16 Warmer, Warmer, Warmer

-New York City, New York-

-March 30, 2005, 0800h local-

Natasha had just landed on the roof of the SHIELD New York field office using a quinjet. She had barely slept along the way. The stress of the manhunt of a possible alien and the accidental discovery of a superhuman in Vegas weighs heavily in her mind.

When she got off the quinjet, she was expecting Barton or Coulson to meet her on the helipad. What she was not expecting is Nick Fury standing with both of them.

"Didn't expect to see you here, sir." Natasha greeted her boss while giving a small nod to Barton and Coulson.

"Let's get inside. I'll talk along the way..." Fury said and walked toward the roof entrance. "I was not expecting to be here too, but I got an interesting call two hours ago..." Fury looked back to see if he got everyone's attention, especially Romanoff. "But first, I want you to tell them about what you found first while you're on your brief vacation."

Natasha immediately knew that the call must be related to Naruto. What the hell could he have done that would warrant a call to Fury himself in the span of a 5-hour flight.

Seeing the attention of her colleagues was on her, she spoke,

"I was on my way to Vegas to take my break after the mission in LA when I met a guy on walking by the side of the I15."

"What? You picked up someone? Didn't know you got it in you." Barton teased. He just couldn't resist teasing Natasha every opportunity he gets. Fury, already used to the two, just let the interruption pass.

"Shut up, Clint, or I'm going to tell Laura about Tbilisi..." Seeing Barton effectively cowed, Natasha continued, "Anyway, the guy had nothing on him except his clothes. According to him, he just moved to the US and traveling around. He said he lost all his stuff and going to Vegas to get some money to continue his travel, which in my opinion is crazy. But what got my attention and caused me to call Boss is that he said that he was a freelance contractor."

"So your first hitchhiker is a contract killer. Good to know Romanoff." Coulson said with a smile. He already deduced that the situation is not as bad as it seems since Fury is not giving the report.

"You shut up too. I can still key Lola..." Coulson's smile fell off his face too. "When we left our separate ways, I was still thinking about what he said, so I started digging. Nothing came up in all available databases."

"Damn, he must be good." Barton said with a whistle.

"So, I got a little desperate and made contact with the Bianchis..." Her two colleagues were about to reprimand her for doing something reckless, but she already anticipated it and placed her hands over there mouths before continuing. "I made sure I have leverage before I got in. But either way, I certainly got more than I thought..." They arrived in a briefing room. To emphasize her point, she projected the fight on the wall to show them. "As you can see, I was proven right to be wary of him."

"Hmm. He's good." Coulson said in a clipped tone.

"This part you won't like, Coulson..." Natasha warned him. "SHIELD tech analyzed the video. The results showed that he is better, at least physically than Captain."

"Captain who?" Coulson asked, not getting the statement. Natasha pointed to a flag outside the room. His face immediately paled. "Someone managed to remake the serum?" He asked with a shake in his voice. Captain America has always been his hero. Learning that someone, somewhere, had somehow recreated the serum is massive news for him.

"No, not that we are aware of, but we're not completely sure..." Natasha answered. "I was going to make contact with him in the Bellagio since he was playing poker, but Tony Stark got to him firsts."

"How!?" Barton exclaimed.

"He's apparently excellent at poker and Stark heard about it. He invited him to his private game." Natasha answered.

"Thank you for the report, Romanoff..." Fury interjected. "Reports have come in that all the high-level and most of the low-level members of the Bianchi Crime Family has been arrested."

"Don't tell me it's Naruto?" Natasha asked.

"Who's Naruto? Another Ghost?" Coulson asked, remembering a SHIELD special op agent codenamed Ghost due to her ability to phase through solid objects and partial capability to be invisible.

"No, Naruto is the guy I found in Vegas." Natasha clarified.

"You're boyfriend did that!? He's hardcore." Barton said.

"He's not my boyfriend! Where the hell in my report did you get that!?" Natasha denied vehemently.

"Ehm..." Fury cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "As much as I like to get into Romanoff's romantic life..." Natasha gave him the stink eye with that statement. "We have to get back to the topic at hand. Yes, Naruto was one of the people responsible for Bianchi family downfall."

