Chapter 182: Sparks Flying
3rd March 2021, Illuminati Headquarters Earth 838
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
Rambeau didn’t seem to like it and sent a photonic beam my way. I open a portal and send it towards the back of Black Bolt, after which, I hit him with a silencing charm and a stunning spell.
Huh, that’s two down in less than a minute. Seriously, this was the Illuminati, the team that was protecting the world from higher level threats. Even my Wanda would be able to take them down alone, let alone a fully realized Scarlett Witch with years of being corrupted by the Darkhold.
I look at them with disappointment, and turn to my new charge, “Don’t worry, kiddo, I got this.”
The young girl smiled hesitantly at me, “Kick their asses.”
I smirk, who was I to say no to her?
I look towards my remaining opponents, Reed Richards, Peggy Carter and Maria Rambeau and smile. I turn back towards my newest charge and smile at her, “Consider this to be your first lesson in fighting multiple opponents. You always need to take out the heavy hitters first, the ones who are able to make the most damage. In this case, it’s Black Bolt and Xavier. Don’t let the old man fool you, he could melt you brain, take over your body and take you as a hostage, which is why they were the first ones I fought. Now, I have three opponents.”
This universe’s Captain Marvel was getting impatient and sent another photon blast at me. Again, I created a portal to hit Peggy Carter in the back. However, the super soldier was experienced in this regard and put up her shield to nullify the attack.
“Lesson two, always use your opponents’ attacks against them. It’s very cost effective.”
Peggy Carter sent her shield back at me, and I grab it using my telekinesis, and use it to stop another blast from Rambeau. I sent the shield flying towards the floating, glowing woman, but it was intercepted by Reed’s stretchy hand, who caught it.
The smartest man in the world spoke to me, “You do not have to do this. The girl is a danger to the multiverse itself; we need to study her and neutralize her abilities before she could cause any more incursions.”
I shook my head, “You really have no idea what you’re talking about, do you? Incursions don’t occur because of dimensional travel; they happen because of the Darkhold and how Dream walking works. You think that the Darkhold of all things wouldn’t have a steep price for giving access to the multiverse? The ultimate irony, if you find your ideal universe, the more you look at it, the faster you destroy it.”
The man didn’t look convinced, “This is barely more than a baseless theory. You don’t have proof for that.”
“The only type of multiversal travel you’ve seen is using the Darkhold. America Chavez hasn’t caused a single incursion, because her abilities aren’t unnatural and malicious in nature like the Darkhold. Sometimes, Reed, people know more than you, and you need to accept that. You also need to be careful with what you touch. Funny thing, rubber, it tends to react very negatively to the cold. I stole that one from Dr. Doom, he used it on an alternate version of yourself once.”
Reed looked down in shock to find his arm frozen to the shield and the cold slowly spreading across his body, freezing him in place. I chuckle at him, “Don’t worry, this is only for a couple of hours. You’ll be fine then.”
I look back at Chavez, who was looking at me with awe, “lesson three, always exploit your enemy’s weaknesses and being sneaky is always preferred. Brute force isn’t everything, after all.”
Captain Carter seemed to take exception to me using her shield to take out one of her allies. She grabbed the shield, with her gloved hand and threw it at me. A foolish idea since it could have still contained my curse. Unfortunately, Vibranium was very magic resistant, and I only used it to channel my cold curse for a few seconds, before it transferred to Reed.
Still, it was a very risky maneuver, especially if she thought that a glove of all things would protect her from a curse. The woman leapt at me, trying to take me down with her shield. I dodged her attempt, but still held her down to prevent her from reaching my charge. I threw her back, and she righted herself using her jetpack. I created a shield to protect myself from Captain Marvel and I punched the ground which created a giant stone hand that grabbed the flying woman and slammed her into the ground.
I didn’t have time to capitalize on it, because I immediately had to dodge the Vibranium shield coming at me. The shield bounced in a way that pretty much broke the laws of physics before returning to the super soldier’s hand.
The World War two hero seemed to think that close combat was a weakness of mine and closed the distance between us. I let her and immediately caught one of her arms and threw her back. She still threw her stupid shield at me, to gain some time, and used her jetpack to right herself before flying at me. I chose to catch the shield with my telekinesis and used it to throw it at her forehead. I made sure to not make the telekinetic push powerful enough to kill her, and I added a stunning charm to the shield to make sure she’s knocked out properly. The shield hit her in her forehead, while she was leaping at me, flying with her jetpack.
The woman was immediately knocked out and kept flying forward until she crashed behind my young charge. Finally, Captain Marvel seemed to recollect herself from my giant stone hand. She exploded outward, destroying the hand. And flew at me, sending photon blast after photon blast at me, which I redirected using a shield charm. The woman was flying towards me, and I just created a portal in front of me, and one behind her, trapping her in an endless space loop. As I watched her accelerate, I summoned Captain Carter’s shield and threw it telekinetically at her head. The impact was strong enough that it created a small shockwave that broke the glass in the room.
