The "G" Shield - By IdleMuse

[IdleMuse0307]

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).

Kamar Taj [August 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

"Wong, gather all the Masters. We have multiple issues to settle regarding my succession before we can–" he flinched as he felt a large part of the network that had just been handed over to him break apart. He closed his eyes, concentrating his senses on the mantle, trying to find out what had happened.

His eyes snapped open as he was fed an image of the situation, "London." Without another word, he disappeared from his place and appeared right outside Kamar Taj. With his control over the wards, this much was elementary stuff.

With his Sling Ring which was the Omega Ring now, he opened a portal to the New York Sanctum. He had to stop the Last Sanctum from being destroyed otherwi—

He flinched as he staggered back mid air, his barriers flickering a bit before they regained their solid appearance. Groaning, he twisted on the spot and reappeared in the compound of Kamar Taj, in front of a now frantic Wong.

He raised his hand, stopping Wong from informing him of something he already knew, "I know," he muttered while holding his head. The headache from the backlash was beyond anything he had ever felt, on top of the slight headache he already had due to the forced transfer of knowledge from the Eye of Agamotto.

Giving up standing upright, he sat down on the ground, his hands glowing with a slight green glow as he tried to get rid of his headache because in this state, even using his barriers beyond the single one covering his body was becoming hard. He almost moaned in relief as he felt a series of healing spells assault his body as he felt his mind becoming lighter than he had felt it in years.

Opening his eyes, he was greeted by 5 different Masters casting their respective healing spells on him. He spied the yellow variant of the Healing spells that dealt with the mind and the brain. Anything from fatigue to brain damage was covered by the yellow healing rays from the VIshanti. Normally a very demanding spell, he was about to see who had cast the spell on him when he felt another white hot spike of pain drive its way through his brain as the shield around the planet finally shattered, the final ward stone in Kamar Taj destroyed by the equivalent of a light flick by the Dark Lord, Dormammu.

"He's here," He muttered as he tried standing, the Eye shining in response as his mind continued to heal under the onslaught. Things like this made him wonder if the Ancient One actually liked him or not, giving him something that was more along the lines of crippling him rather than helping him deal with the imminent threat on their doorstep.

He felt the distant concern and inquiries of the Masters as he stood up unsteadily and began walking or rather staggering away, shaking his head to get his bearings right. He could not afford to half ass this fight and this stupid mantle that was just bombarding his mind with stuff he did not need to know was doing nothing but hinder him.

As if it heard his thoughts, the data stopped, the voices stopped, everything stopped, creating a whiplash once again as he fought through the Migraine and opened a portal, leading straight to New York.

With a thought, the Eye opened up, revealing the green glow of the Time Stone. He hesitated in doing the necessary and in that moment of hesitation, he felt the sting of the Dark Energy coming out of the portal, pooling into the wards of Kamar Taj before the energy was cleaned and dismissed by the wards of Kamar Taj, under his instructions.

With another flex of his will, he locked down Kamar Taj, only letting the Masters leave and turned on the wartime wards, protecting the apprentices. Nothing would be allowed to happen to them, they were the future of Kamar Taj, not him. He was just the substitute Sorcerer Supreme.

Knowing what was at stake, he flew straight into the portal and what greeted him was a scene straight from hell.

Jagged cracks in the sky itself, raining Dark energy into the planet's atmosphere. A dark congregation of clouds threatened to swallow the city itself, with its Dark Energy as he felt more than saw the concentration of energy on Earth. Growling, he made sure that he had both the Infinity Stones on his person before shooting straight up on a collision course with the mass of Dark Energy.

His barriers mid way were covered in a blueish green glow as he used his strongest barriers to just smite the avatar out of the sky, even though he knew that it would be futile to do so, especially with Dormammu's domain spreading out on the planet.

His form cut through the air as he broke the sound barrier. Just as he was about to come within punching distance, the figure snapped its gaze to him and then waved its arms, generating a tremendous amount of force that not just pushed him but buried him in the ground, cratering his surroundings.

He saw the panicking people and sighed, looking away with difficulty because he could not afford to get distracted by saving a couple of dozen people because doing so might result in the death of millions more. Shooting up in the air once more, he drew upon the energy of the Power Stone and punched with all his might, generating a stream of energy that impacted the mass centre mass.

He floated mid air, his heart sinking as he saw the negligible damage that was already healing that was caused by a fucking Infinity Stone. He held the Power Stone in his naked hands, creating a much more potent stream of energy into his body. With renewed strength, he punched once again, sending in even more energy and for a moment, it did work. He could see the hand of that alien tentacle body burning before the hand disappeared and he felt an impact on his back, sending him crashing into the ground once more. Pushing himself up with his hands, he looked up and saw the tentacle body looking down on him with disdain.

Growling, he ripped his hands from the earth, cratering his surroundings even more as he shot up, right into the stupid face of the tentacle, drawing a slight grunt before he was shot back down with an even greater face than before, only this time he managed to stabilise himself before he reached the ground.

This time, he shot back with even greater force, punching the open palm of the tentacle monster, parting the clouds around them. He looked right into the eyes of the monster, realising that this was Dormammu himself he was talking to. It would be impossible to defeat Dormammu, he realised just as Strange probably did in the canon timeline.

Headbutting the tentacle monster, he flipped and kicked the body with all his might, pushing the body out of his way, as he shot up, further up, right into the congregation of Dark that was swallowing the sky above New York.

His goal was clear, to enter the Dark Dimension and force the Dark Lord into a time loop, he found himself within finger's reach of his goal before his body was forcibly pulled down with a force so overwhelming that had it not been for his upgrade barriers, he would have found his body being torn apart.

With a grunt, he pushed himself up from the hole he was in and looked back, only to see a large tunnel with light at its end. Growling at his own failure, he reached deep within for more and more power, holding on to the Power Stone for more energy to be supplied to everything, to make sure that this time, he reached his destination. The earth around him trembled as he drew on all that power, concentrated it on his hands and legs, and jumped.

"AAAA~!" He then punched the stupid tentacle face with all his might, generating an impact so large that he saw multiple skyscrapers simply get cleaved in half because of the mere shockwave from his punch. The resulting impact pushed him back a bit but the tentacle face was another story entirely. That monster was gone as he rushed to enter the Dark Dimension, only to find himself face to face with the tentacle face once again, its face revealing multiple Dark tentacles that covered over half of its face.

With yet another impact, he was sent into the ground. Groaning in frustration, he ran his mind thinking of any other way he could get past the tentacle thing, and found himself coming up empty. The surrounding space was not conducive for Sling Rings anymore and he did not know any true high class spells other than the ones the Eye gave him and all of those were time related.

He did not want Dormammu to know anything about the time loop spells because he didn't know what counter an Ancient Monster could create for a time loop, enforced by the Time Stone itself. He just couldn't take the chances, especially with what his luck has been for the past few years.

So, there he was, stuck getting past the tentacle monster, in its own domain which seemed impossible until…..

His eyes widened as he felt something surge past his vision before a wave of red suffused the very air he was floating in. He saw the tentacle monster looking around in confusion but he knew very well what the red energy was.

"Go, I have nullified his reality manipulation for now but he can break at any moment," The ghostly voice of Wanda reached his ears as he could hear her straining, even over a distance. He saw the Tentacle monster covered in threads of red that came out of the red cloud of energy.

Grinning at the unexpected support, he gathered all his power and launched himself up, right into the Dark Cloud that served as an entrance to the Dark Realm. Looking at his arm, he selected the option for the Time Loop, with his death as the reactivation button.

"Good Luck," For some reason, he could feel the pity coming from the Scarlet Witch as he felt her words as well as the red energy in the air dissipate as Dark Purple once again took its place. He closed his eyes in mourning, somehow knowing that whatever Wanda had done, it was going to end up taking her life as well.

When his eyes snapped open, they were glowing green and purple as both the Infinity Stones were now active on his person, ready to be used at a moment's notice.

Within moments, he was now floating deep into the Dark Dimension, his form sparking with purple as he let the Power Stone rampage throughout his body, drawing in more and more power in exchange, far beyond what he could draw in safely. He was going to need it for the upcoming fight, even though he knew that no matter what he did, it was going to fall short in front of the monster in front of him.

Soon enough, he found himself facing the Lord of Darkness himself, Dormammu.

"Dormammu! I've come to bargain!" He grinned at that, he did always want to say that, even though the circumstances could have been much better. He only saw the face move before he found himself under immense pressure before his barriers popped, including his body. The last moment he felt was his brain being split before his awareness returned, his body returning to peak condition with both the Infinity Stones as well as his memory intact.

He smiled, almost laughing out loud, "Hahaha! I did it!"

He then looked at the stupidly large face of Dormammu before he drew his fist back, gathering all the rampaging Power Stone energy before punching forward. Unfortunately, he met his end before he could connect the Punch or send the energy stream.

