Avengers Initiative

The day starts as any other boring, lazy Monday morning. It was an ordinary morning for Adrien. He slowly got out of bed, taking his time as usual. He did his morning stretches and some light exercises. He took a nice long shower and brushed his teeth after.

He changed into some black joggers, forgoing a shirt like always and picked up his lucky deck of cards. He made his way to his kitchen, walking through his kitchen and not noticing the individual sitting comfortably on his sofa. Adrien opened his fridge taking out some leftover food from last night.

He puts the plate of food in his microwave and heats it. He leans against the counter and started aimlessly doing shuffle tricks with his cards to pass the time.

A sound from his living room instantly has him on alert. He turns and throws a purple glowing card toward the sound of instinct before his brain even registers the action.

"Shit?!" Adrien exclaims in Cajun French and quickly disintegrates the card into nothingness. His red eyes widen slightly and he groans in frustration at having revealed his special ability to a stranger.

"Really? Just fucking perfect Adrien," He whines, running a hand through his medium-length brown hair cut in a fade. Adrien turns his gaze on the intruder sitting calmly on his sofa.

 "Well, Good morning to you too, Mr. LeBeau," The man says blandly, unfazed by what happened. The man was black with a bald head, a goatee and an eye patch on his right eye. He is dressed in a black trench coat over a black turtle neck, pants, and combat boots.

"Yes, it was. Until some pirate decided to break into my house and scare, the shit out of me at 7 in the morning. You know Halloween's not for another few months right?" Adrien glares, having recognised the intruder.

"Quite the nice place, you've got here," The man says conversationally, looking around the interior.

"Cut the crap and tell what you want, Fury," Adrien demands as he retrieves his food. He takes a seat by his island.

"Fine. I've come to cash in the numerous favours you owe me," Fury says, walking over to the other side of the island.

"...Alright. What are your orders, Captain," Adrien says mockingly and moves, his food to the side.

Fury chuckles as he shakes his head and tosses a binder, in front of Adrien.

"What's this?" Adrien asks as he picks up the binder with the words, Avengers Initiative written on the front.

"There was an idea, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together, a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to. To fight the battles that we never could," Fury gestures to the binder.

Adrien looks down at the binder, contemplating the implication of Fury showing him this.

"...Besides lil' old me, who else?" Adrien asks as he leans back and stares at Fury impassively.

"There are a few candidates, but if you agree. Officially, you would be the first member,"

Adrien takes a moment to think it over and then runs a hand through his hair, sighing in defeat. "...Fine, I'll join your little boy band,"

"Then I would suggest you suit up," Fury smirks as he walks to the front door.

"I'm on the clock already?"

"Get a head start on reading through the binder and I'll show you why we need the Avengers Initiative," Fury ignores his question and walks out the door.

"What the hell did I get myself into?" Adrien wonders aloud, walking back to his guest room, binder in hand.

He enters the guest room and tosses the binder on the bed. He walks to the closet and opens it, taking out a black suitcase.

He places the suitcase on the bed, staring at it blankly for a moment before opening it with a resigned sigh. "Guess the past never quite stays the past,"

A few minutes later he walks out of the guest room dressed in a black trench coat with white accents along the sleeves. A black and purple long-sleeved kevlar-weaved compression shirt, and kevlar-weaved tactical combat pants in the same colour scheme. A pair of black fingerless gloves and black combat boots.

"Let's get this over with," Gambit sighs as he puts on his blacked-out glasses.

[Line Break]

Standing a few yards from the landing pad, Agent Phil Coulson in a suit, peers at the helicopter as it lands. Walking out of the aircraft is Agent Maria Hill the deputy director of SHIELD following her is Nick Fury director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Gambit, the three approach Coulson.

"Not even my first day and shits already hit the fan, just great," Gambit remarks drily.

"How bad is it?" Fury ignores Gambit and asks Coulson as the group of four makes their way off the helipad.

"That's the problem, sir. We don't know,"

They take an elevator to the lower levels of the Facility. Agent Coulson leads Hill, Fury and Gambit through the radiation section of the facility. Hundreds of technicians and other staff run around, taking only the essentials.

"Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago," Coulson informs.

"NASA didn't authorize Selvig to go to the testing phase," Fury replies.

"He wasn't testing it, he wasn't even in the room. Spontaneous event,"

"It just turned on by itself?" Hill asks in disbelief.

"I'm surprised it didn't open a portal to some Eldritch horror," Gambit remarks, causing the Coulson and Hill to side-eye him.

"Where are the levels now?" Furys asks, ignoring Gambit again.

"Climbing. When Selvig couldn't shut it down we ordered the evac," Coulson answers.

"How long?"

"Should be clear in the next half-hour,"

"Do better,"

Coulson nods and walks away to continue with the evacuation.

