Chapter 41 - To infinity and beyond!

The Vault was located at the heart of my inner sanctum. It sat in the center of the lowest of Othrys' many floors, had walls several feet thick which were made from some of the most durable materials currently known to man and was shielded against just about every single form of radiation or energy signature imaginable.

A nuke could've dropped on top of New York, and yet the insides of the Vault would be mostly fine, especially since the entirety of Othrys served as yet another highly durable shell for the relatively small room.

Against the power of the Mind Stone, it proved insufficient.

All of my employees were forced to their knees as they experienced a combination of the most painful headache and the most terrifying nightmare they had ever had. The residential parts of Othrys, located far away from the Vault above ground and somewhat protected by the more durable subterranean levels below, were slightly better off. Many of the people there suddenly suffered splitting headaches, and a few of them passed out as well. That was the state I found the majority of my people in after dashing out of the Vault.

Some of my employees had suffered slightly different effects though. Elliot, with his more robust Asgardian mind, had come out of the ordeal the most intact of all my people, and was instrumental in trying to calm down the burgeoning chaos and panic that followed on the heels of my Xavier-like seizure. As it turned out, when the wave of tremendous mental energy slammed into him, Elliot managed to put up some slight resistance and had in fact intentionally pushed back his own thoughts towards me, much like Sterns had tried to do. It's why his memory came so clear to me.

Honestly, it was a small miracle that none of us were overcome with uncontrollable rage, a spillover effect of his memories of being a Berserker.

Thank god for Asgardian brains' durability, I suppose.

Skye's and Darryl's Inhuman powers had reacted… violently, to the attack. Sky had been taking a nap on the couch in her room when the seizure happened, Skye's powers involuntarily activating and reducing the furniture she had been lying on into dust, dropping her to the floor, where she kept shaking the entire part of the residential wing her room was located in. Darryl had been in his human form when I fucked up with the Mind Stone, and the mental attack caused his flames to violently explode from his body, turning him into a small inferno. Thankfully, he had been playing catch with his dad in one of the smaller indoor gardens, which meant that (other than reducing all plant life around him to charcoal) nobody got hurt from the flames, his Extremis-enhanced father escaping the sudden fire unscathed.

What little mental defenses Pangborn had were insufficient to protect him from the brunt of the Mind Stone's attack, but they did buy him enough time to withdraw deep into his mind in order to protect himself, sinking into a deep meditation that lasted long after the attack had ended. He woke up on his own though, and other than a mild headache wasn't too worse for wear.

I was lucky that my Brain-Boosted scientists possessed sufficient mental energy to at least hold their own somewhat against the tidal wave of pure thought that exploded from the Vault, though they all suffered enormous headaches which confined them to two days of bedrest at minimum (only Sterns had proven powerful enough to actually push through the attack in order to reach me, giving me the incentive I needed to pull myself from the loop that the Mind Stone had put me in).

As such, when I burst into her lab right on the heels of the attack, Maya Hansen was still conscious enough to provide medical care for Sterns (or mostly to instruct the semi-automated systems of Othrys to do so, since she fell into a deep sleep shortly after).

With his physical injuries almost immediately cared for (he had minor fractures in just about every single bone in his body, had a dislocated wrist as well as both shoulders and would probably have some back pain for the coming week or so), I could focus my attention to what had happened to his mind. Deep scans of his oversized head didn't tell me much, other than that he displayed similar symptoms as to what would happen to a brain after not sleeping for well over a week. The physical damage seemed to be repairing itself at a startlingly rapid pace, meaning that Sterns had given himself a respectable healing factor somewhere down the line without bothering to tell me (probably because he didn't think it such a big deal).

He didn't wake up though. It wasn't quite a coma, but rather a very deep healing sleep.

As for Phineas… to be honest, I didn't know if he could ever wake up. With his mind connected to the entirety of Othrys, Phineas got hit the hardest out of all of us. While he had no actual body to experience pain with, looking over the security footage showed all of the systems going haywire for a couple of minutes, a tortured sound coming from just about every speaker inside Othrys, before everything just went… dead.

In order to save himself, Phineas had cut himself off from everything and anything, completely pulling out of Othrys' systems and even the pedestal that housed his phylactery, his mind now completely confined within the silicone replica of his original brain. With literally no link to the outside world, there also wasn't a way for Phineas to register the passing of time, so for all we knew, over a hundred years or so, he might still think that the attack was occurring and would still hide away inside of his own mind. It also meant that there was no way that we could think of to reach him and wake him up. The artificial brain didn't register touch, so holding it in my hands didn't do anything either. I briefly thought about inserting my chi into it, but I had no idea what would happen to Phineas, his mind or even his soul if I did that, so I held off on trying it.

For now.

I already had ideas on how to bring them back, but a rollercoaster of events kept me on my toes and away from Sterns' sickbed, or Phineas' pedestal. First was the frantic call from Harper, who assumed the worst had happened when his communications with Othrys' were suddenly cut off with a spike of static. Unable to reach base and unwilling to either stick around even longer or to return empty-handed, Harper had ordered the Hysminai to breach Whitehall's fortress, killing as many Hydra agents as they could on the way in and out. A part of the forces there had survived though, which meant that the Hysminai were no longer complete unknowns as they were before.

The only upside of that debacle was that Harper and the Hysminai were coming back home, with Whitehall in their custody, and nobody the wiser about their identity or allegiance due to their unmarked armor and full-face helmets.

The second call that I got was from a desperate Jessica. It took me a while to calm her down (mostly because I was still a jumble of nerves and paranoia myself), but eventually I learned that she had seen a news item on the TV in her hotel which reported that an unknown attack had struck part of New York, with large amounts of people suddenly simultaneously experiencing a severe headache. There were no serious or lasting injuries once the attack had passed, though people with epilepsy and the like were recommended to take a day off and try to recuperate at home, since the attack hit them worse than other people.

Jessica had immediately assumed (correctly) that something in Othrys had happened, her fears only growing when she couldn't contact us for a few minutes before we finally managed to get the basic systems of Othrys up and running again after Phineas cut himself out of all of them. What surprised me wasn't that she was upset, but rather at whom she was upset with, namely herself.

"Michael… Michael, I'm so sorry… me and my fucking time limit! I shouldn't have pushed you, now look what happened-"

"Jess, Jess it's alright. Actually, no, no it isn't. But it's going to be alright. I'll make sure of it. What happened today? It will never happen again, I swear."

"Look, I'll go find Trish and we'll come right back-"

"Don't. I want you here, I do, but it isn't safe right now."

"I know, which is why I'm coming back-"

"A lot of attention is going to be on Othrys now Jessica. It won't take the Government, or S.H.I.E.L.D. long to triangulate the epicenter of the attack. Hell, I'm betting that Stark has already found it as we speak. I will not have that attention shift to you as well. Or towards the baby. Stay where you are. Stay safe. Please."

"…"

"Jess, please."

"… fuck! Fucking fine! I'll stay away. But if someone is dumb enough to end up on your doorstep, willing to bust down the gates, then you can bet your ass I'm coming over in order to ride Susan into battle, you hear me?"

"Yes dear."

That left both the general forces of Othrys to deal with, as well as the forces outside of Othrys as well. There wasn't much I could do about the latter until they made the first move, so instead I focused on the former. I realized quickly that, while things could've gone a lot worse (if it weren't for the fact that I stood inside the Vault when I made my rookie mistake, then everyone could've ended up with injuries similar to Sterns) a wide-scale mental attack like this would still spook my forces, especially since they knew about Kilgrave's history with his own mental powers.

I needed to keep my forces from leaving Othrys and my employ. Mostly because they simply knew too much, and I didn't want to kill them all off, but a (surprisingly large) part of me had also become attached to my people.

It wasn't just the fact that they had proven themselves utterly loyal to me for well over a year now (not a single Othrys design had ever been stolen or leaked, despite the multitude of attempts that I was aware of, a fair few of them involving bribing my forces, sometimes for ridiculously high amounts), it was also the fact that Othrys (and the people in it) had over time shifted from merely being a base to becoming a home.