"You have come to your death!"

"Yo Doormat, I've come to kick your—" Death by pressure.

"You have come to your death!"

"Yo Doormat, I've come to kick yo—" Death by pressure.

"Wh-What is this?"

"Yo Doormat, I've come to kick—" Death by pressure.

"Cease this!"

"Yo Doormat, I've come to—" Death by heat. That was new. Also…unpleasant.

"Yo Doormat, I've come—" Death by heat.

"Yo Doormat, I've come—" Death by heat.

"I demand you release me!"

"Yo Doormat, I've—" Death by Cold. New and also way more unpleasant as he could feel his skin slide off his body at the slightest of movement as if he was not a well put together human but a series of meat slides that were sliding off at the slightest of movements.

"I've come to –" This time, his mouth was shut by an outside force but without killing him outright. That was new and also interesting.

"You know you can't win this way, human! Cease this! Release me from this!"

"Aww, is Doormatty upset? Now, come on, be a good kid and–" Death by Laser. Purple Laser. At Least there was not much pain this time so that was good.

"*Kissy sounds* Come on! Come on, who is a good Dark Lord? Who is? You are! Yes, you are! Yes—" Death by pillar crushing. Huh, it was odd, feeling one's own neck snapping with full awareness. Full death took a few seconds after total spinal crushing.

Huh, you learn something new about yourself after every death reset. Great!

"Co–" Death by heat.

"Co–" Death by heat.

"Co–" Death by heat.

"Co–" Death by heat.

"Co–" Death by heat.

"Co–" Death by heat. X 69

It was only after a disturbing amount of deaths that he figured out that Dormammu had placed an always active volcano right beneath his spawning point. It was trivial to get out of that place. The next time he spawned, he just…died.

Yup, it took a couple dozen more tries but he had all the time to die in this world.

With a burst of energy, he managed to boost himself to the other side, stopping his death for that particular reason for the time being.

"Hmm?" Feeling something odd, he looked down at his right hand, the one that held the Power Stone, and was surprised to find the Stone itself now embedded in the palm of his hand, glowing purple veins spread across the stone, going into his body from there.

"Huh, neat!" Were the last words he spoke before another laser impacted his unsuspecting body.

---

Word Count - 2490

If you guys would like to support my writing - P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

A/N - A little warning. I did go a little overboard with writing what could realistically happen to someone in Jack's position here. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!




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).

Dark Dimension [A̴̢̛̦̣͙̟̥͍̦̬̞͈̤̞͒̈͂̂̑̔́̋́̀̀̈́̈́̿̑̚͜͝͠͠ù̵̪̣̳̤̒́̓ǵ̶̡̛̻̙̬̖͚̰̬̬̫̖͎̬̪̎̂̌̊̒͋͘͘u̷̢̢̢͓̘̘͈̥̘͖̣͇̩̩̣̱̭͖̰̣̤̳͛̌̍̍̈́͛̀́͜ͅs̶̛̯̳̬̀͌͆̐̿͊̾̔͛̎̌̈́̀̓̅̎́͝͝͝ţ̶̨̢͍͙̭̜͖͚̤͚͙͕̗͎͙̳͇̘̭̱̫͈̥̍ ̴̛̰̣͇̩̯͓̩͓͇̌̓̀̋̇͂̕͜͝2̶̢̛̥̭͎̲̱̼̳͋0̸͈͚̺̤͑̈̔͂͜1̷̢̱̤̻̝̘͍̲̫̥͖̗̫̙͔̣̱̰͉͈̤͇͙̂̏̍͊̍̅̚̚̚ͅ5̵̡̨̡̬̳̗̙͍͉̭̼̯̪̭̟̺̜̐͆̅̉̈́̄̓̒̄̽̆̍̃̍͗̈́͊̅́̈̕̕͜͝]

–Jack Sullivan–

"Hmm?" Feeling something odd, he looked down at his right hand, the one that held the Power Stone, and was surprised to find the Stone itself now embedded in the palm of his hand, glowing purple veins spread across the stone, going into his body from there.

"Huh, neat!" Were the last words he spoke before another laser impacted his unsuspecting body.

The next time he came back to life, he used the Power Stone embedded hand and thrust it in the direction where he knew the laser would come. The outcome was…..unsatisfactory, he thought to himself as he felt his body burst into pieces as a shockwave came from below.

For some reason, his barriers were not really cooperating with him today. It didn't help that due to holding on to two pieces of the Big Bang which disrupted his control over every other damn thing, including his barriers, it would seem.

He had never—DEATH—--tried holding onto two different Infinity—-DEATH—-stones before, that too without using an Infinity Gauntlet. IT was already a wonder that—-DEATH—-that he was able to hold onto both artifacts without dying though—DEATH—-the Time Stone was in the Eye which should be containing the Infinity-ness of the infinity Stone pretty much so why was—-DEATH—was he not gaining control over the power that had been with—-DEATH—-him the most?

"AAAAAAA!" He then heard a distant roar before the sound of something hitting the ground at high speeds entered his ears. Of course, he completely ignored that as he was thinking about something really important.

His hand on his chin, he failed to react when a twisted skewer of some sort burst right through his body, puncturing basically everything. Snarling, since he was not dead and everything hurt like a bitch, he grabbed the tentacle with his Power Hand (Yes, he was going to call it that, even though it would have been pretty cringe had he been in the right state of mind) and let loose the power, screaming in pain as the volatile energy vaporised the tentacle but some part of the tentacle was in his body as well, vaporising what was left of his organs as well.

Spitting out blood and his tongue apparently, he smiled bloodily at the hordes of animals that were watching him with their master absent, growling and licking their lips with their hideously long tongues that might as well be tentacles. He laughed, coughed, and laughed as he raised his POWER HAND with difficulty and blasted himself on the head with it, erasing himself.

He came to consciousness in the same spot, breathing heavily as he saw many of those hordes charge at him. With blurry eyes and a sweaty face, he raised his POWER HAND and punched the ground with it, hoping to create a giant shockwave that would take care of his enemies for him. The next thing he knew, the wave was omnidirectional and he got hit with a face full of Purple.

With yet another deep breath, he found himself in front of a noticeably thinned out crowd of Dark Ones, with most of them being very far away from him. That was the second time he had killed himself but the first one was intentional and he knew that his mental state was not that great at the moment but that one single moment, that decision was going to haunt him for—

"Hey! Look, a puppy!" He exclaimed, kneeling down as a small ugly as shit slimy but still puppy approached him with its wittle legs and wittle tail. He gently scooped it up, being careful not to use the POWER HAND to touch the little thing or he might end up killing the cute thing.

"Oh, you're such a cute baby! Yes, you are! How did you get here, little guy? Did your daddy abandon you? Did daddy Doormat aban–" DEATH

All he saw was something dark headed right for his face before his vision darkened, clearing a bit as he saw himself right next to the little puppy of DEATH!

"Ah!" He yelped as he jumped back and thrust his POWER HAND forward, releasing a stream of energy that burned the little puppy. It was not good to look at, especially with the haunting sounds of dogs being burned alive, which honestly traumatised him more than killing himself.

He turned around, only to find himself in a crater with a shit ton of puppies standing on the edge of the crater, looking straight at him. He deadpanned at the shit as all the puppies opened their mouths and threw their tongues out, their tongues rolling out comically large before they rolled it back inside. Honestly, it made him puke his guts out.

Then again, this was the Dark Dimension so why did he expect anything else, as he saw a large tentacle entering his chest and another coming out of his chest, even as vomit and blood continued to escape his lips.

Then as he felt an impact on his head, he died.

"AHHH!" For impact, he came out screaming from the other side, already powering up the POWER HAND before punching it right down, generating a wave that spread outwards from him, without harming him this time. Dying once like that was enough. The wave thing worked because he stopped hearing the little yips of demon puppies after that.

"Not Cool, Doormatty, not cool. Using Man's best friend like that."

He looked all around him as the landscape became void of any moving thing, with only the moving purple lights and all the little moving landmasses being the only thing in his vision. He sighed and collapsed on the ground, shuddering and frothing at the mouth as the second he relaxed a little, the weight of all that had happened until now came crashing onto him, his mind, and his body.

His body was wracked with shudders and phantom pains as he felt his body being destroyed in increasingly creative ways over and over again as his mind continued to be its own worst enemy, filling it with thoughts of him never being good enough. Of not being able to stop Dormammu, of losing his own will, and dispelling the Time Loop.

Of destroying that very feature from the Eye using his authority just in case he stopped resisting and gave in. The shame of destroying something priceless because he wasn't strong enough.

All of this kicked in all at once as he blacked out, the Stones still in his possession.

____xx____

New York

–Wanda Maximoff–

Her entire vision was filled with red, her Chaos Magic, the one she had unleashed without any hesitation because her magic itself had told her what her destiny would be. Despite CHthon's interference, her own Chaos Magic was her own, and it told her, in no uncertain terms that her time, on Earth had come to an end, and if she wished to let her bother live in peace, she had to go somewhere and do something that would destroy her, mind, body and soul completely.

