Homer, Alaska
–Alex Warner–
"Hmm," He whispered to himself, sitting on the bed in his budget hotel room, bathed in the blue glow of the sceptre, "What to do with you?"
A mental flex had the chakra threads attached to the sceptre yanked in his direction, as it hit his psalm with a meaty thud, feeling just right in his hand as his chakra surged into the sceptre, doing….something.
Normally, he had some idea as to what his chakra was doing, like reinforcing something, but it was not like he could meaningfully reinforce the sceptre. It was already more than tough, capable of taking hits from the big bad God of Hammers itself. No, he was not talking about Thor, though it would be fun to mock him with that title. He was talking about Mjolnir.
Taking hits from Mjolnir and not shattering meant that this stuff was already at the top, with all the other mythical metals, like Adamantium, Vibranium, Uru, and more.
Come to think, what was this made of?
He sighed; all the thinking was making him go round and round in circles, indecision about the sceptre stopping him from leaving this place. Granted, it had only been a day since he came here, and Fury probably already knew about it, but it was not like they could do anything about it for now.
They'd probably wait until they had Danvers on their side, which meant he had somewhere between days to weeks, depending on her mode of transport, to figure out a way to either get powerful enough to reach the pinnacle of this world or get better at hiding himself and this damned sceptre.
Now, while the first option did bring forth visions of glorious battle and well earned victories, it was just that, a vision. A delusion, practically, to become that strong in such a short period of time.
Which, sadly, put him at option number two, which was to figure out a way to disappear from the rest of the world. Now, if it was just him, he could have managed on his own. But with this sceptre constantly releasing unique radiation that was being tracked by Stark, SHIELD, Wakanda probably, and more? It put a damper on those plans.
In a way, the sceptre had also helped him understand a very important application of chakra, the one field he had no hope of ever learning, simply because the resources required to learn it were incredibly scarce and also incredibly hard to learn, if one did not have natural talent for it.
Genjutsu.
He was sure that Kamar Taj had heaps of books on the subject of the mind, something that would undoubtedly help him understand the mind, but even then, the mind was a fickle and incredibly complex thing, so he had basically no hopes in ever learning Genjutsu.
That was until this came into his possession. When he first supplied chakra to the sceptre, he realised it instantly that the Mind Stone was trapped within, the housing of the sceptre keeping it contained and using its powers in a specific way, likely at the behest of someone from Thanos' side.
Fortunately, he had refused to use the sceptre ever since he got it in his possession. Even so, just the minute amount of chakar he had fed the sceptre, had been used by the Mind Stone to erase the sceptre's influence somehow, and then it had been practically begging him to use the Stone.
Just being so close to the Stone, and the Stone interfacing with his chakra, for lack of a better term, had been enough for him to figure out the basics of Genjutsu and how and how hard it would have been without the literal starter pack that the Stone just dropped in his lap.
It was also tempting in a way, indirectly telling him of how high he could reach if he just used the Stone directly.
He openly scoffed at the thought. As if he was stupid enough to do that. While the Mind Stone might not have the sheer energy output to just fry him inside out if he held onto it, in a way, it was even more insidious, affecting his mind.
Nope, he was not going to use the Mind Stone directly, but just interfacing like this, indirectly, was enough for him to learn stuff about chakra flow, what the mind could conjure on its own if it was just fed the right instruction, what the mind usually focuses on, what the mind usually ignores, and more so.
It was as if the Mind Stone was the encyclopedia for anything relating to minds. Which, in a way, it was. That solidified his decision to keep the Damned thing on him, because those were some awesome gains, just over the span of days.
The only thing left to solve was the issue of tracking. He could cover it in his chakra, which must have some effect on its energy output, but there were problems with that as well. One, he could not do that forever, despite his high chakra reserves, and two, he did not know if it was full cloaking or just dimming the energy output.
It could come back to bite him later on, right in the ass. He needed something, something that would keep the Sceptre and all its energy contained, without a shred of doubt. Unfortunately, the only thing that came to mind was Vibranium and getting that would—
He stopped, his mind going to the movie he once saw, in another lifetime, of Vibranium just kept, out in the open, in museums of all things, just waiting to be taken. He then shook his head, as even if he somehow stole it, he had no conceivable way of creating an enclosure.
Just raw Vibranium would be useless for his use case, which meant he had to test out his chakra isolation theory. Hopefully, it worked.
Thankfully, he had SHIELD to test the theory on, who were probably already monitoring him and were moving some heavy cavalry into the small city that he once wanted to see in his previous life.
The only reason he came here, actually, was because he was on a world tour of sorts, fully intending to exploit the freedom he now had, to roam the world, be strong enough to decide his own terms, and if not defeat, then at least confident in his escape and stealth abilities.
Thank ROB for basic chakra knowledge, which seemed to come with a heavy emphasis on how to hide basically. It made sense since stealth was the bread and butter of ninjas.
With that thought in mind, he kept the sceptre in his lap, closed his eyes, and began focusing on the constant stream of data that his chakra provided whenever it was in contact with the Mind Stone.
Once he had enough on how to manipulate Genjutsu to his liking, he would make a move. It would be nice to move out in the open, in front of people who would love nothing more than to have him imprisoned, and then slip away, undetected.
The thought of doing that also brought forth excitement as he dove into his training, an urge that seemed to be hard coded into the very concept of chakra, pushing him to constantly train his chakra, mind, and body both, even when he was on the move.
