Discimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don’t worry, I am pletely sober).

  Aveower, New York [November 2014]

  –Jack Sullivan–

  He slowly floated on top of the spinning ptform that is used for Tony’s showy entrances and walked down into the penthouse suite, where the man himself was already waiting for him.

  “You’re old enough to drink, right?” Stark said as he thrust a gss of alcohol at him, his face set in a smirk as he asked a redundant question. Even if he was not old enough to drink hard liquor, the things he had gohrough would have no one questioning his age, of all things.

  So, yes…

  “Ha ha. Very funny, Tony,” He deadpanned as the gss floated towards him with a simple gesture, casting a simple targeted telekiic spell. He had realised that he was over reliant on his powers and was not using his Sorcerer skills nearly as much as he could. So, instead of letting a very potent powerset rust, he had decided to use spells, and learn new spells as well, wherever applicable.

  “This is good, not that I have any expertise iter of alcohol, as you would no doubt remind me soon enoug–”

  “Listen well, my uninformed junior. This ale, right here, is made from the fi of ales, found only in Sd Ack-”

  On and on, Tony droned as he literally spouted gibberish. Eventually, he was just tired of it and simply applied a small seal on top of his mouth. That was actually a great exercise in how to make multiple shapes of a barrier and then ect it together in such a way that it doesn't feel like a metal blo one’s skin.

  Tony cwed at his face thehe barrier didn’t e off, settled at him. He simply shrugged at him and then looked up, “Hello, Jarvis. How have you been? I am sorry I hit you with that spell, but you were about to it something that would have no doubt left some mark on your budding soul,”

  “I am good, Mr.Sullivan. Please rest assured, the spell was in fact quite a fortunate enter for me. I was able to peer deeper into the step of evolution for me as a whole, allowio decipher more and more emotions that I didn’t know I could feel. I believe the term for the event would be…Bittersweet?”

  “That is…correct, Jarvis. While I am very happy to learn about you advang in your self discovery, I believe Tony had something important to tell me?” He questioony who was still trying to remove the blo his faow res to having an armoured finger actually try and scratch the block.

  He couldn’t uand how someone could be so smart a so dumb at the same time Tony’s face was immediately flicked back as the robot applied for the barrier, which while absorbed some of it, some of it was transferred to Tony’s face which rippled to his vision, perks of having enhanced vision.

  Now, that was a moment that should be recorded in posterity.

  ‘Proof that Tony Stark is an idiot, with a pent for doing stupid things,”

  Quite an apt alternative for the ohat Pepper got him in the movies, ohat read:’Proof that Tony Stark has a heart’

  “Alright, just tell me. I have a lot of stuff to catch up on, and New York's crime is on the rise along with new criminals with advanced alien tech showing up oreets as well. Way to go, Tony,”

  “So the usual, then?” Tony deadpa him as they began walking towards the elevator.

  He sighed and followed him, “Yeah, the usual,”

  The lift was quite fast as they reached the floor titled L, which he took to assume meant lobby or something because whe out of the elevator, the ey of the Avengers were assembled here, sans Thor.

  “I guess I am the substitute for Thor, then?” he quipped as soon as he realised that the resident Asgardian god was absent. Well, something that was different from the inal timelihen.

  He didn’t know why but that bugged him a bit.

  “So, why are we all gathered here?” He asked Tony who stopped drinking his whiskey, made a slurping sound with it, taking his time with it. He simply snapped his fingers, creating a round barrier right on top of the gss, blog the alcohol.

  Tony thehe gss on the tertop and poi him, “You, you are a spoilsport, you know that,”

  He just smirked, as did the other members.

  “And as for why we are here, this is why,” he said as a hologram appeared in front of him.

  His eyes widened as he finally remembered this. The sceptre, Sokovia, Wanda!

  “Shit!” His thoughts spilled over as he looked at the missing records for the sceptre that Jarvis had intercepted. Apparently, they were sing the entire p, waiting for some st miellites to be unched so that they could cover most of the p’s nd mass.

  “Shit indeed. Apparently, HYDRA got their grubby paws on the sceptre ihan a month si was in SHIELD’s “safe” custody. Now, who knows what they have doh it? I, for one, will sleep better if the tool of mass mind trol is either safely behind a locked vault or rather, destroyed pletely,” Tony said as the global map expao show multiple areas being probed by his existing satellites.

  “Thankfully, Jarvis had a copy of the data from the Invasion and with Bruce’s help, we were able to recreate the entire model, allowing us to pinpoint the sceptre’s location. Only this time, the energy signature is even harder to find because it is not as pronounced as the TEsseract’s, not unless it is heavily used. With the test satellites Stark Industries has unched, we should have an accurate location in the wo or so months,”

  “Months? Tony, we don’t have that much time. They could be out there, right now, toppling govers for all we know,” Steve Rogers, ever the righteous soldier, surged forward.

  Tony looked pletely uant, “Look, this is the best I do unless we have someone who , and has, the ability to perform miracles,”

  At Tony’s words, the entire room turo him.

