The city of Manhattan bustled about under the midday sun. People walked about doing their usual activities, however some gave some weary looks as they passed a particular set of two people.
One was a woman of average build with blond hair and blue eyes, wearing a business suit and skirt. She was also holding a data pad in her arms. Winry's eyebrow twitched at her boss's lack of punctuality.
Next to her was a man in a straw hat, short blue jeans and a red open jacket with a yellow sash tied around his waist. Next to her, Luffy looked even more irritated than Winry.
The two were standing in front of a gate to a large mansion. Edward had asked the team to gather at the address for something that he had prepared for them. So far only Winry and Luffy had shown up and were now waiting for the others, Luffy rather impatiently.
Winry looked at her wrist to check her watch then looked at the man. "Well, thank you for actually being on time.." She said, with both gratitude and annoyance, the latter no doubt for Fullmetal who was always late to every meeting he's ever had, some he doesn't even show up to at all.
Luffy just grunted in annoyance with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.
A moment passed by before Luffy saw the outline of a familiar Dragon Slayer flying towards them. With a huge grin Natsu landed on the sidewalk.
"Yo, Winry, Luffy!" Natsu greeted, "Good to see ya again. Are you ready to kick some ass?!" Natsu asked with joyful enthusiasm
However Luffy did not mutually receive that joy "Where the hell were you!? Your late asshole!?"
"Yeah, I was eating and lost track of time!"
"We're here." Came the voice of Izuku as he jumped into the center of the group. "Sorry we're late. Touma kept on holding us back..."
"I... tripped..." Touma speaks up coming from behind them
"Like 40 times, on nothing!"
"Not my fault I have the worst luck ever!"
"Oi, Kamijou!" Natsu said surprised, "I expected you to be in that Dragon Form."
"Dragon Shell... and why?" Touma asked in confusion.
"Your way cooler in that form then you are now! Plus it seems more useful!"
"...Thanks-" Touma started sarcastically, but stopped when he was interrupted.
"Where's Elric?" Luffy burst out, his patience already wearing thin for being made to wait so long.
"Sorry. Sorry, everyone." Fullmetal's voice rang out as he came into a landing near them. "I got caught up in a meeting." He tried to excuse himself, only to receive a look from Winry, who knew him all too well to know when he was lying. "Uh, actually, I missed that meeting, too." He admitted, before turning to his team.
"Anyway, thanks for coming and welcome to Avengers' Mansion."
Fullmetal gestured to a massive mansion that was beyond the gate that the heroes were standing in front of. It was a large four story building, with a kind of old style architecture to it.
"This was my..." Fullmetal began to speak until Luffy, who was now sick of waiting around, smashed his fist into the gates, blasting them off their hinges with a loud crash. Luffy then walked through the destroyed gate and up to the mansion.
"That was really rude." Edward commented with a startled look on his face
The Avengers and Winry now stood in the mansion's main hall, which was massive, with white marble columns and a grand staircase that led up to the next level of the house.
Natsu was looking at what seemed to be a terminal in the wall.
"Greetings, Natsu Dragneel." The Dragon Slayer reeled back in shock as a voice spoke out of the terminal as the optic in the center lit up. "May I offer you a drink?" the terminal asked the confused Natsu.
"Who the hell is talking?!" The Dragon Slayer asked Fullmetal, still disturbed that the 'wall' was talking to him.
Edward smiled as he explained. "This was a museum for my mother's Foundation. I've had it upgraded since the breakout. I thought this could be our headquarters."
"Awesome." Deku said amazed at the new place
Edward continued. "The mansion is run by an A.I, ask it if you want something from it or know who is here... say hi."
"Indeed." Came the voice of the A.I as it's terminal lit up again.
Edward then began the tour of the mansion, explaining in detail everything that place has for the team. The first stop was the kitchen.
"We've got a full kitchen. Chef on call." Edward explained. While that happened Luffy and Natsu started to rade through the fridge. Both seemed to be getting chunks of food flying everywhere as they both stuffed a bunch of food in their mouth.
The tour then went upstairs where Elric showed the heroes the living quarters.
"There are 12 bedrooms, maid service, laundry, room service, a theater/lounge, satellite TV and movies, every form of video entertainment on the planet. If you need to stay, stay. If you don't, don't."
