Ghost of Arctic

Chapter 1 – Agent Wolzard

~X~ February 2006 ~X~

Late night rides with nothing but road ahead and forest on the side were the best; even when the heavy rain made driving a bit more difficult and slower than usual. Radio was on, songs were good, he was cracking jokes with the two guys that were assigned this delivery with him. He had no idea what any of this was about, it just paid more than his job, much, much more. So he never asked any questions. From his experience neither did the other people he did these deliveries with. Once the delivery was done he'd get his money, go back home and enjoy with his family until the next delivery.

Another mile and they'd reach the small safe house, a cabin really and be done with the job. Nothing could go wrong at this point.

All in all, life was amazing.

Lightning struck near the road, startling the man. For a moment he lost control of the car, swerving to the right and driving off the road. One of the men with him yelled at him, trying to get to the steering wheel. But it was too late. The rain made the ground too slippery, between mud and puddles there was nothing he could do to regain control over the car.

Maybe he should have put more effort into becoming a better driver, or so he thought as the car headed for the trees. His life flashed in front of his eyes, his children, his wife, his parents, it wasn't the best life and he had plenty of things he regretted, but it was too late now. There was a sound of glass shattering right before the car's abrupt stop activated the airbags and he gasped, realizing he was still alive, unharmed. Luckily, the other two men were also fine from what a quick glance in their direction told him.

Frantically he checked the package and saw one of his colleagues was holding it. He didn't spot any damage. The sigh of relief slipped past his lips as he took in what little surrounding he could still recognize. It was strange, it didn't look like the car hit anything, but he definitely heard glass shattering. Looking at the rear mirror his eyes widened in horror. There was a hand sized hole in the glass and underneath it he could clearly see that the metal was bent as if someone yanked the car back with enough force to stop it. Surely that couldn't be the case. The near death experience was probably making him see things that weren't really there. They scrambled out of the car and there was no one to be seen, they were alone. So why did it feel like someone was watching them.

"Hey, let's get back on the," and then there was a deafening silence. A flash of lightning revealed a body lying on the ground and from that moment everything turned to chaos.

He picked up the package, knowing the consequences of losing it would be dire and ran. The car was useless, someone just possibly killed one of them and he didn't see or hear anything and if that someone also stopped the car it wouldn't matter even if he could start it in time.

He barely got past a couple of trees when another thud clued him in that he was the only one who remained. He frantically looked around, alone, in the near absolute darkness soaked from the rain and desperately clutching the package. There were no signs of anyone or anything being there with him, but he knew something was near, the other two, no longer with him, proved it. That eerie feeling of being watched proved it. But nothing else did. It was as if he was up against a ghost.

Light tap to the back of his neck ended the night for him and the ghost took the package.

What the man didn't know at the time was that the goal he was aiming for mere minutes away had already been taken away from him. The ones waiting to receive the package were, by the time he was attacked, already held in captivity.

~X~

Complete refusal to work as part of any team, regardless of who made up that team, regardless of how much risk that could bring to anyone. That's how Maria Hill would describe her current teammate. At least he could follow orders, but the moment those orders involved another agent working with him he would just go and do it alone.

It got to a point where most agents tasked with leading teams no longer even bothered giving Perun Wolzard orders or tasks that involved cooperating with someone. That's why she sent him to intercept the delivery instead of participating in a coordinated search of the cabin and its surrounding.

The information Romanoff gave them was turning out to be vital, as the cabin they, meaning her, Rumlow and half a dozen other agents, were searching proved to be a goldmine of evidence. So far they found weapons, drugs, as well an encrypted data that would be sent to their experts immediately. Still, from the looks of it this wasn't the key hideout of Umber organization. This wasn't where the drugs designed for temporarily giving someone kishin abilities, or the ones meant to enhance those that already were kishin, were being produced, but it was very likely this was where they were being distributed from.

That made the abysmally low number of guards baffling. What made even less sense was the lack of a kishin among those guards. Kishin were, in essence, humans capable of harnessing their souls, thumos as they officially called that energy, manifesting them as different abilities, fire, flight, enhanced strength. In some ways they were similar to mutants, but their bodies remained human, after all, they were made into kishin, and as far as she was aware of weren't born as such. Furthermore, since it wasn't natural, using thumos was taxing on the body and she herself was a witness to kishin agents unable to continue fighting even as early as their early twenties, only a few years into active fighting and using thumos.

