TGS - #65

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New York [October 2014]

–Jack Sullivan–

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wanda Maximoff. 

No…Scarlet Witch.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Doing something like this could only mean one thing…

"Shit," He muttered in dismay.

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

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

"This is war, Master Sullivan,"

Shit indeed.

Word Count - 2513

A/N - Shit indeed.

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