Sorcerer in the Marvel Universe

Taylor’s identity wasn’t exactly a secret anymore.

Not completely, anyway.

The Battle of New York had seen to that. He had shown his true form and fought alongside the others for quite a while, making a rather spectacular public debut.

Fortunately, most civilians had been far too busy running for their lives to study him closely. Anyone who caught sight of him probably took one look and immediately decided that survival was the more pressing concern.

Besides, Taylor hadn’t exactly been fighting in a recognizable configuration.

At the time, he had merged with Demon Trapezoid and entered the armored Susanoo state. Whatever distinguishing features he might normally have possessed had been buried beneath an enormous supernatural war machine.

And the footage released to the public afterward had gone through SHIELD’s editorial process.

Most of the footage focused on Captain America and Iron Man, the sort of heroic figures guaranteed to play well with the public. Hulk and Thor had been far too conspicuous to hide, so the public had gotten fairly familiar with them too.

Everyone else?

Well, Nick Fury had apparently decided that Evenson was an eyesore.

Most of Evenson’s appearances had been cut.

Evenson had actually counted them afterward. Across the entire Battle of New York, he had appeared on camera exactly twice, with only one clear shot of his face.

That was fewer appearances than even Natasha and Hawkeye, despite the two of them being covert operatives.

Peggy Carter, meanwhile, had managed five.

One of those shots had even featured her standing beside Captain America, casually broadcasting enough romantic tension to make half the planet feel like unwanted third wheels.

If that was how SHIELD treated Evenson, who was technically the person in charge, then Taylor, one of his subordinates, had even less hope.

SHIELD had simply classified him alongside Black Widow’s more unusual circumstances as a person who, officially, did not exist.

As far as public reports were concerned, Taylor had never been there.

SHIELD’s official position was essentially:

Never heard of him.

Never saw him.

Have a nice day.

If you saw him, you were hallucinating.

If twenty people saw him, aliens had caused a mass hallucination.

If someone managed to record him, SHIELD would confiscate and destroy the footage, then produce enough technical evidence to prove from a hundred and eight different angles that the video had been digitally fabricated.

So Evenson was fairly confident that ordinary people couldn’t recognize Taylor.

Which meant anyone who could recognize him wasn’t ordinary.

And that was the troublesome part.

Evenson sighed and turned toward Clea.

"What about the Ancient One?"

The Ancient One obviously didn’t fall into the category of ordinary people.

She knew at least some of Evenson’s secrets, which meant there was little chance she would fail to recognize Taylor. Worse, she was powerful enough that even the Eredar Twins couldn’t simply force her to back down, and she had time itself practically sitting in the palm of her hand.

Evenson had a healthy amount of respect for that.

And perhaps a slightly unhealthy amount of apprehension.

Clea pinched the bridge of her nose.

"That’s what you’re worried about? Something this trivial?"

"The Ancient One is stationed at Kamar-Taj, constantly watching for threats from other dimensions. Do you really think she’s going to care about a handful of drug dealers getting killed?"

She shrugged.

"Besides, Taylor used purely physical attacks. There wasn’t even a trace of magic involved. The Ancient One might not know anything happened in the first place."

"Hmm..."

Evenson nodded.

That made sense.

Mostly.

"But what if she’s bored lately? What if she’s been paying attention to a wider range of things and happens to notice?"

Clea gave him a long, unimpressed look.

"Then I’ll tell her the Scorpion Gang tried to steal from the Dark Rise Resistance. They siphoned off its resources and burned through a huge chunk of its funding."

Evenson’s eyes immediately narrowed into happy crescents.

"Excellent. Absolutely excellent."

Ever since the incident involving the Child of Magic, the Ancient One had become much more inclined to believe that the Dark Rise Resistance was a legitimate organization.

If Clea presented the incident in those terms, there was a very real possibility that the Ancient One might decide to travel back through time and personally murder the Scorpion Gang all over again.

Problem solved.

"Then what about the New York Sanctum?"

There was an old saying that dealing with the ruler of Hell was easier than dealing with the lesser demons underneath him.

The same principle applied here.

The Ancient One had ruled the mystical community for years, but her authority had always leaned more toward benevolence than intimidation. Her disciples respected her, certainly, but not all of them feared her enough to prevent the occasional bout of stupidity.

And now she’d accepted Evenson’s suggestion to formally take an inner disciple to inherit her mantle.

That meant the mages of the three Sanctums were probably watching one another like rabbits staring at a hawk.

If they didn’t show off now, when would they?

Evenson couldn’t help wondering whether someone might decide to use him as a convenient stepping stone to make themselves look impressive.

It wasn’t that he feared the apprentice-level mages.

He didn’t.

Not remotely.

He simply had no desire to get involved with them.

It would be like a university graduate wandering into a special-needs kindergarten and bragging about his test scores. There was no achievement to be gained from it. The whole exercise would be embarrassing for everyone involved.

"Put that worry somewhere deep and leave it there," Clea said, clearly reaching the end of her patience with his paranoia.

"Professor Olivander knows exactly how strong you are. Unless the Ancient One herself is backing them, he isn’t going to let his people come here just to get beaten up."

She hesitated, then bit her lip.

"Besides, the New York Sanctum is already drowning in problems. They’re practically falling apart. They don’t have time to worry about you."

"Falling apart?"

Evenson blinked.

"What happened? Did someone attack them?"

"No idea why, but about ten days ago, the enormous magical node beneath New York suddenly started supplying the Sanctum with only one-third of its usual power."

Clea gave him a sideways look.

"They’re rather busy trying to figure out why."

She paused.

"That’s why they don’t have time for your little problem."

"Oh."

Evenson gave an awkward laugh.

"Right. Right."

He knew exactly why.

Not long ago, the Eredar Twins had renovated the company’s headquarters.

Part of the renovation involved installing magical defenses.

Magical defenses, unfortunately, required magical power.

So the Eredar Twins had decided to borrow some from the New York Sanctum’s magical network.

A little magical Wi-Fi, as it were.

The problem was that the difference in their respective power levels had made the connection rather... enthusiastic.

They hadn’t exactly meant to drain that much.

It had simply happened.

Evenson rubbed his temples.

"Then that leaves only SHIELD."

He deliberately steered the conversation away from subjects that were better left unexplained.

"This is something I’ll have to handle myself."

Nick Fury obviously knew Taylor’s true identity.

There was no chance of fooling him.

And Fury certainly wasn’t going to lose sleep over a few drug dealers getting killed. That wasn’t what bothered him.

The real problem was discipline.

Fury couldn’t tolerate his agents acting without authorization.

Whether a dozen criminals died was one thing.

One of his people operating independently without reporting it was another.

Evenson hated to admit it, but in that respect, he and Nick Fury really weren’t all that different.

Evenson sighed.

"Looks like I’ll have to spend a little goodwill."

He reluctantly pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

Not Nick Fury’s.

"Agent Carter," he said pleasantly when the call connected. "Did you get enough rest last night?"

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