There was an unwritten rule about kishin. Never fight them alone and never fight them without knowing their thumos ability, unless you had a kishin on your side.

Which was why Wolzard, being a kishin himself, was sent with them. The most striking features Wolzard had were short white hair and a pale blue eyepatch covering his right eye. Aside from that he didn't look that different from regular people. Muscular and tall for sure, especially given that he just recently turned eighteen, but not to a point of those being his defining features. He was a kishin, but for all the time Maria knew him she never saw him actually fighting like a kishin. Coulson, director Fury and Smith knew what his ability was, but the rest of the agents, kishin or human, never got to see him use them. She guessed he was being cautious.

A chill ran down her spine as she glanced outside the window, it was dark and it didn't look like the rain would stop anytime soon. Something seemed wrong though, as the rain somehow didn't hit all of the window, as if it was being blocked by something. The area protected from the rain grew bigger and her eyes widened.

"Take cover!" she yelled as the window became foggy, as if someone just exhaled close to it. Rain hit the window again just as Maria raised her gun to shoot, and then the window next to the one she aimed at shattered as the bullets rained upon them.

Her warning gave them precious moments to take cover, but there wasn't enough time, or proper cover in the cabin to fully avoid the rain of bullets. Maria heard the sound of reloading, but the shooting didn't continue. She guessed that was one advantage of going up against kishin, seeing as most kishin they faced assumed there would be at least one kishin on their team.

"Wolzard there's a kishin here!" Rumlow spoke through the coms as the two of them fired back at the windows from behind the covers, hoping they would get lucky and shoot the kishin. "Jackson and Collins got shot, cover them!" he quickly ordered as the two of them kept shooting to try and prevent the invisible kishin from shooting more of them.

"Agent Wolzard do you copy?" she tried through the coms. The worst case scenario would be if Wolzard was already taken out. That wasn't likely, as the invisible kishin remained cautious, likely waiting for an attack that didn't involve guns.

"I copy, I copy, almost there," finally came the response. "Where's the kishin?"

Despite heavy rain Maria heard them running through the mud. "They are invisible, but they are still outside, they just ran off somewhere," Maria was ready to shoot at any sign, at anything that would even imply someone was approaching.

"Got it, take care of Jackson and Collins," Wolzard replied. The promise that he'd handle the kishin but that they should still remain on guard remained unspoken.

~X~

The times like these were the reason why Perun sometimes wished he was a sensor type kishin. They didn't find a kishin at or around the cabin, so they assumed they'd be protecting the delivery. Turns out they were just invisible, and now, because he went to intercept the delivery two agents were wounded.

He could see the lights coming from the cabin, he could see the broken windows, but he couldn't see the enemy. For once he was the one being cautious, the puddles, the mud, all this rain, it made the situation even less favorable. "Well, might as well," he calmly walked over to a large clearing, he had no covers, only a gun in his hand.

"Wolzard, the kishin approached the window first, they gave us a chance to notice them," Hill's voice came through the coms.

"That's not cocky at all," he smirked a bit, not sure if the kishin he was up against simply had an ego or was actually powerful enough to not care about whether or not someone noticed them. Either way, this required a subtler approach and a bit of lightning to turn things in his favor.

Soon enough, he recognized that eerie feeling of being watched, his eye, long since adjusted to darkness focused on the ground as he crouched. Dragging his fingers through the mud he picked up a handful of pebbles and with his left eye closed rolled them within his palm. The pebbles collided with each other as Perun began standing up with his eye still closed. As he was halfway up he heard a gunshot from his right and jerked backwards, barely dodging the bullet that was aimed at where his head would have been had he been just a bit slower. 'Left or right handed?' he couldn't tell, but he threw all but one pebble in the direction the gunshot came from, only to have them all miss.

He wasn't a sensor, but he could feel electricity, he could feel his lightning, and those pebbles, well, they had a bit of electricity within them. With a smirk he opened his eye revealing cobalt blue iris. A single cobalt spark crackled as he snapped the pebble that was still in his hand in two, triggering the other pebbles to burst and release electricity within them. And there was his enemy, invisible to naked eye but visible to him due to the tiniest traces of his lightning within the air touching them. "Nowhere to run now," he dashed straight at his enemy, dodging the bullets with ease and stopping right in front of the invisible kishin. He heard a faint gasp as he pulled his fist back and slammed it into the kishin's guts.

