TGS - #49

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Earth

–Jack Sullivan–

Ah, the Big Apple.

He watched as the ship stopped right on top of the waters surrounding New York, the intended destination that he had set for it. 

After that, it began losing altitude, until it was submerged, all the way down to the bedrock, where it then began the process to slumber. Yeah, the ship had an actual sleep mode where it could turn its stealth systems to the max while shutting down everything else, sealing itself against all entry unless the one with the keys to the ship opens it.

The bearer of the keys being Jack Sullivan, Green Guardian of New York.

He watched as the area around the ship flickered for a bit before there was a hole in the ground, the ship having burrowed itself into the ground before the hole itself was seemingly fixed, as the inbuilt stealth systems created the illusion of smooth sand over it.

He grinned at the excellent display of stealth technology before his form began heading towards the shore at regular speeds. He was in a hurry, yes, but he was not yet sure about the direction he was supposed to take.

Plus, he was not sure about the actual situation going on behind the scenes. All he had seen were a couple of articles that he was certain were not given the whole picture. 

Maybe the ancient One could shed some light on the matter?

He cast an elementary level illusionary spell around him before he slowly exited the waters and entered the city, his destination?

The roof of the New York Sanctum.

He slowly landed on top of the Sanctum, its barriers and alarm systems not registering him as an unknown. He dispelled his barriers as he entered the Sanctum from the roof, no doubt startling whoever was the Sanctum master right now.

"Who goes there!" He heard a shout in front of him, heralding the arrival of Master…Daniel Drumm. Damn, he thought to himself as a scythe of dimensional energy found itself stopped just an inch before his torso by his barriers. 

"What?" The confusion in his voice was understandable.

"Damn! If that was anybody else other than me, they would have been in for a nasty surprise. Didn't think you had it in you to attack before asking questions, Master Drumm," he casually said as his arm reached out towards the scythe and pinched it out of existence, his barriers allowing him to dismantle the energy flow that sustained the construct in the real world.

"Sullivan? What? How?" Daniel Drumm looked even more confused for a moment before his eyes hardened as another scythe appeared in his hand, this one much larger than the one before, "What illusion is this! Explain yourself, Intruder!"

"Whoa Whoa! It's me, Daniel. Who else could do this?" He said as he dodged another scythe that appeared behind him, threatening to skewer him in a way oddly reminiscent of the way that Loki's sceptre had skewered him.

He snapped his fingers, creating a wave of green that expanded to cover most of Daniel's vision in an instant, also covering his form as he was instantly disarmed and immobilised by his barriers, no matter how hard he struggled to free himself.

"Convinced now?" He walked closer to Drumm and said as the only thing left of Daniel's body that was not covered by Green was his face. Before Drumm could say anything though, he smiled as he felt a rather familiar wave of energy wash over him that transported him, Drumm, and one other member who was present in the Sanctum to the Mirror Dimension.

His hand snapped out, a rectangular barrier forming over it, just as a large, familiar, hammer shot up to hit the barrier with overwhelming force. The wielder looking at his smile with a stoic look on her face.

The Ancient One had used the same hammer, the one that was infused with the essence of Eternity, to hit him, with even greater force than last time. 

The difference this time was that he was not the same as before and his powers certainly were not at the same level as they were before. The small, single layered barrier was able to completely block the hit from the Hammer before the Ancient One reiterated, the hammer, once again, looking comically large in comparison to her.

"I believe that serves as enough confirmation, Master Daniel?" The Ancient One asked Drum who was looking at the entire exchange with a pale look on his face. After all, they were now standing in the ruins of the Sanctum with the surrounding blocks which were once filled with buildings now nothing but rubble, as a result of the shockwave that had formed after the Hammer had hit his barrier.

He whistled as he saw the damage done firsthand by the simple clash between one of Eternity shard-empowered weapons and his barriers. 

The scene looked like it came from a still when the Chitauri Invasion was still a thing. 

The mirror DImension was a perfect copy of everything that was material in the real world. Sure, the space here was exceptionally weak so manipulating space in this world was very simple as well, but the strength of every piece of steel rebar was the same as in the real world. Seeing the toppled buildings with the very land around them turning red due to the sheer pressure generated at the point of contact was sobering.

