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Earth
–Jack Sullivan–
“So, we are clear on what needs to happen, then?” He asked out loud as he munched on an apple that was clearly kept for Fury. He had used his own barriers to check on Fury’s condition and aside from non threatening injuries on his stomach, shoulder, and his left arm, he was good to go.
Perhaps he would not make a full recovery, owing to his age but the man was clearly not going to stay put in an old age home. Well, he had no healing spells handy, and using them on the utterly paranoid FUry would be an uphill battle anyway.
“Yes, we destroy SHIELD. We burn it to the ground,” Rogers spoke up, with Hill backing him.
“Affirmative, seconded,” Jarvis spoke from the drone that was buzzing around the space they were in. Romanoff seemed to second Jarvis’ opinion as well.
Fury seemed to look around the room with a shocked face, trying to find some support against the idea of destroying his life’s work.
Just as his face was gaining a resigned expression, he spoke up, “Well, let’s not get hasty, guys,”
Everybody looked at him as he finished munching on the apple before spitting the seeds which were collected by a small barrier before being dumped into the nearby dustbin.
“Now, Jarvis? Do you have all the schematics for the carriers?” He asked as a small barrier sprang forth in the center of the room. Everybody looked at it, with Fury’s bed being raised by his barriers to help him see better.
“Yes, I have all the data that SHIELD and HYDRA both have on the Helicarriers. Using my powers, I have also installed advanced relay satellites in space which will help me remotely control every single aspect of the carrier from any corner of the world,”
He snapped his finger as he pointed at the drone, i.e., Jarvis. “That’s what I expected. Now, can you tell me, are the Heliacrriers and their parts rated for the vacuum of space?”
There was a pause in the room as every single occupant of the room looked at him with wide eyes, especially Fury and Rogers.
“No!” “Absolutely not!”
Fury and Rogers shouted as the idea took root in their minds. He paid no heed to them as he kept on looking at the drone that represented Jarvis in their discussion.
“Although they were not built for space operations, the structural integrity of the carriers should not be disturbed in zero-G environments. With minimal moving components, courtesy of Stark Tech means that aside from lacking air locking capacity, the carriers can be safely deployed in the vacuum of space,”
“How about we keep them in orbit with all defensive measures ready, just in case some country gets trigger happy and tries to take it down with a nuke or something,” He said as the barrier in front of them molded to form three carriers on top of earth, which then increased their altitude to reach near the moon.
“Like this?” He said as the helicarrier reached orbit as some small fine particles drifted out of all the three carriers.
“So this is what we have come to then? Killing unarmed defensless people in such a brutal, ruthless manner? Without a trial by court, without a fair chance at justice? This is not justice, this is-”
“Practical,” He said, shutting down the tirade that Rogers was evidently warming up for.
“We gave fair trials for all the monsters from Germany and Japan, what happened then? HYDRA happened. And now their reach is even deeper than it was then. No, we can’t take that risk. If you don’t believe me, Jarvis, chances of all the higher ups escaping justice if we try to run it through the courts before?”
“99.81%”
A heavy blanket of silence fell over the room as all of the people present tried to come to terms with the fact that they were now standing in the room where the decision to kill over 4 thousand, would be taken.
“So, Captain?” Rogers looked at him as he stood up, the holographic barriers disappearing, “You can hold on to your morals but I will do what is necessary to make sure that the bad guys are punished and more importantly, are not free the next day to hurt even more people,” he left the room, leaving them to discuss their next moves.
Though judging by the action from either ROgers or Fury who was now slumped on his bed, he had a hunch that his plan to gas HYDRA to death would come to fruition.
“Huh, Gassing Nazis to death, how ironic,” He chuckled sardonically as a portal opened up in front of him as he stepped through, emerging in a small clearing surrounded by forest. The difference was that it was still day here.
Up ahead, he could see the familiar clearing where he had first encountered the Wakandans in all of their xenophobic glory. His face scrunched in distaste with the thought of dealing with these people but he had no other choice.
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Wakanda was his only option if he wanted to make sure that HYDRA’s downfall would not result in even more death and suffering in the African continent.
“Well, let’s see if they step up, at least now. Hope T’Challa is better than his father,” He muttered to himself as his form was covered in the small Gundam, which still stood at over 8 feet tall.
He slowly floated over to the wary Border Tribe members who pointed their spears at him.
“Impossible! Identity yourself, Impostor!” The one in the lead shouted as he brandished the vibranium spear in Jack’s direction.
“Impostor?” He titled his neck to one side as he spoke up in a modulated voice, his flight halting mid way as he asked the question to the one in the lead, curious as to what they would think of someone impersonating Jack Sullivan.
