hela's Death sword, with ease.

But even he was surprised when Thor held Hela's sword with his hand, two fingers gripping the edge, as Hela looked on, surprised, even as she tried to get the sword back.

Thor sighed, then let the sword go, stumbling Hela who immediately switched to another stance and made another move on Thor, who held the sword once again, in the same two finger grip.

"Can we stop this or do we have to fight?" Thor asked her, seemingly tired of everything.

"Fight back! Cowardness does not suit the line of Odin!" Hela snarled as she held the sword with both her hands, and did something to it, a faint outline of a thorny crown appearing on her head, as the sword both enlarged and became more saturated with Death Energy.

Once again, she jumped and slashed at Thor, this time, the attack being an energy wave that seemed to take a lot out of Hela as she put the other end of the sword down on the ground, with Thor still standing there in the same place.

This time, Thor put his palm forward with the Death wave slamming into him, and then being stopped right in its tracks, as Thor seemingly grasped on the wave and then crushed it. Hela looked frustrated at that.

"I can see your power has yet to return to its peak. I, once again, challenge you to a duel for your rightful place on the throne. I will take you to Asgard, let you recover, and then we will have the duel, with Asgard as our witness. Winner takes all. Is that agreeable to you?"

"Thor!" He shouted in urgency, he couldn't let Thor underestimate Hela of all people. She was disaster incarnate. Loki too shouted but he didn't let the barrier up.

Thor didn't look back or respond to his pleas at all. They didn't have time to waste on her. They had Thanos and more to worry about.

Hela looked at them and then at Thor, dispelled the sword, chuckling, "You are even more of a naive fool than I thought. Very well, I agree to the duel," Hela said and then even she was surprised as a golden glow surrounded both Thor and Hela as the vow was seemingly sealed.

"As part of the standard Asgardian Royalty duel, you will not harm my allies or anyone I deem an ally. In this case, all of Asgard and its citizens are my allies, as such you will not cause any damage to Asgard or its people, until our duel is over. As part of the conditions, you will given everything you need to heal to your prime, including but not limited to medical supplies, healers, food, and then Asgard's birthright connection,"

"Yeah yeah, get it over with. I was there when it was written, boy, do not presume to know more than me," Hela said and came to stand in front of them, his hands twitching to just blast her back and then fling her to space and then have Tony blast her with his repulsors until she is enroute to the Sun.

"You, mortal, Jack, was it? You fight well. Once I am Queen, I will kill you and raise you as one of my loyal undead. Rejoice, for no other mortal has had the honor," She said and then looked back at Thor, as if saying : Let's get going.

His lips twitched at the absolutely convoluted underhanded compliment he had ever heard in his life.

"Heimdall. No, Skurge, take us back," Thor intoned and the next second, they all found themselves back in the Observatory of Asgard.

"My Prince!" Skurge bowed very deeply as Thor entirely disregarded them, instead focused on Hela who was floating mid air.

"Yes! This is it! I missed this," Hela said and then the next second, she fell to the ground as a golden shroud appeared on her hand before disappearing.

"Tch!" Hela snorted before walking towards Asgard, as if she had not just tried to break the vow, on the first chance she got.

"I will handle her. Loki, make sure that the nobles are uninformed," Thor ordered Loki and then gave him a meaningful look, causing Loki to finally have his voice back as the barrier was dispelled.

"Finally!" Loki sighed in relief.

Thor then flew towards Hela, to accommodate her and also to make sure she does not cause any scene.

He sighed, in exhaustion. He was so not willing to get dragged into yet another family feud. Loki and Thor had been enough.

Now, they were to wait for Hela to recover, though she seemed plenty recovered to him and then have the duel. Once Thor won, hopefully, then they would have to chain Hela to Asgard somehow, possibly with the same vows and THEN go on to hunt Thanos.

Damn you, ODIN!

He could hear the old bastard laugh at that.

---

Word Count - 2398

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.

 

[BakaL8r]

The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 129[May 2012]

Click to shrink...

The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 130[May 2012]

Click to shrink...

checks thread name,
think you posted the wrong story in the wrong thread...?
i read both of them so im happy

 

[IdleMuse0307]

checks thread name,
think you posted the wrong story in the wrong thread...?
i read both of them so im happy

Click to shrink...

Lol my bad. I'll correct it ASAP

 

[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).

Asgard[July 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

"So, how was life as a ruler?" He asked Loki who was, surprisingly, not being a witty snob.

"Huh, you should be the one to ask, you were the reason it was all destroyed." Loki said with a bitter chuckle.

"Huh, I always thought that you would get tired of being a King, that even if you became one, you would quickly realise that you were ill suited for it and given the state of all the Nine Realms at such a critical juncture, I think I can safely say that you, Loki, were not suited to be King because ruling is not just about enjoying one's life. It is the opposite of ruling and until you understand that, you will not be fit for ruling or anything important in life," He didn't know where the whole speech came from. It was as if his mind and body went on autopilot as words just tumbled out of his mouth in a perfectly clear cut, calm, and not at all patronising tone of voice.

