Chapter 29 : A Friends reference? In this economy?! (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.

New York

–Madame Gao–

She looked at the television and saw the end of the world. Her entire body tensed as she saw the monster once more, the size of it, the wingspan, and the way it manipulated the reality around it to its will. The news reports about the Dragon, because it could be nothing but one of the mighty dragons, being controlled, being commanded, by a human, was nothing but heresy.

The others might not believe that it was the right call to prioritise the alive dragon because they believe they lacked the ability to bring it to heel, but they all forget one simple thing.

Sometimes, in all their arrogance and long term planning, they could lose sight of the fact that they were not the only ones on the planet. On this vast, magical earth, there are many others who would love nothing more than to take apart the newest magical creature on the planet; the less said about all the mundane governments, the better.

Her proposal of stationing people near this so called summit to make sure that they do not lose any advantage because of the chaos that was undoubtedly about to fall there might have been rejected because of the risk of exposure, but nevertheless, she had made sure at least half of her people were present on the continent, an action that was tacitly approved by the rest of the HAND.

Alexandra would have stopped her people in action if she felt like it. The fact that her people landed in Australia meant she wanted to see the end result, but was simply unwilling to allot any additional resources to it.

That was fine by her. The slightest advantage from an alive dragon, a three headed one at that, should be enough to propel her so far beyond the others that it would be a non issue to take over the rest of the organisation.

___xx___

China

–Xu Wenwu–

Drowned as he was in grief, because of the death of the love of his life, he was not as addled of mind to ignore a phenomenon that had pushed the planet closer to annihilation than it had ever been in decades.

As he looked at the television and the clips of the magical beast flying through the air, his fists clenched as the Ten Rings vibrated on his arms, responding to his anxiety.

He was mighty, the Ten Rings ensured it, but this? This was not his forte. No, anything of this calibre was supposed to be handled by the monks. Was it not this reason why the mightiest warriors of Earth willingly gave up their mortal connections and resided in their warded fortress up in the clouds?

Wasn’t that what the woman who handily defeated him within an inch of his life when he began trying to take over the mundane kingdoms of China, told him? That he could join them to defend the planet until their death, but he would have to give up everything.

Every ambition, every relative, every connection he had built since he woke up.

A worthy sacrifice, she called.

If they sacrificed everything to prevent this, then what was he seeing in front of him?

If they were going to fail anyway, why couldn’t they have saved her? Why couldn’t they have–

A sudden surge of rage had him roaring as the Rings flew through the television one by one, destroying it entirely, plunging the entire compound into a deathly silence.

He stood there, heaving, his face twisted in an ugly snarl, before he took control of himself. Looking at the silence all around him, he barked, “回去训练！”

___xx___

Asgard

–Heimdall–

“Do you wish to talk to him, My King?” He asked the All-Father, as they had been both looking at the same spot for hours now, waiting for the mortal who commanded the beast capable of threatening an entire realm.

Granted, it was a backwater realm, the weakest of the Nine Realms if one took into account their rather average personal power, but it was still an entire realm. To be able to threaten an entire realm, that kind of power was the realm of the All-Fathers.

The very existence of that young man and his familiar, if his words were to be believed, was a threat to Asgard and its hold over the Nine Realms. Midgard was always the realm that was ignored because it was both a backwater realm with barely any visitors from the cosmos and also because it already had a robust defense network of its own.

The earthen Seidr, very different from Asgardian Seidr and yet, very capable as well.

“No,” Odin rumbled after a while, his eyes glazed as he used the gift of his Sight, “Now is not the time for this. Let her handle this for now.”

He bowed his head at the command. He knew very well who this she was, and his King was right. She was more than capable of handling this. In some ways, she was even better than his King in containing threats. 

Asgard’s combat philosophy has always been victory through overwhelming force. Applying the same philosophy here will only result in the destruction of that realm.

Her expertise was far better applied here.

