"Reports of a disturbance sir, your orders Agent Smith?"

"I can't believe I got stuck with you again. Patrolling this city's street for ET's isn't my idea of a fun night out. Oh, you realise that this means the cube is still in the state too, Jameson?"

"Ditto and affirmative. It's still in New York, which is great...this state is huge."

"Be thankful it's not Texas, anyway current reports state this disturbance bears remarkable similarities from that of nearly two weeks ago too. You copy, that Agent Smith?"

"The blue assassin now turned rogue, Agent Jameson?"

"Yeah, actually he was more of a ninja. Your orders Sir?"

"My orders come from the top from Agent Hill and Fury..." *the radio crackles* "-Got it, detain and apprehend only...I repeat apprehend only. No tasers, no firing and no tranquilliser darts." *radio crackles* "-we can't afford another incident like last time."

"Roger that, what good is an extra terrestrial if he's spread across Times Square."

"Hey, that wasn't my fault, he just stepped into the road."

"That's because you shot him with darts!"

"I apologised for that. Anyway what area is the disturbance?"

*Radio crackles again* "97th Street, East Harlem."

"HARLEM, SHIT, MOVE MOVE...move now...NOW!"

"Get your hands off them..." He hissed and fought against the two restraining him.

"See the th-thing is-" Cole stated breathlessly after he'd received a harsh bruising punch to his unsuspecting abs and rib cage. His eyes were squeezed shut as he concentrated on his breathing, "-you really don't know who you're up against."

The gun which had been tucked into one of the thugs waist bands was being pointed at Zane.

Cole didn't want to hazard a guess as to how many bullets would be in the magazine. He figured it would be enough to cut his life short and the lives of his team though. No sooner had they punched him, his hands had gone under his black hoodie. A half-hearted attempt to sooth the ache that now resided there courtesy of a brutal knuckle duster punch and one that had made contact with a few ribs. "You're making a mistake."

"Not so tough without all your weapons are ya? Are you Chinese Triad or Japanese Yakuza?"

"Dude, they're all dressed like ninja, they've gotta be Yakuza."

"Yeah well they aint carrying much cept for these weapons. Reckon they were planning on shitting on our territory."

"Yeah, this aint China town pretty boy."

"China Town?" Cole grunted.

Confusion on his face as the thug grabbed his hair and yanked him back into the wall. It was laughable, Cole was bulkier than the one holding him up, it was just sheer exhaustion that was preventing him from lashing out in anger and the winding blows that kept him hunched over.

The thing is; the thugs had no idea that Cole's fists were both glowing. A beautiful warming bright orange glow that seemed to brighten exponentially the longer they kept him pinned against the dumpster. "We-we're neither..." Cole wheezed.

Cole nor his team knew what the Hell these thugs were on about. They'd literally just arrived on this rock and had already been apprehended by scumbags who thought they could pick on lesser people than themselves. In this instance they had chosen wrong, Cole was just biding his time.

He looked up briefly. Sweat was beginning to bead on his forehead. Of course, it wasn't just him that felt rotten. Kai had passed out, Lloyd was panting harshly on the floor and Nya didn't look any better as she slumped against her brother.

Zane was the only one who was still upright, but he was glitching slightly, "Cole? PIXAL?" He mumbled and his face showed a worried expression when she gave him no response, even more so when he saw Cole being assaulted.

He wanted to approach and help but his systems couldn't work out the likelihood of how successful his tactic would be. And Cole was fast losing the will to remain upright. It was like his own systems were preventing him from functioning, to even move forwards and help.

Cole could see what Zane was trying to do but he knew that it was too risky for Zane to attempt anything. They were powerless, completely and utterly exhausted.

To passers by, they could have looked like a group of party goers, who's probably had a little too much of the good stuff. The only thing that looked out of place was the clothing choice and the sheer amount of weaponry on each individual.

Daylight hours, there would have been a huge issue and commotion caused, it wasn't that long ago that a certain blue ninja had arrived in the same manner. But this was almost the dead of night. The barest flicker of life walked past; namely the drunken youth who'd been partying too hard. A few old teens glimpsed into the alley and carried on walking.