He felt a flash of magic before Loki disappeared from his senses. Huh, that was new. He expected some verbal spat down or even a magical attack or a dagger in the back, both metaphorical and literal but outright fleeing from the situation? That was totally and utterly unexpected.

"....Well, if you had the deepest, darkest realisation of your own failure thrown at you by someone who was an utter third party, then there will obviously be some….disturbances." An ethereal voice echoed all around him and yet, he could not move, not even twitch his fingers or conjure his barriers to figure out what was happening to him.

Time seemed to be frozen all around him, with even the waves of water not moving, that were visible from under the bridge and yet, he heard that same voice speak to him again.

"Ah, sorry for using you like this. Usually, it is against my rules to interfere but I made an exception this time. Sure, the Endless might gripe and moan about it but my duty means that I have certain leeway when it comes to, well, me,"

And there he was, in all his glory, Loki. Well, not the current Loki. The Loki who held what seemed like strands of green in both his hands, keeping them tied together, and yet, there was now another hand growing out from under his right hand, pointed straight at him.

How could he do this? Wasn't Loki supposed to be trapped for eternity, forever doomed to hold the timeline together and nothing else?

His mind raced in panic as he tried to figure things out.

"Ah, that. Interesting concept, really but there is truly nothing to do here for eternity but hold the most fragile thing in the omniverse together. You know, after a few eternities, I grew bored and grew an extra arm to compensate for my, well, lack of arms," Loki, resting on his throne, which was more of a prison, chuckled and answered his questions that he hadn't even spoken out loud.

"Oh, I am so sorry," Loki said and waved his hand that was pointed at him, and suddenly, he could move again, breathe again, and even then, he knew that he was not really here. For one, he could not feel his powers or his connection to dimensional energy that was always all around him, even if he entered alternate dimensions.

"What are you doing here? What did you mean by using me?" He finally asked the only person who could provide him the answers, because he was pretty sure that Loki, this version of Loki, this utterly OP Hax of a Variant must have pulled him here for a reason.

"Jack Sullivan, you were pulled into this reality by someone who cannot be named and should not be touched but you see, it is so boring to be here, all by myself, for several eternities. So, I peered into your timeline because, you see, this was the first time I got to experience the work of your patron, and to my surprise, I found myself entertained. For some reason, despite your actions being anything but entertaining, I found myself thoroughly amused by your life,"

Amused? Entertained? What the fucK?!

"That led me to think that there was something else at play and what do you know, there was. This hand, it did not come for free. I had to sacrifice one of the fringe timelines and then burn all the souls in that timeline to get enough energy to create this limb and also to figure out why you were so amusing to me. Anyways, I have spoken too much anyway but it was just a spur of the moment thing, the words I spoke to my much stupider variant."

All he could do was stare stupidly at Loki who continued to babble on and on about something that absolutely was not on his mind, and certainly not on his agenda for the day.

Loki finally noticed something as he looked at him and then sighed, "I am so sorry, mother would kill me if she saw my manners but you see, I have been alone for so long and the Endless are not good company, or a good conversationalist, hence, the babbling. I too don't know why I did this."

Then Loki's eyes widened as he snapped his fingers on his free hand, "Oh! Oh by Odin's Beard, so it is like this. So, I have been controlled as well. Ah! So amusing. Truly, the one who cannot be named's ways are very handy,"

And then, as if the conversation he heard was not mind bending and needed more context, Loki snapped his fingers once again, blocking his vision with a sea of green before he found himself back in his body. He hurriedly tested his connection to his powers, dimensional energy and even to his astral form and sighed in relief when he found everything to be okay.

Damn, he thought, breathing heavily, that was bizarre.

Loki. Endless. God of Time. Third Limb. Sacrificing timelines, burning souls.

"What. THE. FUCK!" he muttered under his breath before a barrier covered his body and he flew straight towards his own quarters as if he owned the place, because he knew the place like the back of his hand now, having lived in it for over a week now.

He was about to enter the Guest Wing of the palace when he felt the magical tremor and then the actual tremor from the Royal Palace, the Royal Halls. His eyes narrowed as he probed deeper and despite it being essentially wartime, he was surprised that there were no enchantments up in the palace to stop any scrying on the palace itself.

"That's Eir," he said before he changed course and went straight to the Royal Hall. Something must have happened for a reaction like this and Eir was one of the Valkyrie before Hela killed them all.

Probably something related to that and as he pushed the Hall doors open, which had no guards, which was odd as well, he saw the scene that confirmed his fears.

Eir was standing in front of Hela, with Thor blocking her fist from reaching Hela's face, something that gave Hela no small amount of joy judging by the absolute smugness that radiated out of her. The fist was also glowing golden and he knew that, unlike the times Eir used her magic as a healer, this one was certainly not going to heal Hela back to her peak. This was probably one of those healer only fucked up spells that destroyed one from the inside. Too bad that even that would not be able to stop Hela now that she was on Asgard.

