Chapter 103: The invitations.

Author: I am sorry, but my uncle died. I have to take a few days off for the funeral.

****************

(singing in the ghostbuster theme song tune.)

"If there's something strange

In your neighborhood

Who you gonna call?

A-Vengers!

If there's something weird

And it don't look good

Who you gonna call?

A-Vengers!!"

Ryan just came back from the test site. Retracting his magic suit back into his body, he is trying to find Loki's whereabouts. He was focusing on the computer while singing nonsensical songs when he heard a voice coming from the bedroom.

"Ryan, stop singing. I want to sleep…" Gwen said with tiredness. She has an early day tomorrow. She didn't mind Ryan working late as he always does.

"Sorry Gwen," Ryan cast a soundproofing spell so that he can continue working. It's very hard for him to find Loki. He figures he had to stay up all night for it.

"I didn't expect the Avenger incident would come so quickly. Didn't it come in 2012? It is still early 2011…"

While making some adjustments to his plan, he is checking up on what Shield is doing.

"How am I going to get out of this?" Ryan mumbles as he is checking Shield's file. Unknown to him, he is also one of the prospects for the initiative. 

2.00 a.m. The same night. 

"Natasha, Barton is compromised…"

The Black Widow in her black yoga shorts and a sports bra got a call from Phil Coulson. At first, she was apprehensive about getting back to headquarters. Her mission to find the vigilante in New York still hasn't been completed yet. 

She is still following the lead about the fight at the dock between the ninjas and the vigilante. The vigilante seems to have a superpower, a glowing fist. And he is not alone. He is helped by another vigilante in a full head cover that has excellent combat skills.

"I will be there," She said decisively. Getting out of the 'plow' yoga pose, she turned to look at her back. 

"You're done?" Kai asks. He had been enjoying the view even when he knew this is the way Nat was punishing him for what happened during their dinner time a week back. She purposely set up to do her exercise between him and the tv. 

Kai had been 'tortured' for a week. His eye bag is deeper now. Steve always laughs at his misery when he comes by. To his surprise, Natasha and Steve had never run into each other. 'Is it fate?'

"I am called back to headquarters," She replied. She takes her towel and wipes off her sweats. She doesn't know yet about the Avenger project being initiated. 

"Must be because you keep goofing off at work," Kai teases. Who does yoga at 2 in the morning? She purposely waited for him to get back from the clinic to do it. Now, it will be hard for him to sleep at night.

Natasha smiles without showing her teeth, "Don't worry, I will be back."

"I know you will be back. But that time, please go easy on me…" Kai lay down on the sofa. He is going to sleep there. Dealing with Natasha had drained all of his energy he didn't have any to go to his bed. 

Inside the New York headquarters. Natasha got briefed about the situation. 

"I am in New York. Why don't I get Stark?" She is a little confused. Phil said to her that she needed to go get the big guy. 

Fury thought maybe beauty can disarm Banner long enough for him to understand the situation. As she is an agent, she has to follow the order. She is dropped in Calcutta, where another team of agents is waiting for her. 

…

Inside the infirmary of the Nasa research center that is supposed to blow up.

Hill found a survivor there. A female researcher that works together with Dr. Selvig. She reported it to Fury, and he became solemn.

'How many people come in through the wormhole?' Fury thought that there was another. But it seems the other guy isn't hostile to the human. Proof; They helped save the researcher's life. Fury knows that without some external help, the woman won't survive the attack.

The researcher is in shock and unconscious. As there is little time, Hill decided to inject a stimulant into her to wake her up. After calming her down, Hill asks if there is anything she remembers. What does the new guy look like? What does he do there? Anything at all. 

It is to be noted that she had been hit pretty hard on the head and lost a lot of blood. In that state, she saw and heard something. 

"He wears grey clothes and a hood. His eyes are glowing in a purple light…" Tina Banko holds her head trying to remember what happened. The pain from the stimulant makes her brain feel like endless ants are marching inside her.