The Avengers then made their way into what appeared to be the main lounge area. With a large couch and a fireplace. Izuku sat on the couch; grabbed a remote and pushed a button. A painting that was on top of the fireplace slid up revealing a 90-inch plasma screen TV, the hero grins wildly at this.
"I have to admit, this is awesome!" Touma says with a smile on his face, but then turns his attention to Edward "But a mansion is what you spent a week preparing? I thought you usually went bigger than this?"
Edward looked at him with a smirk "Uh, no, I haven't gotten to the good stuff yet. You're going to need these." Edward replied, he then reached into his pocket and pulled out several items that looked like cards. They were the size of a credit card, with a large red A in the left side, on the right corner there was a small black screen with an image of each Avenger on it.
"These ID cards are linked to the Elric entry satellite network, and will keep us in audio and video communication anywhere in the world. They also give you full access and control of the mansion."
The Avengers examined their cards as well.
Touma looked at the cards "Why is this the 'good stuff?'" Touma asked
Fullmetal walked over to a terminal, held up his ID card to it and with a beep, followed by the sound of machinery moving, the fireplace opened up revealing a hidden elevator entrance.
"...Oh." Touma says getting a nudge from Izuku and a laugh as they all went to the elevator.
The team filed into the spacious elevator and began to descend. A moment later and the saw a rather impressive view, the elevator shaft opened up into a massive underground chamber, at the center was a large pyramid like structure made out of a black metal.
"And, the sublevels." Fullmetal said.
When the elevator stopped, the Avengers pulled out and saw the massive area; it looked like something out of a science fiction movie, as there were many high tech gadgets everywhere.
Fullmetal proceeded with the second part of the tour. "The mansion's got a beyond state-of-the-art science lab, space for my labs, as well as my armory."
The team all went into the lab and looked around. "Wow, this place is awesome!" Natsu complements sounding like a kid in a candy store from all his excitement, Luffy had a similar expression on his face as his eyes glowed at the 'cool' metal arms and legs.
Touma examined the metal libs "Was there a question, sir?" Touma heard a female voice ask him
"No I-" Touma then realized it wasn't Winry, so in sudden shock he turned on the ball of his foot and looked at the person the voice came from. "What the?" Touma saw a tall woman with long dark hair and purple eyes. She seemed to have human flesh yet it was apparent robot appendages held it together, which were metallic purplish-red and pink. "Who are you?!"
"That-" Edward says putting his right hand on the woman's shoulder lightly pushing the woman away making the woman walk in a different direction "Is my waitress, Rensa. The A.I. will alert her if you want anything and bring it to you."
The Avengers soon entered another room. This one had a large platform above a large open space, surrounded by glass walls and roof. But what really caught their attention was the large body of water that filled the bottom of the pool, easily 100 meters long.
"Wow, big pool." Deku commented.
Fullmetal smirked "Actually the pool's on the roof." As the sound of machines moving rang through the area. Suddenly the 'pool' split in half, revealing a space under it. Out from the space came a large high-tech aircraft. It was mostly red, with some black on the sides, and looked very streamline.
"This is a full-functional hangar with two prototype high-speed aerial shuttles. The Quinjets." Edward stated, as several hatches on the Quinjet opened up to reveal a mass of weapons, and a semi visible force field covered the entire craft.
Natsu was impressed by the machinery, however. He couldn't bear to think how much he would get sick on that thing.
"Weapons, shields, and an air speed of Mach 8 for those of us who can't fly. But they can go into space, too." He quickly added. "Then there's the training room." He said as he turned and began to walk out of the room.
"What? Like a gym?" Luffy asked.
"Well, kind of." Elric replied with a mischievous grin, making the other heroes a little nervous.
A couple of moments later the Avengers were all in different sections of the training area where they quickly discovered that it wasn't a gym, it was a death chamber.
Literally everything in that area was trying to kill the heroes.
Deku swung from one Blackwhip to the other repeatedly down a dark corridor, with several missiles being fired at him. He dodged two of them, which exploded behind him, but the third one exploded a little too close. The shock wave sent him into a raised platform, he floated there for a second before he suddenly felt a little pain rung through his head, another missile platform rose out of the ground in front of him and fired three more missiles at him. He didn't even have time to react, however before they got too close, a trio of repulsor blasts destroyed the missiles, cortices of Edward.