From joining in large meals in the communal areas, to sparring with my security team, to the superpowered sports that we would play together on one of the many different fields on the upper recreational levels, I had begun to interact with my people more and more on a non-business level.

They weren't friends like Sterns, Phineas or even Harper, but they were people whose company I enjoyed, like comfortable background noise, and I would be genuinely saddened if they decided to turn their backs on me (especially since that would mean… dealing with them somehow).

I suspected that it would actually be the families of my employees that would be the hardest to swing back to my side though. The people who worked for me were reminded with every single step they took (sometimes literally) that they had me to thank for their current situation: they were healthier than they had ever hoped to be, with their families well provided for and living in the most advanced fortress in the world. The mental attack was a shock to their system without a doubt, but I hoped that their immense gratitude towards me would offset that somewhat.

Unfortunately, their families didn't have that factor to insure their loyalty. Oh, they were grateful for me improving their lives in general, sure, but it wasn't as personal or ever-present like with the crippled employees who I gave their limbs back.

So, in order to unite the forces of Othrys once more under my banner so that I could present a united front to whoever from the outside world would be knocking on my door soon, I called a general assembly in the main communal area of the residential levels of Othrys. As it was a large space with long tables and connected to both the buffet and an indoor plaza, this was where people would usually drift towards during mealtimes, meaning that it often was a lively place.

Now, however, only a day after I fucked up with the Mind Stone, the tone was somber, the adults looking towards where I stood with serious expressions, the children all off on another level where they were being babysat by some of the adults until this meeting was over. I had planned for the half dozen teenagers or so within Othrys to be excluded as well, but quickly realized that it would inevitably lead to some of them trying to listen in regardless, the feeling of being shut out probably causing them to do something stupid down the line.

Every single young adult book protagonist was a perfect example of doing just that (looking at you, Harry Potter, I still haven't forgiven you for being a moody little shit in Book 5), so in order to stamp out any hint towards young 'heroism' in the future I had reluctantly allowed the teenagers to sit in as well.

Not that their opinions would really matter in the grand scheme of things, but the illusion that it would should keep them out of my hair (so to speak).

As I stood there in front of my assembled people, my burning eyes slowly tracking across the crowd in order to look each and every single one of them in the eye I focused on the new addition to my power set.

Or rather, an enhanced version of a power that I had recently added to my power set.

Where before, the thoughts of other people had usually felt faint and smoke-like to my new mental senses, now they stood out to me with crystal clear sharpness. I no longer had to 'lean' into the representation of their thoughts in order to get impressions of what they were thinking about, but instead, all I had to do was look.

Each person whose eyes I met gained a halo of color, noise, smell and thought around them, one which I could interpret with ease. Looking closer and focusing on my senses, I could pick up their surface thoughts word for word. I knew that if I truly focused, that if I stilled my body, and quieted my own mind, I could look deeply into theirs (barring any mental defenses of course, and even then I felt that I could breach all but the very strongest of them).

I also knew that I could do more than merely looking.

With a deep breath, I began talking. I explained that an accident had occurred due to mishandling of a highly dangerous and unknown substance. I stressed that this fault in misuse could not have been anticipated due to the unpredictable nature of the substance in question. I kept hammering on the fact that things could've gone a lot worse if it hadn't been for my precautions, my safety guides for the construction of Othrys, that kept this disaster contained to its absolute minimum. I kept repeating that I was already working on bringing back Sterns and Phineas, and that there was no doubt in my mind that I would be successful in doing so.

On and on and on, I kept reassuring my frightened people. And with every single word that I spoke, I pushed thoughts towards them.

Safety. Confidence. Loyalty. Safety. Confidence. Loyalty.

I could've mind-wiped them. Used the same bull-in-a-China-shop technique that I had used to turn the Winter Soldiers into my unthinking slaves. The Mind Stone was powerful enough to easily overwrite their memories and thoughts, even when they were assembled in such a large group, giving me mindless sycophants instead.

I didn't try it, because I didn't want to. I didn't want mindless sycophants. I just wanted them to keep faith in me, so that they wouldn't leave Othrys. I didn't want to turn this already horrible experience into a drawn out tragedy by forcing myself to kill off or mentally enslave the people that had willingly followed me for well over a year.

I just wanted things to go back to the way they were before.

Safety. Confidence. Loyalty. Safety. Confidence. Loyalty.

Every time someone spoke up, asking me questions (mostly focused about whether there were any further plans for mind-related experiments or not, and what I had to say about my accident harming their children) I responded as earnestly as I could, looking them deep into their eyes as I responded.

And once I had, I could tell that their own minds had been turned more and more towards my side again, to the point that the persons that were the most vocal about taking their families and leaving Othrys (a pair of extremely annoying sisters, a petite brunette and a blonde with wide eyes) eventually came around to actually start defending my actions.

The people that were the hardest to subtly influence were thankfully also the people whose loyalty I didn't need to question. My Think Tank wouldn't give up their places at Othrys for anything in the world (even though Agnes raised quite a few concerns, but Radcliffe was enough to keep her in line after I sent her a lot of calming thoughts and emotions). While Elliot Randolph wasn't exactly immune to the effects of my mental powers (boosted by the Mind Stone as they were), his greater resilience wouldn't prove to be an issue, since the Asgardian had come to love living in a place where he didn't have to hide his alien nature every second of every day as he had done for the past thousand years or so.

Pangborn, being trained in the Mystic Arts and therefore possessing a more fortified mind than usual, was the hardest to control out of those with partial immunity to my mental suggestions. While he was immensely grateful to me for restoring his legs, he had always remained just a bit hesitant in fully joining Othrys. He thought that I moved too fast through all that he had to teach me about Magic, thought that me and Hansen were doing something both very foolish as well as very dangerous in trying to unravel the fundamental nature of the Mystic Arts. What was worse was that he saw that we were actually making a bit of progress on that front.

Still, with the might of the Mind Stone boosting my mental powers, even the wizard couldn't stand up to the full brunt of my suggestions when I turned to look him in the eye after he questioned me about my hunger for power.

Safety. Confidence. Loyalty. Safety. Confidence. Loyalty.

I sat there with my people for almost three hours straight, continuously trying to win them over both with words and with my mind. Instead of the somewhat nervous and agitated mob that had assembled here, I was now facing an audience that was completely engrossed in every single thing that I said.

It wasn't enough to completely silence all of their fears, since most of those would continue to remain hanging around in their subconscious for quite a while still, but it was a start. At the very least, I could trust in not having to deal with defectors for the coming month or so, if nothing else goes rampantly wrong.

Which is of course when a portal opens up in the plaza.

I already know who it is before I spot her bald head (the fact that my mind brushes against the most impressive mental fortifications that I have experienced so far, outclassing Elliot's natural resiliency by an enormous margin, clues me in as well), and with a sigh I clap my hands, drawing the attention of the crowd back towards me while I draw in my mental powers again, keeping them safely inside the confines of my own head.

No reason to make the Ancient One even more wary than she already is about me, right?

"Thank you all for your attention people! I'm glad that we could have had this conversation and do please remember that my office is open at all hours of the day. If there's anything that you wish to discuss with me, please, feel free to do so. Thank you."

After a brief, polite applause, the crowd disperses, still somewhat in a daze after being exposed to the effects of the Mind Stone for hours on end. As they part, the Ancient One strides towards me, much like Moses walking through the Red Sea.

She doesn't look happy.

I draw myself up to my full height, towering over the diminutive (but oh so dangerous) woman, glad that I'm still wearing my Aurelion Armor, before giving her a slight bow.

"Ancient One."

For a moment, she simply eyes me up and down, her hands hidden in her wide sleeves (meaning that any spell she has prepared there are hidden from view as well).

"I see you have taken your new title to heart then, Hyperion." She eventually says, her voice completely unreadable (and frustratingly enough, her mind is as well).

"A title that you bestowed upon me, Ancient One."

"You took the name Hyperion long before I met you, Mr. McCole. It was you who claimed the name. The title that I bestowed during our first meeting on the other hand was merely a confirmation of your power, of where you now stand in the fabric of reality." The Master of the Mystic Arts explains, her face still emotionless and her voice completely neutral.