The enemy stumbled back, not even having time to recover as Perun continued his attack. The drops of rain hitting their bodies gave him the outline of the invisible kishin, thus letting him disarm the kishin. With the gun no longer in the invisible kishin's hand it became visible and as it fell to the ground Perun pulled the arm holding the invisible kishin back with intention of crashing his fist into the kishin's head.

The outline of the kishin provided by the rain willingly slumped forward, avoiding Perun's fist and colliding with his body instead. The sudden impact nearly knocked Perun off his feet, but it was enough of a surprise to make him let go of the kishin.

'Tch, do I always have to let go?' annoyance made his blood boil as he clenched the fist that was previously holding the kishin. He dropped to the ground to dodge two bullets and swept his leg right above the ground. The outline gave away the invisible kishin's jump and Perun raised his gun for the first time in the fight. The sound of a gunshot echoed as two bullets pierced the invisible kishin, one through the left shoulder the other grazing their side.

Invisibility vanished, but even if it remained the screams of pain would have been enough to know where the kishin was. The clothes, barely fit for slightly colder weather but flexible to move in, were, as Perun assumed, completely soaked and the man writhed on the ground, suffering from pain that wasn't caused just by his battle with Perun.

"Where's Umber?" Perun, though, didn't care. His task was to stop Umber, to capture him alive and bring him in. Taking into consideration the pain the kishin in front of him was in wasn't part of the task.

The kishin glared at him, his eyes an extremely light shade of gray as he tried to turn invisible again. His body sort of flickered for a moment, disappeared for a few seconds at a time but always became visible as the kishin screamed in pain.

Perun groaned as he ran his fingers through his wet hair. And the rain just kept falling and falling, there was no end to it. "You only have a few minor wounds and your thumos is reaching its limit, it shouldn't be hard to answer, so come on, tell me where Umber is," he demanded, his patience long gone.

"Help me and I'll tell you," the kishin gritted out.

Perun raised an eyebrow at that, for a moment thinking that he misheard the kishin. "I can't help you," Really? This guy actually had the guts to try and, well negotiate wasn't exactly the best word, but then again neither was blackmail, so Perun honestly wasn't sure what exactly the kishin was trying to accomplish. "I can make it worse though, so you might as well just tell me."

And the kishin was back to glaring. "Trust me, nothing is worse than those drugs."

Perun crouched down to get on the kishin's eye level. "Tell me where he is before more people end up dead."

Though it sounded pained the kishin laughed. "No one saved me, I sure as hell ain't saving anyone," his eyes said it all, he wouldn't say a word.

Perun nodded and momentarily knocked the kishin out with a chop to the neck.

"You know that's not how quick interrogations are supposed to be. You need to try harder Wolzard," Rumlow said as he and Hill approached.

Perun shrugged. "Feel free to give it a shot. When he wakes up that is," he turned to Hill and pulled out a package he retrieved from the men he intercepted before. "I'll go back to the jet to see if I can figure out how much can be taken before it kills someone," at least it would keep him occupied for an hour or two. "How are Jackson and Collins?"

Hill looked down and Perun almost didn't need to hear her response. The only thing he didn't, couldn't, know was which one of the two got killed. "Collins died, bullets ripped through his lungs, there was nothing we could do. Jackson might survive, but her chances are low."

One dead and the other likely to die. Perun nodded, but remained silent as he made his way to the jet. Death was a part of their job, that was all there was to it.

~X~

With the mission completed and Rumlow piloting the quinjet all that was left to do before Maria would call Coulson to give her report was wait for Wolzard to complete the analysis of the drugs. Given the seriousness on his face as he put the drugs and vials away he was done.

The drugs were named thumos pill, for the ones that would temporarily give a human powers of a kishin and the others, rather creatively named, enhancer pills, would increase kishin's powers.

"He's gone too far. I'd say chances of dying from just one thumos pill would be around 75%," he slumped back into his seat and motioned at the enhancer pills. "Those aren't much better. Degradation of soul remains accelerated even after the effects are gone."

"Look, Wolzard, I don't doubt your expertise on the matter, but what's the point in that?" Rumlow raised a valid question. "Umber will be more likely to lose than gain power if the pills are that dangerous."

"I know," it was the first time Maria saw Wolzard genuinely frustrated. Annoyed, sure, but frustrated? Never before.

