BXBX NOVEL Chapter 311 - The Time Stone...
[Stark Industries, New York]
"I am going to scrap this idea…" Tony mumbled loudly shocking everyone around him.
"What are you talking about?" Virginia asked in a worried tone.
"This laser project… I don\'t think this is going to work" Tony said looking completely serious which was a pretty rare sight.
"And why do you think that?" a scientist-looking guy spoke about his concern.
"There is not enough power… I have seen Leviathan\'s power and I don\'t think a laser like this is going to hurt him and he can always dodge… after all, the laser isn\'t small" Tony exasperated pointing towards the truck-sized laser they have made.
"But this isn\'t something you can decide on your own… you need to discuss with our contractors and our investors" Virginia said with a frown on her face.
"Pepper… you take care of them while I plan something else" Tony dismissed the matter with a thoughtful look on his face.
Virginia wanted to scream at Tony but he was her boss so she couldn\'t do that… she could only follow his order…
[POV Reo]
I was relaxing with Momo and Fleur on our yacht while drinking beer. Momo and Fleur were sunbathing in their bikinis while I was lying beside them, I was under shade. I didn\'t like sunbathing like the girls did. Suddenly a sparkling portal opened and The Ancient One walked out.
"Forgive me for interrupting your time with your women" The Ancient One spoke in an apologetic tone and she genuinely looked sorry for interrupting us but since we were just relaxing I didn\'t mind it that much.
"It\'s no problem… we were just relaxing" I said and with a wave of my hand conjured a beach chair for her. The Ancient One looked at the chair critically for a second, but she finally shrugged and sat down.
"Can I get you something?" Fleur asked The Ancient One politely.
"Some tea would be nice…" The Ancient One said and Fleur called a house-elf asked her to bring tea for the Ancient One.
Only after a few seconds the house-elf popped back and placed a tea-cup near the Ancient One and popped out. "Thanks…" The Ancient One said dryly looking towards the place where the house-elf had appeared.
"Um… I have always wondered, what is your name?" Momo asked curiously. I was immediately interested in the topic. In the movie Universe, her name was never revealed but in the comics, The Sorcerer Supreme or The Ancient One was a man named Yao. I wonder if her name is Yao even though the gender is swapped.
The Ancient One got a look of melancholy on her face. "…It has been a really long time since I have used my name… there is no longer anyone alive who knows my name now…" The Ancient One said with a sad look on her face.
The Ancient One didn\'t speak for a few seconds until she looked towards Momo and a small smile appeared on her face. "… I was named Flavia…" The Ancient One… said with a smile on her face. "…I don\'t mind being called by that name, I could get used to it once again" Flavia said and started sipping her tea.
"Reo, I wanted to talk with you about something" Flavia turned towards me and said with a serious look on her face.
"Yeah… sure. What did you want to talk about?" I asked Flavia while I looked slightly curious. Did she figure out something about me… I know that she keeps using that Time Stone to look around. So, she might have noticed something…
"I wanted to ask you, how you absorbed that Infinity Stone?" Flavia asked me. I looked at her blankly for a few seconds… deciding if should tell her or not. From what I have seen, she wouldn\'t try to fight me… even if she tries, I am confident that she won\'t be able to cause problems for me.
I finally decided to tell her about my true heritage… I didn\'t give her all the details though. Flavia was completely shocked after hearing my story. For a few minutes, she didn\'t speak and kept gaping like a fish. No matter what she knew about this Universe or this Multiverse, nothing could have prepared her for a shock like this.
She couldn\'t imagine how strong I would be if I absorbed all of them, since all the Infinity Stones were aspects of my own powers. "…That was a lot to take in…" Flavia murmured under her breath.
"We are simply frogs living inside a small well if we compare ourselves with strong entities like you…" Flavia was exasperated and she started to fiddle with the Eye of Agamotto she was wearing around her neck.
"That\'s the Time Stone, right? I can feel it" I said with a smile on my face. I already knew that the Time Stone was inside that artifact but I decided to feign ignorance. Flavia stopped fiddling with the Eye of Agamotto and looked at me.
"…Yes… you are right" Flavia said with a serious look on her face.
