I do not own either Strike the Blood or Avengers and the MCU.
Kojou once more found himself walking down a New York street only this time he was not alone. Walking next to him was a beautiful woman with light blonde hair and an excitable air about her, in fact she was nearly skipping as she walked she was so excited.
His companion was wearing a long overcoat that hid the tight but comfortable and conservative dress she wore underneath. Her head was covered by a headscarf though more out of a desire for anonymity than any pretence for protection against the cold or religious requirement.
Unlike his companion Kojou's clothes were rather reserved as was his demeanor, in fact one would think him somewhat bored as he listened to his companion jabber into his ear, though it didn't show on his face.
"Are you even listening to me?" His companion suddenly demanded and Kojou turned to look at her as they made their way down the sidewalk.
A slight look of annoyance crossed his face as he glanced at her. His initial happiness that the inquisitive blonde woman who shared the same apartment complex with him had left him alone had been abruptly broken within less than a week when she rocked up on his door to politely 'interrogate' him. It, rather predictably hadn't worked, instead he'd rebuffed her. So she changed tactics and began pestering him to meet her sister, 'the one who was just like him'.
He had eventually caved, though more out of annoyance at her demands than a desire to meet this Jessica Jones. They had decided upon a small local Italian restaurant as the rendezvous point purley because it suited all of their tastes.
He could admit though, if only to himself that he did have a small interest in finding out about one of the few 'unique' individuals of the modern age.
"Of course Miss Walker." He replied smoothly.
Trish let out a huff of annoyance at Kojou's flippancy but he cared little for her opinion, his mind was on a different matter entirely.
Specifically, Natalie Rushman.
The young woman who lived opposite to him who had turned out to be a rather skilled agent for an international spy organization. They had met more than a dozen more times during the weeks that followed their meal and Kojou could admit if only to himself that for the first time in a long time he had found himself interested in someone else.
She had a hidden depth to her and it had been a source of amusement for him to attempt to try to pry her secrets from her whilst he pretended that he didn't know she was an agent sent to observe him.
Whether she was aware that he knew what she was he didn't know, she was incredibly good at hiding her true emotions and even with over a century of experience backing him up she could still hide much from him.
Their intelligent back and forth had been a highlight of his time in New York. Unfortunately she had found herself a job in California and so their time had been cut short. It was obviously an excuse for the fact that she had been reassigned to a new mission but he made sure not to give away the fact that he knew.
He had been saddened when she'd left but his instincts told him that he would see her again soon and those instincts were rarely ever wrong.
It had however left him with very little to occupy his time and in truth that was part of the reason he had agreed to meet with Jessica Jones, boredom.
It was the bane of all immortals.
"Here we are." Trish said as she pointed at the small Pizzeria on the side of the road. To his eyes it was a nice quaint place, clearly a family run establishment if the awning and décor were anything to go by. He didn't mind that, in fact it was the dozens of such establishments that dotted the Big Apple that he found to be the nicest places to eat.
As a ruler of one of the four Night Kingdoms he had dinned in more upscale establishments than he could care to remember, yet it was the small places that always drew him in the most, for they had true heart and soul.
Feeling slightly better about the evening for even if this Jessica Jones turned out to be nothing but a fake or simply an unimpressive human with abilities then at least he would be eating some good homemade food.
Entering the establishment his suspicions about the place were confirmed by the homely feel that permeated it. He was distracted by any further examination of the place when his companion called out spontaneously from beside him. "Jessica!"
Hurrying through the maze of tables and chairs the young blonde woman made a beeline to the back of the restaurant and a dark haired young woman sitting in one of the booths.
Kojou moved at a far more sedate pace as he made his way towards the two women. Making his own path through the tables he caught his first glimpse of the woman he was here to meet.
She was pretty, in a very normal human way. Not the runway model beauty of Natalie but instead a more reserved laid back beauty. She was dressed in a tight pair of jeans along with a cheap top under a leather bomber jacket.
Her eyes rose to meet him and he saw the calculating slightly mistrustful gaze of a jaded woman staring at him. Just like Natalie there was a hidden depth to her, not as great but something told Kojou that this evening was going to be far more interesting than he had initially expected.
Jessica Jones couldn't quite put a finger on the emotions running through her mind as she sat in the booth of the restaurant she would be meeting her adoptive sister's new neighbour. She said new but that was somewhat of a falsehood. He had moved in long ago but it had only been in recent months that he had entered her sister's life.
By saving her life.
Jessica hadn't been on proper speaking terms with her sister since they had taken their separate paths in life, her sister had aspirations to become a pop star whilst she had drifted between a series of awful jobs after dropping out of college to live with her new boyfriend Stirling Adams...
She pushed away thoughts of that man and the tragedy that followed. If she didn't then she doubted she would be able to resist the call of the bottles lined up behind the bar and she needed her A game tonight.
"Jessica!" The familiar voice of her sister drew her attention away from darker thoughts and she turned rising almost reluctantly from her seat as her sister rushed up to her and embraced her in a strong hug.
