Chapter 26 : There's always a bigger player & To burst or not to burst, that is the question..... (Patreon)

Disclaimer - I don’t own Marvel/Disney IP. I am just a humble keyboard warrior. Also, the Chaos Gacha was made by Bronz here. I am just dipping my toe in the water, so to speak.

Antarctica

–Mike–

With the alpha team gone, he sighed and looked at the plane wreckage. They had retrieved the pilot before leaving, but he doubted whether the man was alive after falling down from such a height, especially after the small explosion that left most of the plane charred.

Thankfully, whatever power source they had that they used to power their railgun was not radioactive in nature, otherwise he would have had to rouse Ghidorah to eat that energy.

He was sure that Fury would have done everything he could to recover even the wreckage since he would never let even the remains of such technology fall into the hands of enemies, but right now he had far bigger fish to fry, like explaining to the people in power why someone from his organisation, someone who was cleared to engage in such a sensitive and imo-prtant operation defied official orders and tried to up end the entire thing.

Also, there was the question of the person who would be selected to head the negotiation party. After all, he had made it pretty clear that he was not a madman who wanted wanton destruction. The world had tolerated far more bigoted people simply because they had nukes on their side. What more was one person who had a nuke equivalent weapon on their side, with the only difference being that other nuclear weapons will have very little effect on his weapon. Also, he held no territory and did not have a fixed, known location they could monitor and aim their missiles at continuously. He could not be bullied to stay in a specific location by keeping deadly weaponry just outside his door.

Damn, he must have terrified quite a lot of people, huh?

Turning around, he went back to the Ghidorah, pausing as he turned to a specific corner, “Enjoyed the show?”

Out of whatever her stealth spell was, came the stone faced visage of the Ancient One, and he couldn’t lie, it was one of the scariest things he had seen in this life.

Greeting the one person on the planet who could kill him on her lonesome, “Ancient One,” he continued, “What can I do for you?”

The Sorcerer Supreme did not reply immediately, instead choosing to look past him and at the now awake Ghidorah, who was looking at the Ancient One with wariness? He could somewhat read its facial expression, and it just validated his fear of her. If an interstellar alien whose sole purpose seemed to be eating energy, destroying civilisations, and then moving on to the next to rinse and repeat, then what did it say about her?

Shaking his head slightly, he removed those thoughts from his mind. She might be strong, but he was not helpless here, certainly not as much as he would have been without the leverage that was Ghidorah backing him up. 

The Mirror Dimension was the most convenient option to deal with someone like him. Just isolate him from the rest of the world and then take their time to deal with him or not. He would go crazy in isolation soon enough, but that scary possibility could only come true if there were no limitations on the Mirror Dimension, as well as her ability to push everyone in the Mirror Dimension.

The portal spell must have some limitations. 

He hoped that even if she could send him, she couldn’t do the same for Ghiorah. He distinctly remembered it taking multiple sorcerers to open portals large enough to transport some of those Wakandan as well as Asgardian ships in the final battle against Thanos. Even if he assumed that the Ancient One was capable of opening a portal that big on her own, even if she multiplied the portal by a factor of five, she would still be unable to send Ghidorah through.

Also, the sheer energy density of Ghidorah should do something about the portal spell. If the portal spell alone was this absurdly strong and capable of ignoring most limits of strong beings, then any half decent apprentice was capable of sniping most beings in the world, and any Master should be one of the strongest beings possible.

No, it had a limitation. One that he was not keen on trying anytime soon, certainly not today. He had a long life ahead of him and a lot of stuff he wanted to experience. 

And soon, very soon, if things went according to plan, he will be the bearer of functionally unlimited wealth and authority, allowing him to experience whatever he wanted. After all, the world’s governments would be foolish to reject his simple proposal of give me a ton of money, leave me alone, and let me live in exchange for not letting the Ghidorah fly around the world and just create light shows in the sky, crashing economies, and more.

Of course, he was not going to do that. Those were the acts of villains, but that was not something the world needed to know.

All of these thoughts flashed through his mind in less than a second before his attention snapped back to the Ancient One as her mouth opened up, “I assume you are done thinking?”

His eyes widened a bit before he got his expression under control. Ofcourse, she knew that. She was a sorcerer, The Sorcerer. Mind Acceleration spells must be like one of the intermediate spells in Kamar Taj.

“Mr.Mike, due to your actions, the world has come awfully close to excessive deaths.” The statement was delivered, and it almost hit him like a punch to the gut, as his mind flashed back to the ticket he got for causing the deaths of over ten thousand people, only for his [Sisyphean] trait to kick in, pushing that guilt away and forcing him to look at the objective side of stuff.

