In MCU with One for All -Chapter 7

Disclaimer - All the usual Yada Yada Yada. I don’t own any rights to any characters in this fic save for my OCs. Marvel owns them. Don’t sue me

Earth - 16969 [MCU AU]

The Battle of New York, The Forest of Perseverance, Kamar Taj [2008]

–Jamie Bell–

He panted as he stood there, in the middle of what could only be called a scene of carnage. Body parts, blood, and the smell of burnt meat pervaded the air around him as his body finally gave out and he collapsed on one knee. Looking at the half a dozen or so Chitauri soldiers, he chuckled bitterly after looking at his own condition.

He didn’t know how but in the middle of the battle, he realised that he could somehow use CHI now to not just heal his body but also to enhance himself. That single thing saved his head from being blown off because he was simply too fast for the damned Chitauri to properly aim at him. He got a good chunk of his flesh blown off earlier and without any food source nearby, coupled with the empty stomach he had from the sleep, he was in no position to fully heal himself.

So, that was the position he found himself in. Almost died multiple times, very heavily injured, running on fumes, completely drained by killing just a couple of Chitauri soldiers. 

Collapsing on his back, he looked up at the sky, with smoke rising in the air, along with the Chitauri still pouring out of that damned portal, just not with the same intensity as before. 

He supposed that with them almost winning, they felt no need to send so many of their troops when a lesser number did the job.

Breathing heavily, he winced as his–everything really, hurt so bad he wanted to just flood his body with CHI, ride high on the feel good chemicals that would inevitably flood his brain, and just lie here. Nothing more, and yet, the scenes of the fight from before refused to leave his mind.

The second his eyelids drooped even a little, the scenes of that family being crushed under all that glass entered his vision and he lost it. It was an absolute clusterfuck. 

Getting his battered body in a sitting position, wincing in pain all the while, he muttered to himself, his mind now cooled from whatever this damned place had done to him, “This is fucked up.”

He looked up, hoping that his words reached whoever it was that was supposed to keep dangerous places like these away from literal noobies like him, “This is a shitty test if it is a test.”

He looked at his black and blue hands, simultaneously singed from the energy blasts, burned because of all the electricity he channeled through them, and also slightly healed as well because of the CHI he pumped into them to get himself through the last of that nasty fight.

“Ahhh,” He tried to stand up but the best he could do was hobble towards shelter. As he was now, he was no use to anyone else, let alone some people who might need his help. He needed to get to shelter and wait out this whole fucked up thing.

The second his hand was about to touch the almost shattered door to get into whatever this store was before it was bombed to kingdom come, everything in his vision glitched and he found himself back in the same Forest as before.

The same rough path, the same birds chirping above, the same foliage all around him, the same ominous feeling, and yet…

He sighed as he hobbled to turn around, “Come on. Just end this.”

He whispered as he felt his body reach its current limits. The dreadful feeling intensified and yet, he couldn’t bring himself to care all that much about it, not after what he had been through. Illusion or not, it was real to him and it left a pretty bitter realisation in its wake. 

He had thought himself fit, or at least fit enough to do some damage before he was inevitably taken down by the powerhouses. To do something, some damage before he was killed. He had no delusions of grandeur, of being able to take down villains like Loki, Mandarin, and many others but he had hoped to be able to be of some inconvenience to these lot before he was offed.

As he found out today, very painfully he might add, he couldn’t even overcome a small squad of Chitauri without finding himself at death’s door. He looked at his bony hand, just skin sticking to bones at this point, and chuckled to himself.

So, no. He was not looking to run, not anymore. He had run all his life and he could honestly say at this point, the pain of regret, of not doing anything else other than expecting his powers to be the be-all and end-all solution, of not reaching out to literally anyone else was worse than the pain of being burned, electrocuted, of having a part of his torso ripped, of having to literally walk with his bones broken, muscles torn.

“Come on,” He whispered as he looked at the darkness ahead of him. Just behind him, it was light, with the sound of birds chirping still ringing in his ears and yet, he had no interest in that. He had tried living that comfortable, head in the sand, ignorance is bliss life before this and found it wanting. No, he had taken the plunge and he intended to see it to the end.

