Volume 2 Epilogue part-2

***In shield headquarters 

"What do you think, director Fury?" The leader asked while others waited. 

"Precaution is better than cure. While the Kryptonian provided reasonable reasons for why he was not sharing the technology, the fact remains that we cannot trust him blindly." Fury kept the advice the mutant professor gave him.

"I believe we should accept the hand of friendship he has extended while simultaneously making plans for how to deal with him should he turn out to be an adversary of humanity in the near future." 

The rest of the leaders gave nods to show their agreement before the head spoke. 

"Very well, director. This is your department, after all. We'll leave it in your capable hands to decide how to handle him. I hope this record continues because you haven't let us down yet." Shortly after the call ended

Fury sighed before exiting the secret room and entering his office, where agent Hill was already waiting. 

"What are your orders, sir?" She looked at ease, but Fury could tell she was ready to fight anything.

"Our alien friend's name is Kar-el, and he was first noticed about a decade ago as the millennia changed. It can't be a coincidence that El Enterprise rose to prominence a few years later. What do we know about it?" Fury asked.

"We already have agent rosewood assigned there." Agent Maria replied.

"Our friend has quite an advantage over us in terms of technology. I'm worried that her identity was already compromised the moment she joined. We have to use the old ways, I fear." Fury sighed, getting a headache.

"Send the shadow agents inside it without informing anyone. No one must know except you and me." Fury gave the order knowing she was as loyal as a human could well be.

"Understood," Maria saluted before leaving the office. 

Shadow agents were a covert division of the shield. They weren't listed as a shield agent on any platform. Few people are aware of them, and those who do, are devoted to them.

They are trained to handle any problem without the aid of technology. In case that tech got compromised.

They might not be as good at fighting as Agent Romanoff and people like her. But they were the best when it came to infiltration. 

Because a shadow agent could be assigned only one mission whether it completed it or not. After the mission was complete, they resumed their role as a regular agent. 

****On the day Jane met Serena.

Kar-el was treating himself to dinner at the restaurant, sitting outside talking to Serena on his cell phone, unaware that he was being monitored.

"What a waste." The unknown being remarked, observing Kar-el. 

"I can feel it. A broken mind, fractured into multiple parts yet so powerful that even I hesitate to say that mine is more powerful. So fascinating." He lamented. 

"Ohh, you would have been a perfect candidate to be my fist of vengeance."

"Strength that makes even God of strength feel shameful in comparison. A level of control comparable to Buddha." The being spoke in jealousy.

"What a waste indeed that it is impossible. Impossible to make you into my fist of vengeance. Sadly your vessel is too big for me to hold alone. Too powerful to be my puppet." 

He then laughed, " but your presence is not completely wasteful, intruder of this planet."

He narrowed his eyes," I cannot wait for the gods to realize that a being capable of challenging them was roaming among the masses that they have abandoned." 

"The look on their faces would be a delight to see. Today is a memorable day because I came upon you." He grinned.

"It looks like I still need to focus on Mark so he could one day become the perfect host for my fist of vengeance and deliver my justice on those that have done wrong." He remarked before turning around and walking away from the rooftop. 

***Unknown Place, Unknown Time

"Here." Obadiah passed the suitcase full of cash to the man standing on the right. 

"You don't need to count it in front of me. Not a dollar less." Obadiah said in irritation when the grunts started to count the cash. 

The man sitting across from him waved once, and the grunts stopped.

"I hope you remember what you have to do," Obadiah told the man. 

"We know and remember, Obadiah. Just remember your side of the deal. If we succeed in capturing him alive, we get to keep the merchant of death for ourselves." The man replied. 

"If you are successful, you can do with him whatever you want. But keep in mind. I do not want to see him once more." Obadiah foresaw, "Otherwise, what you have received so readily would no longer be possible. I'll bring it to pass."

The man just nodded.

***Inside the basement laboratory 

Icarus was on a stretcher that was at a 70° angle with his head on top. 

Numerous microbots the size of fingernails were performing various tasks on his body. Various mechanical arms were encircling and inspecting his body.

The body that Serena usually uses was leaning against a seat. There have been no reactions from the body for some time. 

Icarus's head had been completely open, and the inner workings of his brain were floating above it in a cosmic golden color.

The basement laboratory was engulfed in the power of time stone, making time pass inside differently from the time outside.

The scythe was still lodged inside Icarus' chest, thus putting him in an artificial coma.

Ancient One and Kar-el were standing some distance away from all this, watching things progress. 

"Make sure to copy his memories, I need to know why he was after me," Kar-el spoke in the air. 

"Got it," Serena replied from one of the speakers in the basement. 

"You don't need his memories for that, I can tell you that right now," AncientOne said, capturing Kar-El's full attention.

"Eternals are not responsible for many things. The few things they are responsible for receive their undivided attention. Defeating deviants was one of them, and so was helping humanity flourish." She narrated. 