Already, he could feel Hela recovering and growing stronger, stronger beyond even his means to deal with, unless he used the Power Stone. She was practically unrecognisable from when he first saw her, when she had escaped her prison.

Now, she looked every bit as the Asgardian Royalty that she was. Beautiful green eyes, angular symmetrical face, shining hair, and a body appropriate of a Powerful Asgardian.

"Damn, you two do not look alike," He whistled as he made a joke, trying to lighten the mood.

Hela snorted and Eir's glare snapped to him as he stopped in his place, Thor pushing back Eir from Hela.

"Enough Eir, I do not expect you to heal her personally. Just to make sure that she is in her optimum condition for the duel."

And boy was that the wrong thing to say because Eir whirled around on Thor and for a moment, he felt as if Eir would attack the Regent himself and commit Treason but calmer heads prevailed and she stomped out of the room, each of her steps reverbing throughout the room.

"She's angrier than I remember her being," Hela commented and then raised her hands in surrender when Thor glared at her, and after throwing a look at him, left the Hall as well.

"Thor, if I may ask, why do this? You could have finished her back on Earth itself, why this long drawn out duel? We have more important things to worry about, like retrieving the premier weapons maker in all of the Nine Realms or worrying about threats like Thanos," He asked Thor, all but pleading to deal with Hela, or let him deal with Hela, however unlikely it might be, but Thor was adamant and now that the vow was sealed, there was not much that Thor himself could do without Asgard itself punishing him, as backlash for breaking the vow.

So, there he was, wasting his time on Asgard for something that might take days or even weeks, due to the wording of the vow which meant that unless both participants agree that they are in top condition, the duel won't begin.

So, he left.

And came to Earth.

Not informing anybody, he just went to Kamar Taj first and after seeing that everything was fine, except that Strange had still not arrived yet, moved on to the rest of the world. Keeping himself wrapped in the cloaking spell, he travelled around the world and found that things were chugging around smoothly.

The Accords were somehow a thing but they were nowhere near the human rights atrocity that they were in the canon timeline. Even still, he was going to take a public stand against anything mandatory or anything close to indefinite incarceration in the Accords but right now was not the time for that.

The Inhuman Village still existed, something that he would have to rectify soon, if they tried to make a move on humanity. Attilan was something he had not addressed and he would like Black Bolt's help in the upcoming battle but that was contingent on dealing with the cesspool that was Inhuman politics and without an absolute purge of the Genetic Council along with the execution of Maximus, there was no way he was ever going to trust the Inhumans from Attilan in any of the fights.

There were no overt moves from the Ten Rings, magical or otherwise so that was a dead end.

Done with all the observation, he went over to Stark Tower by creating a portal that led to the penthouse, his way of declaring his arrival on the planet.

"Mr.Sullivan, welcome back to Earth. Mr. Stark is in LA at the moment but I have informed him and he should be free to be portaled here in some time. In the meantime, why don't you wait in the lobby," Jarvis welcomed him and opened the elevators for him.

"Ah, Jarvis, cancel the meeting with Tony. Tell him that I need some rest and will be in my quarters. Just wake me up in the evening,"

"Affirmative, sir."

He freshened up, and wasn't that a happy feeling? having modern toiletries, even though the Asgardian magical ones cleaned him just fine, and then went straight to the very expensive beddings installed in his quarters.

He meditated, while in his sleepy position and in no time at all, he was asleep.

__xx__

Meanwhile, Back on Asgard

"Why have you come here, Hela?" Thor asked Hela who was kneeling on the ground in front of the place that once used to be the Wastelands. His fury had damaged some of it but he could see that the Wastelands were reclaiming even the magical energy in the remnants of the attack, to fuel its expansion. Thor really wondered how Heimdall survived in this hellscape for years.

"You know that a demon Prince, from one of the seven Hells, is responsible for this wasteland?" Hela asked Thor, still kneeling with one of her hands trying to dig into the ground for some reason.

"Yes, I am aware that a demon was sealed here and that is the reason this place has no vitality and is in a state of constant decay," Thor informed her from what he had learned by going through the Royal Archives.

"Ah, so you do know some things. See, the demon was not defeated by Odin alone but my mother was the one helped in sealing the demon. Odin was tired from battle and caught off guard by a demon ambushing him in Asgard itself so he was unable to mount a proper offense. My mother was the one who gave her life, sealing the demon in the lands forever, stripping his mind from his body but she didn't manage to remove his magic from his body, forever haunting these lands from the Prince's attribute of decay," Hela informed Thor about it and he was taken aback at that.

He had no idea.

Hela then suddenly stood up, "Well, stand back, brother, you are about to see me in action and since the vow hasn't acted up yet, it means you don't believe the wastelands to be part of Asgard. Good. Makes things easier."

Thor then watched as Hela raised her hand, creating a sword which she then stabbed into the ground, then creating cracks in the ground leading up to the wasteland. The decay, coloured brown, tried to fight back against the encroaching Green and Black and it was about to win when Hela conjured yet another sword and with a grunt of exertion, thrust it into the ground as well, panting with exertion as she was expelling almost all of her magic into the ground, so as to "kill" this wasteland, once and for all.

