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Silly Tales of the Super Girl (MCU Supergirl SI)

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by d.fish, May 7, 2017.

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  1. Threadmarks: 2.6 Interlude 2
    d.fish

    d.fish Lés Bien

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    Notes: Not satisfied with this chapter, but I guess there's nothing I can do... sigh... help me, please?

    ---​

    “Son of Coul!” Thor boomed as he barged into Phil Coulson's office.

    Phil looked up from his computer terminal and sighed, “Hello Thor. How are you doing?”

    “No time for pleasantries, Son of Coul,” Thor did a great impression of Brian Blessed. He slammed his palms down on Phil's desk, causing the floor to shake. “I come on urgent business for the All Father. 'Tis a matter that concerns the dangers to all the Nine Worlds and beyond, for I must seek to repair the Bifrost, which has shattered in Loki's betrayal!”

    Phil blinked. If he were a more impatient man, he would have reached up to massage the bridge of his nose. This was a confounding case if there ever was one, but it was only so troublesome because of the confirmed non-violent nature of things and how it tangled the different members of the Avengers initiative.

    He logged out of his terminal calmly as Thor seemed to breath a sort of old mead-infused breath down his forehead, before turning back to the Asgardian. “Alright, Thor. Is this about the girl?”

    “She is the only clue to the core of the Tesseract, yes. I must acquire it if Asgard is to keep peace across the dominions of Yggdrasil, Son of Coul. Billions of lives depend on it.” Thor intoned, his words empowered by the weight of the situation.

    It was a little above his jurisdiction, if Phil were honest with himself.

    He didn't even deal in things that mattered on the scale of millions of lives, let alone billions. It was a daunting number, and he thought he was up for it, but it still caused him to pause. He couldn't picture the kind of scale this was. Even the New York Incident was just that, an incident that took part in a part of one single city.

    Billions?

    Phil stood and stared into Thor's eyes. “Alright. I did a little searching after our last meeting, and then she showed up in a way that SHIELD couldn't cover up. Kara Zorelle. Does the name ring any bells, Thor?”

    “No,” Thor frowned. “Why do you ask, Phil?”

    “I... thought she was one of yours. A rogue Asgardian, maybe?” Phil studied Thor's facial features closely as he said this. His words slowed as a dawning sense of dread engulfed his heart. “No?”

    Thor shook his head, his beautiful locks swaying in the air conditioned air of the room like threads of gold. “No, I have never met a creature as her, Son of Coul. Like her, perhaps. She may be a Titan or another unknown Celestial... but no Asgardian may perform her feats without aide.”

    Coulson motioned for Thor to come around to the back of his desk before taking a seat again. “Look, this is what I got on her.” He turned the computer back on and flipped it to the recent mess that this strange girl made.

    She had went on social media, streaming video live in a way that couldn't be blocked, and showed herself moving faster than the human eye could follow, as well as what was arbitrarily labeled as some sort of 'freeze breath' that induced a state that was as close to absolute zero as physically possible. And she seemed to be immune to temperatures over 3000 degrees. Her abilities were baffling, and the closest thing that could approach her abilities were Asgardians.

    If it weren't them, then who was she?

    Phil played the video as the towering blonde alien watched over his shoulder. “You can't tell me what she is?”

    “No...” Thor's brow furrowed. He seemed like he was telling the truth, and he had no reason not to, but after the Tesseract debacle, Phil felt a little doubtful that the Asgard would reveal everything to him. Thor asked, after the video ended, “What else do you have of her?

    Phil shrugged. “Just her name, and that she works for Stark now, apparently.”

    That was hard to believe. He even watched a surveillance video of her slipping and tripping, with a cup of coffee landing on her head, but Phil still felt like he was watching someone else.

    “Stark?” Thor blinked down at Phil incredulously. “Really? Then we must leave at once! We can make it a date!”

    “Hold on there,” Phil grabbed Thor's wrist. He was surprised he was actually capable of holding Thor in place, but he guessed it might actually be because Thor had learned a new level of patience with humans after the New York Incident. Phil also remembered how smashed the Avengers were the day after Thor dragged them through Tony Stark's liquor cabinet (why else were they all wearing sunglasses the day after?) and it wasn't a situation that he wanted to be a part of.

    “What is it, Son of Coul?” Thor asked. “Did something happen to Stark? Or, Odin forbid, his alcohol?!”

    “What? No,” Coulson shook his head. “When I last put in the proper paperwork to look for Kara, before she put her face on practically every social media network, it was flagged and denied. But if you want to go through Earth looking for someone, I think it would be best if we had someone accompanying you.”

    “Do you seek to command a son of Odin, Phil?”

    “Ah, no. It's a request.”

    “Ah.” Thor blinked. “Well, it is a reasonable one. If you cannot accompany me, yet you wish to, then how would you go about doing this? Your culture is so confusing.”

    Phil smiled. He hoped he'd get that line more often in the future, when more aliens visited. By then he'd have a bunch of awesome one-liners ready. “Well, I can put in another request.”

    “Then why don't you do so?” Thor asked.

    “I just did.” Phil turned back to his terminal. It beeped. He had a new message.

    It was a message.

    Come see me.

    “Well,” Phil smiled tightly back at Thor.

    “Well?” Thor arched an eyebrow.

    “It has been a while since you've met Director Fury, hasn't it?” Phil remarked rhetorically. He stood and grabbed his jacket. “The Director will either give me permission to go with you or tell us we can't.”

    “And what do we do if he does not allow you to go with me?” Thor sounded more troubled now.

    Phil turned back to Thor.

