Chapter 217: The Ancient One's Observation
"Tony Stark's friends? And apparently quite a few of them? In my understanding, that playboy has always had a fairly limited social circle. When did he acquire this many people?"
Agent Phil Coulson, S.H.I.E.L.D. veteran operative, standing in the quarantine perimeter around a small western American town, unconsciously touched his hairline.
It had been migrating northward at a pace he found distressing.
Middle age. Nobody told you what it actually entailed. At twenty, losing a single hair meant nothing. Now, each one that came away in the shower represented a personal tragedy. He'd started doing calculations about it. He was considering whether he should adopt the Chinese thermos-flask-with-wolfberries habit, just for the marginal wellness benefit. Even a small effect was better than watching the situation accelerate.
"Though. That playboy is in New York, and this is the western US. Even with the armour it's not exactly a short flight. And if he's bringing friends, they'd presumably be on a plane." Coulson checked his mental timeline. "By the time they get here it'll be evening, possibly tomorrow morning."
He shook his head, started to turn back toward the hammer—
And stopped.
His eyes went wide in a way that didn't happen often.
About twenty metres away, a large rift had appeared in the air.
Not a crack in any physical surface. A tear in the air itself. The interior was dark and filled with what looked like small floating shapes, each of which gave off a sensation of profound wrongness. The temperature around it seemed to drop.
Coulson's hand went to his weapon immediately. S.H.I.E.L.D.-modified sidearm — better than standard military issue in every relevant metric. He brought it up toward the rift.
"Hey — potential hostile here, everyone heads up! Something is coming through that rift, be ready to fire!"
The other agents on site had seen it too. Weapons drawn, aimed at the opening.
It was a crack that had opened in empty space, filled with what looked like crimson eyes looking back.
A leg came through. A human leg, by appearance. Then a body.
Coulson's gun barrel dropped several degrees before he'd consciously decided to lower it.
He knew this face.
"Stark?! You're — Tony Stark?! How are you coming out of that?!"
Tony blinked. He hadn't expected to walk into a familiar face immediately.
Coulson was fine, as S.H.I.E.L.D. people went. Considerably more pleasant than the braised egg head. Although — several guns had been pointed at him on arrival, which seemed like a communication failure somewhere up the chain.
"Hey, hey — I worked this out with your big bald boss already? Why does everyone look like they're seeing a threat come through? Did he not tell you?"
Tony frowned and pointed at Coulson's weapon.
Coulson caught up and holstered it. The other agents followed his lead.
Everyone on site knew who Tony Stark was. The most recognisable face in American technology, one of the most visible superheroes in the country. Failing to recognise him would have been the stranger outcome.
"Mr. Stark — is that your latest technology? Some kind of spatial tr—"
Coulson's pupils contracted.
More figures were coming through the rift. One after another.
One, two, three, four… seven, eight, nine…
And then — a dog. A Shiba Inu, standing on its hind legs, wearing a small red cape, and carrying what appeared to be a miniature hammer.
Behind the Shiba Inu: a wolf, also bipedal.
Behind the wolf: a spherical rock that was rolling.
The rest of the group looked like humans, at least. Though their clothing was unusual. Very — individual.
Coulson suddenly recalled what the Director had said. These are Stark's friends. We can't get anything on them. Don't get in their way.
He stared at the bipedal Shiba Inu.
He stared at the bipedal wolf.
Someone — anyone — please explain.
From the group, voices were carrying over to him.
"Yukari-nee's gap corridor is genuinely the most convenient thing—"
"Well, I am a youkai sage~ Though I should mention — when I opened the gap just now, I felt a gaze observing me from outside. Something was attempting to calculate the gap's spatial coordinates. Fortunately I deployed a shielding boundary in time, otherwise it would have had the data."
"Someone was watching you through the gap? That's probably the Ancient One."
"The Ancient One? That would be one of the bosses you've mentioned, Admin?"
"Yes. An extremely powerful Supreme Sorcerer. Capable of manipulating time."
"Oh, I can do that too! Just a few seconds, maybe a minute if I push everything I have to the edge — but still~"
"She can casually rewind time by large amounts, swat people into different dimensions with a slap. The film version is significantly nerfed from her actual ceiling — the cinematic destructive output is limited — but she has a very large catalogue of conceptual magic, and she has the Time Stone as support. Without your full capabilities active, Yukari, she might actually have a match there."
"…that landed."
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