Thor, having the same goal, placed one of his hands on her shoulder, making Hela look up in confusion, "Wha–"

Hela's words were stuck in her throat as Thor's immense magical power was pumped into Hela, as a look of amazement and then realisation turned into horror as Thor's power overwhelmed the magic of the wasteland and they watched as the Green and Dark covered the entirety of the wasteland mountains, leaving behind no trace of the magic of Demon Prince that had been haunting this place for centuries.

"Do it," Thor commanded softly, taking a step back and Hela complied, almost reverentially.

She placed both of her hands on both the swords' hilt and then uttered one word, "Die!"

And just like that, the stories of horrors that was the decaying wasteland where Odin threw his most hated prisoners, was destroyed, by Hela Odinsdottir, General of Asgard, and Goddess of Death.

---

Word Count - 2623

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).

Asgard[July 2015]

–Hela Odinsdottir–

"So, that is the power of Odin's chosen," She couldn't help but comment to Thor, her younger sibling, who was supposed to be far less powerful than her, as they flew back to Asgard, on a lightning construct created by Thor that felt solid to her and not at all what lighting should be like.

"I see that Odin has taught you seidr well. Elemental shape and nature manipulation is very advanced stuff, and I see that you use Runes as well. Well, the old man certainly didn't spare any effort in preparing you to defeat me," She said, once again, eager to get some sort of answer or reaction from Thor, who was most definitely much stronger than her.

Even now, as she could feel Asgard's power flowing through her, signalling her right as the firstborn and heir of Asgard, she knew, for a fact, that even with her power still surging and her mind being cleared little by little by Asgard's cleansing and healing power, she was nowhere near Thor's strength.

The power that she had felt flowing through her, targeting the spell she was casting over the wastelands, something that Thor had done so casually, was still in her mind. The sheer power reminded her more of Odin than someone who had not inherited the main reason behind Odin's overwhelming power.

The Odin Force.

Something that was connected to the bloodline of Odin, by Odin's design. They could all feel it but she could also feel that it was not connected to anyone right now, meaning that it had not chosen anyone to be worthy enough to fall into Odin's footsteps or the old man had put yet another twisted test in place to get access to the Odin Force.

Whatever the situation was, it mattered not. What mattered was that she was to duel Thor, in both of their primes, and then hope to defeat him, which was not going to be possible, not with what she now knew of his power.

"I never really paid attention to Mother's seidr classes. Father didn't really tell us about you right up until he was about to die. So, no, Odin didn't prepare me for you. I am this strong because of the sacrifices of others, others who gave their lives so that I could get another chance, not to save my Mother or my Father or even my Brother but to save Asgard and I'll be damned if I let someone touch Asgard under my watch," Finally, Thor said as they were halfway to Asagrd, the platform travelling at a leisurely pace for some reason.

Thor's words only filled her with more confusion but the conviction, the sheer determination in them left a chill in her spine, something that was only more accentuated by the weather all above them changing, even without her feeling a single spike of magic from Thor.

She cursed inwardly as she realised that the trap that had been set for her, and so sure she was in her prowess and her mind under a haze after spending a thousand years alone, she had never stopped to think about the situation and why Thor had so easily agreed to an Ancient Archaic ritualistic duel, something that had not been done more than three times in all of Asgard's long history.

Soon, the ROyal Palace came into view and after dropping her off at her quarters, Thor disappeared. Another chill went up her spine as she realised that the one she was talking to, the one who had escorted her here was a mere clone.

"By Odin's Beard, what have I done?" She whispered to herself, horrified at the realisation as her mind continued to conjure up scenarios of her defeat. Her necromantic blade that should have atleast stung, even Odin's skin, left no mark on Thor's hand when he stopped the blade from reaching the other brother.

Yeah, Him. She was unsure as to what to think of him. Thor mentioned that he was too late to save his brother, but as far as she could gather from the palace maids, Odin only had two sons and Loki was the younger one.

Also, she could sense only two recipients of the Odin Force in the current configuration that Odin had left it in. She and Thor.

Loki was not connected to it, not even passively and that meant either of two things. Loki was cast out of Odin's bloodline. Not out of the House of Odin which would only mean banishment on paper, withdrawing all authorities and luxuries but leaving behind the power, the power granted from the bloodline or..

"Huh, so the second one's adopted," She muttered to herself and stepped out to her balcony, overlooking the entirety of the Royal City of Asgard. At one point, it was her dream to fulfill the expectations set for her by Odin and then eventually, rule the cosmic empire that would be Asgard.

But then…

She sighed and thought of the Light Elves and Alfheim, where it all began, where she went too far and as a direct result of that, left Odin with no other option than to kill her.

She realised it now, her mind was far too gone before, subjected to the death, decay and nothingness of Hel, but after thinking it through now, she realised that Odin was left with no other option.