    The alien prince seemed so sure of himself, yet so confused at the same time.

    “I can't go with you to look for Kara,” Phil shrugged. “But there's nothing wrong with guiding you to Stark.”

    The elevator up to the Director's office was a silent one. It wasn't uncomfortable, Phil thought. He had a lot on his mind, so he wasn't exactly paying one hundred percent attention to begin with, but he noticed Thor humming along with the elevator music. It was the same elevator music they had at the headquarters for the last nine months now. If everything stayed the same, it would be another three months before anyone though to change it.

    At SHIELD, everything worked according to protocol. Everyone had to trust that, if nothing else. There was dedicating your life to the mission, but you had to trust your superiors too... more than how you might trust your superiors in the army. This was espionage after all.

    And with protocol, changing anything required paperwork... paperwork... and more paperwork. Changing the elevator music required all the department managers to pass. After all, with the kind of things they were dealing with, something insidious could be hidden in sound, or any other of a thousand different threats.

    Changing elevator music wasn't easy.

    And when Phil Coulson walked into the Director's office, he noticed enough to realize that this wasn't going to be a normal meeting. Fury was turning on every gadget and gizmo to keep anything from listening in. Even standing an inch away from Coulson would have reduced any sound they made to barely a whisper. Nothing was going in, and nothing was coming out.

    Fury stared down at them with one eye without making a sound. He was frowning, as he always was, but the way he steepled his fingers and the way his cracked lips curled downwards did not make a good impression.

    Phil waited for Thor to pull up a seat first before sitting down himself. “Sir.”

    “Thor. Coulson.” Fury nodded before closing his eyes. “You're digging into something above your clearance level, Phil. Thor, you need her, do you.”

    It should have been a question, but none of these were questions. Phil knew Fury knew already.

    A lot of this flew over Thor's head. But he kept to his seat, despite his legs twitching as he almost was unable to resist the urge to stand and demand. Thankfully, he'd learned since his last visit to Earth. “Yes, I require the location of the Tesseract's core. Without it to repair the Bifrost, reconstruction efforts are slow, and we risk the lives of many across the Nine Worlds.”

    Fury sighed. He seemed so... tired. This was a side Phil didn't want to see of the Director, certainly not in front of outsiders like Thor. “... Do you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?”

    “... Sir?”

    The room was unreasonably tense, filled with confusion.

    Fury turned away from them, looking out his window, or rather looking out between the individual slits of the blinds on his window. He grumbled again, looking down at his hands.

    “What is this riddle, Son of Coul? Is this a test?” Thor stage-whispered to Phil. As an afterthought, he added, “I do not do well with such tests of wit... it has always been more my brother's area of interest.”

    Phil knew what the 'riddle' was. He knew it was a line from Pulp Fiction. He just couldn't understand why the Director said it to him in this moment, with so much in the balance. He'd never been to these nine worlds, but if even one world was like Earth, and relied on Thor to protect it, then what hung in the balance was too great for them to just... waste time like this.

    But what had stumped him wasn't this. He knew it was a quote... but it didn't sound like the Director was quoting the movie at all. It was like he was quoting someone else...?

    “No, if this was a test, it'd be a stupid test.” Fury turned back to Phil, interrupting his thought. His dark visage slipped back to the grim frown that he always wore. “I know you wanted to investigate her before, Agent Coulson.”

    “Sir...”

    “What makes you think we haven't already investigated her?” Fury asked. He leaned closer, his shadow looming over them, even though he was shorter than Thor. “I know more about her than she knows about herself. But that's no one's business but my own.”

    “Does she have the Tesseract?” Thor growled, finally having had enough.

    Fury spared him a glance. “Perhaps.”

    “Then I must have it. It is Asgard's.” Thor demanded. “Bring me to her so that I might take it from her!”

    “Ha! Really? Just you?” Fury actually started laughing. He laughed as Thor's face seemed to grow red. He covered his eye for a moment before sighing, as if he had just heard the greatest joke. “No offense, Thor, but you ain't enough. Maybe she'll help you. Maybe. But knowing her capabilities... do you know how fast she can run, Thor?”

    Thor fell back onto his seat from the dark intensity of Fury's voice. All the rage that gathered like a storm cloud in his eyes dissipated like it's been blown away.

    Fury continued as if he was speaking with the same breath. “She can run fast enough that she runs back through time. She can punch a planet in half. There's a reason why no one is allowed to touch her. Now, everyone knows about her, but they don't see how much she is holding back. A lot of her file will be declassified to some degree sooner or later with her just blatantly showing everyone everything she has. Thor, if the two of you fight, the wreckage will be worse than what you did to New York. If she doesn't utterly destroy you first.”

    “T'was not I who—”

    “Don't fight her.” Fury glared.

    Thor's lips clamped closed.

    Then Fury smiled, less to Thor and more to Phil. “But if you want to go to her, to ask her to help you, I believe she's making Mister Stark's coffee just about now. I'm sure if you wanted to ”

    Thor stared down at him in surprise. “But...”

    “Go.”

    As they climbed onto the quin-jet, Thor turned to Phil and asked, “Why do Stark and Rogers act as if you were dead, Phil?”

    “Well,” Phil shrugged. “I did die. I just got better.”

    “Oh.” Thor nodded. “That makes sense.”

    Did it though? Phil wondered. There were just too many mysteries in this world for him not to be overwhelmed. Too bad it wasn't as simple and easy as the X-Files or something. That would be nice, he mused. Yeah... and he should look into how exactly he was brought back if nothing else but to get his mind off of this... Kara Zorelle mess.
     
