She awoke to the feeling of something warm and wet methodically rubbing her face. Shishido cracked open her orange eyes. The pink tongue continued to lick pale violet skin as the Troll growled, one hand rising to push the white lion's muzzle away. Choutaro grumbled but gave his mistress the room she needed. The Hunter was awake, and that had been his goal.
'Shido quickly got to her two-toed feet, checking to make sure her bow and quiver were still securely in place. Satisfied that her weaponry was fine, the Hunter turned her attention to her surroundings. She was standing in an alley between two very tall brick buildings. One end of the alley featured a high wall, while the other opened onto a road upon which some very strange horseless vehicles were travelling. There were also people walking by. The Humans never so much as glanced down the alley, which suited 'Shido just fine. She had no love for that race, and so far they appeared to be the only ones around.
Choutaro nudged her with his head, giving a questioning look when the Troll turned her attention to him.
"You gotta point, 'Taro," she said to her pet, scratching behind his ear. "We be needin' ta move ta higher ground."
'Shido eyed the series of metal platforms connected by ladders that went up the side of the buildings. She could climb it easily, but her pet would take some coaxing. If Choutaro were a normal lion, he'd never have dreamed of climbing ladders. But the white beast wasn't "normal" by any means…he was a Hunter's pet. 'Taro was smarter than the average beast, and well trained in many tasks never considered by a wild creature. He could climb the ladders, though it would take a little time.
"We be goin' up, 'Taro," 'Shido said as she pulled down the lowest ladder. "Ya watch yer step, mon. I don't wanna be trainin' no new lion."
The pair scaled the fire escape fairly quickly given that one of them lacked opposable thumbs. Upon reaching the top, 'Shido's eyes widened in shock. This place was without doubt the largest city she'd ever seen! Impossibly tall buildings seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see in most directions. Beyond the buildings she saw a vast body of water that disappeared into the horizon. The Troll realized that wherever she was, it was important that she stay away from the Human population as she searched for her missing companions. Perhaps it would be best if they stayed to the rooftops.
No one took notice of the two men in dark suits as they entered the alley. The shorter man reached into the pocket of his jacket and withdrew a small device that resembled a cell phone. After a moment of observing the display screen and poking buttons, he turned to his companion.
"This is definitely the origin point for the anomaly," he said as he looked up from the scanner. "There is a residual energy reading, but it's fading rapidly."
The shorter man nodded to show he'd heard as his eyes continued to roam the alley, scrutinizing every inch. There was no sign of anything obviously out of the ordinary. He looked up at the fire escape and paused.
"That's odd," the shorter man muttered to himself as he reached towards the ladder. With a gentle tug, he removed a tuft of white hair from it had been wedged in one of the rungs.
"Find something?" The taller man put the scanner back in his jacket pocket as he approached his partner.
"Perhaps. This will need to be tested before we know for sure." The short man looked up towards the roof of the building. One glance at his eyes and it was obvious he was considering the chances of something related to the energy readings climbing up the side of the structure. "If this hair belongs to something that came out of that portal, then it's probably safe to assume whatever it was went high."
"I'll let Headquarters know what we found," the taller Agent responded, pulling a phone from his pocket. "Let's head to the next site." With one final look around the alley, the two men departed.
Rhewi landed with a yelp. It took a moment for the Mage to right herself. Upon regaining her footing, the brown-furred Worgen realized she was in some sort of large clothing shop. Never before had she seen so much ready-made clothing in one place. The humans, on the other hand, were nothing new. Rhewi had long since gotten used to being looked upon with fear and suspicion. The screaming still hurt her sensitive canine ears, and these particular humans were doing a lot of that. Obviously these people couldn't tell a Gilnean from a feral Worgen. They were running away from her in panic, scattering like sheep from a wolf.
Someone shouted nearby, the commanding tone drawing the Worgen's attention. Two men were rapidly approaching her location. Both held what Rhewi assumed to be weapons in their hands. She decided not to hang around to find out what the strange devices did. Bad memories surfaced to hasten the Worgen's retreat. She moved between the racks of clothing quickly, ducking low to better hide from the eyes of the pursuing humans. Once out of sight, she dove into the center of a circular clothing rack that concealed her from view.
