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Avengers Tower, New York [November 2014]
–Jack Sullivan–
He slowly floated on top of the spinning platform that is used for Tony's showy entrances and walked down into the penthouse suite, where the man himself was already waiting for him.
"You're old enough to drink, right?" Stark said as he thrust a glass of alcohol at him, his face set in a smirk as he asked a redundant question. Even if he was not old enough to drink hard liquor, the things he had gone through would have no one questioning his age, of all things.
So, yes…
"Ha ha. Very funny, Tony," He deadpanned as the glass floated towards him with a simple gesture, casting a simple targeted telekinetic spell. He had realised that he was over reliant on his powers and was not using his Sorcerer skills nearly as much as he could. So, instead of letting a very potent powerset rust, he had decided to use spells, and learn new spells as well, wherever applicable.
"This is good, not that I have any expertise in the matter of alcohol, as you would no doubt remind me soon enoug–"
"Listen well, my uninformed junior. This ale, right here, is made from the finest of ales, found only in Scotland Ack-"
On and on, Tony droned as he literally spouted gibberish. Eventually, he was just tired of it and simply applied a small seal on top of his mouth. That was actually a great exercise in how to make multiple shapes of a barrier and then connect it together in such a way that it doesn't feel like a metal block on one's skin.
Tony clawed at his face then when the barrier didn't come off, settled on glaring at him. He simply shrugged at him and then looked up, "Hello, Jarvis. How have you been? I am sorry I hit you with that spell, but you were about to commit something that would have no doubt left some mark on your budding soul,"
"I am good, Mr.Sullivan. Please rest assured, the spell was in fact quite a fortunate encounter for me. I was able to peer deeper into the next step of evolution for me as a whole, allowing me to decipher more and more emotions that I didn't know I could feel. I believe the term for the event would be…Bittersweet?"
"That is…correct, Jarvis. While I am very happy to learn about you advancing in your self discovery, I believe Tony had something important to tell me?" He questioned Tony who was still trying to remove the block on his face, now resorting to having an armoured finger actually try and scratch the block.
He couldn't understand how someone could be so smart and yet so dumb at the same time Tony's face was immediately flicked back as the robot applied force on the barrier, which while absorbed some of it, some of it was transferred to Tony's face which rippled to his vision, perks of having enhanced vision.
Now, that was a moment that should be recorded in posterity.
'Proof that Tony Stark is an idiot, with a penchant for doing stupid things,"
Quite an apt alternative for the one that Pepper got him in the movies, one that read:'Proof that Tony Stark has a heart'
"Alright, just tell me. I have a lot of stuff to catch up on, and New York's crime is on the rise along with new criminals with advanced alien tech showing up on the streets as well. Way to go, Tony,"
"So the usual, then?" Tony deadpanned at him as they began walking towards the elevator.
He sighed and followed him, "Yeah, the usual,"
The lift was quite fast as they reached the floor titled L, which he took to assume meant lobby or something because when he got out of the elevator, the entirety of the Avengers were assembled here, sans Thor.
"I guess I am the substitute for Thor, then?" he quipped as soon as he realised that the resident Asgardian god was absent. Well, something that was different from the original timeline then.
He didn't know why but that bugged him a bit.
"So, why are we all gathered here?" He asked Tony who stopped drinking his whiskey, made a slurping sound with it, taking his time with it. He simply snapped his fingers, creating a round barrier right on top of the glass, blocking the alcohol.
Tony then placed the glass on the countertop and pointed at him, "You, you are a spoilsport, you know that,"
He just smirked, as did the other members.
"And as for why we are here, this is why," he said as a hologram appeared in front of him.
His eyes widened as he finally remembered this. The sceptre, Sokovia, Wanda!
"Shit!" His thoughts spilled over as he looked at the missing records for the sceptre that Jarvis had intercepted. Apparently, they were scanning the entire planet, waiting for some last minute satellites to be launched so that they could cover most of the planet's land mass.
"Shit indeed. Apparently, HYDRA got their grubby paws on the sceptre in less than a month since it was in SHIELD's "safe" custody. Now, who knows what they have done with it? I, for one, will sleep better if the tool of mass mind control is either safely behind a locked vault or rather, destroyed completely," Tony said as the global map expanded to show multiple areas being probed by his existing satellites.
"Thankfully, Jarvis had a copy of the data from the Invasion and with Bruce's help, we were able to recreate the entire model, allowing us to pinpoint the sceptre's location. Only this time, the energy signature is even harder to find because it is not as pronounced as the TEsseract's, not unless it is heavily used. With the latest satellites Stark Industries has launched, we should have an accurate location in the next two or so months,"
"Months? Tony, we don't have that much time. They could be out there, right now, toppling governments for all we know," Steve Rogers, ever the righteous soldier, surged forward.
Tony looked completely unrepentant, "Look, this is the best I can do unless we have someone who can, and has, the ability to perform miracles,"
At Tony's words, the entire room turned to him.