__xx__
He was walking into the diner at the bottom of the hotel he was staying in, and accidentally bumped into a man walking out of the diner, profusely apologising when the man staggered slightly, "I'm so sorry!"
Or, at least that's what it must have looked like to the man.
His technique must have worked because the man's face softened at his apology before he waved it off and went on his way. Meanwhile, he walked into the diner, and swiftly sat down on the seat right next to the window, keeping his expression in check as he looked outside, as if sightseeing.
Internally, he was grinning like a loon as his genjutsu worked. Even without the sceptre, his Genjutsu worked. He had just said sorry with a straight face, and stood there, waiting for him to pass. In the man's mind, however, he had a very sorry face, as if acknowledging the biggest mistake of his life, which forced the man to wave it off and move on.
His grin threatened to burst out as he saw the man jump slightly in place, the bulk on his body meaning he could see it very clearly as he jumped over seemingly nothing, and that was because there was a puddle there, full of a mystery liquid, something that anyone with a sane mind would avoid.
After that, the man walked away, and before the man could leave his line of sight, he dispelled the Genjutsu, using his superior eyesight to note the slight wobbling of his feet and nothing more as the chakra taking hold of the target was dispelled.
He had no idea how Genjutsu worked, period. Sure, he knew that it could be transmitted by touch, or by sound and eye based ones needed something like the Sharingan to work but beyond that, he knew nothing. No theory, no basics, no how-to-for-dummies, and yet, just getting the Mind Stone helped him essentially jump past that and get to a stage that could be comfortable Academy StageGenjutsu, i.e, casting one on a powerless civilian and a painless one.
His weak ass Genjutsu would probably unravel at the slightest hint of pain to the target's systems.
Ordering a coffee, he adjusted his position, as the sceptre hidden in his coat was making it very uncomfortable for him to sit properly without drawing attention and suspicion from the diner and its staff.
It was not like he could just leave it in his hotel room. That was just stupidity. Also, he needed to step out to test his Genjutsu and he could safely say that the first test was a success. The guy was definitely middle aged, not drunk, based on his breath and the fact that this diner did not serve alcohol, and was clearly in control of his mental faculties.
I.e, a regular Joe.
And all of this without even tapping into the sceptre's power. He spoke of the sceptre separately because they were separate in his mind. The Mind Stone served as the source of power for the sceptre but using the sceptre would be widely different from just raw dogging the Mind Stone.
His mind, his body, and more importantly, his chakra could still handle, easily at that, the sceptre. Using it boosted his Genjutsu and the understanding of the mind vastly, but it was still within reasonable levels.
His mind was not melting because he tried to use his puny chakra to interface with what was essentially the terminal to every single mind in the universe.
Right now, he could easily ensnare an unsuspecting, untrained civilian in his Genjutsu, without any aid. Holding the sceptre, he was sure that most humans would easily fall under his Genjutsu, even powered ones like Captain America or Luke Cage. T'Challa was a different story because he was, theoretically, protected by the power of Bast who was so far beyond him, in terms of spiritual power, it would not even be funny how fast he would get crushed, as he was now.
He could not predict his abilities when using the Mind Stone, directly, because he was certain that he would die before using it in any meaningful way. And if he was powerful enough to do so, the only bottleneck would be him, essentially.
Theoretically, as long as he had enough power, he could control the entire planet, like Kaguya, but that was not even a theory at that point. That was plain delulu talk.
Finishing the nice bacon and eggs given to him, he tipped the nice woman who left him alone and went back up to his hotel room. He had a few hours of research to do before he could disappear from this place and maybe, even the country.
As he climbed the six stories the hotel had, his mind went back to the revelations about his own mind. That meditation revealed a ton of stuff about his chakra, his mind, and solidified his decision on what to do next.
Meditation really did solve his problems today, which was funny, because in his past life, beyond what was necessary for school sometimes, he had never meditated.
It would seem that when he got chakra, he did not get just the positives of it. Noooo, that would be too good, now, wouldn't it?
He also got the cons of chakra, the list of which was, admittedly not as long as the pros, but it was more heavy in its significance.
As he discovered, it would seem that chakra also came with some sort of conflict drive with it, encouraging him to get into fights, and use chakra in a destructive manner or for something that could potentially be used for violence. He did not know if it was the result of the ROB who brought him here or if chakra itself had that property, but it was there, unquestionably so.
It was kind of ridiculous how much he was benefitting from just being in the presence of Mind Stone.
That propensity for violence was part and parcel with chakra, which meant he would have to deal with it as long as he kept using chakra. The only solution to that was a strong enough mind. A strong mind comes from discipline, training, and experiences. That much he could tell.
Which meant, he would have to train his mind, and experience the world. It also told him that any long living being, or ageless beings for that matter, would be off limits for Genjutsu. So, no Loki like illusions just yet.
His brand of illusions was a different thing altogether, though. His illusions could create solid constructs. The ones he was learning were all in the mind.
He opened the lock of his hotel room, and got in, not sensing anything wrong with the place. Not even the dust prints he had noted previously were disturbed in any way. Nothing was out of place, not even an inch, which either meant no one was here or SHIELD's surveillance team was supernaturally talented.
Yeah, it was the former and not the latter.
As he got ready to meditate, he mentally created a few options and decided to visit Hawaii first. Just another destination he had never visited. He had a long list of places he wanted to visit, but never managed to do so.
The fact that it was a form of training because it should strengthen the spiritual aspect of his chakra, satisfied the training freak inside of him