With her violent display of brutality witnessed by the allied army, Odin would have been pressured by all their allies to abandon his daughter because Alfheim, they hadn't done much to them, aside from not surrendering, which was their right since they were very isolated and Odin had only conquered the realms which had connections to the wider cosmos and were a possible threat to his rule.

Alfheim and the light Elves were none of that. To begin with, The leader of the Light Elves was repulsed by her mere presence in his realm and had immediately shut off any negotiations and had demanded another envoy, without the "taint" of Death on her, which naturally infuriated her a lot.

She was very brash, back then. Immensely powerful and capable of destroying foes stronger than her by the simple virtue of Mjolnir and her power.

Ah, Mjolnir. She could feel it, even now, on the other side of the Palace. The hammer forged by the heat of a star, sealing a cosmic storm within it, all by the power of the Odin Force. A weapon so potent that it was only second to Gungnir itself in all of Asgard, and Odin had forged Gungnir using his own blood infused with Odin Force as the quenching agent, making sure that Gungnir could only be used by the line of Odin.

Turning around, she entered her quarters, which were the royal guest quarters, all with its own small library. To be honest, she didn't need any medic to bring her back to her full strength, her connection to Asgard was more than enough for that. More importantly, her injuries were not physical, they were more on the spirit than her body.

Sure, having her connection to Asgard stripper hurt her body but she was still young and unburdened, and as such, just restoring her connection to Asgard was enough for her body and spirit to begin healing.

She took out a book from the magical history catalogue and began reading, even as her mind was only half focused on the book. As the General of Asgard's forces, which were manyfold of what they are now, she couldn't just be a one trick pony.

Sure, most of her battles were won by her individual powers and if she couldn't win, with the help of Mjolnoir she could at least make sure that the other side suffered just as much damage as her, making her individual battles quite easy and one sided.

But war. War was a whole other matter altogether.

She had to be quite adept at strategy, traps, enemy psychology, information processing, and more. Her powers were something that she was born with, the rest? She had to learn from scratch, just like everyone else.

So, when she first landed on Asgard and realised that her home, her realm, was as undefended as it could be, her blood was boiling in anger. This could not be her realm, not something that she had to shed tears, bled for, all for this weak version of Asgard, something so twisted from the Asgard she remembered that it might as not be her home anymore.

Sure, slaughtering the Valkyrie meant that Asgard would suffer from a combat force deficit for centuries but she knew that there were heaps of women just waiting for a chance to become Valkyrie, to gain an honor of being that but this…

Her eyes narrowed in confusion as she read that Odin himself had banned the re creation of the Valkyrie unit, instead encouraging women to get involved in the arts of healing and seidr, which was foolish because Odin himself was the Master of seidr in all of the Nine Realms, save for a mortal on Midgard who had stopped her and sent her packing during one of their battles that had spilled over on Midgard.

She had been livid but father had warned her that the mortal was backed by Elder Gods who already had pacts with Asgard and were not to be disturbed, which mollified her because she knew the value of pacts with Elder Gods, not something that can be easily broken even for beings on her level.

The Berserkers were also gone, and she read that the Staffs that had been instrumental in more than one battle had been declared forbidden items and were destroyed and their users hunted down, leading to the destruction of that particular unit.

The forbidden spell division was also dissolved. Runes were no longer taught to battle mages. In fact, battle mages as a concept was gone because Asgard did not maintain a large standing army now.

"What the hell was the geezer thinking?" She couldn't help but mutter to herself as her connection to Asgard allowed her to sense more and more of the surroundings around her, telling her the current condition of Asgard and its inhabitants.

Sure, the people were calm, content, well fed and ale flew like water in the taverns, as was the case during her time but there was a feeling of lethargy in the air. Sure, the Observatory itself held more defenses than it did during her time but the way it was guarded.

By a single guard who did not have the Sight, was concerning.

The standing barracks were used only for training and aside from the Einherjar who were all on a much lower level and had much less training and battle experience, as was evident by the easy going nature they had all around them, were just not up to her mark.

"Alright, let's think this through," She said as she stood up and began pacing around her quarters, the book forgotten on the couch.

"Odin declared Peace right after he sealed me, so maybe he was injured after putting me in that prison, or he intended to declare peace after making sure that I was not in the scene anymore. Huh, coward. Should have just killed me,"

"Then, since he didn't want to conquer anymore realms, and had to prove that to the other realms, he disbanded major parts of the Asgardian army, leaving behind a token unit that could not possible be used for wars,"

Then again, by that point, the old man had grown so much more powerful than the handful of powerful people still left alive in the Nine Realms that there was basically no need to have a standing army if his goal was just the Nine Realms, and that is basically what he did.

"Shit!" She swore as she realised that even if she did win the duel, which was very unlikely, she would have her work cut out for herself as Queen for Asgard to bring Asgard back up to fighting shape, to turn it back into the mean war machine that it once was.

A war machine that was shaped by her grandfather, expanded, and then torn down by her father.