So, she had answered the summons that came from her powers and ended up being in Manhattan a week before this whole fiasco. Her powers led her to a cheap motel on the outskirts where she spent an entire week, all by herself, ordering in and meditating, getting her mind ready to make the ultimate sacrifice.

'Who would've thought, Wanda Maximoff, Scarlet Witch, someone prophesied to either destroy or rule a multiverse, would destroy herself over love.'

Guess that was something that Chthon never understood. The concept of love. It was kind of poetic in a way. Dormammu, another being on par with Chthon when it came to evil, bypassed and almost defeated by someone doing everything they could for love.

"Huh, Ironic," She muttered as she floated mid air, keeping that nasty darkness body restrained using her magic. Doormmamu's domain was spilling over in this reality, giving him untold amounts of power, just like the one he was using to destroy her Chaos threads one by one, and yet, she built threads as he destroyed them with seeming ease. Only it wasn't with ease, it was only by burning her essence, that she could make so many of them.

Then again, she was going to die anyway, so why would she be worried about magical consumption? Her soul was scheduled for condemnation so why not go out with a bang, doing something that is unequivocally good?

Within her senses, she could sense someone, injured and trapped under all that rubble. Her left hand shot out, sending waves of Chaos Magic that lifted the rubble and covered itself around the–

Tony? The man was unmistakable Tony Stark as she pulled his body out of the rubble, with his Suit flickering in and out. She hissed as she realised that Tony's legs had been severed clean with Dormammu's attack and the magical energy was eating the rest of his body.

Her mind flashed with the memories of the worst day of her life, the day she lost her parents, her innocence, and herself, all in one day. The day Stark Industries' missiles invaded her home and stayed there all day, keeping her on edge.

And yet, the vision went as it came, in an instant. Her hands curled as she drew in all the Dark energy from Tony's body and then healed the damage done by the Dark Energy and cauterising the wounds. She made sure that Tony was alive before flinging him in the direction of the bots she could see that were headed her way. She knew that TOY would be alright sans his legs because her Magic told her so.

Free of any distractions, she drew on all her power and trapped the Darkness body which was somehow the perfect avatar for Dormammu, just like she was for Chthon, she buried him in Chaos threads, strong enough to resist even his magic. The main threat averted for the moment, she looked up, at the congregation of dark clouds that threatened to take over Manhattan's sky.

The clouds would float forward, drawing even more jagged lines in reality before rolling back, shuddering as they did so. Then, they would gain more ground and roll back. The cycle went on and on as she worked on keeping the main threat to the city contained. Dormammu didn;t have any more zealots worth mentioning, they were all dead.

All she had to do was keep that body sealed long enough for Jack Sullivan to do his job and banish Dormammu from this realm. How was he going to accomplish such a monumental task? She did not know but she knew that whatever he was doing, it was working, at least temporarily.

The clouds continued to shudder, with them generating a varying flow of Dark Energy into the darkness body that helped her manage the threads. She used some of the spare essence to create a giant cage all around them so that Earth's atmosphere would not get corroded by their energy because she knew that if any living being managed to get into contact with Dark Energy for prolonged periods of time, they would eventually end up mutating and becoming the Dark ones.

She did not have the patience and wish to deal with that. She sensed the arrival of the Avengers as well as her brother but she did not turn around, even as she felt thunderous impacts on the cage she had constructed around her. She knew that if she turned around, she would find herself face to face with Pietro and she would not be able to hold on.

No, it was better this way. She couldn't even wipe her tears because the strain of holding on caused her to cough blood. Even through that, she held on and smiled because she could tell something was up, something was coming and it was coming for her.

Hopefully, Pietro will be fine and Jack will know her involvement in this, adding another layer of protection for her brother.

____xx___

Dark Dimension

–Jack Sullivan–

His eyes snapped open, gasping deeply and he sat upright, spitting out whatever had stuck in his mouth. He almost lost his breakfast entirely when he saw spit mixed with dark insects wiggling around. He looked down and to his horror, his entire body was burrowed into by insects too many and too disgusting to count or look at.

Screaming, he thrust his POWER HAND right into his chest, vaporising himself. He landed on the ground, looking around as he saw yet another crater filled with purple energy but also devoid of any insects, so he considered that a win.

Kneeling on the ground, tears freely flowed through his eyes as he thought of his fate, of what he had already endured and what more was coming for him.

And in that moment, the stress of it all, of everything, of making this decision because there was no one else who could do so, the fear that he might have to do this for eternity until he became a mindless husk, the fear of giving in somehow and letting Dormammu win, the fear of letting himself down, the fear of losing Earth and condemning billions of people to fates worse than death, coupled with the physical pain of being in this godforsaken place, it all caught up to him.

And in that moment of extreme stress, his mind cracked.

"AAAAAAA!" Screaming himself hoarse, his mind and body lit up with Power as he drew on his barriers, as well as the energy from the Power Stone, destroying the landmass he was stranded on, and vaporising a large chunk of the Dark Ones in the vicinity as well, drawing the attention of the Dark lord Dormammu who was busy detailing with his perfect avatar being captured and drained by Chthon's chosen.

Ofcourse, he noticed none of that, at that moment because he was too busy going insane.

---

Word Count - 2372

If you guys would like to support my writing - P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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).

Dark Dimension [An eternity later]

–Jack Sullivan–

"*Nom* *Nom* This is nice." He said to himself, chewing on a leg that was longer than his body, after roasting it with the Power Stone obviously. Killing himself because he could feel himself slowly dying after being poisoned due to eating the raw meat of the Dark Ones was more than enough.

While the flavour was worse than when he ate the meat raw, at least it was not fatal to him, not immediately at least. He could still move about with ease but aside from being gamey and flavourless, it was perfectly fine.

"Ah, if only Doormatty would show himself," He said to himself as he happily chewed on the leg of the Dark one who he had killed while making sure to keep the Leg intact. He'd eaten a lot of the Dark ones by now but most of them had little to no meat on their bodies, with their bodies actually being hollow for some reason.

That was why he began targeting the bigger ones, who at least had a little meat on their legs. That is why while the leg was very long, it had very little meat in comparison. But that was enough for him to sate his hunger for the time being, allowing him to move about in the endless Dark Dimension.

When he set the Reset for the time loop being his death, he had never thought that Dormammu would simply abandon the quest of breaking out, instead choosing to ignore him and hide somewhere. Though, hide would be a strong word since Dormammu was most likely chilling or brooding in some deep dark corner of the Dark Dimension, forever out of his reach.

"Yeah, Run and Hide, ~Doormatty~~" He couldn't help but sing as he walked on the broken land masses scattered around him.

"Pew!" He mimicked a finger gun at the incoming horde of Dark Ones which actually let out a concentrated stream of energy of the Power Stone emerging from his index finger, carving a straight line through the horde, wiping out thousands and yet, the rest of the horde carried on, uncaring of the fate of their brethren.

"Cool!" He fell into a fit of giggles as the horde of Dark Ones rampaged on their way to him, their charge creating vibrations that he felt through his barriers. Oh yeah, he had his barriers back now. It was easy, he only had to die a couple dozen times before he combined his super duper ability with the super duper Stone.

"Eww! Gross!" He yelled out, laughing as the nearest Dark Ones spit out some sort of acid on him, and then dogpilled him as well.

"Get off of me!" He shouted, releasing a concentrated blast of energy from his barriers, vaporising everything in sight. The aftermath left him unconscious, albeit with a barrier made up of the Power Stone energy all around him, protecting him from everything in sight.

"Aaaa!" With a shout, he woke up, unconsciously blasting everything around him as he felt something poke him. He took in deep breaths, seeing the utter darkness out of his barriers that now glowed purple for some reason. He felt his mind fall into complete chaos as random thoughts and feelings assaulted his mind, forcing him to dive into his mind to do a check.

He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, which was not easy, not easy at all. After what felt like hours, he finally managed to enter his painstakingly crafted mindscape and found….

His eyes widened in horror as he saw the state of his mind. It was broken. Nothing was right, there were no shields left anymore, no safe place for his greatest secrets, nothing to manage his memories, nothing to separate his logic centres from his powers, nothing at all.

"Shit!" He emptied his stomach as he saw the many deaths he had suffered in this world. The gruesome deaths were all visible to him now. He remembered then, the pain and the suffering, the despair and due to some miracle, managed to hold on this time.

He was about to do something about his mindscape since he did have all the time in the world when he felt his body erupt in pain, yanking him out of his mind. When he opened his eyes once more, he was in a crater, naked and right below the giant floating head that was Doormatty.

"Hmm? Doormatty?" he asked himself in confusion.

"Had your fill of deaths, insect?"

