Countless sparks flew, quickly swirling into a circular portal.
From the other side of the world, a thousand miles away, a bald woman appeared on the roof of a New York church. She was wearing a yellow mystical robe with an artifact pendant around her neck.
After arriving on the rooftop, the bald woman, her clean face adorned with a faint smile, calmly looked at Caesar and his companions.
As the Ancient One appeared in a flash of sparks, Iron Man quickly removed his black-framed glasses and lightly tapped the device strapped to his chest. The device, equipped with shrinking technology, expanded outward from his chest and instantly covered his entire body in an interlocking suit of red and gold Iron Man armor.
Ant-Man Scott clicked a button on his shoulder, locking the protective helmet of his Ant-Man suit into place.
Captain America Steve stepped forward early, holding his star-spangled shield in front of everyone.
The three members of the Avengers from the future were visibly on edge, ready to fight at the slightest provocation.
Only Caesar hovered quietly behind them, his arms crossed over his chest, looking somewhat resigned as he watched the three on alert.
"Who are you?" Steve asked the bald woman.
"Is this portal yours?" Tony pointed behind the woman, referring to the still lingering teleportation spell.
Scott raised his left palm in a halting gesture, somewhat lacking in confidence, as he warned, "I advise you not to go against us. We're all incredibly powerful, you know!"
Seeing the wary trio, the bald woman smiled calmly, seeing through everything. "You're all from the future, aren't you? So many questions. How shall I answer? Which one of you is the leader responsible for this temporal journey?"
"Well, we're not here for recreation. And no, I'm not the leader," Scott shrugged, then turned to Steve and Tony.
Steve and Tony exchanged a look, understanding each other's thoughts, then took a few steps back to reveal Caesar hovering behind them.
"Be careful, Caesar," Steve whispered quietly.
"Don't worry, she's not an enemy," Caesar replied confidently, floating forward to face the Ancient One, the Sorcerer of the current timeline.
"Ancient One, how did you know we were coming?" Caesar asked with a somewhat annoyed expression on his face with his hands on his hips. "Isn't this a form of personal surveillance?"
Whether in the future or the present, the Ancient One remained unchanged - a guardian beyond Earth and time itself.
The Ancient One met Caesar's gaze with a smile. "The future me left a certain magical imprint on you that only I can sense. So when you arrived here, I knew immediately."
"I see," Caesar said somewhat annoyed, and looked at the Ancient One. "I didn't expect you to have such a mischievous side - this is essentially personal surveillance!"
The Ancient One's expression remained unchanged, unaffected by Caesar's behavior. She smiled, "I thought the future me might have seen something, so I left the imprint on you in advance to remind the current me to come and offer help to prevent you from disrupting the history of this timeline."
"She may be right," Steve admitted.
Tony nodded deeply in agreement. Without the Godfather's initial mischief in secretly taking the Space Stone from the Tesseract, they wouldn't have had to come to this ancient era in the first place.
"You shut up!" Caesar turned and glared at them disdainfully. It was he who was supposed to clean up the mess left by the future timeline!
Caesar turned back to the Ancient One, chin in hand, and pondered, "So, can you help us capture Red Skull Schmidt directly and make him hand over the Space Stone?"
With the Ancient One of the present timeline in action, capturing Red Skull would be a breeze, right?
"No," the Ancient replied to Caesar's suggestion, shaking her head firmly. "I can provide indirect assistance, but I cannot personally disrupt the order of this timeline. Everything depends on causality - your actions are the cause, and only you can reap the consequences."
Sorcerer Supreme, when did you learn this Eastern philosophical approach?
Caesar grinned, not expecting Ancient One to be of much help. He asked casually, "So, what's your plan? How are you going to give us proper, indirect help?"
"You'll see," Ancient One replied calmly.
With a wave of her right hand, Ancient One dispelled the previous portal. She then made mystical gestures with the hand adorned with an artifact ring, while drawing spinning circles in the air with the other hand.
Sparks flickered in the sky once more, spinning into a wheel that quickly formed another portal right in front of them.
On this side, New York City was still bathed in daylight, while on the other side was an unknown land shrouded in nighttime darkness.
"The other end of this portal leads to the military fortress where the Red Skull resides. The Tesseract is with him in his coat. Need I say more?" Ancient One spoke calmly.
"No need. You are indeed reliable, Sorcerer Supreme!" Caesar raised his thumb in approval of Ancient One, glanced at the others behind him, nodded, and flew into the portal without hesitation.
Steve and the others followed close behind, stepping through the portal and disappearing from the roof of the New York church.
Ancient One remained alone on the rooftop, effortlessly closing the portal she had created. She stood against the breeze, gazing down at the outline of most of New York City below, lost in thought.
On the other side, in Europe, outside the military fortress on the German border,
In the dense, night-shrouded forest, sparks danced and spun into a wheel, opening a circular portal that revealed the figures of Caesar and his companions one after another.
Caesar flew out first, followed by Steve and the others, arriving at the edge of the forest. They looked up at the military fortress about a hundred yards away, brightly lit inside, with numerous Hydra guards patrolling both outside and inside.
However, the group clearly paid no attention to the Hydra guards. In this current Ancient Era, Iron Man alone could probably take on a fully armed military force. Not to mention Captain America, Ant-Man, and Superman Caesar.
The presence of these four was akin to the power of a nation, which perhaps worried the future Ancient One-Sorcerer.
"Are we going to charge right in?" Scott rubbed his hands together, obviously eager to get started.
Steve replied firmly, "Absolutely not. We have to outwit them. The best way is to get the Tesseract without the Red Skull noticing."
"In that case," Caesar immediately formulated a plan, pointing to himself and then to Tony, "Tony and I will create havoc in secret."
"What about me?" Steve asked.
Caesar looked at Steve and said, "You take Scott and sneak into the military fortress. Once you find Red Skull, have Scott steal the Tesseract."
"I can handle that," Tony shrugged. His advanced tech suit was too conspicuous for stealth.
"Got it," Scott gestured okay, immediately shrinking down to ant size and hopping onto Steve's broad shoulder.
Steve took a deep breath and gave a stern command, "Prepare to move out now. Remember - this mission only allows success, no room for failure!"
(End of Chapter)
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