My last opponent limped up, groaning and holding her head, “why are you doing this? We’re the good guys.”
I shook my head, “no, you’re not. You were the good guys, but you let it go to your heads. You became arrogant, all of you are. You underestimated an unknown opponent and didn’t try to reason with me. Trust me, if you’d have tried to do the same with an unhinged Wanda, she wouldn’t have been as merciful as I was.”
The woman limped forward, “We have a duty to protect our universe from outside threats, which includes you.”
She tried to send a photon blast at me, but I just froze her using my telekinesis, “This is just sad, kid.”
I use my telepathy to knock her out, and she fell down, unconscious. I look back at my charge, “So, what do you think?”
The girl was practically gaping at me, “These are supposed to be some of the best heroes out there. And you just kicked their asses, just like that?”
I shrug, “I have a lot of experience and am very strong. Plus, they were very arrogant, they haven’t been challenged properly in a very long time, so they didn’t think that someone could even touch them. Now, if the Doctor Strange from this universe was still alive, he would have made me take things a bit more seriously, especially since he’d been corrupted by the Darkhold. Now, let’s get your version of Doctor Strange and get out of here.”
The girl nodded but before she could say anything, the wall at the end of the room exploded, revealing a Wanda who had destroyed the wall and was covered with Robot fluid from the defensive bots that were protecting the Illuminati Headquarters.
The woman, frankly, looked unhinged, “Give me the girl.”
I gave America a reassuring smile, and turn back to Wanda, “Hey, Wanda, it’s been a while.”
“Who are you?”
“Well, I don’t believe I exist in your universe, this one or the one you’re possessing this young woman from, but in my universe, you are my daughter.”
The woman looked at me weirdly, “Daughter?”
“Adopted, don’t worry. I don’t think I can have children, really. But I adopted you after your asshole father put you in an insane asylum.”
“Do not speak of my father!”
I shook my head with a small smile, “Relax, kiddo, different universe, different father. Your father in my universe, is a metal controlling maniac who wears a bucket on his head and routinely tries to destroy humanity. Even Pietro was getting disillusioned from the crap he spewed every day.”
“Pietro is alive?”
“Oh yeah, a bit of a delinquent, to be honest, but a good kid in the core.”
Wanda shook her head, “I want the girl!”
I gave her a disappointed look, “What are you doing, Wanda? Possessing a woman, using the Darkhold, just to bring back something that wasn’t real in the first place?”
She growled at me, “My children were real.”
I shook my head, “The first lesson I ever taught you was that reality was an illusion, and you could very easily catch yourself in them. Your children may have been real for you, but they had no soul, no substance, they were just pieces of your subconscious manifesting. Being alive is more than just existing, and when you weren’t there, when you didn’t have them in your line of sight, they ceased to be. It would be worse if they somehow had souls or a conscience of their own, because it means that you were killing again and again every time you didn’t think of them.”
“You don’t understand, you’ve never lost children of your own.”
I chuckle bitterly, “I don’t understand? I understand perfectly. I have lost children before, to war, to fate, to death. And unlike you, they were real. I understand the agony every time you wake up and realize that they were gone, that you’d never hug them again, hold them again, hear them laugh again. It’s the small things that remind you of your failure in protecting them. But I would never replace them with another model, it would be a cheap imitation, at best. And to deprive them of their mother just so that you could take her place, will make you exactly what you hate, a woman who deprived children of their mother.”
“I don’t care. I’m done caring. I need my children back.”
“Then go and get pregnant or something. You don’t even have to fall in love or something, just get to a sperm bank and choose a sample and get pregnant. Don’t use one of the most dangerous and vile magics to kidnap alternate versions of the children you made up in your head.”
Wanda didn’t look convinced, “It wouldn’t be the same, it wouldn’t be my boys.”
“Your boys don’t even exist, they never existed. They were projections of your subconscious, of your desires. They had no genetic makeups, no soul, no real body. How could they, when their father was a synthetic being with no DNA. They were just a projection in that made up world of yours. Even if you, for some reason, find children that looked exactly like your subconscious and had the exact names you gave them in your little dream world, they wouldn’t be the same, they wouldn’t have the same personalities, they wouldn’t obey your every command like they did in your dream world. They would rebel like children did, in ways that you would never expect. Your children were never real, Wanda, but the ones you will take over will be. And how would you take care of them, you’re volatile, extremely quick to anger and tend to escalate things quickly. The truth is, with the way you’re acting, you’d be a terrible mother.”
The deranged woman flew at me with a cry of anger, with red energy coming from her hands, ready to turn me into paste. I shook my head in disappointment; she was too far gone. This should be an interesting fight, at the very least.
