Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).
Avengers Tower, Manhattan [July 2015]
–Jack Sullivan–
When he stepped out of the portal and saw the very much intact Avengers Tower, he actually let out a sigh of relief, not because he actually expected Thor to do something in response to Tony's usual shenanigans but because New York was the epicenter of the Marvel Universe.
The favourite bitch of the writers of the Universe, so to speak and he was actually worried if something absurd as the Mole Man had actually attacked New York in the short span of time he was in the mirror dimension, practising with the Power Stone. Fortunately, nothing of that sort had happened so they were fine for now.
Though, one of these days, he was going to have to confront all the other fringe elements that he had neglected for now. Something to do after he was done making sure that the Dwarves of Nidavellir did not make Thanos the ultimate weapon.
The other Branch of Hydra, the one that was responsible for worshipping Hive as a God, someone who could actually control him considering that he was an Inhuman as well.
The Mole Man and the Mole people, not to exterminate them because they were an unfortunate science experiment abandoned by their creators and only brought under the control of the Mole Man due to another science experiment.
The Eternals and the Deviants hiding on the planet, although how they hid themselves so well with the plethora of scanning tech that every single country, including Wakanda and Atlantis, must have put in space, was a mystery in and of itself. Probably something related to the Cosmic Energy that both the races seem to have.
Then, the Celestial inside the planet.
He shivered as he felt a gaze boring down on him from somewhere, an invisible pressure focusing on him the moment he thought of ending the Celestial gestating deep within the planet, who would destroy the planet and kill Billions of sentient people.
He looked up with difficulty and glared right back, even though it was getting difficult to even breathe under the pressure. He was 90% sure who it was and he hadn't expected the entity to be able to affect him without even manifesting in front of him or the fact that Arishem could sense his thoughts of ending the Celestial inside Earth from so far away.
Just when he thought that he had to use the Power Stone to boost his barriers, as a last resort in the silent staring contest he was having with someone who was probably millions of miles away, a streak of blue entered his vision as Thor appeared in front of him, clad in his Asgardian glory, glowing blue and white.
"Allow me, Guardian," He heard Thor's words even though Thor's mouth didn't even move as he felt the gaze startling for some reason before the pressure receded completely, leaving him soaked in his own sweat as he looked at Thor, shocked at what had happened.
"Okay-" *pant* "--You have got to tell me what the hell happened to you in the one year you were absent," He finally had to ask Thor about it because controlling the Bifrost without the necessary machinery was one thing. But to resist the pressure of a Celestial, the pinnacle of what the universe had to offer, and even to send the gaze packing was a whole other thing.
The more time he spent with Thor, the more mysteries emerged and while he was certainly glad to have someone of that power level in the fight against Thanos, Hela and all the other threats, he was not sure if this Thor was even Thor anymore. This was not some mere Crown Prince Thor, no, this was power more along the lines of God King Thor.
"All in due time, my Friend. All in due time," Thor said as the blue armour around him dispersed, revealing a normal T-Shirt and Jeans, with Stark Foundation written across the front of the T-Shirt.
He nodded, too tired to do anything else, from the freak incident that happened just now. He had no idea that Arishem was this powerful or he could do something like that, despite his speciality being defenses. To think that he couldn't even bring out the big guns in terms of his barriers before he was assaulted by the mere pressure of a superior being who could make him freeze from millions of miles away.
Damn.
Thor helped him land slowly on the Avengers and Tower and then after plopping him down on the sofa, Thor held up a small bottle of…Asgardian Alcohol in front of him. He looked quizzically at Thor who replied.
"Drink it. It helped many a soldiers who were exposed to the full brunt of the aura of the All-Father of the Nine Realms."
He immediately brushed it aside. "Thanks but No. I am…will be fine in a while." He did not want to be drunk right now, no sir. That was just a recipe for disaster.
He just had to recover and then convince Thor to head to Nidavellir for some urgent business.
"Suit yourself," Thor said before downing the entire bottle as if it was just a shot and not some thousands of years old Ale that was glowing orange. Damn, Thor was just hardcore.