Whilst her response was awkward and slightly stiff, if only to make sure she didn't crush her sister's ribcage with her superhuman strength she couldn't deny how good it felt to see her sister again. Their relationship may have initially been an incredibly rocky one, not surprising considering the manner in which they had been thrown together but over time it had become an unshakable bond that survived not only their rocky lives but Dorothy Walker as well.
Trish pulled away with a happy glint sparkling in her eye before she turned to look at another figure who was walking over to them. Jessica's eyes scanned the man with a suspicious look, it was the first time she had met someone who was like her.
Different.
A Freak.
"Jessica this is the man who saved me, Kojou this is my sister Jessica Jones." There was a note of pride in her voice as she mentioned her and Jessica felt an embarrassing but welcome feeling of warmth in her soul and she stood slightly straighter in response.
"Kojou Akatsuki, a pleasure to meet you." He said as he reached out to shake her hand. Now with him in front of her she was able to get a good look at him.
He was tall, a strange attribute considering his seeming Asian heritage only the closer she looked the less she could see it. He had tightly packed muscles whose outline were visible beneath even his thick clothing, though she would guess that his body resembled more of a swimmers build than a bodybuilder.
Strong blue eyes took up the greater part of his face and they, along with his what looked to be natural ashen hair gave him a very distinct and very handsome look.
Beyond his appearance it was his walk that told her all she needed to know about him. He glided, it was an effortless gait that moved with the free flow of water.
She would describe it more of a prowl than a walk.
This man was trained and sure of his own place in the world, that was clear enough to see even to her relatively untrained eyes. She had encountered some of the more skilled members of the underbelly of the great city they called home and many of them walked with such self assurance, though they would seem like stumbling youths in front of this man.
She would have called it arrogance but there was something about him that was almost unsettling, it wasn't something she could put into words but he just felt different. Somehow other.
She had investigated him before meeting her, in fact she had begun her investigation of the enigmatic man within hours of learning of his existence from her adoptive sister.
The total results of her investigation had not been impressive, he was a ghost. That was the only way she could describe him, he barely had a digital footprint, at least one she could follow from her laptop and mediocre computer skills.
She wasn't sure whether that impressed her or deeply concerned her.
His voice was deep, rich and measured as he addressed her but she made the conscious effort to not let him intimidate her.
"It's a pleasure." she said as she shook his hand.
Her behaviour seemed to interest him as she swore his eyes sparkled but she ignored it and they were soon moving back to the booth where Jessica had been sitting, getting comfortable. Jessica waited for Trish and Kojou to order their food before she struck up a conversation.
Or at least she tried to before she was preempted by the ashen haired man. "Miss Jones your sister has told me a lot about you."
Trish blushed slightly when Jessica sent her an inquisitive glance. Shifting in place slightly uncomfortably Trish looked around the restaurant making sure no one was observing them before she leaned forward and whispered. "I just told him that you were special, I didn't tell him what you could do."
Jessica nodded feeling somewhat relieved that her sister hadn't gone about spilling all of her secrets, he nodded at her sister's words. "Yes your sister has been tight lipped about you though she did tell me that you were different?"
His words were leading, clearly expecting her to answer and she knew she had to answer, it was just she had never been very comfortable talking about her... unique nature.
She gave him the once over one last time, she took no shit from anyone. It wasn't in her nature to be anxious or jumpy she was always on the offensive, aggressive and pushy. It was why she had such a hard time seeing herself as a hero.
Swallowing thickly she replied with a nod of her head. "Yes I am far stronger than a normal person, far stronger..." her voice trailed off towards the end as she thought back on the times when her powers had helped, and when they had hindered. Memories of the day she had stopped her adoptive mother from hitting Trish.
"Interesting, so how did you get this strength, were you born with it?" He asked her quizzically.
She shook her head. "No, I-I was in a car crash when I was fourteen and when I woke up I was different, I was stronger than I had any right to be, I even broke the kitchen sink I was so strong." She said even as she mentally cursed her own slight stutter.
He seemed interested in her tale as he leaned forward. "You awoke with powers?" He said though it seemed he was more talking to himself than her before he continued. "Do you think it was a result of the crash?"
She leaned back in her chair with a thoughtful look on her face, it was honestly not a question she had contemplated in quite some time. In fact it had been years since she had thought about her powers in such a way. They had become normal to her, a facet of her life that she had to keep under wraps yes, but it was normal to her now.
Frowning she answered him. "I looked into it long ago, in fact it was the first thing I did when I became a private eye but nothing ever came of it so I ended up giving up after the trail went cold."
She had spent months trying to piece together the pieces of what happened to her but nothing ever came of it, whether or not she had received her powers from someone else or from the accident itself she didn't know.
He nodded seeming to accept her answer before she asked a question that had been gnawing at her mind since she had heard about him from her sister. Folding her arms she leaned back in her chair. "So were you the same then? Did you get your powers from an accident or..." She said trailing off slightly as something he said earlier in their conversation returned to the forefront of her mind. "Were you born with yours?"
His eyes seemed to gleam with amusement as he noticed she had caught his earlier comment even as Trish leaning forward in clear interest at the answer. Taking a swig of his drink, a bottle of branded beer he swished the contents around before placing it back on the table and replying. "No, I am like you, though I received my powers from someone else."