"I mean, look at this, basically, most of the seidrs are in the Medical Wing, and the strongest one, well, aside from Thor and me, is right here. Aren't you? Loki?" She turned around and waved her hand, releasing a green wave that then pinpointed the cloaked form of Loki who looked at his body which was now covered in green.

"Ah, so you are well versed in illusions as well. I see,"

"Just well versed in finding them. Can never be too sure when someone might try to kill me in my sleep. I am sure you weren't here to do that, because you are too weak to try," She taunted Loki and it always gave her a small smidgen of joy when she won the battle of words, arguably, her weakest powerset.

If she was actually good at communication, she might have been able to convince Brunnhilde to reject Odin's orders until she had a talk with the old man.

"What can I do for you, Loki? I cannot fight or hurt you since your brother has designated you as his ally, despite your many…mistakes," Ah, another verbal victory.

"Yes, I know that. I just thought that I should give you some tips, to help tip the scales. You see, for some ungodly reason, my brother has grown vastly more powerful than before. Powerful enough to just ignore Gungnir's blasts and wrench it physically out of my hands, without even flinching, which I am sure even you would be unable to. So, as I was saying—"

"Wait wait. You said that Thor snatched Gungnir out of your hands while you were able to use it as a conduit to the Odin Force?" She had to stop Loki in his tirade of giving her whatever useless information he had on his brother and focus on that one juicy tidbit.

Loki looked irritated at the interruption but answered her question, "Yes, once I had trapped Odin in my illusion, I was able to–"

She couldn't help it, she snorted out loud at the answer.

"I'm sorry, was that funny?" Loki asked her, leaning forward, hands twitching so hard trying not to bring his weapons in his hands since that would force her to defend herself, aggressively. Hmmm, someone had done their homework on Ancient Rituals.

"No. Actually, yes it is somewhat funny. You know, Loki, I have been waging war with Odin before you and your brother were even born, and as such, I know what happens when someone who is not Odin's son tries to hold Gungir. The Odin Force is a potent force and it burns anyone who is not allowed to hold Gungnir. Besides, you can't just take Gungnir from Odin."

Loki's eyes widened at that.

"Gungnir is as much a part of Odin as the Odin Force is. Unless he wanted you to, you, with your pathetic power, would never have been able to touch let alone seize Gungnir. So, Loki, despite your Frost Giant lineage, I can smell it now, Odin actually did love you and actually thought of you as his son."

Loki had gone pale at that, stumbling back, trying to deny her words.

"No! That can't be. He hated me, always."

"Oh boy, Daddy issues. Look, there is more than enough on my plate to deal with so why don't you go bother Thor with those. Also, I swear this on my magic, Odin allowed you to put him under an illusion and gave you Gungnir. You didn't take anything from him."

Loki pointed a shaky finger at her before his face blacked out and he cast an invisible illusion on himself, running out of her quarters.

"Damn, Old Man really did go soft in his old age, didn't he?" She looked up at the ceiling and fell back on her book, suddenly not feeling the urge to do the whole song and dance about the duel.

Then again, a vicious glint entered her eyes as she thought, when again would she gain the chance to fight an all-out battle against someone closest to Odin alive, in terms of combat prowess?

She would have to swear fealty to the winning party, if Thor let her live anyway so might as well as use this chance to make sure that Thor atleast loses a limb or an eye maybe.

After all, she might have her sanity back but she was still the Goddess of Death.

---

Word Count - 2834

A/N - A more reasonable take on the whole Hela is bloodthirsty and will destroy the kingdom she so desperately wishes to rule.

Also, an alternative take on Loki "putting" Odin under an illusion and seizing Rule of Asgard.

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).

Asgard[August 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

He was back on Asgard. It had not taken more than a day from his arrival on Earth for Hela and Thor to declare themselves ready to take part in the duel, ritualised to become a way for Asgard itself to recognise its ruler, a trial by combat sort of thing.

Looking at the giant space cleared out for the duel, one would think that it was overkill but it was anything but. On one hand, they had the Goddess of Death, someone who had slaughtered an unimaginable number of people and on the other hand, they had Thor. Both capable of large wholescale destruction and they couldn't do the whole duel back in the Royal City so now they were in a mountainous region cleared out for this specific duel.

Even then, there was not a large audience for this, even though the entire city knew that a duel was happening right now, for some reason. Thor had chosen not to inform the civilian population of Asgard that a fight for the throne was happening right now, probably because he was sure of his victory.

Thor and Hela both stood on two different ends of the forest, both probably a dot to each other, if they didn't have the Asgardian standard Enhanced vision. THey were both visible to him but even then barely. The area of the stage was huge and he was primarily here because he was hastily called back by Thor himself.

Yeah, now Thor could do the whole Astral projection himself now. Thor was really showing up to be the best bet in this whole duel, not that they bet anything except the fate of the Nine Realms as well as Asgard as a civilization.