"Yo, Mini Green? What happened?" Tony's voice turned from jovial and obnoxious to concerned and wary in an instant as he saw the drenched state of the Green Guardian, who was still taking in deep breaths.
He waved off Tony who didn't need to know about the Celestials and had another existential crisis and somehow built Ultron or something. Granted that Jarvis in this reality was much much stronger now, with his intelligence probably coming from being exposed to the energies from the Infinity Stones back during the Chitauri Invasion.
"Nothing, Tony. Just some new problem, as usual. Now, how are the others holding up?" He asked Tony because he had not seen the Guardians of the Galaxy around but he was reasonably certain that Tony would not let such obvious alien elements back into the city, despite how carefree he could be in certain manners.
"Oh, they? They are fine. Drax is in the gym, along with Gamora who does not look like she can lift over a ton of weight. Quill is watching movies, and eating tubs full of buttery popcorn. Rocket, now that's where things got interesting. He was very offended when I called him a raccoon but he was taken to liking Jarvis very much and they are both now conducting experiments in a "safe" sandbox I created for occasions such as this, and Groot is with Rocket."
Tony rattled off the status updates of the Guardians then he looked up.
"I have got to say that Rocket is some mechanical genius, probably experimented on to create that level of intelligence. Unfortunately, his body was not built to sustain that level of–"
"We will talk of this later, Tony." he cut Tony off from going down that line of thought. It was not the time to focus on Rocket's ridiculously short lifespan for now. He had known that for a while now, actually, from the moment he had laid eyes on Rocket and had one of his barriers cover Rocket.
One of the many abilities he had was sensing the energies in a being once they are covered up in his barriers. CHI is one such energy and the amount of CHI that one has in their body can be a pretty definitive indicator of their natural lifespan or of their overall combat prowess with CHI, as is the case with the Iron Fist of Kun'Lun, another threat that he had to deal with.
God, such a bunch of headaches that he had to deal with on his own before Thanos came to the planet because he couldn't have a bunch of factions vying for Thanos' attention or creating disturbances in the final fight.
So, when he first covered Rocket in one of his barriers, he knew, he knew that Rocket did not have much in the way of CHI and would not live for long. The oldest recorded Raccoon on the planet was about 20 years old and while Rocket was probably not that old, the experiments done on his body along with the battles that he had been into, probably meant that ROcket would not survive for long.
And yet, there was not much he could do. He had scanned his entire body and there were no immediate medical conditions that could be treated to prolong his lifespan. He had just…burned through his lifeforce and there was not much that could be done to increase the lifeforce of someone, not without going through some drastic measures that had very little chances of success like the Super Soldier Serum, or Extremis.
For now, he was going to keep that news to himself. Maybe, once the battle with Thanos was done, the Ancient One could do something or failing that, Tony could take a shot with Extremis.
"Oo-kay. That was weird but fine. I won't tell the raccoon that he is dying," Tony said out loud, intentionally. He sighed at that, Tony was being his usual obnoxious self.
He sighed explosively and stood up, the short respite enough for him to recover a bit.
"You know, I created the sandbox because I expected, rightly, for new geniuses to pop up from now on, and expected some of them to be kids as well but it is working very well for Rocket as well so do know that I will be expecting an explanation as to why I must keep quiet," Saying so, Tony left the room, creating yet another problem for him.
Yet another problem that he pushed to later Jack.
"Jarvis?" He asked the resident AI who was omnipresent in the Tower and with the rising digital device penetration, omnipresent in most parts of the world as well.
"Yes, Mr.Sullivan, what can I do for you?"
"Can you make sure that the Guardians are comfortable here and more importantly, in the Tower only. Do not let them get out. If they try to do so, feel free to detail them. They are labelled as criminals in the outer galaxy but they don't deserve that so I will work to get that tag removed but if they do try something drastic, just get them detained, alright?"
It took a while for Jarvis to respond, "I see. While I feel uncomfortable with the thought of imprisoning people who have not violated any laws in our jurisdiction, the panic it will cause if they leave the Tower plus the threats they will face makes a compelling argument in your favour. Very well, Mr.Sullivan, I will make sure that they remain within the tower unless the time comes when they will have the ability to leave the planet,"
Well, that was a very diplomatic response but he will take it.
