Chapter IV – Skeletons in the Closet

New York City

It was Saturday morning, around nine o' clock, and it seemed that snow was falling. It was cold, and Christmas was approaching. Korra walked alone through the street of the Big Apple on her way to the house of gods. She had been told that there was something in her mind, like a wall blocking something…maybe old memories, secrets that she once knew, or…well, she didn't know. Captain America had invited her to the mansion to meet the Avengers, as a sort of reward for helping Hawkeye and Wasp, and to see what was going on inside her head.

Korra looked at the fence entrance of the mansion; she looked around for the intercom to ask permission to enter. It was right next to the fence door; she pressed the black button on it and heard it come on. "Um…hello?" She said nervously.

"Yes, who is this?" A man with a British accent asked from the other side of the intercom.

"My name is Korra, I was invited by Captain America." Korra replied.

"Ah yes, please come in." The intercom buzzed and the gates opened. Korra walked towards the opened gate and breathed in. She was going to step in into the mansion of gods, the place where marvelous things happened.

Before she even knocked on the door, it opened. On the other side, a rather older fellow greeted her. "Greetings, I am Edwin Jarvis, attendant and butler of the Avengers' Mansion." He said.

"Oh uh, hello." Korra responded.

"Follow me, miss." Jarvis said while he walked into the mansion's great living room, Korra followed. As she did she looked amazed at the number of paintings, statues and décor around the amazing mansion. It was as if she had stepped into a medieval lord's castle…but only more lavish. "Master Iron Man, Master Roger's guest is here." Jarvis said.

The heavy footsteps immediately froze Korra in place; she turned her head forward and saw the shining red and gold metal armor of the knight, the iron avenger himself. "I'll take it from here, Jarvis." Iron Man said, Jarvis bowed and left. "Good morning, I'm Iron Man. Official leader of the Avengers and personal friend of multi-billionaire Tony Stark of Stark Enterprises."

"Nice to meet you." Korra said shaking hands with the Iron Man. "Um, Captain American told me to come two weeks ago. He said that you could help me?"

"Cap is currently in a mission, but he did mention this to us. You have a mental block in your mind, and Prof. X can't seem to break it." Iron Man said.

"Yeah."

"Well, we do have experience with this sort of stuff. I'm not an expert, but maybe Hank can scan your brain's wavelengths and create a scientific hypothesis from it. Don't worry, Dr. Pym is not only a great giant but also a great geek." Iron Man said.

Hank's Lab, Avengers Mansion

"Thank you for saving my wife's life, Korra." Hank said as he placed several science things around Korra's body and head as she lied on a medical bed. "I don't know what I would've done if she had been hurt."

"No problem, I just…I just had to do something." Korra replied.

"You would fit right in around here." Hank said while looking at the screen next to Korra, "Alright, this machine will send small electrical surges into your head. They're harmless and won't hurt you; they will map out your brain like a wildfire however. This will make it easier for me to read the wavelengths coming from your head."

"Okay." Korra acknowledged with a bit of reluctance. Hank turned the machine on; Korra closed her eyes and felt a breeze pass on her head. But then she fell asleep…

Korra was hiding below pro-bending equipment, hiding from the footsteps that drew closer. She began to breathe heavier and faster as it approached. She watched as the shadow of her pursuer past by her…cold sweat ran down her forehead.

She sighed as the footsteps went away, but then she was pulled out. She felt her muscles and organs being pulled outwards, the deadly grip of a bloodbender. She could feel her whole body being constricted, from head to toe, she screamed in agony. Korra looked at the cold eyes behind the white mask, and she the only thing she could see…was anger.

Korra was screaming hysterically while Hank was trying to calm her down, she flung her arms around hitting Hank on the head. Janet, the Wasp, came in to help her husband, grabbing Korra's arm and keeping them still as she screamed. "What happened?!" Janet yelled.

"I don't know…everything was fine until she began to hyperventilate and scream out of nowhere!" Hank replied. Suddenly, Korra stopped screaming…her pillow soaked with sweat. Hank sighed and looked at the final results of the test.

"Anything?" Wasp asked.

"Her wavelengths are off the charts…something is going on inside that little head of her." Hank said.

"And they look to have been messed with." Hank said as he drank a cup of coffee. "I can't explain it."

"Where is she now?" Bruce Banner, otherwise known as the Incredible Hulk, asked. He had just arrived from a trip to the United Kingdom.

"In the bathroom…I'm worried about her." Janet said. "What if the test did something to her?"

"I doubt it…she must've experienced something hidden inside that mental block." Hank replied, "Something traumatic."

Korra was washing her hands, she was still thinking about what had happened. She didn't know what she had seen, she saw herself…but she was somewhere else. Not in New York City or in the United States…or anywhere else she knew and had been.

Then someone knocked at the door.

"Thor, what are you doing here? We thought that you were in Asgard on leave." Iron Man said as the God of Thunder entered the meeting hall joining the others. Behind the Asgardian was the man called Nova, one of the members of the Nova Corps.

"Sorry guys, we are on an Easter Egg hunt!" Nova said as he scanned every single corner of the room with his arm-data pad.

"Aye, Dr. Strange called us to locate an anomaly on Midgard. Nova and I have found it." Thor added.

"Here? In the mansion?" Hank asked.

"Yep. We must be closer, Thor go check over there." Nova said, Thor went to check the guest rooms with his hammer. Nova's data pad then began to blink, "Who's in the bathroom?"

"Hello, someone in there?" Someone asked from the other side. Taken by surprised, Korra dried her hands and opened the door. She encountered another armored man with blue armor and a golden helmet that looked like a bucket, with a star-like crest on it. "Oh…I think my data pad is broken."

