Chapter 3: Introductions
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
All Wong could do was stand back and watch in strained silence, as The Ancient One's body jerked and twitched violently as she underwent the future gazing spell once again.
In the six months since she first used the spell, she had repeatedly done so again and again, trying to no avail to get a clearer picture of what she had seen before.
But for reasons she could not explain, the vision remained resolutely vague. It was like the future was being intentionally withheld from her view by some unknown great power, only allowing her the brief glimpse she kept on seeing.
However, despite the lack of progress in identifying what exactly it was she was seeing, she knew at the very least its likelihood of coming to fruition was becoming ever more certain. More and more possible outcomes featured the same vision. To the point where it made Boudicca worry that all the pre-emptive steps she had made so far was only aggravating the issue not solving it.
But nonetheless, she powered ahead, desperate to do what she could with the power she had. It may not be the official role of the Sorcerer Supreme to involve themselves in matters pertaining to the material world (in fact they, and the magical world at large, were encouraged to stay out of the affairs of mortals as much as possible), but an existential threat like this couldn't be allowed to go forward unimpeded.
Wong, winced as Boudicca spasmed violently one last time before finally ceasing the spell and crumbling back to ground. Wong diligently rushed over to her and began to mutter soothing and healing incantations upon her. Boudicca looked up to smile weakly at him, uttering a barely audible "You don't have to do that. But thank you" for his kind gesture.
Wong caught her words but chose to ignore them. She was his friend and charge, it was the least he could do for her.
Waiting until she looked somewhat better he finally asked whether there was any progress on averting the future she kept seeing.
"No" she admitted sadly. "The world still ends soon and those five have something to do with it"
Not wanting to restart this argument again, but being unable to hold his tongue either, Wong corrected her saying "A group of five. Not necessarily the five you have cooped up in the basement. The vision is still too vague. The five we have downstairs are relatively speaking, not that dangerous"
As if on cue there began a loud commotion beneath Wong and Boudicca, where the cells of the five were located.
"By the hoary hosts of Hoggoth! What on Earth are they up to?" Wong exclaimed in surprise. The cells beneath Kamar Taj were warded with all manner of spells including a sound minimizing spell, so to cause such a ruckus that they could be heard from up above, was quite the achievement.
"I think it's time you met the five you've been so keenly interceding for" Boudicca said as she slipped on her sling ring and quickly opened up a portal to the holding cells.
Together she and Wong walked through the portal and into quite the unusual sight. For Wong at least, Boudicca had unfortunately become accustomed to this level of unruliness from her prisoners.
The first thing Wong noticed was the source of the bulk of the noise. It was being caused by the yelling and banging of two of the captives. They appeared to be in a heated verbal spat with each other, with each vowing death upon the other as soon as they got out of their respective cells.
"You are lucky the witch's barrier is in the way, or else I would have you tongue for what you said" cried one of the captives. A blonde Scandinavian male with a youthful fair face but an intimidating muscular physique. His muscles were on full display as he was clad in only a pair trousers and nothing else not even boots. The only other item in his possession was a hefty looking war hammer which he banged repeatedly on his cells barrier, seemingly in order to emphasize his point rather than to escape.
"That's Thor, the Asgardian princeling worshipped as a god of thunder" Boudicca explained calmly to Wong "A fierce warrior by all accounts, with an even fiercer sense of pride and quite the temper when said pride is wounded. He's not intentionally destructive towards mortals but his love for battle has left many humans injured or worse. It's fortuitous I did not have to engage him in a direct fight in order to apprehend him and instead I found him conveniently passed out in a random forest after a long weekend of drinking and partying with his worshippers"
"I would like to see you try" sneered the other man Thor was arguing with, responding to the threat. This man was also youthful looking though with his full unkempt brown beard he appeared slightly older than Thor at least. He was equally as muscular as Thor though, but he was fully clothed in a skin hugging blue-black attire and a large gold belt, gold colored boots and a limp gold cape. The belt in particular featured prominently on it's buckle three interlocking knots which Wong correctly recognized as the Nordic version of the triskelion symbol or Celtic knot.
