Avengers Initiative.

Target. Zero. Three.

Odinson, Thor; demigod.

Alias: Thor.

…

He strategically tapped the correct sequence on the heat-sensor keys of the keyboard, fingers dancing rapidly as he accessed the top secret information – all thanks to 'target zero one', of course. Sitting in the dark room, the light emitted off of the screen casted a strange blue glow over his visage. Even then, it did not hide the obvious interest expressed, a slow thoughtful smile, as he mumbled, "Don't tell me…No way."

"Of Norse mythology? That Thor?"

Intrigued, he accessed the next column of information.

…

Physique:

Male.

Six foot six inches.

Blond hair.

Blu-

SKIP.

Notes: Refers to self as Thor, Son of Odin. Insists on 'Asgardian' customs. Weapon of choice: Hammer (ref. as Mjölnir).

…

"He even has a Mjölnir. I wonder..." He cracked his knuckles and entered in a few commands into the computer. The system instantly responded and a report of 'first contact' as compiled by a person initialed as 'P.C.' streamed down the screen.

His eyebrows rose. "This P.C. guy is thorough…The exact time, date and place Thor first drank Earth water…How many calories he consumed on his first 'Earth Day'…He even scanned in a drawing of the embellishments of civilian Thor's belt buckle!"

Creepy.

Quickly scanning through the rest of the detailed report, he paused, disturbed, "Even B wouldn't mark down the number of times a guy has to answer nature's call!"

Seriously creepy.

"What kind of government agency condones this kind of observation? Isn't this all just irrelevant data?"

Huh.

"They didn't have one for Stark but he's human…I wonder…Since I'm 'extraterrestrial'…Would they have a file for me?"

"What is this?"

All four occupants in the lab turned in unison, instinctively reacting to the authoritative voice.

A moment of silence was observed before-

"Oh it's you," dismissed Stark.

Thor, Son of Odin, crossed his arms, frowning haughtily at Tony. "Your squabbles were heard yonder past this hallway."

"We apologize-" started Dr. Banner.

Dick waved, "Yeah, sorry Mr. Odinson."

"Odinson?" Stark stifled an inappropriate snort. "Smooth."

The demigod seemed to automatically ignore Stark and his insufferable comments and consider the tiny mortal sitting in the lab.

Feeling a mite uncomfortable at being silently examined by a mythological god, Dick piped up, "Yes?"

The blond leered at the boy before questioning Steve and Bruce. "Is this a custom? That Midgardians have young ones, and not proper warriors, to do battle?"

"No. That would be S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Tony, you're not helping," chided Dr. Banner as he explained awkwardly, "Thor, this is Dick Grayson. He's not part of S.H.I.E.L.D., I think, rather…He, um, fell out of a Tesseract portal."

Thor turned his attention back on the boy in contemplation, right hand enclosing air tightly. Awareness straying to Loki's weapon oh-so-conveniently sitting behind Dick, he snorted, "Foolish. Why is this Son of Gray not in a cell then? He could be a practitioner."

"I'm right here you know!" Affronted, Dick glowered, "I'm not a practitioner – whatever that means."

"And you entertain him as well!"

"Wait, hold up here." Captain America, compelled to add in his two cents, said, "From what we gathered if he's telling the truth, he was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. and subjugated to interrogation. So he was in a cell…before he escaped. Likely, Director Fury thought him to be a part of Loki's grand master plan."

"Likely, but not wholly. My adopted brother would not consider a weak child to do his bidding unless he aims to target our compassion."

Said 'weak child' bristled in offense.

"But that means your crazy brother would be willing to pull something like this." Stark grumbled, throwing caution to the wind, "Hey, were you brainwashed into lying to us and you know, gain our trust, join the Avengers Initiative – not that you even have a chance since that's all Fury's baby – then kill us in our sleep?"

"What?"

He repeated impatiently, "Brainwashed by Loki. Get with the program kid. I thought you hacked our files or is that a lie too?"

Burning from the third degree lashing, Dick replied petulantly, "I'm not brainwashed like a zombie. You're the weird ones – arguing about my existence and not doing something useful."

"Hm." Iron Man shrugged, "I'm convinced. A zombie wouldn't have snarky repartee."

"He is certainly not of Asgardian ilk." Thor thought out loud. "He is too…'chatty', like a Midgardian child."

"Being chatty is part of my charm," Dick deadpanned. "I'm telling you guys, I'm one-hundred percent human. Mr. Fury detained me after he found me at his blown-up secret government facility where he created weapons from the Tesseract."

"…Wait. Backtrack. What did you say?" asked Dr. Banner in disbelief. "Did you say weapons?"

"Yeah. Hacker, remember? This info is in their system." Dick commented, seemingly innocent. "I thought you knew."