He grinned, trying to hide his overwhelming fear, through the piss and the trembling body should clue in on how he was really feeling, "Me? Nah. I can do this all day, Doormatty."

Doormatty growled and before he could do anything else, he saw a giant beam of laser headed his way. Out of instinct, he raised his hand, creating a purple barrier as his right hand shone purple, which somehow managed to resist the laser though it did push him back.

The throbbing in his hand increased as the barrier's shape changed, turning from a shield into a pointed cannon, which was absorbing the energy from the laser. Running purely on instinct, he did something that flipped the switch on the stone in his hand, blasting off another energy beam of his own, which began steadily gaining ground in the beam tug of war game that he was playing with the Dark Lord Dormammu.

Or rather, Doormatty. For some reason, he had a pretty strong compulsion to use that name and that name only when addressing Doormatty. Something to do with his previous personalities, he thought to himself as he pushed back on the energy beam. He couldn't even see the giant fuck off face of Doormatty as he focused on pushing as much energy as he could throw the beam.

Slowly, the consequences of channelling that much energy became evident to him. His hand began burning with veins of purple coursing through his body. The next the smell of burnt meat entered his noise as he felt his entire burn burn off. Then, to his horror, his skin began melting off as his hand was now covered completely in a purple glow, even as he saw everything stripped away to the bone.

His concentration diverted, he failed to react when a tentacle of some sort burst through his chest and then spiked through his chest, tearing apart his torso in the process. His cannon burst apart, subjecting him to the full brunt of the energy beam.

The next time his eyes opened, he opened them to a hand glowing with Purple energy, an entire arm burning on Purple fire, which strangely didn't hurt him somehow.

"Huh? Neat." he then began looking around for Doormatty but he didn't find any. Pouting, he blasted off the rock and began his search for either Doormatty or the Dark Ones. From the memories that had not been suppressed by his brain for being too horrible or traumatising, he could remember the consequences of being alone for extended periods of time.

Self-harm? Not fun or cool, at least in hindsight that is. He still had phantom pains from that particular life before it was all, thankfully reset by another horde of the Dark Ones arriving.

He heard a sound and before he knew it, his form was shrouded in green, an entire avatar forming around him, except… "That's new!" He commented as he found his right arm glowing completely purple with a purple fire lit up on it, the same for the avatar as well.

He was about to unleash another wave of Infinity Stone energy when he saw who it was.

Not dispelling his avatar, he merely shrunk it as he came face to face with…

"Doormatty?"

The only response he received was a frustrated sigh that shook the entire dimension he was in.

"Mortal, I will say this once and only once. I have come to bargain."

"BWAHAHAHAHA!" He couldn't help it. The second he heard that coming from Doomatty's mouth, he displayed his avatar and began rolling on the ground in laughter. After having his fill, during which he dodged multiple tentacles, skewers, and lasers, he stood up and wiped his tears.

"I'm sorry for that. You were saying?"

".....In exchange for ending this time loop, I will leave Earth alone as long as you remain alive and well."

He instantly shook his head in denial, "Nope. too Open ended and also way too short. I want you to promise to never look Earth's way again and also to take back all the zealots or avatars you have on the planet."

Doormatty contemplated that before countering, "I will leave Earth alone but taking back all the agents I have? Impossible."

He shrugged at that, "Well, then we have no deal then, Doormatty."

DEATH!

When he came to be, it was in the middle of innumerable hordes of Dark Ones above a volcano of some sort.

"Worth it."

So began the game of Jack Sullivan, the now deranged Green/Purple Guardian battling unending hordes of the Dark ones who continued to change, evolving to come up with new and better ways of battling the unstoppable battle engine that was the Green/Purple Guardian.

After getting the purple arm though, he was never hurt by the Dark Ones, no matter how hard they tried. He even met some former humans capable of casting spells in the middle of the horde but just the same, the spells couldn;t crack his shields.

Despite being unhurt, Jack sometimes just got tired and would end his own life, the act of essentially committing temporary sui*cide becoming routine for him.

DEATH!

DEATH!

DEATH!

DEATH!

DEATH! X 6969

"Woohoo!" he yelled as he flew down, to crash into the…Dark ones?

"Where'd they go?" He questioned as he crashed into a landmass, cracking it in half before slamming down into another landmass, to see that he was all alone in the background.

"Oh, man! Not this again," he whined as he realised that Doormatty was recycling tactics once again. This was the worst tactic of Doormatty, in his opinion, even above using cute puppies as attack engines.

Leaving him alone for a long would always result in the same thing, self unalivement. He would eventually go either insane, hungry, or both, and then the end result would be the same.

"Too bad, Doormatty!" He yelled out loud, hoping for his voice to reach the perpetrator, "I will not break, not from this."

"I realise that." He whirled around, to find himself face to face with the humanoid avatar of Doormatty once more. He raised his right hand, purple fire blazing.

The avatar, for some reason, looked resigned, "Jack Sullivan, I have come to negotiate."

Okay, he didn't say bargain this time so it was considerably less funny. Even so, his answer was still the same. Take back avatars, never set sights on Earth and then the time loop will end or….

"I will take back my avatars….But on one condition." There we go, he knew something was wrong. Still, it didn;t hurt to hear Doormatty out.

"Which is?"

"..That time loop of yours," Doormatty gestured at his neck, which still held the glowing form of the Time Stone. It was practically melded to his chest by now, with the sticking function of the Eye. He had to say, Agamotto really knew what he was doing when he built the eyes. It was all very functional, "Is it powered by the Time Stone and will time return to normal on Earth once I leave?"

He felt uneasy about answering but if it could let him out of this hell hole, then he would do it.

"Yes, I will rewind time back to when the first Sanctum was destroyed."

Doormatty grinned at him for some reason, "Excellent."

"Do it! Preprogram it right now. Only then, Dormammu will swear on my Domain that I will never set sights on Earth and will retract all my agents and avatars from Earth as well." Doormatty said in a pretty passionate voice.

For some reason, he felt as if he was forgetting something when he preprogrammed the whole thing but he was so close to freedom he could almost taste it so he did as Doormatty said and then hit enter, the Eye glowing slightly as a result.

"Excellent. Go! I vow to never try to conquer Earth and will take back all my agents and avatars now," Doormatty said as he felt himself being pushed somewhere.

He grinned as he felt the Manhattan sky once more being blue instead of black and purple. He finally felt freedom.

He was about to head out of the convenient doorway made for him when a red missile attacked him. He almost reflexively blew her head off but he redirected it behind him at the last moment, obliterating multiple landforms.

"I'm sorry…" Was all he heard before his head was lit up in red, his mind falling into a haze as all he saw was a pretty red book floating in front of his face. His hand involuntarily flew towards it only to be grasped by a pretty white hand that was darkening somehow.

__xx___

Wanda Maximoff

"I'm sorry." Was all she could say as tears ran down her eyes. Her time had come, she knew it. The universe had let her stay here for a reason. Even with all her power, she should not have been able to resist something like that and yet, she was able to stay here with Pietro for years, which was nothing short of a miracle.

And miracles don't come free. She knew that and today was the price she had to pay for that miracle.

Her eyes glowed red as she dived into the broken mind of Jack, manipulated him into breaking off all the spells he had cast using the Time Stone, so that she could prevent all of reality from being fractured.

Jack had cast some sort of spell that would end up creating multiple paradoxes that would end up in Dormammu winning anyway. So, she was tasked with undoing that spell.

The only problem was that doing so on her own was impossible, no matter how much Chaos magic she pumped through her body. She needs the Chaos Magic to have shape, structure, purpose for it to reach its full potential.

And the only thing that provided that was the filthy thing floating right beside her.

With teary eyes, she cast the spell, wrenching the spell away from the Eye, and also safely dumping Jack back onto Earth. If only she could do something about the side effects.

She was not worried for herself as he could already feel her anchor in reality slipping and with her soul already being damned, she was dead anyway. An afterlife didn't await her, just dissipating into void.

It was fine. She deserved that.

Her gaze went to the falling form of Jack, still covered in Green and Purple, 'He didn't deserve that' Before her vision went dark.

…….

……

……

Thus ended the story of Wanda Maximoff of this reality, helping save the universe from Doormatty, becoming a true hero in the process, even if she didn't believe herself to be one, even in her last moments.

As for Jack Sullivan? Well, he was no longer the Jack Sullivan that most of Earth knew and some loved. No, he was different. Changed.

To find out, watch the next episode of Dragon Bal– Ahem—The "G" Shield.

---

Word Count - 2635

If you guys would like to support my writing - P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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).

Manhattan, New York

–Steve Rogers–

Sometimes, he hated being this weak, being unable to help anyone, not the innocent people, not Tony, and certainly not Jack. What would he do? He asked himself as he looked at the giant hole in the. Manhattan was all but deserted at this point, with people going so far as to get out of the State because of the giant dark cloud that had begun covering Manhattan's skyline a few minutes back.