  2. OverReactionGuy

    OverReactionGuy The only Sane one left

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    That's because your a well manner doomsday without the crystal growths and general ugliness. You are immune to whatever killed you though!
     
  3. Evillevi

    Evillevi Shadow Pika!

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    Priorities in the right place
     
  4. inverted_helix

    inverted_helix Connoisseur.

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    So I assume that Fury has access to Supergirl comics?
     
  5. KinKrow

    KinKrow A DREAM ABOUT DREAMING

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    Either that, or she accidentally punched Earth in half, ran back in time to fix it, and SHIELD is so anal retentive about security that they actually have causality-breech scanning tech.

    Can't predict the future, but they can tell when shit smells fuck.

    Or he just has the comics.

    Boring.
     
  6. OverReactionGuy

    OverReactionGuy The only Sane one left

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    It could be because future Kara went back in time to help the two halves of her psyche finally come together and merge. Likely after something went really, really wrong with her. So she ran as fast as she could away. Then she met the Ancient one in the past, Ancient One helped her, Kara feeling peaceful punched out invaders, watched history unfold and eventually trolled to keep her sanity, and also got the time gem somewhere along the way!

    Which means she probably made sure Fury had a file of her capabilities.

    So future Kara is more mellow and less doesn't think these people are real or that she is real or something.
     
  7. Threadmarks: 3.1 Ancient One 1
    d.fish

    d.fish Lés Bien

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    Notes: I'm not sure about this chapter either. It's kind of touching on new ground while trending old ground. Maybe I shouldn't make it this way, but, well... IDK, guys.

    ---​

    The winds of fate shifted and swelled that night. Something had changed, and all of Kamar-Taj was restless... unable to sleep, unable to sit still, like if a new energy flowed through them. They were not patient for an answer.

    Too eager by far, like children who ate too much sugar.

    Was the world awakening into a new era, they asked? When they looked closely at the strings of fate, one more layer seemed to have been added to those who lent them aide from beyond this world. Who was it? What caused this? Something had changed, yet they couldn't tell what.

    It was hard to tell, but they knew that their fates were irrevocably altered.

    In the morning, they thought they had an answer.

    The news had been plastered all over the media... on every form of media. It seemed like Tony Stark being the mysterious “Iron Man” was all that was on anyone's lips. Part of it was understandable—the man had made himself a suit of modern armor that might as well have been magic. Something in his chest had shone with a light emulated a greater power, as if he was trying to tap into a source of enigmatic energy similar to the Masters of the Mystic Arts.

    But he did it purely through physical labors where as they must channel and hone their powers of mysticism.

    Some of them were baffled... nothing quite like this had happened before to their knowledge. Yes, they forged and they labored, but Tony Stark was as far from faithful and learned as he could possibly be. He was a drunkard, an egotistical inheritor of wealth drowned in debauchery, the very opposite of what they were.

    Some of them did not believe he was like them. Others sought to give him a chance. He seemed to have the right intent and he did have a change of heart in the desert. Perhaps he was to be like them, only different. Perhaps they could one day find an ally in those like Tony Stark.

    They mired themselves in this discussion, thinking it had to have been Tony Stark. It wasn't really the armor, albeit it was fancy and far beyond what anyone else in the world had created up until then through common understanding of physical forces alone. They thought they were right the moment they started arguing about what Stark was—they thought they knew that the change was caused by Stark. He wore on his chest and practically in his heart a replica of something from legend.

    His detractors argued he stumbled upon it by blind luck. His supporters argued that he was divinely inspired, much like the founder of their order, the revered Agamotto.

    Such pride.

    But the Ancient One was patient.

    She knew all things would be revealed in time.

    She had lived too long and seen too much to think otherwise, but she did not trust that Mister Stark was the source of the disturbance. He was an agent who changed the world for the better now—an agent of good and a protector of the world... that she was assured in. But could one man, albeit some kind of billionaire playboy genius philanthropist, so much?

    Unlike her students, she knew of the elder Stark who touched the face of divinity as well... Tony's work was merely derived from the foundations left by his father.

    When Howard Stark changed from merely a genius capitalist to a man on a mission, his actions sent ripples across the weave of fate as well. With each step, he made the future a little brighter. Yet he was a flawed, vulnerable man, prone to mistakes and ego. For all his genius, for all his contributions, Howard Stark had not caused such a shockwave that could be noticed by novices. No... whoever or whatever this new entity might be could only be something greater.

    She wondered for days, had a Celestial stepped foot onto Earth again? The last one who came had not come with the best intentions, slipping through the net as easily as if it had been left open. For all her power, she could only nudge the whims of destiny so that it might be taken by the human extremes of love. Perhaps she tried too hard to intoxicate it, for it reacted... badly.

    After destroying the woman it loved, it left Earth, just like that.

    She felt the weight of the woman's death on her conscience even now. It was her burden to bear... it was her mistake, once more. The Ancient One could only make pitiful excuses. “I was trying to strengthen the protections on Earth” sounded weak in her ears. “It must know a flaw in our defense” sounded silly.

    If the Ancient One had been any less at peace with herself, she would have fallen into depression.

    Nevertheless, she bore this secret for the Earth. There was no reason to trouble her students with this knowledge; it wouldn't have helped anyone. For all their enlightenment, they were too human. She saw this in her greatest student... too prone to emotions, to pride and hubris, too unwilling to engage in discourse. They were not many in number, and any schism would only weaken their already lacking defenses.

    She sighed to herself then; these halls once was filled with wide-eyed students.

