Chapter 11 - Destroy The Timeline

Katta knocked at the building door. A few minutes later, it opened a slit, and a man with Asian features peered out.

"I'm sorry, but we don't want to hear anything about your religion nor buy anything," he sighed. Katta raised her hands and smiled.

"That's not why we're here. See, we would like to talk to Doctor Stephen Strange."

"There is nobody with that name living here," the man quickly declined. He attempted to close the door, but Katta quickly placed her foot between it. The man sighed and looked at her with an irritated face.

"Listen, Lady. I don't know what you want, but this is definitely the wrong address," he huffed, rolling his eyes.

Katta felt her patience wearing off. She stepped a bit closer until they faced. "No. You listen! Whoever you are, I hope you do whatever your job here is well because lying doesn't count to your abilities," she uttered.

"Whoa, hey," Steve said. He laid a hand on her shoulder, dragging her back. He apologetic looked at the man and smiled. "I'm sorry for--"

"Let them in," a deep voice sounded from the inside. Katta shrugged off Steve's hand and quirked a brow at the man. He grunted but slowly opened the door and motioned Katta and Steve to step in.

Behind the door stood the man Katta recognized from the photographs. Doctor Stephen Strange.

"We're sorry for the interruption, Mister Strange, but I'm afraid there are some things we need to talk about," Steve said. Katta followed him as he walked alongside Strange. The furniture in the building looked somewhat ancient. There was no other word Katta could describe it with. Other people crossed their paths, mostly with books in their hands, some with weird looking objects. But all of them wore yellowish buddha-like gowns.

"Please take a seat," Strange said, motioning towards two chairs that hadn't been there a second before. A suspicion glimmered in Katta's mind, but that couldn't be. She looked around, trying to find more evidence for it.

"So, what can I do for you?" Strange asked, mustering the two visitors. Katta looked at Steve. He could do the talking. She was busy eyeing the surrounding. Steve nodded. "First of all, thank you for letting us in. My name is--"

"--Steve Rogers and Kattalina Harlovsen. If you would please come to the point," Strange interrupted Steve.

Steve frowned. "You know our--"

"--names. Obviously. If you would tell me now what it is you two want. I have appointments," Strange sighed, motioning him to speak on.

"We have the suspicion that you are part of something that might become dangerous to the world. So we are here to figure out if you could become a threat," Steve stated, blinking at Strange. Katta rolled her eyes. Ten points for fucking up the conversation up, two minutes in the visit.

Strange seemed startled for a second by the sudden assumption. But soon, his expression changed into a smirk.

"And what exactly are you accusing me of, Mister Rogers?" he asked, amused. Steve hesitated, looking for the right words.

Katta cleared her throat. "You've become inattentively using your magic while being outside the Sanctum Sanctorum, Mister Strange," she said, examining Strange. He looked caught for a second but quickly changed into a neutral expression. Katta squinted her eyes at him and nodded to herself.

"Magic?" Steve asked in disbelief.

"I thought it was just a rumour, but I suppose Mister Strange here is a sorcerer," Katta explained, crossing her legs.

"That is hilarious," Strange laughed. "What would make you guess something like that? Magic are just fairytales."

Katta sighed and nodded over his shoulder. "The man behind you is floating." Strange turned around and groaned.

"Westley," he huffed. "We have talked about this. No magic when there are guests in the house." He turned around and faced Katta.

"Now that the secret is out, Miss Harlovsen. I can assure you that we don't intend on being a threat to anybody on earth. We mostly occupy ourselves with protecting the worlds from threats of the dark dimension," he explained while pouring himself some tea. Steve still sat on his chair, rendered speechless. Katta looked at him, nudging her elbow against his.

"Alright, then. I think we are finished here." Steve stood up and nodded shortly. Strange got up and shook his hand, a cape levitating to his shoulders.

"What is that around your neck?" Katta motioned towards a neckless-like thing that held a green stone in its middle.

"Something that could destroy our timeline and everybody living in it," Strange answered casually while opening the door.

"If you ever feel like selling it, please call," Katta winked at him.

"This is not the last time we'll be meeting, Miss Harlovsen," he said before directing his look towards Steve. "Get yourself together, captain. It's not like you've seen something like that for the first time."

The door to the building closed with a thump, leaving Steve and Katta on the sidewalk. "Well, that was interesting," she exhaled, looking at Steve.

"Where did you know that?" he asked, glaring at her.

"The magic-sorcerer-thing? Over the last years, there have been a few incidents that nobody could really explain, so our tech- and research team started gathering information about something we first thought was a cult. We never were utterly sure about their existence, but Doctor Strange here just proved that they were actually existing." Katta smirked to herself. She couldn't wait to tell Magnus the news.