"Umber was always more focused on building a powerful mercenary army, not on this research and development of kishin related drugs," Maria pointed out. "He also, despite everything else he stands for, inspired loyalty in his followers," and now, with those drugs, there was a chance he'd start losing that loyalty. It wasn't worth it if one in four humans he gave thumos pill died after taking it.

"It's just a theory, but I think he might be searching for born kishin," that was an entirely new concept for her.

"Isn't that a myth?" Rumlow asked, switching the quinjet to autopilot and fully turning his attention to the conversation.

Wolzard shook his head. "The first requirement to become a kishin is to have the potential to materialize and use their soul. Coulson, for example, has that potential as various thumos arms somewhat reacted to him," thumos arms were objects, usually weapons, that remained after a kishin died and they were essential in new kishin being made. "Then the soul of a human and a thumos arm resonate with one another, all that stuff, and a human becomes a kishin, that's not the point though. The point is, who were the first kishin?"

"Humans that were born as kishin, that's what you want to say, right?" Maria could understand his logic, and it made sense, but it was, in the end, just a theory.

"The issue is that we don't know when, where, or how a first kishin appeared. The material thumos arms are made of isn't found in anything else on Earth. Your idea is that kishin are still being born? It's as valid as the theory that thumos arms came from space," Rumlow argued against the idea so vehemently Maria found herself turning to him. He was nervous, even if he was trying to hide it. He was shaken by Wolzard's idea.

She understood why. Kishin were volatile when they first start using thumos, the idea of someone being born with those abilities would have been known at least to them simply due to accidents that would be bound to happen if a baby was a kishin.

"Easy there, it's just something that came to my mind," as nervous as Rumlow appeared something stood out even more to Maria. Wolzard was holding something back.

~X~

Nick Fury wasn't easily impressed, but even he had to admit that Natalia Romanova, the Black Widow, was one of the best spies and assassins he had ever seen if not the very best one. Identifying her took months and getting an opportunity to send Barton after her took even longer. Black Widow, at first, seemed as more of a myth rather than an actual assassin, but there she was, in front of him with Barton by her side and Coulson in the back.

He believed Barton would successfully eliminate her, but he came back with something even better, Red Room destroyed and Natalia Romanova, who recently started going by the name Natasha Romanoff, that was willing to join them. Her skills were already enough, but the information she provided proved to be just as valuable.

"I see, good job. Return to HQ," Coulson ended the conversation with Hill and looked at him with a rather serious expression on his face. "Romanoff's information was correct, Agent Hill, along with another eight agents captured six people and a kishin capable of turning invisible. Agent Collins died, agent Jackson is still alive but is critically injured."

The report was music to Fury's ears up until hearing about the two agents. "Leave interrogation of the kishin to agent Smith. Agent Barton, I want you to form a team that will take down Umber's organization, Agent Coulson, I want you and Agent May to locate Umber. We are putting an end to his organization," as he said that agent Karen Smith, a tall woman with piercing eyes and graying hair came in.

"Director, Phil, Hawkeye, Widow," she nodded to greet them. "Here's Ghosty's preliminary report on the pills, in short we need to put an end to this quickly."

"We will," Fury firmly assured. "And Agent Wolzard sent you that?"

Smith rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Well, Agent Rumlow did."

That made more sense.

Barton exchanged a look with Romanoff and she nodded. "We need a small team, Agents Romanoff and Smith, myself and another kishin Agent Smith recommends should be enough," he stated.

"Ghosty, there's no one better for this than him," Smith immediately decided.

Barton rolled his eyes at that. "Smith, he's a kid," it was an often repeated complaint Barton had when he heard about Wolzard going on any mission.

Coulson stepped forward. "I'd normally be fine with Perun going but the relation between you two leaves a lot to be desired, especially for a mission as delicate as this one and on a team as small as the one Clint wants to form."

Smith huffed andplaced her hands on her hips. "So what? He can fight, I can fight, that's all that matters. Besides, Umber is an experienced fighter, most of our kishin agents haven't even seen a fight against a kishin and most of those that did fight another kishin, myself included, are already showing signs of body deterioration. In a few years Ghosty will, unfortunately, be our best kishin agent, he needs this experience."

