About an hour later, the jets carrying the new heroes finally arrived at the Helicarrier, waiting high over the ocean. As soon as they landed, their passengers immediately got out, and examining their surroundings, saw the other heroes as they walked out. To their surprise, a medical team rushed out to one of the jets and carried out a stretcher with a still unconscious Karmi lying on it.
"Geez, what happened to her?" asked Chris Maverick as he and Captain Marvel walked out.
"Not sure," Captain Marvel replied, "Let's go ask." She led him over to the jet the medics went to, approaching the other two heroes that came out of it: one was a boy about Chris' age in a lab coat and torn black pants, the other was in a high tech suit with a helmet that resemble an insect's. This one Chris had recognized as the size changing hero, Ant-Man.
"Scott," Captain Marvel said to Ant-Man, "What's with the girl?"
"She got electrocuted by a security bot," said the lab coat guy, "She's hurt real bad."
"Gee, that sucks." Chris said, then holding out his hand to the boy, "I'm Chris Maverick, by the way. You must be Jake Connors."
Jake shook his hand: "Oh, yeah, you're the guy with the alien parasite thing."
"PARASITE?!" the symbiote said, his head shooting out of Chris' shoulder and getting in Jake's face: "Let's get one thing straight here, I am no parasite, an anyone who calls me otherwise is gonna GET IT!"
"Alright, alright, sorry!" Jake said.
"Assimilate, not the best first impression." Chris said, pulling he symbiote back, "Sorry about that, he tends to get a bit sensitive around that word."
"So I've heard," Jake said, "We should probably go meet with the others. We are going to be a team after all."
With that, the two went inside the Helicarrier, where they were each led into a meeting room, where Nick Fury waited for them. As each of the heroes took their seats, Fury began: "I know that this is a lot for some of you to take in, being called in so suddenly, but right now we may have a serious threat." He pulled up a screen showing security footage of Shade's first appearance, and continued: "As you may have already read in the datapads, we recently got another visitor from space. Now while we don't know what Shade's intentions are here, we can only assume they're hostile by the way he attacked our agents. Your mission is to either take him down or send him packing back into space with more than a few painful reminders."
"With all due respect," Crimson Crusader asked, "But why us? Doesn't S.H.I.E.L.D. already have many hero teams to call in?"
"We do," Fury replied, "But we also like to bring in future teams as well. Agent Coulson thought that you all as a team would already be strong enough to take on some tough threats, although we do have one unexpected add-on." He said, pointing to the new Doc Ock. He continued: "I don't fully trust you yet, but for the sake of the moment, I will allow you to join."
"Great," Liz said, "Can you take these stupid cuffs off then?" She asked, holding up her still cuffed hands. Fury nodded, and an agent walked over and undid the cuffs.
"So, do we have any idea where this Shade is now?" Nightlock asked.
"Not at the moment," Fury said, "But we are looking right now. He can't have gotten far from his last location."
"Well," Ock said, "Do you have anything related to his physical form, like a skin or blood sample?"
"Nothing too major," Fury replied, "We were only able to collect a few skin samples. Why?"
"I think I know what she's trying to get at," Jake said, "We can take the reading output from the samples and apply it to every scanning satellite that you have access to."
"Exactly!" Ock said, lighting up, "That way, you'll be able to narrow your field a lot faster."
Fury nodded in understanding, then said, "I'll have some of our agents get started on that once we're done this meeting. For right now, just try and break the ice with each other. The sooner you guys get ti know each other, the sooner you will work better as a team."
Just then, Agent Hill ran in, saying, "Fury, we got a transmission from Iron Man."
"Patch it through," Fury said. The screen behind him changed to show Tony Stark's face.
"What is it, Stark?" Fury asked.
"Well, I went to check out that site around Boston, like you said," Stark said, "And I found some kind of crash site. It's definitely alien. Not only that, but I got two more objects coming in fast, one from the sky, and the other from the land. One's definitely alien, the other, I'm not so sure. I'm definitely gonna need some backup though."
"Understood, I'll send the new team in." Fury said, and then the transmission cut out. Fury then turned to the team: "Looks like it's time for your first mission. Gear up."
…
Meanwhile, Shade was on the move through the Boston country side, heading for the crash site. He had found it by tapping into the satellites back on Musutafu and had then hitched a ride on top of an airline heading for the states. As he ran through the field, he stopped as he got a new transmission. Activating the hologram projector, he saw the figure of a deep blue Trisectoid siting on a throne. His frill was larger and more regal, indicating that he was royalty. It was the Trisectoid conqueror, Dex'tro. Shade knelt before the hologram: "Yes, my leader?"
"My client is getting impatient," Dex'tro said, "You'd better have the target soon."
"I have found it and am on my way to claim it now." Shade said.
"You'd better be, this client is very determined to get this one. Remember, the jewel is what he wants."
"And what of the girl?"
Dex'tro seemed to smirk evilly: "Do whatever you wish. She is none of his concern, and therefore is none of mine."
Shade grinned, "Makes things easier for me then."
Just then, Shade looked up to see a silver shape fly in through the atmosphere and towards the crash.
"I contact you later," Shade said, "Things may have just gotten a bit more complicated." And then he turned the projector off. Then, he saw the figure of Iron Man fly overhead towards the crash, then scowled: "You humans will not rid me of my prize today." And then took off towards his prize.