He was called back because Thor needed someone to contain the fighting in a single zone so that Asgard as a whole does not suffer from their fights. He agreed, mainly because he was confident in his barriers containing at least the aftermath of their attacks but also because he had the Power Stone, which he could use to break up the fight or atleast kill Hela with ease.

He didn't know if she would just resurrect herself, given her connection to Asgard but even then, coming back from having been atomised by the Power Stone should take a long time, hopefully long enough for them to evacuate the entire Asgardian population and then destroy the damned planet, after pilfering everything of value, of course.

In the audience, there was Loki, Eir, a still recovering Heimdall, and yours truly. That's it. Loki had somehow been forgiven by Thor or maybe Thor had just let everything go and didn't truly trust Loki anymore.

Eir was here because she was the senior most member in the Asgardian Royal Palace, after Odin and Friga both died. Heimdall because he insisted(and begged Eir to allow him).

"Alright, they are about to begin," he warned everyone who shuffled closer to him as a giant green screen manifested in front of him. There was a magical fire that was floating in the center, slowly floating down to the ground. The second it touched the ground, the fire would shoot up in the air, signalling the start of the duel.

He didn't know how the duel was going to go but he was ready to just torch everything in front of him, knowing that Thor could teleport, and Hela could not, if things looked like Thor was going to lose, which was unlikely but he couldn't take any chances.

He tensed as the fire shot up in the air, making both of them create sonic booms as they shot toward each other. The weather had taken a turn for the worse, as was the case when Thor let his powers loose. He expanded the screen to cover all of them from the rain. The rain reduced visibility but it would be very hard to miss the giant green spike that grew from the ground and the bright white light that seemed to be whizzing around the spears that were now continuously coming out of the ground.

He squinted his eyes, to get a better look but his eyes were failing him, forcing him to rely on his magical senses but even they were failing. His senses, honed by the Masters of the Mystic Arts in KamarTaj, were top notch but there was a technique to the process.

He couldn't just turn his sensitivity all the way up, that would be a surefire way of getting a terrible migraine. So, he adjusted them accordingly, with the sensitivity being highest when it was near his body.

Right now, as he tried to expand his senses, they just returned a giant wall of magic in front of him, filled with death, decay and lightning as well, things that he already knew.

He could feel the impact on the barrier as the shockwaves from their clashes devastated the areas but as long as he could feel the shockwaves not reaching the population centres, he was free to keep the barriers limited only to himself.

"Impressive," Eir commented casually, though he could detect the faint sense of awe in her voice. She probably hadn't expected anyone, now that Odin was dead, from matching Hela and even beating her in combat.

"He's winning, by Odin's beard!" Heimdall exclaimed as he stepped forward, almost stepping up from his wheelchair but a sharp sideways glance from Eir had him back in the wheelchair, with his back upright. His eyes were glowing yellow, as they did whenever he used the sight.

Oh yeah, he still had the sight since it was a gift that could only be taken away by Odin or the Skyfather of the Pantheon, which was not yet decided by the collective consciousness of the Pantheon yet.

By strength, Thor was already the Skyfather, probably even above Zeus and the other gods but the recognition from the Pantheon was necessary and Thor will have it after this duel, once the only other candidate for that position was neutralised.

His eyes widened as a light bulb went over his head. Maybe that is why Thor insisted on this duel happening on Asgard. IN this way, Thor will be the King of Asgard, and the Skyfather as well, forcing Zeus to recognise a fellow peer and help them, if not out of fear then at least obligation.

Damn. Thor really thought ahead, didn't he?

"So, how are their injuries?" Eir's hands twitched as she asked Heimdall who answered immediately.

"Negligible. Prince Thor has sustained only minor cuts which healed immediately while Hela has suffered from…everything really but her healing factor and connection to Asgard, plus her domain, means that she recovers from everything incredibly quickly." Heimdall answered as his gaze continued to be locked on the duel in front of them.

When the fight began, the area in front of him, to his senses, was filled with magical energy that was half filled with Hela's energy and the rest of it filled with the much more potent energy of Thor. Now it was mostly Thor while Hela tried to exert more and more of her energy, to no avail.

It was clear to all that could see that Thor was winning and Hela was loosing. But, despite Thor hammering Hela with very powerful attacks, her magical energy dwindling more and more, Hela still seemed to fight back, with what little she had left.

Well, she was not called the Goddess of Death for nothing then.

Even so, even if Hela could not die while she was on Asgard or whether Thor had gone easy on her earlier, the duel ended when Thor, with a particularly potent power brewing in his hands, shot it at Hela.

He was ready when he felt the congregation of energy and had to throw barriers on top of barriers all around Thor and Hela, feeling the barriers breaking one by one until all that remained were the last 71 layers, from the original 100 around the entire dueling zone.

"By the Gods, What potent barriers!" Loki, was actually the one who exclaimed, seeing the aftermath of the attack that dwarfed all of Hela's energy and probably finally killed or incapacitated her. He smirked in reply. He knew that his powers were awesome like that.

