The "G" Shield

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Earth [July 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

Let's see, so they were on a cliff, overlooking the ocean with a sunset in the background, when Odin had his final talk with Thor and Loki before he fucked right off and set Hela on the loose, on Thor and Loki, without even warning them that going to Asgard, or opening a BiFrost bridge straight to Asgartd while in her presence was the most idiotic thing ever.

He was ont feeling any particular surge of energy or even any visible light from the Rainbow Bridge. Still…

"Um, Jarvis?"

It took a beat for him to respond but in Jarvis' defense, the transponder was always kept in his storage space, so it was almost never used, "Greetings, Mister Sullivan, what can I do for you?"

"Yeah, so can you please keep an eye out for odd energy signatures or shows of rainbows in Norway, specifically the coasts?"

"Ofcourse, Mister Sullivan, I will keep an eye on any activations of the Bifrost bridge."

Good. So, that just left him floating around, in the vicinity of the event that would shape Asgard or what would be left of it after such a cataclysmic shift in the ruling part, for centuries to come. He knew one thing though, there was no way that Asgard could be allowed to settle on Earth of all places.

It was the most volatile place in the Nine Realms and humans were always the most greedy, ambitious, and more importantly, fast lot of the bunch. Humans could not compete with the other superior species of the Nine Realms in almost everything but the one thing they excelled at, was speed, and endurance. Humans had such short lifespans but in that short time, they achieved extraordinary things so he had no doubt that should such a situation arise where the remnants of Asgard or New Asgard found itself in opposition to Humanity, it would suffer terrible losses, even if Asgard somehow won, without Thor or Loki.

He wondered how he could contain Hela if her Death energy started causing him issues but then dismissed the thought from his mind as he was with Thor, not the goofy one but the edgy brooding Overpowered son of Odin. If this rendition of Thor fumbled Hela, then that was all but proof that Hela getting to Asgard and doing a bunch of destruction was a fixed point in time.

Just like her death. His mind wandered to the events leading up to her death. Strange was still working as an excellent surgeon, with a near perfect record. Still arrogant but that was the pitfall of all geniuses, at least until they fell from their heights. Case in point, Tony Stark, who was, once again getting pretty up there but Pepper was there to keep him down this time. Once he has a kid, Tony of the past will be all but gone and replaced by a responsible, well slightly irresponsible dad.

While his mind continued to think about the major events that would happen in the next two to three years, right before Thanos' scheduled arrival, his senses were spread outwards, trying to sense any abnormal energy, be it from the Bifrost or from Hela's necromantic energy.

Come on, what else happened in 2016? 

He knew that she was not going to budge on her death. She welcomed her death, in fact. She was tired of being the rock of Kamar Taj and being the Sorcerer Supreme that held every single eldritch horror back that would love nothing more than to feast on the feeble delicious snack that was humanity.

The events of Civil War were rendered all but moot due to his previous actions, though the idiots in the government might still try to bring the Accords to the forefront but without the Wonder Twins creating new problems, the Accords would have very shaky grounds to stand on and this time, they would have to go through him to get even a single rule through that infringed on the rights of enhanced people.

ANyway, he would have to check up on Strange and his standing in Kamar Taj once he was back from his trip to Asgard, and then NIdavellir and if the situation called for it, Omnipotence City. 

Sigh, he missed the days when all he had in the name of commuting was a step into a portal that led him to everywhere on Earth. With the magic of the internet and modern maps available at the click of a button, he could be practically anywhere on the planet within moments, instead of having to go through complicated steps like having Thor use the Power Stone or to use the Bifrost.

At Least Ego will not be a problem anymore and Rocket had already called for some help from the nearest shuttle service that somehow ran through all of the galaxy, using a transponder he hacked together using machines that Tony provided him. The Guardians had already left the planet and were probably on to their next adventure.

He had to–

His neck snapped to the right as he watched the Rainbow Bridge activate.

"Sir," Jarvis' reminder came right on time as he waited, with bated breath, to see if Hela's death energy could be felt. He went closer, but from much higher up, to see what had happened and slumped as he saw just three people on the ground, with Old Man Odin being one of them. 

So, they summoned Loki for the talk then. Great, so there is still time for the old man to croak. He was pretty certain that Thor and Odin both knew that he was up there, lounging in the sky but they were either uncaring or knew that Earth was his domain and he could not leave Asgardoians with power to carve continents, unsupervised. 