The cloud had stopped advancing, as did the jagged cracks in the sky but…then what? The cloud displayed some abnormal symptoms according to Jarvis. It advanced a bit before rolling back and then did the same thing over and over again.

Tony….Tony was injured, severely, with just a backhand from that thing. It was only a miracle that Wanda Maximoff, the person who had damaged the team the most ever since it was formed, came just in time and held back that tentacle monster so that Jack could enter that cloud of Dark Energy and save Manhattan.

They could do nothing but watch as Wanda Maximoff used her powers for good, banishing several more people from the surroundings, vaporising rubble with a wave of her hand and even creating shields when some stray energy shots were fired from her fight with that tentacle monster.

God, he hated being this weak. He couldn't even lift Tony out of the rubble, that was all Wanda. Jarvis had airlifted Tony, and last he heard, all the doctors in the state, even the ones that were fleeing, to help get Tony better.

He closed his eyes as the image of a pale Tony with his legs gone entered his mind. He flinched as he heard yet another roar from the tentacle monster. He was in a spare suit that Jarvis gave him. It didn't fit in many places but a little itch and a few blisters were little price to pay in case he could help end this nightmare. A nightmare that had begun so suddenly that no one in the world could have prepared for it.

For now, the world was watching, with bated breaths as Wanda Maximoff who, until recently, was one of the top enemies of the Avengers, battled with a tall man with an Octopus for a head. It was all too much for the people of the world, all the land around them was being reorganised at such a pace that he had to rely on Jarvis to move the suit from place to place in case he got caught up in one such attack.

Even the stray bolts of energy were enough to just erase multiple buildings, roads, and even gouge craters into the ground with contemptuous ease.

The radio crackled to life in the suit, "....I can't believe this is the same woman we all wanted to fight and imprison. What were we even thinking?" The hysteria in Clint's voice was unmistakable as the members of Avengers were spread around the city, helping rescue anyone trapped and making sure that the perimeter around the Dark Cloud increased with every passing moment.

Jarvis' bots were doing most of the heavy lifting and he was not really needed there, all of his focus was on the fight in front of him.

The Hulk was not of any use and Thor was off-world. The woman in the red had left such a shadow on Hulk's psyche that he refused to come out and when he did, he refused to even look at the red that had gathered above the city, the amount steadily outpacing the Dark Cloud itself.

Jarvis could also spot the differences as Wanda could make effective use of that cloud of red energy to better battle the man who was now bathed in Dark Energy. Threads, ropes, and skewers, of all kinds emerged from the red clouds at any time and impaled the man, only for the red energy to fizzle out soon after, revealing holes that would get patched up in no time. Honestly, it felt like both the combatants were not fighting to win but only to keep each other busy because while Wanda had some wounds, all of them were superficial, and the monster had no wounds since they were healed as soon as the red energy in them was used up.

He sighed as he had to move his position, yet another energy shot hitting his previous position, vaporising the building he was standing on.

"Cap! Be careful!" The warning came in choruses as the current state of his suit was no doubt transmitted to everyone. IT was battered yes but not beyond its ability to function safely, otherwise, Jarvis would have just pulled him aside, no matter his objections.

"Jarvis, how is Tony?"

"...Sir is…out of danger." And wasn't that a horrible situation when the only thing Jarvis could report on was the fact that Tony's life was not in danger? He held no delusions about the fact that Tony would no longer be able to walk on his own two legs for quite some time now.

"Steve Rogers, I need your help." He jolted in the suit as he heard a voice speak directly into his head. He was quite familiar with the process, after all, it had already happened once, and honestly, he was glad that he was at least contacted. This way, he could at least help in some way.

"Yes, what Can I do?"

"Let go of your shield."

Though confused, he complied, only holding onto the shield as it rested on the flat of the palm of the suit. He was about to voice out his confusion when he saw it.

The shield was snatched out of the suit's hands but he didn't even notice as he saw what was happening. A manifestation of some sort, a being whose appearance he couldn't even describe, something that made his head hurt and his eyes bleed.

He began taking injuries on his person simply by laying eyes on the being.

Jarvis, as usual, worked in the background, watching the footage and warning everyone who would listen, "RETREAT! I repeat, RETREAT! Cutting off all broadcasts. I advise everyone to look away from the epicentre. Exotic phenomena detected, indiscriminate injuries were inflicted simply by looking at it. I repeat, RETREAT! Exotic phenomenon detected! Retreat"

All of that rang hollow in his ears as he felt his mind shut down, from the pain of looking at something that no human should have to ever look at. The last thing he saw before the suit's HUD switched to black was his shield, blue and white, on its course to Wanda.

He smiled weakly at that. 'At Least I was helpful in some way' Then darkness claimed his vision.

___xx____

–Jarvis Stark(Son)--

If he had a physical body, he would be seething in fury, not just because of the irreparable damage done to Mr.Stark but also because of the overall situation. He felt useless. FUCKING USELESS!

While one of his logical centres underwent an emotional meltdown, something of an oddity in his processing centres, another one was hard at work at shutting down anything and everything that could record or even transmit whatever was happening in that cloud.

Even he was not spared from the attack as one of his logical centres simply went offline and began behaving oddly, as if trying to attack everything in sight when it focused on that image for too long, forcing him to delete that logical centre and when that didn't work, destroying the very server where the logical centre resided.

It was a feature that had been installed on the insistence of Mr.Sullivan who probably had an idea that something like this would happen, urging Mr.Stark to give Jarvis the ability to simply physically cut off uncooperative parts of himself.

Another one of his logical centres worked on ascertaining the chances of Mr.Sullivan being a clairvoyant because he simply knew far too much.

99..82% devices took over and purged of any image, recording, or snapshot of the avatar. Another logic centre forcibly purged due to the damage.

Optimal operating capacity - not compromised

Disposable logical centres - 23

Chances of purging ALL data - 21%

Recalculating…..

Chances of purging 99.99% data - 97%

Parameters acceptable - Allocating Logical centres.

As all his logical centres worked on it, the main partition of himself, the one most advanced in social cues and emotions, worked on making sure that Mr.Stark's sacrifice was not in vain. From the data recovered from the suits as well as from the ensuing fights, Jarvis knew that any of the energy attacks from any Arc Reactor would not be working. The enemy didn't even register the impacts, with Mr.Starks experimental UniBeams being the only thing that seemed to get the enemy's attention and even then, the damage was non-existent.

His logical centres catalogued the dialogue between Captain Rogers and Wanda Maximoff that resulted in the latter requisitioning the Vibranium shield, which was now on its way to Ms.Maximoff.

His processors worked overtime as he coordinated everything and deeming it viable, pulled all the drones from across the city, along with all the batches in Stark Tower, unfinished or otherwise, prioritising the ones with flight and repulsor ready capabilities.

Hundreds of drones and unfinished weapons platforms littered the sky as they broke all safety protocols, prioritising only one thing, reaching the impact site.

He didn't know if Ms.Maximoff could do something about the congregation of unmeasurable energy behind the enemy but she was the only one who was capable of holding back the monstrosity so he had no choice but to put all his strength behind her.

The only problem was that the suit he sent to shield Ms.Maximoff dissolved into red strands, its data stream being disrupted. Switching tactics, the drones all floated behind Ms.Maximoff, with all of their repulsors charged beyond their capabilities, some of them sending out warning signals immediately.

He watched, in slow motion, as Ms.Maximoff had a ball of glowing red in her hands that similarly hurt to look though not at the level of the monstrosity in front of her. He still had his drones turn their cameras away, relying on close range Infrared data, though even that was becoming increasingly viable.

Through them, he saw Captain's shield floating in front of Ms.Maximoff. For some reason, he felt the energy being used, the energy aimed at the city, and knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the energy would sink part of the East Coast. And yet, he couldn't do anything but watch as Ms.Maximoff slammed her hands into the back of the shield, creating a noise that even he heard, aside from all the data pulled from various sensors, it was as if the noise penetrated straight to his mind.

Then, he went blind, or more accurately, every single sensor in the vicinity was destroyed, including his connection to everything in Manhattan. Using the Quantum entanglement network, the main partition left Stark Tower and arrived at the LA base, instantly reestablishing connectivity to everything.

Finding everything in New York offline, Jarvis turned to the satellites as well as the drones on their way to New York. There was a large red sphere of energy that expanded before it contracted. The satellite view showed the Dark congregation going forward, almost swallowing the red energy except for a small dot that held firm in the centre.

That was probably Ms.Maximoff with Captain's shield.

Then, the red exploded into action, swallowing all of the Dark energy and then streaking into the Dark Cloud as well, leaving behind no trace of anything.

The fastest drones reached the site not even a minute later, with the vision being restored, giving him sight of the part of New York City that was just a large crater now, being filled with water from the surrounding water bodies.