He dispelled the barriers once the shockwaves cleared out but even then, once the barriers were lifted, he jerked back as he felt the sheer amount of magic that suffused the area in front of him.

Good Lord was that a lot of magic, and divine magic at that, which was particularly heavier than dimensional energy which was much easier to mold for a mortal soul while also being more versatile, but was very much weaker in terms of the ceiling of power when compared to divine magic.

Probably the reason why any half decent mage in Kamar Taj had either pacts with Elder Gods or channeled their powers using a relic that had echoes of Elder Gods, Demons' powers.

He saw Thor arriving in front of them, holding onto the battered body of Hela, and then carefully depositing it in a Soul Forge that he informed Eir to bring with him. He winced upon seeing her arms and legs gone, with most of her face having been burned away.

"Is she dead?" "Will she survive?" He and Loki asked at the same time, curious about her future, now that she formally gave up her right to Asgard's throne.

"She is alive and she will fully recover. Her connection to Asgard will make sure that she does not stay down for long, that is why I had to use a Rune attack to temporarily sever her connection and then bombard her with my lightning until she gave out,"

"So, what are you going to do with her, now that she is obligated to listen to you? Essentially, she has to listen to you or die," Eir asked Thor and it was clear with what intention she was asking Thor because Eir was probably looking for revenge on Hela for reasons too numerous to count.

But Thor shook his head and then outstretched both his hands in opposing directions. He heard the slight whine and stepped back and watched as Mjolnir and Gungnir both slammed themselves right into Thor's waiting palms, lighting up the scene in front of them.

Thor then pointed Mjolnir at the magical wasteland behind them, while maintaining eye contact with all of them, and then he watched, mouth agape as Mjolnir, for a lack of better term, "ate" up the magic irradiated into the lands as well. He could feel it as well, the sudden lack of weight on his magical senses as Mjolnir began absorbing the magical aftermath of the attack.

With his other hand, Thor slammed Gungnir on the ground, creating a large gong as he then began speaking in his royal tone.

"I, Thor Odinson, accept the position of King. With Asgard as my witness, I hereby absolve Hela of all her previous crimes," Eir snapped towards Thor, her glare promising violence, "provided she serves Asgard faithfully for the rest of her life. So mote it be!"

With that single declaration, Thor was crowned King of Asgard, which was probably felt across the universe, even to the Gods in the Omnipotence city.

Also, it was an interesting take, letting Hela live but he knew that the ritual that Hela had participated in, was very powerful because even the echoes of the ritual had blinded his senses and he had read in the Kamar Taj's forbidden section of the library that Asgard as a whole had a collective consciousness which expended everytime an Asgardian died, a part of their soul adding to the already massive store of power that was their planet.

A ritualized duel, with Asgard itself being the witness meant that Hela was probably a non issue at the moment and even if she did become a problem, Thor was more than capable of smacking her around, as was evident from the fight in front of him.

All that was left was, "So, when are we leaving? To Find Eitri?"

He asked Thor who dismissed Eir, Loki, and Heimdall, not before giving strict orders to all of them to make sure that Hela was fully healed and not harmed in any way. Hela was now an Asgardian asset, stronger than almost anyone in the Nine Realms.

Thor gained a thoughtful look at that, "Now that we have Hela who can guard Asgard and the Nine Realms in my absence, we can head to Omnipotence City anytime we want but before that, I need to make sure that our allies in the Nine Realms know that a new King has been chosen and that Hela has returned, but she is bound to protecting Asgard and its interests by me. It will take time but I will inform you about that. In the meantime, why don't you complete your mortal affairs?" Thor informed him and before he could really question the newly crowned absurdly powerful King about his actions, Thor disappeared in a burst of lightning.

And he was left there, standing alone, in front of a giant crater that was once a magically irradiated wasteland but now held none of that magic.

Just a giant hole.

He sighed and turned around, flying back to the city.

Damn, he really didn't like the delay they were facing going to Omnipotence City. He would have gone by himself but the thing was, he didn't know the path, neither did the Ancient One and according to her, he would face great peril and would find no help if he went there all by himself, as a "mere" mortal.

The Gods would take offense to a mortal daring to lay gaze on the city of the Gods. Eitri was fine because he was an immortal himself and the rest of the Dwarves would be considered as his entourage.

Him going there would help no one. He really needed Thor to be with him but Thor couldn't really leave Asgard in its current state, without any protection, so that was taking time as well.

"Well, no one said it would be easy. At Least we are only gathering more and more allies leading up to the fight, instead of losing more and more powerful people," He muttered to himself as he entered his guest quarters, and resigned himself to another night of partying with the warriors and then some light sparring before he went back to Earth.

He really needed to get out there and make a difference but for now, all the difference he had made in the fight was that he held the Power Stone, had almost mastered using it without burning his stamina and now had secured Hela's help in the upcoming fight since Thanos was going to target each and every planet in the universe.

"Ah, that's the good stuff," The Vikings sure knew how to make the best wine though.

Thanks for the Alcohol, Big G.

---

Word Count - 2558

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.