There was a nostalgic smile on his face and Jessica watched as he seemingly got lost in his memories. It was strange, his eyes seemed so much older than his visage. It was like he was an old man trapped in a young man's body, his mannerism becoming almost ancient in comparison to his youthful appearance.
She blinked as he seemed to snap out of his internal reminiscence and focus once more on her. He opened his mouth ready to address her before something out of the corner of his eyes seemed to catch his focus. Turning away from her his blue eyes were looking at something behind her.
She was confused and turned in her seat to see what had captivated her new acquaintance only for her jaw to drop in shock. It was a television mounted to the wall, not a strange sight in the kind of restaurant they found themselves in though it wasn't the television itself that had Kojou's attention no it was the rather unbelievable sight the television was showing that had the attention of him and nearly everyone else in the room.
She had initially thought it to be a scene from a movie, familiar streets of Harlem were burning, cars wrecked and abandoned on the side of the road as people fled for their lives but as she watched the lines of text from the broadcaster below the footage and the scared looking familiar presenter of the news she knew it was real.
"Holy shit." She muttered.
"Oh god what is that?" She heard Trish say in shock and horror as a hulking beast slammed into the concrete of the road causing the camera to shake.
She reluctantly pulled her eyes away from the screen only to frown in confusion as she saw that Kojou had got up from his seat and was walking out of the restaurant. She didn't even get a chance to call out to him before he'd slammed the door shut behind him and vanished into the night air.
"Where do you think he's going?" Trish asked as she watched him walk away.
Turning back to look at the panicked news reporter and the destruction in the background she said. "I think I have an idea."
Kojou could not quite describe the drive behind his actions as he stepped out into the dark night and started to run in the direction of Harlem.
Darting around people going about their own lives, the cold air rushing through his hair he realised with a small spike of elation that he didn't have a clue what was pushing him forward.
His emotions were simply a tumultuous whirlwind.
The creatures he'd seen shown on the television, the two great behemoths battling it out in the middle of New York, it was one of the strangest and miraculous things he'd seen in decades.
It was curiosity that was driving him forwards or at least that was what he told himself.
As he ran he made sure to grab a hooded coat from one of the road side stalls, disappearing into the shadows before the vendor could even react to the theft. He didn't want his face plastered over every news channel in the world.
Looking about he realised he was going too slowly, the battle would be over or too much damage wrought before he could get there. Glancing about the dark but still crowded street he dashed into an alley before reaching for the power that rested deep within his soul and roared through his blood.
He called for one of the twelve living Calamities that accompanied him, he reached for The Sword of Judgment.
He shivered slightly as he felt the power of the Sword of Abraded Night blaze within him even as he crouched down and tensed his legs.
A purple aura of power erupted from his skin as a pair of wings, black as night formed on his back, they were more mirage than true physical appendages as they flickered slightly like a ghost in the night.
Giving one last glance at his surroundings to make sure no one was watching he exploded upwards with a jump, clearing the high rise building in a single bound.
Glowing red eyes pierced the darkness that covered the city with ease and he found his goal nearly instantly. The soft hew of the flames licking up into the sky wasn't difficult to find even in the sprawling city that never slept.
Landing softly on the roof of the building he positioned himself so he was facing the right direction before once more jumping into the sky, manipulating the gravity around him so he glided across the New York skyline.
Harlem was ablaze, the borough of New York infamous for its crime was littered with craters and burning cars.
It was not gang warfare that was bringing destruction to the borough, not this day, this day it was something bigger. The culmination of an unsanctioned U.S Military manhunt that had spanned the entire globe.
General Thaddeus E. 'Thunderbolt' Ross had headed up the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project, a successor to Project Rebirth, the U.S black ops project that had given birth to the first and greatest Super Soldier Program along with the legendary Captain America.
Only the project had hit a roadblock, a roadblock that caused lead scientist Bruce Banner along with his girlfriend and fellow scientist Elizabeth 'Betty' Ross to make the decision to use Gamma radiation in order to synthesise a serum instead of the Vita Ray's used in Project Rebirth.
Banner had been so confident in it that he had elected to test it on himself.
Only the serum had not worked as intended, rather than creating a super soldier that could rival the legendary Captain, Banner had turned into a monster. An 8ft tall green monster that embodied nothing but endless rage.
He had hurt people, rampaging without thought and driven only by instinct.
Once he had returned to normal he had run both out of shame and fear for what the General would do not only to him but with the serum he had created. General Ross had become obsessed and pursued him across the entire world uncaring for laws or borders. For five long years they had hunted him across the globe uncaring for the damage they wrought in their dogged pursuit of power.
It was a hunt that had eventually driven Banner home to the U.S and Culver University in a search for a cure and would lead to a pitched battle after he was ambushed by the U.S Army. It would ultimately end in failure as Ross was unable to capture Banner who managed to escape the University though he was quickly captured by Specialist Blonsky.
Emil Blonsky, a former spec-ops commando of the Royal Marines on loan to the Bio-Tech Enhancement Project had managed to ambush Banner after being pumped full of a variant of the Super Soldier Serum. He became addicted to power and when he learned of a large supply of gamma-irradiated blood he stole it for himself and had Samuel Sterns inject it into him, transforming him into a monster.
