C39 - The Abyssal Covenant Appears!

E/d note: Finally! The appearance of our original enemy as voted by you guys! Introducing the "Abyssal Covenant", the replacement to "Olivia Temple" from the MTL!

'Inner dialogue/thoughts'

"Normal dialogue"

[System]

[Diary entries]

(Word count: 1,283)

~ With Fury in his office, within SHIELD HQ ~

Fury was currently alone in his office as he read the reports from Natasha and Hill. Natasha had reported about Luke's initial shock when he saw Wanda entered the café, and his subsequent mental collapse when Luke went back into his personal office.

'I did not think that Luke would have had that big of a reaction upon seeing Wanda again. This has been a severe oversight which caused what we had sought to prevent. Thankfully, according to the report, the mental collapse does not seem to be permanent, and that Luke seems to be able to recover from it. I will have Natasha keep a closer eye on him for the time being.'

'The problem now comes from Hill's report.' Fury thought to himself. Hill had reported about the peculiarity of the orphanage from which she had taken Pietro and Wanda away from. When Fury first learned of the place a month ago, he had sent a surveillance team under Hill's direct command to monitor the activities of the orphanage.

However, when the team had arrived at the location a few days later, they were met with an empty building. Any historical records about the location were also erased from the official records of Sokovia. Fury had no leads to follow up on, and so he recalled the team from the mission.

Since then, Hill had been looking into any clues regarding the orphanage or the person she had met, Baron Strucker, but she had yet to find anything useful. Hill had suggested to instead ask Wanda and Pietro, however, was swiftly denied by Fury.

Fury believed if the siblings had wanted to talk, then they would have had spoken anytime within the month, yet they had not. This signifies that they either did not know much about the place, or that they did not trust SHIELD enough with the information.

As Fury was lost in his thoughts, a sudden call from his private line had brought him back to his senses. Looking at the caller, he was confused to see that the caller was Natasha herself. Thinking that a new development had occurred with Luke, Fury pressed the hidden button before answering the call.

"What's the matter Agent Romanoff?" Fury asked.

"Sir, we have an Article 13B on our hands. Priority target, Luke Sullivan, had been attacked on his way back to his apartment from the café." Natasha reported.

Fury was surprised to hear that Article 13B had been activated once again. Article 13B states that an emergency protection detail needs to be placed on a priority target due to a sudden attack or obtaining the knowledge of an imminent attack on the priority target. This had only happened once in recent time, which was with Tony Stark.

Taking a moment to take out the diary he was in possession of, Fury saw that Luke was currently writing the fourth entry after a month. "I'll call you back. Standby to take any actions on my word." Fury said as he hung up the call.

Reading the passages that were already written, Fury was surprised that Luke was almost able to make the connection between Wanda and himself. 'It would not do to have Luke know that there are people who can read his diary. We need his knowledge of the parallel world in order to prepare for our own.'

Fury concluded that he needed to reduce any 'coincidental occurrence' that could happen, which could lead to Luke figuring out that his diary was not as private as he believed it to be. Moreover, due to Fury's actions, it seems to have changed a future event. Whether it was a change for the better or worse, Fury could only wait and see.

Seeing that the diary was still being written, Fury decided to shelve any concerns he had until he had finished reading the diary.

~ With Luke ~

[I was also attacked today on my way back to my apartment from the café. Thankfully, it was late into the night so there wasn't anyone around who could've been affected by the attack. The area of the attack didn't have any surveillance as well, which is to be expected as Los Angeles, let alone the USA, is too big to have surveillance coverage everywhere.]

[The attacker. . . something felt wrong with it, like I was familiar with it. At first, I was surprised why I was suddenly being attacked. I had kept a low profile throughout my entire time here, not really showing myself or my skills and abilities.]

As Luke wrote the next part of his fourth entry, he decided that he should 'promote' himself from a normal person to an ability user to Fury. In doing this, Fury would not investigate too deep into himself when Fury inevitably sends someone to search the surrounding area of the location of the attack.

~ With Fury ~

[But after fighting against the attacker for a while, I realized why it seemed familiar. It was a creature from the Abyssal Covenant.]

'Abyssal Covenant? A new enemy it seems.' Fury thought as he made a mental note to update his lists after the conclusion of the fourth entry.

[The Abyssal Covenant was a largely unknown group of cult worshippers. During one of my missions as an Agent of SHIELD, I had at the time unknowingly crossed paths with this cult. And since then, it was as if fate had woven our paths into a single string.]

[Till this day I have not found a single clue as to how the Abyssal Covenant had come to be. All I know is that the thing they worship, the one who they called the 'True Demon God', was not from our world.]

[Every time this thing needed someone to do its bidding, it would send a 'messenger' – a person who was once alive but was then infected with something and turned into a creature who was not afraid of death and only obeyed its master.]

[I can only be thankful that in my world, the creatures did not seem to be anything special and was able to be stopped through normal means. But thanks to this, none of the higher members of the Avengers would spare time on them as they had bigger enemies to prioritise.]

[And so, I had stepped up to take on the Abyssal Covenant. And for the rest of my years as an Avenger, I had not once met this 'True Demond God'. Every encounter with this group was through a messenger, as if the 'True Demon God' did not find it fitting to fight me themselves.]

[Furthermore, this attack, it was only a single attacker, unlike the group and hordes I had to face back in my world. Could it be. . . Is this their way of telling me that they've been transmigrated here too?!]

'Motherf*cker.' Reading the recent passages, Fury only had one thought on his mind.

- End of C39 -

Next time in C40 - Marak Azathraal! History of the Abyssal Covenant!

"Agent Romanoff," Fury began as Natasha answered the call, "I need you to follow the path that Luke took and discover where this attack had taken place. Once found, cordon it and do a full canvas of the area and catalogue whatever you find.

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'What the hell happened here. . .' However, when Natasha arrived at the scene, she was surprised at what she saw.

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