"But the most crucial is to protect the cosmic seed and ensure that it hatches. You've made things difficult for yourself." 

"Since the last 40 days, someone else is competing with the celestial seed for the cosmic energy produced by humanity and winning. Crushing it. Effectively stopping it from hatching unless things return as they were." She smirked. 

"The equation..." Kar-el muttered to himself, realizing who was competing with the celestial seed.

"That's not the most interesting part. Even Eternals don't know it, but it appears that you are subconsciously still holding back, according to my estimates. Maybe you wish no harm to the seed for some reason." She hypothesized. 

"Because you are capable of not just sucking all of humanity's cosmic energy but also stealing from the seed itself." The Ancient One looked at comatose Icarus. 

"Perhaps he realized the possibility after meeting you. After all, he is the most committed one at the moment." She hinted.

"I require some vibranium. Energy veins in his body are damaged and need repairing. If you want to return him in perfect condition." Serena informed them.

"As for the memories, I'm still taking a copy because he could provide the genuine history without any prejudice added over time as he was present when things happened."

"How did your meeting with shield go?" Ancient One asked.

"Hmm, I was certainly surprised to see some people there, which made me question some things, but overall..., it went as I expected." Kar-el was surprised to see mutants with the shield. Multiverse and its shenanigans. 

"Why did you not inform me about the mutants?" Kar-el asked Serena. 

"How would I know that you weren't aware of it. After all, you knew about the hydra and a lot more before I even began hacking shield. I thought you knew about the mutants too." Serena replied innocently. 

"Hmm..." Kar-el hummed as everyone started to focus on their things. 

A few minutes later, it suddenly hit Kar-el. He turned to look at The Ancient One " Where is Phoenix force?" 

"So you finally asked. It recently chose a young mutant girl as its host." Ancient One nonchalantly replied.

"You mean it is in this very universe?" Kar-el asked for confirmation. 

"Yes."

"How many days would  it take for the celestial seed to sprout if I didn't interfere?" Kar-el asked with narrowed eyes.

"Give or take..., a month." 

"Serena, take a break from Icarus and run a scan to see how much pure cosmic energy is being produced by humanity."

"On it." Serena obediently did as told.

"How many years has it been since the force chose her new host?" Kar-el turned to The Ancient One. 

"4 years ago." 

"I have the readings," Serena announced. 

"Good. Access Icarus's memories and see if there has been an increase in cosmic energy production in the last four years." Kar-El said as he prepared to employ his equation.

"There is a massive spike," Serena announced again. 

"See if they knew when would the seed would burst. Also, calculate how much cosmic energy I need to isolate from the seed so it would only burst after 25 years." Kar-el said while getting on his knees, putting his right palm on the ground and slowly focusing. 

"According to his memories. They don't know. The prime eternal said that Arishem would tell them a few days earlier to its bursting ." Serena reassured him before telling him the required amount. 

"If so..., Sorry Tiamat, but I can't allow Arishem to visit this solar system so soon," Kar-el muttered before his open palm glowed. 

***2 days later, Ajak's farm

*Thud*

Ajak turned at the landing voice and opened the door. There he was, standing perfectly fine. 

"Where were you, Icarus?" Phastos informed her that Icarus's life signal had suddenly disappeared. 

Her heart almost stopped at the news, but then she chose to have faith in him. 

"I was so worried, you know. How would I could have explained it to everyone if something happened to you?" She asked in concern as she guided him inside. 

"I'm sorry, Ajak. Everything happened so fast, I didn't even get to do anything about it." Icarus replied in his same soothing voice. 

"Explain." She demanded. 

"As you know, earth has 2 infinity stones on it. One is closely guarded by sorcerers, while the other is in the hands of humans." Icarus began telling the story Kar-el told Serena to implant in his mind.

"They were scared of being vulnerable to space invasions after the Kree invasion, which fueled their desire to experiment with the stone."  

"One such experiment was taking place 43 days ago. When they unknowingly opened a portal for a cosmic monster to come to our side from the vast space." 

"The sorcerer supreme quickly reacted and trapped it in the mirror dimension. The monster was absorbing all of the pure cosmic energy to repel the sorcerer's attacks."

"When I was searching for the cause as you instructed, Sorcerer Supreme noticed me and pulled me into the mirror dimension to help her kill the monster."

"That was why my life signal stopped."

"Sadly, we couldn't kill it; the best we could manage was to cause it to retreat into the cosmos, but not before stealing a chunk of cosmic energy from the seed itself." He finished. 

****†****†****†****†****†****†****†****† 

With this volume 2 ends. A ripple in the ocean that is MCU multiverse.

(ED:- Please let me know of errors! Comment them in the particular paragraph where the error is)

Author's note: After this, volume 3 and a very far away in the future volume would be posted simultaneously. The far-away volume is a bit special so it would be a separate book but keep it in mind that it still is a part of this fiction.