Steve crossed his arms and nodded grimly, "He's telling the truth. I saw the weapons that they retrieved from the Pegasus facility. It's sitting pretty in the bunker right now."

Dick nodded, "Exactly. And this Tesseract thing, which is obviously something of great import, is in enemy hands right now. I mean…You guys were hand selected to be part of this Avengers Initiative, this Hero team…I thought it would count for something."

"Count for what?" asked the Captain.

Using his best grim voice, Dick said lowly, "That you'd do the right thing and save the world."

Agent Hill shot up out of her seat and turned towards Fury at the bridge. "Sir. I just received a report from Agent Harley that Anomaly One has escaped from room twenty-oh-seven."

"What?" The Director accessed the cameras to said room and frowned at the image of the boy sleeping. He quickly typed in several commands and the footage of the slumbering child flickered into the live feed from the external camera in the hallway.

Hill took control then and quickly rewound the saved footage and caught the image of the boy running down the hallway. They took note of the time.

Thirty minutes ago.

"Unbelievable." The Director barked out, "How did he manage to hack the security cameras?!"

"One of ours noticed something strange with the camera recording and managed to retrieve this image, sir." Agent Hill showed Fury an earlier still of the boy making faces at the two-way mirror but his eyes were focused on the reflection of the hidden camera. "I'm afraid an hour of our footage has been lost."

"The motion sensors?"

"Disabled."

"And where are Agents William and Dean?"

"They were just found five minutes ago locked in the interrogation room. Knocked out cold." Hill continued her report, "The tracer left on Anomaly One was found in a closet three hallways down."

Fury commanded coldly, "Find and detain. Monitor all cameras. We cannot have a hacker run around our facility."

Avengers Initiative.

Target. Zero. Two.

Banner, Bruce; Doctor.

Alias: Hulk.

…

Gamma radiation. Collateral damage. Death toll.

"…The not so jolly green giant much."

And yet he was considered as having potential even with his shaky control. He is a genius scientist...But could it be the fact that he still followed through as the Hulk and stopped Abomination?

"There must be more to this Hulk and Bruce Banner than this data suggests…"

Five aces.

Robin regretted the words as soon as he heard the start of their verbal reaction.

"Save Midgard? With them?" Thor stared pointedly at Iron Man.

"Hey. No hard feelings, big guy. You struck me with your hammer. I reflected your lightning back at you. An eye for an eye."

The demigod snorted, "This is Asgard business and has nothing to do with you."

"It has everything to do with us!" Steve retorted, "Loki may be your brother but he is trying to enslave the entire human race – us."

"To become a team, it will not end well," warned Thor ominously. "This will be a mistake."

Steve frowned, "I can agree with that. Already, professionalism doesn't exist with Stark and-"

"Please, I'm professional. Completely professional. Speak for yourself, Capsicle." Tony nudged the doctor. "Say something Bruce."

Thor added, "Yes, Doctor. As a voice of reason, share your insight."

"...I...I can't do this. I'm only here to locate the Tesseract. That's it. What you're suggesting…It won't work." Bruce glared at them, replying sardonically, "The people I'm supposed to protect will run away from me, screaming. What if I, no, he attacks them…? I can't."

"Exactly," compounded the Captain coolly. "Dr. Banner still doesn't have control."

"At least he's trying. You, the old guy who was just defrosted, think you can just come in here and decide you're in charge? It doesn't work that way," sneered Stark.

"And what about you? You think for yourself and don't consider others. Do you even hear your own words when you speak?"

This was getting out of hand.

"You guys sure argue a lot. It's like you all agree to disagree." Robin picked at an old playground scab on his knuckles. "Not much gets done around here, huh?"

Banner, Stark, Rogers and Thor turned towards him.

"What a perceptive observation, Son of Gray."

Stark laughed, "Ooh, you got the demigod to use sarcasm. Nice."

Thor grumbled, "Sarcasm?"

Frowning at them, he puffed up, "You guys need to learn how to interface and I can totally teach you!"

There was a strange wry smile twisting the good Captain's boyish features – a mixture of befuddlement and adult patience. "Teach us to what?"

"To interface." Robin repeated, impatient, "You know – get along?"

"Oh."

Banner glanced at Rogers who frowned at Stark who smirked at Thor who did not know how to respond to the boy's statement. And as if realizing he wouldn't be getting an agreement any time soon, Robin spun around on the lab stool, all the while muttering petulantly, "You're supposed to be a team of Heroes but you sure don't act like it."

"We're not a team," responded the four of them automatically.

With a foot, Thor stopped the dizzying, spinning chair. The halt in momentum nearly flung the boy out of his seat if not for his deft hands grabbing onto the edge of the stool.