Chapter 182: Sparks Flying
3rd March 2021, Illuminati Headquarters Earth 838
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
Rambeau didn’t seem to like it and sent a photonic beam my way. I open a portal and send it towards the back of Black Bolt, after which, I hit him with a silencing charm and a stunning spell.
Huh, that’s two down in less than a minute. Seriously, this was the Illuminati, the team that was protecting the world from higher level threats. Even my Wanda would be able to take them down alone, let alone a fully realized Scarlett Witch with years of being corrupted by the Darkhold.
I look at them with disappointment, and turn to my new charge, “Don’t worry, kiddo, I got this.”
The young girl smiled hesitantly at me, “Kick their asses.”
I smirk, who was I to say no to her?
I look towards my remaining opponents, Reed Richards, Peggy Carter and Maria Rambeau and smile. I turn back towards my newest charge and smile at her, “Consider this to be your first lesson in fighting multiple opponents. You always need to take out the heavy hitters first, the ones who are able to make the most damage. In this case, it’s Black Bolt and Xavier. Don’t let the old man fool you, he could melt you brain, take over your body and take you as a hostage, which is why they were the first ones I fought. Now, I have three opponents.”
This universe’s Captain Marvel was getting impatient and sent another photon blast at me. Again, I created a portal to hit Peggy Carter in the back. However, the super soldier was experienced in this regard and put up her shield to nullify the attack.
“Lesson two, always use your opponents’ attacks against them. It’s very cost effective.”
Peggy Carter sent her shield back at me, and I grab it using my telekinesis, and use it to stop another blast from Rambeau. I sent the shield flying towards the floating, glowing woman, but it was intercepted by Reed’s stretchy hand, who caught it.
The smartest man in the world spoke to me, “You do not have to do this. The girl is a danger to the multiverse itself; we need to study her and neutralize her abilities before she could cause any more incursions.”
I shook my head, “You really have no idea what you’re talking about, do you? Incursions don’t occur because of dimensional travel; they happen because of the Darkhold and how Dream walking works. You think that the Darkhold of all things wouldn’t have a steep price for giving access to the multiverse? The ultimate irony, if you find your ideal universe, the more you look at it, the faster you destroy it.”
The man didn’t look convinced, “This is barely more than a baseless theory. You don’t have proof for that.”
“The only type of multiversal travel you’ve seen is using the Darkhold. America Chavez hasn’t caused a single incursion, because her abilities aren’t unnatural and malicious in nature like the Darkhold. Sometimes, Reed, people know more than you, and you need to accept that. You also need to be careful with what you touch. Funny thing, rubber, it tends to react very negatively to the cold. I stole that one from Dr. Doom, he used it on an alternate version of yourself once.”
Reed looked down in shock to find his arm frozen to the shield and the cold slowly spreading across his body, freezing him in place. I chuckle at him, “Don’t worry, this is only for a couple of hours. You’ll be fine then.”
I look back at Chavez, who was looking at me with awe, “lesson three, always exploit your enemy’s weaknesses and being sneaky is always preferred. Brute force isn’t everything, after all.”
Captain Carter seemed to take exception to me using her shield to take out one of her allies. She grabbed the shield, with her gloved hand and threw it at me. A foolish idea since it could have still contained my curse. Unfortunately, Vibranium was very magic resistant, and I only used it to channel my cold curse for a few seconds, before it transferred to Reed.
Still, it was a very risky maneuver, especially if she thought that a glove of all things would protect her from a curse. The woman leapt at me, trying to take me down with her shield. I dodged her attempt, but still held her down to prevent her from reaching my charge. I threw her back, and she righted herself using her jetpack. I created a shield to protect myself from Captain Marvel and I punched the ground which created a giant stone hand that grabbed the flying woman and slammed her into the ground.
I didn’t have time to capitalize on it, because I immediately had to dodge the Vibranium shield coming at me. The shield bounced in a way that pretty much broke the laws of physics before returning to the super soldier’s hand.
The World War two hero seemed to think that close combat was a weakness of mine and closed the distance between us. I let her and immediately caught one of her arms and threw her back. She still threw her stupid shield at me, to gain some time, and used her jetpack to right herself before flying at me. I chose to catch the shield with my telekinesis and used it to throw it at her forehead. I made sure to not make the telekinetic push powerful enough to kill her, and I added a stunning charm to the shield to make sure she’s knocked out properly. The shield hit her in her forehead, while she was leaping at me, flying with her jetpack.
The woman was immediately knocked out and kept flying forward until she crashed behind my young charge. Finally, Captain Marvel seemed to recollect herself from my giant stone hand. She exploded outward, destroying the hand. And flew at me, sending photon blast after photon blast at me, which I redirected using a shield charm. The woman was flying towards me, and I just created a portal in front of me, and one behind her, trapping her in an endless space loop. As I watched her accelerate, I summoned Captain Carter’s shield and threw it telekinetically at her head. The impact was strong enough that it created a small shockwave that broke the glass in the room.