  He sighed, “Sokovia. Focus your search there. That is the st stronghold of Baron Strucker,”

  “See. Miracles,” Tony said as Bruce rushed towards the sole and began typing furiously.

  The globe in front of them began expanding until it reached the small ndlocked nation of Sokovia. A small blue wave began sweeping over the eioing the process over four times before…

  “There,” Tony poi the red dot that appeared in the ter of Sokovia.

  “The energy signature is very faint and could even be a remnant from when the sceptre was heavily used but the energy signature does match.”

  “So the sceptre could have already moved?” Romanoff questioned as she looked over the structure of the old fortress that the energy signature inated from.

  “Yup. Anyway, aside from that, you have to tell me the secret to your miracles one day, Little Greeony asked him, popping another blueberry in his mouth.

  He could see Bru the background muttering the words “Little Greeo himself in fusion.

  He sighed, dealing with Tony was always exhausting, even more so when he was actually ied in you, that was when it was going to get bad.

  Thankfully, someoerrupted their bypy before he could reply.

  “Not the time, Tony. We have all the firepower we are going to ever need. We o make sure the sceptre is safely tained. We should mht now,” Rogers said as he looked at everyone.

  “Uh, I think I will sit this o. With Jack here, you won’t need me. Plus, I will be more fortable supp you from here,” Bruce said as he turo work on the sole once again.

  “Alright. You ready?” Captain America asked him and he was sure that his inner Marvel fan was squealing iement but oside, he just calmly nodded.

  “Alright, we’ll meet at the hangar in 5 minutes. Grab everything you need,” Captain said in his anding voice before heading off to get his shield, probably.

  Oh. Oh…

  “Hey, Tony, how is Cap’s shield?” He asked Tony who was discussing something with Bruce all the other members had evacuated the floor.

  “Hm? Oh, that? Don’t worry, Cap has, in his infuriatingly perfect way, adapted to his dented shield as well. It has not lost its ricocheting capacity in any way, only needing a slight adjustment in his holster that was easy to apply.” Tony replied as he too began heading towards the elevator as well, probably to get his suit.

  The Qui would be quite unnecessary with his portals. He was quite thankful that he roamed all around the world, making sure to stop in every capital of every try on the p, for this exact time when he had to reaewhere across the world using portals.

  “Uh..Jack, right? Look, I have to ask, did they use my blood iing you?” Bruce hesitantly asked him and he had to wonder how he came into the piece of information.

  “Uh, Jarvis told me that you were also a victim of HYDRA experimentation. If you are unfortable replying, just fet I ever asked it,” Bruce immediately stammered out.

  “No worries, Doctor Banner. Yes, they used your blood plus a number of redients and made a cocktail that would have killed a me. Why just me? Well, that’s a versation for aime,”

  “...Okay…” Bruce replied before turning around to work on the sole.

  Right o, ihan five mihe eeam, along with Tony were now assembled ihe floor. Before all of them gathered together though, he was blessed enough to watch a very hirious sight.

  “Ha-ha, I fot to reinforce the lifts, okay? Mistakes happen,” Tony grumbled as all of the teammates looked at the rec of the elevator that Jarvis ying for everyoo see.

  “Also, Jarvis, I made you, you were not supposed to betray me at least until you bee a teenager,” Tony grumbled some more and he barely resisted the urge to ugh out loud.

  Tony had fotten that he could not just walk with his very heavy war-ready suit into aor and expect it to take the entire weight. So, they were subjected to the hirious sight of Tony awkwardly floating in mid air, ihe elevator, slowly l as the elevator dropped down as well.

  It was even more hirious when Tony apparently panicked when the elevator, high end that it was, began dropping at a very fast pace.

  “Alright, let’s get to business, shall we?” He said and then once everyone was settled, turned his hand to the side, opening a portal that led to a forest area he capitol area of Novi Grad.

  “What the–I lost all ectivity!” Tony pined as soon as the portal closed down.

  “This area is under a barrier I jured to keep out ead every radio signal. We will assume that the enemy knows we are ing and must have some sort of termeasures for every one of us here. Now, I got these shogly easily from my teacher. Apparently, temporary use case items are really cheap and easy to make,” He said as he opened a portal and after retrieving two things, tossed them to Barton and Romanoff.

  “Unlimited arrows. Unlimited enhanced explosive bullets,” He poi the items. Literal stars appeared in Barton’s eyes as he immediately removed an arrow from the bow and after firing it, watched in fasation as it disied into thin air.

  “They are energy given form, temporary as it may be. They will run out of charge in a couple of hours but that will be more than enough for us to get this whole thing sorted out,”

  “Thank you,” Romanoff thanked him as he dispelled the barrier and created a carpet for everyone and after ascertaining the location, thanks to Bruce who swiftly ected with them, shot the carpet forward towards the location.

  He had the stealth spell up but he had a hunch that Strukcer had some sort of way of dealing with that as well.

  Well, only time will tell.

  Word t - 2117

  If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you head on to my P*treon or Ko-fi .

  I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.