The "G" Shield

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Kamar Taj [August 2015]

–Jack Sullivan.–

Welp, it was official. Strange was a prodigy, even greater than himself. The Eye of Agamotto did not respond to him at all. In fact, the sequence in the movies itself was a big fat lie. The number of spells that one has to cast at a dizzying speed, just to get past the authentication phase of the protections of the Eye was staggering, let alone casting the spell to open the Eye.

Then, while keeping that spell cast, one had to manipulate the Stone inside the Eye to get the various effects one could get by essentially toying with the Space Time continuum. Strange could do it with seeming ease but even that freak of a man had to cast some spells as practice to open the damned thing and then even more practice to actually use the energy for something useful.

Damn shame, he couldn't actually use it. Although it was nice enough that the Eye clicked on the pedestal and he felt the defences going back up, which were quite strong and had very strong energy from the Eye interwoven directly into the defenses so it would be safe to say that there were some nasty time spells and traps in the thing.

"Hey, Jack?" Tony's voice crackled to life in his comms. The team was still tracking down any anomalies around the world as well as around the two remaining sanctums so that he could come back and regroup at Kamar Taj.

"Yes? Anything?" He asked, ready to open a portal to either of the Sanctums' general locations. They could not afford yet another Sanctum falling down, that would bring them one step closer to literal doom.

He knew how Strange did the whole "Dormammu I'm here to bargain" thing but he didn't have the magical chops for that yet.

"No, nothing of the sort yet. I have Jarvis with two suits per Sanctum and also Captain and Widow at both locations just in case Jarvis' surveillance isn't compatible with your Voodoo magic," Tony snarked back, tension clear in his voice. Yeah, he did lay it on real thick about what could happen if the Sanctums fell and it was clear that Tony took it pretty hard, what with his PTSD already about the original Invasion even though Tony was not the one who had to deliver the tactical Nuclear payload, unlike the original one where he saw the Mothership and how many more Leviathans were headed their way, while making peace with the fact that he was dying alone.

"Then?" he asked, ready to read more about the spells required and try again with the Eye since it was pretty critical to winning this battle or would serve as a power boost for him even if Kaecilius was killed, in the middle of enacting his plan.

"This energy signature that you have given us, it is glitching Jarvis' systems so bad that I had to create another VI for it and it is telling me that I have a similar energy hit in China, some place called Hunan,"

Tony's answer stopped him right in his tracks, as he realised that Hunan was the same place as the demon but that demon was not like the typical Dark ones. No, that was more akin to a Hell Prince.

"Tony? Can you try again? Any chance that there was a glitch on your end?"

"Jack, my systems have been glitching nonstop ever since you had my sensors read that weird piece of book but no, I have triple checked everything with fresh systems, and the answer is the same. It is kinda far so I thought you could go check it out,"

He breathed out, snapping the book shut, "Yeah, I'll go."

With a wave of his hand, a portal opened in front of him, taking him straight into the village that had been slaughtered by a demon who had in turn been killed by him without much fuss.

As soon as he crossed the threshold, a foul smell assaulted his senses as he immediately used his barriers to filter out everything, falling back on the stored supply of pure oxygen he kept in the back of his barriers for emergency situations just like the one he was in now.

His eyes were wide as he reached the area where there was no such demonic stink left, when he had left this place. Just so that no demonic energy was left lingering in the area which could be harmful for anyone who would stumble on this place, he had spent extra time sealing the entire area, and that seal was now gone.

Not just gone, it was as if the demonic energy had quadrupled in volume with the Dark Energy of DOrmammu being the primary one here. That was not the case last time he was here.

"What a drag," he muttered as he went to work on getting this much Dark Energy contained. It was as if Dormammu sent some of his empowered ones, and actually descended in this place.

He froze mid way, his barrier still cast but not moving as his mind retraced his previous thought. What if Dormammu had used that leftover energy from the Demon, energy that was obviously useful since the Demon was using it, to cast some sort of ritual using Kaecilius?

That didn't explain many things but that was just yet another possibility he had to look into.

Working on getting this entire place sealed, he saw how large the energy spread was and said, "Fuck it!"

He waved his hand, casting a giant barrier than then turned into a dome above them, digging into the Earth and then below the land as well, forming a giant sphere, holding onto all the corrupted land, he even spotted a couple of corrupted rabbits, already in the process of mating, when he sliced them in two using his barriers, covered the entire landmass, and lifted.

That actually put a strain on his abilities as he lifted the entire landmass, and flew straight up. He did not have the means to open a portal large enough to fit this through, otherwise this would have gone straight into the Mirror Dimension where he would investigate it later on.

