TGS - #9

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Kamar Taj, Kathmandu

–Jack Sullivan–

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How rude!

Wait! Stay at Kamar Taj?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There was just one small problem.

He had no damn plan!

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

"Excuse me?" 

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

"Y-yes?"

"Are you lost?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

________xx_____

Triskelion, Washington DC

–Nick Fury–

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coulson nodded tersely and ended the call.

"Hill, please tell me you got something," 

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

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

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

It was the Experimental Base in Canada.

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

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

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

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

"Dismissed,"

Word Count - 2554

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