EmmaCruzader
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SuperSoldier (SI-OC/MCU) 42: Sorcery.
🕑 Added 2025-02-09 07:35:09 +0000 UTC42: Sorcery.
"Tch, it seems the information about you was wrong; you're stronger than I expected," the demon growled, as he stood up and rose back into the sky. The shadows covered his face for a moment before retreating, revealing that the fist mark on his cheek had disappeared along with the other wounds the sudden attack had inflicted on him.
“But a mortal will always be a mortal! Surrender now, and maybe I can grant you some mer—”
Once again, his words were abruptly interrupted, but this time by a crushing pressure that suddenly covered his entire body from head to toe.
With his hand stretched toward him, John clenched his fist, making the bones crack and the skin tear, spilling streams of blood. Then, as if gravity had suddenly increased a thousandfold, the demon began to plummet.
In a matter of seconds, he was buried several kilometers into the ground. Of course, John did not think this would be enough to finish off something that was clearly neither human nor monster.
He just needed to send it away for a moment.
Trying to calm his inner fury, John took a deep breath and let the aura surrounding him recede until it was almost imperceptible. Then, he began to observe all the destruction in the area, his green eyes mainly analyzing the Sword base beneath his feet.
“John!” The booming voice interrupted his thoughts and made him turn in the direction it came from. For a moment, he even forgot how angry he was, surprised to see an enormous woman, dozens of meters tall, running toward him.
“Janet?” Seeing her still alive, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, but he quickly became alarmed when he saw how, midway, she lost her balance and her body began to shrink in midair.
In a blur of movement, he shortened the distance between them and caught her, cradling her in his arms before she could hit the ground.
“Are you okay?” Although she didn’t seem too injured, she had clearly been in quite a few battles—if all the blood covering her was any indication.
“I-It looks like I’m out of energy,” Janet said wearily, while at the same time feeling her entire body tremble, forcing her to cling to him due to the sudden dizziness. The sensation of being ‘empty’ for the first time almost made her faint.
She had been pushing herself to the limit, using even the smallest reserve of energy within her, but when she noticed John's arrival, it seemed that her body finally decided that it was enough.
"You did well. Rest now and leave the rest to me," he said confidently, and upon hearing him, she nodded and gave him a soft smile. Then, her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she lost consciousness.
"Colonel."
"Isaac." John looked at the android, who approached flying in his direction, engulfed in flames.
He had too many questions, but for now, there was only one thing he needed to know.
"How many people have we lost?"
The android remained silent for a moment before responding, giving a quick and well-summarized rundown of everything he knew.
Hearing that Hank was missing was a hard blow, but knowing that Peggy and Howard were safe and with the Commandos, using the secret passage in the main office to evacuate those still alive, was enough to bring him some calm—though, of course, he was still boiling with rage inside.
Noticing how the ground began to shake, John knew that the time for talking was running out.
"Can you carry her?" he asked Isaac, and the android looked at Janet before nodding, making the flames covering him begin to recede until they were only present on the lower part of his body, using them to stay in the air.
"Good. Take her back to Peggy and the others, then make sure to protect them and clear the way so they can get away from here." With those instructions given, John placed Janet in his arms, but Isaac did not leave immediately.
"What about you, sir?" he asked with slight hesitation.
"I will finish this."
John watched Isaac leave and, using his telekinesis, easily crushed the remaining monsters still in the area, his gaze finally falling on the still-open portal in the ground.
For a moment, he was tempted to go through it, but he didn’t know what was on the other side. In the best-case scenario, he could end up in one of Hydra’s bases; in the worst, he would end up in some unknown place or dimension.
He also doubted that Red Skull would be stupid enough to be present on the other side, although just in case…
Raising his hand, he made his energy gather and concentrate in his palm until it formed a fireball the size of his head, and with a swift motion, he hurled it straight at the portal.
There was a loud bang followed by a blinding flash of light.
The portal that had previously remained stable suddenly began to fluctuate until, with a small burst, it finally collapsed and disappeared.