"Um, who are you?" Korra asked.

"I'm Nova. Hold on…" Nova responded, he began to hover his data-pad over Korra. It beeped and beeped loudly. "I think it is broken."

"Nova-man, Iron Man said you found the anomaly." Thor said running towards his fellow hero. He looked at Korra, "This? This is the anomaly?"

"Anomaly? What are you talki…wait, hold the phone. You're Thor!" Korra said once she realized who the blonde, tall and muscly man was. "You're much taller in person."

"Nova, my friend, is thy scanner machine busted?" Thor asked.

"I…I think so." Nova said. Thor shook his head and instead used Mjolnir to see if Korra was the anomaly.

"Odin's beard, she is the anomaly." Thor said in surprise.

"What anomaly?" Korra asked again.

"About three weeks ago, Dr. Strange called us to find a disturbance in the universe. He sent us to look for the anomaly…he believed that it would be dangerous. Now we know that our anomaly is barely as tall as Bruce." Nova informed the rest of the Avengers. Korra was told to wait in the living room and wait for a decision.

"That explains the oddity of the wavelength test. Anything else?" Iron Man asked.

"No, not really. That girl is different…not part of our reality, according to Dr. Strange and Thor's hammer." Nova answered. "So, what do we do?"

"Nothing." Captain America said as he entered the meeting hall, "She is just a girl, obviously not a risk to our universe."

"But Cap, she almost killed Whirlwind with a gust of air…" Wasp said.

"But she didn't, I'm not saying that we shouldn't keep an eye on her…what I'm saying is to let her live her life. A higher power has placed her in our world for a reason, and we should welcome her now. She is one of us now." Capt. America said, his words of wisdom resonated throughout those in the room.

"I'm going to inform Dr. Strange of what we found." Nova said as he left.

"You think you gonna be okay?" Capt. America said as he accompanied Korra to the front door.

"Yeah, it was scary at first but now…I feel better." Korra looked at her watch, it was evening and the sun was setting. "I better get going, thanks for everything Cap."

"It's what I do, anything you need don't be afraid to tell me or the others about it." Capt. America told her. Korra then began to think about her personal and evil stalker, should she tell Cap about him? She didn't and left the mansion, Cap noticed that she was going to ask him something.

Korra needed to get home quick, even though she was around a lot of people in the busy city, she felt vulnerable. He could be hiding anywhere, as anyone. She looked up at the buildings in the streets, in the shadows she could see something move. Korra gasped and quickly walked home, she tried not to run in order not to freak the other people out.

She needed to stop this freak, she didn't care that she feared this monster. Korra was going to conquer her fears this time. She headed towards an alleyway and waited. It was now incredibly dark with the sun gone, and Korra began to become nervous. She could see something moving in the darkness.

Then symbiotic tentacles appeared from her behind her and pulled her into the dark. "Hello there, it's good to see you again." Venom said as he stared into Korra's blue eyes. Her voice was muffled by the symbiote. "I see that you just came from the Avengers' Mansion…I hope you didn't tell them anything about…us."

Korra yelled, or tried to, but she couldn't. "I've been thinking, if we are to…see ourselves more often we must establish trust. And what is trust without getting all of the skeletons out of the closet?" Venom said, the symbiote on his face retreated revealing his real face. Korra's eyes widened upon seeing the person that had been stalking her.

"I hope that talking face to face like this is better for you instead of speaking to the tongue and teeth of the other me. But anyway, I am Venom…I am Eddie Brock." Brock said with a smirk. He allowed Korra to speak.

"W-Why?" She asked with a broken voice full of fear.

"Couple of reasons actually, maybe I just want that wonderful recipe your mom uses to cook that amazing artic chicken or maybe is something else. Imma let you figure it out." Brock replied, but then he felt another presence. It was swinging over them, the shadow stuck to the wall of the building to the right and wallcrawled towards them.

"Korra!" It screamed.

"Parker!" Brock responded as his face transformed back to that of Venom. "You are ruining this moment!"

Out of the shadows came out the amazing Spider-Man, he jumped onto Venom kicking him on the face forcing him to release Korra, who fell on the floor. "Agh!" She grunted on she hit the ground.

"Eddie, I know you're in there you have to fight the symbiote! Bro, please!" Spider-Man asked his dark counterpart.

"THERE IS NO MORE EDDIE BROCK, THERE IS ONLY VENOM!" Venom yelled back slapping Spider-Man away, before Spidey could counter Venom was already gone. Spider-Man, seeing that the danger was over, focused his attention to Korra who was sitting next to the brick alley wall holding her head.

"Are you okay?" Spider-Man asked her. He took off his mask knowing that there was no point in keeping it on after Eddie yelled his name right in front of Korra.

"I..I'll be fine, Peter. I mean, Spider-Man…" Korra was still shaken up, she didn't care that Peter was Spider-Man.

"I've been tracking Venom all over the city…then my spider-sense detected someone in danger…I didn't know it was you. Listen, you don't have to be afraid of him anymore, I'll make sure of that." Peter said. "Let me take you home, please."

"I…I was so terrified…I thought I could…stop him. But…" Korra said as tears fell down her cheeks. "I felt so helpless…I couldn't do anything…"

"No, you're not helpless. Remember what you did to Whirlwind? I think you're more powerful than what you think you are. Just hear it coming from me, that geeky kid in your math class." Peter tried to cheer her up. Korra smiled and stood up.

"Maybe I need some help in getting these hidden powers out." Korra said wiping the tears away.

"That's the spirit!" Peter replied putting his mask back on. "Let's get you back home."