My last opponent limped up, groaning and holding her head, “why are you doing this? We’re the good guys.”
I shook my head, “no, you’re not. You were the good guys, but you let it go to your heads. You became arrogant, all of you are. You underestimated an unknown opponent and didn’t try to reason with me. Trust me, if you’d have tried to do the same with an unhinged Wanda, she wouldn’t have been as merciful as I was.”
The woman limped forward, “We have a duty to protect our universe from outside threats, which includes you.”
She tried to send a photon blast at me, but I just froze her using my telekinesis, “This is just sad, kid.”
I use my telepathy to knock her out, and she fell down, unconscious. I look back at my charge, “So, what do you think?”
The girl was practically gaping at me, “These are supposed to be some of the best heroes out there. And you just kicked their asses, just like that?”
I shrug, “I have a lot of experience and am very strong. Plus, they were very arrogant, they haven’t been challenged properly in a very long time, so they didn’t think that someone could even touch them. Now, if the Doctor Strange from this universe was still alive, he would have made me take things a bit more seriously, especially since he’d been corrupted by the Darkhold. Now, let’s get your version of Doctor Strange and get out of here.”
The girl nodded but before she could say anything, the wall at the end of the room exploded, revealing a Wanda who had destroyed the wall and was covered with Robot fluid from the defensive bots that were protecting the Illuminati Headquarters.
The woman, frankly, looked unhinged, “Give me the girl.”
I gave America a reassuring smile, and turn back to Wanda, “Hey, Wanda, it’s been a while.”
“Who are you?”
“Well, I don’t believe I exist in your universe, this one or the one you’re possessing this young woman from, but in my universe, you are my daughter.”
The woman looked at me weirdly, “Daughter?”
“Adopted, don’t worry. I don’t think I can have children, really. But I adopted you after your asshole father put you in an insane asylum.”
“Do not speak of my father!”
I shook my head with a small smile, “Relax, kiddo, different universe, different father. Your father in my universe, is a metal controlling maniac who wears a bucket on his head and routinely tries to destroy humanity. Even Pietro was getting disillusioned from the crap he spewed every day.”
“Pietro is alive?”
“Oh yeah, a bit of a delinquent, to be honest, but a good kid in the core.”
Wanda shook her head, “I want the girl!”
I gave her a disappointed look, “What are you doing, Wanda? Possessing a woman, using the Darkhold, just to bring back something that wasn’t real in the first place?”
She growled at me, “My children were real.”
I shook my head, “The first lesson I ever taught you was that reality was an illusion, and you could very easily catch yourself in them. Your children may have been real for you, but they had no soul, no substance, they were just pieces of your subconscious manifesting. Being alive is more than just existing, and when you weren’t there, when you didn’t have them in your line of sight, they ceased to be. It would be worse if they somehow had souls or a conscience of their own, because it means that you were killing again and again every time you didn’t think of them.”
“You don’t understand, you’ve never lost children of your own.”
I chuckle bitterly, “I don’t understand? I understand perfectly. I have lost children before, to war, to fate, to death. And unlike you, they were real. I understand the agony every time you wake up and realize that they were gone, that you’d never hug them again, hold them again, hear them laugh again. It’s the small things that remind you of your failure in protecting them. But I would never replace them with another model, it would be a cheap imitation, at best. And to deprive them of their mother just so that you could take her place, will make you exactly what you hate, a woman who deprived children of their mother.”
“I don’t care. I’m done caring. I need my children back.”
“Then go and get pregnant or something. You don’t even have to fall in love or something, just get to a sperm bank and choose a sample and get pregnant. Don’t use one of the most dangerous and vile magics to kidnap alternate versions of the children you made up in your head.”
Wanda didn’t look convinced, “It wouldn’t be the same, it wouldn’t be my boys.”
“Your boys don’t even exist, they never existed. They were projections of your subconscious, of your desires. They had no genetic makeups, no soul, no real body. How could they, when their father was a synthetic being with no DNA. They were just a projection in that made up world of yours. Even if you, for some reason, find children that looked exactly like your subconscious and had the exact names you gave them in your little dream world, they wouldn’t be the same, they wouldn’t have the same personalities, they wouldn’t obey your every command like they did in your dream world. They would rebel like children did, in ways that you would never expect. Your children were never real, Wanda, but the ones you will take over will be. And how would you take care of them, you’re volatile, extremely quick to anger and tend to escalate things quickly. The truth is, with the way you’re acting, you’d be a terrible mother.”
The deranged woman flew at me with a cry of anger, with red energy coming from her hands, ready to turn me into paste. I shook my head in disappointment; she was too far gone. This should be an interesting fight, at the very least.