__xx__

Australia

–Nick Fury–

After what felt like forever of just talking to people, attending meetings, arranging for transport, arranging for security, sending security to execute some idiots, meeting more politicians, securing politicians, he had finally hopped on a plane and came to the place where the most important meeting of the century was about to take place.

The Outback was basically the only place where they could do this. Any other place wouldn’t either be defendable, accessible, or close enough for SHIELD to arrange everything. Given time, anything could be overcome, even Nature itself, but that was the one thing they did not have right now.

The world demanded answers yesterday, and the politicians breathing down his neck did not help one bit. As the sound of Jets flying overhead reached his ears, he smiled.

At least there was one good thing that came out of all this. Even if the negotiating team was not from SHIELD, having the ability to command the entire US armed forces, as if you were POTUS himself, was something that no other person would ever experience again, aside from POTUS himself, ofcourse.

Even so, movement of this level surely would have drawn eyebrows and responses from their geopolitical enemies, but due to the much greater threat they were facing, not only was everything smooth sailing, they were getting requests after requests from unlikely allies, offering all of their forces, their manpower, their aircraft carriers, and experimental weapons, all so they could listen in on the negotiation.

After all, if the reports from the eggheads were to be believed, tomorrow, the fate of the existing world order was going to be discussed, and no power wanted to be left out of it. After all, what was the point of spending billions of dollars, training hundreds of thousands of men, to create a strong army, if a single man with his pet monster or familiar, as he called it, could stroll through and destroy it all.

And then destroy your country for good measure. As expected, everyone was scared, but many were excited as well. For that reason alone, the entire world experienced a period of peace never heard before. 

No bullet was fired on any border, and overall crimes were down globally, despite the uptick at the beginning where everyone thought the world was ending.

A worldwide truce of peace.

Yet another thing he thought he would never see in his entire lifetime. Hell, even in his dreams, he never dared imagine this.

Sighing, he looked at the assembled team. Barton. Widow. Coulson. Hill. Melinda May.

He had pulled every single agent he could rust from all of their assignments for this. Just as this was a make or break moment for many countries, it was also the same for SHIELD. Doubly so, since they were supposed to be the ones who prevented this. The ones who were responsible for this.

He had to fend off some pretty pointed questions from Angry Congressmen, POTUS, the Chief of Defense, and more.

He was sure that once this was done, a significant audit was due for SHIELD, wherein every single expense will be scrutinised, and used as the reason to downsize SHIELD to a tenth of its size or even disband the agency and let it be absorbed by a new organisation or by the US Military, even.

All options were on the table, and the only way to reduce the chances of SHIELD being destroyed was to make sure nothing went wrong, and to that end, he had pulled every single card he had, called in every single favour, and gambled everything he could, all so this one event could go smoothly.

Quite literally, the fate of the world rested on it.

“Barton. Talk to me,” he ordered as all of them entered the SHIELD caravan. Only once they were inside and sealed from surveillance, did Barton begin to speak, “Things are going as they should. The core area has been prepared and basically sterilised. The outer areas are being swept for the tenth time today. There was some trouble for the outer fringes, but that was to be expected.”

“How many?” he expected traitors and spies. After all, if you developed and placed spies in the biggest spy organisation on the planet, what else would you use them for?

Barton’s face was grave as he replied, “61.”

He sighed, closing his eyes as the number was significant, even for something like this. For 61 spies to enter the space meant something had gone wrong in one of the crucial background checks. In the first place, people who were the least likely to be compromised were vetted once more before being posted here.

The punishment here was death, plain and simple, as was told to every single agent before they were allowed to be here. Once they were done extracting all the information out of them, they were going to be killed, no matter what they were told to cajole the information out of them. The concept of rights was severely curtailed here, now that they were both in a foreign land and technically, did not exist on paper.

The loss of 61 top notch agents was going to sting, but not as much as the dressing down he was going to receive when news of this reached POTUS and the World Security Council.

It was for this reason that he pulled all of them. Every single one of them was more than prepared to make the right and, more importantly, tough call, even if they knew some of these people by name.