"Wait? Purple eyes?" Hill got an idea of who the guy is. She takes out a tablet that has the drawing of Earth Guardian, Eclipse. The drawing is made by Hawkeye and Coulson, so it's pretty accurate. 

"Is this him?" She asks with some hope. If it's Eclipse, then he wasn't an enemy.

"Yes, that's him!" Tina answered excitedly. He is, after all, her savior. 

"Do you remember anything else?" Hill calmed down and continued asking. The guy is on the Asgardian level. If he is involved, they might not need the Avenger.

"I remember… him… screaming…" Tina tries to recollect her memory, but it is in bits and pieces. More accurately, Ryan is cursing at that time. 

"Then, I remember he is falling…" Tina continues with a heavy tone. The more she remembers, the more it seems like Eclipse is heavily injured because he is trying to contain the energy. 

Hill, who always has a poker face, widened her eyes. She always thought that the Tesseract energy would cause an immense explosion. Eclipse is here and getting involved in containing it cemented her hypothesis. 

Tina remembers she and Dr. Selvig trying to stop the energy spike. From the data that she remembered, the energy can cause half of the American continent to be disintegrated. Of course, this was before the wormhole started to collapse on itself. 

Hill let her get some rest. She contacted Fury to give him an update.

"Eclipse is injured?" Fury asks for confirmation. 

"If he is okay, won't he go to intercept Loki?" Hill said. This is her base for the hypothesis. Loki could only escape as Eclipse is injured trying to contain the explosion. They also couldn't count on Eclipse for the battle. 

"We have lost our first line of defense," Hill mumbles to herself after cutting the call with Fury. Otherwise, she will be admonished by the director saying they are the first line of defense. 

…

In a small village in India, Bruce Banner received a visit from the Black Widow. Unexpectedly, Bruce is doing pretty well for someone in his condition.

With a black coat on top of his purple shirt, his hair is combed neatly and he has a clean-shaven face.

"How did you find me? Did you come here to kill me?" Banner asks calmly. He needed to be calm. Otherwise, the other guy will come out.

"The world is facing a potential global catastrophe doctor. We need your help to..." Natasha starts to explain.

She told him about the tesseract. Her eyes keep glancing at Banner. She knows the horror of the man in front of him. Bruce listens to her carefully.

He didn't have an outburst. Didn't try to test Natasha. Nothing. He is so calm that it freaked her out a little. All this time she is meeting him, her heart feels like it is going to burst out of her chest.

Banner isn't the isolated man he used to be. He has a job, a friend he could trust, his lover, and a residence that can fly to him in case he becomes the Hulk and runs away again. 

Ryan always advised him that if someone from Shield comes, hear them out first. If they try to capture Banner, Ryan will give them hell. That's why he is so calm here today. Banner has absolute trust in Ryan. After all, Ryan manages to survive the Hulk every time his episodes happen.

In front of Natasha, he took out a tablet from his satchel and contacted someone. Her eyes widened because of Bruce's action. "You used... Electronics?" She is puzzled.  Shield had never traced Dr. Banner online before. Not for the lack of trying.

"Of course, I am not a caveman…" Bruce grinned seeing her reaction. 'I guess he didn't lie to me that this is untraceable,' he thought while looking at the tablet. He kind of figured out why Shield managed to find him. Not from his phone, but because his work in the area took longer than expected. 

He calls his partner, the one who had been making his life easier. In less than 3 seconds, his partner picks up the call in the form of a mini holographic projection on top of the tablet. 

"Yo Bruce, have you got the sample of the disease yet?" Ryan pops out from the tablet. Bruce is hired by him as a traveling researcher. As of right now, the Ph.D. doctor is researching a new plague outbreak in the India region.  

"Yes...I will send it to you soon," Banner took out a vial of the disease and showed it to Ryan who is wearing a mask.

" I am calling about something else." Bruce pointed the camera angle to Natasha abruptly. 

