POV Rio
Bang
"Well, that should do it for now. How's it going on your side?" I ask Selene on the comms.
"I've dealt with this base as well," Selene replies.
"Okay, that only leaves the hotel for the Camorra to hide in," I comment.
I had decided to deal with the Camorra Family after stalling for a while. There was nothing to really stop me from striking them now, as they were about as weak as you can get. This was also part of a broader effort by the Guardians of the Globe to strike at organized crime worldwide, in part to improve trust in our capabilities and to solidify our role as Earth's protectors against more than just alien invasion.
"Oracle, how are the other operations?" I ask.
Oracle was the codename for anyone running observation duty on the Watchtower. Right now, it was Peggy Carter, as she decided to run coordination from the Watchtower, as it would allow her to help without endangering herself. She understood her limits quite well, but she still wanted to help; she chose to take one shift of a few shifts as Oracle. I handled one of the other 8-hour shifts, often with a magic clone that takes the form of Steve Dayton. The last shift was handled by more often than not either John Wick or Lara Croft. Usually, only when Lara had free time, and because she didn't mind helping out.
"We've failed to meet the goals against The Hand, but Kingpin and his allies have lost several dozen facilities," Peggy reports.
"How did The Hand avoid us?" I ask.
"Their bases were nearly empty when Jessica and Luke hit them. It doesn't seem like they left in a hurry, but no prisoners could be taken as they all chose Seppuku rather than capture," Peggy reports.
"Hmm, got it, we'll get them later, how's the new recruits doing?" I ask.
"Quicksilver has been adapting quite well, but Wanda will need more time," Peggy reports.
After dealing with Hydra, we had a few captives to deal with: Pietro, Wanda, X-23, and Bucky. X-23, or Laura, was the easiest to deal with, as it didn't take that long for me to undo the brainwashing she had gone through, as her control was weak and haphazard at best. Once she was safe to handle, she was given to Logan, as she was his daughter. Bucky was undergoing extensive deprogramming, and even with the Hydra methods fully revealed to me, I still had to take things slowly. Pietro and Wanda, on the other hand, were a bit tricky to deal with as they weren't brainwashed. That being said, when I revealed everything Hydra did, including to them, they felt disgusted, so it was a start.
Of the two, Pietro was the easiest to handle as he didn't really hold that large a grudge against Tony. He was mostly just going along with what his sister wanted, as he didn't want to leave her. Wanda had a very strong hatred for Tony, but that started to weaken bit by bit as I showed her more and more evidence that Tony had nothing to do with the attack that nearly killed them. Tony might have invented the weapons, but he never sold them to Sokovia. Moreover, I was able to trace the attack back to a Hydra-controlled terrorist cell. Her entire worldview was shattered with this information, and she hasn't really recovered since. Wanda became severely depressed and lost. She didn't even know what to do anymore.
'I can't say I blame her. Everything she thought she knew was a lie, and the person she wants revenge against isn't even fully responsible.'
No matter how much Wanda wanted to say otherwise, she was a good person at heart, and she could acknowledge that Tony had saved the world. Without him, Earth would have fallen to the Xenomorphs. It also didn't help that Tony clearly changed his ways and even stopped all weapon sales. Wanda was like what Batman would feel if his parents were murdered by Joe Chill, only for it to turn out Joe Chill owned the gun that killed his parents, but that gun was stolen without his knowledge. Maybe that isn't the best comparison, but it still gives an idea of what Wanda was feeling right now.
Quicksilver joined the Guardians and has been training for his first mission. Part of the reason he is doing this is as a distraction, but another part of it is to support Wanda. Don't be surprised, but being a Guardian pays pretty well. This wasn't a charity after all; any assets we seized went on to fund the victims of the crimes and to support Guardians' operations. Not that the upkeep was that high, seeing as most of it comes from my items, but it was still something. The Watchtower had a food supply that restocked daily and had quite a massive selection.
But back to Wanda and Pietro, they got a decent payout, but it wasn't as high as they acknowledged they were willing participants in Hydra. But it was still enough to live fairly comfortably for a few years, maybe even a decade if they are frugal. But with Pietro bringing money from being a Guardian, they won't have to worry about anything.