A short sigh punctuated the pause. "No one here is officially a part of this Avengers Initiative that Fury has going," explained Rogers, placating.

"Then why are all of you on this helicarrier if you didn't want to be here in the first place?" asked the Boy Wonder plainly.

Eyes automatically drew to Loki's sceptre that was just out of their reach. "…It's…ah not that simple," explained Banner awkwardly as he tried to tackle the question.

"Then do some simplification, Dr. Banner." He swung his legs out and sneered pompously, "Adults."

"Yeah, yeah, you little monster," grumbled Stark.

"Your world must be simple," commented Thor.

Unsure if that was an insult, Dick explained, "My world isn't simple. It's not simple at all but I have a direction. I know what I'm doing. You guys are just plain lost."

"You're what? In grade school? You probably don't even have girl problems yet." Stark retorted, "Kid, even if your world isn't simple, your life is compared to ours."

Robin held his tongue. If they only knew.

"Even if it was simplistic, it's not now. I'm stuck here, in another dimension or something, with you 'adults' who're arguing worse than my friends." The 'lost little boy' opened his hands, palms up, and said plainly in a small voice, "And you guys are terrible with kids, you know that right? You haven't once told me that things would be okay."

There was a moment where the men shifted uncomfortably at the feelings before Dr. Banner gently broke him the news, "If you're looking for sympathy, S.H.I.E.L.D. is the wrong place to try and find it."

Four realizations.

A curt, commanding voice sliced through their conversation. "What is going on?" Director Fury stalked into the lab with two armed agents, both immediately taking aim at Grayson. "And you."

"Uhmm…" Eyes widening, the boy raised both hands up, yielding. "Please don't shoot?"

"Drop the innocent act, Mr. Grayson. I suggest you come with me peacefully. Your deception was blown once you left that interrogation room but I'm sure you realize that."

The four 'heroes' still in the room glanced at each other. Whether willingly or not, knowingly or not, the fires were lit.

"What are you doing?" The imposing Asgardian folded his arms, facing the gun-toting agents more daringly. "He is but a child!"

"I can't believe…Whelp. Gotta agree with him there. Don't you think you're being a bit unfair here?" Stark pointed at the guns aimed at the kid's head as he placed himself a calculated half step out of the line of fire. "Sure, he might be a bit bratty but I don't think shooting him into a mimic of Swiss cheese will help."

Banner shirked, moving back a few paces, tense, as he glanced from Thor to Stark. "That's really not a good idea."

"You should listen to Dr. Banner," stated the Director coolly. "Thor. Iron Man. Stand down."

Stark twirled a finger in the air. "Oh we're dropping identities too!"

"The dropping of identities?" The blond demigod tilted his head to the side, baffled.

"It means just that, big guy. Don't hurt yourself thinking too hard on it," snarked Stark condescendingly as Thor glowered at him disapprovingly. "But really, Fury, a room full of adults and you go after the kid?"

The nerve just above his left eye patch twitched. "Don't defend what you don't understand. The cards are in my hands right now, Stark."

Three step forward.

Thor rumbled, "Perhaps an explanation first, then."

"I have to agree with Stark and Thor on this one, Director." Rogers stepped in front of Grayson too, hiding him from the view of the gun barrels. "Weapons won't solve this."

"You know, just like how making weapons out of the Tesseract won't help either," jabbed Stark.

Heroes. The Director chided critically, "You three do realize you're protecting someone who disabled two able-bodied, fully trained, armed and experienced S.H.I.E.L.D. agents."

"Then that only means you have need to employ better, would you not agree young Grayson?" Thor turned to look at Dick only to find him…

Gone.

A pin would have dropped noticed by the sudden hush that fell over the room's occupants.

Two step back.

"…Where did he go?" asked Banner, breaking the awkward pause as all eyes scanned the immediate perimeter of the room.

Captain America bent down and peeked under the lab benches.

"I'm telling you. Fury's breeding master assassins. This is indisputable proof," grumbled Stark as he took quick steps and reached the computer console, opening the security footage for the lab.

Uncrossing his arms, Thor murmured, "I did not see him leave."

"That boy…" Fury motioned the agents that were with him, expression livid. "Find him. Now."

"He's right here," interrupted Black Widow coolly, the real 'Master Assassin', while she frogmarched Grayson back into the laboratory. She nodded at Fury. "Found him one hallway down."

"How did you get all the way out there, Dick?" asked Dr. Banner, bewildered, as the boy laughed nervously.

Romanoff's eyes languidly drifted from the Director to the civilian Hulk and stated plainly, "There are doors, Dr. Banner."

One to start it all.

With a nod, Black Widow released her captive but the agents that were at Fury's side like bodyguards clamped down onto the boy's shoulders in a vice grip, holding him in place.