Escaping he had made a mockery of the Army and of law enforcement as he rampaged through Harlem unimpeded.
At least until Ross had allowed the captured Banner to face the newly dubbed Abomination in battle.
Kojou was aware of none of this as his feet came to land on the roof of one of the dozens of red brick buildings that made up the Harlem skyline.
Looking down he was finally able to get a real look at what was doing so much damage to Harlem, or rather both creatures.
In the middle of the burning street two creature were engaging in a furious brawl.
One of them was a monstrous thing, a huge hulking creature of leathery yet shiny skin and bulging inhuman muscles far too large to be even close to human. An arched spine that bristled with razor sharp bone protruding from his skin, each one deadly and vicious. He looked to be more bone than muscle, skin covered his bone showing each contour of mutated cartilage.
He was a monster, plane and simple, his eyes enlarged and filled with nothing but madness and lust, a lust for destruction and death.
The second creature was different.
It was ever so slightly smaller than the first only it seemed far more humanoid. Rather than the bone covered skin of the first creature it was instead made up of pure inhuman muscle. Every fibre of its bulging impossibly large muscles seemed visible through its skin, a physical manifestation of its immense physical strength.
It looked more human than the other one, a mop of black hair covered its head and despite being green in colour its facial features resembled that of a human. Its luminous green eyes practically glowed with its boundless inner rage and it was surrounded in a palpable air of danger and unbridled all consuming anger.
Kojou watched from his vantage place as the green monster used a pair of sheared off pieces of cars to batter his opponent into the ground. Concrete cracked and broke like it was old paper as each strike from the immense green behemoth landed true burying the grey monster into the concrete road.
Kojou continued to watch as the grey creature managed to push its opponent off of it and get up before turning to sprint down the road, each footfall shaking the ground beneath its feet. Kojou saw it batter through a series of fences before jumping onto the wall of a building.
Kojou lost visual of the creature for a few moments until it suddenly exploded into sight once more having scaled the building to land on the roof. Kojou watched as it began to run along the rooftops towards him even as a military helicopter painted in matt grey rose into view turning in mid air so its side doors were open.
Within moments it had opened up with its mounted machine gun spraying the rooftops with bullets. None of them were able to pierce the skin of the creature, instead they bounced off if it as if they were naught but a nuisance.
Kojou felt the roof of the building beneath his feet vibrate from the force of the creatures footsteps. Red eyes narrowed as the fibres in his muscles tensed, ready to move at a moments notice.
It was crossing the rooftops, heading towards him like an unstoppable force but just before he needed to jump into the air and dodge the rampaging monster's large bony fingers the helicopter's mounted machine gun found its mark. Bullets that could tear through metal and brick like they were nothing couldn't even scratch its skin but it was enough to get its attention.
Veering off towards the side the monster charged the helicopter running like a raging bull as it crossed the rooftop. With a single leap it flew through the air grabbing for the chopper.
The CH-53 Sea Stallion spun as the weight of the monstrous creature pulled it down. The second greener creature jumped to intercept it but an elbow straight to the face sent the behemoth flying, though in a feet of spectacular dexterity the green creature twisted mid air catching the foot of the abomination in a vice like grip.
It was quickly becoming clear who was the good guy in this raging battle of giants.
The weight of the two inhuman creatures was pulling the helicopter out of the sky causing it to lose elevation and lean dangerously to one side as the pilot lost control of the vehicle.
It was going to crash, Kojou could see that with an almost detached clarity. Those within would likely die as the helicopter hit the ground, it was a near obvious conclusion.
They would die if he didn't do anything.
Time seemed to grind to a halt as he stood there watching the helicopter veer dangerously towards a large billboard. Indecision clouded his mind for a moment that seemed to stretch out into infinity.
If he did nothing they would die but he would keep his anonymity, despite turning up on the radar of an international organisation he had managed to remain out of the public eye in much the same way he had done in his youth before he had announced himself as the true Fourth Progenitor. Staying out of the view of the mundane population and pretending he was an inconspicuous bystander.
Could he do it though, stand back and watch as people died in order to not risk discovery?
His mind was cast back to the day everything had changed, the day he met her. Their first meeting, outside of a store in an inconsequential shopping mall on Itogami Island.
He could never have known the profound effect she would have on his life. She was with him every step of the way on the path that Avarora had placed him on.
A path that had him fight for his life, shattering the relative peace and anonymity he had enjoyed since waking up in fire and ash as the Fourth Night Lord.
Yet he had met new and amazing people, found love from many and earned the loyalty of a nation and a people.
He had enjoyed the quiet anonymity of his life before the Sword Shaman had thrown everything into chaos but the road to the crown and his Kingdom had been one that he would look back on and never regret.
He thought of her, her smile, the warmth in her eyes, the way she would look at him and most of all he thought of what she would do had she been in his place.
A chuckle escaped his throat as he realised what he was doing. Here he was standing on the edge of a rooftop wondering if saving peoples lives was worth his anonymity.