Wanda is far too weak to become a Guardian herself, as her powers are just probability manipulation; you can think of it as a much weaker version of Domino's Power of Absurd Luck. Wanda doesn't have any Chaos Magic, as there is no Chaos Dimension to pull from, so she is a very low-level mutant. Likely Delta or Epsilon Class. At best, she could run Oracle Duty, but I wasn't so certain. She could go to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, but she didn't agree or disagree yet.
"Have we found Sabretooth or Jason Stryker?" I ask.
"Not yet," Peggy reported.
The X-Men went to the dam in Canada, but it was abandoned. Given the claw marks and the mutilated bodies, they were certain Sabretooth survived and went on a rampage. The one we fought in Russia was just a clone, an unstable one at that. The real question was, did Sabretooth break out on his own and take Jason with him, or did Jason control him to break out and escape the facility? Nobody knew, but we did know that they were being extremely quiet and avoiding any trouble, as we hadn't even gotten any sightings.
"What about Ross and his monster?" I ask.
"Ross was reported in Argentina three days ago, but no word since. US Intelligence believes he is helping Argentina in the war, perhaps as an advisor or even maybe as a leader," Peggy reports.
"And the monster?" I ask.
"Still nothing. Gilgamesh and Thena haven't moved either. No outside contact either," Peggy reports.
''Hmm, keep monitoring; if nothing changes, I'll make contact myself," I reply.
I've kept my distance from the Eternals as I didn't want to poke a sleeping dragon. As long as they stayed hidden and thought that the Celestial was still asleep on Earth, I could leave them alone, and they would likely never become a problem. The reason I didn't want to try to recruit them was one Eternal, Ikaris. He was way too dangerous to deal with and was firmly not on humanity's side. At best, I could maybe trick him into helping if I twisted the defence of Earth as being necessary to ensure the Emergence happened. But that was a risky move that I didn't feel was worth it.
To put into perspective. Ikaris was likely one of the top 15 strongest beings in the universe. He was no joke, and I really didn't want to fight Temu Superman. He was very likely one of the major reasons the Eternals were mostly left alone while on Earth. Though their cosmic backers could be another. But even now, no one has made any move to remove them from Earth despite the erasure of the Celestials.
Ikaris was, however, a backup strategy for dealing with Apocalypse if and/or when he reawakens. He was more of a last resort if we really had no better options. For instance, I would rather use the Infinity Stones than try to use Ikaris.
Speaking of the Stones, I was working on trying to locate the Reality Stone, preferably before the Convergence. It was very slow going as I was basically just blindly looking for a pocket dimension that is likely near Earth or one of the other Nine Realms. It also involved a lot of researching ancient myths and legends in hopes of finding some clues. The Time Stone was something that I didn't have an interest in attempting to claim. I would wait until the small supernatural conflict that was being fought ended.
From what I had gathered in Limbo and Monstropolis, there were a lot of movements on Earth related to the supernatural as they were moving to destroy Kamar Taj once and for all. Rumor had it that the Sorcerer Supreme had become crippled or injured. Other rumors say she now appears to have aged centuries. Almost all of it is rumors, and I can't be sure what is true or not, but Satina seems to believe that Belasco has made some sort of alliance with some powerful outsider, and they plan on attacking Kamar Taj. I'm not sure how much I trust such rumors, but there are enough of them that there is likely some kernel of truth buried in them.
'The question becomes, who will win and how do I profit from the conflict?'
There was also a fear that the Time Stone could fall into the wrong hands. As I am almost certain that the Eye of Agamotto makes use of the Time Stone possible even for people who should normally be incapable of using it without blowing themselves up, or however one dies when you use an Infinity Stone without the proper constitution score.
I would keep my ears out, but I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't much I can do to interfere in a conflict of such scale. I'm not that strong. At least not when you really consider the grand scheme of things, but that's fine. I've still got time to grow. And if the forest is in danger, then Gaia could come out and curbstomp anyone who angers her. Though I'd prefer not to have to run crying to mom.