"One of them?" Coulson picked up on Fury's choice of words.

"Yes. He apparently thought it was a fun idea to bring a civilian..." Fury took on a more serious expression. "He took with him a drunk Tony Stark."

Coulson and Barton had a wide-eyed expression before laughing hysterically. Both of them thinking of what they wouldn't give to see that guy tow a drunk Stark around while taking down a crime family. That's got to be an event for the ages.

Natasha, on the other hand, is banging her head on the table repeatedly. How the hell can so much happen within two days of her meeting him. She currently wishes that she hadn't taken that vacation to Vegas. Maybe then she would have one less problem to deal with.

"I sent additional teams to monitor the situation. If Stark's army of lawyers can't deal with the situation, I'll make some moves..." Fury said while outlining his plan. "For the other reason, I'm here..." He turned to Coulson before continuing. "I want everything you got about the 083. I have a meeting with POTUS and JCS. They want an update on the event. They're also going to show me something that could be related to the 083. Apparently, it's for eyes only..." Finishing his statement, Fury started to walk out of the room. But before he could leave entirely, he looked back and said to Romanoff, "Before I forget, Naruto Uzumaki has suddenly appeared in our databases. You might want to look into that after this." He then walked out.

Natasha groaned again, hearing the news. Why can't everything be so simple? Naruto probably found a high-class forger in Vegas. Average forging jobs would not show in their databases since no paper trail would be made. Bianchi probably knew who is the best forger in Vegas, but it probably has to wait. The mission right now has the most precedent.

Natasha faced Coulson and Barton and asked,

"Want to catch me up on what's happening here?"

"I'll go first since my side has the least progress..." Barton said to both of them. "The search for the alien or the reason for the spotlight..."

"Spotlight?" Natasha asked for clarification.

"Well, 083 is just dull. So we call it the spotlight..." Barton answered. "No lead panned out. If there's an alien that crossed using the spotlight, there's no sign for it anywhere. The cause of the spotlight is now assumed caused by the alien, so we can't move forward without finding it." Barton finished his report before looking at Coulson to report his side.

"The techs found no trace evidence at the site. The only clue we have is the eight cherry blossoms trees that grew exactly 100 m away from the site and positioned at the eight directions of the compass. The trees are virtually indestructible, only the bark and leaf samples are taken. The genetic test identified the tree as Yoshino blossom. Ancient, Asian, and other unidentified scripts were found on the tree. Each text is made out of smaller texts that can only be viewed microscopically. The microscopic texts that can be translated have multiple repetitions of the words bridge and barrier. That's why I hypothesized that there might be an alien." Coulson finished his comprehensive report.

Natasha absorbed both of her colleague's reports. After a few seconds, she asked,

"Alright, so what do we do next?"

"We..." Barton indicated both himself and Natasha, "are going to keep finding that alien. Coulson's going to compile a report for Fury then continue reading through witness statements." Barton finished.

"All right, let's go." Natasha said.

She stood up and walked out of the door, followed by Barton and Coulson.

-Kamar Taj, Kathmandu, Nepal-

-March 30, 2005, 1245h local-

"Ancient One." The three guests bowed down in front of her as a sign of respect.

"Good. You're all here. Have a seat." The Ancient One pointed to a Chabudai with one sitting pillows on one side and three on the other. The table has a small basket of biscuits and a pot of tea.

The Ancient One served everyone a cup of tea. Everyone took a sip of their drink as customary before she finally said,

"Let's get to business, shall we?" The Ancient One said with her usual smile. Everyone in the room showed their agreement. "Let me start with the most important point first. Master Pangborn."

"Yes, Ancient One?" Jonathan Pangborn straightened his back in attention.

Jonathan Pangborn is a 6'2, medium built, 30 years old, caucasian man who came to Kamar Taj after an accident in the factory he worked for rendered him paralytic from the waist down. He came to Kamar Taj in hopes of being able to walk again as the same as many stories he heard. The Ancient One accepted him as a student and started his own journey in the way of the Mystical Arts. This allowed him to use his legs again.