“Aside from that, the electronics is being handled by the Army. The landing pad is being jointly prepared, but as you know, there isn’t much to be done there anyway..”

Yes, he was quite aware of that. Based on reports, some of which were conflicting, this Mike character was not one to listen to orders. Already extensive research was done to make sure that the negotiations went as smoothly as possible. 

What kind of leeway was given to the negotiators and what their primary goal was, and what they were authorised to accept and reject, the answers to all these questions were known only to POTUS, his immediate staff, and the negotiators themselves.

They were all locked on Air Force One since a couple hours ago, and they will directly land here for the summit. That way, there was no chance for anyone to pull off anything funny. No chance for anyone to intercept any of the negotiators or threaten them with their families, though steps had been taken to secure every single weak point, as that had been one of the criteria to select the team of negotiators.

The entire US armed machine had moved like a well oiled machine for this, and it showed. Even the enemies, who loved to poke and prod at the defenses of the most well funded military in the history of the planet, were silent, actively making sure that no hostile signal was sent.

POTUS had pulled his weight and had gotten every single country to back off. How he did that, and what the compromise was, he did not know. He hated not knowing, but this time, his hands were tied.

All he was told was to handle security and cooperate with the Military. And the landing pad was one of the things SHIELD was given joint custody of. As if that was of any importance.

Mike, as predicted by most people, was going to arrive on the back of his pet monster, and it was not like that thing needed a long runway.

Looking at the continuous fly-bys of the Jets, the sound of agents, soldiers, and more moving around with a sense of duty but also a sense of quiet fear within them, he sighed and prayed to anyone who would listen.

Let this go smoothly.

Antarctica [The Next Day]

–Mike–

His leg swung out of the bed, just dangling there as he slow walked the process of getting out of bed as much as possible. Today was the day he was supposed to finally get out of this icy wasteland and go to a desert wasteland, so he could talk to people about moving into a proper city or something, though he wagered that the part of the talks about his location would come at last.

His Pendragon trait told him that he had to get ready, be dressed sharply, be on time, and be confident about it, to force his way through the negotiations from a position of strength because that was the truth. Objectively speaking, he was going to negotiate from an extreme position of strength.

He had a world ending weapon in his hands that he had already shown the willingness to use, atleast that’s what it would look like on their side. After all, he couldn’t possibly explain to them the mechanics of Chaos Gacah and how Ghidorah’s first instinct after finding himself in a foreign world was to try and end it.

He also couldn’t explain that the attack would have never landed, as there was a magic shield around the planet that dispelled all energy attacks or explosions above a certain yield. That would be breaking the rules regarding the secrecy around Kamar Taj, and he had no wish to be visited by the Sorcerer Supreme in the dark of the night.

Sighing, he finally got up from the bed and began the process of getting ready.

He had spent a couple of hours in his pocket dimension, to check on it as well as get used to his strength, and he was happy to report that now he too could do the Hulk SMASH!

Cratering the ground, smashing hands to create a shockwave, jumping very far were all abilities in his repertoire now. He’d unloaded the scant few items sitting in his inventory into the pocket dimension because why keep the even minute strain on his mind? The [Grow Your Own Golem Kit] along with the [Vibranium Weave Patch], were stored in the remnants of the tarp he had lying around. The longer he kept each item in the system’s storage, the more strain was placed on his mind. Even though it was minuscule and by his estimates, he could go for years without even noticing it, why risk things anyway?

So, aside from some crude power testing and stowing away some potentially very useful items, he came back from his pocket dimension, only to face a drone that could only be described as panicked.

He ignored most of their queries and requests about the pocket dimension and only gave them the assurance that he will not be doing that again, which is why he had spent the past day just sitting around in the RV van. More than once, he had been tempted to just march up to the drone and demand access to the internet so he could fill the void with something meaningless from the internet.

Alas, according to the drone anyway, the RV had been stripped of any communications device that came from the manufacturer, and flying in a new one, especially one with a secured line that couldn’t be hacked by anyone, was basically impossible in the time frame they had.