"How dare you?!" Along with the roar of indignation, the ground exploded, and a pillar of shadows rose into the sky.
"Sorry, but there's no escape route for you, my friend," John mocked, and with a flick of his hand, he made his shield fly at full speed from the ruins of the Sword base, pulling it back to him.
"Escape?! Do you think I need to escape from you?"
That was enough! He wasn’t going to tolerate any more insults! With a single thought, hundreds of dark tentacles shot out from his body at high speed like sharp spears, flooding the sky like a tsunami of shadows about to sweep away everything in their path.
But before he could revel in the destruction he was about to unleash, the demon’s expression changed as he felt a firm hand gripping his shoulder tightly from behind.
"I think you've already done enough damage to this place."
"What?!" He tried to resist, but in an instant, everything around him became blurry. His body sailed through the air uncontrollably until he crashed into the top of a distant mountain.
"Still alive?" John asked, looking at the impact site. He was still getting used to his new strength, and if he was honest, it wasn’t like he cared much about holding back at the moment.
The mountain trembled, the snow covering it began to fall in an avalanche, and then part of the summit exploded as the demon crawled out of the hole his body had created upon crashing.
His entire arm, from his right shoulder down, was gone.
Seeing the wound, he growled in frustration. ‘Damn inferior body!’ The shadows rose, covering him from head to toe, and a new arm made of darkness grew to replace the previous one.
Noticing how he was healing, John raised his eyebrow curiously,. Was this magic? Or some kind of different power? The truth was that he had never really been interested in mystical or supernatural matters, which left him with a severe lack of information that he would need to correct at some point. But right now, he didn’t need to be an expert to understand that his enemy was at a clear disadvantage against him.
"Before you die, I want you to clarify something for me. Were you the only one who came? Or did Red Skull bring more of your kind into this world?"
"Ha! Why do you think I would answer you honestly? Besides, it’s still too soon for you to think you’ve already won!" Without any fear of his threat, the monster lunged forward, creating a shockwave in its wake.
He was fast, but not fast enough. John intercepted the blow with his arm, deflecting it to the side, and without hesitation, counterattacked—smashing the edge of his shield into his enemy’s ugly face.
As quickly as he had charged, he was sent crashing into the mountain again, and John followed shortly after, landing smoothly on the edge of the crater that had formed from the impact.
"This isn’t your real body, is it? It must be some kind of possession. That’s really annoying, but if you can still feel pain, you should know that things will only get harder for you if you keep resisting."
It was more of a guess than anything else, but he didn’t think he was wrong. He seriously doubted that creatures from other dimensions or worlds would look so similar to the monsters Hydra had been creating.
"Stop underestimating me!"
Following the shout, dozens of dark spikes shot up from the ground like sharp spears.
John dodged most of them with ease and, tentatively, used his shield to block one. The near-indestructible metal once again proved its worth, as there wasn’t even a scratch on its surface, while the dark spike shattered into pieces.
‘They’re not too tough, but maybe they have some kind of hidden curse.’ With magic in play, he couldn’t afford to be careless, even if the attack seemed weak.
He wanted to step back a little further, but suddenly, his body froze in place.
"Hahaha! Stupid!! Now your shadow is mine!"
The demon felt great joy upon seeing John fall into his trap. Earlier, when they were in the air, the shadow John cast had been too far away for him to catch it, but now that both had landed on the mountaintop and were closer, he had finally managed to reach it and begin turning the tide of this battle.
‘Just as I suspected.’ John didn’t seem too concerned about finding himself in this situation.
Maybe he hadn’t been too aware of popular culture in his previous life due to his circumstances, but anyone with even a slight knowledge of science fiction and fantasy had a certain level of creative thinking with them.
From the moment he first saw the monster controlling the shadows, his mind had already begun thinking of all the possible abilities it could possess related to this power. Controlling the shadows of others? That was among the top three that instantly came to mind.
Trying to move his body, he realized he could still exert a certain level of force. If he pushed hard enough, he might even be able to break free from this control.