"Oh Kojou you've lived too long. Lived too long." He muttered to himself before power once more erupted from his body as he jumped into the fray, his eyes glowing red with power and new found resolve.
Doctor Elizabeth "Betty" Ross had been having one of the strangest days of her life. In fact it was certainly up there in the top three.
All of her strangest days revolved around one thing and one thing only.
Her ex-boyfriend Bruce Banner.
She had been in love with him even before they had begun their work on the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project but it had been that project, their work in creating a second Project Rebirth that had changed her life and the life of Bruce forever.
The day they had experimented on Bruce using the myostatin primer had resulted in him becoming an unstable unstoppable green beast that had hospitalized her and rampaged across the University campus before vanishing into the aether.
Five years, it had been five years since she had seen the man she had fallen in love with. Five years since she had begun to torment herself with the guilt that it was her fault he had become the Hulk.
Then he had turned up once more out of the blue and she had chased after him, single minded in her desire to right the wrong she had done to the man she loved.
It had resulted in a running battle across the University Campus between the Hulk and the Army led by her father, a man she had not gotten on with in years because of his single minded obsession in hunting Bruce down like an animal.
She thought they had gotten away after that. They had travelled to New York together in an effort to find a cure and if not that then at least a way to gain control of the beast inside him but they had been captured.
One of her father's most proficient hounds, Emil Blonsky had led a SOCC team to track them down and capture them.
They were being transported in a helicopter away from the city when everything had gone wrong.
A report came crackling through the radio of a Hulk like creature was rampaging through Harlem. What it was she didn't know but Bruce had begged her father to allow him to intervene and very begrudgingly he had agreed.
That had left them alone in a helicopter watching as the two enhanced men proceeded to turn Harlem into a battleground.
Then it had happened, her father whether in an attempt to appear useful or out of an actual desire to right his wrongs had ordered the helicopter they were in to assist Bruce.
It was a tactic that had worked surprisingly well, well enough that they had caught the monsters attention though that had quickly put them in mortal peril.
Betty did have to wonder what sort of crazy fantasy her life had become as the creature began to pull the helicopter down through its sheer weight.
The helicopter buckled a second time as she saw a flash of green cross the open door of the helicopter as Bruce grabbed hold of the ankle of the Abomination. His intentions were nothing but good but he had only signed their death warrant, the pull on the helicopter worsened as it was dragged down towards the ground even faster.
It was tilting dangerously to one side and she was filled with the sudden horrific realisation that she was going to die in the helicopter as it went crashing into the ground, transforming into a metal coffin as they hit the cold concrete below. Only the crash never came, a pillar of purple light roared down from the heavens and slammed into the abomination with the force of a freight train.
Betty could have sworn she saw space twist under that mauve light but the moment didn't last long enough for her to tell as the Abomination was dislodged from their helicopter and sent plummeting towards the ground along with Bruce.
She scrambled to her feet as the pilot righted the aircraft stopping them moments before they were about to plow through a billboard. Holding tightly onto a strap hanging from the roof she hauled herself to her feet and leaned over the side to gaze upon the battle below.
She was not disappointed, the two monsters were stood apart from one another eyeing up the person who had interrupted their duel.
Unlike the two clearly inhuman behemoths the gatecrasher was clearly human or at least appeared to be so. She was too far to see his face clearly and she couldn't even tell the colour of his hair was thanks to the black hood he wore over it.
Bruce's monstrous face was screwed up in confusion seeming hesitant about what to do with the new arrival, the Abomination on the other hand had no such hesitation. Lunging forward with enough force to crush steel and shatter concrete it puts its full weight into removing the insect who had dared to interfere.
The wind howled and flames climbed into the sky as man fought beast in a display that seemed to rival the tales of old, Betty could only watch as the man danced around the abomination, dodging and weaving around the beasts strikes like a dancer in a deadly duet.
It was as if the biblical tale of David and Goliath had been made anew.
The man was fast, a blur as he moved around the much larger leather skinned beast. Betty was sure that she saw even a few of its punches connect with the hooded man but he seemed to not even notice, instead he simply moved like mist through the punches to land his own.
Though each strike was nothing when compared to the raw strength of the abomination, it was like a mouse trying to assail a lion.
Each strike was made with the devastating skill of a master, no movement was wasted and each strike landed on a place that would cause grave injury. But it should have done nothing, he was a man and the abomination was far beyond human.
Yet each strike, fast as a viper that landed on the face, joints and vulnerable points of the hulking figure was enough to push it back if only a fraction of a foot. A feat not even the mounted machine gun on the helicopter had accomplished.
"Amazing." Betty glanced to the side to see her father staring at the fight with undisguised awe. "A super soldier I didn't think anyone had succeeded."
"What?" She asked in confusion.
He shot her a look before glancing back at the fight in the street. "He's holding his own against a monster that can equal the Hulk, no ordinary man can do that, no one. He has to be enhanced, a super soldier."
As Betty looked him in the eye she saw an almost manic look within and with a sinking feeling she realised that she was looking at the depths of her father's obsession. A shiver of fear went up her spine as she looked at the strange glint in his eyes and not for the first time she felt fear in the presence of her father.