Those were the last thoughts going through his mind before he found his legs giving out from under him, the muddy ground approaching his face at a rapid speed.

____xx___

–Wong–

“What was the point of this, Ancient One?” Master Hamir questioned their leader and it was not his imagination that he felt the accusation in the tone of the mute Master’s artificially generated voice.

The Ancient One turned around and faced all of them, almost 13 of the Masters of Kamar Taj gathered in one place, “The purpose of this test was for a realisation, not ours but Jamie’s. He has taken the first step but it is a hesitant one, a probing step without any of his weight on it. He needs to realise that learning Sorcery or any of the things he wishes to achieve really, can not be done with one foot in safety and one foot in the thick of it.”

There was a moment of silence before one of the younger Masters spoke, the newest American one, he mentally noted, “But, couldn’t all of this been done in a much less painful manner?”

She hurried to finish her thoughts before anyone could interrupt her, “Like I know that I am pretty new at this.” She was, having joined Kamar Taj just two years ago and became Master at a record pace. “--But even I know that this test is not supposed to be as painful as it was for him. The scenarios were supposed to be much tamer and most of the tests were aborted before anyone could get permanently injured. That–” She pointed at the battered and heavily injured state of Jamie, “looks pretty permanent to me.”

She was right. The extent of his injuries was not something a normal human, even a Master could hope to recover from, especially not if he hoped to do active Sorcery in the future. Not everyone could be like Master Hamir and spend decades rewriting his entire Dimensional Energy Memory to become just as proficient with one hand as others were with all their limbs intact, if not more so in some cases.

The Ancient One looked at every one of them with an eyebrow raised, “I suppose everyone here agrees with Master Kathlene’s statements.”

Despite himself, he found himself nodding. This was clearly going a step too far. The man clearly had some natural gifts, however incompatible they might be for this body. Having the ability to release electricity and heat from his body was great. What was not so great was the burns he had to deal with afterward.

He saw some limited healing ability after that but it was clearly just as a stopgap measure, to stop him from immediately dying. Just prolonging the inevitable, nothing more than that.

“You are right, the test didn’t need to be so painful but what you all are lacking in, is perspective. In your lifetimes, you might stop one or two demons, collectively face a single Hell invasion, might see a Dark One, and recover one, maybe two dangerous artifacts. This is not me being belittling any of your contributions, these are just facts.”

He nodded at that, agreeing with her. She was right about that. Despite the seriousness with which they took their duties and training, the fact was that with the Ancient One’s long and powerful reign as the Sorcerer Supreme, left them with very little to do in terms of major threats. 

Most of them were small fries that slipped under the radar and the Ancient One then used the threat as a whetstone to sharpen the Masters under her command.

“Those might sound impressive to you BUT what he will face in his lifetime pales in comparison to what you all will face, collectively. Within a few years, a clock will stop ticking and then his real mission will begin. Not a year will go by without him facing a world ending threat. Not a month without him facing something that could snowball into a massive destabilising crisis, mystical or otherwise. Not a single week where he would be able to sleep peacefully, without the constant sword of an inevitability hanging over his head.”

She then looked at each and every one of them and in that moment, she seemed so tall, so larger than life that he involuntarily found himself averting his gaze before they could meet.”

“That is the life that Jamie Bell will be leading after just a scant few years and it will not stop haunting him for decades to come. So, yes, it was harsh, perhaps more so than was necessary to let him take the test but all of this will pale in comparison to what he has to go through.”

“Master Wong,” His neck snapped up as his name was called, “Call forth Master Lu, tell him to get his premier Healing supplies. Inform that it is an order from the Sorcerer Supreme herself. I want him here soon.”

He nodded and turned around, sprinting to get out of that suddenly claustrophobic room.

He was wrong, they couldn’t really judge the Ancient One on anything at all.

Now, where would that drunkard Lu be at this point?

If the man wasn’t as skilled as he was with healing and wasn’t favoured by the Vishanti, the Ancient One would have long since kicked him to some remote Demon sealing monitoring duties, like Ta-Lo, though he heard that it had become a rather nice vacationing spot if one could ignore the rather small space in that pocket dimension which was shrinking year after year because of the weakening of their Water Dragon.