The hero landed in front of Deku and pointed his arm at the platform, a section of the metal arm on his forearm raised revealing a small missile. The mini rocket fired and destroyed the missile platform in a massive explosion. "You're welcome." Edward said to Deku. The two heroes took off as more weapons unfolded from the walls.
Elsewhere Touma walked in a dimly lit room; suddenly the lights brightened and metal tendrils shot forth and entangled the hero. Suddenly, his arm's skin bursted away like a popped balloon and lemon-yellow and sky-blue tendrils wrapped around him taking the form of a Dragon. He then ripped apart the tendrils in no less than a second 'Huh, I guess it is more useful and awesome...' Touma then flew off into the sky only to have meltailic tendrils follow every movement of his
Natsu wasn't having much fun either. He was currently in a long cylindrical corridor with several rotating arms with large wrecking balls on the end. The Dragon Slayer tried several times to maneuver through the obstacle, but each time he tried he was immediately slammed by one of the balls and sent into a nearby wall. Eventually Natsu got fed up and with a loud roar he charged at one of the arms and slammed a flame-covered fist into it, separating the ball from the arm and sending the ball through several walls of the training rooms.
Luffy stood in the center of the room as the walls started to close on each other. Coating his two hands with Haki while the final door slid forward about to crush him. However instead of crushing it's target like it seemed, Luffy actually held the doors back, with his Haki coated hands. The pressure being built up seemed to be too much for the machines, and with a mighty shove, the door and the devices controlling it, were hurled through the wall into the adjacent room, where Fullmetal and the other Avengers soon entered.
"Is that the best you've got?" Luffy smugly yelled with a smirk at Fullmetal, clearly proud that he just wrecked the devices meant to test him.
'That was nothing!" Natsu adds
"Please don't encourage him." Izuku muttered as Touma in the Dragon Shell started to unravel
"It's self-repairing. Thanks for asking." Fullmetal replied as he floated over the wreckage. He then smirked. "By the way, that was level 1 of 10."
Touma let out a groan as he turned back to normal. "I don't know what will kill me first. The villains or the gym."
After some time for the heroes to catch their breath, Luffy and Natsu were the only ones who didn't, as they didn't even break a sweat during the training. And now they entered a large room.
"And this is the assembly hall," Fullmetal stated.
The walls were all black and shiny and the roof seemed to go on forever. At the center of the room was a large round table, with red on the outer ring and blue in the middle and a large 'A' positioned on it, the same 'A' that's on the Avengers ID cards.
"Bring up the most wanted list."
A large hologram appeared from the table, showing the faces of all the villains that had escaped during the break out. Some were familiar to them, like Nine and a couple others, while the rest were a mystery.
Fullmetal continued, "74 supervillains escaped on the day of the breakout. Nine is being held by S.H.I.E.L.D. But we've got more work to do."
"Is there any word on how these bad guys all escaped?" Deku asked
Fullmetal shook his head. "Sorry, but S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn't given any word on how the prison systems all just shut down at the same time. And Mustang's keeping a tight lid on the situation or he doesn't know. Either way, just leaves more work for us."
In the corner of Izuku's eye he saw Luffy brooding in the corner of the room. For some reason the hero seemed to be on his own. He gave the guy a small smile, one that Luffy nodded to. When Izuku turned back he had missed the sudden red glaze that came over Luffy's eyes. Natsu suddenly looked at Luffy feeling something... familiar, however all he saw was Luffy mouthing 'What?' to him with a scowling face. Natsu shrugged and turned back.
While returning his attention to the discussion, the other heroes were talking about the villains. "I know some of these villains." Natsu said. "Crocodile and his crew are formidable... somewhat. His power is impressive though."
Touma then cut in, "If we do recapture them all, where do we put them? The Helicarrier is being rebuilt. The Vault is destroyed. We haven't heard anything about the Cube..."
"I'm working with a colleague on something now." Fullmetal responded. "A old time friend has proposed a prison that is actually outside this dimension. In a place he calls the Negative Zone."
"What if the same thing happens to this prison?" Deku asked
"You all are talking too much." Luffy grunted as he walked forward. "We should just go get these guys."
