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, Manhattan [July 2015]

  –Jack Sullivan–

  Wheepped out of the portal and saw the very mutact Aveower, he actually let out a sigh of relief, not because he actually expected Thor to do something in respoo Tony’s usual shenanigans but because New York was the epiter of the Marvel Universe.

  The favourite bitch of the writers of the Universe, so to speak and he was actually worried if something absurd as the Mole Man had actually attacked New York in the short span of time he was in the mirror dimension, practising with the Power Stone. Fortunately, nothing of that sort had happened so they were fine for now.

  Though, one of these days, he was going to have to front all the other fringe elements that he had ed for now. Something to do after he was done making sure that the Dwarves of Nidavellir did not make Thanos the ultimate on.

  The other Branch of Hydra, the ohat was responsible for worshipping Hive as a God, someone who could actually trol him sidering that he was an Inhuman as well.

  The Mole Man and the Mole people, not to extermihem because they were an unfortunate sce experiment abandoned by their creators and only brought uhe trol of the Mole Mao another sce experiment.

  The Eternals and the Deviants hiding on the p, although how they hid themselves so well with the plethora of sihat every single try, including Wakanda and Atntis, must have put in space, was a mystery in and of itself. Probably somethied to the iergy that both the races seem to have.

  Then, the Celestial ihe p.

  He shivered as he felt a gaze b down on him from somewhere, an invisible pressure fog on him the momehought of ending the Celestial gestating deep within the p, who would destroy the p and kill Billions of se people.

  He looked up with difficulty and gred right back, even though it was getting difficult to evehe uhe pressure. He was 90% sure who it was and he hadn’t expected the entity to be able to affect him without even maing in front of him or the fact that Arishem could sense his thoughts of ending the Celestial inside Earth from so far away.

  Just whehought that he had to use the Power Stoo boost his barriers, as a st resort in the silent staring test he was having with someone who robably millions of miles away, a streak of blue entered his vision as Thor appeared in front of him, his Asgardian gllowing blue and white.

  “Allow me, Guardian,” He heard Thor’s words even though Thor’s mouth didn’t even move as he felt the gaze startling for some reason before the pressure receded pletely, leaving him soaked in his ow as he looked at Thor, shocked at what had happened.

  “Okay-” *pant* “--You have got to tell me what the hell happeo you in the one year you were absent,” He finally had to ask Thor about it because trolling the Bifrost without the necessary maery was ohing. But to resist the pressure of a Celestial, the pinnacle of what the universe had to offer, and even to send the gaze pag was a whole other thing.

  The more time he spent with Thor, the more mysteries emerged and while he was certainly gd to have someone of that power level in the fight against Thanos, He and all the other threats, he was not sure if this Thor was even Thor anymore. This was not some mere Prihor, no, this ower more along the lines of God King Thor.

  “All iime, my Friend. All iime,” Thor said as the blue armour around him dispersed, revealing a normal T-Shirt and Jeans, with Stark Foundation written across the front of the T-Shirt.

  He oo tired to do anything else, from the freak ihat happened just now. He had no idea that Arishem was this powerful or he could do something like that, despite his speciality being defeo think that he couldn’t even bring out the big guns in terms of his barriers before he was assaulted by the mere pressure of a superior being who could make him freeze from millions of miles away.

  Damn.

  Thor helped him nd slowly on the Avengers and Tower and then after plopping him down on the sofa, Thor held up a small bottle of…Asgardian Alcohol in front of him. He looked quizzically at Thor who replied.

  “Drink it. It helped many a soldiers who were exposed to the full brunt of the aura of the All-Father of the Nine Realms.”

  He immediately brushed it aside. “Thanks but No. I am…will be fine in a while.” He did not want to be drunk right now, no sir. That was just a recipe for disaster.

  He just had to recover and then vihor to head to Nidavellir for some urgent business.

  “Suit yourself,” Thor said before downing the etle as if it was just a shot and not some thousands of years old Ale that was glowing e. Damn, Thor was just hardcore.

