11 Order of Seven Sages
SHIELD Base, Unknown Location
"Can someone tell me how two exceptional agents of mine were offed on a normal observation mission? And why is the government breathing down my throat when I should be the mad one? What happened in India, who made an attempt on Savant's life? Who stopped it?" Nick Fury was fuming as he shouted.
The room was quiet. No agent wanted to be the one to speak first and get into the crosshairs of Fury's anger-fueled shouting.
Maria Hill was the only one who actually dared to speak at this moment, "Whoever did it were professionals or had special powers. Even those slippery Ninjas of Hand were done in by them."
"I don't want to hear you praise our opponent Hill, I want to know who did it and I want a file on them on my desk. Also, investigate who initiated the attack on Savant and why." Fury state coldly.
"We have already sent a senior agent to the embassy in India to investigate the case." Hill flatly replied without any fear in her voice.
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Hydra Base, Unknown Location
In a base that looked more like an underground cave, a woman was sitting on a chair on a high platform looking down at a couple of researchers who were kneeling in front of her and shivering with fear.
The woman Madame Hydra, aka Viper, was listening to a report from them about the incident that happened in Utah that almost exposed their whereabouts to the world.
"We are sure that this Savant is the escaped experimental subject from the Utah base. I remember him because we were so close to perfecting the serum when I was experimenting on him. But his body didn't hold on and he died."
Viper looked at the researcher who spoke with a cold gaze, "You say he died. Your experimental log states that after he was dead, you experimented and conducted an autopsy on his body for the next hour. So you're telling me the serum you made can resurrect the dead and make them smarter? And why wasn't I made aware of this matter earlier?"
"I don't know what brought him back but I'm sure he is the one we experimented on. I remember that face clearly. As for not reporting earlier, we only came to know of this recently too." The researcher answered with his voice quivering with fear the whole time.
One of Viper's assistants came forward to explain, "After the Utah base was scrapped, all the personnel were moved to a hideout with no contact to the outside world due to risk of exposure. So they only recently saw Savant on the news after they got out."
The researcher spoke up with greed despite his legs shaking in fear, "If we capture him, we might be able to find secrets to resurrection and increasing mental capabilities. I strongly suggest we get him back."
Viper picked up a bottle that was next to her and threw it at the researcher's face. "We already have an incident on our hands with our agent being killed while tailing him and now you want to capture him? He is currently protected by two nations. Do you have any fucking idea what that means?"
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Similar incidents were happening in other organizations as well. And while those organizations were busy with damage control, the man who orchestrated the incident was lying down in a hospital that wasn't quite a hospital.
The last thing that I remember is some Indian agents carrying me out somewhere before I passed out. Damn, it hurts to get shanked in your gut. So where am I now? Must be a hospital right?
Ugh, the light is right in my eyes. And why does it smell more like incense than the mixture of the antibacterial solution, medicine, and artificial flower scent mixture I was expecting?
The light dimmed down a little as if responding to my thoughts and a voice that can only be described as ancient sounded beside me, "Greetings, Mr. Savant. Congratulations on your recovery."
Hearing the voice, I sobered up immediately and looked to the side. And there was a man, a very old man. He was the kind of man that the people of the West come searching for in India. One look at him and you could tell he is a wise mystic.
As I observed him, my information perception was giving me some wild readings. The very old man was, for the lack of a better word, antique. His age as I perceived was over 1200 years.
I asked, "So are you like the Ancient One of India? Also thank you for healing me." I noticed that I was completely healed with not a sign of being stabbed. It didn't take a genius to know who did that.
"Haha, that brat Yao calling himself the Ancient One always cracks me up. Anyway, I'm Atri, one of the sages from the Order of Seven Sages commonly known as Saptarishi. We aren't like the followers of Vishanti who take the responsibility of protecting the earth but we do help out when needed." The old man who called himself Atri seemed to be in a good mood.
This information was quite shocking. Someone who could call the Ancient One a brat was sitting in front of me, telling me that Kamar-Taj wasn't the only mystical place on Earth. But then again, I couldn't entirely base my views on the world based on Marvel stories that largely focused on America.
It makes sense logically too. Although Kamar-Taj is an order of mages that comes from Vishanti themselves, they can't possibly be the only order of mages in the world.