"Thanks, Jarvis and also tell them that the moment I am back, I will send them to either Xandar or someplace else."
"Thor, we need to talk,"
"Aye?"
"We need to go to Nidavellir. I know you have that whole banished thing going on but–"
"No, you are right, Jack of the Sullivans. Something is afoot on Asgard. I have yet to feel Heimdall or the All-Father's gaze on me, even after the wayward Celestial pulled off that stunt. I must go to Asgard and make sure that everything is fine. So, yes, we will go to Nidavellir and once your work there is done, we will go to Asgard, yes?"
He smiled, relieved that he wouldn't have to fight Thor on this. "Yes, perfect."
"Alright, with the Bifrost inaccessible to us and Stormbreaker still not born, we have to take the old ways,"
"Old ways?" he asked Thor.
"Yes, the Old Ways, gaps in the space between the Nine Realms, gateways to other realms, facilitated by the old branches of the World Tree. We can use those to travel to Nidavellir. It is dangerous for mortals to use them without adequate protection but you will do just fine, for a mortal."
"Alright, where can we find those old ways then?" He asked Thor, his mind going back to the old ways portal that Loki used to take them from Asgard to the home of the Dark Elves. Thor knew of them as well, another notch in his Magical knowledge repository then.
"I know now what mortal cities they are in but I can sense them. Follow me," Thor said as he floated outside the Tower and then rocketed off, still in his T-shirt and Jeans. He himself was covered in green as he kept up with Thor's relaxed pace.
Cities passed them by as he cast a stealth spell on both of them, the spell matrix breaking apart as soon as it touched Thor so he just kept it on himself.
They soon approached the Himalayas, as Thor finally slowed down. Huh, an old-way portal right beside Kamar Taj? Who knew? Probably the Ancient One.
Thor slowly flew right into the mountain ranges filled with thick snow, going down until they finally reached the ground. Even then, Thor didn't stop as his feet were covered in light blue before he went right through the ground, the snow bubbling around him as his form superheated everything all around him. He followed suit, clad in his barriers of course.
Thor maintained a sedate pace as they dug deep into the earth, with the snow having turned a deep blue by now, highlighting its old age.
With a quiet "Aha!" Thor finally stopped and gestured with his hand behind him, an open palm right in front of his chest. His eyes narrowed in confusion before they widened in horror as he threw himself to the side, a loud thunking sound following suit as Mjolnir slammed into Thor's waiting hand.
He glared at Thor's mischievous face. That was unnecessarily dangerous.
Then Thor took Mjolnir and then slammed the hammer down right in front of him. He expected Mjolnir to hit snow and vaporise the area around them but Mjolnir was stopped midway as a rainbow of colours, covered in a green barrier manifested in front of them.
The green barrier gave way to Mjolnir's might as the rainbow colours then began overflowing all around them.
"Come, Nidavellir awaits," Thor said to him before he floated right into the colours, disappearing as if the rainbow had eaten Thor.
He hastily followed, worried that even a second of difference might mean a lightyear of difference in destination when it came to unstable instant teleportation mechanisms.
After a second of rainbow filling his vision, he stumbled as he fell down on a metal platform, his barriers flickering due to the distortion of the energy in the portal.
He looked up, to see Thor extending a hand towards him.
He took it and stood up, looking at the giant glowing Sun and the Dyson Sphere built all around it, with a cacophony of metalwork done by the, paradoxically, giant Dwarves.
Most importantly, he sighed in relief as he saw the working Dyson Sphere and the ring being populated by the Dwarves.
Good, Thanos had not hit yet. And with Thor here, even if Thanos did come right this instant, he was confident in their ability to send them packing, or at least, hurt him and his forces enough that he would not be able to complete his motive, which was to get Eitri to build him an Infinity Gauntlet.
"Come, let's go meet Eitri. Whatever your issue is, he will be able to resolve it. He is an old friend of my Father," Thor said as they began floating towards the center of the giant right that was the Dyson Sphere, the absolute pinnacle of mechanical engineering.
Word Count - 2693
If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon or Ko-fi .
I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.