"Sir, evacuation may be futile," Hills points out.

"I agree with Hill on this one," Gambit pipes in.

"We should tell them to go back to sleep?" Fury asks, tone laced with sarcasm.

"If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance," Hill reasons

"I need you to make sure Phase 2 prototypes are shipped out," Fury orders Hill, earning a confused look.

"Sir, is that really a priority right now?"

"Until such a time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on. Clear out the tech below. Every piece of Phase 2 on a truck and gone,"

"Yes, sir," Hill ultimately agrees. She looks at the two agents nearby. "With me,"

Gambit watches Hill walk off with the agents as Fury and him, make their way to the lab.

[Line Break]

"Talk to me doctor," Fury says to Selvig, who appears from behind a machine. Selvig gives Gambit a curious glance and addresses Fury.

"The Tesseract is misbehaving," Selvig says grimly.

"What? Like some unruly child?" Gambit says drily.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Selvig asks, turning to Gambit.

"Gambit," 

"I assume you pulled the plug," Fury cuts in, glaring at the two. Selvig goes to a computer with Fury and Gambit in tow.

"She's an energy source. If we turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level..." Selvig trails off.

"We've prepared for this doctor. Harnessing energy from space," Fury nods for Selvig to get to the point.

Selvig looks up from his computer at Fury. "We don't have the harness. Our calculations are far from complete. Now she's throwing off interference, and radiation. Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation,"

"Right, totally harmless," Gambit mutters with an eye roll.

Where's Barton?" Fury asks

"The Hawk? Up in his nest, as usual," Selvig scoffs, pointing up at the catwalk behind him.

Gambit up at the catwalk, seeing a man dressed in black tactical gear observing the facility with a keen eye.

"Agent Barton report," Fury orders taking a walk around the facility, eyes trained on the Tesseract. Gambit stands back looking at the Tesseract inquisitively, while absently doing shuffle tricks with his cards.

"Is it supposed to do that?" Gambit asks Selvig who starts frantically typing on his computer.

"Not yet," Selvig says quietly as the monitor flashes. Suddenly, the Tesseract thunders and shakes the entire facility. The cube glows brighter emits a ring of light, and builds like a beam. The power hits the platform's edge and forms a vortex, which becomes a portal. Space appears through the portal, and a gust of blue energy knocks people back. The cloud shoots to the ceiling, and the platform portal opens up as a weirdly dressed man steps through. The portal vanishes, and the man grins at everyone, holding his spear. He frowns as he sees them looking at him.

"Not an Eldritch horror, so that's a plus," Gambit comments as he snaps open his telescopic staff.

"Sir, please put down the spear," Fury instructs the man with the sceptre.

"Bad idea, Fury," Gambit sighs as he throws a cluster of purple glowing cards, that intercept the blast of blue energy fired at Fury and cancels it out in a shower of dark blue dust particles.

Every agent starts shooting at the man, but the bullets harmlessly bounce off of him. The man retaliates and easily takes down every agent with knives and blasts from his sceptre. Barton attempts to attack him but is effortlessly disarmed.

"You have heart," The man says as he tries to place the tip of the sceptre on Barton's chest.

"And, he would like to keep it," Gambit quips as he throws two purple glowing cards at the man's chest, blasting the man away from Barton.

"You?! Insolent..." The man growls shooting a blast at Gambit, who dodges the blast and throws three glowing cards behind him. Gambit attacks the man with a flurry of staff strikes and swings that the man effortlessly blocks and dodges.

"You can't beat me, mortal," The man taunts as he dodges another staff swing with his sceptre.

"Oh, I'm just the distraction," Gambit grins and points toward Fury who is busy placing the Tesseract in a briefcase. Fury glares at Gambit for outing him.

"Enough of this!" The man growls.

"I agree," Gambit nods as he dodges a slash from the man's sceptre and does a backflip, evading a blast. As Gambit lands, he drags his staff through the ground causing a tremor of purple energy to shoot towards the man.

The man jumps back, evading the attack. As he lands he sees three purple glowing cards in his peripheral vision, right at his feet.

"Checkmate," Gambit grins as the cards explode. As the smoke cleared, the spot where the man stood was empty, except for the scorch marks left behind by the explosion.

Gambit curses and spins around to strike the man, but is too late as he is overpowered and gripped by his throat.

"You're quite talented mortal. You'll make a nice addition to my army," The man smirks and places the tip of the sceptre on Gambit's chest. Gambit stops resisting after a moment. The man drops Gambit and looks toward Fury and Barton who are trying to sneak out.

"Please don't. I still need that." The man says, pointing his sceptre at them.

"This doesn't need to get any messier," Fury tries to reason with the man and glances at the mind-controlled Gambit.

