This is a bit of a crossover with Shield mentioned, as well as the Sorcerer Supreme and Clea from Marvel. There is no actual appearance from any character from the Marvel universe.


"Patience is a virtue," Kudou said over the headset. Kaito parroted the words in silence, back-flipping his way down the long expanse of the roof, landing on the edge and throwing a handful of smoke bombs back the way he'd came. The men chasing after him and firing wildly in his direction sputtered and cursed out loud, Kaito taking the chance to draw out his card gun and snipe their hands.

The painful screams meant he'd been successful, but he couldn't wait any longer. The helicopter that Kudou was supposed to be gaining control of turned its side-mounted guns on him and opened fire.

"Do you really hate me that much, Kudou?" Kaito asked, running as fast as he could on the ledge of the building and jumping off. He angled his body to a fast descent, fingers lingering on the button to activate his glider. The helicopter, far more maneuverable than Kaito would be in the air, swung around and fired on him again.

"Just fall already!" Kudou snarled, and the bullets stopped. Kaito drew out his card gun, fitting the accessory pieces over the muzzle and snapping the hook in place. He opened his glider before he could end up on the pavement, the frame straining angrily under the harsh treatment. He'd have a bruise around his waist, he knew he would.

A man was sent falling out of the side of the helicopter, landing with a thud on the roof with the rest of the dispatch team sent out to deal with Kid. Kaito leveled out his card gun, a grappling hook modified to fit over the barrel, and aimed for the legs of the helicopter.

"Would you hurry up, already?" Kudou snapped, holding the helicopter steady for Kaito to aim.

"You're such a hypocrite. Don't touch that, Kid. You'll alert their response teams if you open that vault, Kid. Don't wait for any kind of rational plan, Kid, just go along with whatever hare-brained scheme I throw together on the fly," Kaito bitched, hooking the leg of the helicopter on his first try. The glider jerked now that he had a tether and wasn't just letting it ride the currents. Kudou took off, pulling Kid and glider towards the direction of the bridge.

"My schemes are hare-brained? If you had just trusted me with the coordinates when you discovered them-"

"I'd have a dead agent on my hands, Kudou, and you know it." Kaito used one hand to guide the glider and the other to grip his tow line. Kudou obviously knew how to fly the damn thing, so at least there was that. "Or would you rather have had some lovely holes in your head? Though given your plans, it's not like there's anything there to begin with."

"One more word, Kid, and I'll cut you free. Save the world all by yourself, asshole," Kudou spat back.

Kaito sighed.

The bomb they needed to disarm wasn't nuclear, wasn't an IED, wasn't even technically a bomb. But multi-dimensional rift activation portal dispersal unit didn't roll off the tongue as neatly. It would function the same as any timed bomb, but instead of a specific time of detonation, once properly calibrated, it would tear a rift in space-time that would either open the gate to a higher realm or collapse all matter and energy in its attempt to power itself for the rift.

The only reason Kid was sent to deal with it was because the efforts of the Sorcerer Supreme and Clea were the only reasons the other side of the rift hadn't already spilled into their world. Their priority was to prevent the multi-dimensional overload that came from having a tunnel attempting to form between this plane of existence and those higher. Kaitou Kid, being third in line for most powerful magician and Sorcerer Supreme, was regulated to what was essentially grunt work.

Which in this case would be to team up with some mundanes and prevent the catalyst from toppling the efforts of his teachers.

Grunt work.

"It's not like I haven't done it before." Kaito judged the distance to the bridge, and even with the helicopter, they were going to be cutting it close. "Kudou, you need to go faster."

"I go any faster and I'll pull your arm out of socket. Unless there's a record you're trying to set. Skills: can save the world with one arm tied behind your back." But Kudou was speeding up, so that was something.

"Ever tried to disarm a bomb with only one hand?" Kaito asked.

"Aren't you usually the one setting bombs?"

"You hang around the Supreme, you learn all sorts of nifty tricks. Including this one." Kaito let go of the glider handle and extended his hand.

His magic was more flash than substance when he was in pain and running on three days with little food, no sleep, too much coffee, and buckets of adrenaline. But he still had enough do this.

Threads of blue light arched from his hand, speeding ahead of them and coiling like snakes around the bomb. Once he was sure he had a strong hold on it, he tugged his hand and willed the distance between the bomb and himself to disappear.

Kudou yelped as they were pulled through space, the world flickering madly, like a million dying and birthing stars all rising and falling at once in a sea of black, purple, and green. Reality reasserted itself and they were hovering over the bomb, Kudou's quick reflexes halting their forward motion to hover in place.

Kaito dropped his gun and collapsed the glider, letting his body fall towards the bomb and using his magic threads to pull himself down and level with the bomb.

It didn't look like a complex machine. It was deceptively simple, a silver frame twisted in an infinity loop, the base flared into a six-pointed pedestal and gleaming with buttons, panels, colored wires, and one hasty strip of duct tape.

Shoddy workmanship at its finest, to be sure, which was obviously why Shield had underestimated the initial threat and sent a team of junior agents to infiltrate and gather information. It hadn't been until the Sorcerer Supreme sent him a message that even brought the problem to Kaito's attention, after three agents had been compromised. Kaito had arrived on scene to help Kudou lead off their attackers and hope that Hakuba and Hattori could manage the rest.

He sent his threads through every inch of the machine, a blue-tint shading his sight as his magic scanned the bomb and filtered information back to him. He would have to trust Kudou to watch his back because he'd need all of his attention to turn the damn thing off.

"Anything yet, Kid?" Kudou asked.

Kaito refrained from answering, his magic touching the singularity within the portal's upper loop and the other realm reached back. Then, he had no words. For anything.