Natsu would have agreed however, there was something about Luffy right now that made him uneasy. It wasn't his power itself. But there was something that was causing a chill to go up his spine. Luffy looked at Natsu. He recognized the uneasy look.
He gritted his teeth, he probably thought he would go out of control at any moment. Luffy wouldn't care normally, however he seemed more angry now not to mention he trusted these guys enough to start a team with them. So seeing that face made him feel... angry!
"What's your problem pinkie!?" Luffy said with his fist clenched
Natsu gritted his teeth walking towards the man "My hair is Salmon! And I'm looking at you, Rubber Head!"
"Whoa, okay." Edward said, as he got in-between the powerhouses, placing a hand on each of them in a futile way to keep them apart. "How about instead of going, we find a way to actually get along? Since you 2 are the only ones staying at the mansion full time, I think I speak for everyone here, would appreciate it if you two didn't level the place on day one."
Luffy only grunted as he turned and left the room, Natsu relaxed a little after Luffy left and turned back to speak to Edward and Touma.
Izuku breathed a sigh of relief "Wow, he's gonna be fun." He said in a sarcastic tone.
That night the Avengers were all on break, Touma and Izuku went back to their houses, Luffy and Natsu remained at the mansion, hopefully they wouldn't get into another argument and trash the place. Which left Fullmetal to go back to Elric Tower.
Luffy sat in his room looking up at the ceiling with a grim look. "This is exactly where they want you Luffy." Luffy sprang up from his bed and looked into the mirror to see Sabo. Luffy whipped his eyes with his hands to make sure he wasn't seeing things. But sure enough what he saw didn't go away. Sabo was still there right in the mirror where a reflection of himself was supposed to be. "This is your prison now... get used to it."
Instead of shock a red glow feasted upon his eyes and rage started to pile up inside himself. 'Sabo' in the mirror as the Rubber man walked away suddenly red flash then relieved that 'Sabo' was attally Irene who was smirking widely.
With Touma
Touma sat on his bed in his small apartment with a bored Izuku spinning in circles in a rolling chair next to him.
"So what do you think about the new team?" Izuku asked
"We're not a team, not yet at least. It takes time and trust to build one. Luffy doesn't seem very friendly... he might be the hardest to talk to." Touma states with a sigh
"Yeah, the guy seems nice... yet he seemed very cranky too." Izuku adds with a deadpan expression remembering the fight that almost took place.
"I'm not surprised, the guy has been a loner all his life. Running away from people, getting hunted down. He probably has some trust issues." Touma said, a grim look appearing on his face. He had also gone through some similar issues in his life. He felt like he could relate to the rubber man.
"Hey... why didn't you want to go into the mansion? This is a pretty small apartment. Plus, no rent." Izuku brought up seeing Touma suddenly stiffen "I already am planning on moving in myself-"
"You're right! No rent! Oh man, I need to start packing now!" Touma says running around the apartment at incredible speed while Izuku gives a smile in shock
'Yeah, that's what I expected...'
With Edward
Edward sat in his office, Roy Mustang standing, looking at the art on the wall facing away from the hero.
"I don't remember him on schedule..." Edward said looking at Mustang speaking to Winry
"He's Roy Mustang... he wanted a meeting, what was I supposed to do?" Edward smirked at his assistant then looked at Roy
"Let me guess... S.H.I.E.L.D. needs weapons, blah blah blah, you want to recruit Fullmetal, blah blah, you need my help?"
Mustang actually smirked at the guess "Not this time. This time, I came to help you." Came the calm monotone of Mustang. "You see, believe it or not, I want your little Avengers project to succeed."
In the halls of Avengers Mansion, the A.I. terminals were keeping a constant monitor of the mansions inner activities. However, for some reason some of the terminals were starting to become filled with static before shutting down completely, the only thing the sensors picked up was the shimmering outline of a female before shutting down.
The A.I's systems couldn't comprehend what was happening, so it followed its programing and proceeded to alert someone.
Natsu was sitting in the lounge room, staring contently at the fire, and occasionally taking a handful of the flames and eating it. Since he grew up in a magical land, the man had no interest in watching television, not that he knew how to operate it. His thoughts were interrupted by a polite voice.