Deciding not to beat around the bush any further, I walk out from under the covered dining area into the open plaza, hearing her slippers falling into step behind me. The large open space should give me more freedom of movement should we come to blows, since the Ancient One doesn't really need all that much space in order to charge a spell that could do some serious damage to me.

Still though…

"Why are you here, Ancient One? This time, you have arrived without Master Kaecillius, nor Master Mordo, even though I am more powerful now than I was before. Have you not come to fight me then? To mete out punishment for my error?" I rumble, half turning in order to peer at her, my faceplate folded away so that she can see my serious expression (though the Mind Stone in my forehead is still perfectly concealed by a removable plate of Vibranium).

"The reasons for my visit are many and varied. The reason as to why I approach you now should make itself apparent any time now." The Ancient One serenely replies.

"What are you-" I begin, only to be interrupted by the light suddenly dimming.

Looking up into the open sky far above me, I see thick dark clouds rolling overhead with unnatural speed, thunder rumbling distressingly close not soon after.

"Oh shit…"

"Not the words I would have used, but that would be the general gist of it yes." The Ancient One calmly responds, before turning towards the elevators.

"What are you going to do?" I ask as I follow her, my mind turned towards the highly… problematic conversation I'm about to have.

I almost ask aloud for Phineas to contact Jane Foster (time for her to fulfill her role as my anti-Asgardian defense system), before I catch myself. Phineas is gone, and until this is handled, I can't focus on bringing him and Sam back. The realization steels my resolve, my faceplate slamming closed. A quick flick of my eyes calls up Foster's profile, and it's the work of moments to send her a message, telling her to meet me at the gates.

"I'm going to do what I've done a depressingly large amount of times during my centuries long life, Hyperion." The Ancient One responds, pressing the button for the elevator and folding her hands behind her back (incidentally showing me that she doesn't have a spell charged and ready to go).

Looking towards me from the corner of her eyes as I come to a halt beside her, a small smirk plays around her lips.

"I'm going to go and try to keep two gods from bashing each other's skull in, since they always end up destroying much of the surrounding landscape when they do."

Her calling me a god once again tweaks my mystical senses and I know on a fundamental level that my 'place in reality' as the Ancient One puts is has changed even further.

"Huh. And how's that been working out for you?"

"Hmm. You know about the Tunguska Event from 1908?"

"… yes?"

"That was the last time I had to do so. The two gods were young and proved to both be quite foolish, and as a result, over 770 square miles of land ended up completely flattened. It was only due to the sparse population and my intervention that no human life was harmed." the Ancient One says, displeasure leaking into her voice, which comes to a halt when a cheery ding announces that our lift has arrived.

She quickly strides inside, calling out in a clear voice for the ground floor, staring calmly ahead as I stand beside her, the doors closing and the elevator beginning its descent, cheery music playing softly in the background.

We spend the entire ride in complete silence, until yet another ding rings out, announcing that we have arrived at our destination, but before the doors have fully opened, the Ancient One slightly turns her head in order to shoot me a piercing look, one hairless eyebrow raised in challenge.

"At least try not to act foolish as well, Hyperion. New York is slightly more populated than the Siberian taiga, and I would rather not repeat the events of 1908 again, understood?"

And with a whirl of cloth, she's gone, striding confidently through my Great Hall towards the gates, leaving me to follow, my fists clenched at my sides.

"Yes ma'am."

I'm not surprised by what I see on the security feed from the main gate which is displayed on the HUD of my helmet. Cap and Peggy are there, as well as Iron Man and an angry looking Thor. Fury is probably either at yet another Senate hearing or at a blacksite ordering god knows what kind of mission. Romanov and Barton are probably on said mission.

What I am surprised about is who isn't at the gate. Instead of Bruce Banner standing next to Steve or Tony, the Hulk is off in my jungle, giving Susan a belly rub. Considering the ripped clothes at the pier where a Quinjet is parked, and the weirded out glances the Avengers keep shooting my jungle (including Thor whenever he's not trying to stare a hole in Othrys' gates), they didn't expect it either.

I put the green behemoth out of my mind when the Ancient One and me finally reach the gates, which open smoothly at my command. The moment Thor's eyes land on me, he's stalking towards me, pissed of expression on his face and Mjolnir clenched tightly in his hand (his thoughts are difficult to read, literally enshrouded in a veil of force, but the anger is unmistakable, even to my newly awakened mental senses).

His eyes aren't made of lighting though, so at least that's something in my favor.

"Hyperion! Where's Jane!? What have you done to her?!"

"Thor, calm down. She's-"

"I will not calm down! You hurt one of my people-"

His rant is cut off, because with a sharp whistling sound of displaced air I'm suddenly right there in his face. Even as large as he is, I still tower over him, his blonde head only reaching my chin. Seeing my glowing breastplate suddenly only a few inches away from his face startles him, and before he can recollect himself, I lean in, my voice an angry growl.

I know that the Ancient One literally just asked me to keep my cool, but I had been under a lot of stress the past few days, guilt and worry over my friend's fates gnawing at me, and then for Thor to immediately start throwing around accusations... well, suffice to say, at that point, I was itching for a fight to take my mind off things.

"They are my people as well, Thor, son of Odin. I do not need your accusations on top of the worry that I already feel towards them. I do not need you to lay the blame for this accident at my feet, when it was your brother who put us all in this position in the first place!"

Most humans would've backed down when an enormous armored figure is standing not even a foot away from them and who clearly had a shitty past few days and is probably just looking for an excuse to hit something very hard.

Thor isn't human though.

He merely bares his teeth and gives a twirl of his hammer as he steps even closer to me.

"Return Jane to me. Now."

Heat spreads to all of my limbs, my hands lighting up with a golden glow as I clench them into fists.

"Or?" I ask dangerously, but Thor doesn't back down at all.

"Or I'll show you why you shouldn't mess with the God of Thunder."

"Go ahead and try me, little god. And I'll show you why you shouldn't threaten the Titan of Light and Fire."

"Or, the both of you can cease to act like children and deal with this situation befitting your age. You might both be young still, but you are adults. Act like it."

Both Thor and I break our staring contest to stare a little dumbfounded at the annoyed look on the Ancient One's face. What surprises me is to see recognition on Thor's face, since he gives an awkward cough as he steps away from me at her forbidding look. As we slowly back down, the glow coming off my body dims, the temperature all around us lowering to normal levels again, while the clouds start clearing overhead.

"Now then, if we could all agree to not getting into a superpowered fight here on the lawn like a bunch of rowdy hooligans…?" the Ancient One trails off with a raised eyebrow, staring down all of us one by one, until we all give her a nod.

"Perfect. Then why not come inside for a cup of tea?" she continues with a smile, and without waiting for any of us, walks back into Othrys.

"What about Bru… the Hulk?" Peggy hesitantly asks, turning over her shoulder to look at the dense forest behind her.

Before anyone of us can reply, a great bout of flame bursts out over the top of the trees about half a mile away from us, soon followed by deep, rumbling laughter and something that sounds suspiciously like 'Again, kitty! Again!'.

"I suspect Bruce's little green friend will be just fine for the time being, Agent Carter. For now, I suggest following the orders of the little lady whose apparently enough of a big shot that she can get Thor to back down from a fight and to invite Hyperion into his own home for a cup of tea." comes Stark's mechanical voice, the speakers in his armor doing nothing to hide his sarcastic tone.

He goes to follow the Ancient One, though he pauses as he walks by me, and though I can't see his face, I just know that he's raising his eyebrow at me.

"The gold is a bit… much, don't you think?"

"You'll forgive me for not taking fashion advice from the man who flies around in a titanium-gold alloy." I coolly reply, my mind slightly touching upon his.

As I suspected, there was a lot of suspicion there, aimed at me. A surprisingly large part of those suspicions were at least partially correct as well. What intrigued me was the slight anger that was present in his mind at well. Part of it was aimed at me, naturally, but part was aimed at himself as well, an ugly combination of jealousy and guilt, related to whatever beef he had with me.

It seems Stark is kicking himself over the fact that my inventions were more helpful in saving New York during the One Day War, as well as during the clean-up afterwards.

