A/N - Sorry guys for the inactivity for the past few weeks. IRL seasonal change hit me hard. Regular seasonal Cold, Cough and fever evolved into something more sinister due to my immune system's inability to fight it properly, leading to hospitalisation.
Anyways, double release today! Woohoo!
On a serious note, will try to get back to a regular schedule but let's see. Thanks for reading.
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).
The Ancient Kree City, Puerto Rico[May 2015]
–Jack Sullivan–
"Whyyy?" He ignored the borderline whining from Tony as he coordinated efforts from the half a dozen Masters that had arrived after getting his message. He was quite literally the youngest and strongest Master alive. His favour was quite a thing and these people had gathered in this spot in less than 2 hours since he sent out the planet wide ping with his personal message and sigil in it.
Yeah, he had an official sigil, just like the Ancient One did. Anyone could make their own but no one had tried it yet, believing that only the Sorcerer Supreme could have their very own Sigil for official messaging and confirmation. He had asked, and that wasn't the case. It was just that the Ancient One had been the leader of Kamar Taj for so long that people had begun believing that that particular sigil was the official Sorcerer Supreme sigil.
"Like I said, Tony, the city is dangerous. You should be glad I am not just chucking it into the sun or something. Once it is safely stored, I can allow supervised visits." He told Tony who somehow managed to glare at him through the suit. He knew that it was not his call, really, to make it but he was moving incredibly fast here. He sighed as Tony rocketed away from him, throwing up dirt everywhere. Stark knew that he was powerless in the current scenario and probably went away to fume in silence.
Ignoring any calls made by the US government and even from the underground SHIELD organisation, at least until the city is transported completely, was sure to ruffle some feathers but he still had his clout from his sacrificial play in New York so he was going to be just fine.
"Master Sullivan, the city is mapped thoroughly. Fortunately, it is just one giant stone. You are clear to lift the entire thing." Master Wu, one of the middle aged Masters, who had retired to the countryside and was taking care of the Monsters that were created around a seal that held off some Demon Prince's corpse, told him.
It still boggled his mind how large Kamar Taj was, as an organisation. Sure, Kamar Taj was ruled by the Ancient One with an Iron Fist but there still existed an incredible amount of freedom within the organisation relating to the specific role and posting that one could get, according to their personal wishes.
Realistically, the Ancient One ruled the entire magical world of Earth with an Iron Fist, with simply no one to contend with her power alive. Even the dragons in Kun'Lun and Ta Lo were vastly diminished from their peak strength. It would not be wrong to say that the magical world of Earth was the Ancient One's bitch, simple as that.
Now, it did not mean that she could act impunity, she still had the VIshanti to answer to but mostly, she could run Kamar Taj as she wished to, as long as Earth as a whole was safe enough.
For example, Master Wu did not like the mystery that the Ancient One was shrouded in, not trusting her motives to do everything, especially since he was skeptical of the concept of training Masters for free anyway, so he went away to his homeland. The Ancient One allowed it, simply assigning him a guard duty over a sealed location that regularly required cleaning, essentially giving him Work From Home in the mystical sense.
That was why Kamar Taj in the movies seems so small. It was only because that unit housed only the initiates and the handful of Masters that trusted the Ancient ONe wholeheartedly.
Many of the older, more accomplished Masters saw her rule over the magical community as stifling, as she introduced many doctrines that everyone had to follow, regardless of their affiliation.
So, they moved out of Kamar Taj, taking over duties in remote areas so that Kamar TAj would not have to send people regularly to handle the matter.
There were a startling number of mystical hotspots in remote places that needed constant, round the clock supervision. Ofcourse, the older masters simply used it as a vacation since the job was most of the time, ever easy for someone of their stature.
He still wondered why they didn;t show up in the movies when Kaecillius attacked but then he realised that they were probably hoping for her to die and when Strange took over, he probably wasn't as rigid and overbearing as the Ancient One as his standing was not fully formed before he was blipped away.
As he said, the organisation was what it was simply because of the strength and ruthlessness of the Ancient One. Once she was gone, it would simply be a loosely held together organisation of Sorcerers who worked towards a common goal.
Even the riches that Kamar Taj held right now, in terms of the myriad relics and books it had was mainly because of the efforts of the past Sorcerer Supremes. He actually foresaw there being quite a few attempts on the personal Sorcerer Supreme collection of Kamar Taj's library because of the forbidden knowledge within.
"Thank you, Master Wu. I trust the wardstones are installed in both the places?"
Wardstones were focus points they were going to use to accurately mark both the places. When it came to portals being opened by a single Sorcerer, it usually only needed the person to visualise the place where they wanted to go. When two or more sorcerers came into play while opening a single portal, it was not as simple as just two other sling rings being added to the portal and the portal widening as a result.
No, the spell matrix would destabilise immediately because it would try to take inputs from two or more brains and even if all three of them tried to visualise the same place, there were bound to be some minute changes in the spell matrix. Changes that would lead to its destabilisation and they did not want the city to be sheared in half midway.
So, all four Sorcerers responsible for opening and maintaining the portal were first told to put a drop of blood on the wardstone which was then flung onto Mars, in a random place. He then went ahead and created a huge hole in the middle of nowhere, to house the city properly.
"Yes, Master Sullivan, the wardstones are primed and ready to be activated."
"Excellent work, Master Wu."
The city was huge, especially since the outer shell of the city was very much thick and made of solid stone. The Kree probably used Lava as a base to make their whole city, allowing them to create a single solid shell, allowing for much better rigidity and protection.