Letting the trait guide him, he replied, “A regrettable outcome, not something I intended to happen, I assure you.” There, a short and concise reply, delivered in a hopefully neutral tone. He had to be really careful dealing with these old monsters, and something told him that he was going to be doing that frequently in the future, so he'd better get some practice in.

She nodded slowly, her gaze finally settling on him, “I see. The world is in quite an uproar. I assume you know how close the world has come to seeing a nuclear weapon being dropped deliberately?”

“Yes, but I hope that the people in power are smarter than that. It would do nothing but remove the leash on Ghidorah here, and I assume you know what will happen then,” He grinned at her. A hot gust of air escaped Ghidorah’s mouth, ruffling their clothes but more importantly, melting the snow all around them. Ghidorah was apparently far more intelligent than he expected it to be, if it could understand their language.

Alas, was it a he or she?

“Yes,” She replied dryly, “I am quite aware of the damage one of your familiars’ attacks can do. I would also like you to know that the Planetary wads are not for show.”

His confusion must have shown on his face as she continued, “They are programmed to dispel any energy attack above a certain level. Sorry to say, but had your familiar actually attacked anything, the attack would have been dispelled, and the full weight of the planet’s wards would have fallen upon your familiar and you.”

A shiver ran down his spine at the statement. Could it really be true? He didn’t remember anything like in the MCU, but this was not really the MCU, was it? It was not even just the Marvel Universe. It was an amalgamation, and who was he to say that out of the theoretically infinite variations of the Marvel universe, there wasn’t a Kamar Taj that somehow managed to add that stupidly OP function to the planetary ward system they were sworn to protect.

A planetary shield was stupidly overpowered as well. 

Also, if such a function did exist, then he was sure that he would be smeared on the ground if Ghidorah had done something. He looked at the slightly smirking face of Ancient One, and it just looked so sinister to him. Then it him, as he snapped his fingers at her, “Wait! That means that even a nuclear weapon wouldn’t work?” Incredulity coloured his tone at that. 

Damn. Did the world’s governments know that their precious nuclear weapons that they used to engage in  dick measuring contests around the world, bullying any lesser nation that did not have them, were essentially just really expensive duds sitting around in their silos?

It would have been hilarious to know if the thing that neutralised the nukes also did not neutralise his biggest weapon.  

“It depends,” She answered before explaining, “The bombs will detonate below a certain explosive yield. Most modern nuclear bombs will not succeed, if that answers your question.”

It did. It most certainly did.

“So,” he began, realising that he held little to no leverage in this conversation, which confused him as to what her goal here was and why she had shown herself, “what do you intend to do with the situation?”

“Me? Nothing. If you are ignorant, let me enlighten you, Mr.Mike. I am the Sorcerer Supreme of Kamar Taj, guardian of Earth and all its magical enclaves. Your situation,” She gestured behind him, to both Alcina and Ghidorah, “While far from ordinary, is certainly not as magical as you expect it to be. You yourself are in possession of a unique magic, but your familiars are not magical in nature. As such, they fall out of my purview.”

He didn't sigh in relief, but he came dangerously close to that. It did not escape his notice that she was telling him that he was within her purview, so he had better tread lightly here, which was fair, and in that case, warning was received as well.

Then her tone took a slight edge, “But what is in my purview is Earth. The planet as a whole needs to remain intact and not be burning for me to have a magical society to protect, don't you think? So, as long as you refrain from performing any more stunts such as the one your familiar did earlier today, you will not have to see my face.” 

“Ignore that warning, however, and you would wish the Mirror Dimension was the only thing you had to experience."

A full body shiver escaped him as the words registered in his mind. He opened his mouth to reply, only to find her gone. Even before, the only reason he had sensed her was because he sensed the slight deviation in the flow of wind in that area, and a hunch. For the entirety of their conversation, he hadn’t sensed an iota of energy escaping her. It was as if she was not there, to his Sensory trait.

He had a hunch that the only reason he managed to sense her at all was because she wanted him to. There was no other view, if she could just disappear from his senses with such ease and speed, leaving behind nothing, not even a trace of magic when she activated her magic.

With that…scary lady gone, he moved to the sole Bronze ticket he got for surviving Stark’s railgun, which was, of course an experiment. He liked to think that if Stark completed a Railgun project, it would have a little more oomph behind it and also wouldn’t immediately render a Quinjet unusable.

Come to think of it, the only reason Tony hadn’t done that was probably because he hadn’t rediscovered the Arc Reactor, the designs to which his father left behind for him.

