Social Safety Net

Somewhere deep in a mystical forest hidden from prying eyes, seven sages were reciting their daily hymns. It was a ritual that had been continuing for thousands of years.

The rhythmic humming tones of the sages' singing would linger in the air for a long time until it melded into the very fabric of the universe. A person observing this scene, no matter how normal, would be able to tell the flow of the magical voices just by instinct.

When the hymns were finally over, the sages opened their eyes and found that they had a guest visiting them that day. "Oh, Savant. What brings you here? I hope you didn't have to wait too long." Atri was the first to speak.

"Greetings to the sages. And not at all. Getting to witness something so magical and extraordinary is an honor that not many in the universe have, so I'm quite grateful actually." Savant joined his hands and bowed slightly to pay his respects to the thousand-year-old men.

"May you live a prosperous life," One of the sages gave a blessing out of habit, prompting all of them to laugh.

"This is the ritual to strengthen the dimensional barrier around the planet. In the past, we did it once a decade or so but with the chaos you are causing, the dimensional forces are getting restless so we have been doing what we can by strengthening the barriers." Atri replied.

"The new kid who became the Sorcerer Supreme recently was insistent on it. It had been a long time since the Order and Kamar-Taj had cooperated. I like your idea of the magic school too." Sage Gautama said with a nod of approval.

"Yes, we had always wanted to do something of that sort. It never came to fruition for one reason or another. I'm glad it is finally happening."

"I'm just happy that we can slowly come into the public light. This hiding-in-the-shadows business is just not for me."

The sages all started to give their opinions which turned into an impromptu discussion of its own. Atri shook his head helplessly at the sages acting like that and turned to Savant.

"You didn't say, what did you come for this time? You are not the type to visit just because you were in the neighborhood." Atri chuckled.

Savant smiled, "We are going ahead with the project to provide a basic living standard for every human on the planet. It would be great if the Order of the Sages would help us in the endeavor. Nothing too difficult. Just put pressure on the government and the businessmen, help conjure up temporary residences, making sure that resources are distributed, and that sort of thing."

Atri looked at Savant with a blank look on his face, "Nothing difficult you say. I hope you don't expect us to do it all over the world."

"Oh no. Not at all. Just India. Your order has some pull with the government and religious sects. And now with the addition of Trisul, you can see how you are poised to carry out this task in India." Savant grinned as he handed over a major task to old men who were older than some antiques in museums.

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"So Wakanda will lead the project in Africa. Thank you for volunteering King T'Chaka. It relieves a lot of burden off our shoulders." Savant shook the hands of the Wakandan King.

When the Wakandan delegation left the room, Doom entered through teleportation. "Done with the Wakandans?" He asked.

"Yeah. I didn't even need to ask, they volunteered. They know the advantages of leading a whole continent of people. Especially in a resource-rich and young continent like Africa. If I had to bet, I'd say that the first ones to own a star system of their own would be the Africans at this rate. How about you?"

Doom sat down on the revolving chair and turned it to face the windows. 'There he goes again. Always the one for drama and theatrics.' Savant thought but quietly waited for Doom to speak.

"I expect that the Chinese will adhere to Doom's persuasion. Although your wife seems to have done quite a lot of damage to their ego already. They were much more malleable than the last time." Doom gave an appreciative nod to Savant.

Sometimes Doom wondered what kind of relationship he had with Savant. He started off with paying off a debt but now they were working toward a similar goal. Although Doom had created many organizations and worked with many other villains and heroes in the past. A true partnership between equals was rare for him.

"Yeah, after we got the kid, I have to deal with two of them at home. It gets exhausting very fast." Savant sighed but Doom could see the content smile still lingering on his face.

"Right, this daughter you adopted, Terra was she? You named the AI after her huh?" Doom asked.

"You don't have to use those petty tricks. It's not like I was hiding her nature as an android. She wanted to live as a human to better understand them so that she has context while helping the council and the Chancellor make decisions." Savant explained the situation succinctly.

"As long as she adheres to those tenets you programmed her with, it's fine," Doom said dismissively.

Savant was about to get into the proud father mode of praising his daughter when both of them looked up at the ceiling at the same time. "We seem to have a visitor for Asgard. A distinguished guest. We should go greet him. Also, Terra, could you contact the relevant departments to prepare a welcome banquet and invite all the high-level officials."

"Already on it." Terra AI replied.

Savant gave a proud look to Doom who just sighed and entered a portal. Savant shrugged and popped out of existence.

"Greetings to the ruler of Asgard." Doom greeted Odin while Savant was just popping into existence on the roof.

There, standing on the roof that was smoking with runic symbols, was a large man with a long white beard and one eye, decked in golden armor and carrying a spear in his hand.

"Greetings to you too Chancellor of Earth." Odin gave an evaluating look at Doom.

Odin had heard of Doom before. Heimdall would report to him about the persons of interest on Earth. And a man who was a mage as proficient as Frigga and a scientist outmatching any Asgardian was someone Odin would put on the top of his list.

Having observed humanity for thousands of years, Odin had not expected that they would ever be able to unite into a single group. There were always those civilizations that started off with great potential but ended up being annihilated under the pressure of that potential.

Odin always believed that humans were such a civilization. They were always so caught up in their own squabbles that they barely got anything done in the way of progress. Much of their progress was derived from internal conflicts.

But then one day Thor had come to inform him about the changes on Earth. If Earth were to develop in the hands of Doom, Odin knew that they had to either ally with the humans early or completely destroy them before they got too powerful.

Without the confidence to annihilate all humans, Odin had thus come to Earth for a diplomatic visit. "You even managed to arrive on your own day, Your Majesty!"

Odin looked at the young human who spoke. He seemed normal at first, if not for his strange calmness but when Odin used his sight to see through all knowledge, what he saw was a strange dimension of countless supernovae blinking in and out of existence. He is dangerous and powerful, Odin concluded.

"What do you mean?" Odin asked without giving any indications about his thoughts.

"Oh, today is Wednesday you see, the Odin's Day." The boy chuckled and Doom just sighed.

"He is Savant Smith. A political advisor and backer of sorts," Doom said in a tone that suggested he would rather not speak those words.

"What strange fate! It is indeed an auspicious occasion that I arrived today." Odin tried to go along with the strangeness.

"Let's go down inside, Your Majesty. Let's sit down comfortably and discuss more." Doom led Odin inside.

Odin noticed that the normal staff in the building were getting distracted by him and the security people were constantly staring at Gungnir, his spear.

"Ahem. This should be better." Odin coughed and his armor slowly turned into a suave black suit. Gungnir also shrunk down and turned into a golden pen which he put in his breast pocket.

There were some gasps of amazement coming from some who managed to catch the transformation and Savant himself chimed in, "That was very cool. Now if you turn that eye-patch into sunglasses, you might be featured in some fashion magazines."

Odin had done some homework on Earth culture and understood that as a compliment, "Thank you. I do like to keep in style. Royalties are after all leaders of new fashion trends." Odin gave a laugh.