"You're able to use your legs again in it's fullest, am I right?" The Ancient One asked. Pangborn nodded his head in affirmative. "When are you planning to live the Order, if I may ask?" Of course, she already knew the answer due to the power of the eye, but the conversation would be more natural if Pangborn is the one who laid out his plans.

Pangborn looked shocked for a moment as well as Kaecilius and Mordo. The last of which felt betrayed that someone would willingly leave the order when they achieve their goals.

"Around a year from now, Master." Pangborn finally answered.

"Good..." She said. This drew shocked expressions from the people in the room. They would've thought she would be against Pangborn leaving. "But not good enough. I want you to leave immediately."

It seems like this whole conversation would continue to shock them all. Nobody heard the Ancient One asked someone to live.

"May I ask why, Master?" Pangborn asked with a shake in his voice due to nervousness.

The Ancient One just smiled, enjoying drawing these reactions. Being centuries-old, entertainment becomes a scarce resource.

"For your final mission, of course..." she said. Pangborn drew a calming breath, hearing something to reassure him. He really wouldn't one to be on The Ancient One's wrong side. "As you would leave the order anyway, I'm giving one last mission for you. I want you to gather information on anything or anyone that might seem strange—the more powerful, the better."

"Your will be done, master. May I ask why and when should I leave?" Pangborn asked.

"Of course, you may ask, but I won't reveal the answer until I have identified who or what it is..." The Ancient One said, losing her smile. "As for when, I prefer if you leave as soon as possible. Maybe after the gathering. Bring your items with you; you won't have to go back here again unless I call for you." She answered.

Pangborn stood up, bowed, and left, but before he could go far, The Ancient One added, "Find the yellow fox. It's the only clue I could find."

Pangborn bowed again and left to pack for his journey.

Kaecilius and Mordo are staring dumbfounded to the exchange. They guessed a similar conversation would happen with them.

"Now that's done..." The Ancient One faced Kaecilius. "After the gathering, I want you to pour over our records for any mention of a yellow fox." She ordered.

Kaecilius is a 6'0, broad built, 40 years old man who came to Kamar Taj with the help of Karl Mordo. Mordo introduces Kaecilius to the Ancient One to help Kaecilius understand the grief he acquired when he lost his son and his wife.

As much as she hates it, the coming of Dormammu is an essential event in the future to make sure Strange would step up as the Sorcerer Supreme. The demon would need a follower from this world to weaken the shields, and the most likely candidate is still Kaecilius. Ordering him to look into the library would lead him to encounter the history of Dormammu. His grief and discontent would draw him to the demon's power and start the whole event.

"Yes, Master." Kaecilius nodded. The Ancient One waved her hand, indicating he is dismissed. Kaecilius stood up and left.

The Ancient One stared at Mordo. She was thinking about which approach would make him less likely to betray the order in the future.

Karl Mordo is one of the most promising students the Ancient One ever had. He's a 5'10, broad built, 45 years old, African-English man. He came to Kamar Taj, hoping to acquire the power to file his revenge but eventually found peace under the Ancient One's tutelage.

Deciding on her plan, The Ancient One waved her hand, materializing a journal.

"This is one of my summarized journals. I write one every century I'm alive to keep track of the critical event..." She placed the journal and slid it to Mordo's direction. "I want you to read it. Ask any question, anytime. I'll try to answer with the best of my ability."

Showing him her choices from her point of view might lessen the chance of his betrayal in the future. He's future is not clearly shown since the yellow fox would somehow cross his path.

Picking up the journal reverently, Mordo bowed deeply while still sitting down. "Thank you for giving me the chance to read this, Master."

"Let me warn you. This does not mean you would be the next Sorcerer Supreme. I still thi k you're talents are better suited for other endeavors."

"I understand, Master." Mordo said while gritting his teeth lightly. The Ancient One has been telling him this for quite some time, but he still doesn't understand why she doesn't want for him to take on the mantel.

The Ancient One stood up and motioned him to follow her.

"It's time for the gathering. I'm quite excited to talk about the future." She said while smiling brightly.