Rhewi took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down now that she was in relative safety. She concentrated on slowing her pounding heart and letting the adrenaline fade out of her system. Her lupine form began to shrink and melt away. In seconds a young human woman knelt where once a Worgen crouched. Rhewi had only just finished her transformation when the clothing of her hiding spot parted. Startled eyes looked into the face of one of the armed humans. He said something she didn't understand. Focusing on the strange words, she muttered a spell under her breath. The man looked puzzled as he spoke again.
"Do you speak English, Miss?"
"Yes!" Rhewi responded with enthusiasm. "Sorry. What did you say before? I'm a bit flustered and didn't hear you clearly."
The man gave her what might pass for an understanding smile. She was fairly certain he was just humoring the emotional woman since that false sympathy failed to reach his eyes.
"Are you alright? Did you see where the werewolf went?"
"Werewolf?" Rhewi was puzzled by the strange word, but assumed that was what these people called Worgen. Certainly, she was very wolf-like in her true form. "Um…I think it ran that way," she answered, pointing in a random direction. The man nodded and ordered her to exit the building immediately before rushing off. The Mage released a relieved breath as the man hurried out of view. She sent silent thanks to her old Master for insisting she learn that universal translation spell. This moment alone made it well worth all those hours spent in study.
Getting to her feet, Rhewi looked about for an exit. She saw a set of doors with a sign above them in glowing red text. The Translation Spell didn't work on writing, but the doors were glass and she could clearly see sunlight and people on the other side. That must be the way out of the building. As she made her escape she paused briefly to grab a long coat from one of the racks. While that one man hadn't seemed to notice that she was dressed in the same garb as the "werewolf," others might just prove more observant. Rhewi had also noticed that her robes were very different from the local fashions, and it wouldn't do for her to attract unnecessary attention. So she wrapped the dark gray coat about herself, gestured obscenely at the store's interior, and exited the building.
"What did I do to deserve this?"
The young man's voice echoed in the darkness of the tunnel. His sandy-blonde hair was cut short and combed back. The dark suit was neatly pressed with not a speck of lint visible, but his dress shoes were ruined. His darker companion's footwear was in a similar state thanks to their trek through New York City's sewer system. Neither was particularly interested in thinking about exactly what it was they were stepping in.
"One," the older man began, "you are a Junior Agent and subject to less than glamorous assignments. Two, you specifically are here because of that mouth of yours. I heard all about the incident in the cafeteria the other day."
The blonde's face flushed with mild embarrassment at the memory. He hadn't meant for that comment to be overheard. Really, he hadn't! It was just a joke! It wasn't his fault that no one had bothered to warn him about the Senior Agent standing right behind him.
"So why are you here, then," he asked, trying to shift the focus off himself and his embarrassment.
But the dark-skinned Agent was paying little attention to his young partner's whining. The brown eyes studied the scanner in his hand with great intensity as he responded. "Someone had to come along and keep you in line, kid. I drew the short straw."
The two men had been sent out with other teams to check a series of anomalous energy readings which had been detected across the city. So far they'd found nothing more unusual than fading energy signatures. This latest anomaly had flared up deep in the sewers, much to their displeasure.
"These readings are stronger than at the previous sites," the older Agent stated, still focused on his scanner. "It was a more powerful surge than the others. Keep your eyes open." The dark man paused as the scanner beeped to indicate they'd reached the source of the strange readings. Both men observed the area with the aid of their flashlights.
"Nothing here," the young blonde stated after a few moments. "We should move on to the next site. Get a change of shoes on the way."
"You need to get your eyes checked, kid," the older Agent replied, his tone scolding. "Someone's been here recently." He crouched down, pointing his flashlight at a depression in the grime on the ground. "See this? A human, or something human-like, had to have made this print. Rats don't have feet that big even if they did wear shoes."
"Well, there's obviously not anyone here now," the young man grumbled. He just wanted to get out of the sewers. His partner was not amused.
"And this is why you are going to remain a Junior Agent for the foreseeable future. You don't like the assignment so you rush the job and miss important information." The darker man stood and turned to glare at the petulant blonde. "Keep up this attitude and you will be an EX-Agent, understand?"
The younger man opened his mouth, but his response was suddenly cut off as a bolt of purple energy slammed into his chest. The older Agent spun and drew his sidearm, moving just in time to avoid another blast. His skin tingled as the energy bolt crackled past his shoulder. Several gunshots rang out, the echo deafening in the confines of the tunnel. In the silence that followed, the Agent looked to his fallen partner. The young blonde's chest was still sizzling; the scent of charred flesh hanging thick in the air. There was no need to check for a pulse. The Junior Agent was dead.