"Hey-!"

Fury ignored his protest. "I'm sure he's told you how he was transported by the Tesseract into our world. What he conveniently didn't tell you was how his ally killed ten people. That is why he needs to be put under surveillance."

Eyebrows knitting together when there was a lack of horrified facial expressions thrown his way – in fact, they were looking rather grim at the news – Dick yelled out indignantly, "Way to not doubt the defenceless fourteen-year-old! I'm telling you, Mr. Fury, I was kidnapped by that wannabe supervillain! I'm not his ally."

"Then why would this 'wannabe supervillain' want to kidnap a 'defenceless fourteen-year-old' - as you so eloquently put it," interrogated Fury, voice dripping of impatience.

Dick smirked in a 'I totally hacked your surveillance tapes' way. "I'm the ward of a genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist."

"Great. Where have we heard that before?" asked Steve rhetorically.

Dr. Banner looked past the drama and commented at Stark, "Didn't know you adopted a kid."

Retorting without missing a beat, Iron Man sniped back, "It's called secrecy. Completely kosher and what everyone wouldn't expect from me. Or you know, you should think about getting my tell-all autobiography. To be published in the year twenty-fifteen-"

"Enough!" Fury rounded on Grayson, calculating as the pieces fell into place. "Then if you are indeed a billionaire's ward, what was the purpose of your enemy to kidnap you and bring you here?"

"I wish I knew."

The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. repeated the words back at him, the ones Dick had checked earlier. "What is this 'Justice League'?"

"I would think that'd be self-explanatory, Director."

"Mr. Stark," warned Fury.

Dick answered calmly, "They're a team of heroes that protect my world. Like the Avengers Initiative except everyone gets along a lot better. Or at least they sound like they do on interviews."

"Low-blow."

"Stark."

Black Widow stared him down just as he jabbed a thumb at Banner. "It was him. He told me to say it."

Ignoring the distraction, Fury continued, "What about 'Pentachoron'?"

Grayson shook his head. "I-"

Fury nodded curtly at the agents before prodding the boy, "Answer me."

The agents that had clamped their hands on his shoulder suddenly tightened their grip to the point where their knuckles turned white. The boy in their clutches squirmed uncomfortably under the sudden pressure on his joints.

"Stop!" Captain America started, outraged, "You're hurting him."

Turning to Fury and receiving the signal, they relaxed their hold once more. Dick sent Steve a grateful look as he rolled his shoulders.

"Well, Mr. Grayson?"

Hesitating, he finally answered, "It's…a device. I'm not sure. But the villain stole this from my guardian when he snatched me too." Dick further elaborated, concentrating on his memories, "I heard from the scientists that it emits a…frequency?"

"Why didn't you present this information in the first place?"

With an exasperated sigh, the boy quirked a smile, "No offense, Mr. Fury, but you guys didn't seem very trustworthy; you still don't."

"Fair enough." Fury pressed on, "And why 'Tesseract'? Where did you hear this word?"

"Aside from the fact that when you guys found me that word was repeated by practically everyone? Well, the guy who kidnapped me mentioned that word too so it was practically my only link."

"Link."

Black Widow interrupted them, expression unreadable, "You want to join the Avengers Initiative."

Fury considered her words just as Steve confirmed his suspicions with an exclamation, "How did you know-?"

"She's good at interrogation," explained Banner.

Natasha continued her train of thought as if she wasn't disrupted, "You want to join the Avengers Initiative for the chance to-"

Zero time for reversal.

Robin should have known that it would take a sudden, violent explosion rocking the entire ship – coupled with a loss of altitude – to stop the pointless interrogation and help them regain their focus.

Hope it's not too little, too late.

"What is happening?" barked out Fury into the comlink in his ear.

Listening intently to the voices on the other end, Black Widow frowned deeply, "Hostiles on-board." She then added belatedly the results to her investigation into Loki's willing presence on the ship, "Director, Loki wants the Hulk."

All eyes shifted to Dr. Banner as he tried to breathe through the sudden stress and rage that near overwhelmed him at the initial explosion.

As the ship shuddered again, everyone seemed to snap to attention.

"The engine-" started Black Widow.

Stark turned away and made a move to the door. "I'm getting my suit."

"I'm following."

As Iron Man and Captain America dashed off, Fury, with death looming over his shoulders in the form of a fighter jet plane about to launch a missile into the lab, grabbed Dick's elbow forcefully and dragged him away. The agents released the safety from their guns as they ran ahead to cover their boss.

Fury's voice brooked no argument when he all but commanded, "You're coming with me, Mr. Grayson."

A/N: The 'chatty' bit was a wink at Batman: Under the Red Hood.