I was curious about the Order of Seven Sages, "So you work for the government and healed me?"
"No, no, we don't work for those idiots. We just have a treatise with them to leave us alone in exchange for our help. Normally I would have gone back after healing you but I heard a certain rumor about the plan you proposed about the cooperation between mutants and humans. So I was intrigued." Maharishi Atri looked at me mysteriously.
(Note: Maharishi literally translates to Maha= Great and Rishi= Sage. It is a title given to the greatest sages in India. Since we already have a character named Sage who is currently set up as a potential love interest, I didn't want the readers to be confused so I used the Indian honorifics for the sages.)
"What do you mean Rishi Atri?" There seemed to be more to what he just said. I just couldn't tell what he was insinuating.
"We are old Mr. Savant. We know of things of this world and beyond. You, who by design should be dead, are now changing the flow of history." At the mention of this, I tensed up but he noticed and explained, "Don't worry, we don't care as long as you don't affect this nation adversely."
"By your actions, we speculate that you are someone who traveled back in time. Your efforts to better the world are admirable. We just want to see what kind of future you lead this world into."
"May I ask, do you gain your magic from the Hindu gods?" I asked. I had some idea about the Saptarishi, the seven sages being an integral part of Hindu mythology.
"That's not entirely true. While we started off learning from and worshipping the gods, we grew to find magic in the aspects of the universe that the gods we once worshipped represent. Like the aspects of fire, life, stillness, motion, and so on." Atri explained.
"Isn't magic contracted from entities supposed to be stronger than ambient magic like that?"
Atri laughed, "Those cosmic entities also either represent some aspect of the universe like Knull who represents darkness or they are beings who themselves absorbed cosmic energies to grow stronger like Agomotto of the Vishanti. So why shouldn't we go straight to the source too?
As for the claim that such magic is weak. It's not that the magic is weak but that the study isn't enough. You as a scholar should understand, if a man who understands forging technology and one who doesn't were given a lump of metal each and told to make weapons and fight each other, who would win?"
In this way, magic is similar to science or more like science in another form. They learn the mysteries of the universe just like scientists and then channel cosmic energies to bend the rules of the universe they learned.
"Can you teach me some magic? I'd like to learn." I couldn't help myself.
Atri shook his head, "You need an affinity for magic to learn it or you need to be an innately magical being who can manipulate cosmic energies. Sadly you don't seem to have both qualities. Not a lot of humans do actually."
Well, it was worth a try. Usually, in novels, everyone just learns magic on the fly but when you think of it, if everyone could learn magic Ancient One's army of mages wouldn't be stretched so thin.
"By the way, do you know where the mutant-human hate comes from?" I changed the subject partly to hide my disappointment. These old mystic guys probably knew something about this too.
"Oh! Do you know about the artificial nature of this hate too? We might need to change your evaluation. As for what we know, we only know that some dark force has been spreading fear among humans against the mutants for countless years now.
We don't know who/what or how long back it started but by our estimate, it is at least older than tens of thousands of years."
The mystics sure are knowledgeable. They were aware of the manipulation behind the scenes.
"If you knew about it, why didn't you do anything about it though?" I was confused.
"If we did nothing, would your plan to unite mankind and mutants be accepted so easily in the first place?" Atri gave me a strange look.
"The hatred is deep. It was passed down through generations for who knows how long, so our efforts in guiding the people barely had minor results here in this place. Outside our sphere of influence, we could only watch helplessly as the world plunges into hate. As a traveler, you should know you can't change some things just because you know of them."
Although not a time traveler, I was certainly a traveler. And I knew what he meant. Some events in this universe couldn't be changed without the kind of power that multiversal cosmic entities have.
Like the House of M event that I knew was coming but I couldn't do jackshit to stop it. People might say, why not just kill her or seal her? Not to mention if it's even possible, but the very act of me preemptively doing that could be a trigger for the early start of House of M.
Fates really like playing such a game in Marvel. Every time someone goes to preemptively prevent a problem, they end up being the cause of said problem. I'll definitely beat the three old hags someday when I have the power.
"Yeah, but there are things that could be done. It might not remove the hate that exists but it can still make a difference for future generations. What if I told you, the cause of all this hate is in actuality just a scared little sentient bacteria?"
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