SEVEN

(John's POV)

( 8th January 1976, New York )

I watched as I stood in the skies, the magical battle taking place beneath me. It would seem that with the rise in number of superheroes, supervillains slowly became a thing. A sorcerer vs a sorceress, a battle I'm not sure I want to be a part of. Most people's biggest weakness seem to be magic or something that pertains to the arcane arts. And while I was confident that I could kill both before they could blink, why take such a stupid risk. I was powerful and confident not foolish.

As I continue watching the magical bout, I begin to hear space itself been torn right beside me. Turning to look I see a golden circle had planted itself in the sky, and despite having intentionally forgotten most of my past life, I knew just who would come floating right out of that portal.

I wasn't disappointed as the first thing I laid eyes on was a yellow robe and following that for full confirmation I looked towards the head and lo it was bald. Another thing did catch my eyes though, an amulet of sorts resting in middle of her chest, glowing an eerie green. The eye of Agamotto, she came prepared.

In the sky we both floated, staring at each other neither willing to back down for the other. This goes on till she decides to break the silence.

"Homelander, I am the sorcerer supreme of earth and I'm also known as the ancient one." she says, and as expected of me I replied.

"Well you know who I am but anyway hello I'm the homelander and it is nice to meet you I guess." She then gestures toward the portal still standing in the air.

"May I be so bold to ask you to have tea with me right now." Throwing a quick glance at the portal, I shook my head in rejection.

"Oh come on now are you telling me the big strong homelander is afraid of the frail, feeble and old me." Oh playing on my pride she had really done her homework.

"Yes I'm indeed wary of you." I shamelessly reply with a shrug.

This caused a frown to spread onto her face and then resolve. Time suddenly slowed down so much any movement I made was still so slow I couldn't move out of the way of the portal heading for me and soon I found myself in the dreaded mirror dimension.

At the sight of the ancient one now in there with me, my fear and confusion gave way to anger and without thinking I attacked her.

She skillfully blocked my first punch with some golden energy of shield but it shattered upon contact and she got hurt a little bit. This gave me more confidence to keep attacking I throw another punch at her and this time she opens up a portal which my fist slips through, a second portal showing up towards my right and my own fist smacked into my face so hard I bust through numerous buildings around us.

Now rage filled, eyes blood red with gathered heat I shoot towards her and propel my fist forward to claim her head but then she raised her hands up in surrender, causing my enclosed fist to rest to an abrupt stop inches from her face. Thankfully she was able to scatter the velocity following my punch as I watched a couple of buildings flatten behind her.

Seeing that I wasn't trying to rip her to anymore, she shows a gentle soothing smile and begins to talk.

"I didn't know you hate tea so much, I on the other hand love it." I snort at her words.

"From a young age different aunts have tried to lure me with various things to have their way with me. So no I don't want tea thank you very much." She let's out a surprisingly loud laugh.

"If I wanted to have carnal knowledge of you without your permission, tea would be one of the 271 ways I could go about it." She says like it were a fact. The casual ways she states it gave me the creeps.

"Wait you haven't done it before, have you?" I ask the creepy granny.

"Oh no, not yet at least you can be rest assured." I sigh in relief at first before it suddenly hit me.

"Yet?!!!" She lets out another loud laughter. I do not remember the ancient one being this playful though, well probably my wonky memories. She suddenly regains her seriousness and opens up another portal. Walking through it I find myself in what should be Kamar Taj.

Taking a seat, she gestured for me to do the same opposite her. When I got myself seated she offered again.

"Tea?, homelander." I nodded my affirmation this time. It wouldn't hurt to taste magical tea now would it.

"My actual name is John you know. What's your real name?" This makes her pause and think before giving me an answer.

"How about this, if this conversation we are about to have ends well for me, I will tell you my birth name." I cock an eyebrow at her response.

"You say that like we are on a date." I say.

"Well are we not on one?, isn't a date two people most times a male and female, discussing in order to improve their relationship." she replies

"No, a male and female may be discussing to improve their business relationship too." I state in all my smugness

"Oh trust me John, business will come first next will be personal, close and personal." She says while I froze up as I felt a feet crawl up my suit covered leg all the way to my rapidly swelling crotch. My lips now unable to release any sound, I simply nod.

"Good boy. Ok now business." she says as she adjusts her posture, "You see this place you are in is kamar Taj, home to the sorcerers of the mystic arts and it is our duty and obligation to protect the earth from mystic forces wishing to conquer or destroy it." I allow her explanation sink in first, then I reply.

"So why have you brought me here, to join your order?"

"No. You see this amulet that let me hold you off, is an artifact that holds the infinity stone of ti..." She began to explain.

"Yes infinity stones, the physical representations of the concepts of time, space, power, soul, reality and mind. I was created by one, the one in the tesseract and since the tesseract holds knowledge within it, the stone saw it fit to let me understand my complete parentage." I explain, as I saw her slightly shocked expression of my knowledge of the infinity stones.

"What the time stone didn't show you all this before you brought ne here?" I asked. Adjusting her expression again, she replies

"Your myriad of futures are very blurry and hard to see, most of what I expected you to do hasn't happened. But your past on the other hand." She says, her tone suddenly taking an accusatory ring within it.

"I can't stop myself sometimes, I just don't know how to control it and most times I just end up enjoying it." I say trying to justify my actions in the past. To my surprise she simply reached forward to grasp my hand in a comforting manner, not unlike my mom and says

"Well that's why I brought you here John. I've checked and seen that you have no talent for the mystic arts but kamar taj is more that a place for sorcerers, it's a place to heal people with problems beyond normalcy. So rest assured John I will help you." I nod and reply

"Thank you, but is it also possible to add that sorcerer i saw fighting the obviously evil sorceress to my superhero team?" I greedily ask. I mean who doesn't want a sorcerer on their team.

I watch the ancient one think about it for a while, before she finally says, "I will ask him about it and if he agrees, then sure he can join your team. Now enough business discussion, let's get close and personal."

"Wait, what?. You were serious about that?, Is it even appropriate?" I said slowly backing away from her.

"Who cares, I'm the sorcerer supreme I can do whatever I want." She says now quickly closing the distance between us.

....

2 HOURS LATER

(General POV)

Homelander slowly walks out to an open area, his usually perfect features marred as he continuously tries to adjust the suit on his body. Face red and hair tousled he begins looking around as if searching for directions.

He suddenly stops as he hears a whisper right in his ear, a whisper from the devil herself

"The date was to my satisfaction, so my birth name is Aife." Noticing she didn't want anything else, Homelander sped up his dressing not even caring to deal with his hair and quickly shot off into the skies.

"Okay I'm in Nepal I believe, I'll just fly in any direction, as long as I get home all will be fine." Turning to look at the dreaded place( he will be going to four times a week till the devil said he was cured ), he shook the fear out of his spine and flew away in search of his home.