It was not the first time she had felt such an emotion in the presence of her father, it had been five years ago during the insane afternoon that had changed her and Bruce's life forever.
The Hulk had caused her to feel terror, its rage and unbridled fury was terrible to behold as was the destruction it left in its wake. Yet it was not Bruce that had inspired such fear in her heart, no it had been her father. The look in his eyes as he watched the Hulk and the havoc it created was enough to strike terror into her heart, the power lust and uncontrolled desire had her running as far and as fast as she could from her father in the days after the incident even as she worked to find Bruce on her own.
With an almost superhuman effort she pulled her attention away from the barley controlled madness that laid deep within her father's eyes.
Looking back at the battle below she watched the man on the street with new eyes, the more cynical scientific part of her brain taking over as she attempted to analyse what her father had seen and the validity of his statement.
"I'm not so sure he's a supersoldier." She muttered more to herself than to her father. There was a hidden grace to the man that she couldn't quite describe, more than that the closer she looked the more she believed that some of the punches were indeed connecting but he seemed to slip through them like a mirage.
All of a sudden the man's demeanour seemed to shift and in a single moment of blazing fury he rushed forward and slammed his palms into the monster's head. He spoke a single word that seemed to echo across through the air.
SLEEP!
The word echoed through her brain and Betty's mind shook with the sheer force behind it.
Her ears were ringing but she managed to gather a semblance of her wits and gaze once more at the battle below. The figure darted back rolling away from the abomination which much to her surprise staggered almost as if it was in a drunken state.
The hooded figure turned to look at the Hulk and Betty could only assume that he said something to Bruce as the Hulk was stirred into action. Betty watched as the immense muscles in Bruce's arms tensed, cords of muscle fibre that contained boundless power tightening in preperation
With a tensing of muscles Bruce crouched and in a mighty leap jumped at the Abomination raising both fists as one to smash into its head
The hit was great enough to release a shockwave visible to the naked eye; cars were rolled over from the force, the redbrick of the surrounding buildings cracked and the road beneath the Abominations feet cratered more than half a dozen meters.
It sent the Abomination into the ground squashing it like a pancake and seemed to snap it out of whatever daze the hooded man had left it in but it was powerless to do anything as the Hulk continued to pound it into the ground.
It raised its arms in one last feeble attempt to stop the barrage of blows but the Hulk refused to let up, instead its barrage only got worse.
Suddenly the Hulk's arm pulled back as it roared out two words, the echoes of Bruce hidden deep within the monsters voice. "HULK SMASH!"
A single punch with the force of a freight train behind it smashed into the Abomination's face and with the the punch sent the mutated human into the ground so hard that the earth shook like it had been hit by a localized earthquake.
Cracks crisscrossed the concrete road travelling up the neighbouring redbrick buildings as fissures spread up the buildings. The ground beneath the Abomination feet didn't just crater as much as it shattered like a pain of glass.
Betty watched tense in case it stood up once more and she let out a sigh of relief when she realised that the Abomainton was staying down. Bruce seemed to realise it too as he stepped back and let out a roar that shook the air vibrating in her ears and echoing across the city.
The Hulk closed its mouth and looked around at the people staring at him before he looked up and Betty stared into the bright nigh glowing green eyes and deep within she saw the man she had held a spark for for over half a decade.
She smiled at him as she lifted her hand in the air and her smile only grew larger as he copied the action. A few moments later he lowered his arm before tensing his legs and jumping onto the roof of a building.
"Shall I follow him Sir?" The Pilot called out to her father.
The General paused as he looked between the ruins of the street and the broken body of one of his best soldiers and the vanishing form of the weapon he so desired.
"No, no I don't think so. Stay here we're containing the situation but monitor his movements." He said as he looked at his daughter.
"Thank you." She said quietly and he grunted in acknowledgment before refocusing his attention on the body below. Betty moved her gaze away from Bruce's retreating form and back to the street below.
"Besides." The General said. "We have a new target to hunt."
Betty's eyes flickered to look at him for a moment before she turned to gaze at the impromptu battlefield. The figure was gone, vanished in the wind leaving behind nothing.
The authorities would search the surrounding three blocks for the illusive figure but they found nothing and with no description beyond wearing a black coat they had nothing. No identification of their gender, eye colour or even hair colour.
Not even the illusive Agent Romanoff deployed by SHIELD was able to find him.
Still the NYPD, FBI and Homeland Security all released notices that he was a person of interest and wanted for questioning.
Kojou stepped into the darkened alley of the side street having fled a battlefield that reshaped a large section of Harlem and left a street in complete ruins.
He had found himself embroiled in a battle between two monsters of such physical might that they put all Demon's to shame. Neither a Therianthrope of any animal nor even an Ogre could have hoped to match either of those beings in a physical match, not even him, a King amongst the 'Lords of Demonkind' could match them.
He would have been able to take them both had he been able to call upon his Beast Vessels but full manifestation was out of the question, not in a populated area and not while he was being closely watched by a secret organisation of unknown size and power.
He had been forced to fight with only a partial manifestation of two Familiars but it had still brought him more attention than he ever wanted.