    Perhaps that was why the Ancient One liked these silly Harry Potter books so much. She wished her own halls of learning were so filled... but alas, it is not a matter of being gifted. To join them was a matter of will. To join the Masters of the Mystic Arts means to join an order whose goal was to keep the world safe from harm. It was not a school for adolescents, despite how it might look sometimes or how she might entertain the thought on a rare blue moon.

    The Ancient One reached out and sought the power, peeking out at it in a way that she had never taught her students. After all, to do so left her open to other influences seeking to be seen.

    Somethings should never be seen, lest they invade the mind like a virus or open the doors of reality to things from... beyond.

    Yet this power was innocent, as if it were a newborn. It was simple and gentle, so she, well, poked it.

    The new power was alive and conscious, and it was warm and embracing, caring with a hint of bite. Touching it felt like walking on the surface of the sun. In her moment of wonder, she realized her error immediately. Interaction is never a one way street, because the moment she saw it... its baleful red eyes saw her.

    … Such power.

    Its mind thought of her, and she realized it knew her.

    The Ancient One's heart raced faster than it had in a long, long time. She had been lax in her defenses, thinking the young Celestial-like creature a newborn... but it was not human, sometimes a second was all an outsider needed to grow into a threat. She scolded herself; despite knowing her students' flaws of presumption, she too made the same mistake.

    And what frightened the Ancient One most, as she pulled back from the astral planes, was not how the eyes of the creature had such burning intensity that she could raze all of their defenses in a blazing instant. No... the entity of blinding suns knew the Masters of the Mystic Arts. It knew of Kamar-Taj. It knew her.

    It thought of Kamar-Taj—it sought her. It wanted her, her knowledge, her powers. It wanted to devour all of that and make it its own. Its desires rippled across the astral plane as if it were simultaneously consumed with a singled minded craze yet it was also filled with conflicting, spiritual forces colliding at every conscious moment. It wanted, it needed, it would stop at nothing.

    And it was coming now.
     
  8. OverReactionGuy

    OverReactionGuy The only Sane one left

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    Ancient One: -prepares for the fight of her life-

    Kara: GIVE ME YOUR ROCK CANDY!

    Ancient One: :confused:
     
  9. d.fish

    d.fish Lés Bien

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    This is great.

    I have a hearty chuckle. Thanks for this!
     
  10. OverReactionGuy

    OverReactionGuy The only Sane one left

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    Np. :D
     
  11. Caelleh

    Caelleh Average QQ Enjoyer

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    Oh, I can use spoilers here from my phone, which is great.

    Peter's father Ego kills his mother. There was no real love there at all. He bred her like he'd bred with thousands of women, hoping for his genes to pass on to a child, and then he threw her away when he was done.

    My favorite part in Guardians was after Ego confesses off handedly to the deed, Peter immediately and without hesitation unloads his guns into his father. Having the Ancient One be behind her death makes it cheaper, and is a meh at best imo.
     
  12. OverReactionGuy

    OverReactionGuy The only Sane one left

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    She wasn't from what I could tell, her nudge to love didn't work out at all. The woman was going to die either way though. The Ancient One just thinks she's behind the woman's death and blames herself.
     
  13. Biigoh

    Biigoh Primordial Tanuki Moderator

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    Kara as the blonde Galactus?
     
  14. Caelleh

    Caelleh Average QQ Enjoyer

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    Yeah, d.fish did a great job explaining on SB. Tripped me up though, like, who martyrs themselves like that? Made me think that the Ancient One was the killer.
     
  15. KinKrow

    KinKrow A DREAM ABOUT DREAMING

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    "Gimme all your rocks and I won't eat your planet!"

    But seriously, I think the Infinity Stones are self sustaining.
     
  16. gammoregan

    gammoregan I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Wait, he didn't love her? I thought he did and he was just so insane that falling in love meant to him that he must kill her because his love is a threat to his chosen purpose. I think that's what he said anyway, something like that, and he's certainly not fully sane and rational so I think that could make sense for him.
     
  17. OverReactionGuy

    OverReactionGuy The only Sane one left

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    To summarize D.Fish from the SB thread.

    He loved her, and fell in love with her without the Ancient One's prevention. Things happened the same as if in the movie. But the Ancient One tried to amplify that love to turn Ego into a good guy and have him choose not to kill the woman due to his love. It didn't work out.

    -edit-

    So the Ancient One sees that as her failure and blames herself for the woman's death.
     
    Thrackerzod, Zeus, erebus1994 and 8 others like this.
  18. Threadmarks: 3.2 Ancient One 2
    d.fish

    d.fish Lés Bien

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    Notes: I was kind of unsure of what to do with the next few updates, but I was also under the weather and kind of having cramps and stuff so I didn't get into the mood to write for a while.

    ---​

    “You let me in. You let me come in. Oh... Oh. Oh thank R—thank God.” A girl was sprawled on the wooden floor. The room was dim with only candle light. She wore some kind of atrociously tight blue bodysuit that scandalously covered only enough to seem like a one-piece swimming suit.

    There were bags under her eyes, as if she had not slept for a day or more. There were little clumps of dirt and twigs and bugs and other things caught in her blonde hair, and she was covered in a layer of dried dirt from her thighs down to her bare feet. She did not, in fact, look good.

    The Ancient One entered at the other side of the room. She was careful not to approach too closely or too quickly, like how someone might approach an injured bear.

    She frowned upon hearing the girl's words. “No. I did not. You came in.”

    “But... but...” The girl shivered, curling up with her arms wrapped so her hands clutched onto her shoulders tightly and her knees pressed against her chest. Her expressions were easy to read: confusion, conflict, and all of these tumultuous emotions written on her face as if she wrote what she was feeling on a wall. “Huh?”