Cole was flabbergasted, he had no choice now.

"Zane don't..." Cole warned, "Stay with them," He wasn't stupid, nor was he naive. He knew that even in Ninjago he couldn't just walk into dark alleys at night at not expect to get into a little fisticuffs with someone.

The thing is, back in Ninjago, Cole would have been able to take them on. But since that horrendous journey here, they were all worn out, physically and mentally exhausted.

Zane remained back. Even he couldn't understand what had happened. The feeling that his CPU and internal processing drives were trying to piece together what they all been subjected to when they travelled here was taking up his rational thinking.

A single punch was all it took.

He lashed out in self defence and in doing so, he knocked the blade right out of the accomplice's hand. It skittered across the floor and ended up under another dumpster. The thugs eyes had watched it too, they saw the blade flying through the air but were too slow to react as Cole's glowing fist carried on through the arc hitting both jaws with two simultaneous sickening cracks that echoed mercilessly down the dark alley.

He only just managed to stop himself from breaking all his metacarpals on the wall when his movements paused. Instead of punching into a much more substantial wall his fist stopped and he scraped his knuckles down the bare bricks, cringing as he did so to prevent him from following through with his elemental glowing fist.

When he finally got control of his body, he took a quick glance of his surroundings. Cole had noticed that the two youngish thugs had face planted into the wall so hard that they had probably broken their noses but he didn't get a chance to see the finished articles.

Often he enjoyed seeing the devastation that these glowing fists of his could cause in Ninjago but here, the effect in this place was phenomenal.

As soon as the punch had made contact and he felt no more danger, his legs had quickly lost their strength. He looked to his brothers and Nya, Zane was slumped against the wall, his cyan blue eyes flickering. Nya was on the floor, Lloyd and Kai were too.

His eyes became heavy and just before he blacked out, he saw a large amount of cars pulling up directly outside the back street. Now heavily armed men with laser sights were all pointing their firearms into the alleyway.

"You care to tell me what happened?"

"You care to tell me where you've taken us?" Cole countered.

"Triskelion, SHEILD HQ."

He wasn't expecting an answer, let alone a truthful one. But, regardless how he currently felt about their predicament. The signs spoke for themselves. It was called the Triskelion...and it was huge.

There were two men, both with full body combat gear. They looked like they'd just come in from a overseas mission, still had dirt on their knee pads, Even their black boots were mildly dusty. One of the bulky men offered Cole a drink of straw coloured water. He turned his nose up at it and sniffed it first .

"It's an energy drink." The brown haired man said and slammed down a plastic beaker.

It hit the formica table so hard Cole was surprised it hadn't left a crack on either. Still not intimidated, he took the beaker and poured the carbonated drink.

Cole noted that both bulky men wore utility combat get up, biceps and everything on show. They were obviously proud of their bodies otherwise why would they be showing off so much of it?

"Agent Rollins, in case you were looking for a name badge." He said with a stoic expression.

"We just arrived here, like...what time is it?" Cole asked with a look of confusion on his face. His watch was going mad. The second hand had fallen off and the minutes hand was going the same way. The hour hand on his timepiece was spinning like a stop watch and he was oddly mesmerised by it.

"The time is-" he pressed a button without removing his eyes from Cole's, "-21.59."

"Where did you come from Cole?"

Cole was taken aback, he figured that one of his brothers had been far too giving on the information front which made this whole thing so much easier. Introductions were always the worst and he figured Zane might have been the one to spill the beans.

"We came from the same place as our brother Jay, we came to rescue him from...wh-where am I?"

"New York, obviously." He said with distrustful look, "Where are you from?"

"Not here, "Cole said rolling his eyes, "This is fast becoming a stale mate, where are my brothers?"

The other heavily armed man stood up from his slouching position on the wall. "Your brothers? Team mates, whatever. They're all in the interrogation room's."