〰〰〰

"Magnus," Fenris yelled. He stood up to make eye contact with his brother. Magnus was on the phone, talking with Olaf. He waved Fenris off, turning his head away.

"Magnus, it's--" Fenris tried it again.

Magnus sighed into the telephone. "Sorry. I'll call you back. Yes, the passports are in the drawer of the coffee table. Right. Okay, okay. See you." He ended the call and glared at Fenris.

"I was on the phone."

"I'm not blind," Fenris retorted. "Now get your arse up and look at this."

Magnus grumpily got up and surrounded the vast desk until he stood behind Fenris, who pointed at a graph. "The computer has reported that, by now, the radiation is just as strong as the last time Loki was actually on earth."

Magnus stared at the graph, trying to find another explanation. He projected the chart from his brother's screen to the big TV and looked closer at it, furrowing his brows.

"This is bad," he breathed.

"Yes, it is. And it isn't just an eventuality. Not anymore. Whatever it is, it is coming nearer!" Fenris stated, a hint of worry in his voice.

"Shit," Magnus cursed, massaging his temples.

"We should try informing Katta," Fenris stated, looking over the edge of his glasses.

Magnus swallowed. It was against the agreement to contact her after she had cancelled the mission. Katta was on her own. Well, not entirely on her own. From time to time, Magnus had hacked the Stark security cams to check on her.

Fenris shook his head. "This is not just a weather alert, Magnus. The Russian government already alarmed their military, and the pentagon has published an intern report."

Magnus knew that he'd already messaged the other Harlovsens so that they could prepare defence strategies for their clients. Erik and Arne had already announced that they would return to the headquarters by the following days.

"Come on," Fenris prodded. "This is an exceptional situation."

"Yeah, you're right," Magnus sighed. "We should inform her."

"Perfect. Now, the only question is, how." Fenris folded his hands under his chin.

Magnus nodded. "She's got no access to communication devices. So we have to think about something else."

"Where did you say Katta is at the moment?" Fenris asked, taking a seat in front of his laptop. Magnus mirrored him and hacked into the Stark tower security cams. He skipped through the different rooms, looking for Katta. But nothing.

"She's not in the tower," he murmured. A few minutes of silence swept through the room as both brothers tapped on their laptops. Fenris was the first to speak up.

"Here we have a start authorization for a jet that directly started from the Stark Tower a few days ago. Let's see what the aviation authority has to say." He clicked a few times with his mouse.

"Seems like she isn't that far away from New York. The signal of the jet disappears...here." He enlarged a map on the vast TV Screen in the room and used his mouse to mark a specific area.

"Hm, there's an old military base in that area. Quite obvious, isn't it?" Magnus chuckled. "Alright, even if we know where she is, how do we alarm her?" he asked, looking at his brother.

Fenris remained quiet for a bit before he took off his glasses. "Might be time for an outdoor operation. The good thing is that none of them knows my face. What could probably be happening to an old military base so that they would need support and let a stranger in?"

Magnus started to smirk as he looked for the nearest power station and stretched his fingers. "I bet I can cut off their power in half an hour."

"Sounds good. I'll take the next flight to the land of unlimited possibilities." Fenris got up to pack his things.

He had never been the one to work as an active assassin for clients. After H.Y.D.R.A, he'd decided that he no longer wanted to work for others, let alone kill for them. Not that he didn't have the skills for it. Fenris had gone through the same H.Y.D.R.A training as the rest of his family.

He opened his desk and skipped through the different passports. All were made for other persons, but every photo showed Fenris. Magnus had done good work when creating those identities. Whichever name one would look up in the system, they would find a registered residence, the birth date, a social security number, the marital status and even some certificates from schools.

Fenris decided on an identity he had worked with before - Dan Charleston was IT Expert who graduated from MIT. He was unwed, had a small flat in New York and a dog named Douglas.

To match the character, Fenris changed into some kaki trousers and a short-armed shirt. He exchanged his thin-rimmed glasses for horn-rimmed ones and shaved completely. With the neatly-parted hair, he looked like an insecure IT Expert that would raise nobody's attention.

Magnus waited at the door, smirking as he saw him. "I thought I'd never see you again, getting ready for an active mission."

"Me neither. Everything for the family," Fenris sighed. An excited tingling shot through his body. After all, THIS had been what he'd been doing for years. And he had been good at it.

The taxi took Fenris to the next airport in Kristiansund. From there, Magnus had organized a direct flight to the JFK-Airport in New York. The moment Fenris left the Headquarters, Magnus started hacking into the security system of what he found out to be S.H.I.E.L.D's.

"Typical authority," he sighed as he searched through the different divisions until he found the one that was responsible for technical support. He carefully inserted Fenris' name into the system as the contact person for power issues. As soon as he put out the power, S.H.I.E.L.D would automatically call Fenris without noticing that he had never worked for them.