His mind, once again, ran back to Tony and the others, while he waited for the family goodbye downside to be over. He was thinking of taking Tony and some of the others, like Bruce and Captain to see outer space.

He couldn't think of any situation where Bruce would be a huge liability since even in his Hulk form, he was pretty tame and now knew how to recognise between friend and foe and more importantly, recognised the Green Guardian and listened to him, somewhat. Tony, with his myriad of suits would be competent but he still believed that it was too dangerous to expose Tony straight to Space Tech this early.

Captain, while formidable, would not be much of a fighter in space but Steve was getting bored on Earth and as of this moment, was just being used as an agent of SWORD but not for combat purposes but as a mascot, to make sure that the planet's civilian population and the governments approved their funding and their jurisdictions, which was not much considering all they right now were the three Helicarriers in space.

They were using the Helicarriers as their permanent base, with food deliveries coming from the ground, facilitated by Stark Industries' Space Tech arm. It would be much easier to just get one of the massive Helicarriers down, load it up with food and then take it up so that they could have months worth of food and water in one go but the problem was the fine print.

In fact, Jack was the one who had insisted on having that specific language in the law, so that it could not be misinterpreted in any other way. The Helicarriers were essentially weapons of mass destruction, with the way they were self sufficient and had weapons to wreck the planet many times over. So, these WMDs will never be pointed at the planet, never ever.

They were made to be used against outside threats, they will only be used on outside threats. Against invaders coming from space. He was still working on getting some sort of planet wide solution against teleportation directly into the planet's atmosphere but that will take work, a lot of work, and a tech stack that he does not know yet. But then again, he wouldn't have to worry much about that if Thanos is defeated, since no one will ever have the balls to mess with them, the planet that took down Thanos and not just Thanos but Thanos, His Black Order, and his vast army.

Everything. Once everything was turned to dust, they could proceed ahead with a smooth development of the human race, with ease. His memories went beyond the Snap and killing Thanos and he could remember that while Bruce's hand was injured very badly after the Snap, to the point that his healing factor could not heal it on its own, Bruce had done some Gamam mumbo jumbo and had healed it back in the future.

So, they had essentially zero risk of permanently disabling someone when someone used all the six Bloody stones in that Gauntlet. That was why he was having Bruce have some conversations and interactions with his alter ego, in hopes that Smart Hulk would be ready when the time came.

Because he had a hunch that Eitri either didn't really reach Omnipotence City or was grabbed up after leaving that damned city. So, henceforth he was going to run ahead with the assumption that Thanos has the Gauntlet but none of the Stones, as of now. '

The Power Stone? With him. Safe. Secure.

The Time Stone? With her. Even more Safe and Secure.

The Reality Stone? Huh. Come to think of it, where exactly was the Reality Stone? 

His mind drew a blank whenever he tried to remember it. He remembered something about Tivan, the Collector, and then….nothing. His eyes grew wide as he couldn't find any information about the Reality Stone in his mind.

His eyes grew ablaze with green, as he dove back into hsi mind, to see what had occurred but even after scouring his mind for any signs of interference, he could find nothing. 

But then…

He shook his head, that was still one stone. He had to make sure that the rest of them were accounted for.

The Mind Stone? On Earth, in Jarvis' custody. Hmm. That filled him with some unease right now. He should check up on it once he has time.

The Space Stone? On Asgard. Safe-ish. Now that Thor will stay on Asgard once the issues with Eitri was resolved, that particular Stone will be just as safe as the Time Stone.

The Soul Stone? Shit. Gamora. How could he let her pass? Damn, he was going to have to track her down as well because the Soul and Reality Stones were the two most dangerous, esoteric stones of the bunch and he didn't have track of the two of them.

If Thanos got his hands on them, even if they did have the other four Stones accounted for, they could not all use them and thus, would be on the backfoot against a Thanos armed with reality manipulation and Soul sucking capabilities.

Even the strongest of fighters he knew did not have much in the way of defense against any soul attacks. He himself could probably resist any such attack due to the virtue of his powers but others? They would be hard pressed to even survive any attack on the Soul and Soul attacks were notorious for being extremely painful so even if they did survive, they would be taken out of the fight instantly.