I can work with that.

"Well, the PR-department just absolutely loves it though. Just look at the sale-figures for all the Iron Man paraphernalia. Not just toys, but posters, lunchboxes, you name it."

"Of course they love it. Their audience consists mainly of children and we all know that they just possess the greatest fashion sense, now don't they?" I reply, sarcasm lining my voice, and while the armor doesn't give away any of his expressions, his mind tells me that my taunt has gotten under his skin.

"Why don't we take this inside? There are actually important things that need to be discussed after all, rather than which one of us has the better taste, since that is a conversation without end. You know. Eye of the beholder and all that." Stark says in a clipped voice, and then he's brushed past me as well.

Following on his heels are Peggy and Steve, never more than an arms-length away from each other. Their minds are a study in contrast though. Peggy's is like a non-Euclidian knot, full of twists and turns and shadowy sections that fold in on themselves. I could breach it if I brute-forced my way, but it would surely leave my head spinning.

Steve's on the other hand was an open book. Not to say that it was any weaker than Peggy's (in fact, I suspected that his mental fortitude was either equal to, or greater than Elliot's natural resistance), but there was simply no deception there. Steve was perfectly capable of lying and acting in a covert manner (his past as a Spec Ops commander, as well as the events from the Winter Soldier movie onwards are sufficient proof of that), but his intentions were transparent as glass.

No matter the deed, Steve would always act in a way that he felt was right.

He truly was a man that personified the American Ideals of Truth, Liberty and Justice, in heart, body and mind.

What was interesting to learn from their minds that they were far less antagonistic towards me than the other two Avengers who had already followed the Ancient One inside my base. Part of it stemmed from their gratefulness for my crucial part in bringing the two of them together, healthy and whole again. Part of that was my usefulness in their ongoing fight against Hydra, or at least their perception of my usefulness. I made sure to only give them individuals of different cells, instead of allowing them to roll up entire parts of the organization at once. As much as a pain in my ass Hydra has been over the last few years, they are still useful to me as a counterpoint to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s power. As long as Hydra exists (weakened, of course) then S.H.I.E.L.D. will be diverting resources towards them and away from, say, me.

"Good afternoon, Mr. McCole." Steve said with a nod, always the polite one.

"Good afternoon Captain Rogers. While it is nice to see you again, I had hoped for it to be under different circumstances. Will you be staying for dinner?"

"We would love to, but unfortunately we can't. I need to get back to the Senate in DC before they drive young Nicholas over the edge and he starts contemplating throwing them all off the highest floor in the building." Peggy cuts in, and from her mind I glean that she's partially telling the truth.

She does feel the need to assist Fury in holding his own against the federal government (she's a bit iffy on whether he'll be tempted to throw politicians off of rooftops or not), but the hearing that her mind flashes towards isn't until tomorrow.

Oh well, it's no skin off my back.

"How unfortunate. Please know that the two of you are welcome in Othrys at any time. If you would follow me?"

And with that, I lead the remaining two Avengers (thank god Susan is here to distract the Hulk, I did not like the way he was eyeing me during the Battle for New York) into my base. It doesn't take the Mind Stone to tell me that they caught the fact that I only welcomed the two of them into my base.

Clearly they got the message that the same does not apply to their colleagues.

While I would like to relate the long and difficult meeting that I had with the four Avengers inside my base, the truth is, there's not much to tell.

Thor immediately became a non-issue the moment that Jane (still bleary eyed and occasionally squinting her eyes due to her lingering headache) dashed through the Hall, threw her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss that rivalled the one Jessica had given me after she thought I had committed suicide by alien portal, combined with suicide by nuke.

Stark wanted to drag Thor back into the conversation, but the Ancient One shot me a quick look, clearly wanting me to keep Thor distracted for as long as possible, so I spoke up before Tony could.

"Jane, why don't you give Thor a tour of the facilities? It should give you both a chance to relax for a while and catch up." I told her.

Thankfully, Foster was quick on the uptake, and after taking Thor by the hand, started leading him towards the top floor of Othrys. While she and Thor were in a significantly stronger relationship now than they originally would've been, I knew from a brief glimpse into her mind that she would keep the Norse God away from the restricted lower levels.

As far as the outside world was concerned, Othrys was a perfectly normal building with maybe a two or perhaps even three sublevels, instead of the underground maze that was actually there.

Stark was clearly annoyed at having his heaviest hitter removed from the game, but since the Ancient One's reason for coming here in the first place (or at least one of the reasons) was to keep me and Thor from coming to blows, she gave the inventor a stern look, causing him to sit back down at the table we were all seated around at her request, a steaming cup of tea in front of all us (none of us had a clue at how they got there).

From there on, it became a battle of wills and words, me on one side, Tony and his fellow Avengers on the other. As it turned out, the Avengers were here due to Tony's own investigation into the sudden mental attack the previous day, but since it coincided with the research done by several different government agencies, they were also here in a representative capacity, a conference call quickly set up including the top dogs in the CIA, NSA and FBI (as well as a few smaller branches that I didn't quite get the name of).

Clearly, Stark's plan of attack had been to distract me with an opening volley of legal terms and unsubtle threats by the government goons, while he was stealthily trying to hack my systems as my attention was drawn by the agents who were salivating over my advanced tech and doing a bad job of hiding it. He had anticipated that I would get annoyed with all the legal crap that would be thrown at me (probably projecting from his own experience as a brilliant inventor working closely with the government), which would allow him to swoop in and 'save' me from them, injecting himself into a fellow-inventor (and therefore) buddy position.

Essentially, he was trying to pull a bad cop-good cop strategy on me, using multiple directors of various spy and military agencies as his bad cop without them even being aware of it.

Steve's mind told me he was annoyed with all the talking and shadowy strategies that were being used in order to ferret out just what had happened and whether or not it was enough grounds to draw up a warrant that would let various agencies within their legal right to bust down my door and to try and take my stuff for themselves.

Try being the operative word here.

No, Steve didn't care about using the incident as a means to get at my tech. What he cared about was the fact that apparently, something that had happened inside Othrys had hurt a lot of people. All he wanted to know was how it happened, whether there was any danger of it happening again, and whether he would have to try and stop me if that was the case.

Peggy was also annoyed, but mostly because she suspected that Tony's strategies wouldn't work on me, meaning that they were essentially wasting their time. Like Steve, she cared more about the people that had gotten hurt, and as such was itching to do a thorough search on my base in order to relieve me from the apparently dangerous materials that I was working with. However, unlike Stark or his unwitting band of distracting directors, she also knew that I would never allow something like that. If push came to shove, I would protect my base from outside intrusion, and Peggy had enough data about me to work from to come to the conclusion that she did not want anything to do with such a scenario at all.

While the amount of people that had gotten hurt should be defended against any such further attacks, Peggy also realized that the people that would be hurt from the fall-out from a conflict between me and the government or the Avengers (or both) would end up hurting far more people, even if you only counted those that would no longer have access to the life-saving medicine that I was slowly starting to sell on the pharmaceutical market.

So she was thinking much along the lines of Steve: find out what the hell happened, try and make sure it never happens again, and then get the hell out of here.

Now, Tony's opening tactic might have worked for a little while (at least enough for him to plant a bug unnoticed) but he hadn't counted on my conference call.

"I think you'll find that Mr. McCole, and Titan Solutions as a whole, have held themselves to the strict security standards that apply to all R&D sites regarding weaponry and industrial innovation, and as such legally cannot be held accountable for the discomfort allegedly experienced by an unquantified number of individuals in New York City, especially since you have no concrete proof that my client was the cause of said discomfort. This City is quite large, after all, the supposed episode might have been caused by anything really. In fact, if you'll look to Paragraph F in Section 6.2 of the Article that my associates have sent you..."

Jeri Hogarth once again pulled through for me, her sharp tongue coming clearly from the speaker I had placed on the table, cleaving through the bullshit that the goverment goons were spewing like a hot knife through butter, countering with even more complex legal terms.

As Stark's opening salvo quickly ground to a halt, it failed to distract me, so I caught the exact moment that he his hand brushed across the underside of the table, which immediately tried to find a connection to Othrys' systems (the fact that his mind simply radiated smugness was also a big give-away).