"Oh, the cat burglar... Nice to meet you again," Ryan said with an eye smile. Natasha's eyes widened. 'Banner and Knight are working together?'

This is an unexpected finding. It is supposed to be beneficial to Shield. But if Ryan knows about the situation prematurely, there is a high chance he will be difficult to get. He needed to be eased into it. 

"Are you taking some time off?" Ryan ignores the agent and focuses on Bruce. 

"Yes, they need my help with something," Bruce feels a little bad about censoring some information, but Ryan did not care at all. 

"Alright then, with your data, I think I can synthesize some cure or vaccine for the new disease. You can rest easy from the (yawn) plague issue," Ryan said dismissively. 

"You're not asking me what is up?" Bruce is grateful for the consideration. Natasha is a little glad that Ryan didn't pry. She will be in a difficult situation if he does. She doesn't want to use her favor for this. 

"I know that woman, rather, I know the organization behind her. Bruce, are you sure that you didn't follow her because she is pretty?" Ryan teases a little bit. He wonders what will happen to the HulkXWidow Loveline.

"You know… who I love," Bruce said calmly. He hesitated a little bit to say the last part because Shield is here. With Ryan's holographic call, Bruce can connect with Betty anytime he wants. However, they still couldn't be with each other.

"Tch, so boring," Ryan snorted. Bruce laughs a bit seeing his reaction. 

Natasha's mouth opened to say something, but he disconnected the call. 

'Although there is some sighting, it is very difficult to pinpoint him. If he did not stay in the region for more than 3 days, we may never find him,' Natasha thought as she was leading Banner outside the house.

For years that Shield has been monitoring Dr. Banner, finally, they get a reason why he's so difficult to be found. It is because of external help. 

"Why is he helping him though?" Natasha mutters in a low voice. 

"What did you say?" Bruce asks. 

"Nothing, we should go now. The faster you get there, the better" 

"Wait, I need to send the disease data first.." Bruce said. He led Natasha to his residence which also functions as his lab. 

Natasha saw the residence Bruce is talking about. It is the size of a shipping container, and it can be expanded to the size of a small, two-story house. It is parked in a deserted area where no one lives.  

"The other guy… likes to run away you see…" Bruce said helplessly. The house can turn into a plane that will go wherever Bruce goes. Natasha enters the messy house and starts to look around. 

"So, Ryan has been taking care of you?" She asks as she notices the house has everything Bruce needs. 

Bruce is putting the vial inside an analyzer that he made. He is sending the data immediately to Knight Industry. 

"Yes, he did," Bruce answered non-committedly. He figures Natasha is collecting information. 

She smiles softly and stops talking. She knows exactly how to befriend Banner. If she mentioned her meeting with Ryan at the sea and how they know each other, it will allow her to get close to Banner. 

'But if I do that, it meant that I have blurred the lines of my personal life and my professional life,' she rejected this method. A major change in Natasha is that she believed in Phil and Kai more instead of Shield. Kai always makes her feel welcomed and treats her like a family.

There are a lot of other methods she can use to get close to Banner. This path is not the only path she can take. 

Till now, she didn't mention to Shield about Ryan's favor or their meeting in the sea. And she plans to keep it that way. She will not break the trust Kai had given her. 

"Okay, now we can go," Banner said. Natasha nods before she leads him outside where a QuinnJet is waiting for them.

…

Steve Roger is boxing heavily in the gym. It is his second punching bag now. The first one has been destroyed by him. With every punch, he is seeing the battlefield and the ones he lost. 

He couldn't sleep that night. Today, his instinct seems to be telling him to stay awake. He has been hitting the bag for an hour now, but he is barely tired. 

Nick Fury comes in with a mission for him. After hearing it, he decided to join. He realizes that Shield had the tesseract all along. And now, Shield is on the same path as Hydra.

"There will be a debriefing packet when you arrive at your apartment." Fury said to Steve who is cleaning up. 