"And that's Hyperion, he claims to be an eternal from the planet Olympia. And that he came to Earth because some of his fellow eternals who were posted here have not been in contact for a while now. I believe he has only been on Earth for a month now, but he appears to have history with Thor already. The thing that drew my attention to him, was when he attempted to melt down Antarctica for some unknown reason. And most terrifying thing about that, was he was fairly close to achieving that goal"
Boudicca then looked away from the still blustering duo to look at the other cells. In one cell sat a cowering African man curled up in ball as he slowly rocked himself. "That's Bashenga avatar for the goddess Bast. Despite his current state now, he was quite a formidable foe to apprehend. For the longest time Bast had full control over him and he was functionally a god in human flesh. He violently doled out so called divine justice on the sinners of Africa but really to was a ploy by Bast to increase her influence and importance. Imprisoned here though, she cannot connect with him at all. A fact Bashenga isn't taking too well as he seems quite lost without his god to directly guide him."
Wong's gaze lingered on the man briefly, he looked quite unremarkable to Wong if not slightly pathetic. He couldn't imagine this scared man being a terrifying punisher for a goddess, like Boudicca was describing.
Boudicca then turned to the next cell, this time containing the only female among the captives. She had a distinct light sea blue skin, ears that tapered into pointed tips and unnaturally bright purple eyes.
She wore a simple multicolored reef skirt with a fish scale chest piece, both of which was heavily adorned with all manner of feathers, turquoise colored gems and bone accessories. Covering her mouth and nose was a small see through bubble of water.
And framed stylishly a top her head was feathered animal skull headdress.
"That's Zarda, a siren I found terrorizing the people near the Yucatan, mostly the men. She has drowned and eaten many and they say her purple eyes are the sign of all the souls she has devoured"
Boudicca explained to Wong who frowned slightly at this.
Zarda like the other captives so far, seemed oblivious to the presence of Wong and Boudicca, and was instead occupied with acting as the third major source of all the ruckus as she gleefully shouted and egged on Hyperion and Thor's fight, her voice coming out slightly warbled and distorted due to her water bubble mask.
Boudicca then turned to her last captive, who looked remarkably calm and collected despite the obvious ruckus around him. "And that is Xu Wenwu, wielder of the ten rings and conqueror of most of the lands in the East. He's a cruel despot who has spent all of his very long life enslaving and terrorizing many".
Unlike the others, Wenwu seemed actually aware of their sudden appearance and was levelling a death glare at both of them. Boudicca for her part seemed unfazed by his obvious aggression, but Wong couldn't help but shudder under his gaze. Among the living myths and legends in this room, Wenwu was the one Wong was most familiar with and thus felt most unsettled by. Even haven grown up in small tribe of nomads in the Mongolian mountains, Wong still heard the simultaneously horrible and awe inspiring tales of Wenwu's conquest of most of the lands in the East.
"You are right that relatively speaking these are not the greatest threats to Earth, but together their capacity for destruction and cruelty is unmatched" the Ancient One explained.
"Yes…" Wenwu started, in a calm voice which immediately brought silence to room. Hyperion and Thor ceased their bickering. Zarda stopped her cheering and even Bashenga peeked up from his cowering position.
"We are some of the most destructive and cruel mortals on this planet. So just imagine what we shall do to you all when we inevitably escape this place" Wenwu said looking the duo dead on with an expression that conveyed equal parts malice and determination to carry out said malice.
Wong couldn't help but gulp and squirm nervously under Wenwu's intense stare.
"Maybe locking them up wasn't such a brash idea" Wong thought to himself.
For a moment no one said anything and the tension in room built up rapidly.
Everyone's eyes was fixed upon the Ancient One and Wenwu as the two engaged in a silent stare down.
Suddenly with a simple nod of her head as if agreeing with whatever decision she had made internally, Boudicca did the unexpected.
She performed a short series of hands signs to cast a spell. And shortly after that a whoosh sound could be heard as all the cells opened.
"All right, I've lifted the spell containing all of you. Let us no longer imagine what you all shall do to me if we ever let you out, and instead let's see it "
Startled by this, Wong stepped back in surprise.
Wearily Wenwu got onto his feet and reached out half expecting to feel the barrier. But it was truly no longer there.
Wenwu smiled upon realizing this. "That was unwise" he declared before without hesitation, he fired a ring from each of his arm at Boudicca and Wong.
Before they could hit their marks, there was brief flash of orange sparks as Boudicca conjured a pair of large orange fan like constructs to deflect the attacks.
The ancient one settled in a low battle stance and beaconed with one of her fans for all of them to come at her.
Wenwu let out a loud battle cry and launched himself at Boudicca, and from there all hell broke loose.
Notes:
This isn't super important so feel free to skip this note, but I just wanted to preemptively address some possible issues some might have.
This work will strive to be mcu canon compliant with a sprinkling of comic book lore if it fits. But I will still make changes unique from both the comics and movies if I deem it necessary. Examples in this chapter being Zarda's redesign and eventual power change.