The sound of a key card being used to open the door from the other side was heard. Cole was a little relieved to see a more friendly dressed man, although this one seemed to carry a smallish manilla folder with him. He said nothing either. Just sat down in front and opened the folder, keeping his fingers next to his right ear on occasion.

"Cole, I'm led to believe?"

"Yeah, and you are?"

"Agent Coulson, SHIELD."

"And SHIELD are?" Cole was growing bored.

He smiled, "It stands for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. We're better known by the acronym S.H.I.E.L.D."

"What does SHIELD do?" Cole asked as he finished his sweet energy drink and placed the plastic tumbler down. He felt like a school child being given a plastic sippy cup.

"SHIELD, is a United States extra-governmental military counter-terrorism and intelligence agency. We're tasked with maintaining global security." His face was heavily scrutinising Cole as he spoke. "We maintain global security-" he repeated leaning in closer.

Global security, from the likes of him and his team perchance? He was more apprehensive now. "I'm not here to threaten you, we've just come to get our brother back."

"Cole, do you know the principle S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded upon?"

He shook his head and sat more upright as Agent Coulson's eyes bored into his, "No, should I?"

Coulson released a dangerous laugh. A deep sigh and a charming smile followed, "Protection. One word." He said and pressed a button which revealed some form of holographic display to appear n front of Cole's face. It was almost like being back with Cyrus Borg and the type of tech that he'd be creating.

Cole could see in a matter of seconds that they weren't in Ninjago anymore. This was like the scene from one of the Starfarer's movies or one of their games consoles depicting their favourite superhero. This was surreal.

A flying man wearing red and gold, it partially reminded him of Zane but this one had rocket propulsion on his hands and feet. He guessed that maybe Borg could make some adaptations to Zane if needs be. Then there was the appearance of a tornado in the middle of a dessert and the startling vision of a shiny metallic man who walked out of it.

It looked like something was recording this footage from a shaky handheld device and then there were airborne shots, likely from a helicopter. Cole was more relived that they were just as advanced as his home world. He wondered if they had flying ships too.

He narrowed his gaze at the jumpy images and saw the definite appearance of a man with a long red cloak. The dude looked like he was chiselled out of marble. He was so buff he almost put Cole to shame. Well, he'd put Kai and Lloyd to shame, Jay for certain. This man looked like a god.

"Sometimes, to protect one man against himself, other times to protect the planet against an alien invasion from another universe [...] but the belief that drives us all is the same, whether it's one man, or all mankind."

"That they're worth saving."

"That was the last extraterrestrial species we had arrive here, un-nanounced a year ago." He stated with a stoic expression, "-Until a few weeks past." He finished, looking entirely at Cole. Dark blue eyes questioning, waiting for a flicker of emotion.

Cole was glued to the screen, passing his hands through it. "Is this laser technology? Cool, we have this too," he said, removing his hands seemingly unconcerned with what the agent was saying. "Uh, so who was that guy?"

Coulson narrowed his gaze, "Thor!" he said quickly. Now gauging if Cole knew anything of Norse myth. "God of thunder? Asgardian prince? Lives on another realm?"

"Yeah, you can say as much as you want, but I've still no clue who you're talking about?"

"I have evidence to suggest that you too, aren't from earth."

"No shit!" Cole said, leaning back on his plastic chair, "-I've been trying to ask where I am for the best part of three hours but these dudes aren't talking."

He laughed softly to himself, "guessing you'd be referring to Jay when you mentioned all that spiel about no alien activity until a week ago?"

"Aliens, now that's a term we don't like to use. We're professionals here, not unlike yourselves and those unique abilities you all seem to have."

"Are you referring to Jay then?" Cole said, slight apprehension on his face. Nothing had been mentioned about about Jay. No one had said anything.

Coulson's face was unreadable, "Actually, No..." a snide smirk appeared on his face, "I was referring to these creatures, but as you've so kindly admitted,"

The screen showed some rather strange looking biped creatures and the appearance of such made Cole recoil with their odd look. He wasn't scared as such, he'd been up against far worse looking creatures back on the real of Ninjago, the serpentine, stone and nindroid armies came to mind. The time twins seemed relatively friendly compared to these guys.

