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New York [October 2014]
–Jack Sullivan–
He waited as the pod did all the procedures to safely bring someone out of medical stasis. It had not harmed her in the slightest but she did spend a lot of time in the same position, suspended in nutritional fluid.
He took a deep breath as he stopped pacing, the thought of her reaction tensing him slightly. For all his strength, he didn't know how to deal with grieving people all that much, especially women.
Then there was also all the stress of the vents that happened recently. He still couldn't understand just what was happening with Wanda. He was sure that Wanda was a recent thing because even the Ancient One was caught blindsided by the entire thing.
Well, let's recap the events that led to the Avengers being subdued, Bruce missing and the Kamar Taj ending up with a huge hole in the middle of it.
First, he encountered Wanda who somehow trapped him in some sort of parallel mirror dimension, after fooling him into thinking that the HYDRA castle was still somehow being used by Strucker and was an active base.
Second, she somehow tampered with his sling ring, depriving him of the sling ring, which then had to be repaired using his barrier as he used his power to fill in the gaps of the sling ring so to speak. It was not something he had told the Ancient One because despite knowing that she had the best of intentions, he was still somewhat uneasy with her ability to actively track every ring.
Thirdly, she had attacked the Avengers, brainwashing all of them, forced Jarvis to shut down, ordered the Avengers sans Bruce to attack him on sight, and then took off with Bruce to parts unknown.
Four, she then attacked the New York Sanctum. Not attack, as in try and take down the wards but attack as in creating a flashy bang outside the Sanctum with a red fire that was mostly decoration because the temperatures were not even enough to scorch the sidewalks. It was as if she just wanted someone to notice the attacks but not do any damage with the attacks at all.
Five, she then went all the way to Kamar Taj, attacked it, and created a huge hole in the center of the training grounds. There, she somehow managed to fight the Ancient One and even escape, leading the Ancient One to lead war like state of Kamar Taj, something that had never happened ever since the Ancient One took leadership of Kamar Taj, her overwhelming prowess allowing the organisation to come out on top of wars before they had any chance of spilling over.
After that, there had not been a single peep. Jarvis was back up and running, the Avengers will be after some time, the Sanctum still stood, Kamar Taj was fine with the Ancient One personally guarding it.
Whatever she did, aside from putting all the concerned parties into a heightened cautionary state, did nothing of substance, nothing that was truly damaging.
ARGH! Why was this so confusing?
CLICK
He froze as a click sound was heard in the medical room of the spaceship, signalling the pod was done with the procedures and Jessica was about to come out of the medical coma. He stood up from the chair as Jessica's near unconscious form staggered forward.
He caught her with his barriers and then laid her down on the sofa in the living room. He thought the somewhat open and welcoming area of the living space of the spaceship would help put her at ease.
Nope! He thought to himself as he ducked under her punch, her fist going straight for his head.
"Whoa! Calm down! You're safe, I am Jack Sullivan," He said in between punches and kicks as she kicked hard enough to dent the floor and then began to wildly throw punches at him. He could see her frightened state of mind as she began chasing him wildly, absolutely set on putting him down before he could do something.
"H-Hey! Wait, I am Jack Sullivan. O-Oh, for god's sake, I am Green Guardian," he said with finality as a full green shroud appeared around him as he finally stopped dodging and stood in the same spot, letting Jessica jump toward him with her fist drawn back.
He let her hit him, trusting in her enhanced physique being able to handle the backlash from hitting something stronger than steel.
"Fuck!" She swore as she finally jumped back and took a look at him. He let his face show so she could recognise him. His face finally made her relax a bit but she was still ready to absolutely bash his face in, well, try at least.
"What is this! Where am I? Where is h-he?"
He pretended as if he didn't hear her voice break towards the end, the bastard had gotten into her head for her to be so afraid of seeing him. He was genuinely afraid for Jessica's wellbeing now because he had a feeling that she would much rather kill herself this time than let herself fall once more into Kilgrave's trap.
He was all purple as well so he might have to look into his parents and then destroy every shred of evidence of their very evidence from this world because as much as Kilgrave himself was to be blamed for who he was, his parents were equally to blame.
Nature Vs Nurture could not be applied here because what could you expect from someone who had always known cruelty all his life?
That didn't absolve Kilgrave of his crimes but he could at least understand his existence a bit better because of that. Jessica didn't have that, not that it would help her.