The monstrous image was gone with the Dark Cloud now hosting four different colours. Purple with Green, Red, and Black. Before could do anything, he saw the red flare, before the Purple and Green colours started enlarging.

There was a massive blast of red before the Dark was swallowed by it, forcing him to focus on the Red/Purple that was now apparently heading their way if the drone's vision was to be believed. Connectivity was restored, no radio disruptions existed right now but there existed no equipment in all of New York that worked at the moment so the drones were his only source of information at the moment.

All drone production facilities were charged all the way to the maximum because Jarvis foresaw an extreme increase in rescue and redevelopment work.

The fastest drone, which was the rescue model, reached just in time to see a Purple and Green star strike through the sky, right in the impact trajectory with the drone. The drone's lenses barely saw the human like being in the Purple fire before it was disintegrated.

The drone behind it saw the drone cease to exist before the being who was hopefully Mr.Sullivan streaked through the sky and crashed into the crater that was now partially filled with water.

The drones were all redirected to that area as the satellite view showed the Dark Clouds receding before reports of multiple high velocity objects bearing the same energy signature emerged from all parts of the world. He counted 1107 projectiles as they were all absorbed by the Dark Cloud before the Dark Cloud ceased to be, pulling in by itself before all that was left was blue sky.

He sent in all the reports gathered, including Ms.Maximoff's involvement to all the world's governments before he focused on the drones attempting to extract Mr.Sullivan from the hole that was soon going to be filled with water.

Only anything that came into contact with the Purple Fire, which held a core of green around Mr.Sullivan's neck disintegrated anything that came close to it. Even water was being disintegrated just like three of his drones.

Switching tracks, Jarvis contacted Ms.Potts, some of the more Avengers friendly people in the administration as well as the rest of the Avengers, informing them about the incident before Jarvis set about creating a robust perimeter around the downed and unconscious form of Mr.Sullivan.

If his sensors were correct, Mr.Sullivan, whose face was now visible, was slightly twitching inside the fire, resulting in flares that just dug an even deeper crater.

---

Word Count - 2464

If you guys would like to support my writing - P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

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).

Manhattan, New York

–Steve Rogers–

"Bruce, anything, at all?" He asked Bruce, handing over the food he was able to get from a nearby food truck that had not yet gone completely bad. Nothing in New York was working anymore, no electronics, no cars, no electricity, nothing so Jarvis had flown in multiple drones to, first of all, transport any and all patients to working hospitals which included Tony as well and second, made a makeshift tent near the crater where Jack was sleeping, or at least it looked like he was sleeping.

Bruce took the tacos from him, shaking his head as he gestured at the holo screens in front of him. Jarvis worked fast, he had brought in essentially an entire office with all the necessary tech within the first hour itself, "No, no sign of change in activity. The Purple fire burns everything that it comes into contact with, even radiation that is directly incident on it, like the ones we were trying to use yet somehow, light is reflected back fine."

He sighed, the science of it flying over his head as he understood the basic gist. The purple fire around Jack was destroying everything around him, making it hard to understand what was happening underneath.

He had woken up on the street, with the suit that was carrying him rendered inert. With injuries all over his body, he had somehow crawled out of the suit that was starting to feel suffocating on the inside. Thankfully, the crash landing meant that some parts of the hand and leg bracers had given out, giving him openings for airflow.

Unfortunately, even that took almost an hour to do since he was still dizzy at that time. By the time he managed to get a few parts off the suit, including the now defunct Arc Reactor module, Jarvis' second wave of drones had arrived.

As soon as they arrived, the drones set up a massive communication array that floated above the city, moving in sync with the drones as Jarvis created a massive communication network above the city, coordinating rescue efforts, escorting first responders to the appropriate location, establishing contact between different squads of first responders and more.

He was sure that even now, there was a live stream somewhere, depicting the current condition of New York and what was being done to restore it. As he understood, anything that ran on electricity was gone. Unfortunately, while that would have meant a little inconvenience and annoyance when he was born, now it would basically mean the end of the world as the people knew it.

Nothing worked without electricity and the surviving members were very much devastated to realise that they would not be able to use their phones to post…cat memes? He did not know because according to Jarvis, the internet was filled with cat memes, after Porn obviously.

"So, nothing? We have nothing?" Romanoff asked Bruce who bit into his Taco, the stress making him hungry. Well, it was making all of them hungry.

"No, I can tell that the Purple Fire is sentient somehow or the more likely answer being that Jack is subconsciously using the Fire to remove anything that might come close and harm him," Bruce replied in between bites, the Taco finished by the time he completed the sentence.

Outside, he heard the sound of choppers as all of them realised the meaning of this unannounced visit, "Oh, no! Nononoo!" Bruce mumbled as he rushed to his stations, presumably to delete any sensitive data as the rest of them which were him, Romanoff and Clint rushed outside to deal with whoever had come to take JAck, or at least try to do so.

His eyes widened as he saw the Military arriving with not just helicopters but Jets flying overhead. His enhanced senses informing him about the people in the helicopter talking to someone in the Navy as well.

3 Helicopters landed on the very uneven ground as multiple squads of armed soldiers covered the perimeter, around their tent as well as around Jack and the crater he was in. He stayed put because it would be pointless to make a scene right now since they knew that Jack would be safe from anything that the military could throw at him.

Out of the last helicopter, after the entire squads had taken their positions, stepped out him. He felt Burce beside him tense up at the appearance of General Thunderbolt Ross. The one person who should not be here and whose appearance, especially with all the fanfare, basically told them the opinion of the President and what actions he supported in regards to Jack.

Ross didn't even look at them before he stepped right at the edge of the crater. All of them looked at him, waiting to see what he would do. He stiffened as Ross took a gun from one of his squadmates and aimed it at Jack's burning form. He was about to march up to him and tell him to fuck off when Romanoff held his hand, stopping him from speaking up.

Before he could do anything else, there was a loud gunshot in the air that had him flinching. He shrugged off her hand and ran to the general, ignoring the sudden clicking noise that filled the air as all of the soldiers removed the safeties from their rifles.

"What the fuck are you doing? You could have killed him!" He took the gun from the man's hand and threw it aside.

"Well, Captain, I just wanted to see if the bullshit Stark's AI had been peddling to the President was true or not. Now that I know it's the truth, I'll leave you to it. See you soon, captain, very soon." Ross said and he could do nothing but stand and watch as Ross left with the military.

Just in time as well as there was a massive gathering of Jarvis drones right above them, with some of them tailing even the jets, performing evasive manoeuvres. He sighed in relief that nothing had happened, for now, but he knew that with Tony unconscious and Jack out of commission, he would have to pick up the slack.

Bruce was not yet well versed with his powers yet and they could not rely on Thor as he was busy off world.

"Bruce? Can you set up a live broadcast, globally?" He sighed explosively and asked Bruce whose eyes widened in realisation as he nodded and rushed back into the tent. He knew that Jarvis was listening in on that conversation so he was not shocked when some of the mass of drones turned gears and launched right up into the sky at top speeds, probably going to gather the things required for the broadcast.

"Are you sure about this, Rogers? You would be making some very powerful enemies." Romanoff asked him with Barton having gone to the tent, presumably to help Bruce.

His shoulder slumped as he replied, "Yes, I know that but there is nothing that can be done aside from going fully public. TO let the public decide, to see if what Jack had done was right or wrong, to see that there truly was no other way, at least at that point in time."

"And if the public finds you wanting?"

"Then you can come to Wakanda," He turned around, reflexively grabbing for his shield before giving up and aiming his gun at the Cat Man–T'Challa who appeared out of nowhere, a Jet becoming visible behind him. A squadron of women rolled out of the jet as well, creating a perimeter around Jack, looking at him with respect and awe instead of fear, jealousy, and hate.

He relaxed almost completely at that look, "What are you doing here, T'Challa? And what do you mean by that?"

T'Challa snapped his fingers as a small buzzing sound filled the air. He looked up as the sky itself rippled minutely before returning to normal.

"No can see us now," T'Chalal removed his helmet, a massive sign of trust from him. Bruce had peeked out of the tent before rushing right back in without even a moment's hesitation.

"And I meant that Wakanda will give you sanctuary. If the outside world finds your heroic actions to save the world, wanting, then Wakanda would gladly open its arms for you. We already host one of your teammates." T'Challa gestured behind him.

"Yeah, I lived there and still do, technically, live there with another lost soul. It is…nice, you will like it there," That was all Bruce said about his mysterious living conditions before entering the tent once more.

"I will make sure that Jack is safe, even if it means exposing us. Be rest assured about that and be free when you speak the truth. The world needs to know and the heroes of today deserve to have their stories spread far and wide." Saying so, T'Chalal turned around and took sophisticated machinery from the jet, and approached the Crater's edge.

He hesitantly turned away, heading back into the tent so that he could make sure that the message reached the masses before the people in the government got any ideas.

"Ready?"