"Is there anything else about the tesseract we ought to know?" Fury asks. 

"Yeah, you should have left it in the ocean..." Steve said while looking Fury in the eye. He truly believes no one should be left with that kind of power.  For him, the tesseract is synonymous with Hydra. It, coming back to the world will welcome chaos with it. 

Before he gets to his apartment, he takes out his 3310 phones with buttons and calls someone. 

"Hey, I couldn't make it to the game today,"  He plans to watch a baseball game with his friend in the afternoon. It is late at night when he calls, but he knows the guy is still awake. 

"What a coincidence. I too… couldn't keep my promise. But you chicken out first so you owe me 10 bucks for the chicken wing,"  The one on the other side is reading a debriefing packet at the time. After some jokes, the call cuts off. 

Phil Coulson asks Kai who just gets the call, "Who is it?" Kai seems to be close with the guy. He is a little curious about who is the one who managed to enter the Kai circle of friends. 

"A friend I know from the bar," Kai answered dismissively. Phil want to pry but Kai said, "Why don't you go to Stark first, then come back to pick me up," 

The agent nodded, "I will do just that." 

He had a smile on his face. Kai didn't give them much of a hassle to get his assistance. If the opponent isn't human, it is very easy for Kai to join in. 

"I just hope Natasha won't be mad.." Phil mutters. After Kai battled the demon before, he is heavily injured. Natasha had been protective of him ever since. That's why Phil asks her to meet Banner instead.

… 

Fury is in New York, driving inside a black SUV. While Coulson is trying to talk to Tony, he goes to meet Ryan Knight.

Unexpectedly, Ryan has mononucleosis. He is in no condition to be working. He is having a high fever, cough, and extreme tiredness. Fury didn't even mention the situation to him. 

Ryan isn't a priority on the Avenger project. He is just valued because of his intelligence, not combat power. He can be working from home, but Fury needs an able man to do this. 

"At the very least, the project can be started." 

Fury had been thinking about it. Even though the world security council is against the creation of the Avenger, Fury managed to make the project get started after an intense debate. 

He knows the importance of heroes. People might fear them as a freak, but Fury believes with the right push, freaks can turn into heroes. This sudden opportunity will allow him to bring these people together.

Earth needs its own line of defense, that is why he pushes forward with the phase 2 project. But the project is still not ready. He needed a response team to fight.

If he plays his card well, maybe, the Avenger can become a true organization that can protect the world. Just like she did.

While he is mulling the incident in 1993 when he first met her, Fury got a call from Phil Coulson.

"I have briefed Stark. I will be going to the helicarrier first with Kai," Coulson reported. Fury wants a report every 15 minutes in case Loki tries to ambush them or the Avenger prospect.

Stark already knew about the helicarrier as he had helped Shield in building it. Coulson has no trouble letting Tony come on his own. 

"Bring The Captain with you.." Fury ordered. He needs to make a small stop at Washington to deal with the White House.

"The Captain? You mean?" Phil is excited, but Fury cuts the call. He didn't have time to listen to Coulson fangirling. 

...

That night, Shield is not the only one building an ally.

Inside a small town hall in Minnesota.

Loki is making a small stop after letting Selvig study the tesseract at a hidden base. 

There are corpses upon corpses of men strewn all over the town hall floor. Loki is holding his scepter, putting his guard up.

He saw the sight of the woman in front of him. Sitting on a wooden chair like it is a throne, with men licking onto her feet. 

"You're late. I have been here a week," The woman in a green dress that looks like a leotard, and a green, 'M' shaped crown on her head. She got so bored that she decided to play with the man in this town. 

Of course, as she needed to hide her identity as Loki said, she made the man here lock up all the women and kids. 

Loki said in a calm demeanor. Facing her, he can't show any weaknesses. Otherwise, the enchantress will enslave him.

"It seems like you have been enjoying yourself…Amora."