"You are safe. You are in a safehouse, where Kilgrave won't be able to reach you," He looked at her with sadness as she flinched at the mere mention of that name, her head whipping around the room, as if afraid that he would emerge from some dark corner.
"He is dead, I saw to it personally. He will not torment anyone anymore. I disposed his body by burning it and then spreading the ashes in space, so I don't exactly have any proo-"
"No.." He looked as she hunched forward as the exhaustion of the abrupt movement her body was subjected to, finally caught up with her. He let her rest on top of one of his barriers as it floated her toward one of the nearby sofas.
"T-Thank you," She mumbled even as she fell asleep, her face still set in a rictus of pain, from the memories or her body aching, he did not know. Actually, he did know and knowing that only made him hurt that bastard more.
Alas, he could not risk any amount of close contact with Kilgrave. If he managed to control him for even half a day, the damage would be catastrophic, not just to the world itself but to all his objectives. He would have to start over and even then, he would never be able to regain the level of trust that he did now.
He looked at the unconscious Jessica and realised that…he would have to head back to Wakanda, again. God, he hoped that Wakadna was not secretly conducting super soldier research and he hadn't just accelerated their research multi-fold. That would really suck.
Wakanda was already messed up as is, with the intense family drama and one vastly stronger foe under the Ocean, just waiting for them to slip up with the vast stores of Vibranium they had on hand. They didn't need mass produced super soldiers added to the mix as well.
He covered Jessica in a series of barriers, designed to be as comfortable as bulletproof barriers could be, as another barrier interposed itself into the crevices of the sling ring, under the scratch that Wanda had drawn on his sling ring, rendering it unusable, and then opened a portal that led straight to the portal room that was designated as his arrival point until the emergency is lifted across Wakanda.
He took a single step forward and watched with raised eyebrows as what could only be described as energy turrets receded back into their respective areas inside the wall panels, and then the door finally opened up with a Dora Milaje standing outside, just waiting for him.
She nodded at him and then simply stalked off towards the direction of the Palace, escorting them to the King Probably. She didn't even bat an eye at the unconscious body that was floating behind them. Truly, they were trained to be stoic and calm in all situations.
"Take me to the Lab, please," He asked her and then added after seeing her giving him the stink eye, in the subtle Dora Milaje manner, "If you can't do it because of orders, don't worry, I know my way around the place,"
That had her outright glaring at him as she begrudgingly led him to the lab where Shuri was currently working on the Iron Man suit, putting it back together, with T'Challa arriving in the lab just in time.
They arrived in the lab through the side gate and were greeted by Shuri somehow dropping the Arc Reactor, essentially a fusion reactor accurately on the Arc Reactor housing. Strangely, the Rector fit snug but probably not connected to any wires, judging by the lack of activity from the suit.
He knew that Tony had some sort of limited quantum communications system installed in the suit and in the Tower so that Jarvis could communicate with him so that the thing with the Titan tour didn't happen again, where Jarvis had lost complete contact with Tony.
Honestly, Tony was somehow the most dangerous person he had met, even above the likes of Bruce, or even Danvers, not because of his suit but because the moment he is defeated by a problem and lives to tell the tale, he rectified the issue and then would never be caught with his pants down again.
The dangerous combination of virtually unlimited riches, unprecedented access, beyond genius level intellect, the will to see it through, and the luck to survive through his failures.
He had no doubt that had he encountered Thanos once before, he would have made a suit that would have given Thanos a much tougher fight than the one they had on Titan in the canon timeline.
Enough about that, "Hey! You're back!" Shuri's excited shout didn't break his attention as he looked at all the Avengers still suspended in the medical pods.
"Oh, them? We were going to keep them in observation for 24 more hours but Father said that we need them awake so we are getting them out of the pods in less than 2 hours," Shuri told him.
"Against my better judgement, might I say," He looked up to see another gentleman arrive behind Shuri with a notepad in his right hand and his left hand stretched in his direction?
He awkwardly shook his hand as he continued, "Their brain signs are completely normal. No sign of any foreign energy in their brains or bodies. The Captain, in particular, is absorbing the nutrients from the nutrient solution at an alarming rate, leading us to believe that his body is capable of healing using existing nutrients if only the body had the prerequisite proteins available in their broken down forms," All that jargon went over his head as he nodded at T'Challa and then had jessica floated to the forefront.