    Perhaps that was incorrect, the Ancient One mused. She could have tried to hold the door shut, but the girl had been circling the Earth for hours. She had approached at such speeds that, had the Ancient One not opened a path of least resistance, the city outside would have been nothing more than a smoking crater.

    None of that raw physical power was shown in this girl, however. She was barefoot and stuttering, and shivering like a homeless waif. It was a mystery to the Supreme Sorceress how this was possible, but if the girl did not know her limits, then seemed prudent not to inform her of them. After all, an enemy who didn't know themselves had already lost half the battle, and a whatever the case, the Ancient One didn't think she could actually vanquish the girl if she were a foe.

    Somethings, such as the Celestials, were beyond death.

    She would not wish an immortal, indestructible enemy upon the Earth or herself; they had enough of those already.

    As the Ancient One studied the girl, marveling at how human-like she was, the girl peered up at her and mirrored her action. Then she opened her lips and spoke in a voice that was softer and more stilted than her earlier tone. “You know, I really liked you in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”

    “... The book?” The Ancient One blinked and blurted out, taken back by the sudden change of topic.

    “No,” the girl replied, as if she were saying something obvious. “The movies. You were quite good as the White Witch.”

    The Ancient One turned away, knowing better than to ask what the girl meant. She'd had such students before, speaking nonsense and such nothings and acting as if they knew what they were doing. Some of them grew to be some of the most powerful sorcerers she'd ever met, if only because they were good at deceiving themselves. When she turned around, the girl had backed away from her into a corner of the room and was staring at her in half-curiosity and part-anxiety. She decided they should best get to the point, “Tell me, who are you, and why are you here?”

    “Me? I... want... I want...” It sounded as if two girls were trying to speak into the same microphone, squeezing away the other whenever one got the chance to talk. But then the girl clutched her head, curling up again and groaning in pain.

    The Ancient One approached her cautiously, almost as if she were tiptoeing.

    After a groan that seemed to stretch into infinity, the girl got tired of it and laid onto her back. She let out a breath loudly, “I still can't believe I'm here.”

    “Oh?” Her interest piqued, she asked, “then what can you believe? Kamar-Taj is quite real, I assure you, Miss...?”

    “Super... uh, Karen S—no... Kara...” The girl's eyes briefly crossed. She held up a hand. “Give me a moment. Why don't you, um, introduce yourself instead?”

    The sorceress raised a brow at that.

    Few were so presumptuous before her. She could easily apply her experience with her students onto the girl again, but she thought better against it. After all, unlike her students, this... girl... was only a girl in appearance, wasn't she?

    “You are in Kamar-Taj, and I am called the Ancient One, but for some reason, I believe you already know this...” She trailed off.

    “Ha.” The girl coughed and floated off of the ground—and not with any magic the sorceress knew. “Yeah, I guess I can't get that past you. Hm... well, I guess you can call me Kara. You know, if I can almost believe this is real.”

    “And why is that?”

    “Well, if this was all a dream, I'd be in Hogwarts robes.”

    The Ancient One almost sighed. She had better self-control than that, but it was close. “I can see you aren't here to fight, Kara. Perhaps you'd like to sit down instead and we can... talk.”

    “Do I put you on edge? Why is that?” The girl's form blurred.

    No, that wasn't right.

    The Ancient One had blinked.

    And in that one moment occupied by one blink, the girl had... not quite walked or ran or flown. She had simply moved from her corner in the room to right behind the Ancient One. She had begun to say something like, “Teleports behind you, nothing personal—eep!”

    The Ancient One reacted on instinct. Golden, fiery chain-like ropes leaped from her palms and strung the girl into shaky, wooden chair in the center of the room.

    Kara was tied tightly, though the strength she struggled with seemed strong enough to rip steel apart with her bare hands. “H-Hey! It was just a joke! It was a prank! Hey, it's really tight! I'm, I'm not into bondage, okay? I need an adult!”

    The Sorceress Supreme gave the girl another thought as she ignored the girl's inane rambling. She would have to test her, since she couldn't test her endurance or dedication, nor could she leave her outside—such potential and already amassed power could do much harm without guidance. But she wasn't sure if the girl was... good enough. What if she had the Ancient One at her mercy? Would she attempt to extract answers, like some?

    … Or would she try to get revenge like others might?

    She held too much power, that was true, but she was also hidden in a shroud of it, like a cloak of stars, like... gems, really. It was hard to see her, truly see her, and there was just too much unknown...

    So before the chains could actually break, the Ancient One allowed them to break.

    Really, it was like that one classic comic that the Americans liked so much in their newspapers. The one about peanuts and a white and black dog acting like he was an ace pilot. Well, no, but that was the comic. What she was doing was more like how that girl Lucy moved the football away just before the silly child could kick it.

    That was... an adequate representation, the Ancient One knew, for she allowed the girl's momentum to take her off her chair—shattering it into thousands of splinters of wood in the process—and carrying her forwards... towards the Ancient One.

    Even if the girl had been able to react in time, it was too late.

    She grunted as the pressure of the momentum crashed into her and pushed her off her feet. Then she allowed herself to collapse. It had not actually injured her, but now, she seemed to be at the girl's mercy and there were no moments to think...

    It wasn't what the girl would do moments later that would matter, just what she did at that moment.

    “Ohmygodohmygod! Oh shit, oh shit I killed the Ancient One!” Kara started waving her arms around like a headless chicken. “No, no, no, you gotta be okay, argh, why did you do that? No—ah.”

