-Hells Kitchen-
Something was different.
Daredevil couldn't understand it, it was a feeling, a gut feeling - and Daredevil always trusted those.
Before he could say anything to Spider-woman, he felt his senses alert him, he kept it keenly focused on Noir's presence, and there was that sensation again. Noir flicked in and out of his perception, his heightened senses made it even harder to track him. It was a sensation that he couldn't describe, it put him on edge. Daredevil didn't like that feeling, it was akin to blindness only much worse.
Noir shimmered out of his perception. That was the only way he could describe it. His senses always kept him in the know of the presence of those around him at all times.
The lack of one was both terrifying and enlightening. He noted that down as a weakness he would have to work on, a weakness he wasn't even aware of. As he was pulled back by Spider-woman's webs he noted how Noir appeared in front of him in a blur of motion. Noir would have got him too if it wasn't for Spider-Woman's timely intervention he would have been out of the fight.
Her special webbing and speed saved him. She provided an even field for him to work with.
She jumped into the fray with a unique brand of recklessness common to super-powered teenagers, all action, no control - more and more of them were crawling out of the woodwork these days. Using her web, she pulled him back in and took his place to intercept Noir.
Her spider-sense as she called it and enhanced reflexes helped her keep up with Noir. Their fight was something even he couldn't keep up with, but he had his own tools to use.
It only took a few seconds before Spider-Woman was sent tumbling into one of the metal pillars on the side. He was already moving before she reached it. He attacked with his short staff, spinning it in his fingers and using its range to stay out of arms reach.
Something flew past his head at Spider-woman's position.
Before he even got the chance to attack Noir was already in front of him -there was that shimmer again. The black-clad teen grabbed his hand before he could move, squeezing it painfully until his short staff fell out of his hand, he felt something crack in his wrist. Another hand grabbed his throat and held him up until his feet no longer touched the ground.
He felt himself freeze, involuntarily. Some invisible force held him in place. There was something else in the air, displacing the flow, he could sense it only barely.
He found himself staring into a pair of glowing yellow eyes.
"My fight isn't with you, not anymore. Play times over, Stay down" the teen said slowly increasing the pressure on his throat. Suddenly pain flooded him - he was sure a couple of his rubs just shattered if the sharp sting in his lungs were any indication, then darkness filled his vision.
He felt himself being tossed to the side as he lost his senses. Before he went out he saw it. Black miasma surrounded the teen like smoke without flames. Writhing bandages flowed around almost as if they were alive. But that wasn't what held his attention no.
It was the thing in front of him. It was as if time froze momentarily, waiting for something to take shape in the world.
Black miasma bled into reality. Feathers filled the air, vanishing in shadow-like wisps. The moon suddenly felt that much brighter.
Yellow eyes akin to Noirs, only brighter, like the sun at night. Sixteen black wings, eight pairs on either side exuding the same dark miasma that surrounded the Noir. A lithe female form, covered in bandages, some connected to the teen others flowing freely around her. Her hair reached her feet, scattered around the floor, almost like the shadows came alive and took form, it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began.
He could see her, but that shouldn't be possible. He could see her face but he couldn't remember how it looked, that shouldn't be possible.
" Oh my, you can see me too, can't you? And why not? Death follows you as well Mathew Murrdok" the thing said. It spoke like what it said was a fact. How did it know his name? " Not alike my…" Its eyes drifted over to Noir. " but it follows you close all the same, worry not, your time is far and your visits few, and eventually I-she will come for you, we always do, hmahahaha" It giggled softly and skipped like some happy-go-lucky teen over to Noir.
"There are always some exceptions of course".It reached out to touch Noir's frozen form but its hand phased through him as if she had no form to begin with.
Then like a dream or hallucination, it was all over. Time resumed and it was gone, vanished like it was never there. Daredevil felt the darkness creep into his vision again. His thoughts were filled with questions but the most prominent of all was the way that thing invoked such feelings in him. Why did it feel so familiar, so soothing, like he saw it in a dream he couldn't remember?
Felt it in passing but never again.
Why did that thing invoke the feeling of death from him? As his consciousness gave out he heard Noir's voice.
"And then there was one" Noir's voice hummed, that same apathetic dull tone ever present.
.....
-Above the skies of New York-
The Ancient One could sense something wrong.
She could feel it as she made her way above the clouds of New York. She was dressed in her yellow battle robes, they flattered in the wind amongst the clouds.
Her nightly meditation was disrupted by it, and that in and of itself was alarming as she was in the mirror dimension during that time. If something was strong enough to affect that in this dimension it didn't bode well at all.