Taking my eyes of the heroes in front of me, I instead focus on the small bug that Tony has placed, and with a slight flex of my will, I crush the delicate mechanisms inside. As I had suspected from when I saw everything floating in the air around me when I woke up from the mental loop the Mind Stone had put me in, I now had burgeoning psychokinetic powers, meaning that I could do a variety of things with the power of my mind, which included telepathy as well as telekinesis.

Hell, since I'm bald and have gotten my powers from experimental drugs, I could be considered to be the MCU version of Eleven from Stranger Things.

Or a Jedi, but I hadn't been able to build a lightsaber (yet).

Other than a slight twitch in his posture at the tiny sparks that game from the concealed bug I had destroyed (as well as him clearly being startled showing through in his whirring thoughts), Stark gave no outward sign of him having noticed the destruction of his little spy gadget, though all three Avengers regarded me with a sudden tension as they knew that I knew about Stark's frankly illegal action just now.

The Ancient One simply kept sipping her tea with a mildly amused expression on her face as she listened to Jeri tearing the head of the CIA a new one after the man gave a rather impressive clumsy attempt at intimidating the unbreakable lawyer.

I could use the bug as grounds for starting shit with the Avengers, but that would mean that they no longer had any reason to play nice with me either. At the moment, we were two Great Whites circling one another in a shallow pond. The shark representing the Avengers (and thus in an indirect way, the government as well) had just tried to nip at my tail, but was unable to sink their teeth in. Now, I could either retaliate, causing us to try and rip each other apart and thus ruining our little pool, or I could let them off lightly, keeping the strained co-existence intact, though with them now in a disadvantageous position.

Since I had bigger things on my mind than fighting a costly and possibly drawn out battle with the Avengers, I chose the latter option, no matter how much I would have personally liked to pull a fast one on Stark.

When it became clear to the Avengers that I didn't intend to use Stark's actions in order to either drag them to court or immediately (and publicly) kick them off my island, they took it as the sign it was meant for: an olive branch. I wouldn't say anything about the bug and in return the Avengers would get to leave with their heads held high and without a black mark staining their records, though morally indebted to me.

Casually leaning forwards, placing one thick arm onto the table and placing a massive fist under my armored chin told them that they had best be leaving right the fuck now or the deal would be off the table.

Getting the message, Peggy was the first to rise, giving a polite nod towards both me and the Ancient One which the both of us returned. Steve immediately followed his woman's lead, though he clearly wanted to stay and impress upon me how I should refrain from endangering the citizens of New York any further.

While I couldn't speak and assure him that it wouldn't happen again (the conference call was still on, and my words could be used as an admission of guilt after all), I did send the good Captain a wave of comforting thought, and the man's posture relaxed after that, though his mind remained wary.

I was pretty pleased with myself, until I glanced over at the Ancient One and noticed that she was staring at me with an unreadable expression which still somehow conveyed that I was in deep shit.

Stark realized that the game was up when he knew that his bug had been immediately found, and he looked incredibly displeased when he stood up as well, his faceplate slamming shut and the eyes coming to life with a baleful glow. Without a word, he shut off the conference call and stomped out of my Hall, Steve and Peggy hurrying to keep up with him. By the sound of repulsors blasting off, Stark didn't have the patience to ride back with them on the Quinjet.

Thanking the confused Hogarth (all she had heard was a couple of chairs scraping over the floors when the multitude of voices she had been gleefully arguing with were suddenly cut off) I turned to face the Ancient One fully, half-expecting to be met with Eldritch energy to the face right off the bat.

Instead, she looked... tired? Sad, even.

Her staring quickly made me uncomfortable, to the point that I politely coughed into my fist and broke the silence.

"Uhm, Ancient One? Is everything... alright?"

For a moment, she just keeps on looking at me, before a deep sigh comes from her lips.

"In Kamar-Taj, all books may be read, though the reader may not understand all that is written. All relics may be freely gazed upon, but only those worthy of them may wield them. There is no knowledge that is forbidden, merely certain practices. It is the mark of the Ancient One to determine which rituals shall remain forbidden, which must become forbidden, and which shall be allowed once more. When I became the Ancient One, I didn't change much, to be honest. After all, I was quite young, back then, and I didn't feel wise enough to disregard that which those before me had ordained in their greater wisdom. But as my own wisdom grew, as well as my foresight through use of the Eye of Agamotto, I started to abandon my earlier caution. I am a scholar at heart, Michael. All the books were still allowed to be read. But I began to question my predecessors. And burdened with the gift of foresight, I saw only danger in them. I began to forbid many things, more than most other Ancient Ones have during their lifetime. After all, was I not the wisest? Was I not the most powerful? Who else but me had the required wisdom to see, the required foresight to know which things were too dangerous for my followers?"

The Ancient One falls silent for a moment, her vision focused on something far away and long ago. When she resumes talking, it's in a tone of deep sadness.

"And that was the beginning of the end. Some of the practices that I had forbidden I do not regret, even now. Mainly those dealing with sacrifices and the like. And my foresight told me that I had acted justly. But that was merely an illusion, the calm before the storm as they say. After a while, instead of seeing a brighter future, I instead saw a future that merely got darker. Recalling that brief period of enlightenment after my first commands, I once again resorted to forbidding practices and rituals, hoping to stave off the coming darkness. But it was to no avail, and the more I struggled to change the future, the darker it became, until my worst fears were proven correct."

At this, she turns towards me, somehow managing to stare me straight in the eyes even through the faceplate I'm wearing.

"I saw that I would die at the hands of one who I had trained in the Mystic Arts myself. I thought about renouncing my position then and there, to pass on the mantle to another, almost four hundred years ago now. But I found none who were worthy. So I again tried to undo my fate, and wanted to refrain from teaching anyone at all for the remainder of my lifespan. But an Ancient One who does not teach, is no Ancient One at all, so I continued guiding others on the path to healing. But while I cared for those who came to study under my roof, I did not become close to them, for a part of me could not abandon my fear of them. And through this distance, and through my arrogance in forbidding many practices that would allow those under me to gain power, I had unwittingly created the conditions for my own end. Kaecillius isn't the first among those who have trained in the Mystic Arts who chafed under my tutelage. But none before him would have gone as far as he. The others focused on the rituals that I had forbidden in my 'great wisdom', but since I managed to defeat them all without dying, I foolishly hoped that I was right in my decisions, and that if I kept this up long enough, I could still change my fate. But Kaecillius looked further back, to the practices that were forbidden before I even learned to make my first portal. In the end, it turned out that it wasn't any of my, oh so cleverly chosen practices that would be the instrument of my downfall, but the distance that they created with my acolytes which would push them to even older, and viler things instead. Kaecillius was right in his objections, even if he did not know the truth behind the matter. After all, what claim did I have to tell those below me which rules they should abide by, if I broke those same rules myself?"

As she trails off, I can feel her channeling energy to her forehead, causing a mark to appear there. But it isn't Dormammu's mark as I remember it from the movie. Instead of thin scratches in her skin, there were now thick marks that ran over them. I felt like I had seen similar linework before, but in ink instead of what appeared to be cuts in her skin.

"A seal?" I venture the moment that my mind thinks back to the Naruto anime that I saw so long ago.

"Thanks to your serum, I no longer need to draw energy from the dark dimension in order to sustain myself. I have cut off all possible lines of communication with the Great Enemy, and asked both Kaecillius and Mordo in designing and applying the seal. The ritual that I used shall remain forbidden, but the book that it is described in has now been updated with my own notes, a sincere apology and a dire warning. Together with the Masters of the other Sanctums, I have gone over all the rituals that I have forbidden during my time as the Ancient One, and Kaecillius is currently going through those that have been approved to be used again. Once he has done them all, which should take him a few years at least, I shall send him to you, since the Sanctums will have nothing to teach him then. You will need him harder than he will need the Sanctums. Pangborn is talented, but he is not on Kaecillius' level, and clearly you require a more guiding hand in forces that you do not understand."