“Yes, Impostor! What else could you be if not an Impostor, trying to steal the identity of Earth’s hero, the Green Guardian!” The Border Tribe person said as he, along with dozens of his tribe members, looked at him with their faces set in anger, with their spears glowing an ominous blue.
His face was one of utter bamboozlement as he looked at the completely xenophobic people getting angry on the behalf of someone who they would gladly let die on the streets before lifting a single helping hand.
“Ahem, I assure you that it is me, in the flesh,” He said even though he could see that none of the people in front of him believed the truth, at all.
“Jarvis, I assume you know what to do?” He muttered to the small drone that Jarvis had snapped on his barriers.
“I discovered Wakanda over 6 months ago and have been calculating of ways on how to best integrate a hyper advanced, xenophobic, racist–” Jarvis said the word with such disgust that it made him smile at the human emotion being displayed, “--Monarchy into the overarching global structure and I have to admit, making them take control over the continent of Africa, even through Proxy would be the best decision for a while, taking into account the least amount of blood and suffering. So, yes, I have cloaked the entire area and spoofed all the sensors that are attached to all the satellites around here.
You can use your powers to a reasonable extent before anyone can figure it out,”
He smiled upon hearing Jarvis just roll over the fact that he had discovered his attempt at tagging him and then answer his unasked question. Truly, Jarvis had evolved to become the very best butler that this world had ever seen.
He snapped his fingers as a huge Gundam manifested right behind him, the height of a 10-storey building with ease. The chest component opened up behind him as his form floated back into the larger Gundam. As soon as he, the assumed power core entered the Larger Gundam, the Gundam’s eyes lit up with a blazing green as the large Gundam dropped on the ground right next to the Border Tribe leader.
Most of the border tribe members scrambled away from the green giant as the head of the Gundam was lowered down to the leader,
“Do you believe me, now? Hmm?” He said in his modulated voice, smiling as the border tribe leader smiled in agreement.
As if the previous Gundam was just an illusion, it disappeared in an instant as he was standing in its place, in a small Gundam suit.
“See, that wasn’t so hard, now was it? Now, why don’t you call in T’Challa so we can have a nice conversation. Please do mention that I am in quite a hurry as of now,” He said as a small sofa manifested behind him, on which he dropped his Gundam, pretending to lounge in absolute visibility of the entire fleet of Wakanda.
Hopefully, he would be able to negotiate, or rather, dump everything on T’Challa’s shoulders before hightailing it out of here. He was just here to warn them of the upcoming upheaval in the larger continent surrounding them and this was the best time to make sure that, when they were inevitably outed to the rest of the world, they had something to defend themselves with.
He lay down on the makeshift sofa for a couple more minutes before the same leader of the team showed up to stand in front of him.
“Um, sir?”
“Yes?”
“Sir, Prince T’Challa is out on an important mission right now. King T’Chaka has invited you as a royal guest of Wakanda if you won’t mind entering Wakanda,” The Wakandan said with a nervous smile on his face.
It was odd. The last time he was here, he had performed a similar show of power and yet, the people at the time were not nearly as nervous or afraid, or rather, respectful of him as they were now.
His barriers, spread about the entire covering, could not detect even a single cloaked jet or something, ready to shoot him down.
“Very well, lead me to your King,”
He supposed that seeing him in action during the New York invasion must have made a strong impression on them. He hoped that T’Chaka himself would be much more amenable than he was last time because he had no other plan other than this to deal with the aftermath of HYDRA’s collapse for the African continent.
Africa was unique in the context that none of the HYDRA’s heads actually operated from here. They just used the continent as a front to get all the resources they needed, without having to pay a dime for it.
So, the fall of HYDRA would mean that there would now be a lot of warlords with a penchant for unnecessary violence and suffering in positions of power without their overlords to maintain a thin veneer of control.
“This way please,” He raised an eyebrow internally and just for the hell of it, just dispelled the Gundam around him, now that he knew that the whole world had seen his real face, there was no point hiding it behind a mask.
“Sure,” He said while the border tribe agent looked thrilled at the prospect of him being without his mask.
Protection wise, it didn’t make much of a difference as his second skin was still active and he could react almost instantly if the need for better, bulkier defence did arise any time.
This time, he was led into a flying car with open windows on all sides. It was also slow going and flying very low to the ground, allowing him to witness the hustle and bustle of the markets before eventually landing in the hangar of the Royal Palace.
He could see the Royal Family sans T’Challa waiting at the edge of the hangar, apparently here to see him.
Damn, this much respect was getting a little harder to digest around here.
Now let’s see if the same respect translates to some concrete actions or not.
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Word Count - 2057
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