Nope, not taking that risk, at all.

He sighed, once again. He thought he had time but they were, once again, despite all his preparations, racing against time now. Hela's issue should not take much time, he will have to convince Thor to strike against his newly found sister with all his power so they don't end up losing precious time against their true enemy.

Oh, looks like things were winding up down below. He could sense the waning energy of Odin from high above and it was weird, like it was a dichotomy of his senses. The objectively knew that Asgardians only grow stronger as they age, like right up until their death. So, theoretically, Odin is at his strongest right now, and his energy definitely felt like it but it was not just his OdinForce he was sensing, he could also sense his life energy and that was almost at its end.

Which meant that Odin had access to a ton of energy right now and was at his theoretical strongest but his own body, his conduit of energy was weak so he would not be able to do much without dying instantly. Still, it was worth nothing that Odin could have, just a few weeks before, cast the strongest attack of his lifetime and then died instantly.

He wagered that the attack would have been enough to carve out a significant line in Thanos' force or take out a small planet, with ease.

His body jerked as he felt a gaze lock on to him. He looked below, to see Odin looking straight up at him. Well, not knowing what to do in this situation, he…waved goodbye.

Odin shook his head as his body dissipated into motes of light, and at the same time, a voice whispered straight into his ears, making him jump slightly.

"Take care of them," And as if he remembered that he had to be polite about his request, the voice added, "--please," Even that word felt like it was dragged out with extreme reluctance. He shrugged; rulers and their extreme pride.

He then cracked his neck, stretched a bit in anticipation for the main event of the day, and then dispelled his barriers, dropping straight down like a rocket. In his bid to make a badass entry, he didn't bother slowing down his descent and he was coming down from a pretty high height, so the end result was not badass. Not. At. All.

With a shower of dirt, he found himself a dozen feet into the ground, with mud in his mouth. Damn, a rookie mistake, once again. He cursed himself, enveloped himself in the familiar warmth of his barriers, cast the strongest cleaning spell he knew, and then slowly floated out of the ground, just in time for a shiver to run down his spine, not out of fear but out of disgust.

He looked back, to see a dark green portal shimmering, with Dark energy oozing out of it, making his skin crawl due to the death aspect of the energy. Grass around the portal withered away, revealing brown soil which too withered to turn into a grey lifeless landscape.

Damn, Hela knew how to make an entrance.

"Be Ready, and whatever you do, do not throw Mjolnir at her, and do not call for the BiFrost," He informed both Thor and Loki, who seemed to have made up, considering that there was no "I will kill you where you stand" animosity between them anymore.

"Do not presume to order me around, mortal." Loki snarked back but got his knives ready, and then he remembered something so he slowly floated back, to make sure that Loki was in his direct vision.

"After you," he deadpanned at Loki once they both looked back at him in confusion.

And then she came.

"Eww," That came out involuntarily as he looked at the dishevelled appearance of Hela Odinsdottir, nothing like the royalty she was supposed to be.

Hela stopped mid tirade, and then all the three Asgardian siblings (Adopted as well) turned to him slowly at his slip up.

"Well, mortal, forgive me for my state but daddy dearest did not provide me with any showers in my prison, now did he?" She snarked back as green oozed out of her back and formed two swords in both of her hands.

"Now, who's ready to die?"

"I mean, technically, he should go first since he did just, you know, insult a Lady's honor," Loki, ever the silvertongue, pushed it all on him.

"You really are the worst ally to have," He muttered to Loki and then smiled at Hela, his barriers forming dozens of swords behind him, which then began rotating at absurd speeds, creating a high pitched whine in the air, and also superheating the air, creating smoke around his spinning wheel of death.

"Hmm," Hela regarded them with interest, "So, the mortal is not entirely useless then. Well, at least this will be interesting," 

And she was right. Compared to a thousand years of nothingness, anything would be interesting, let alone a battle to the death.

He just had to make sure that the casualty count of this fight remained zero, be it from Asgard, or from Earth.

Then, he looked at Loki and remembered the very recent and also the very old back stabbings, along with any future back stabbings that he did in canon, and thought, well, one casualty might be acceptable.

After all, they were fighting Odin's firstborn, the strongest of Odin's children, supposedly.

Word Count - 2876

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