    She'd paused and backed away.

    Then she started pouting, “Hey, you can stop the act now! I can see you're okay! … Wait, are you okay?”

    As the little girl helped her up, the Ancient One allowed herself a smile. Kara was so easy to understand, it was as if she were a naive girl who had no practice in hiding her emotions and thoughts. She could either be a newborn Celestial, or she could be something... stranger. “Did you expect mystics to charge in and dramatically misunderstand the situation and attack you?”

    “... Well.” Kara shuffled from one foot to the other. Her eyes avoided the Ancient One's gaze. “... Yeah, I guess... I guess this world isn't like a TV show or a badly written comic or something...”

    She took the younger girl's shoulders into her hands and pulled her so that their eyes looked into each other. “Kara.”

    Kara gulped audibly. “Eep.”

    “Kara,” the Ancient One pressed on. “Tell me. What are you doing here?”

    “I, um... I...” Conflict seemed to brew in her eyes. “I want to learn your magic, but I mean, I want to go home, but home is like, um, I, look, where ever it is isn't in your multiverse, and um I want to learn magic?”

    The Ancient One sighed. She could picture it already... though the situation was better than having a hostile alien invading Earth, having a girl too powerful not to take as a student become a student? It was going to be disaster, she just knew it... and a lot of destruction. This was just the first of a thousand more tests, because the Ancient One would help her one way or another... but... she'd best start investing in repair spells.

    And she would have to deal with the sass. Oh, the sass. A teenage girl's sass...

    The Ancient One sighed and deadpanned, “I noticed that from the Hogwarts comment, yes.”
     
  19. Evillevi

    Evillevi Shadow Pika!

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    So first things first, can you teleport to Uranus
     
  20. SamueLewis

    SamueLewis Not too sore, are you?

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    Why Uranus?
     
  21. Evillevi

    Evillevi Shadow Pika!

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    Was trying to go for a pun :V

    Granted it failed miserably.

    :'(
     
    Desdiv_Eight, RazielofSecrets and Ack like this.
  22. OverReactionGuy

    OverReactionGuy The only Sane one left

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    Your hope is lost here Ancient One >: )
     
  23. Threadmarks: 3.3 Ancient One 3
    d.fish

    d.fish Lés Bien

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    Notes: A short one. Sorry, but tired.

    ---

    How do I reach this kid? The Ancient One did not approve of her idea. It was stupid, and it was like asking a normal person to swallow a piece of burning coal. If that piece of burning coal could explode and then destroy the Earth at the very minimum.

    … and here laid her quandary: her student could swallow that lump of coal and spit out a shining diamond.

    Something in her invulnerability had caused her to... well, seem almost suicidal to the average bystander. Of course, the Mystics knew better, but it didn't stop them from worrying about her. Over the years she stayed here, she'd become one of them. They saw her as family... albeit the bratty, little sister of the family who no one took seriously, but she was still a part of their order.

    That alone had validated the Ancient One's leniency on the girl. It validated her hope... hope in the future of her sorcerers, in future allies and friends, and mostly just the future itself, after the Ancient One was gone.

    She'd known her time was coming soon. She had been preparing for it.

    Having lived so long, the Ancient One sometimes visited hospitals, if nothing but to just see how others prepared for their deaths. It was a... guilty pleasure of hers, thought not quite a pleasure. It was a necessity, really. It was like her duty perhaps.

    The Ancient One did not have the same fears as most elderly did. There was no reason for her to fear many of the deepest questions that stood on the forefront of many people's minds as they stood on death's doorstep. You couldn't fear the uncertainty of death if you knew what laid in the there after. You couldn't fear if you had a soul if you could leave the body and take on the form of only your soul at will. And when you knew of the greater powers that hid in dimensions beyond understanding by a first basis, there were no perplexities there either.

    Many of life's most meaningful questions felt meaningless, because they had no complex answers to her. They were just questions to which she had answers.

    So she didn't fear her passing in the way that many others did... yet sometimes, she met extraordinary souls that she wished to emulate.

    There were many people who didn't care about the dark oblivion.

    It wasn't that they didn't fear them. They did.

    But it wasn't a priority to them. In a way, this was their way of making peace with their death. They saw her coming, and they knew her presence so well that they could almost hear her whispering into their ears. So they didn't care about what happened to them and instead, they tried to care about something greater... perhaps the Earth, perhaps their families, perhaps a legacy or something... that didn't matter what it was. It was a vision for the future to be brighter in their passing than when they came into the world.

    She wasn't always like this; she was once conniving and scheming and rebellious... she couldn't blame her student for being the same, not really. She had came around eventually, knowing there were more at stake and focusing on a greater good. But that was later. Just like the many students that followed, she has had her lapses...

    … Well. Mordo would have been a good master to future sorcerers, but she couldn't trust him with the future. He was... a good teacher, but he has never truly gotten over his past traumas. They would eventually rear their heads at the most inopportune time, if he wasn't careful.

    This girl however?

    “Sup, sensei?”

    “Come in, wipe your feet off first, and do do something about that grin on your face, will you?” The Ancient One suppressed an urge to massage her temples and her forehead at the headache the girl was going to be. “It is atrocious.”

    Kara immediately lost the vulpine grin, but she never shed that smugness. Instead, she wore it like a cloak and it infused the room with a vibe that caused the Ancient One to reach up and slap the silly girl upside the head.

    “Ow! Hey!”

    “Oh, you know that hurt my hand more than your thick head, Kara. Do you want some tea?” The Ancient One said without missing a beat.