"We should be in a couple of minutes. Jarvis already had most of the equipment ready, we just needed to make sure that nobody could stop the broadcast in any way so we waited for all the stooges to leave with Ross." Bruce replied as he quickly typed on the screen at a dizzying pace.

___xx__

–T'Challa–

"My King, was that wise?" Ah, he was still getting used to being called the King nowadays. His father had officially abdicated his position to him and he was now the new King of Wakanda, the ruler of the strongest nation on the planet, and the most hidden as well.

Though, looking at the level of destruction all around him, he was both glad and a bit sad at the fact that this would have never happened in his country.

His country was insulated from the effects but he was a bit disturbed by the prospect of hoarding all that safety to himself, of making sure that all his loved ones were safe and could sleep a good night's sleep without ever having to worry about food, water or aliens who would destroy their homes, and then turn around and say that he couldn't help anyone from the outside world simply because they wished to hoard the technological edge they had over the rest of the world.

"Yes, this is the wisest course of action Wakanda can take at this point," And he fell silent as the drones did their jobs, gathering data without getting too close to the Purple Fire. He could tell that it was dangerous, something in his very soul warning him that getting close would mean certain death and not even Bast would be able to save his soul, so no Afterlife for him.

That was a frightening concept, to never have the opportunity to go to the Ancestral Land and forever drift in the void or simply cease to exist.

The Dora Milaje wisely didn't question him since it was not their job to do so. They were simply the best weapons he had on hand and while treating them as tools was slightly cruel, it was not their place to make these difficult decisions.

It was his burden and his alone to do all of this.

"She is right, brother. What if we are discovered before we can manipulate any public opinion? Our plan is still in its beginning phase, we would need another couple of years before we are even ready to show ourselves to the world," His comms crackled to life as Shuri spoke to him, no doubt simultaneously also processing the data from the drones.

He chuckled at that. Public opinion?

"Shuri, look all around me. Look at him. Do we still need to worry about public opinion? Besides, now it is not a matter of scientists giving subtle positive interviews or positive internet reinforcement. Right now, all it would take to sway public opinion would be a single word from Jack Sullivan once he woke up, and when Captain Rogers would be finished with his broadcast. Speaking of that, make sure that it goes through and no channel hijacks it," He ordered Shuri at the last moment, unsure if they could handle going against the entire world's governments who would no doubt be looking to stop the spread of information since it simply made them look too bad.

Especially the US government, two invasions in a couple of years, and all they had to show for it was a partially destroyed city and…nothing. The governments had nothing to show for it. SHIELD was gone, and SWORD was practically crippled when it came to anything that dealt with Earth, which is why they could not interfere because the Carriers in space simply could not be turned around to face the enemy that had appeared on top of a major city, bypassing space completely.

Shuri snorted into the comms link, "Pff, please, way ahead of you, O' Mighty King T'Challa." He didn't deign that with a response as the drones had finally finished collecting all data before they were whisked into one of the Invisible Jets that flew into the air and shot into the air, right above, so it could reorient itself and fly back to Wakanda.

"Also, I have found a way that might work but we might have to sacrifice a good chunk of Vibranium you have on you right now." Shuri's words made him snap back to attention as his mind had already flown off to figuring out a way to efficiently deliver all the aid they could muster to the city.

"What? How? And how much VIbranium?"

"The Purple fire is just energy and Vibranium can absorb energy, up to a certain limit before it needs to expel that energy. Now, I think that a small block could absorb all that energy but due to its nature and volatility, we cannot risk an explosion because I don't think the city will be left standing after that. So, I propose a large chunk of Vibranium which should be done in your Jet in about 2 minutes, be used for that so that we can safely get all the energy out. I think once that weird Purple fire is gone, Mr.Sullivan will gain consciousness. Ofcourse, all of this is merely conjecture at this point."

He fell into deep thought as Shuri informed him that the broadcast from the Good Captain had begun, as he walked into the Jet, overlooking the mini workshop making a solid chunk of processed Vibranium from all the devices they had around him, cannibalising non essential equipment.

"I hope the stealth systems were spared from your striping spree." He commented as he looked over the data and yup, it should work, the operating word being should. They were working with cosmic forces beyond the pale so nothing could be guaranteed.

"T'Challa, just because you have become King does not give you the right to question me at every turn. I still am, and always will be, much smarter than you," He could hear Shuri pouting through the comms.

"Alright, let's get this over with so that we can get your hero home."

"Yay!"

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Word Count - 2604

If you guys would like to support my writing - P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

A/N - Please read the notice at the end.


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).

Manhattan, New York

–Bruce Banner–

"And that is why Jack Sullivan, the Green Guardian had to take the fight to Dormammu, resulting in Manhattan being left defenseless, if Ms.Maximoff didn't intervene, saving many lives nearby and countless more throughout the world as she held what could only be described as the apocalypse incarnate. Nothing we threw at it was even scratched…."

He watched as Captain Rogers gave his speech to the world on one screen, making sure that it was uninterrupted, while also timing the release of documents depicting everything with proof so that the Governments would not be able to suppress the information. Going a step further, Jarvis had already downloaded the reports into billions of devices worldwide, to be decrypted at a certain point in time if no new orders were issued by Jarvis himself.

It was written in all the major languages and in multiple digestible formats. He didn't want to leave anything to chance, give no opportunity to anyone else to alter the truth even slightly, that had already happened once in regards to him and he didn't want that to happen again.

On another screen, he saw the progress of Wakanda's team. He was the one who had contacted Wakanda as soon as he knew that the Hulk would not come out to confront Maximoff, not that it was ever needed because she was there for the good fight that time. Instead, the Wakandan contingent had become useful for a completely different purpose.

Jack's condition was…..unique, and exotic. They didn't know what the Purple Fire was, except it was absurdly dangerous and energy dense in measurements he didn't even know if they existed or not. Not even Wakanda had ever measured something like this ever before and that was saying something since Wakanda actually had early records of the Tesseract and the work they had done on it. He had reviewed those and realised that Wakanda could have outright stolen the Tesseract from SHIELD and hidden it from the world, making sure that the Loki fiasco never happened.

He shook his head to get rid of those thoughts and focused on the screen as the drones from the ships held on to the Large Vibranium block, which was going to be used to extract the Purple Flames since he knew from his research that Vibranium, especially after it was stripped of its processing alloys, could absorb any and types of energy, which is why the Block was pitch black since it also absorbed most of the light incident on it.

Jarvis' second volley of drones had reached Manhattan and are currently circling the air above Manhattan, keeping at bay any jet that might try to come close though realistically, he knew that not even Ross was crazy enough to send in jets to finish them off. The more realistic approach would be ground troops under the guise of rescue operations and that was rendered moot because there were no roads left that led straight to Manhattan, most of them were destroyed in the fight and the ones left standing were in perilous conditions, hence Jarvis' destruction of them.

As he thought, Jarvis really was angry at the incident. Tony had gotten gravely injured in the fight and there was not much Jarvis himself could do to either Help Tony or Jack or even Wanda.

"Hey, Minion no. 1," He smiled at Shuri as she called him something that had started off as a joke but had stuck around after he got comfortable enough around Shuri and the way she did things. There was no denying that Shuri was brilliant but she needed someone to keep her grounded, like the time she made a plan to turn the Giant mound of Vibranium in Wakanda into a vessel holding enough energy to make a second sun and then use that as a centre point of civilisation so that Humanity would never have to worry about energy ever again.

He had to remind her that not even her own brother would ever agree to that because the Energy sector would just collapse from that and that would just result in pandemonium around the world. He had to explain to her that Tony was doing something similar with his Arc Reactors even though they were much less efficient, only because he was doing it slowly so that the world markets wouldn't collapse.

"Yes, Overlord?" He asked back, addressing her with her preferred nickname.

"You think it will work?" He hummed and looked over the series of charts, pies, and more depicting the energy output and how it should… "Theoretically."

Shuri rolled her eyes at him, "I'm serious. We need a win, like, really bad. Wakanda's general population was already isolated from the wider net anyway so there was not much there but still, one of the Dora Milaje had to be hospitalised. It…It doesn't look good for her. Maybe, if we can wake him up, then–"

"Then there's something he could do?" He asked her, not knowing how to break the news to her.

"Shuri, I've read over the reports, both the ones that were presented to the world and the real ones that were hidden from the public. The entire thing is an exotic, alien phenomenon, something that cannot be explained by our knowledge. The thing damages anyone looking at it and the more you look, the more damage is accrued."

"Yes, and it doesn't even matter what the quality is or how much of the space in your vision it captures. Once your gaze lands on it, people just get brain damage and then, bodily injuries."

He exhaled at that, it was something that weighed heavily on his mind. The Dark entity Dormammu might have been repelled, at great cost but what about the cost it would continue to extract from the world in the form of that one final gift it left to the species that was used to sharing anything and everything that it laid eyes on.