"Pardon me, Mr. Dragneel." Came the voice of the A.I. "There would appear to be something wrong. I have no physical evidence of this, but I believe the mansion's systems are being tampered with. I believe there's an intruder."
His natural lust for battle kicked in as Natsu rose from the couch. He then noticed movement in the corner of his eye and turned to see the Luffy walking passed the doorway.
"Luffy!" Natsu announced joyfully. "Let's patrol the grounds. The house believes we have an intruder. Maybe we can fight someone after all."
In his joyful mood, the Dragon Slayer failed to notice a faint red glow that came from Luffy's eyes. The Rubber Man then grunted and stomped up to Natsu.
"I wouldn't need your help in a fight! And if you talk to me again I'll show you how much I don't need your help!" Luffy growled
Natsu's smile faded, he should have known better than to make merry with an ill-tempered asshole like Luffy. He scowled at Luffy and took a fighting stance.
"If you want to fight against me, I'll be happy to."
The two brutes stood their ground, neither backing down from each other. The tension rose as if the house was waiting to see who would make the first move. Luffy let out a growl, before taking a step back.
"I don't need this. I don't need anyone. Tell the others I quit." He yelled before turning around and stomped out of the mansion.
"Good riddance." Natsu coldly replied.
Not a moment after he said that, the television monitor came to life, showing the image of a very concerned Winry
"I was just told Luffy left." She said. "Natsu, you have to bring him back."
"Why would I do that?"
"Because he's our responsibility. And with the mood he's in, he's liable to tear down this entire city. Please, go get him." Winry begged.
Natsu grumbled as he grudgingly complied, the woman made it hard for anyone to say no to, and left in search for his monstrous comrade.
With Luffy
In the streets of the city, people were running scared as an angry Luffy stomped down the street. While he wasn't doing anything aggressive, it was his mire appearance that sent the crowds screaming.
This did not improve Luffy's mood. Luffy was royally pissed. These constant rage moments and Sabo appearing in the mirror. It was telling him the guys only saw him as a monster. A caged animal who was ready to bite at the nearest hand.
But Luffy didn't think they would, besides Natsu, Elric, Touma, and Izuku. Luffy actually thought the other heroes were nice. He felt like he could actually get along with Natsu well, they seemed to have much in common. Touma's misfortune while pitiful was actually pretty funny to see in the moment. Izuku was also probably the nicest one. And Edward, he was the first one to step in front of the weapons that SHIELD pointed to, he stood up for him like a... crew. He then remembered why he even was sent to the Cube. He wanted to have a crew that would fight with him. At that moment Luffy thought of maybe turning back.
"Oi, Luffy!" Luffy turned to see Natsu staring at him only to be punched in the face. Luffy stepped back at the sudden blow and then received several others straight to the face. Luffy received one last blow to the stomach sending him to his knees as Natsu got ready to hit him again "This is what you get monster!" Natsu says, Luffy's eyes widen and then glare at Natsu as his fist gets sent back and then launched forward straight into Natsu's jaw sending him through one building and out the other side colliding into another as Luffy yelled out a roar of frustration
Natsu wobbly came to his feet, out of sight from the Rubber Man. Then suddenly a red magic circle appeared next to him and on his feet. Irene then stood next to 'Natsu' as 'Natsu' suddenly became the demon Bloodman who was in designs as Natsu. Both smirked as the saw the real Dragon Slayer approaching the area
"Luffy?" Natsu called out, only to see Luffy grinding his teeth against each other, with red glowing eyes. His fist touched the ground and smoke started to suddenly appear around his body. In the span of 2 seconds Luffy's fist had extended back and collided into Natsu's rib as he was sent into a building.
Natsu lifted some debris off of him and stared at Luffy, then smirked, he finally got an excuse to fight this guy.
Back in Elrics office
"Officially, S.H.I.E.L.D. tolerates super-heroes, but just barely." The S.H.I.E.L.D. Director said as he stared out the window. "A team of super-powered vigilantes, rounding up criminals makes a lot of people uneasy. I believe in what you're doing, Edward. I believe the Avengers are important. And behind the scenes, I'll do whatever I can to help you." His tone almost made his offer genuine. However, Edward knew that Mustang must be working some edge. In fact he took a whiff of the air... he could smell the bullshit
"Wow, I almost believe you." Edward said leaning back in his chair. "You'll help us when you're not trying to manipulate us." Edward finished.