    The alien girl crossed her legs and floated over, her eyes bright and joyful. “Yes, please, shifu!”

    “Again, with the ridiculous titles...” She sighed.

    “Like the Ancient One is any better?” Kara rolled her eyes.

    Tea was served, and like always, the other mystics avoided Kara. It wasn't that they didn't like her... it was just that things tend to explode around her. Or catch on fire. Or flash freeze. Or get struck by lightning. Or any number of things.

    And that was the way the Ancient One liked it, because the topic was rather sensitive. “So, did you succeed then?”

    “Yep!” Kara patted her tight abdomen. “They're too busy fighting each other now for anyone to use them, for anything but... well, small things. Can't really use them remotely either, I'd reckon.”

    “... You'd reckon,” the Ancient One deadpanned.

    Kara held up her hands, admitting defeat. “Yeah, can't be sure. I mean, it's not like anyone else has made a spell to deal with multiples of these rocks before either, right? You can only jam them all in and hope they all get stuck at the door while they're trying to shove each other out of the way...”

    The Ancient One stared at the girl. How could any idea reach her when multiple Infinity Stones couldn't even give her a stomach ache? “That is not... reassuring, Kara. There were a few of us who thought you would have been reduced into fine, red mist. I am glad that was not the case.”

    “Gee.” Kara smirked. “Thanks.”

    “Don't get to hasty,” she added. “This was just the first step of your plan.”

    Kara stared for a moment longer, her eyes shining with the light of the Infinity Stones inside her, like twin kaleidoscopes lighting a beacon into the room and filling it with light.

    The Ancient One sighed again. She drank her tea and grimaced.

    It had gotten cold.
     
  24. KinKrow

    KinKrow A DREAM ABOUT DREAMING

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    Her eyes are the entrance to infinity, her boob window the portal to heaven- FROM THUS
     
  25. CrossyCross

    CrossyCross LADY OF LOVE

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    "The second is the important part."
     
  26. OverReactionGuy

    OverReactionGuy The only Sane one left

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    And thus Kara finally got her rock candy from the Ancient one.
     
  27. Ack

    Ack (Verified Ratbag) (Unverified Great Old One)

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    I will reiterate: if Kara farts - do not be standing downwind.
     
  28. Tsotate

    Tsotate Getting sticky.

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    She's a silver age Kryptonian. "Downwind" in that case is defined by being behind her, not the puny winds of our planet.
     
  29. Threadmarks: 3.4 Internet 1
    d.fish

    d.fish Lés Bien

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    Notes: I'm still learning how to do this formatting thing so this is all you get for now! Sorry! I'm really dumb...

    ---​

    ... So then the Kree rogue faction, these Reaper guys? Well, they're sort of like the North Korea of the Kree. They're isolated, backwards, and pretty much the butt of a lot of jokes, but no one bothers them all that much because they have some rather destructive weaponry.”

    The camera panned to a computer generated “artist's interpretation” of what these “Kree Reapers” looked like. They were bulky like comic book characters, wearing skin-tight, black uniforms and wielding melee weaponry not dissimilar to what some might have expected Klingons to utilize. All in all, the 3D models were pretty close to their real life models.


    And yet,” George Tsoukalos' voice was back. “The Kree Reapers did not leave any standing legacies outside of the spread of pyramids across the world. Alien Specialist Kara Zorelle had this to say...”

    Now it was back to the girl, fidgeting in her chair. She was wearing a rather nice and fitting suit that made her figure striking, but she seemed to be playing with the hem of the skirt more than paying attention to the camera. “O-Oh! Me again, right, so the thing is, they actually did leave many legacies. Previously, I talked about how the Kree were an intergalactic empire and how they experimented on people they saw as 'lesser' beings, right? And more over, the Reaper dudes did that on Earth...”

    Now the viewers saw not something out of a computer but made with pure make-up and post-production. It was something only those at least adjacent to the industry could see. Otherwise, it was the very life-like video of a Native American man who was probably a Mayan being torn apart on what looked like an operation table by a bunch of segmented, metallic tentacles.

    Blood flew everywhere and the man on the table screamed horrendously.


    ... What they left firstly is this subgroup of humanity that now calls itself the 'Inhumans', who are, well, awakened by excessive exposure to Kree genetics and various... hm, I would say mutations, but I feel like I'd be stepping on some toes. Let's call them,” Kara paused and made a serious face, “'drastic militaristic changes in their gene structures', okay?”

    How are they different?”

    Well, the Kree can survive much more than humans can, as you know, so the very least of what their blood could induce directly into, ahem, test subjects? They could revive the dead, kind of. You really come back changed though, more homicidal and all that.” She made another face. “Well, that isn't to say the Inhumans are homicidal. Their leader is, but that's just because she was cut up and experimented on by HYDRA.”

    ... And you said earlier that HYDRA was originally formed by the actions of the Kree on Earth, right? So how does that connect?” Tsoukalos made a rather nice 'puzzled' face.

    Kara perked up at that. “Oh, that's easy! See, one of the original results was this guy who's got like tentacles for heads—in his true form. He can take over other people's bodies, but anyway, he's calling himself 'Hive', but he is actually the original 'Hydra' that the organization HYDRA was forged to resurrect... because their original members are his cult following, like he's some kind of rock star. Because he was the one who led the charge to drive the Kree off the planet. He's pretty powerful, with all sorts of strange abilities, really.”


    Wait, so he is an Inhuman too then? And how did HYDRA change so much over the years?” George was milking the questions, but he didn't let the eagerness in his voice overtake him. It seemed like they really didn't get the chance to make multiple shots of these scenes.