  “Yo, Mini Green? What happened?” Tony’s voice turned from jovial and obnoxious to ed and wary in an instant as he saw the dreate of the Green Guardian, who was still taking in deep breaths.

  He waved off Tony who didn’t o know about the Celestials and had another existential crisis and somehow built Ultron or something. Grahat Jarvis in this reality was much much stronger now, with his intelligence probably ing from being exposed to the energies from the Infinity Stones back during the Chitauri Invasion.

  “Nothing, Tony. Just some new problem, as usual. Now, how are the others holding up?” He asked Tony because he had not seen the Guardians of the Gaxy around but he was reasonably certain that Tony would not let such obvious alies bato the city, despite how carefree he could be iain manners.

  “Oh, they? They are fine. Drax is in the gym, along with Gamora who does not look like she lift over a ton of weight. Quill is watg movies, aing tubs full of buttery pop. Rocket, now that’s where things got iing. He was very offended when I called him a ra but he was taken to liking Jarvis very mud they are both now dug experiments in a “safe” sandbox I created for occasions such as this, and Groot is with Rocket.”

  Tony rattled off the status updates of the Guardians then he looked up.

  “I have got to say that Rocket is some meical genius, probably experimented on to create that level of intelligence. Unfortunately, his body was not built to sustain that level of–”

  “We will talk of this ter, Tony.” he cut Tony off from going down that line of thought. It was not the time to focus on Rocket’s ridiculously short lifespan for now. He had known that for a while now, actually, from the moment he had id eyes on Rocket and had one of his barriers cover Rocket.

  One of the many abilities he had was sensing the energies in a being ohey are covered up in his barriers. CHI is one suergy and the amount of CHI that one has in their body be a pretty definitive indicator of their natural lifespan or of their overall bat prowess with CHI, as is the case with the Iron Fist of Kun’Lun, ahreat that he had to deal with.

  God, such a bunch of headaches that he had to deal with on his own before Thanos came to the p because he couldn’t have a bunch of fas vying for Thanos’ attention or creating disturbances in the final fight.

  So, when he first covered Rocket in one of his barriers, he knew, he khat Rocket did not have mu the way of CHI and would not live for long. The oldest recorded Ra on the p was about 20 years old and while Rocket robably not that old, the experiments done on his body along with the battles that he had been into, probably meant that ROcket would not survive for long.

  Ahere was not much he could do. He had sed his entire body and there were no immediate medical ditions that could be treated to prolong his lifespan. He had just…burhrough his lifeford there was not much that could be doo increase the lifeforce of someone, not without going through some drastic measures that had very little ces of success like the Super Soldier Serum, or Extremis.

  For now, he was going to keep that o himself. Maybe, ohe battle with Thanos was dohe A One could do something or failing that, Tony could take a shot with Extremis.

  “Oo-kay. That was weird but fine. I won’t tell the ra that he is dying,” Tony said out loud, iionally. He sighed at that, Tony was being his usual obnoxious self.

  He sighed explosively and stood up, the short respite enough for him to recover a bit.

  “You know, I created the sandbox because I expected, rightly, for new geo pop up from now on, and expected some of them to be kids as well but it is w very well for Rocket as well so do know that I will be expeg an expnation as to why I must keep quiet,” Saying so, Tohe room, creati another problem for him.

  Yet another problem that he pushed to ter Jack.

  “Jarvis?” He asked the resident AI who was om iower and with the rising digital device peion, om in most parts of the world as well.

  “Yes, Mr.Sullivan, what I do for you?”

  “ you make sure that the Guardians are fortable here and more importantly, iower only. Do not let them get out. If they try to do so, feel free to detail them. They are belled as criminals ier gaxy but they don’t deserve that so I will work to get that tag removed but if they do try something drastic, just get them detained, alright?”

  It took a while for Jarvis to respond, “I see. While I feel unfortable with the thought of imprisoning people who have not vioted any ws in our jurisdi, the panic it will cause if they leave the Tower plus the threats they will face makes a pelling argument in your favour. Very well, Mr.Sullivan, I will make sure that they remain withiower uhe time es when they will have the ability to leave the p,”

  Well, that was a very diplomatic respo he will take it.

