Chapter 177: Briefing. 2012 CE

Kojirou appeared at the other side of the teleporter with his car's wheels still spinning. Thankfully, it was a wide space, like a hangar. He drifted to the side to stop the acceleration, making the others who were in the room surprised.

"Fucking hell dude!" Anna screamed as she almost got hit by the car. "Bringing your car here is not necessary at all!"

"Well, the police were chasing me…" said Kojirou, hopping out of his car casually, twirling the car keys.

"I'll throw it away if you don't bring it out of here tomorrow." threatened Cleo, who was sitting on her chair calmly.

"Come on! I just got here!" Kojirou clicked his tongue.

"The Crimson dimension has influenced you too much Kojirou." said Grodd wisely. "We should do a check up on you on how far the corruption is."

"It's not corruption, Grodd, I just changed a lot, that's all." Kojirou said as he sat on his seat along with Anna, who were the last to arrive. "Can't a man change?"

"Your transformation is worrying." Jeanne commented. "Even a blind man can hear that you're too different from before."

"Guys, I'm fine really, don't worry about me." Kojirou sighed, raising his legs to the roundtable in front.

"A man is allowed to be happy, Jeanne." said Michel calmly. "You don't need to be worried for him."

"See, even Michel agreed," said Kojirou. "He must've seen my future or something."

"You know I cannot see fellow ringbearer's future Kojirou…"

"Oh, right…"

"Enough bickering." said Cleo, interrupting the banter in front of her. "Seems like it's been a long time since we sat here."

"Last time we're here, we had six members." stated Anna, eyeing Isaiah at her other end of the table.

"True." Michel hummed. "I never had the pleasure, could you introduce yourself please?"

"Name's Isaiah Bradley," said Bradley. "A soldier in the 50's, this man saved me from certain doom." he pointed at Kojirou.

"It was a long term mission." Kojirou shrugged.

"Right, how do you know father?" questioned Jeanne.

"I don't." Isaiah answered, making the ones who don't know about him confused.

"He was special," said Cleo. "Father tasked me to find a man that has a strong sense of justice, then we found him along with the rest of his men."

"I was an experimental subject," said Isaiah calmly. "An attempt to recreate super soldier serum."

"Did it work?" Anna frowned.

"Yes." Bradley hummed. "But enough about me, we need to hear about the mission."

The others then turned to Cleo, but instead, Grodd stood up, touching the glass of the table, and a hologram appeared in front of the other Apostles.

"Loki." Grodd said. "Asgardian."

"Really? An Asgardian again…" Kojirou sighed. "I'm tired of hearing their god complex…"

"Well, because of the item he is possessing right now, he might as well be called a god." Grodd then showed the tesseract to the others. "You know what this is."

"Space stone?" Kojirou frowned. "I thought it was with SHIELD?"

"He destroyed the facility and took it from them."

Kojirou sighed. "Idiots…"

"So what is father's orders?" Jeanne questioned.

"Help SHIELD contain the accident." Cleo answered.

"Help SHIELD?" Jeanne's face scrunched up. "Do you realise that HYDRA is laying eggs in SHIELD's womb right now?"

"Fuck, could you not with the disgusting metaphor?" Anna said in disgust.

"We know Jeanne, even the director of SHIELD probably knows about it." Grodd said calmly. "But right now, our priority is to help SHIELD, more specifically, the Avengers."

"The Avengers?" Kojirou questioned. "I thought it was shut down."

Grodd shook his head. "It's just been reinstated." he said, displaying a video of the Avengers in Germany, and the fight with Loki in Germany and on the way to the Helicarrier. "Confirmed members are Captain Steve Rogers, Anthony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Thor, and Doctor Bruce Banner."

"Woah, that is a group of misfits…" Anna murmured.

"So are we." Cleo shrugged, making the others chuckle.

"Alright, calm down." Grodd chuckled. "We will split the team, two of you will go to the Helicarrier to contact SHIELD, I will handle the council if something ever happens, and the rest of you will go to New York, where I have tracked the Gamma Radiation of the Tesseract there."

"Always New York huh…" Isaiah murmured. "Where exactly?"

"Stark Tower."

"How ironic." Kojirou scoffed. "Alright, let's go now."

"Wait, there is one more," said Grodd.

"Then what is it?"

"We cannot kill Loki."

"What? Why?" questioned Kojirou.

"He is controlled by something… father didn't tell me…" Grodd murmured. "Just do not kill him."

"Fine."

"Michel and Anna, you will go to the Helicarrier."

"Alright, looks like it's you and me creep." said Anna jokingly.

"You're still on about that Anna?" Michel sighed.

"Your whole power is creepy." Anna chuckled. "Come on, I missed our cloaks."

"Alright people, it's been a while since we've done a mission together," said Cleo. "Don't make mistakes, the world is watching this time."

"Wait what? I thought–"

"Just use the cloak Anna, you won't be recognised." said Grodd calmly. "I've upgraded your gears, so your face would be unrecognisable while using it."

"Well thank Eshu…" Anna murmured.