‘If this were before, this guy would have definitely caused me serious trouble.’
"Hmph! No matter how much you struggle, your fate is now completely in my hands, little mortal." Misinterpreting his probing as an attempt to escape, the monster laughed in satisfaction and began approaching him with deliberately slow steps.
He was already anticipating the desperation and fear the human would feel.
But when he was less than a meter away, John smiled, making him stop at the sight of his expression. For some reason, a bad premonition was born within him, and purely on instinct, he wanted to back away—but John was faster.
In an instant, his body exploded into stellar fire, and a dazzling light illuminated the entire mountaintop.
"NO!"
The light, like a deadly poison, made the demon fall to his knees as the shadows covering him began to disintegrate.
Feeling control of his body return, John took a step forward while the demon tried to crawl away from him on the ground.
"I see. All your strength comes from darkness, but when it disappears, you become weak. Fighting you at night would surely be hell, wouldn’t it? Well, not that it matters when it comes to me." Who would have thought—Being a walking flashlight actually turned out to be pretty useful.
"W-Wait! Don’t come any closer!"
The demon wasn’t stupid, and as arrogant as he was, he was also smart enough to know when he had lost. Before, he might have still thought he had a chance, but now he knew he never had one to begin with.
"Maybe it’s time for you to start talking." And to make it even clearer that it wasn’t an empty threat, John created a ball of energy in his hand that burned intensely.
Seeing this, the demon could only lament his bad luck and curse the mortal who had summoned him into the earthly world, swearing that if he ever encountered him again, he would make him pay for this for all eternity.
With no escape and cornered in this way, any lesser creature would have completely surrendered. But even if his instinctive fear of the light made him tremble, he still had his own pride.
"Heh! Look at you, so desperate to know… So what if you've defeated me? You already said it yourself—this body is just a puppet for me. Torture it all you want, it’s useless!" he mocked, though inwardly, he lamented a little. After so much time, he had finally been able to return to the mortal world, only to have to abandon it almost instantly. A real shame, but it didn’t matter—sooner or later, he would return.
"Fine." John decided he had already wasted enough time and prepared to kill him, but just at that moment, a circular portal formed by golden sparks opened a few meters away, and a person hurriedly stepped through it.
"Wait!"
"Sorcerer!" the demon shouted in alarm upon seeing the figure that appeared.
"You are?" John slightly furrowed his brows and asked upon not recognizing the voice. It was feminine, but she was not the Ancient One. Moreover, he could see signs of battle on her thick orange robes, as well as faint but still fresh bloodstains.
"Looks like I arrived just in time," the woman said with a sigh of relief upon seeing the demon still alive. Then she turned to John and bowed, bringing both hands together in a gesture of greeting, causing a bit of her long white hair to fall from under the hood that covered most of her features.
"Greetings, Captain. I am one of the apprentices of Kamar-Taj. The Master sent me as soon as she could to provide assistance and inform you about the situation in Warsaw."
Warsaw? John blinked in confusion, but comprehension quickly dawned on him.
'Warsaw was attacked too!' Knowing this made bile threaten to rise in his throat, but he forced himself to suppress his discomfort. There was no point in lamenting—first, he needed to know how severe it had been.
Seeing his expression darken, the sorceress knew what he was about to ask, but before he could do so, she looked at the demon and pulled out a dark metallic box adorned with various golden engravings.
"Let me take care of him first." At the sight of the box, the demon's eyes widened to the extreme.
"No, no. No, no! You can't do this!"
He tried to stand and run, but before he could succeed, the sorceress stretched out one of her hands toward him, unleashing a fiery whip that wrapped around his neck in a tight grip.
The demon growled in pain, but even though he couldn't use his shadow powers due to the light John emitted, his body remained that of a monster.
And no matter how much magic a sorcerer had, they were still human... right?
"Impossible!" he shouted in disbelief as he realized that, despite his superhuman efforts, he couldn't break free from the sorceress's grip.