"Alright, gentlemen, let's get this party started," He shouted as the Masters all gathered around him, standing on a semi circular platform, with him standing in front of all of them. They floated above the island that housed the city.
He waved his arm, creating a huge block that immediately descended on the land, creating small crevices, and essentially disappearing in the ground. There might be some environmental repercussions from this, depending on the amount of destabilisation he would have to do to get the city out of the land.
He grinned as his barriers finally connected with each other, forming a complete curtain over the city's outer shell, and then he pulled.
There was a huge shuddering noise as the very land around them split apart, as the city was being torn apart from its surroundings and being lifted into the air.
His senses tingled as he looked up, a very faint outline of something that was fast approaching them visible. His eyes narrowed as he saw a military jet, no, three jets heading straight towards them.
Welp, no time to waste then.
"Open it." He commanded as he pulled up with all his might, the shaking around them increasing. Within a minute, the entire city was pulled from the land, leaving a huge gaping hole in Earth.
It was quite heavy, he realised as he looked at the jets now circling above him, his SHIELD contact phone ringing all the while as he looked at the rapidly expanding portal.
His finger twitched as all the Masters were now covered in his barriers as well, just in case the military went crazy and tried to attack them with the no doubt advanced weaponry they had on board those jets.
He grinned as he saw the air being sucked into the portal, Mar's non existent atmosphere meaning their air was being pulled in. He heaved with all his might and pushed the entire city through the portal. It was quite an effort because the city was tall as well as wide, there was no easy way of transporting the entire city.
He was coming to think that without him here to lift the bloody thing, the Ancient One would have had to devise some complicated ritual to transport the entire thing, or the more likely thing to happen would have been her opening a portal that led to some sun dimension and melting it all down until nothing but lava remained.
Slowly, bit by bit, the city was being pushed into the giant orange burning portal, even though he was trying to push the city with all his might, it was bloody heavy and he did not want to just break the city while transporting it. There would be no point in doing all this song and dance then.
His lips thinned as he saw the fist sign of aggression from the jets, a series of flares being deployed right above his barrier, more likely a way to get his attention. He was not going to respond until they actually attacked him.
It was good that he had the tact to tell all the Masters to have a simple disguising spell on at all times because he was sure that they had run all their faces in every single database they could find, just so that they could stop the city from being taken out of their hands, and also probably to get their hands on another enhanced person since he was simply out of their hands.
He slowly floated forward as the tail end of the city was all that was left to be transported. It was not being dumped right into the hole he had dug on Mars. No, it was being held aloft on the other side as well, which was quite a task. The Masters were being pulled along with him obviously, as the jets overhead continued to drop flares in every corner of his vision, trying to get his attention somehow.
His phone had long since been abandoned because it was just annoying to listen to the beeps and also because the military had probably just hacked it and were trying to directly talk to him, telling him to stop because of some law.
Blah blah.
Thankfully, atleast they were not doing anything stupid and Tony had also not com,e back which either meant that the government had not contacted him, which was just plain impossible, or he knew that there was not much Tony could do to dissuade him from ripping apart a tantalising piece of alien tech from their hands.
It must be painful, actually, but then again, he gave zero fucks as he was finally done transporting the entire city through the portal and was just about going to go in when he turned around and glared at the incoming jets.
So, that's what they were doing, he thought to himself as he let the Masters go forward, a compressed layer of atmosphere in the barrier meant that there was plenty of air for them on the other side.
Meanwhile, he was looking at the jets and seeing that they were trying to get into the portal, which was the height of stupidity considering it was Mars and the jets were not rated for space. He sighed as he flew right into the portal and snapped his fingers, signalling the Masters to stop, and destroyed the wardstone embedded into the ground below the portals' opening location.
The jet was barely a hundred meters away when the portal fully closed, the pilot of the jet being visible to his eyes as he slowly turned around to look at the red planet, and then slowly jet the Kree City down, into the ditch he had dug for this specific purpose.
The Masters were sat down into the barrier because of the strain of keeping such a large and taxing portal open for so long, on top of the stress of seeing military jets try to stop them.
He slowly, carefully, let the city down, as the wardstone at the bottom was lifted by one of the Masters.
There was not much noise as the city finally sank into the soil. He could not see what the response of the internal city was, mainly because he had sealed it completely using a piece of stone to block all entry and exit points. He had found 5 such points during the thorough examination and now, every single one of them was melded shut with the rock, using some spells to mimic welding, just for rocks instead of metals.
"Alright, now for the shelter," he muttered as he felt the city stabilise after sinking over a hundred feet into the ground. THe ground was not as stable as it should be. He probably should have searched for a more optimal landing site instead of just winging it but eh, what's done is done now.
He lifted the sand he had already dug before and dumped it all on top of the city. Hopefully, the city will still remain and will not be swept by the insane sandstorms that litter Mars.
"Alright, folks. Thanks for your help. As promised, you can call on me to defend you, one time, as long as it is not from Earth's defenders. Am I clear?"
All of them nodded and then left after opening their own portals.
He sighed and opened a portal back to the same place where the city was uprooted from. He was unsurprised to find a huge gathering of military personnel along with government spooks waiting for him there, and scientists looking into the huge hole that had been dug.
He did not go unnoticed as there were alarms ringing from the ships.
Well, this was going to be tiresome, he thought to himself as he slowly landed in front of a government spook, who was calmly looking at him.
"So, what are you guys doing here?" He asked the person in front of him, who failed to get the joke.
People these days, have no sense of humour.
Word Count - 2527
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