Right now, he was just getting it off the planet, and into space. With no other habitable planet, it was bound to not be his problem though he mentally vowed to come bacjk and properly dump it into the sun, just to avoid any future problems.

He was probably noticed because he had to contain three different missiles from the Chinese Military before Tony probably got in touch with them, stopping the volley of missiles though he knew that they were keeping a close watch on him, their finger hovering above the trigger button.

The Communist Party did not like him all that much, calling him the attack Dog of the West because of the Whole America centric theme of his superhero career.

He actually paused a moment at that thought. Huh, he always wondered in his previous life why the majority of the Superheroes lived in or around the United States of America, or at most, the Americas. For having just 4% of the world's population, the US sure did enjoy the protection of a lot of Superheroes. Then, the moment passed and with a somewhat exerting grunt, he threw the landmass out into space, where it would not land on the moon, defacing its surface even more.

"Alright, Tony that was taken care of."

"Uh-huh, I saw that. The Whole lifting the village thing. Might not wanna do it anymore, we don't have a lot of arable land in the world. If you start doing that regularly, everytime a problem pops up, we might just end up running out of food,"

And once again, there goes Tony with his exaggerations.

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind,"

He had to keep looking for the attacker because right now they were in possession of some of the most dangerous knowledge in the Nine Realms and could cause a lot of damage, even if their magical abilities were not much to go by, judging by the complete lack of magical residue when they laid waste to parts of Kamar Taj.

Normal bombs were used to jostle around the Apprentices, along with the demon in China and the attack used on Mordo was a particularly peculiar thing on his mind.

(It was a matter of personal concern for him because he did not want to be the one who had to die an uncountable number of times before Dormammu was ready to bargain. He did not know if he could hold on for that long if the time came to it.

"Oh well, first learn how to open the damned Thing, Jack" he muttered to himself as he opened a portal and entered Kamar Taj, under the disapproving glare of Wong who was standing with his weapons ready, since he did enter the Library directly.

"Mater Sullivan, do I need to remind you that–"

He waved Wong off, not in the mood for his extreme rules, "Yeah yeah, I know Wong. Fine me once we are through this. Now, please excuse me while I familiarise with the Eye,"

Wong nodded, "Yes. That would be wise for now, instead of gallivanting across countries and launching small villages into space," With that backhanded comment, Wong stalked off, taking the catalogue of books which was latched onto his back, going back to his work.

_____xx____

Undisclosed Location

–Kaecilius–

"It is all as per your plan, My liege," He informed his Master of the foolish alien who thought himself above everyone and assumed to command him.

"Hmm. Soon, Earth will be mine," With that, his Master's voice faded away, letting light enter the room once again. They were in a secluded Motel Room with the owner's mind implanted with thoughts of going to his family and not leaving for a week, which should be more than enough time for him to prepare for his Master's arrival.

Standing up, he turned around, his face already set in stone, "Let's go. I am sure Jack is back by now. We can't let him hinder our work. The second they hit the first one, we will hit the second. I have long since wanted to spar with Drumm," he ordered the minions and got to work.

Apparently, the alien held tentacle powers and could eat brains to get information but it would seem that all that brain eating did not enhance his intelligence because the alien was not realising that HIVE was playing right into the hands of his Master.

HIVE was yet another pawn, if an unwitting one of his lords, sharing in the Immortality benefits along with the darkness powers. HIVE himself did not seem to be aware of it, allowing his lord to plan around him, getting them the maximum chance of success.

The creature itself made it easy because of his lust for magical knowledge, presumably in a bid to get stronger.

He sneered at that. Stu[id creature. Once they were all in their Lord's embrace, there would be no need to put anyone else down. They would all be immortal, unaging in their Lord's dimension.

A place untouched by time, the greatest enemy of all life.

Time.

His fists clenched as he thought of his family, the ones he lost to the rivers of time and could not be resurrected. He thought of the other family he made when he came to Kamar Taj and while a small part of him felt guilty over injuring them, he knew that once they were all in his Lord's embrace, he would be forgiven because then they would all be in Utopia.

His eyes then reddened in anger as he thought of the one person he trusted the most. The Ancient One, the supposed beacon of strength, virtue, wisdom, and sheer fucking power.

The one being who had betrayed all that Kamar Taj stood for, drawing–no stealing energy from his Lord while using her powers to push back his Lord himself.

No, she would pay and she would pay most spectacularly. While his Lord was confident in killing her once they all were in the Dark Dimension, he knee that he did not need that. He could kill the traitor in the physical world, once and for all.

He felt giddy at the thought of his Lord being pleased with his work and then giving him a reward in return. Maybe a chance to get back alternate versions of his family and kill his Variant in that timeline?

Oh, he couldn't wait!

Word Count - 2154

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