His eyes that pierced the darkness rose in surprise as he saw space in front of him crack, crystalline fracture in reality filling the alley from wall to wall blocking anything off.
Knowing who had summoned it he walked through the fracture vanishing from New York into another dimension.
As he stepped through the average person wouldn't have been able to tell that they were no longer in the same Dimension. Kojou however was no ordinary man and his heightened senses were able to pick up the difference between reality and this mirror world with ease.
Its name was the Mirror Dimension, a parallel dimension that allowed Sorcerers to practice their abilities and fight their enemies. It was the sole reason the secret of magic had been maintained for hundreds of years even after the leaps and bounds in technological advancement.
Kojou blinked and suddenly he found himself standing on the roof of one of the low rise buildings that made up the skyline of the city of Kathmandu.
He could recognise the city that stood as the centre of mystical power on the planet with ease, it was not the first time he had visited and he very much doubted it would be the last.
Kathmandu was important to the mystical world for one single reason, it was the home of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, the defenders of reality from the Multiverse of madness that lay beyond. The final bulwark upon which cosmic horrors would break.
Standing at the edge of the roof next to him was a woman dressed in a yellow hooded robe that under normal circumstances would have been rather garish but it seemed to fit her perfectly.
"Hello old friend." She said as she flicked the large hood of her robe down and turned her gaze on him. Normally, impassive ancient green eyes that looked at the world with an almost inhuman detachment contained traces of warmth and care as she stared at him.
"Yao, it is good to see you." He replied as he gave her a warm smile.
The Sorcerer Supreme, the guardian of the world against the threats that laid beyond in the infinite dimensions of the Multiverse gave him a reproachful look at his use of her name and their eyes locked as they exchanged an entire conversation with naught but a single look.
Seemingly satisfied Kojou turned to look at the bustling crowds below that were going about their daily lives without a care in the world. They looked so close, it was strange to realise that they were an entire dimension away and completely untouchable.
The two turned to stare out at the city comfortable in each others silence, both valuing the peace that the young felt the need to fill.
They stood there for what seemed like hours as the world below them moved on without them.
It was like a metaphor of their place in the world.
The Earth continued to turn day after day and they stood still like great oaks as generation after generation turned to dust around them. They were the immovable rocks stuck in the sea of shifting lives and short lived mortals, unable to connect with anyone who wasn't like them or extraordinary.
"Its starting." She said breaking the silence.
He glanced at her with a cocked eyebrow.
"The Asgardians have broken there century long silence." She continued.
"Really?" He asked leadingly. The Asgardians were one of the great mysteries of this new reality that had drawn his interest. The idea that there was a species of aliens that had combined magic and technology in a manner so similar to his own people was one he found both fascinating and intriguing.
He wondered if with the title of Gods they possessed meant they equalled the ancient Devas.
"Thor, Crown Prince of Asgard decided to throw down with Odin's vault keeping golem in the middle of a town in New Mexico." She said with what almost sounded like annoyance in her voice.
He laughed finding amusement in her annoyance though his mind was more focused on the Asgardians. He had wanted to meet an Æsir for some time, to see what a so called God of this world was like. The gods of his world, the Deva were gone, twisted by Cain's Cleansing Ritual millennia ago and what few paragons remained of their great civilization had been transformed into the greatest of Demons, the Progenitors themselves.
"It doesn't end there though, no it's just the beginning, the Hulk you fought in New York, the 'Iron Man'. Something is coming Kojou, a storm that is going to change the world forever." She said with a serious tone to her voice.
"I can only see so far but this world is sending out signals Kojou to the rest of the Universe, an invitation that its ready for a higher form of warfare and things are answering that call." She said seriously.
"You will be in the centre of this new wave, heroes are being born and villains are rising to meet the challenge, things are only going to get worse from here and I can't see where this is going to lead." She said with a note of worry in her voice. Kojou's red eyes snapped to look at her in shock, he knew vaguely what was hanging around her neck and what it meant for her sight to fail.
It was distinctly worrying.
"It is going to become a world like yours." She said seriously.
"When is this going to begin?" He asked her.
She shook her head. "It has already begun, there have been singular events here and there throughout the past few decades but, but... You have a year then everything changes."
She looked at him, no words were exchanged as they turned back to bask in the light of the setting sun over the city.
Fury stared at the video camera footage that he had been playing on repeat for the last half hour with a look so intense he probably should have melted the screen. Over and over again he had been watching it as if every single rerun would tell him something new that he'd missed.
His face was impassive and could have easily been mistaken for granite but hidden deep within his eyes was a burning rage, one centred inwards for if there was anything that Nicholas Fury hated more than anything it was being caught flat footed.
"He is far more dangerous than we realised." Fury said though whether he was talking to his companion or to himself was anyone's guess.
"You're sure it's him?" Coulson asked with a small tilt of his head.
Fury narrowed his eyes as he swiped one of the screens bringing up another camera feed. This one showed the front door of a restaurant and a young man with distinct grey hair exiting at speed before sprinting off down the road.
