The Merlinian Magic (MCU SI) : Chapter 2

Commissioned by [aroniac] on Patreon

Disclaimer - I don’t own Marvel or any of its characters. The Mighty Mouse does and I hope it is not standing behind me with a shotgun cocked and ready to blow my brains out the second I have the audacity to press PUBLI——

Marvel 6969420 Universe

Stark Tower, Manhattan, New York [2012]

–Merlin–

So, there he was, basking in the glow of the sheer confusion from the people who could see him and what he had done just now, and the fear from the small number of Chitauri that had managed to get into the city, when a Perfect Cube manifested in front of him, tanking the yellow beam launched from the rooftop of the Stark Tower.

Rude!

The perfect cube dispelled, he slowly floated towards Loki’s shimmering form as he walked to the edge of the penthouse floor as well, horns slowly shimmering over his head to form an over the top, tacky crown.

Obviously, he made that known to the manchild, who did not take it in good sport like he intended him to. So, another yellow beam was launched at him, only this time, the blue shroud he had covered himself with, grew a hand and slapped away the blast into the building, eviscerating multiple windows.

Then, he grinned, as the small hand slowly grew into a much larger claw, while he grinned, as the Chitauri forces were taking a while to reach the hole in the sky because of his earlier spell cleaving through a majority of their forces stationed near the portal, “My turn.”

“AAaaa~” Loki’s scream was melodious to his ears as the claw grabbed the Frost Giant turned Asgardian, and lifted him up.

“Mine!” He yoinked the sceptre out of the godling’s hands as the claw then turned him upside down and then gently set him down. And by gently, he meant with the intensity of a Hulk beat down. The very first impact had clearly broken something, as Loki’s eyes were dazed but Loki was sturdy enough, so the claw just grabbed the God of Mischief’s legs and then gave him a good ol’ hulk style beatdown.

“One mental recalibration, complete~!” he clapped his hands as the claw returned to his blue shroud. 

“That was….Something,” He turned around to see Iron Man floating close by, within immediate evacuation distance of course but close enough to have a conversation.

“Eh,” He shrugged as he looked down, seeing the half dozen Chitauri chariots headed their way, chose the best, most over the top, flashy spell for that and quipped back at the Man of Iron, “You needed better flooring anyway.”

Floating close by, he ignored the way the sound of repulsors being charged was heard as he clapped the suit of Iron, “Next time, choose something stronger.”

As the blue shroud around his body flared once more, forming what could only be called a giant Gatling gun. The next second, his grin stretched to inhuman proportions as the Gatling gun launched projectiles the size of missiles, punching through the Chitauri chariots, turning them to mist.

The projectiles didn’t stop, though, headed straight into the nearby buildings which prompted a “Hey!” from Tonyt. He rolled his eyes and snapped his dingers, dispelling the Gatling gun and turning the projectiles into missiles as they followed the unique energy signature present within the Chitauri guns, turning smaller as well.

He turned around, with the backdrop of explosions behind him, illuminating Tony’s shiny red armour, “So, you were saying?”

“Dude! Who are you?” Tony asked him as he put his hand below his chin, imitating a thinking pose. 

In the end, he shrugged, and replied, “Merlin.”

He could feel the deadpan from within that faceplate, “Merlin?”

“Yup.”

“Like old, ancient Magic Merlin?”

“Yup.”

“Pull the other leg.”

“How else do you think I did all of this?”

“I don’t know? Some sort of enhanced power allowing you to manipulate energy?”

He nodded, another series of explosions occurring behind, drawing Tony’s attention  for a bit before it snapped back to Merlin as he replied, “That is a facet of magic but I can do so much more than that.”

A keening noise was heard throughout the city as they both looked up, just in time to see another two of those Leviathans floating out of the portal like the maggots that they were. Tony then raised his hands in surrender, floating away slowly, “You know what? You can believe you’re Mary Poppins for all I care, as long as you’re not on the side of the aliens.”

He then rocketed straight up, to thin the herd of the Chitauri coming through that hole, so to speak. Only, the man failed as he hit a barrier, not a hard one otherwise Tony Stark would have died today but a sticky one, as Iron Man flew into the barrier a bit, stretching it before it snapped back into place, revealing a giant blue barrier that surrounded the portal on all sides, save for a small opening through which the Space STone’s energy was being transmitted.

To stop that, he would need the Time Stone and he did not fancy getting that back from the old hag, because that would come with its own set of pesky responsibilities, not something he was looking forward to, so almost a complete barrier it is.

“The fuck!” Tony exclaimed as he flew closer, prompting him to raise his fingers in a silent gesture, “Language!”

“Oh, bite me!”

He laughed as he grabbed Tony’s hand and pulled him, the paint peeling off from his suit, leaving behind an Iron Man sized imprint of gold and red on the barrier.

Meanwhile, the Chitauri kept piling up into the barrier, the Leviathans crashing into the bubbly shield, stretching it a bit before it snapped back into place, jostling everyone inside. The smaller ones peppered the insides of that shield with their energy weapons, lighting up a significant portion of the shield with a purple afterglow.

That was the time Thor chose to make his entrance, as thunder rumbled in the distance, an errant lightning strike hitting the bubble as well, creating a small depression which bounced back into position soon enough.

“Ah, the prodigal son returns,” He remarked as Thor flew in, aided by his crutch-sorry, Mjolnir, the semi sentient hammer housing an ancient storm. Speaking of ancient storms and the people who sealed them, he wondered what Odin was doing right now?

He slowly floated down, sapping his fingers absentmindedly, as all the colour from Tony’s suit was stripped away, leaving behind a silver shell reminiscent of his first suit built in his lab. Thor landed on the penthouse floor, further cracking the flooring, prompting him to give Tony a look.