Timeless and infinite, he saw all futures and all worlds. The Supreme and Clea, unified in ritual against the destruction of all things, brushed past his consciousness. Their magic flared like a beacon, welcoming him and offering the key to the other realm, to the higher planes where death and life were meaningless because all things simply were. He nearly reached for it.

If someone hadn't shaken his shoulders, he might have invited something through by accident.

Kaito gasped as he came back, magic fading to wispy strands of white light. Kudou was shaking him, hands on his shoulders and glaring at the bomb.

"I asked if you could stop it!" Kudou shouted, punctuating with a rough shake of Kaito's shoulders.

Kaito nodded, words still heavy on his tongue and somewhat embarrassed his teachers had felt his wavering touch and temptation. Kudou might have just saved the world.

"So? What's the plan?" Kudou asked, and he didn't move his hands from Kaito's shoulders.

"I can turn it on itself. I'll resolve it into a portal within itself and it'll collapse out of existence." Kaito spread his hands so they were on either side of the bomb. His magic gradated back into blue light, threads running back to his fingertips.

Kudou's fingers were vice-tight on his shoulders as the magic flared around the device. Instead of feeling unease, he relaxed into the hold and the reminder of how Kudou had pulled him back earlier.

Resolving the bomb to collapse on itself wasn't easy with the tunnel already stretching to the higher realms. He could feel the pathway with his magic, careful to keep at a distance around it instead of connecting to it. Even with Kudou watching over him, he doubted he would have the willpower to pull away from temptation again.

"Kid!"

Kaito didn't answer, building a barrier between the tunnel and the higher realms and herding the tunnel backwards. There was a conscious energy to the tunnel, to the magic that its creator had tapped into and given reign, but it wasn't intelligent consciousness. Its sole purpose was to move in whatever direction it was pointed, and he was already turning it back towards itself. It gave up its gained space, the universe around him and Kudou rippling with the same other lights as it did when he pulled them through space with his magic earlier.

"Kid! What are you doing?!" Kudou was pressed against his back, hands dropping down to Kaito's elbows. Kaito could only imagine how it looked outside of his blue-tinted vision.

The tunnel was writhing in the middle of his magic, trying to find new pathways to explore while steadily moving back towards its starting point. Kaito gritted his teeth as flashes of the higher realm, of that omniscient presence, butted against his own fragile consciousness. The world prismed into a rainbow of color, stripes of space in inky black and glittering stars fluttering ribbons on the edge of each color band.

The tunnel reached its starting point and started racing itself through the infinity loop that formed the machine. The singularity in the upper loop brightened and rippled, filling the loop with a star-burst of white light.

He just needed to collapse it.

Kaito tried to bring his hands together, to push his palms and everything between them into a singular space. He made it halfway through when he felt resistance. He was at a stalemate.

"Kudou! Help me!" Kaito shouted, arms shaking from the strain of holding a multi-dimensional tunnel within the boundaries of its own being.

"How?" Kudou was as close as he could get, Kaito's shoulders back against Kudou's collarbone and all the way down. Kaito would normally be faintly embarrassed to notice the complete lack of space between his ass and Kudou's crotch, but it really wasn't the time for that.

"Put your hands on mine and concentrate on bringing my hands together."

Kudou's hands were as big as Kaito's own, only a little thicker than Kaito's own narrow digits. Kaito could feel the pressure Kudou was exerting, the additional force slowly moving inwards.

His magic flared again, turning a deeper shade of blue and spreading down their joined hands and backwards. Kudou gasped when it enveloped them completely, and the world tilted.

Kaito and Kudou were knelt together, a star cradled in the space between their outstretched palms. It burst into a thousand smaller shards of light and swirled in a spiral shape as they moved their hands. The swirling slowed as the space decreased and then vanished entirely as Kaito's palms came together and the world abruptly righted itself.

Kaito nearly collapsed forwards on the now impotent bomb, the energy drained out of it and leaving it little more than a cheap statute. Kudou's hands caught him about the waist and pulled him back, Kaito's head flopping back onto Kudou's shoulder. He was so tired he was shaking.

"Is that it? Everything's done?"

"You're welcome," Kaito huffed, trying to decide if he had enough magic left to get himself upright. He tried, but the magic died out in a fizzle of sparks in his clasped hands.

"That was..." Kudou trailed away, arms wrapping more firmly around Kaito's waist.

He realized with a jolt he was sitting in Kudou's lap, draped over the junior agent like a regency damsel. Apparently, he still had enough energy to blush.

"Amazing," Kudou finished, turning his head to meet Kaito's eyes. He seemed totally oblivious to their intimate position and Kaito's flushed face.

"I am the Kaitou Kid," he said, grasping for anything that made sense. "I'm always amazing."

All the wonder melted off Kudou's face, an irritated scowl twisting his features, which didn't make him any less attractive, Kaito noticed in dismay. Kudou brought them both to their feet, Kaito stumbling in exhaustion and leaning heavily against Kudou.

Kudou drew an arm away, smirking when Kaito made a distressed noise as the change in position nearly sent him back to the ground.

"Can you walk?" Kudou asked, watching Kaito sway in place and struggle to stay in place.

"Yes," Kaito whined.

The world tilted, making him dizzy and blinking away double-vision. He heard Kudou snort and he was swept off his feet, hat and monocle falling into his lap and Kudou's arms under his knees and across his back.

"I'm going to move you to a safe distance and set up a perimeter. The easy part is over," Kudou said, carry Kaito towards the bridge railing and away from the stupid not-bomb.

It was easier then to stew silently and not say anything. Or to admit that he noticed how heroic Kudou looked, sweat and exhaustion and some dried blood at his temple.