Chapter 48: The promise

"Yes I am here. Go on, spit it out." John said without much care. Being a tycoon he had to show some arrogance.

"You are hereby ordered to present yourself for the Senate Arms Service committee in a week." the man said without much expression in his face.

"It's finally here. I have been waiting for you." John said with a smile. This time all were surprised when they heard it including the man who came with the subpoena. "I will be there on time. I guess Tony too will be served the same one. Right? It doesn't matter. Thank you by the way" John continued.

The man thanked him and left.

"Are you sure you can handle it alone? I can use my connection to find something dirty on the senate committee." Jameson said with worry in his face.

"Dad did you think I built an empire for money? No Dad. I made my empire to handle situations like this committee. I have long known that the politicians will come after me. My empire is one of my ways of handling them. And no, I don't want you to interfere. That committee has people with whom I don't want to be in conflict yet. Even though I don't care about their existence I prefer not to be seen by them." John said as he remembered that the committee had members of Hydra. He didn't want them to know his real situation yet.

"Fixit come with me. We have work to do tonight." he said.

"Sure." said Fixit after transforming himself.

After coming to the room John took out three drawings that he drew recently.

"Tattoo these drawings in both of my arms and the small drawing over my hand" he said to Fixit.

"Ok but it might be painful." Fixit said

"It's fine. I am ready for it." said John.

The next day John packed the books and took them to the Bee's trunk he went out of his home. He now had three tattoos on his arms and hand.

He needed to deliver a promise he made to someone. Soon he came to Bleeker Street. After taking out a bag full of books he knocked on the New York sanctum. Drumm opened the door.

"You are here again? Meeting with the ancient one?" Drumm asked after seeing John. Drumm always felt weird about John. John had such a huge empire and he was probably the only person who got the freedom to meet the ancient one whenever he liked.

"Yes Master Drumm. I hope you can inform her." John asked politely.

"The ancient one told me that you can go to Kamar Taj directly whenever you come." Drumm said to him directly.

It was evening at New York so when he crossed the door towards Kamar Taj it was morning in Nepal. He saw many people practicing magic in the courtyard and then he saw someone he knew from before.

Casilias. He was stunned. John really wanted to change himself and throw a kunai at his face to avoid future trouble.

"John come with me instead of spacing out." A voice from afar came. John who was clenching his fist and contemplating he let go of his thoughts after he heard the voice. The people who were practicing looked at John with curiosity.

They had never seen a normal guy coming to the temple and from the voice of ancient one. They felt he was quite close to the ancient one from her tone but had never seen him before.

John gave a last glance at Casilias and left for the main hall. After sitting near the ancient one he was served tea again like last time. He really loved the tea.

"What happened? Did you want to kill Casilias?" the ancient one said

"Yes." said John without hesitation.

"He is important for Strange. Before he comes you can't touch Casilias." the ancient one reminded.

"Fine. It's just I don't want you to die." John said. She just smiled and didn't say anything.

"Why are you here? New world's emergence?" she asked instead.

"No. Last time I told you I will help you in guarding earth. This is my help." he said while handing out a big bag. It weighed a lot as it had many books. He wanted to help the ancient one as he felt his butterfly effect might effect the defense of earth. So he wanted to add more security for the mages.

The ancient one opened the books and started reading. The more she read the more astonished she was. This knowledge was powerful and dangerous. The she saw the tattoos on John's hands.

When she first saw those tattoos she felt weird because it never occurred to her that John had a thing for tattoos. But now when she saw the tattoos on his hand she had a different expression on her face.

She started reading more into the books with more concentration. After reading for over an hour did she finally put her head up and looked at him.

"You will have to practice the science which you used on your hands. That power isn't simple and I hope you don't forget the theory of equivalent exchange." she said to John with a very serious expression.