"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose," Loki says grandly.

"Loki? Brother of Thor?" Selvig asks after checking over one of his fellow scientists.

"We have no quarrel with your people," Fury tries again.

"An ant had no quarrel with a boot," Loki grins viciously with a tilt of his head.

"You planning to stomp on us?" Barton scoffs, glaring at Loki.

"I come with glad tidings, of a world made free,"

"Free from what?" Fury questions giving a furtive glance at the roof.

"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart..." Loki turns to Selvig and places the sceptre against his heart. Selvig's eyes glow black.

"You will know peace,"

"Yeah, you say peace I kind of think you mean the other thing,"

Gambit looks up at the Tesseract cloud that seems to be getting worse and walks over to Loki. "Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow. Drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us," Gambit says blandly.

"Like the Pharoahs of old," Fury smirks.

"He's right The portal is collapsing in on itself. We've got about 2 minutes before this goes critical," Selvig confirms, looking at the information on his computer.

"Well then," Loki turns to Fury.

Gambit immediately tosses two glowing cards at Fury and Barton which explodes on impact, knocking them to the ground. Gambit grabs the Tesseract case and walks out with Loki, Selvig and other mind-controlled agents.

[Line Break]

"We need these vehicles," Gambit orders pointing at the trucks.

"Under whose orders?" Hill asks looking at Gambit, Loki, Selvig and the other agents with suspicion.

"Fury's. Any more questions?" Gambit stares her down as the others get in the trucks.

"Yes. Who is he?" Hill nods towards Loki.

"He didn't say." Gambit walks off to the trucks without another glance at her. Hill narrows her eyes at them and turns to walk away when she sees Barton running down the corridor towards her.

"He's turned! Stop them!" Barton shouts as he fires a hail of bullets at Gambit. Gambit's staff starts glowing and he spins it, deflecting the bullets easily.

Gambit dodges a kick from Hill and hits her in the side with his staff, sending her to the ground gasping. Barton throws a combination of punches at Gambit, who blocks every blow. He grabs Barton by the arm and tosses him over his shoulder.

"Well, hello there," Loki grins at Barton, who lands before him on the ground. Loki places the sceptre on his chest, also taking control of him. Barton gets up with a groan, entering the driver's side of the vehicle.

"We're done here," Loki barks at Gambit, who makes his way to the passenger side but is shot in the back by Hill. He groans in pain and falls over.

"Damn it all," Loki sighs and signals for Barton and the other agents to start driving.

Maria Hill glances at the downed Gambit, jumps in another truck and chases Barton. Loki fires a blast, killing an agent in the process and causing Hill to keep her distance. She shoots through her windscreen and Barton fires back. Loki blasts part of the cave causing it to collapse with Hill's truck getting stuck.

While all this is happening, the Tesseract's energy cloud shrinks into a small ball of white light, hovering in the air. In a flash of blue light, the facility is consumed along with its surroundings.

The entire facility implodes with terrifying magnitude, and the implosion rocks the ground. The full force of the blast tears down on the tunnel, covering Hill's jeep with her still inside.

Barton's truck drives away, but Fury's helicopter hovers over it, and Fury opens fire with his pistol. Loki, in a fit of rage, fires an energy blast at the helicopter. The blast skims the helicopter and catches fire. He jumps out of the flaming helicopter seconds before it hits the ground and shreds itself into debris. Fury stands back up, dazed, and shoots at Loki, but they're too far away.

"Director? Director Fury, do you copy?" Coulson over a radio.

"The tesseract is with the hostile force. I have men down. Hill?" Fury speaks through his radio.

"A lot of men still under, don't know how many survivors," Hill answers through radio after climbing out of the wreckage of her jeep. "Sir, Gambit was..."

"Fury?.. I'm gonna need a new suit," Gambit's voice cuts Hill off. Gambit stands in the middle of a scorched crater looking down at his torn-up, singed and bloody suit.

"I'll see what I can do," Fury internally sighs in relief at hearing Gambit's voice. "Hill, sound the general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase."

"R-roger that," Hill says through the radio, shaking off her shock that Gambit was still alive even after getting shot by her.

"Coulson, get back to base. This is a Level Seven. As of right now, we are at... War."

"Just letting you all know, that son of bitch Loki's mine," Gambit growls through the radio.

"What do we do?" Coulson asks.

Fury looks up, a single thought crossing his mind.

"Shit," Gambit looks down at his clenched fists that are covered in fiery plasma, burning through his gloves and coat sleeves. He closes his glowing red eyes and takes a deep breath, exhaling slowly. He looks again and sees his hands back to normal with his gloves and coat sleeves burned off.

"We don't need any more accidents, Adrien." Gambit gives a hollow chuckle gazing up at the night sky mournfully.