“What? You think they sell Thor proof flooring in the market?” Tony said, exasperated.

The party of three from SHIELD also chose the time to enter the city and with the speed of their jet being what it was, were floating mere meters away from the penthouse floor soon enough.

“Ah, the gang’s all here, I assume?” He clapped, grinning ear to ear, all of this just so amusing for his inner Merlin as he reverse engineered the principles behind the Arc Reactor and figured out a way to create a magical version of the same, provided he had a little energy from the Power Stone, along with some unrefined vibranium.

Both things quite easily accessible to him, as long as he waited a bit as the Power Stone was scheduled to appear on Xandar in a couple of years.

“Actually,” Tony said, in his smarty pants voice, “We are missing one member. Though, I wouldn’t fault him for not coming, who knows where he was–”

Tony’s voice died down as the sound of a finger snapping was followed by the sound of a terribly inefficient IC engine’s exhaust dying down, revealing the teleported form of one Bruce Banner looking at them all confused.

“Once Bruce Banner, avatar of Rage, delivered,” He bowed grandiosely.

“Tony, who is this?” Romanoff, having alighted from the jet, which actually had a self park feature, mid air, asked Tony.

“Hey! I don’t know. Dude just came barreling through and has made short work of the alien force, including Loki,”

The mention of Loki drew Thor’s attention as he stalked further into the penthouse, followed by everyone as well, while he remained stationary, looking straight up.

While the avatar of Rage was interesting and it would be fascinating to figure out exactly how someone became a new Pantheon without using magic whatsoever, for now, he was worried about bigger fish.

He could feel the barely restrained anger from the otherworld gaze as he sent a projection following the same route, manifesting a spectre right in Odin’s court.

“Devilborn,” Ah, there was the Odin he knew, the intense warrior who sought to dominate and would settle for nothing else. His spectre shrugged off the pressure being exerted on the room, even as the pillars shuddered continuously.

Instead of addressing Odin directly, he floated around the palace, looking all around, “I love what you’ve done with the place. I mean, gold is as tacky as they come but I suppose, it does suit your overall theme.” He said, drawing a tired sigh from Odin as the pressure receded completely, revealing the tired silhouette behind the overbearing image that the bearer of the Odin Force liked to project on everyone around him, including his family, because the very concept of showing vulnerability was utterly alien to someone of Odin’s mindset.

That was not his fault, though. After all, he was raised by Bor, and boy was that man a bore. Always war, war, crush, fight, conquer and nothing more. 

“What are you doing here, Devilborn? Last we spoke, you assured me that you would not be returning again.” Odin’s voice reverberated through the hallway. He noticed the form of Frigga rushing through the palace on a path straight to them.

“Perceptive, isn’t she?” He commented, drawing a rare smile from Odin, something that surprised him so much that he actually stared a bit, before catching himself.

“Ha! Even the mighty devilborn can be surprised! I can rest easy knowing that I was the one who finally managed to one up the Devilborn.” Odin laughed boisterously for a moment before waving his hand, creating a curtain around the palace with his Odin Force, certainly not something that a witch of Frigga’s calibre would be capable of breaching anytime soon, certainly not without an elaborate ritual.

“So, speak. You are known to never break a vow and your continued presence here irks me.”

“Now, now, Borson,” He said as he wagged his finger at the Asgardian, “I expected better from the one who finally brought peace to the Nine Realms, granted most of those wards were instigated by Asgardians anyway,” He mumbled the last part.

“Speak clearly!” That was accompanied with a gong that reverberated through the room, created by Gungnir being slammed into the ground.

“Ah, fine,” He sagged a bit, “You see, Merlin most certainly did not come out of her self imposed sealing.”

“So you are an impostor?” Odin said, confused, not tense because he could not do anything to the almighty Odin in his domain, certainly not without his body since accessing Infinity without his body was a tad bit harder than he had expected it to be.

Another thing added to the long list of things he had to do, now that he had awoken in the modern world, with a never before seen density of Sorcerers and potential ideas in the mundane world that could be applied to the magical world.

“Nah,” he waved the man off, “I am someone with part Merlin shoved into me, completely without my consent, by the way but you get that.”

“That damned Devilborn,” Odin scoffed as he realised exactly what Merlin had done.

“Quite,” He agreed, staying silent for a moment before whirling on the spot, moving back a bit from Odin’s throne, while looking straight up, “Huh, I could swear there was something else on those walls the last time Merlin snuck here,”

The atmosphere of the room changed in an instant as Odin thundered, “Get out!”

He giggled at the completely empty threat, as he mockingly saluted at the man, bowing a bit. When he came back from the bow, the one who greeted Odin was not Merlin, but Hela, Goddess of Death, all with the standard armour, and Mjolnir in her hand.

Gungnir clattered to the floor, as the barrier surrounding the room flickered a bit.

And then, he was gone, back in his body, surrounded by a Perfect Cube that was being banged upon by the Avengers.

“What?” He asked, dispelling the cube.

“Wake up sleeping beauty, the bubble’s about to burst,” Tony pointed straight up, to show a couple of jets circling around the barrier that was ballooning in front of them, now covered with purple blood from the Chitauri that had no doubt been crushed by the weight, with periodic sploshes of blood dripping down through the small hole in the barrier, only for the beam of energy from the Space Stone to vaporise it.

“Huh, that was quick,” He commented.

“Yeah, I am glad you had your nap but you have got to do something about that because if that bubble bursts. Well, I am not sure about your Lala-land, but out here in the real world, building a tower like this costs a lot of money.”

“....”

“...”

“Heh, you said Lala-Land.” He giggled at that.