It took only seconds to check the blonde's condition, but that was long enough. A heavy weight slammed into the dark man's side, knocking him to the ground. Something clamped down painfully on his hand as sharp teeth tore at his throat. The Agent didn't even have time to scream as the strange beast tore him to pieces.
The creature lifted its blood-coated head from the carcass as a cloaked figure emerged from the shadows. The stranger's approach was met with a low hiss. A gloved hand came to rest on the smooth head in an almost affectionate manner. Humorless lips smiled cruelly beneath the concealing hood.
"Well done, my pet. Now let us follow their trail out of these catacombs."
The beast growled as it sniffed the air and began to stalk down the path the two men had come by, its Master close behind.
Agent Phil Coulson was Not Pleased. The day had begun in a routine manner. Breakfast, report to the office, do paperwork; just like the day before. And then someone decided to blow up Brooklyn.
The culprit had been subdued quickly, in part because his own technology proved to be unstable. S.H.I.E.L.D. had sent Captain America and Thor to handle the situation when the madman first appeared. Only one city block had suffered damage by the time the fighting was over. The robot itself had exploded in a most impressive display, the flash of colors temporarily blinding all those who witnessed it. The madman piloting it, however, had somehow managed to escape. Or possibly he'd been vaporized in the explosion, but Agent Coulson was not overly optimistic for that outcome. Agents were presently searching for the insane scientist. At least the mechanical monstrosity had proven more destructive to its creator than to the general populace.
The down side to the morning's events was arranging clean-up and dealing with the fallout. Preliminary investigation had revealed that the weapon used some sort of trans-dimensional technology. The thing obviously hadn't functioned as intended, but it'd still made life far more complicated for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agents. Numerous small anomalies had been detected across the city. They only remained for a few seconds at most, but the residual energy readings had been enough to determine that these anomalies were rifts in reality. The thought of portals opening in New York City had prompted immediate action. Agents had been sent out to check each and every site where an anomaly was detected to ensure nothing came through. The last thing the city needed was another Chitauri incident.
Agent Coulson watched as the last of the robot wreckage was loaded into a truck for transport to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. Hopefully there was enough left intact for the scientists to determine exactly what the faulty weapon was supposed to do. Somehow, Coulson didn't think blowing itself up and opening micro-portals was in the original blueprints.
He opened his eyes to Chaos. This in and of itself wasn't unusual. He reveled in chaos, especially if he was the cause. But this…
The last thing the Satyr remembered was watching his portal "explode" in a flash of rainbow light. He crouched low, hidden behind a large metal container, and watched. There was so much dust and smoke in the air it was hard to see more than a few yards in any direction. Pieces of metal were smoldering around him. Voices shouting in an unfamiliar language reached his long, pointed ears. "Probably best to avoid the locals," he thought. At least until the language barrier had been dealt with. The Satyr had something of a silver tongue that had saved his hide on more than one occasion.
Something moved in the rubble to his left. A human male was struggling to get out from under a chunk of metal that might have once belonged to a large machine. The Satyr's eyes narrowed as he realized the man was close enough to reach without revealing himself to anyone else. A clawed hand reached out and pressed against the human's forehead. The Satyr hissed a few words and the human screamed as knowledge was ripped from his mind. The clawed hand withdrew, its owner giving the injured human an appraising look. The Satyr had taken Language from the Human's mind, and also seen a few recent thoughts and images that proved most intriguing.
"You built a machine that makes portals? Speak quickly, Human," the Satyr growled menacingly.
"I…ye…yes. Yes! Who are you?" The brown eyes were full of fear, but also curiosity. The Satyr's reply was interrupted by sounds of movement nearby. Someone was approaching, and from the look on the human's face it wasn't an ally. The Satyr made a quick decision and shoved the metal wreckage off the human, lifting the man to his feet.
"You will take me someplace we can speak without interruption. Tell me of this portal machine I saw in your mind. Then I shall decide if you are worth leaving alive," the cold voice growled into the human's ear. The man swallowed, gave one glance towards the voices, and nodded. He motioned for the Satyr to follow and quickly lead the way into a damaged building. From there they escaped under the cover of smoke and dust. They had much to discuss.