This is the Serpent's Hand chapter, and timeline-wise, Ant and the Foundation have been missing for months.
-------------
"My name is Timothy." Ever since I was capable of thought, I always held a deep interest in the mystical and absurd, even though it was fake, or so I thought.
"Welcome to the Serpent's Hand, Timothy." As of that day, I became more aware of how things worked in the universe. I had read a post online when browsing the forums, which contained a simple instruction that, as the poster said, would allow anyone to enter a library with all the books ever written.
At first, I didn't believe it, but the simple instructions made me curious to try it out, no harm, right?
What I didn't know at the time was that these instructions were fake, but the post itself was an invitation to enter, so in reality, these instructions were just pointing me to an entrance which I could pass through; the ritual shit mentioned was a disguise to make the people carrying it out look like lunatics.
Soon enough, I reached the entrance, and before I could do anything ritualistic, I was pulled into the library. I was scared, and quite literally pissing my pants, never in my 16 years of life did I expect it to work; that's a lie, I had an inkling of hope that it would work.
I didn't get it easy, though. I had to clean up my piss before I could learn anything. I gladly cleaned it up. When I was finished, I was given a choice, and in the end, I decided to join the Serpent's Hand.
I left the library with sooooo many questions, but I would look for answers another time, as I had something more urgent to do, and I needed to find my bearings. I took the long way home, as I argued to myself the true extent of mysticism and everything I had read about in my life.
When I made it home, I wasted no time going on my computer and researching the posts on the forum, more specifically, I looked at the posts from the same user who posted the library post. I took all the things they said as the truth, and a cold shiver ran down my spine as I read about the things they had posted.
A secret foundation controlling entities, with the power to obliterate the earth many times over, a church of a broken god, Wondertaiment, and scariest of all, the UN being useful. That last one is a joke, but it shocked me.
"Alright, now revel in my glory, peasants," I clicked enter and posted that huge wall of text. I posted it to a group chat with my fellow buddies, who are also interested in the occult and the unknown.
I don't know if they will take me seriously, but if they do, they are in for a surprise. I popped open a beer and drank it like I hadn't drunk water for days. Ouuuhh, it's so refreshing like always.
Timothy was the first person officially recruited by the girl. Soon, many more started pouring in, not all joining the Serpent's Hand, but those who did would surely not regret it. The interdimensional powers of the library were inactive; only marvel beings could enter the library.
The girl has been active since her freedom was granted; she has been mass recruiting, not afraid of consequences, human greed knows no bounds after all. Sooner or later, more powerful humans will enter, and with them, she will control large pieces of the earth. She didn't hide anything about the library and made the rules explicitly clear; she was hoping for a disgraced mutt to break one of the rules, so the first librarian could appear.
She was not wasting any time growing power; she didn't go unnoticed. Intelligence organizations became increasingly aware of the library, since the people who joined kept spreading the word. If the trend continues, the agencies worldwide will get involved, but as the only entrance that is being discussed is in New York, the bureau or Shield will be the first to get involved with the Serpent's Hand.
---------
Time Skip - After the Events of Iron Man 2 and Thor
Shield made contact with the Library, sending Natasha inside. The girl immediately recognized her, but she didn't care; instead, she waited for her to make her way to her. Soon enough, Natasha made contact with the girl. They had taken Ant's warnings about her seriously, but they still decided to make contact with her.
"Hello, are you the one in charge?" Natasha had walked up to her and asked with a shy voice, her body tightly constricted. She had asked around about the owner of this place, as well as much more, but most of it was unknown, except for the owner.
She had given everyone who asked her name as Veritas or Grace; most people called her Grace. Upon hearing the name, Natasha's brain kicked off, connecting the name to Latin meaning truth, reality, and real life.
"Yes, I am," She turned to look at her, holding a Book titled Espionage. This book was one of thousands that she received from recruiting more than 500 people into the secret hand. She had summoned it into her hands before turning to look at Natasha.
Natasha looked at the book, then at the girl, whom she recognized as the escapee who freed the shadow monster.
"May I inquire about the- the library, I'm so nervous!" She fumbled with her words, with such ease that nobody could suspect her of being a spy. Shield needed some trustworthy information, at least the bare minimum; they didn't want to be in the dark anymore.
"Of course, first, though, do you wish to join the Hand?" Grace put the book into the shelf behind her and looked into Natasha's eyes.
"N-no!" her voice cracked. Shield was not confident in making Natasha a member of the Hand without consequences. Grace didn't feel the same; she wanted to make full use of Shield. If they wanted to keep peering into the library, Grace was ready to assign Natasha espionage tasks for the library's sake, not the Serpent's Hand.
They can't argue; she owns the place. If they did, they would never touch this place, as the Foundation and the GOC did in the original timeline. She was full of gloating, inwardly stroking her own ego, considering her actions so far, she is not deserving of her own praise.
"Well, that's okay if you want to know more about this place, go look at the front; there's a book there with information regarding this place, our organization, and many other secrets shallow enough for anyone who enters here to know." She then gave the simple rules she had been given when she inherited the lesser library from the system. Natasha had some questions, but Grace didn't answer them as she walked away and greeted the new arrival.
Natasha exited the library and made her way to Shield. She then reported on everything she learnt about, and made a list of what she believes is the greatest to the lowest threat. The GOI mentioned by name and description in the book were also put on the ranking, most of them being in the top 15 of threats, the foundation being the highest of all of them.
With this treasure trove of information, Shield started to fill up empty papers and fill them with each of the threats and everything else deemed important. This was enough to push Fury over the already shaky edge, as he pushed the Avengers proposal as hard as he could.
This did sway the council by a margin, but it would still take the battle of New York to fully pass the proposal. On the bright side, this would lessen the backlash Fury would receive by a solid margin.
----------------
That's the end of this chapter
1509 words
Happy 4th of July, to my fellow mericans. I've realized this whole other MC is a bit confusing, so let me clarify: she is going to be the catalyst for all the omniversal shenanigans. Every time she opens a portal to a separate universe, Ant also receives the portal; she is the Main antagonist. She is like Dormammu, or Trigon; Ant has to stop her from growing to their scale.
I understand this is very unusual, but I want to have an in-depth GOI interaction, as for why it's not one of the many clear enemies like the children of the scarlet king or the broken god, it's because that's quite boring, so this Serpent's Hand is REALLY different. This does not mean the foundation summoning SCPs will be sidelined; this is still very significant, after all, we've seen the power an SCP full foundation could do in the story of SCP-5000.
That is all. If you dislike this route, I'm sorry, you may give your opinion. That is all, have a wonderful week! 😁😇