John observed this with some interest and prepared to help, but before he could, the sorceress tightened her grip on the whip, and it began to change, shifting from a golden-orange color to a bright violet.
"This power!? You are—!" The demon screamed with even more fear and desperation, but he couldn't finish his words as his body was effortlessly yanked backward.
Seeing him approach, the sorceress placed the box in front of her and, murmuring words John couldn't identify, caused the engravings on the object to emit a soft light.
And with tha a whirlwind formed in front of the box, and like a powerful vacuum cleaner, a monstrous suction force emerged and struck the demon, sending him flying toward the vortex, where he began to be sucked in until he was completely swallowed, leaving no trace behind—except for the increasingly distant sounds of his screams.
'Well, that was creepy,' John thought as he let his aura fade.
"He shouldn't be a problem for anyone anymore," the sorceress said, then stashed the artifact somewhere in her robes and turned toward him.
"You mentioned Warsaw. How bad is it?" Not wanting to beat around the bush, John asked directly. The woman understood his urgency, so she quickly explained the situation.
"It's bad. Many people died, but fortunately, the situation was resolved thanks to your team."
That last part took John by surprise. As much as he trusted James, Charles, and Cassandra—and, to a lesser extent, Erik—he knew that an enemy tied to the mystical could be beyond their current capabilities.
"I'm not entirely sure what happened, but it seems they somehow managed to expel the demon Hydra sent to Warsaw."
"Was there... did anyone die?" John hesitated, but he needed to know.
To his relief, she shook her head.
"No, they're all alive, though some are much more injured than others. Fortunately, the portal in the city was forcibly closed before more monsters could come through and harm them further. I suppose that was your doing."
In reality, the sorceress had gone to Warsaw first at the Ancient One’s request. But when she arrived, she noticed the portal was already beginning to close, and the demon had also vanished, leaving behind only an empty husk.
With no enemies in sight, she tended to the wounded she found in the room and then, using a few quick spells, took care of the hellish flames in the city before hurrying to where John was.
Letting out a long sigh, John nearly collapsed to the ground from the immense weight lifted off his shoulders. If any of them had died, he didn't know what he would have done.
'Since when do I worry so much about them?' Maybe he had spent too much time with them. Shaking his head, he decided he would think about it later.
"I have another question. If I'm not mistaken, Kamar-Taj maintains a great shield that surrounds the entire planet to prevent external threats from entering—or, at the very least, to anticipate their arrival. Isn't that right?" Honestly, he didn’t remember exactly how it worked.
Hearing him, the sorceress nodded. "It's more or less like that." Of course, it was more complex than that, but an excessively detailed explanation seemed inappropriate at the moment.
"Then… why are you the first sorcerer I've seen besides the Ancient One? Wasn't Kamar-Taj alerted as soon as this started?"
He was angry. If more sorcerers had acted in time, the S.W.O.R.D. base wouldn’t have been destroyed, Hank wouldn’t have disappeared, and his teammates wouldn’t have been injured.
He understood why the Ancient One couldn't intervene, and he had theorized earlier that maybe other sorcerers couldn't either, but with the appearance of the one standing before him, that theory was instantly discarded.
Upon hearing the reproach in his voice, the sorceress audibly clenched her fists.
"Do you think you were the only ones attacked?" she asked through gritted teeth.
And John didn’t need to be a genius to understand.
'That's why she looks like she’s been in a fight,' he realized, looking once more at her robes and the bloodstains on them.
"I see, I apologize, it seems I was mistaken." He didn’t apologize very often, but he felt it was better to do so and not make an enemy of the magical woman. Besides, this matter was more complicated than he had initially thought, and he might end up needing her help much more, so it was best not to add unnecessary tensions.
She huffed a little but quickly calmed down.
"Don’t apologize, it’s not your fault. No one expected it… it happened too fast, and without the Master around, things didn’t turn out very well." The fact that she was outside Kamar-Taj was the clearest indication of that, though John couldn’t know it.