Basically, it would take longer for a simple iPad to arrive than for him to just attend the summit. Yes, they were calling it the summit. Many people were going to be in attendance, including some world leaders though the really powerful ones were probably already in bunkers.

Ofcourse, the actual negotiations were supposed to happen behind closed doors, which probably had bugs lining every inch of the room, but there was a crowd, ready to be addressed immediately after the negotiation was done.

Looking at the clothing that had been provided to him, after they had apparently used a very accurate 3D-scan to stitch the clothing perfectly, he realised that he was going to be wearing a moving microphone at all times. Not really interested in the gross violation of privacy that was that suit, he decided to wear the one outfit that was not totally ruined by the seawater splashing around, the lightning striking the ground, and his fists moving the entire island.

Damn. That small pocket dimension had been through a lot, huh?

He wore a White T-shirt and cargo pants. Just as he finished putting on the only accessory he had on hand, a generic watch, he heard the sound of Jets advancing towards them.

What a coincidence. Surely, they hadn’t bugged every inch of the RV and calculated precisely how much time it would take for him to get up and ready, so that the Jets arrived right on time to “escort” him to the summit.

As he got out of the Jet, Alcina in tow, dressed sharply in her own version of the three piece suit that she accepted, even after his warning about it being bugged. He supposed that the concept of people listening in didn’t really faze her all that much.

Stepping out of the RV, he looked at the drone that was floating in front of the RV and then up, as the Quinjet slowly floated down, landing in a clearing right next to the RV.

Out of the Quinjet came a very familiar face, with no guards whatsoever. Which made sense since they wanted to maintain that safe facade.

Coulson reached out with his hand with a friendly smile on his face. He shook hands with the Agent.

“Mr.Mike, I am Agent Coulson from SHIELD. I am to be your chauffeur for the day,” Coulson said with a smile, as if this was a regular occurrence, and then gestured towards the Quinjet.

“If you will follow me, we have prepared everything you could need ahead of the 6 hour journey we have in front of us.”

Hmm. While the prospect of riding on Ghidorah for the entire journey was daunting, especially since it would take atleast 3 hours, even with Ghidorah’s high speed, he did want to make a lasting impression.

He couldn’t do that if he came in the Quinjet, or could he?

Plus, his hair, which he had spent a grand total of 5 seconds setting properly, might get ruffled due to all the wind. 

No, he had a better idea. Enjoy the comforts while travelling and make sure that the most important thing in a negotiation was executed properly.

Presentation.

“Very well, Agent Coulson. Lead the way,” He noticed the relaxing of Coulson’s shoulder as he complied with their request. They thought he was leaving Ghidorah behind.

As if.

With [Telepathy] in one of his active ability slots, he connected to Ghidorah’s vast mind, which was much more familiar to him than it had been a day ago, and gave the order.

Follow us from a distance. Match the speed. Don’t destroy the environment around you.

The last command was essential because Ghidorah was a walking natural disaster. His natural mode of travel was by destroying everything on his way. He had to consciously hold back the destructiveness of his movements.

As they settled into the Quinjet, strapped in, and took off, he smiled as Coulson offered him an unlocked iPad, “As you requested.”

“Thank you.”

Coulson had relaxed as the Quinjet took off, only to flinch as a cacophony of sounds assaulted his ear, as the pilots refrained from blaring their warnings out into the Quinjet, thinking he wouldn’t hear them.

Idiots.

“Warning! The Creature is following us! I repeat, the creature is following us! It is accelerating proportionally to our speed. No hostile intent detected! I repeat…”

That was all he heard before he tuned it out, instead choosing to focus on the plethora of TV media he had access to. Conveniently, he was also given a pair of earphones for this.

While browsing through the collection of the military sanitised version of Netflix, his eyes lit up as he saw a particular series he loved from his previous world.

He was so glad that Friends was still a thing here. With that, the journey should be over before he knew about it.

Word Count - 3630