He really was far removed from the realms of humans, wasn't he?

"Master Sullivan, come, we have a lot to talk about. Your presence and absence alone seem to have caused waves in the timeline without you even doing anything about it," 

He looked back to the Ancient One who had opened a portal, Master Drumm already walking through it, the man having been clearly shaken from witnessing the entire ordeal. 

He shook his head, banishing the dark thoughts. He was human enough for the moment and that was all that mattered at the moment. Anything else could come in for later anyway. 

"Now, Master Sullivan, let me tell you how glad I am to see you hale. I, along with many other Masters were understandably worried when they saw the apparent demise of the strongest Master of this generation. We wouldn't want the rising star of Kamar Taj to die now, would we?"

He nodded along as he sipped on the heavenly tea that only the Ancient One seemed to have. He had half a hunch that she owned a pocket space where she planted her specific brand of tea as no one in the entirety of Kamar Taj knew where she procured her tea from. Any query as to the source of the tea was only met by a mysterious smile.

"Let me tell you, the reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated," Yes! He finally got the opportunity to say it in real life.

"I suppose you will realise the chaos that you left behind but before that, I believe you are missing this?" 

He tried not to let the absolute relief show on his face as the Ancient One snapped her finger as a small sling ring floated in between them. He reached out and plucked it out of her spell's hold and sighed in relief as the ring just fit snugly on his finger, just like the first one.

"Now, even though I am just dying to know what happened for you to take this long to contact us, I will be content knowing that you are still alive and working towards the same goal. We can always catch up later over a nice cup of tea made with honey extracted from bees native only to the Alfheim, the Light Realm," She said as she made the veritable shooing gesture at him.

"I believe duty calls are about to reach you soon enough,"

His eyes creased in confusion as he watched her shoo him away. Before he could get the question through, he watched a portal opening right in front of him showing a street where multiple police cars were surrounding a single overturned black SUV.

"Oh shit!" His mind ran a mile a minute as he, in a split second, covered himself in a stealth spell and ran into the portal, or rather jumped out of the portal into the air above the overturned car. 

He sent in a dozen micro barriers to check the situation down below when the car just…blew up, taking the attackers with it. He looked around and saw that his suspicions were correct.

That was Nick Fury's car and things had just gone to….shit.

"Shit indeed," He watched as his barriers zoomed through the sewers, trying to find the injured Nick Fury. 

He had a lot of work to do if things had come to this point. No wonder the Ancient One had told him duty was going to call him. And what a call it was.

He sighed as one of his barriers finally found the hobbling, clearly injured Nick Fury who was desperately trying to make the distance between his would-be killers, all the while trying to stem the bleeding from his clearly injured right leg.

He looked around the city and just sighed as he watched the real law enforcement arriving, the fake one having either died down or fled the scene before he could arrive. Unfortunately, he missed the Winter Soldier as well.

Judging by the distance that Fury had covered from the manhole cover and the speed at which Bucky Barnes could move, he had probably long since left the scene, moving on to his next target.

He kept a close eye on Fury as he floated on top of the areas that Fury was taking. He knew that Fury was on his way to meet Rogers, to give him the USB with the data of the Helicarriers.

The reason he was not helping Fury, aside from keeping a watch and a barrier handy so that he could be defended at a moment's notice was because he had to wait for the Winter Soldier to show his face.

He had to take Bucky out of the game, not just so he could heal the poor man and give him the rest he deserved but also because he would never-never let the events of the Civil War come about. There would be no Team Cap and Team Tony on his watch.

He would love for them to be, if not unified, then at least on good terms so that they could turn to each other in case of a world ending emergency.

Destroying the Helicarriers and making sure that SHIELD survived would be a monumental task, politically speaking and his confirmed survival along with the hero worship he seemed to have gained in the time he was stuck in space, would certainly help.

HYDRA had to go but SHIELD had to survive, to help with the future threats. He could not stomach the actual defenders of the planet having to scurry around like they were criminals just because the politicians were too cowardly to do the right thing and create something that, while infringing on their so called powers, would help Earth and Humanity in the long term.