Mustang chuckled then turned to Elric, "You take the good with the bad."
In the office a knock was heard from the door, both men turned to see Winry walk in.
"Edward, we've got a big rubbery problem."
Edward looked to Mustang, waiting for something along the lines of I-told-you-so, but the SHIELD director just shrugged.
"It's your team. Deal with it."
A little surprised by Mustang's action, he'll figure it out later, Edward pulled out his ID card and pressed a small button on the right corner. The 'A' lit up in a blue light and an alarm sounded from the card.
"Avengers, assemble." Edward said, the first time he used the catchphrase for an actual mission. Immediately the message was sent to all the Avengers.
Central Park
The usual peaceful nature of Central Park was rudely interrupted by the sudden impact of a Dragon Slayer. In the center of the park, creating a massive cloud of dust from the impact.
Luffy landed near the crash site, looking for his opponent. His search was cut short when Natsu charged out of the cloud with a war cry, fire surrounding his body. He slammed his head into Luffy jaw and then grabbed his shirt and threw him into a couple dozen trees.
Both fursolsy leaped towards each other. One extending his arm back probably a mile in under a couple of seconds still in 2nd Gear. While the other coating his hand in flames that burned as bright as the sun. Both fists collided and shook the whole battlefield that was once Central Park. Trees, rocks, land all were blown back and destroyed from the impact of both powerhouses attacks colliding.
Luffy and Natsu grappled on the ground, both wrestling to one up the other to a standstill so far. The fight was interrupted when Izuku entered the scene.
"Luffy, stop." Izuku pleaded, holding his hands up in a calming gesture. "You need to calm down?"
With Luffy distracted he failed to notice Natsu's incoming fist until it collided with Luffy's jaw sending him a few meters away. Luffy got up and started changing towards Natsu. At that moment Fullmetal showed up, he tried to stop Luffy by pushing him back but that seemed to do nothing. Luffy was still advancing towards Natsu, a killer intent in his eyes.
"Luffy, Luffy, stop this. You have to listen." Fullmetal tried to reason, with the rubber man. However, he was interrupted when an alarm sounded inside his scanner on his arm, indicating his A.I. had completed his scan of Luffy.
"Alert, unknown energy detected." The A.I stated
"Luffy, wait. There's something... Aah." Fullmetal never got to finish as Luffy grabbed Fullmetal by the head with his hand and slammed the Avenger into the ground. Before Luffy could attack again, wind bullets hit his head and pelted Luffy, the surprise attack was enough to force Luffy back for a moment.
Natsu ran over and helped Fullmetal to his feet.
"There's some kind of weird energy around the Luffy." Fullmetal said as he pulled up a scanner on his metal arm. A red energy glowed around Luffy's head. It was just then he noticed the red glow in his eyes as well. His sensors picked up a similar energy that was emanating from Natsu's body. "Natsu, it's similar to what you're giving off."
The Dragon Slayer face-hardened, as he came to a realization. "He's being controlled!" Natsu metally slapped himself for being so stupid and attacking him
Luffy shrugged off Izuku's initial attack, and now was about to re-engage.
However, before Luffy got too close, a yellow and blue claw forced Luffy to the ground. The owner of the claw seemed to be Touma in his Dragon Shell holding Luffy down. The Dragon roared as he felt some resistance from Luffy who was getting up.
'Wait- why isn't Imagine Breaker- Is he just this strong on his own?!' Touma mentally wondered as he was suddenly flipped over the heroes and landed on his back. Luffy released his hold on the hero's claw and jumped into the air. Izuku tried to cut him off, but Luffy merely punched him away.
The Rubber Man then stomped on Touma's dragon head, just as he was getting up after being flipped over. Luffy then raised his fists, intending to smash Touma's head, but his observation Haki kicked in out of the corner of his eye and looked to see Natsu heading right towards him, his fist raised.
The Dragon Slayer swung his fire-coated fist, only for Luffy to dodge it. The power and momentum of the attack caused Natsu to lose his balance when it missed, allowing Luffy to grab him by the head and spin him around, building up speed until he sent the Dragon Slayer flying off into the distance.