With that statement, the Ancient One drains the remainder of her tea, before placing the delicate china (which I definitely do not own) back onto the table, before rising to her feet.

"Now then, if you will excuse me, I have some matters regarding transportation to discuss with a certain God-"

"Wait!" I say as I stand up as well, causing the Master of the Mystic Arts to turn back towards me with a questioning expression.

"That's it? I fuck up and all I get is you coming over to keep me and Thor from fighting, and to tell me your backstory?" I ask incredulously.

I know that I should be grateful that I'm getting off this lightly (as powerful as I am, I do not fancy battling the Ancient One in the middle of an Othrys which is void of Phineas' mind) and that the smart play here is to simply shut the hell up, accept my good fortune and hope the Ancient One hurries up getting her ass out of here.

But my paranoia (and slight guilt) can't accept things as they are. I need to know why the Ancient One is acting like this.

"Do you understand why I told you my backstory?"

"I guess in order to warn me of thinking better than others?"

"In a way. In trying to prevent my downfall, I caused it, and the reason I was foolish enough to attempt to prevent the future from happening in the way that I did was due to arrogance. Because I thought I was better than anyone. That Stone in your forehead is more dangerous than I am, Michael. Both to you and to those around you. Now, had you enslaved the minds of these innocent people here, then I would have done everything in my not inconsiderable power to scatter your body-parts across a dozen dimensions, but I'll hold off on fighting you for now. Despite the fact that my chances of beating you dwindle the longer you remain on this path, I still hold out hope that you won't allow yourself to turn into a bigger monster than he who you are trying to defeat. Be careful of imposing your will on others, Hyperion, New Titan of the East River, lest you find your own will dominated as well. Not by the Stone, though you should be wary of that as well. But by your hunger for power."

Having said her piece, the Ancient One gives me a firm nod, before she swiftly stalks out of the room, leaving me to slowly drop back down in my seat again as I mull over her words.

It's only after a few minutes have gone by that I notice something is off, and it takes a few minutes more before I realize what it is:

The table is cleared, the china and tea gone as if they were never there.

With my relations with... well basically everyone (the Avengers and government, the Masters of the Mystic Arts, and my own workforce) being somewhat tense, but controlled for now, I instead focus on something that I have been wanting to do ever since I woke up from the Xavier-seizure I had four days ago.

Actually, I have been wanting to do this particular thing ever since the One Day War, but the motivation has changed. Where before I was simply interested in seeing if I could do it, netting me a pretty badass mount in the process, now it was merely a testing ground for the real deal: bringing back Sterns and Phineas.

Three days ago, after Thor left Othrys (thankfully taking a pouty Hulk with him) once Jane had shown him all the residential and recreational areas and the Ancient One had a lengthy discussion with him, I threw myself into the same research that I had done before I had attempted to gain control over the Mind Stone, now two weeks ago.

I spent the entire rest of the day, deep into the night practicing my burgeoning psychokinetic powers, focusing mainly on my telepathy. My telekinesis was still very weak and would take time to strengthen (though for some reason both my armor and weapons were really easy to move, probably due to the fact that they were spiritually attuned to me), but my telepathy had been growing even before I fully took hold of the Mind Stone. Othrys had several lab animals on site (not that they got used for the pretty big stuff, since those things usually ended up with me as a guinea pig instead) and I spent hours on end using the Mind Stone to dominate their minds.

As expected, the brute force method was far easier to use and far more effective as well, allowing me full control over the animal after only a couple of seconds, depending on the size and intelligence of the animal. Once I felt that I had a handle on how to use the Mind Stone to boost my telepathy (or maybe more accurately, to guide the Mind Stone in doing what I wanted), I started on the next phase in my rescue plan: I started working on animals with a hive-mind.

Ants, wasps, shrimp and even a small colony of naked mole-rats (one of the only two species of vertebrae who operated like a hive-mind, the other being the non-naked mole-rat). Of course, the eusociality displayed in certain species of Earth was different than the one that the Chitauri possess (since they seem to operate within a larger, telepathically linked supermind of sorts), but it should give me an insight in how to deal with such mentalities.

And whhooooo boy, was it weird when I took control over a quarter of a colony of ants. Not that it was difficult mind you, but weird (like pretty much anything else related to the mental world as these past few weeks have taught me). I could feel the tiny pinpricks that represented the individual ants that I had taken control over. But I could also feel something larger pressing in on my mind, trying to get at the ants within my grasp: the hive mind of the colony. Of course it would be fitting to say that the rest of the hive sounded like a buzz in the back of my mind, but that wasn't the case, interestingly enough.

It felt more as if I was standing in a stream with a strong current. Not enough to wash me away (these are ants we're talking about here) but definitely strong enough to be noticeable. The current got progressively stronger the more developed the animal. Taking the animals under my control away from the hivemind at first caused resistance, as if I was wading upstream (gonna stick with the water metaphor here, since even my advanced brain can't come up with a more accurate analogy for describing a human mind interacting with those of tiny animals through the use of a primordial piece of force placed in my helmet). Leading the animals further and further away caused the resistance to lessen (though the remainder of the hive got more and more agitated) until there was a snap and all the pull on my mind just... disappeared.

The connection to the hive-mind was cut.

Trying to return the mind-controlled animals to the hive resulted in them getting viciously attacked, so I quickly set them up in their own separate habitats instead. However, once I let go of my mental hold over the neatly ordered animals, they descended into confused chaos, without any apparent clue about what they were supposed to be doing without the pull of the hivemind directing them.

Taking my experiments into account, the Chitauri conveniently dying off all at once began to make a lot more sense. If their hivemind was far more sentient and connected than the social construct of a hive of ants or wasps, then the closing of the portal would be the equivalent of doing what I had just done to my test batch, but instead of merely transporting them to another part of the lab, chucking them with full force across the breath of the galaxy without any warning whatsoever, all in the span of a second.

Yeah, no wonder the mental backlash ended up frying all of their brains simultaneously.

Well... almost all of them. For one brain still remained, perfectly preserved in time.

This was what the past few days of experimentation had led towards, me standing in front of the transparent dome that still held the frozen Leviathan which I had ridden into battle during the One Day War, an extremely worried (but loyal-minded) Pangborn standing beside me.

"Michael, are you sure about this? Shouldn't we wait for more testing? The last time you rushed an experiment that dealt with the mind-"

"I know Pangborn, and if the situation were any different, I would agree. Hell, I still agree. But I have to try. We need Soter back into Othrys to keep things running smoothly and I'm not letting Sterns become a vegetable, not when there's a chance that we can bring them back. Alright?"

"... alright."

And with that, Pangborn starts moving his arms in complex patterns, a bright glow of Eldritch energy coming to life in geometric shapes in front of them, interlocking and always moving. At the same time, I focus on the Mind Stone in my helmet and prepare all my willpower for what is to come.

This has to be done with absolutely perfect timing, but if I can pull it off then I know I have mastered the Mind Stone sufficiently enough to attempt reaching Sam and Phineas.

"Now!"

At my call, the wizard slams his hands into the ground, the transparent dome covering the Leviathan shattering like glass. The exact second the time-freezing spell is lifted, the lone Chitauri-mount is rapidly dying, his brain incapable of dealing with the absence of a Hive Mind.

Which is why at the exact same moment a pulse of pure thought slams into its primitive mind. I pour as much power as I dare into forming a mental connection between the Leviathan and me, trying to dominate the enslaved beast's mind as fast as possible.

Without the constant pull of the greater hive-mind, it will die, though thankfully not as fast as the rest of the Chitauri forces when the portal and nuke combo brutally severed their connection to the main force and their mother ships. In order to keep the Leviathan from dying, I will become it's hive-mind instead.

Within moments, my mind has surrounded the weakened mind of the war mount completely, holding it so firmly it's almost suffocating it. I can feel the shattered part of its mind where there used to be a connection to the greater whole that it was a part of, and without hesitation I pour my mind into the gaps, forcefully creating a link between its mind and my own.

Impressions and vague memories slam into me, of moving weightlessly through the void of the universe, the sharp pain of soldiers deploying from my sides, the sting of an unfamiliar sun on my back as I wreck yet another city with my brethren, all themselves, all me, all part of the larger whole which is us.