It didn't help that the barriers that guarded this universe and the relative dimension that surrounded it were shifting, buzzing with renewed activity.
That was another issue entirely, any kind of activity from the barriers implied terrible things for the world at large. This shouldn't be possible, at least not yet, but then again none of anything that transpired over the last few months was possible.
She called it the Convergence, the phenomenon that affected not only this world but countless other parallel timelines simultaneously. Something, an entity, a being, a force so powerful was at play here. Something beyond her control, something that worked on a scope that dwarfed even Dormammu himself.
Whatever this being was it played with realities like toys, twisted destiny and cosmic forces like strings, and altered the fate of the known multiverse in a single moment. She could remember it, A time that never was.
The powers she drew from Dormammu rendered her immune to worldly ailments like the time, and to a certain extent granted her protection from many things, this included drastic changes to the universe at large by cosmic forces beyond comprehension.
When the change occurred hardly anyone on earth without proper protection would. If they didn't have power from some higher being or possessed the power cosmic or something similar themself they would not be able to tell the difference.
From what she was able to gather, this wasn't her original dimension, nor was it any that should exist. This was an entirely separate timeline that was a combination of a few different timelines. Multiple realities were brought together by the will of a single entity and yet not a single being was able to tell the difference.
The anomaly, the cause of the change, was what she was tracking over the last few months. She has since stopped attempting to observe it through the time stone. The reason was simple, it could see her. As she was observing it, it was in turn observing her. Whatever this was, even observing an image of it, even in a possible future allowed it to observe her. The mere act of interacting with it in any way, shape, or form, be it an image, a spoken word, a written description, an illustration, a thought, a memory, it could even be a hand-drawn illustration. Whatever form you interacted with it allowed it to interact with you in the same way.
It was terrifying. It made her, with all her vast knowledge, and all her hundreds of years of experience feel so small. This being was here somewhere. She now understood why no being could notice the change. The only conclusion she came to behind why she was one of the only ones to retain memories of the old timeline was because something allowed her to.
Something else, she felt it when she searched other dimensions.
And if the being that caused the Convergence, if the anomaly terrified her this one(hint: TOAA), what was the expression again, this one made her shit herself, metaphorically speaking of course. She only found traces of this other being's existence, legends, and hush whispers that dated back to the time of creation itself.
She stopped herself from seeking out more for fear of catching the eye or drawing the attention of other more nefarious individuals. The earth wasn't yet prepared for a fight on that scale.
Her only saving grace came in the form of a child. Who she or he was the ancient one did not know. Where he or she may be however was somewhere inside New York. A few weeks ago she almost found him only for them to vanish again.
She came across him once while in her astral state and tried to interact with the child, his or her form was shrouded in death, it hugged the child's form like nothing she had ever seen, and the pultruded black miasma prevented her from decerning anything other than his silhouette.
When she tried to physically interact with the child via touch to enter his mind it saw her. What she came into contact with confirmed her suspicion, it shook her to her core, and yet this being would bend to the will of a child and she couldn't fathom why. She would have died if not for the essence of the child in his innermost mind that spared her. The two entities in that child's mind made the demons she locked out of the universe seem tame.
That child's soul was changing into something that no longer stood in the realm of mortal men. Whatever it was becoming if no guidance was presented to him, even just a bit, even if she was only allowed to talk with the boy, that would be ok.
She made up her mind this child needed some form of guidance, a form of control, or this being would change him beyond recognition. His presence was already a crucial part of what was to come. she could not change that now, all she could do was nudge him just a smidge in the right direction.
For try as she might, she already knew the outcome, that child's path was grey and covered in blood.
A path that thrived in the darkness and the shadows, but that child's shadow was a shadow that allowed the stars to shine brighter than they ever could on their own. And as long as that child stood, the earth would remain safe, and given what little she knew of the child's nature. That child would be standing for a very long time.
Now came the ever-difficult task of locating the child.
She could sense a general location or direction but nothing more than that. It seemed as if the person was hiding.
The anomaly was tied to this person, they were the ancient one's only key to solving this cosmic puzzle, and she had a feeling that they were partly responsible for whatever was causing the dimentional barriers to shift.
She let out a sigh and closed her eyes to focus, they were here somewhere, she just had to find out where.
" Ah, found you, this time for sure" she spoke, the sound of her voice carried away by the wind. With that in mind, she flew towards her destination.
Hell's Kitchen.
-Chapter End-
Peter Parker's Inner Self - the soul self the Ancient one saw
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The Entity in Peter looking at the Ancient one
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