Touma tried to get Luffy off his head, but the Rubber Man was making it difficult. Fullmetal tried to jump in, with the intention to tackle Luffy, but Luffy saw him coming and clotheslined him into some trees in the distance.
Luffy then jumped off Touma's head and into the air. Luffy brought down one fist into Touma's chest making him change back into a human with only his hand left that was blue and yellow. But before Luffy could pull back his extended fist, Touma grabbed his arm, sending Luffy forward and onto the ground with his arm at a normal distance. With one last ditch effort Touma jumped up and swung his right fist straight into Luffy's jaw.
The only this that could be heard was a shatter glass noise and then a loud bang.
Luffy awoke and looked around. He saw Touma standing up with his head down and his fist outward as if he punched something. Luffy grunted as he felt his face have a major bruise. Touma fell to the floor, Luffy looked around seeing what he had done.
Luffy looked down at Touma with a guilt-ridden face. Now he and the entire team would consider him a monster, nothing would ever change.
With a sad sigh, Luffy leaped away from the Avengers. Touma came to, a little while later, to see the Luffy jumping away; a look of confusion crossed his face. The other Avengers gathered around the clearing as well, all wandering what caused Luffy's bazaar behavior.
"That went well." Fullmetal stated sarcastically, before turning to the others. "Is everyone-" he never finished his sentence since a giant bright explosion about 12 centimeter from the back of his head, knocking him into the forest of Central Park crashing into thousands of trees and knocking him out.
Touma and Natsu were too stunned to reach as two red bolts of energy blasted them square in the chest, sending Touma into the trunk of a tree stunned and Natsu to be sent back a few feet. A second bolt of energy hit him in the face knocking him away.
Then finally a large black and red hand grabbed the back of Izuku's head, it's arm being surrounded by a miniaturized tornado. The hand brought his head upward and smashed it into the ground, breaking the ground and shaking the earth in the process.
"The Avengers." A feminine voice sounded out. "How unimpressive. You had better hope someone more capable chooses to avenge you."
Touma shook his head and looked up to see two figures come out from the shadows.
Irene and Bloodman stood, with terrifying grins on their faces. Natsu recovered from his shock and glared daggers at the two attackers.
"Irene! You bastard!" He yelled at the woman, who simply placed her hand on her hip as she eyed him.
"You know these people, Natsu?" Touma asked, confused, as he got up from the attack and stood by Natsu looking at Izuku. He was slightly turning his head and looking at them gesturing he was still alive and conscious. Both nodded slightly and looked at the attackers.
"Yeah, Irene and her demon, Bloodman. They are from Fiore." Natsu replied with a hint of bitterness in his voice.
"I'm guessing they are not friends of yours." Touma asked sarcastically.
Natsu's eyes narrowed as he diverted his attention back to the pair. "Why are you here, Irene?" he demanded.
"Oh, you love Earth Land so much, Igneel's Son," Irene taunted as she raised her hand, which then covered itself in red energy. "We thought we would come and see what all the fuss is about."
She then pointed her hand at Natsu and shot a beam of magic at the heroes.
Meanwhile, in an empty ally somewhere in the city, the gloomy figure of the Luffy lumbered in before sitting down and leaned against the wall. Luffy crossed his arms over his legs and stared glumly at the ground, he couldn't believe that within a day he had almost killed his new teammates, the first people that didn't run or try to lock him up the moment they saw him.
Luffy looked at his hands. They were covered with some blood and sweat. Some his own, some his teammates. Luffy clenched them tightly.
Luffy looked back at Central Park and saw several explosions erupting from that area.
Luffy gritted his teeth. He failed them once. He wasn't going to again.
Back at the park, the fight was going badly. Fullmetal was still knocked out and Natsu, being caught off guard by the sudden attacks, was getting his ass kicked. Touma wasn't doing much better after the iguries he received from Luffy. He was much slower than he should have been. However he was still able to negate a bunch of attacks from Irene.
Izuku suddenly got up from the ground and kicked Bloodman to let go of his head. However the attack did little, to no effect at all. Izuku shot towards Bloodman again with 49% power and kicked him in the face. The attack caused a bunch of wind to blow back the rubble of what was left of Central Park, however again Bloodman was barely affected by the attack.
