Chapter 193: Warnings
9th March 2012, New York City
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
I chuckled, “Don’t worry, I’m not here to fight any of you. I need to talk to Thor for a few minutes. I will leave with him to Asgard. I removed my protections against Heimdall’s scrying for now. I believe I have left him enough time to warn your father of my incoming visit.”
Thor looked at me nervously, “Are you planning on harming Asgard in any way?”
I shook my head, “All I need, is to have a conversation with your father. We will come to an agreement. A war with Asgard, especially now, will spread chaos across the universe. Trust me, the arrangement will be beneficial for both factions.”
He nodded, “Then, I, Thor son of Odin, Crown Prince of Asgard, accept your request.”
“So be it.”
I then immediately smiled, “Alright, with that out of the way, there’s something I wanted to talk to you all about.”
The Avengers looked at me, with nervous looks on their faces. I almost burst into laughter, “relax, it’s nothing bad, but there will be ramifications to what happened today.”
Barton looked confused, “Like what?”
“People were aware of superpowers before, with Captain America being a thing, and the mutants being revealed a couple of years ago. And while some of the reception was positive, most people were afraid, especially governments, and with good reason. The truth is that power, until the reveal of those people, was in the hands of the rich and the politicians. It’s quite simple, they have law enforcement to deal with people who break the law, the army for serious threats, and so on. Even Steve Rogers, the Captain America, while impressive, is still within somewhat human imagination. But with superpowers being gained by mostly teenagers left and right, they don’t feel safe anymore. Their neighbor’s kid could read minds, destroy tanks without breaking a sweat, and cause a lot of property damage. It makes sense; newly awakened mutants are mostly either children or teenagers, who rarely tend to listen to the rules.”
They were starting to look apprehensive now and Barton still asked, “But things were like that for years now, what does this invasion have to do with this?”
Stark was the one who answered him, “We opened their eyes to the dangers out there.”
I nodded, “Precisely. This invasion, the formation of the Avengers, is the beginning of a new age in human history. People were already afraid of mutants, and now with aliens of all things being confirmed, people are going to be paranoid and paranoid people are rash and unreasonable. But the worst of it will come from the mutants themselves. They have seen you, the Avengers, use your powers to protect people, to save the world and they will want to do the same. They will want to use their powers too. They will not be afraid of the consequences anymore. They will either try to be heroes, like you, or they will use their powers for profit, and probably break laws. The general population will focus on the people who break the laws, and they will hunt them down. The governments will either want to take away mutants’ influence, by enforcing a lot of harsh laws and regulations, and imprisoning them at the slightest infraction, or by having them join their military forces.”
Stark paled, “We’ll have another arms race in our hands. The impact will be devastating.”
I nodded, “Yes, and all it takes is one mutant, one walking weapon of mass destruction to light a spark and everything will go down in flames.”
Rogers stood up, “What do we do?”
I shrugged, “It’s not my problem. I deal with things beyond your comprehension. Your little scuffles here aren’t my concern. They’re yours. This is just a small piece of advice. Get ready, and start planning, because the more you put it off, the more likely things are going to blow up in your face.”
Banner protested, “But it’s not our fault. What did they expect, for us to let the Earth be conquered?”
I snorted, “Of course it isn’t your fault. But you of all people should know, Banner, that the world is not fair. The innocents suffer, and the guilty prosper. Greed is one of the strongest motivators in the world. Everyone covets power, and those who have it, will not cede it easily. You might have saved the planet, and they might celebrate you as heroes, but be very careful, the only thing people love to see more than their heroes rise, is to see them fall. People don’t like the concept of superpowers if they don’t have them as well. Truth be told, the way things are going, if mutants are not hunted down, in a century or two, it’s very likely that mutants will outnumber the normal humans. It’s the way of the world. You want to be Earth's mightiest heroes, to protect the weak from the dangers that even they don’t know about, and you can do that. But you have to understand the risks as well.”
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Captain America, as usual, refused to budge on the subject, “No, I don’t believe that. I believe that humanity can be more than educated savages, ready to kill anyone at a moment’s notice. I believe that we have grown as a people from the men you saw in your youth. We are not the ancient Greeks or the Romans, or the Egyptians. We have abolished slavery; we have fought for peace and security. I have faith in humanity, even if you lost yours.”
I suppressed a snort. Classic Steve Rogers. The man is the ideal soldier, and while that makes him impressive in battle, it doesn’t do much to his convictions. And the problem was that he was charismatic, and he could inspire people to believe his nonsense.
The situation was very dire. I could tell that, and I haven’t even been back for a full day yet. From what Selene had told me, Hydra had leaked the existence of mutants, probably to frighten the population. This is what they believe in, after all. Choosing security over freedom. It’s very easy to persuade people to continue with project insight, if it could stop mutants who are breaking the law. It would be safer, yes, but no one would ever be free to oppose them again. The invasion didn’t help things either, the people are frightened, even with the minimal loss of life. To a terrified person, it would be a lot easier to trade your freedom for peace of mind.