"You already had some idea about my true heritage, right and you still brought the Stone to me?" I asked her weirdly. I am pretty sure that someone smart and experienced like her would have guessed something, I really wanted to know why she brought the Stone with her… did she have that much confidence in her own powers?
"Yes… I know that you would have come for the Time Stone someday… Now, knowing this I could have done two things. I could have tried fighting you… or I could hand over the Stone to you…" Flavia said in a serious tone and then finally, she opened the Eye of Agamotto, revealing the Stone to me and the girls.
"It was a pretty easy decision to make… if I fight you, I know that there is no way, I am going to win but this way, we can avoid a conflict which would have obviously resulted in my death… and I know that you will protect Earth from the threats out there… so the stronger you are… the better it will be for us humans" Flavia said and Stone flew out of the artifact and started to float over her hand.
"Well… I guess I can\'t deny the logic behind your decision. Momo and Luna would have been really sad if you had chosen otherwise…" I said and extended my hand towards the Stone and the Time Stone flew into my palm and with a bright green light I absorbed the Stone and memories about how to use the Time Stone\'s power started to appear inside my mind.
Several memories started to pop inside my mind… and I immediately started to understand the laws of Time and how to manipulate time according to my wishes. It wasn\'t reality-bending powers but I got powers to reverse time, pause time, and the strongest power, I could exist out of time… that power was still locked.
It was a complicated power, to be honest… it could make me exist out of time meaning that I won\'t be bound by the laws of time… it was a really simple power but at the same time it was also very complicated. But I wasn\'t worried about this power at this moment… because currently, I wasn\'t able to use this power.
The important thing is the Time Reversal power for now… this power will give me the ability to reverse time but this power isn\'t absolute… like if I reverse the time while I am on Earth… the whole Universe won\'t be affected. At most only our solar system would be affected. But everything is not flowers and roses… this power can\'t be used continuously without stopping.
The next power I gained is to use the power to Stop Time. At most, this power will also affect only our solar system. This power also got the same limitations, but the strongest suit of these powers are, that they are almost absolute. Only a few beings like the Living Tribunal, Adam Warlock, The One Above All could ignore these powers.
There was another power which was important… The Future Sight. I would be able to see all the possible futures up to a certain point but I can only do that when I activate it. My power wasn\'t like Luna\'s, she is able to see everything… it doesn\'t matter if it was about the past present, or future… she is even able to see everything about other realities. That is way too OP.
But as my powers keep growing… the range of my Time Powers will also keep increasing. That is something good… that means if I reach my previous level then I will be able to affect whole groups of Multiverses with my powers…
"…Seeing you absorb the Infinity Stone with my own eyes was much more impactful than the memory" Momo mused with a grin on her face.
"Yeah… I could feel your Powers increasing even though I don\'t have a connection with the Stones" Fleur said with a thoughtful look on her face… it could be possible that she can feel cosmic energies because of her bloodline. She also felt the Phoenix Force which was locked inside Jean.
"Pity… I didn\'t feel anything. I only noticed the light…" Flavia said in a slightly depressed tone.
"Hmm… I am feeling quite different now… I am way stronger than before. I even got a lot of raw power from the Stone even though the Stone only represented Time Powers…" I said with a contemplative look on my face and green rings appeared on my right hand and the four of us were wrapped in a small bubble and everything around us froze completely.
"Wow… I never knew that the Stone has Time Freezing Powers…" Flavia mumbled under her breath and shot a projectile made of her magic into the water. The water splashed and froze in mid-air.
"The Stone always had this power but you weren\'t able to use this power simply because the Stone didn\'t belong to you… so, you weren\'t able to use its full potential" I said with a thoughtful look on my face.
"…I think Reo is right… Reo had mentioned that the Stones have some level of sentience… it must have known that you weren\'t the original owner, so the Stone didn\'t allow you to use all of its powers" Momo said with a contemplative look on her face.
"I guess you are right…" Flavia said with an awed look on her face and kept playing with water in the ocean.
Two down… four more to go… hmm… I wonder what kind of challenges I will face next to get the rest of the Stones…