"He leaves the restaurant after meeting with Trish Walker and the enhanced individual identified as Jessica Jones the moment the Hulk and the mutated soldier Emil Blonsky start throwing it down in Harlem. That ain't no fucking coincidence." Fury retorted snappishly.
Coulson eyed him before reaching forward and swiping the screen back to show different CCTV feeds of the duel in Harlem.
"He's empowered." Coulson said as he eyed the CCTV feeds. Each one clearly showing the duel and their mysterious hooded figure front and centre.
"Here it looks as if he is dodging the punch but he doesn't, instead it's like that part of his body turns to mist." Coulson said as he pointed at one part of the footage.
He turned to look at another piece of footage showing the Abomination getting knocked flying from the helicopter. "This though, this is different. None of our experts have any idea what this ability is, best guess us something to do with gravity."
Fury stared at him before returning his attention to the monitor. "So our suspected supersoldier and theorised immortal might not be a super soldier but instead something more."
Coulson snorted, a break in his usual unflappable demeanour. "All but guaranteed sir. My guess is that we had it wrong, he's not Enhanced I think he's Gifted."
The Index was the list of super powered individuals that SHIELD monitored, it wasn't a particularly long list but it was split into two distinct groups.
The first were the Enhanced, those who have gained their powers either through freak accident or through scientific experimentation.
The second were those who were classified as Gifted, those who have been born with powers beyond the normal man.
"Do you think he's human?" Fury asked Coulson promptly his mind going back to the events which had thrust him and SHIELD into the middle of the Kree-Skrull War.
"I don't know. He doesn't appear alien but then neither did the Kree or the Skrulls and nor did Thor." Coulson acknowledged, he wasn't afraid to say the name of the two alien races whose files weren't even kept within SHIELD's databases for fear of discovery.
An effort which seemed in vain after the previous week.
The Big Week some of his senior Agents had coined it and not without reason. It had started off relatively quiet, or at least as quiet as a covert international counter intelligence counter terrorist organisation was ever likely going to get.
That quiet had been promptly shattered by the news that within 48 hours famous weapon manufacture and budding superhero Tony Stark was going to die of palladium poisoning.
The news that their had been a massive electromagnetic disturbance in New Mexico hadn't made his mood any better. In fact it had only gotten worse after the events of the Stark Expo and the information that Coulson had discovered an Einstein-Rosen Bridge in the middle of nowhere.
He had been forced to reassign Agent Romanoff to Banner after her stint at Stark's, an assignment she in turn had been reassigned to after nothing came of monitoring Kojou Akatsuki for over a month. He had been tempted to have Romanoff break cover but ultimately decided against it, he was a patient man and if Kojou remained quiet then Fury had been happy to leave him alone at least for the time being.
The mission quickly spiralled out of control as battle erupted between the Army and Banner in the middle of Culver University which resulted in Banner making an escape from the Army and dropping off the map. That hadn't been the end, far from it. Coulson had phoned him up to report that Earth had just had another encounter with extraterrestrial life.
This time with an alien that had introduced itself as Thor the God of Lightning and Storms from Norse Mythology. Fury would have rejected that claim outright, he wasn't a man that allowed himself to believe in any higher power had the report not included a tale of the man summoning a storm and wrecking a town in the middle of backwater New Mexico.
He had been reeling from the knowledge that it was happening again, aliens were once more encroaching on Earth when something else had appeared to rock his world and induce even greater migraines.
Romanoff had been in New York deployed in efforts to track down Banner when she had reported a full blown dual erupting between the transformed Bruce Banner and the newly mutated former Royal Marine Emil Blonsky.
She had watched the battle even as a new combatant had arrived to intervene in the brawl and from her reports and the security camera footage they had confiscated or rather bullied out of the hands of the FBI and CIA he had managed to hold his own against the two superpowered behemoths.
He hadn't had time to investigate at the time for he was soon forced to call a meeting with the SHIELD World Security Council where he had to lay out the events of the week. They had asked after the Tesseract and he had responded by telling them he had saved Stark's life, encountered and formed an alliance with Thor, helped stop Ross and his super soldier experiments and kept a team out looking for Captain America.
He had refrained from informing them of his belief that Kojou Akatsuki had been involved in the Duel of Harlem, the man had gone to ground in the aftermath of the Duel. Something about Malick's insistence on finding him unsettled him though why he couldn't say.
It wasn't like he was supposed to even know the names of the members of the World Security Council, in fact that was the point of it. He wasn't and therefore they could be an impartial judge upon the most powerful organisation in the world but he had been called a paranoid son of a bitch by more people than he cared to count and the thought of people he didn't know having oversight over him didn't sit right with him.
He stared at the monitor for a few moments longer before turning to Coulson and ordering him. "The moment he reappears contact me we need to set up a face to face with him."
"You sure about this Director." Coulson asked. He was one of the few people in the world, perhaps the only one in the world with the nerve to question him. They didn't call him the Director's Right Eye for nothing.
"Yes, whilst he remained quiet and didn't cause any waves it was acceptable to let him slink under the radar but this... This is different, he's caused tidal waves and we need to get on top of him." Fury ordered as he turned to look at the screens still showing the looped video. Coulson's footsteps disappearing into the background leaving him alone.