It did cross Fury's mind that this particular team lacked both synergy and willingness to work together, at least on paper. Well, Barton's judgment was correct when it came to the size of the team, and the team would have competent agents that could put personal relationships aside and get the job done. In addition to that he could see the benefits of exposing Wolzard to potentially more taxing battles. "We'll go with this team. Agent Barton is the leader, as for agent Wolzard, I'll leave informing him of the mission to you, agent Coulson."

~X~ A week later ~X~

News of working with Karen of all agents was about as annoying as it could get. "Of all the people here…" he took a deep breath as he raised his head and looked at the sky. He exhaled loudly and made his way to the quinjet that would take them to Umber's base. Well, more specifically it would take them to where Coulson and May were and from there they would go after Umber. From the looks of it Karen was the only one that was yet to arrive. He didn't particularly trust Barton, and he definitely didn't trust Romanoff but he was fine with working with them. Karen on the other hand… Wiping the sour look off his face he approached the two.

Clint Barton was one of the best agents he met, maybe even the best agent he ever met. Amazing with bow and arrow, as ridiculous as that fighting style sounded without any special ability, with plenty of different arrows that served multiple purposes. That being said it didn't surprise Perun when he heard Barton mentioned his age, again.

Natasha Romanoff was one hell of a mystery though and he didn't feel like solving that mystery. She was skilled, strong, that was all he needed to know.

He raised his hand to greet them. "Morning, Agent Barton. Agent Romanoff?" he wasn't sure whether to offer his hand since this was the first time he was seeing her. Hell, it would be a bit embarrassing if the agent in front of him wasn't Natasha Romanoff. And there were other agents around them, some getting ready for their own missions, some just getting back and some just finishing preparations for other agents to safely leave the HQ so there was at least a slight chance he got her identity wrong.

"Agent Wolzard," she nodded, apparently avoiding physical contact as much as Perun was. The confused look in his eye at the fact that she knew who he was caused a tiny hint of a smirk to appear on her face, but other than that she said nothing, she just kept looking him in the eye

Barton sighed, coming to his rescue. "She read all your files kid, don't think too hard about it. Natasha, please stop making him nervous."

The hint of the smirk widened just a fraction when Perun openly frowned.

That wasn't what annoyed Perun. Barton's words did. "I'm neither a kid or nervous," he grumbled as he glanced to the side, finally breaking the eye contact he had with Romanoff.

"Whatever makes you feel better, kid," the emphasis she put on 'kid' the slight Russian accent, the way she just said it, all of that, as well as her complete loss of interest in him told him one thing. He completely lost the fight he had no idea he was even participating in.

"Hello everyone!" and she just had to make it worse.

Perun abruptly turned around and focused solely on the kishin that got him into this in the first place. He was thankful to be here, he wanted to stop Umber, figure out what was going on, preferably prevent any more lives from being lost, but Karen being there as well… That alone made him question whether all of those positives were worth it. "Did it cross your mind just how incompatible this team is?"

"Well hello to you to Ghosty," that cheery tone, the grin on her face, the excitement she was either so obviously faking or was simply overwhelmed by it, well, it annoyed him.

"I have a, ah forget it, let's just get going," what was even the point of telling her he had a name, she just kept calling him Ghosty. He marched into the aircraft and sat down. Barton and Karen would pilot it, so at least he wouldn't have to sit next to her.

Barton shrugged at the scene that unfolded in front of him and Romanoff. "Don't mind them, they got off on the wrong foot."

"More like on the wrong mile!" Perun corrected from within the aircraft.

Karen dared to laugh at that. "Very funny Ghosty! Well, Arctic and I had a similar start, so it's fine," she flipped a switch and her smile vanished completely implying she knew it the moment she said it.

In a moment he was in front of her, his left eye turning cobalt blue. "Never call her by that name again," his tone was low, words filled with unspoken threat that would be anything but empty.

"Right, sorry about that," the apology wasn't sincere, he knew it, she knew it, but it was more important to get the job done than to force Fury to get a new head of kishin division.

Just what were they thinking? Romanoff didn't trust anyone but Barton, Barton didn't like Karen's decisions when it came to younger agents, Perun being one of those agents, and he had a habit of trying to act like a parent from time to time. Karen, despite the praises she had for his abilities, didn't exactly like Perun and the feeling was mutual. Perun trusted her even less than he trusted Romanoff. All in all, it was a team where the only bond of trust that existed was, ironically, between two agents who not even two months ago tried to kill each other in Budapest.

Just great. What could possibly go wrong?