Hydra had already started recruiting mutants through SHIELD. It’s funny, really, SHIELD thinks that it could use mutants as weapons for serious threats, but Hydra is already three steps ahead of them. SHIELD is actually making HYDRA stronger with every mutant that they recruit. As far as I know, the only one from the former X-men was Scott Summers, who chose to continue to follow his mentor’s dream while blaming himself for his weakness to Magneto’s manipulation. And now, he’s being manipulated by Hydra. Oh, the irony.
I look at the Avengers in front of me, and they seemed to be reassured by Rogers’ little speech. Tony and Natasha didn’t seem to be moved by it, really. They’ve seen humanity’s darkness, that when they knew they could get away with it, they would revert back to being savages.
The super soldier looked at me, seeming victorious for some reason. Did he really think that I cared about his opinion. The man is a soldier, not a thinker. I said that for Stark to listen to. Honestly, I think that Tony is one of the smartest people on the planet who’s actually a somewhat functional human being. He can be impulsive sometimes, but if he’s not under a deadline, he could think of plans after plans, dealing with this. He’s the epitome of humanity. He’s a survivor, he experienced pain, joy, sorrow, and so much more. He has the potential to truly elevate humanity, all he needs is a little push. I would never trust Reed Richards with the future of the human race. If I tried to solve a physics problem or build a gadget, I would go to him, but with something this delicate, Stark is the only option.
Instead of saying any of this, I just shrugged, “Heed my warnings or not, whatever happens next will be on your heads. I’m washing my hands of humanity. I have bigger concerns to deal with.”
The redhead assassin seemed peeved at that, “Like what?”
I actually burst into laughter at that, “Honestly, if I wasn’t bound to this rock right now, I’d leave, just to see you flounder around trying to save yourself without my presence. You have never known of my existence because I deal with the threats that you don't know about. The monsters you don’t even want to see, the disasters that you wouldn't even understand. Believe me, little girl, the things I fight would make the monsters that ran your little red room look like teddy bears. I have fought gods and demons alike. I have seen the true majesty of the universe, seen realms without time, against impossible opponents. I have seen things you could never even understand because a single glimpse of them would overwhelm your little human mind. Trust me, little assassin, without me, your race wouldn’t have lived past using bronze swords.”
“If you don’t like it, they why don’t you leave?” she returned back.
I nodded, “Oh, I’m planning to. For now, this little rock is in the center of events that would shape the entire universe, and even beyond it. And unfortunately, I can’t trust you not to mess things up. This is too important, so I’ll have to stay here for the next couple of decades. And if this planet survives what is coming, then you won’t hear anything from me anymore. If it doesn’t, well, I guess we’ll all be too dead to care.”
I motioned to Thor, “Blondie, get your things, you’re going home.”
The man looked startled for a second and actually jumped when I addressed him. He quickly straightened his back and processed my words. He nodded and went to get Loki. As he went away, the rest of the Avengers were staring at me, startled by my little speech.
Romanoff chose to change the topic of the conversation entirely, “do you still have Loki’s staff?”
I nodded, “Yes, it is currently in my possession.”
“SHIELD is going to want to get that.”
I snorted in derision, “That’s cute kiddo. You think I’d let them near something that dangerous after the mess they made. It’s not like they misused powerful artifacts in the past. Oh wait, they did.”
“What happened with the Tesseract was a mistake…” she protested.
I raised an eyebrow and interrupt her, “You’re seriously asking me if SHIELD, an organization famous for trying to weaponize pretty much anything they had a hand in, wouldn’t try to use a staff that’s only good for controlling minds. That’s not even scratching what that thing can really do. Even Loki had no idea what that thing is. No, I’m going to hide that thing in the deepest hole I can find. No one is going to get it on my watch.”
She didn’t have time to argue with me because Thor entered, holding the still bound and unconscious Loki, and the Tesseract in an Asgardian artifact designed to temporality use the space stone in a very limited manner. It should be enough for what I had in mind. With a wave of my hand, I dispel the bindings and wake him up.
Immediately, everyone got to their feet, worried. I just raised my hand, “Don’t worry, he won’t do anything. I just couldn’t leave him bound like that where we’re going.”
Thor looked confused, “I thought we were going to Asgard?”
I nodded, “Yes, but first, I’ll need to check on something and it’s in what I would call a hostile environment.”
Loki blinked at me, still disorientated, and glared, “And where would that be?”
The malicious grin on my face must have scared him because he paled when he saw it. Even Thor looked nervous, and his eyes widened when I said, “We’re going to Nifleheim.”
“Wait, what…”
Before he could finish the sentence. I turn the Asgardian artifact, and teleport myself and the two Asgardians to one of the most dangerous places in the universe.