Except, as I press into the mind of the trapped Leviathan, there is no more us.

There is merely me.

And with another push of my thoughts, this one powerful enough that the Mind Stone shines brilliantly upon my forehead, causing Pangborn to shield his eyes and turn away, a link is created between the Leviathan and me.

It's still weak, but no longer dying, and I can feel a thread of sorts going out from my own mind and connecting itself firmly to that of the gargantuan creature. Examining it causes a wholly different set of expressions and senses to wash over me, real-time feedback from what the beast under my control is experiencing, before I dim the connection.

It's there, and unless an outside force or great distance breaks it, it will remain there without effort from me, giving me the faintest of impressions at the back of my mind. Looking inwards into my own mindscape (a process which took me several hours of deep meditation to achieve before I took the Mind Stone, but now a mere matter of will and a few seconds of disorientation) I saw the Leviathan's body curling itself around the walls of my mental Othrys, it's rudimentary sense of self (in so far as that it had one) made 'real' inside my mindscape.

Yet another guardian to my thoughts.

Returning to the real world, I share my own feelings of pride and accomplishment through the link towards the Leviathan, and from the slight feedback I know that the animal has received them clearly. At my instruction to go to sleep, it slithers away from the grassy meadow that separates Othrys from the surrounding forest, sinking beneath the surface of the East River with very little sound for such a large creature. Focusing on its mind shows me that it has leisurely looped towards the entrance of the cave that leads to the garage, much like the underwater entrance to Syndrome's base in the Incredibles movie.

Damn. I wonder if the second one turned out to be any good.

Alright, new part to my Twelve Step Program (ha! what a hilariously naive name, child-me!): upon achieving omnipotence, find a way to view the Incredibles 2 movie. I have waited a combined 38 years goddamnit! I wanna see what powers Jack-Jack has!

"So... it worked, I take it? We won't have to worry about being swallowed whole during our sleep? Or when awake, for that matter?"

"Yeah Pangborn, it worked. It's fully under my control. As for the 'being swallowed whole' part... hmm, well I have thought that Susan seemed a bit... hungry this morning."

"... You're an asshole. You know that, right?"

"Damn proud of it too, Jonathan. Proud of it too."

"Of course you are."

Given the pressure that was on me while I tried to dominate the mind of the Leviathan (looking back through the process, I suspected that if I had been even a second later in latching onto it's already fading mind, it would've been too far gone to have been of any use to me), reaching out to Sam was surprisingly... easy.

I simply leaned over his bed, grabbed ahold of his brightly burning mind, and basically shouted WAKE UP! as loudly as I could. After experiencing a smack to the face (which hurt Sam more than it did me) as well as a slight deja-vu ("Back! Back I say! I know karate!") I let out a relieved breath, looking with a smile at my eggheaded friend who looked around the hospital wing in confusion, squinting his sensitive eyes against the bright eyes overhead.

"It's good to have you back Sam." I said sincerely, causing Sterns' eyes to snap towards me (which immediately worsened his headache, if his pained groan was anything to go by).

After catching his breath, he leant back into the large fluffy pillow of the hospital bed with his eyes drooping closed.

"It's good to be back, Michael. God knows the world is absolutely fucked if I remained asleep for any length of time. You need me." he says, slurring his speech slightly, though he has a dopey grin on his face.

Seeing him lying in the hospital bed like that, due to my rookie mistake (after all, doesn't the Overlord List teach us not to consume an energy source larger than our head?) simply ramps up my feelings of guilt, so with a small, genuine smile I place my enormous hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do."

"Swat... I szaid... doofus" he replies with a grin, happily snoring away the moment he slurs his last word.

Phineas was a bit more difficult to awaken. Whereas Sterns was merely in a very deep sleep, with his mind still present and accessible, Phineas had completely withdrawn to within the confines of his silicone shell. It would mean that I had to bridge a lot more 'distance' (for as much as conventional dimensions exist in the mental world), but it would also mean that Phineas' mind would be a lot more compact, and thus, denser than Sterns had been.

If he ever finds out that I called him dense in comparison to Sterns, I'll never live it down.

In order to not overwhelm him, I took out his brain from his pedestal, cradling it in my hands as I pushed my mind against his. It took quite a lot of time before I noticed a reaction from him to my presence, but as expected, he merely tried to shy away further from me, clearly thinking this to be part of the original mental attack.

Without any way to directly communicate with him, I instead approached him and backed away in short, rapid patterns, hoping that he would pick up on the Morse Code that I was sending him.

It was a short message: it's me.

I only had to repeat it two times before I could feel/see Phineas' mind start pulsing as well, though he remained within the confines of his own mind. Parsing his message was easy enough, though somewhat annoying.

'Who is me?'

'Michael.'

'How do I know?'

'What?'

'How do I know it's Michael?'

'... who else could it possibly be?'

'You could be that Stone, trying to trick me.'

'If I was the Stone, then why would I even bother tricking you?'

'Because you're a primordial piece of unimaginably powerful force. Maybe you like tricking people.'

'For fuck's sakes Phineas! I'm not the Stone, I'm me! Michael! I control the Stone now, not the other way around!'

'Which is exactly the kind of thing that a sneaky mind controlling primordial piece of unimaginably powerful force would say.'

'Oh for the love of... looking, pulsating back and forth like this in Morse Code is giving me a serious headache, I look like a horny rabbit on a cocktail of Viagra, heroin and whatever the hell is keeping Keith Richards alive, so here's my solution: you ask me a question that only the real Michael would know. I get it right, I'm Michael, and you come back to us, I get it wrong and... you stay here, I suppose.'

'Alright. But how do I think of the question?'

'... what.'

'Well, think about it! It can't be too easy, or something well-known about me, or the primordial piece of unimaginably powerful force will eat my mind. But I can't make it too hard either, or you'll guess wrong and I'll be stuck here, possibly turning away Michael instead of a malevolent primordial piece of unimaginably powerful force.'

'... your biggest dream is having sex with Lucy Lawless.'

'... alright, you're Michael.'

After returning to the real world (with my head spinning at the speed the two of us were signaling to each other) I grumpily placed Phineas back into his pedestal. As when he first awakened there, the entire thing started to light up, before a hologram of the Tinkerer was projected above it. He had the decency to have his hologram blush when he looked at my annoyed expression at least.

"Give me three-, no give me two days and I'll have Othrys back up and running to the beautiful piece of orchestrated machinery and programming that she was before, even if I do say so myself. I tell you what, just sitting around with nothing to do but think for nearly two years has given me a lot of ideas!"

"Phineas..."

"Yes Michael?"

"... nevermind, you'll find out. Best of luck in... whatever it is you're going to do to my base. I'm going to take the most powerful aspirin that I can find and going to bed. Wake me when the apocalypse happens. Or not."

"... sure? Bye Michael!"

It had been three days since I had brought back Sterns and Phineas, to general good cheer of the rest of Othrys who had genuinely missed the two and who had worried for their wellbeing. Returning them to consciousness, without any apparent lasting effects (though I would keep my eye on Phineas, just in case. Isolation can make people go... weird) had bought me a lot of goodwill with the rest of my forces.

Combined with my subtle manipulation using the Mind Stone, and I didn't have to fear sedition within my forces anytime soon.

For now, I put all of that out of my mind however. Instead, I peeked from under the heavy grey cloak I wore to Sterns, who was dressed in equally concealing clothing as I was and sitting next to me. Where I planned on going, it paid not to stand out too much, and as much as I loved the Aurelion Armor, it wasn't exactly... subtle.

Seeing a massive grin on my friend's face, fully rested and healthy after his three day rest-period, which he kept insisting was two days too long. It had gotten to the point that Hansen had physically slung him over her shoulder when she caught him escaping yet again, carried him back to the hospital wing, plopped him down into one of the beds, and then placed a large flower with virulent pink petals on his dresser. Nobody knew what the plant was supposed to do, but there were bets about what horrible injuries it would inflict on Sterns, ranging from the traditional teeth and fire, to the more exotic ones, like growing long vines and forcing him to hit himself over and over again. I personally put forward the possibility that it would grow into an enormous Swampthing-like plant creature and use Sterns as compost.