  “Thanks, Jarvis and also tell them that the moment I am back, I will send them to either Xandar or somepce else.”

  “Thor, we o talk,”

  “Aye?”

  “We o go to Nidavellir. I know you have that whole bahing going on but–”

  “No, you are right, Jack of the Sullivans. Something is afoot on Asgard. I have yet to feel Heimdall or the All-Father’s gaze on me, even after the wayward Celestial pulled off that stunt. I must go to Asgard and make sure that everything is fine. So, yes, we will go to Nidavellir and once your work there is done, we will go to Asgard, yes?”

  He smiled, relieved that he wouldn’t have to fight Thor on this. “Yes, perfect.”

  “Alright, with the Bifrost inaccessible to us and Stormbreaker still not born, we have to take the old ways,”

  “Old ways?” he asked Thor.

  “Yes, the Old Ways, gaps in the space between the Nine Realms, gateways to other realms, facilitated by the old branches of the World Tree. We use those to travel to Nidavellir. It is dangerous for mortals to use them without adequate prote but you will do just fine, for a mortal.”

  “Alright, where we find those old ways then?” He asked Thor, his mind going back to the old ortal that Loki used to take them from Asgard to the home of the Dark Elves. Thor knew of them as well, another not his Magical knowledge repository then.

  “I knohat mortal cities they are in but I sehem. Follow me,” Thor said as he floated outside the Tower and then rocketed off, still in his T-shirt and Jeans. He himself was covered in green as he kept up with Thor’s rexed pace.

  Cities passed them by as he cast a stealth spell on both of them, the spell matrix breaking apart as soon as it touched Thor so he just kept it on himself.

  They soon approached the Himayas, as Thor finally slowed down. Huh, an old-ortal right beside Kamar Taj? Who knew? Probably the A One.

  Thor slowly flew right into the mountain ranges filled with thiow, going down until they finally reached the ground. Evehor didn’t stop as his feet were covered in light blue before he went right through the ground, the snow bubbling around him as his form superheated everything all around him. He followed suit, his barriers of course.

  Thor maintained a sedate pace as they dug deep into the earth, with the snow having turned a deep blue by now, highlighting its old age.

  With a quiet “Aha!” Thor finally stopped aured with his hand behind him, an open palm right in front of his chest. His eyes narrowed in fusion before they widened in horror as he threw himself to the side, a loud thunking sound following suit as Mjolnir smmed into Thor’s waiting hand.

  He gred at Thor’s mischievous face. That was unnecessarily dangerous.

  Then Thor took Mjolnir and then smmed the hammer dht in front of him. He expected Mjolnir to hit snow and vaporise the area around them but Mjolnir was stopped midway as a rainbow of colours, covered in a green barrier maed in front of them.

  The green barrier gave way to Mjolnir’s might as the rainbow colours then began overflowing all around them.

  “e, Nidavellir awaits,” Thor said to him before he floated right into the colours, disappearing as if the rainbow had eaten Thor.

  He hastily followed, worried that even a sed of difference might mean a lightyear of differen destinatio came to unstable instant teleportation meisms.

  After a sed of rainbow filling his visioumbled as he fell down on a metal ptform, his barriers flickering due to the distortion of the energy in the portal.

  He looked up, to see Thor extending a hand towards him.

  He took it and stood up, looking at the giant glowing Sun and the Dyson Sphere built all around it, with a cacophony of metalwork done by the, paradoxically, giant Dwarves.

  Most importantly, he sighed in relief as he saw the w Dyson Sphere and the ring being poputed by the Dwarves.

  Good, Thanos had not hit yet. And with Thor here, even if Thanos did e right this instant, he was fident in their ability to send them pag, or at least, hurt him and his forces enough that he would not be able to plete his motive, which was to get Eitri to build him an Infinity Gau.

  “e, let’s go meet Eitri. Whatever your issue is, he will be able to resolve it. He is an old friend of my Father,” Thor said as they began floating towards the ter of the giant right that was the Dyson Sphere, the absolute pinnaeical engineering.

  Word t - 2693

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