Before rolling the Bronze ticket, he waited for a minute or two to see if he could get a ticket for surviving an encounter with the scary Ancient One, but after minutes of just snow and harsh winds, he gave up and rolled the sole Bronze Ticket.

[Iron Nerves]

|Uncommon Trait|

Your nerves are made of iron; you don't flinch or get startled, and this does not affect your reflexes.

Reading through the description, he sighed. A wholly useless trait, since [Sisyphean] gave him all the Iron Nerves he could ever need. Plus, ever since he became a Thunderbird, he had become kind of arrogant, something he only expected to increase since he was also now Part Dragon. 

In fact, this scary encounter, where it was made abundantly clear to him that he was not some hotshot who could ignore the previously established powerhouses of the planet, was sorely needed.

Now, to address some elephants in the room. Turning to Alcina, his mind flashed back to the Mind control he performed on her, a flash of something passing through his mind that his mind promptly moved on from, as he asked her about the ring.

“Well, what do you think? Got any urges since you started wearing it?”

Alcina gave him a long, complicated look, and instead of answering his question, she answered one of her own, “What have you become? Why do I feel afraid of you?”

His eyes narrowed in contemplation as he wondered how exactly to answer that question. In the end, he settled on slight honestly, “I am now part dragon now. Maybe you can sense that I am your superior?”

Her eyes narrowed in thought as she slowly nodded, “I suppose that is true.”

Huh. He really did a number on her personality, didn’t he? 

Moving on from that, he turned to Ghidorah, who had promptly returned to sleep after sensing that the scary bald Sorcerer Supreme had left. He wanted to talk to Ghidorah, and just as he was about to switch [Telepathy] in one of the ability slots to see if it would help him communicate better with the strongest Familiar he had on hand, he stopped, sensing something small rapidly headed towards him. Pausing, he turned towards the sky, as a small dot rapidly grew bigger to reveal a small drone of sorts that promptly crash landed in the snow ahead of him.

He raised his eyebrow as he saw the logo of SHIELD painted on its side. The drone had crashed pretty hard, but it was intact, with its fans spinned as it realigned itself on the snow. 

A small part of the outer shell of the drone slid apart, before a projection was projected in front of him. It was a floating Nick Fury!

He snorted at that as Fury paused in whatever speech he had prepared, giving him a look before continuing, “Mr.Mike, I am here to discuss the negotiations you 'requested'.” 

The words were spoken with extreme reluctance and he could actually feel the quotation marks in the sentence spoken.

“Greetings, Director Fury. Speak.” The single word replies were bound to frustrate Fury, and he was curious if the hologram could give him an accurate feed of Fury’s forehead vein.

Fury took a breath before replying, “The kind of high level negotiations you have asked for cannot be done in the harsh terrain of Antarctica. I wish to–”

He interrupted the man with a cheerful tone, “Ah! That’s no issue, Director. I can come to Washington DC anytime you want. I am highly mobile, as you can see. Just say the word and–”

“NO!” Ah, there was the forehead vein. Also, the panicked expression as a priceless bonus. Ah, if only he had a camcorder on hand, “There’s no need for that.”

“We don’t wish you to take such a long flight. We can settle for a neutral territory. I assume you are aware of the Australian Outback?”

“Yes, I am aware of the incredibly large piece of land that barely has any people, in the continent of Australia. You wish to have the meeting there?”

“Yes, that would be preferable.”

“Fine. That works for me.”

Fury gave an imperceptible sigh of relief, the sound of which did not reach him, but the action did. Before the man could properly relax, though, he decided to give the man one more headache, to see if the forehead vein could burst or not.

A professional scientific experiment, of sorts.

“Be warned though, Directory Fury. I am sure you know that I am hard to kill, judging by your failure of a railgun.”

Fury’s eyes tightened at that, as he continued, “But I am not unkillable. Not many things are. But what I can tell you is that you have very little chance of killing me. But even if you do, Ghidorah here, yes that’s the name, will have nothing holding it back. I can assure you that even if you killed me, you wouldn't be able to do the same for Ghidorah here.”

The warning was clear. Kill me, and you let loose a terrible calamity.

He was essentially holding the entire planet, or atleast major parts of it, hostage.

“Warning Received. I will personally make sure no idiot reaches you. In turn, I want your word that you won’t shoot down my forces.”

“Deal. I also want accommodations dropped to my location ASAP, with good food and water. I assume you can do that?”

Fury gave him a flat look, “You want me to airdrop you an RV in Antarctica?”

“A luxurious one, if you could. One of those mega RVs that have more space than most city apartments.” He reminded the man cheekily whose forehead vein came oh so close to bursting before the man just hung up.

Aww. No forehead vein burst. Shame.

Word Count - 2988