"Let me guess, another mind control victim?" The doctor deadpanned at him.
"No, former mind control victim. She is back in control of her mind now. The one who violated her mind is no longer alive, safe to say. He is different from the one who brainwashed the Avengers,"
"By Bast, how many people are there who can control minds out there?" T'Challa muttered as he looked at him in shock. Well, not much, if you don't count the Masters of the Mystic Arts being capable of the mind arts and therefore, capable of developing moderately powerful psychic powers like telepathy, telekinesis, etc.
"She is just unconscious at the moment. Her body is weak at the moment. She is strong but not as strong or as combat trained as the Good Captain there, so keeping her with a Dora Milaje guarding her should be more than enough," He said to T'Challa as he placed Jessica on the bed that one of the interns brought.
"A single Dora Milaje he says, as if they weren't the stuff of legend," The Doctor scoffed as he led his patient back into the medical centre, from the looks of it. He didn't actually know how to read Xhosa and Wakandans had no reason to use English in their labeling.
"Now, let's get to stuff. I want you to look for two people:" He looked at Shuri who was startled at first but then recovered as a holo screen manifested in front of her.
"Wanda Maximoff, Pietro Maximoff, and why not, Baron Strucker, along with Bruce Banner as well," He said as Shuri began walking away from them, already typing across the screen at a dizzying pace.
"Forgive my sister. Once she is in her groove, she forgets that the outside world exists. In the meantime, can you help us prepare better for the threat? Most of the population has already been evacuated to the shelters but they were not built for long term sanctuary so the people have been getting more and more jittery," T'Challa informed him as they began walking towards T'Chaka, probably.
"My Prince! There's been news. J-Johannesburg. We found Hulk!" His neck snapped towards the guard who uttered the word Hulk.
____xx_____
–Wanda Maximoff–
"I still don't get it. Why couldn't I hurt Stark when you had him under your control? And why do I have to sit everything out? I can help too you know," She rolled her eyes at her brother as he munched on an apple, along with a myriad varieties of pasta laid out on top of his table, in the penthouse suite of a five star hotel.
It was much easier to just hijack the mind of a single evil person and then have him pay for all her expenses. This way, she had no guilt in duping innocent people and also had fewer risks as she only had to control a single mind, and that was much much easier than casting a single spell to control dozens of minds.
That would only be possible with a really simple command and nothing more.
They were currently treating themselves to the generosity of a corrupt insurance fraud who had personally caused the collapse of no less than 2 pension funds, in the West.
"Just finish your food and don't go to any nightclubs tonight. We are leaving soon," She warned him and had to flash her eyes to really drive to the point because her brother looked rebellious.
"As for Stark, Death or mere injuries are not things that would hurt him or make me feel good. No, we have to do something much more personal," She said even though she didn't know exactly what she was doing.
"Like him?" Pietro pointed his fork at the currently unconscious Bruce Banner laid out on the bed of the penthouse.
She nodded. He didn't mean to kidnap him but he had a part to play in Johannesburg and she had no other choice but to make the event happen.
Already, she could feel her mind and soul anchoring itself to this reality more and more as time went by, proving that her approach was working.
All she had to do was whatever Chthon told her to do but with her own twist added in the mix. All of this, without ever touching the Darhold or looking for it in any way.
Her mind jerked as she received the next step in her plan.
"Alright, let's go. We have a building to destroy and an arm to shear off so that the man can get his own metal arm in the future," She said, snapping her fingers as a glowing red portal appeared in front of her.
The magical formula capable of tracking anything that used dimensional energy to make portals anywhere on the planet was really clever but when used with Chaos Energy, it made no traces that could be traced by the Ancient One.
The Ancient One being a woman really shocked her, along with her prowess as well. Throughout her fight, if that could even be called a fight, she had a feeling that one wrong step would have had her head removed from her body, or her soul and body sealed in a dimension for Eternity.
"Aww, man! I was just getting to the best Pasta," Pietro moaned and whined but rushed into the portal just as instructed, as did Bruce who had to be carried by Pietro, not because she couldn't do it but because she liked to inconvenience Pietro.
It was always fun.
And…who knows if she could continue to experience said fun or not?
After all, she was living on borrowed time and Borrowed Power.
Word Count - 2924
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I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.
A/N - 69 (giggles) Nice.