Hansen didn't reveal its function either way, though the sugary sweet smile that came to her face whenever someone asked about it cause many to blanch in fear and feel a shiver crawl up their spine.

Sterns stayed in his bed after that.

But now he was fully healed, with Hansen grudgingly discharging him from the hospital wing, and now we could finally embark on a journey that I had honestly wanted to make almost two years ago.

Turning in my seat to look out the window screen in front of me, I couldn't quite contain a grin from growing on my face.

"Remember Sterns, 88 mph is the ticket."

From the corner of my vision, I can see him look at me in surprise, before he gives a small chuckle, turning the key in the ignition. With a keening hum, Oliver comes alive, his hyper-modern dashboard giving off a familiar hauntingly blue glow.

"I shall try."

"No. Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try."

"Of course. Hopefully, we'll be back."

"As long as there's no trap!"

"If there is, Oliver can always beam us up!"

"All things that will only become a concern once we have boldly gone where-"

"If the two of you are quite done with geeking out?" came Radcliffe's voice from outside the Tesseract powered truck, though the humor in his tone was unmistakable, a quick glance confirming that the man was struggling to hold back a grin as he rubbed his ribs, an eye-rolling Agnes standing next to him.

We were all standing in the large underground garage on the opposite end of where Othrys was located on the Island. Sterns and I were sitting inside the souped-up vehicle, while most of my Think-Tank as well as most of my workforce were looking on from a safe distance. Putting on our game faces, Sterns and I gave the chuckling Radcliffe a serious nod, before beginning our launch sequence.

"This is Oliver to Othrys, do you read Othrys?" Sterns asked calmly over the comms.

"This is Othrys, reading you loud and clear Oliver."

"Request for opening the bay doors."

"Roger that Oliver, bay doors opened."

With a rumble of the Earth, the two hangar doors in the ceiling over the cave started to part, allowing rays of sun and quite a bit of dirt to fall down into the underground garage below.

"Request for full vertical launch-position for Pad 1-C, designation Oliver."

"Roger that, full vertical launch for 1-C."

A hiss of hydraulics was the only warning we got before the entire part of the floor where Oliver stood started to move, rapidly tilting upwards, robotic arms coming up from the sides in order to keep Oliver in place, acting much like the scaffolding around rockets and space shuttles. When we were fully vertical, pressed into the backs of our seat, Sterns spoke up again.

What followed was a long list of check-ups, involving fuel (which wasn't exactly applicable since the Tesseract gave off infinite fuel according to all systems) and whether the arms would release in time, whether the garage was cleared of objects and personnel (all the other vehicles were shrunk and safely stored in my desk in Othrys) and so on and so forth.

After nearly twenty minutes, we came to the final part of the countdown.

"Oliver, you're go for launch."

"This is Oliver, we will start ignition in T minus one."

"Roger that Oliver, ignition in T minus 56."

That minute might have been the longest in either one of my lives, sitting there in silence as I stared up at the empty sky far above me. I just kept thinking about things that might go wrong. The leviathan was shrunk down to the size of a gargantuan boa constrictor and was resting in the trailer, meaning that it wouldn't die when I suddenly found myself in a different stellar system. I knew that flying through New York City in Oliver (even if it was merely straight up in order to reach the atmosphere) could get me in a lot of trouble, which why I had informed Jeri a week before that this was going to happen, and she had been prepping City Council as well as the U.S. Government and the UN in order to assure that I wouldn't get shot down (though nobody was exactly happy with the situation, though UNOOSA was on my side at least).

And then I was drawn from my musings because the countdown was about to end.

"5..."

"4..."

"3..."

"2..."

"1..."

"Liftoff."

And with that, Sterns pressed a button on the dashboard, and a violent shudder ran through Oliver. The whine from the monstrosity that Sterns and Selvig had built around the Tesseract and which now passed as Oliver's engine increased tenfold, nearly rattling my teeth around in my skull.

A giant seemed to punch me in my chest as I was pressed even further back into my seat (briefly I felt confusion and a hint of panic coming from the Leviathan, so I tried to send it calming thoughts), our surroundings quickly falling away. Struggling against the immense G-Forces (both me and Sterns were in our respective armors underneath the concealing cloaks, so our internal organs should be fine) I turned to look out the window, slightly stunned when I saw the whole of New York spread across the land below me.

The enormous city was rapidly shrinking, while the air around us started to darken. Soon, the earth began to curve at the edges, whereas the blue sky turned a deep indigo color. And still we kept madly accelerating, trying to escape the pull of the Earth. Not even a minute later, I could make out the entire continent of North-America, the enormous landmass filling my vision. Two minutes after that, the entire continent was within view, surrounded on all sides by the most beautiful blue I had ever seen.

Turning away from the breathtaking planet below me, I instead looked out towards the sky. There was no color at all now, just an endless black. A halo of bright light, too bright to look in its general direction, sat off to our far left, like an enormous flashlight, bathing us in the rays of the sun. I could feel Sterns activating thrusters on Oliver's side, and we turned away from the sun until our backs were towards it. Instead, we now looked out into the vast openness of space, more stars than I had ever seen in my life visible across the vast expanse of the universe.

For a moment, neither I nor Sterns say a word, just taking in the mesmerizing view. When I speak, it's in a soft, almost respectful voice.

"Sterns. Take us out."

"Very good, sir." My friend replies in the same tone, before reaching down to the enormous lever at his side.

With a grin and a gleam in his eyes, Sterns slams the handle forwards, causing a sudden change in pitch from the Tesseract. And without warning, our world dissolves in various shades of blue, all that we can comprehend is the sensation of immeasurable speed, as well as undefinable sense of dimensions.

Space and distance, the passage of time... wherever we are, those things are meaningless now.

However, not even a second later (or is it an eternity... it's hard to tell...) the screaming streaks of blue break up, and instead of hanging serenely outside of Earth's atmosphere, we're bursting through what appear to be mountains of metal. I can see Sterns slamming on the brakes out of the corner of my eye, and we come to a stop surprisingly soon, considering the frankly insane speed which we came out of the... portal, I'm guessing?

Looking in the rear-view mirror, I see a ten-mile long track of burned ground and flaming debris in our wake, a testament to our breaking of one of the fundamental laws of the universe. Despite having smashed apart small mountains of trash at speeds that defy all common notions of science and how the world is supposed to work, Oliver is remarkably intact.

Sure, the paint is going to need a little rework, but as far as I can tell, there's no structural damage. Which of course was the first thing that Sterns focused on, giving a relieved sigh when Oliver gave him the all green sign (a little thumbs-up next to the speedometer, I notice to my amusement). Only then did he look out the window, his mouth falling open at the mounds of futuristic crap that we are surrounded with, his eyes drawn to the definitely alien looking high-rises that we can spot on the horizon.

"What is this place?"

"This, my friend, is the home of all lost things in the Galaxy."

"... that... that doesn't clear anything up. Like, at all."

"Sam. Welcome to Sakaar!"

...

...

...

"... yeah, look. I can tell that you think that explains stuff, but I'm still lost here."

/

Fun Fact: As a gift, Marvel Studios gave Iron Man actor Robert Downey, Jr. the 30-foot-tall "A" seen hanging on the side of Stark Tower in the final shot of The Avengers.

AN: I knew I said I would get this out yesterday. The thing is, while this was (mostly) finished yesterday, I couldn't publish because I was forced to restore my pc to factory settings. I only managed to get everything up and running again today, and while I thankfully haven't lost (most of) my files due to saving them on a cloud, I have still lost my Office, which I can't re-install at the moment. As such, the rewrite of this chapter was done in WordPad, which does not seem to have spellchecker (if it does, please let me know!). As a result, this chapter is just rife with spelling errors, which I intend to rectify the moment I have Word installed again. Sorry about that.

As awlays, major shout out to my amazing Patrons, Miu, justlovereadin, Carn Krauss, ReapeScythe, Thordur hrafn, Daniel Dorfman, Fakhrurrozi and Samuel Carson! I cannot thank you guys enough for willing to support me as you do, so thanks again!