"What are they?"

"Reptilian humanoids," Coulson said and passed a few pictures to Cole that depicted a few in their fighting stances. "We know that they have a bio-mechanical physiology and superhuman attributes, but they lack durability."

"You want us to help, don't you?" Cole grumbled. He looked up at the two armed men. "Is it just me that you're watching over?"

Rollins and Rumlow were keeping guard by the door. Both SHIELD mercs were standing watching him like a hawk and both were armed to the teeth with AWSM's and Ruger side arms. Not that it mattered to Cole. A gun was a gun, no matter the realm...it would hurt no less if he was shot here or there.

"I admit, it would be beneficial to have you all on the same sheet, as it were," he said and passed Cole a photo of none other than Jay.

"Wh-why, what happened to him?" Cole sputtered his words. Jay looked a bruised and battered wreck. The photo showed him smiling with a look of homicidal glee on his face. Surrounded on one side by an archer and the other side by a man with a green cloak and golden horns. "Who the fu...who is that?"

"The brother of Thor," Coulson added.

"And who are they?" Cole asked again. His mind had been blown open with all of this information. Here was Cole thinking that they were all alone on Ninjago, only to find out that in fact they were, anything but.

"The Chituari," Coulson repeated. he swiped his security card and it revealed a very detailed video image.

Cole thought that the image far surpassed that of Borg's creations, it was incredibly futuristic.

"We have good evidence to to know that their technology ranges from hovercraft-like skimmers and Necrocraft. Of course, it helps to have people in the know, people who have come up against these extraterrestrials before."

"We'll that's not me or my brothers..."

"No," Coulson said, "I never intimated that they were, jumpy aren't you?" He narrowed his eyes again and chuckled but it was insincere and he could see that Cole felt on edge. "I was referring to another, but that's not important right now."

Cole's eyebrow rose, when Brock Rumlow gave him another can of redbull, "You'll need it, it's an energy drink."

"You got a sponsorship deal huh?" Cole said with a grin as he looked at the proffered can. Turning back to look at the smart suited man, "-so, tell me about these dudes..."

Coulson frowned at the casual tone afforded to such mindless killers, "Chitauri?"

Cole nodded, taking a drink and seemingly enjoying it. He didn't put it down he held onto it for dear life, "The Chi-tuari, you were saying?"

The suited agent, patient as ever, cleared his throat and began again, "-they travel on living airborne troop carriers, commonly called Leviathans and we are fairly certain that their soldiers have a neural link with a large mothership that may be just out of our solar system."

"That makes no sense, so like a worm hole or something?" Cole mused and looked more at the picture of his unrecognisable brother.

Coulson shrugged, "-possibly, we haven't explored all plausible options but sources say that is a possibility. We know they are capable of communicating without the need for intergalactic devices, neural link seems plausible."

"Yeah, I heard you mention something about a hive mind," Cole said rolling the thin can in his fingers, "-it's not the first time we've come against that term before."

"Hive mind, hmm, that would make them seem like the types you would normally overlook because of lack of thinking for themselves?" He said as he passed Cole a file that was solely on Jay since his corruption.

"A neural link gives them the edge. They can act of their own with or without the need for their mothership, they don't need direction unlike I would hazard a guess, a hive mind would?"

Cole stifled a yawn.

"Tired Cole?" Coulson smiled. "It'll be a busy day for your team, come tomorrow," He stated, motioning the the two large men, " The director of SHIELD wants to interrogate you, all of you," he said as he nodded to the two armed men. Watching as they assisted Cole in standing.

"When Loki came through the same portal that you did, he looked like crap too."

"Gee thanks," Cole grumbled as he was hoisted up to standing, "You probably would as well."

"Sleep well Cole, tomorrow this interview will continue."

Thanks for the reviews SHADART and the lady Mayor of Ninjago city

This side story has been going around my head for a while...well since DoTD. They quite possibly got the idea of Cole's glowing fists from Marvel's Iron fist comic circa 1974.