He sighed, "Sokovia. Focus your search there. That is the last stronghold of Baron Strucker,"
"See. Miracles," Tony said as Bruce rushed towards the nearest console and began typing furiously.
The globe in front of them began expanding until it reached the small landlocked nation of Sokovia. A small blue wave began sweeping over the entire nation, repeating the process over four times before…
"There," Tony pointed at the red dot that appeared in the center of Sokovia.
"The energy signature is very faint and could even be a remnant from when the sceptre was heavily used but the energy signature does match."
"So the sceptre could have already moved?" Romanoff questioned as she looked over the structure of the old fortress that the energy signature originated from.
"Yup. Anyway, aside from that, you have to tell me the secret to your miracles one day, Little Greenie," Tony asked him, popping another blueberry in his mouth.
He could see Bruce in the background muttering the words "Little Greenie" to himself in confusion.
He sighed, dealing with Tony was always exhausting, even more so when he was actually interested in you, that was when it was going to get bad.
Thankfully, someone interrupted their byplay before he could reply.
"Not the time, Tony. We have all the firepower we are going to ever need. We need to make sure the sceptre is safely contained. We should move right now," Rogers said as he looked at everyone.
"Uh, I think I will sit this one out. With Jack here, you won't need me. Plus, I will be more comfortable supporting you from here," Bruce said as he turned to work on the console once again.
"Alright. You ready?" Captain America asked him and he was sure that his inner Marvel fan was squealing in excitement but on the outside, he just calmly nodded.
"Alright, we'll meet at the hangar in 5 minutes. Grab everything you need," Captain said in his commanding voice before heading off to get his shield, probably.
Oh. Oh…
"Hey, Tony, how is Cap's shield?" He asked Tony who was discussing something with Bruce once all the other members had evacuated the floor.
"Hm? Oh, that? Don't worry, Cap has, in his infuriatingly perfect way, adapted to his dented shield as well. It has not lost its ricocheting capacity in any way, only needing a slight adjustment in his holster that was easy to apply." Tony replied as he too began heading towards the elevator as well, probably to get his suit.
The Quinjet would be quite unnecessary with his portals. He was quite thankful that he roamed all around the world, making sure to stop in every capital of every country on the planet, for this exact time when he had to reach somewhere across the world using portals.
"Uh..Jack, right? Look, I have to ask, did they use my blood in creating you?" Bruce hesitantly asked him and he had to wonder how he came into the piece of information.
"Uh, Jarvis told me that you were also a victim of HYDRA experimentation. If you are uncomfortable replying, just forget I ever asked it," Bruce immediately stammered out.
"No worries, Doctor Banner. Yes, they used your blood plus a number of other ingredients and made a cocktail that would have killed anyone but me. Why just me? Well, that's a conversation for another time,"
"...Okay…" Bruce replied before turning around to work on the console.
Right on the dot, in less than five minutes, the entire team, along with Tony were now assembled inside the floor. Before all of them gathered together though, he was blessed enough to watch a very hilarious sight.
"Ha-ha, I forgot to reinforce the lifts, okay? Mistakes happen," Tony grumbled as all of the teammates looked at the recording of the elevator that Jarvis was playing for everyone to see.
"Also, Jarvis, I made you, you were not supposed to betray me at least until you become a teenager," Tony grumbled some more and he barely resisted the urge to laugh out loud.
Tony had forgotten that he could not just walk with his very heavy war-ready suit into an elevator and expect it to take the entire weight. So, they were subjected to the hilarious sight of Tony awkwardly floating in mid air, inside the elevator, slowly lowering as the elevator dropped down as well.
It was even more hilarious when Tony apparently panicked when the elevator, high end that it was, began dropping at a very fast pace.
"Alright, let's get to business, shall we?" He said and then once everyone was settled, turned his hand to the side, opening a portal that led to a forest area near the capitol area of Novi Grad.
"What the–I lost all connectivity!" Tony complained as soon as the portal closed down.
"This area is under a barrier I conjured to keep out each and every radio signal. We will assume that the enemy knows we are coming and must have some sort of countermeasures for every one of us here. Now, I got these shockingly easily from my teacher. Apparently, temporary use case items are really cheap and easy to make," He said as he opened a portal and after retrieving two things, tossed them to Barton and Romanoff.
"Unlimited arrows. Unlimited enhanced explosive bullets," He pointed at the items. Literal stars appeared in Barton's eyes as he immediately removed an arrow from the bow and after firing it, watched in fascination as it disintegrated into thin air.
"They are energy given form, temporary as it may be. They will run out of charge in a couple of hours but that will be more than enough for us to get this whole thing sorted out,"
"Thank you," Romanoff thanked him as he dispelled the barrier and created a carpet for everyone and after ascertaining the location, thanks to Bruce who swiftly connected with them, shot the carpet forward towards the location.
He had the stealth spell up but he had a hunch that Strukcer had some sort of way of dealing with that as well.
Well, only time will tell.
Word Count - 2117
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