He kept a close watch on Fury as help reached him from one of his loyal agents. Fury hobbled into the SUV as they sped off to presumably Rogers' apartment, with the agent furiously trying to apply first aid to Fury's leg wound.

He floated right above Fury and his car as they sped through the streets, simultaneously keeping a lookout for the Winter Soldier. His barriers were firmly attached to the underbelly and the top of the car along with being inside the carpet stitching of the rooftop. 

He was taking no chances in making sure that Fury remained alive this time.

As they came to a stop in front of a nondescript apartment building, he flooded the area with his barriers, so small that no normal person would be able to spot them but they gave him valuable intel in return. 

He dispelled the barriers around the car as he watched Bucky Barnes set up a sniper atop a nearby rooftop, with no HYDRA agent nearby. He watched as Fury dismissed the loyal agent who brought him here, despite his clear disagreement.

He made sure that the good man made it out of the area safely. He kept a watch over him until he abandoned the car and fled the area while donning a disguise.

Apparently, Fury knew that he was gonna get assassinated here and did not want to risk his few good men. That had certainly become a rarity for the man in his own agency.

He kept a watch on Fury and Captain as they conversed about something. Judging by Steve's tense expression, they were probably talking about SHIELD and how it was not safe anymore.

Before Fury could tell Cap more about it, Bucky took aim and shot. He kept a close eye on the bullet as it sped through the air, narrowly missing Fury as he had already covered the bullet in his barrier, guiding it to avoid Fury's heart. 

Cap immediately summoned his Shield which was apparently laying below the nearby bed, just by kicking it. He immediately ducked low as another bullet struck the wall behind him, dragging Fury with him to rest against the wall.

He kept a watch as Fury's heartbeat slowed down, a crew of SHIELD agents converging on the location, probably to help sell the lie about FUry's death.

He watched as Bucky Barnes, probably realising that his mission was done, began packing the sniper. 

He watched as Fury handed the USB to Cap and said something. Cap looked at the slowly fading Fury as he immediately turned around and started running through wall after wall, to get a hold of the Winter Soldier.

He watched as Cap sent the Shield to Bucky who stopped it before sending it right back to Captain. The entire exchange left Steve standing on top of the rooftop, confused as he was exposed to a ghost of his path.

He could see the crew having reached Fury and the lead medic injecting Fury before she had the rest of the crew hauling asses to get the Director of SHIELD out of the clearly unsafe apartment building.

He watched as the Winter Soldier broke into a car and was about to get away before he just created a portal in front of the car. He had no way of stopping the car as the entire car along with the Winter Soldier, down to his mouth with his poisoned tooth was covered in his barrier, allowing him to bring the Winter Soldier with him to the ocean.

He took one look at the struggling Winter Soldier and removed the poisoned pill, scrapped the entire car (whilst muttering a sorry for the car owner, boy this was going to be a very odd theft case for the cops), and then opened another Portal, straight to the spaceship he was so graciously given by Xandar for saving their entire planet, and most likely their entire civilisation.

"Activate the medical stasis pod," He intoned as they descended into the second layer of the ship, the one with the medical facilities. The ship was kitted out with the most advanced medical system that Xandar had that they gave to civilians anyway.

He slowly floated the still form of Bucky into the stasis pod. He slowly created orifices to let the sleeping agents enter Bucky's nose. He made sure to up the dosage by 2 times over a normal human's due to Bucky's enhanced constitution. 

He could see and feel the Winter Soldier still struggling, right up until his eyes rolled up as the alien-made anesthesia finally lulled him to sleep.

"Hold him in the stasis until I come back," he said after turning on the Secure Stasis mode of the pod which created steel bounds around Bucky's limbs.

He sighed and opened a portal, back to the area where Steve was living. He had to make sure that Steve was not killed in SHIELD custody or something absurd like that, even though he knew the likelihood of that happening was pretty low.

This was going to be a long night and he knew it.

Let's hope that at least the hundred billion dollar investment into the Helicarriers was not wasted. He would need Stark's help for that.

He was not looking forward to that meeting, at all.

Word Count - 2808

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