Touma slammed his hand on the ground as he transformed into his Dragon Shell as Natsu covered his body in flames as both charged towards Irene both giving a Dragon-like roar of their own.
Irene sent a ball of red energy to the ground underneath where they were flying above which caused both to be sent flying into the air and land on the ground with a giant thud. The sudden large impact in the earth started to wake Edward up. He looked to his right metal hand. It was almost completely broken. However, when he moved the fingers they were still able to move. With all the energy he had left he brought both hands up and then clapped them together and put his left hand on his left arm in an attempt to fix his arm.
Suddenly, before anyone could react, a large impact sounded at the edge of the clearing. Then with a loud growl, the ground shock violently throws Bloodman and Irene away from where they stood. The Avengers and attackers both then saw Luffy standing in the clearing; looking very mad.
Natsu smirked "Oi, Touma, let's let Luffy handle Irene... they may have some choice words for each other."
"Agreed!" Touma nodded with a smile as both turned to Bloodman. Both charged at the demon.
Natsu held his hands together as both were caught on fire "Fire Dragon Brilliant Flame!" Natsu yells out throwing a giant ball of fire at the demon. The impact of the attack exploded and sent Bloodman back crashing into the ground. Touma then reled is fist back transforming back to his Dragon Shell.
He then delivered a powerful right hook to the demon's chest. The demon cried out in pain as everyone heard a loud shatter glass noise.
The demon was then revealed to be missing a part of his chest as he held it in pain. Touma then flew into the air and then landed right next to Natsu transforming back to normal.
"You will die for that!" The demon says, holding his hands out towards them, both lighting up a yellowish glow. However, he was met with both the Salamander and the Imagine Breaker smirking at him.
Bloodman raised a brow but then suddenly heard a clapping sound behind him.
"Oi!" He heard and turned to see Edward grinning like a mad man with his hands on the ground creating several cannons made of rock "Fuck you!" Each cannon launches several balls of rock that collide into the demon.
Luffy shot his fist towards Irene however, she was spawning a red energy barrier in front of her and launching large balls of red energy at him that he dodged. Right when she was about to launch another ball of energy Izuku appeared behind her, she turned her head quickly but was then shot in the head by one of his 'Air Shots.' The shot to the head made her lose her concentration on her barrier and it fell apart.
Luffy ran up to the woman extending his fist back several miles and coating it in Haki.
"Gomu Gomu no-" Fire surrounded Luffy's fist as it was suddenly shot forward "Red Hawk!" The fist collided with Irene's stomach and fire shot out of the other side of her. Burning her on her front and back as she sent sliding on the ground.
Bloodman was then launched in the air and landed right next to Irene. She looked to her left to see the 5 grouped together. All ready for the fight to continue.
Irene stepped back in sudden fear... It was impossible, all cut up and bruised. One would think they would fall back if you lightly pushed them. Yet, they stood tall.
Bloodman then suddenly slung Irene over his shoulder, and used his power to open a portal underneath him and jump into it. Allowing both to escape before anyone could react.
"Aah, does somebody want to explain what the hell was all that?!" Touma asked, his voice a clear reflection on how sore he was.
"Old enemies." Natsu explained. " Irene has always found joy in causing me pain." Natsu then looked towards Luffy, he began scratching the back of his head "Sorry, Luffy, I should have guessed you were being controlled. You're a pretty cool guy."
Luffy looked at him, with his head down "I'm sorry I couldn't snap out of it. I hurt all of you... it was good while it lasted, but I can't be part of your team." Luffy said holding out the card he held in his pocket
Everyone looked shocked at his declaration, Edward was the first one to speak
"Keep it! Whether you know or don't know. You are an Avenger!" Luffy retracted his arm. He then sported a smile. He then turned and walked away from them, leaped into the sky as his former team looked on.
Luffy put the card back in his pocket. He thought of going back, however he couldn't bear to put his teammates in danger again. Who knows maybe one day he could go back.
A day later
Luffy landed in Antarctica. Not wishing to get on Akainu's radar, by staying in one place for long he jumps away as soon as possible, cracking the ground in the process. That crack was just able to reveal a silver shield, with a green gem in the middle of it, covered in ice.