John decided not to keep discussing it. Of course, he wanted to ask more questions, but before that, he needed to find Raven and head to Warsaw to check how things were. Peggy and the others would be fine with Isaac and the Commandos nearby. Italy had other Allied army bases they could go to, but Poland was still a country with a strong German presence.
"I need to move quickly. Do you think you could open a few extra portals for me?" Of course, he could fly, but even if he was fast in the air, he was still much slower than a portal.
The sorceress remained silent for a moment. She wasn’t sure if she should say yes or no. Her Master had only allowed her to leave Kamar-Taj because of everything that had happened, and if she took too long to return, she might get into trouble.
On the other hand, she was already here. Helping a little more should be fine, right?
"Alright."
Hearing her agree, John smiled. Then he turned to look at the landscape around them, and taking advantage of the mountain’s height, he began searching for the place where he had left Raven waiting.
"You know, when I suggested to the Ancient One that they lend me one of their apprentices, I didn’t expect them to have one as strong as you," he commented absentmindedly, recalling how she had been able to hold the demon with just one hand. Was that purely magic, or did she have some kind of superhuman strength?
"It wasn’t supposed to be me…" she confessed, making him raise an eyebrow in curiosity.
"What do you mean? It seems to me that you would definitely be one of the first choices without a doubt." Even if he had only seen a little of what she was capable of, it was enough for John to think she had to be one of the strongest sorcerers in Kamar-Taj—at least in this era.
She smiled a little upon hearing that, but quickly shook her head and explained further.
"Normally, I’m not allowed to leave Kamar-Taj, but… I suppose things have changed now."
Her words, of course, made John's curiosity rise a little more, but delving too deeply into other people's personal matters wasn't his thing, so he decided to selectively ignore it and think about it later.
"Do you see that place over there? Can you open a portal near that area?" At last, his eyes managed to identify a spot near the clearing where Raven was, and he quickly pointed at it with his hand.
"Yes, I see it," the sorceress nodded, squinting toward the place he was pointing at and preparing to open one of her portals.
"By the way, I still think of you as 'the sorceress' in my head. Do you have any other name I can call you by?" he asked, finally realizing he didn't know her name.
"Hmm?" She hesitated, pausing for a moment before answering with slight hesitation.
"You can call me Clea."
John stopped, repeated the name several times in his head, trying to find something, but when no memory came to mind, he simply shrugged and didn't give it much importance.
"Alright, you can call me John."
With that said, the portal opened, and both of them stepped through it.
.
.
.
Note:
And one more chapter!—this mini-arc has finally "ended."
It stretched out a little more than I initially intended, but I think everything turned out more or less as I wanted. There are still some mysteries to solve and things to explain, but we'll get to that later. For now, there's finally a bit of "peace" before the counterattack and the final battle against Hydra begins.
Of course, I've also laid some groundwork for what's coming after that, but it's still too soon to talk too much about it. For now, I hope you liked the chapter, and remember to leave a comment!
Comments
Dark B3rry
Thank you for the chapter!
Oceanus Thetitan
Here come the sun motherfucker!!!
Sin Vergil
Have to say of all things I expected from this chapter Clea was not one of them. More interestingly though was the attack on the Sanctum which means either someone/thing attacked them at the same time, Hydras creatures went there and attacked them, or the most concerning option they knew the sanctum was thereafter what it was.
dishitian
La sobrina de dormamu,guau, John no deja ni una XD
EmmaCruzader
I won't lie, that sounds fun, I'm still planning the fight so I can't promise anything but I'll see what I can do.
genny
Can you use this move for when he kills the Red Skull? Maybe, instead of screaming "Kamehameha," he screams, "Get off my fucking planet!" and then his Kamehameha sends him into deep space, like in Dragon Ball fights?
EmmaCruzader
Well, he could put his hands together, strike the pose, concentrate the energy and then throw it and shout "Kame-Hame-Haa!!!!!" but since it's not Ki, it would just be a similar attack.
genny
I have a question,can he do the Kamehameha with his new powers?