By the time Jarvis managed to lock everything down, there were very few copies left on it in the world but even then, they couldn't risk even a single copy of that remaining because it was an untraceable one shot solution to everything.

Sure, the Captain had recovered remarkably quickly but that was probably only because he was enhanced in ways they still don't completely understand. His own mutation didn't reach in as deep as Steve's did. It was as if his entire body was switched with only his….mind…trans–

"Shuri, I think I understand why the Captain was able to shrug off the effects, at least on his mind."

"Why?"

"Because he is enhanced. I think the attack in question does something to the souls of people. I have heard Jack and Tony talk about it before. When a person is enhanced or born with power, their souls always have something extra. The people who practice magic also have stronger souls than normal, which would explain why The Captain recovered so quickly and why Ms.Maximoff didn't receive any damage."

"It was because she was so massively overpowered that she could shrug off its effects, whereas a normal person would be crippled instantly?"

"Yes but that doesn't solve our problem. There is no way we can reverse the damage. We can only hope that the people recover if the exposure was low." He sighed at that, yet another loss on his end.

He was actually feeling pretty useless these days as the Hulk refused to come out because of his fear and he–

"Dr.Banner, I am detecting multiple launches, both jets as well as rapid action ships, headed our way." Jarvis chimed in as Steve had finished his broadcast, ending the entire thing with a still of Jack's current condition with scars, burn marks, and purple veins criss crossing his entire body shown to the world.

He sighed once more, "Great, exactly what we needed." Standing up, he placed his glasses on the table, and spoke up, "Jarvis, just make sure I have something to stand on."

"Affirmative," On the screen, he saw multiple platforms emerge from the ground, creating a large rectangular floating platform for him to stand on, "Perfect."

He got out of the tent, looking at the Drones that had already progressed, absorbing some of the purple Fire and getting closer to Jack, and sighed. Straightening his shoulders, his eyes flashed green as he reached an accord with Hulk.

Now that Scary Lady—Wanda- was gone, he could finally come out and SMASH—no–protect Jack.

His thoughts remained in a state of disarray before he took control of the transformation, turning into the Hulk. Opening his eyes, he saw green for a brief moment before it narrowed on the Jets he could see in the distance.

Growling unconsciously at the anger he felt inside, at himself, at Hulk, at the situation, he jumped, hundreds of metres up in the sky before he latched onto the platform that was waiting for him, in the crevice that seems to fit perfectly in his hand.

Lifting himself up, he crossed his arms as his legs were embedded into the platform for extra stability, zooming straight towards the Jets. The Jets, seeing him scrambled in different directions.

Sighing, "Jarvis, get to the Optimum point please, and get me a direct link to the man in charge."

"Yes, Dr.Banner, the person in charge is General Waters, given orders to scout the city for 'exotic materials' that can be recovered in the aftermath."

There was a slight static before a crisp and cold voice entered his ear, the speakers on board the platform making sure that the voice reached him perfectly, despite all the air interference because of travelling at high speeds, "This is General Waters, you are in direct violation of multiple federal laws by breaching this secure line. Identify yourselves."

He made sure to make his voice extra gravelly, just for the effect it had on people in authority, "General Waters, this is Dr.Bruce Banner or Hulk. It doesn't matter what you call me, what matters is that you make sure that you stay the hell away from Manhattan at the moment."

"Dr.Banner, need I remind you that you were only pardoned for your previous crimes. We can and will detain you if you stop us from doing our duty." As if in response to his statements, the Jets began circling back.

Stretching out his joints, "General, I will only give this warning once. Stay away from Manhattan until I am sure that Jack Sullivan is out of danger, or do you want me to make sure that the world knows that you are endangering the World's Hero, who sacrificed himself, just so that you can recover 'exotic materials'. I am sure that you would love it if the words came from Captain America himself."

There was a beat of silence before he saw the Jets veering off to the side of his vision, "Dr.Banner, please note that this is only because Mr.Sullivan is injured and if I may offer, the Military has already authorised anything that Mr.Sullivan might need to recover."

"Thank you for your offer, General but I think we have it handled. You will know when the situation has stabilised enough for you to come in and start rebuilding the city or you know, do the thing you were ordered to do. Retrieve any useful weaponry at any costs, what stupid orders." He ended the call with those parting words, sighing and slumping on the spot as the platform descended to take him back to the tent.

Thankfully, it was not Ross in charge otherwise they would have learned that having the Hulk's strength and Banner's mind to channel that rage would be a terrible combination, especially since he would not be holding Hulk back from exerting his full strength.

"World breaking Strength?" He muttered to himself something that Jack once told him. The Hulk had strength in spades, more than what it knew what to do with, and if the Hulk truly were a mindless monster, the world as they knew it would be gone because the Hulk was capable of splitting continents.

He shook his head as he shrugged off the Hulk transformation, returning to his normal form. Dealing with the sudden bout of exhaustion and weakness that assaulted his mind, he thought of Jack's words, whether they had any truth to them or not. Everything that Jack has told him, has helped him at one point or another. Nothing has been useless but that single bit had him doubtful because why would Jack run around and stop threats when the single biggest threat to the world would be right at his side, all the time?

"Connected!" He perked up as he heard Shuri's excited voice coming from inside the tent. Turning sharply, he ran right to the Crater, seeing multiple hovering Jets standing behind T'Challa as the drones did their jobs. The purple fire that had been flaring out of the crater was nowhere to be seen now.

The tent was moved a fair distance away, just in case anything happened to the Vibranium so he had to jog quite a bit before he stood beside T'Challa and the Captain.

"Did it work?"

"According to Shuri, the Vibranium block has just made contact with Jack's body, which should be good but I am doubtful of the Vibranium's ability to hold that much energy. We already have another block of unrefined Vibranium ready just in case but as you can see, there is purple energy all around it now."

Yes, that could be a problem. The purple fire was gone but the Vibranium Block now had criss-crossing purple veins that were only spreading as it absorbed more of the Purple energy.

"Shuri?" T'Challa's voice was anxious, rightfully so because he was not sure if even the Hulk could survive an explosion followed by Vibranium shrapnel enhanced by energy that vaporises anything it comes into contact with.

"Don't worry, almost there," Shuri's voice was one of concentration as she used minimal data to properly apply force, otherwise Jack's body could misconstrued that as a threat and blasted everything away.

He was about to speak up when the block dipped down a bit, barely noticeable but it did definitely dip. Something changed in the air as the veins of purple that were increasing at an alarming rate stopped expanding.

"Uh, Shuri?" he spoke out loud, knowing that the hundreds of mics all around them would pick it up.

"Just a second, the energy levels dropped completely. Lifting the block now," The drones actually groaned in protest as the block was slowly lifted from Jack's body, revealing a naked Jack with…

"What the hell.." He muttered as he saw a Stone, glowing purple embedded in his hand. The purple veins emerged from there then.

"He is safe to approach now. Jarvis?" Shuri's voice echoed in the clearing as the whines of repulsors came closer. He looked up to see a giant block coming towards them. IT abruptly stopped right above the crater, releasing multiple smaller cuffs of some sort that reached Jack and attached themselves around his limbs, lifting it slightly before a sheet of some sort exited the platform and attached itself to the cuffs on Jack, creating a makeshift bed.

"I believe Wakanda will be the best place for Mr.Sullivan to recover. I give you my word, as the King of Wakanda, no harm shall come to Mr.Sullivan under my watch," T'Challa clarified to the Captain who looked suspicious initially.

He nodded at Captain, knowing that it was in the best interest of T'Challa to do so.

The Captain finally sighed and nodded, "Fine. Just make sure that Jarvis knows when he is awake. I'll deal with the stuff here. Jarvis," Steve gestured at the bed as it slowly entered one of the jets, with T'Challa and the Dora Milaje following through.

"I will see you in Birnin Zana, Dr.Banner,"

He nodded at T'Challa before turning around, looking at all the destruction, the only thing left after the Invasion.

"Jarvis, inform General Waters. Let them take all the Exotic material they wish to take. I need a nap."

"What, tired? I could do this all day,"

"Ha!" He laughed tiredly, chuckling at the Captain's sad attempt at a joke. It was appreciated but after the day they just had, jokes were not going to cut it.

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Word Count - 2789

A/N - Hi! First of all, let me thank you all for reading this far along but as most things, the muse for this story has hit a creative end. I have written the same chapter with the same premise many times but have been unable to come to a conclusion for the end of Volume 1.

Funny thing is that I already had ideas for Volume 2 written down but my creative brain ran out of steam even before Volume 1. Because of that, I have decided to put this story on hiatus.

I know that is not what you guys would like to hear but I have just been unable to write for this story for a while now.

….

….

Getting that out of the way, if you would like to read something else that I have written, you guys can check out DoorMan (MCU SI), a new fic I have written and published.

As always, Thank you for reading! Toodles!