    Yeah, he was basically like the leader of the Inhumans for a time. Before they realized he was a tyrant who was mad with power, and drove him away onto another planet, anyway. So the Inhumans bred back into humanity, so every so often you'd have people with strange genes inherited this way, and with some catalysts those superpowers could be activated... like with these weird crystals they used, which are apparently water soluble.” Kara chortles. “So HYDRA eventually turned into this Japanese organization, but the Hydra has many heads, and there are many branches. One of them got taken over by some German fanatics, and by a guy called the Red Skull.”

    ... Captain America's enemy,” George Tsoukalos whispered.

    An image of [Captain America Issue #1] showed up.


    Yep,” Kara nodded.

    Suddenly, the camera panned out and a processed version of Tsoukalos' voice could be heard over the pictures of Captain America punching out Hitler, in the comic book form. “Could the comic books have been telling the truth? Could the battles between Captain America and the Red Skull been battles fought between two inheritors of Alien legacies? … Could World War II have been directed in the shadows by secret Alien Overlords?”

    Another shot showed a Professor Broklovski from DeVry Institute. He looked rather upset, and spoke in a scathing tone, “Of course you can't prove that World War II wasn't puppeteered by a bunch of secret aliens, just like you can't prove that Hitler himself wasn't an alien. Well? Can you prove that?”

    The shot went back to Kara, who was sprawled over her chair with one of her legs resting on the arm of the chair. She was playing with something on her phone, which sounded like Candy Crush from the sound effects, and she was blowing a large, pink bubble with gum too. She looked up from her phone for a second and shrugged. “Eh. Maybe, IDK.”


    Could it be possible that World War II was the battlefield for aliens? Could New York have been only one of the closing battles of a long war?” Suddenly, his voice sounded like him again and the camera turned back to Tsoukalos. “It's very possible that alien technology was used in the war was an indication of aliens being a part of the Second World War.”

    The picture changed into the cover of one of the later Captain America comics, one where the Red Skull was standing straight in the center and Captain America had been huddled up in one corner. The Red Skull was holding something in his hand that was shining too brightly to see.

    The title beneath read: “HE WHO HOLDS THE COSMIC CUBE!”


    We see that in one of the later editions of the Captain America comics, that a cube similar to the one that appeared at the top of Stark Tower—within the machine that opened the portal to let the alien invasion in—had appeared. Through second hand sources of soldiers who have witnessed Captain America's action first hand, we know that some of the Germans have been known to have advanced weaponry that shot hot bolts of blue light.”

    Now we saw the blurred picture of what was the wrecked roof of Stark Tower in the middle of New York. At the top, there was a machine, glowing blue and sending up a beam of similar blue light. There was a source of glowing at the center of the machine, but it was too bright for a camera phone to capture.


    Could the cube that appeared at the Battle of New York have been the same cube that the Nazi-occupied HYDRA cell used to produce Alien weaponry?” There was a dramatic pause, though appropriately short enough to almost seem like a documentary. “Alien Expert Kara Zorelle had this to say...”

    Yeah, they're the same.”

    How is that possible?” George Tsoukalos was back and he was motioning with his hands energetically, inquiringly, as if speaking the question that was on everyone's mind.

    Well,” Kara closed her phone and rolled her neck before sitting straighter. “See, the Red Skull had a genius scientist named Arnim Zola—almost as half as smart as Howard Stark, by the way, so that's like basically Tony level, don't tell him I said that—and this is a guy who made a machine that extracted the unlimited cosmic energy of the Space Stone, that is, the core of what was the 'Tesseract' or the cosmic cube that you have on that comic book, or at least the real thing. So later on Zola got taken in by the American government and he just stayed somewhere in New Jersey or some place turning out deep cover Nazi-fied HYDRA operatives forever, because he uploaded himself onto one of those room-sized ancient computers that took up a whole room, you know what I mean? Those ones that used cassette types. Anyway, that's another story. The thing is, Hydra cut up this lady, who was this Inhuman who ate the life force of people who she could touch. As long as she could eat life force enough to kill the, well, sacrifice, she could extend her life and have, like, super powers.”

    That... that sounds like they should have been on the same side,” Tsoukalos commented, almost at a loss for words.

    Kara nodded, “Yeah, but that's what thousands of years do... the lady got her powers by blind luck, so she couldn't have known. But she's now the leader of the Inhumans, helping confused young people who wake up with super powers protect themselves against governments out to contain or exploit them. That sounds nice right?”

    Tsoukalos nodded.


    Well, she also wants to wipe out humanity,” Kara added. “I'm not sure how... either killing all y'all or turning most of you into Inhumans yourself. I mean, it's not all sunshine if you do get superpowers. There's this real ugly guy who got the power to teleport anywhere on earth... but he doesn't have eyes anymore. Just... like skin where his eyes are. And he's kind of a homicidal maniac who justifies teleporting people to their deaths for this wiping out humanity cause.”

    George Tsoukalos cleared his throat. “Perhaps we can talk about what else the Kree left on earth?”


    Oh!” Kara's eyes brightened. “Is it that time already? Well, let's go see the underwater temples they left. You can see how those experimentation surgery tables became what the, uh, ancient humans turned into sacrificial table thingies. It's real neat...”

    The episode went on for another ten minutes exploring the temple, with Tsoukalos cutting in with while speculations, all of which Kara just shrugged at and verified.


    ---


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  30. inverted_helix

    inverted_helix Connoisseur.

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    I haven't particularly liked these last bits. It kind of feels like you lost even what sense of plot you had and just went meandering.
     
    january1may and Yinko like this.
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