The day was unlike any other she had seen. The sun was dim, and the air felt dead to her. Then, there was the constant buzzing in her ears that would not go away no matter how hard she tried.
It felt as if she was having trouble seeing and breathing as she normally would. The reason behind her half-dead state was her father.
She was in Atlanta working on astronomical data and observatories as part of her research when she got a call from Virginia about her father's accident. There were not many details, but the accident happened in one of Culver's labs.
Supposedly, a leakage of poisonous gas or something affected those present at the university. That was a load of BS, and she knew that because there were far too many affected.
Culver had many safeguards to weather such gas spills. She phoned many of her friends and learned the entire Culver staff was affected by the event. It did not take her too long to conclude that this was radiation rather than a gas spill.
Everyone within a 50-mile radius of Culver had been evacuated as a precaution by the military.
Her father, along with other inhabitants of Culver present during the spill, was moved to a military hospital. So far, she was denied access to visit her father by the military. It also didn't help that she had no clue where her father was admitted. Beyond 'a military hospital,' she didn't know the exact name or location of this hospital.
She had contacted many of her father's friends, but none of them yielded any tangible results.
A knock on her door made her look up from the family picture she held in her hands
She placed the picture back on her desk before she opened the door. She saw a familiar dishevelled old man who looked apologetic and out of breath.
"Jane, I am so sorry. I was presenting a paper in New York when I heard what happened."
It was Erik Selvig, an old friend of her father.
"No, it's okay. Please come in, Erik." she invited her father's friend in.
"Have you heard anything from Jacob?" asked Erik as he took a seat on a sofa.
"I was hoping you could have contacted him. I don't know anything, and the military sort of took over and just says National Security in every bloody sentence." she said with frustration and a defeated look on her face.
"I have been trying a few of my colleagues, but they are either ignorant or someone is forcing them to remain silent." said Erik, which made Jane worry more.
If Erik couldn't find out what was going on with all his contacts, Jane would have no option but to stay ignorant about her father's whereabouts. She fell into a sofa, losing all hope while Erik tried to comfort her.
"Don't worry, Jane. I have contacted some other people with better contacts in the government. They will turn up with something…" Erik trailed off as a knock on the door distracted them.
"Excuse me…" said Jane as she went to open the door.
To her surprise, it was Cerion whom she hugged readily. "I didn't know you'd come."
"Of course, I would." said Cerion as he stepped into her apartment.
"Uh…Jane?" Erik tentatively stood up, eyeing the newcomer warily.
"Oh…Erik, this is Cerion Vex. Cerion, this is Erik Selvig, a close friend of my father's." Jane introduced the two men.
"Hi." Cerion shook hands with Erik Selvig
"Vex? I've heard of that name somewhere?" said Erik as he shook hands with Cerion.
"Probably from my company Vex Corp. You may have heard of our Aegis software. We are also entering the manufacturing sector next month with a product launching a few weeks from now. Perhaps you are familiar with YouStream."
Erik was taken aback by the rapid fire from Cerion, so he just nodded to all of the above positively, even though he barely understood all that was said.
"So, are you ready to meet your father?" asked Cerion, turning on Jane.
"I don't know where he is. No one knows, and those who know something refuse to say anything." said Jane.
"I looked up what went wrong with your father. I called in a favour with a friend. A car is waiting outside, and if you want, we can go now."
"How?" Erik asked in surprise.
He had been trying to get some information from the moment he learned of the incident.
"My friend is influential." Cerion said, not divulging more details, "So, want to tag along?"
"Sure," Erik answered, not knowing what else to say given the rapid progression of events.
Besides, in the present situation, the details were not that important. The important thing was to see whether his friend was alright.
The three of them were escorted to a private airport in a black sedan by men in suits.
"Did Coulson assign you this task?" asked Cerion as he greeted Maria Hill near their transport.
"Just get in the plane." said Agen Hill before she eyed Erik Selvig, who stood out like a sore thumb. "Who's the tag along?"
"This is Dr Erik Selvig. He is my father's friend." Jane introduced, but Agent Hill was not so interested.
"Only two passengers were allowed." said Agent Hill sharply.
"Oh, come on. The good doctor is Mr Foster's friend."
Agent Hill offered a frosty look to Cerion. "No. Only two passengers as previously agreed."
"It's okay, Jane, Mr Vex." Erik said as he was escorted away from the jet.
"Please step in." said Agent Hill, waving them into the jet.
A few minutes later, Jane and Cerion were up in the air.
Jane eyed the raven-haired SHIELD agent who had strapped in beside her seat and then Cerion, who was sitting opposite her reading a magazine. She knew the Agent beside her was Cerion's contact/handler. She had seen the women once from afar during the Christmas break.
"Hi, I'm Jane. Jane Foster." she introduced herself as she offered her hand to the female agent.
"Maria Hill." the agent reciprocated neutrally while shaking her hand.
"So… you know he's, you know…" Jane subtly pointed at Cerion with her head.
"Yes." Agent Hill nodded.
"Oh, good! If you know that, then you should know what's happening with my father, right?" Jane asked hopefully.
"Your father is kept in a classified military base. All I know is I'm to escort you both to the base."
"Don't bother with Maria. She is a stickler with rules." commented Cerion.
"Double so when I'm with an alien." added Agent Hill.
"Touché.," said Cerion as he flickered his eyes in her direction before returning to reading the magazine.
"Can you say anything about my father's condition?" asked Jane feeling restless.
"Your father is safe. He is having the best medical care in the world." assured Agent Hill calmly.
"We'll see soon enough. In the meantime, you ladies care to listen to some music?" asked Cerion out of the blue.
Jane watched with furrowed brows as Cerion fished out a small device the size of a three-pin plug. Then Cerion offered her and Agent Hill two pairs of small plugs connected with a wire with rubber buds at the tips.
"These are earplugs. Just press the switch on the side and plug it in your ears like this." said Cerion as he demonstrated by fitting the earplugs into his ear.
Jane hesitantly copied Cerion, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Agent Hill doing the same thing. As she pressed the button, the earplug let out a beeping sound in her ear, followed by a feminine voice.
"Your headphones are activated and synced."
Now, that was a surprise. Then she watched Cerion pressed a blue button on the device in his hand.
"Bluetooth connection engaged. Device paired."
The feminine voice returned.
Cerion once again did something which caused the feminine voice to speak up once more.
"Multiple pairings engaged."
Cerion pressed the play button prominently displayed on the device, and the music started to play in Jane's ears. The sound was crystal clear, and the Rubberband Man's beats kicked off smoothly. She closed her eyes and sank back to her seat as the player cycled through different songs throughout the journey.
Somewhere around, she fell asleep, but she was shaken awake by the landing of the plane.
"Where are we?" asked Jane as she looked out of the glass window only to see a vast desert.
"Somewhere in New Mexico, I assume." said Cerion as he offered her the player.
"Isn't this yet to launch?" she asked confused.
"Keep it as an advanced birthday present," Cerion said as he offered her a bottle of water.
Taking the bottle of water from Cerion's hand, she greedily drank, surprising herself with how thirsty she was.
"Why? Going somewhere on my birthday?" she asked as she capped the bottle.
"Well… some things have come up, but that can wait," said Cerion, pointing to the plane's open door and an impatient Agent Hill standing by it.
As they climbed out of the plane, Jane noticed a slew of military vehicles arrayed on the runway. There were some armed soldiers as well, and her heart raced lightly in panic.
"Calm down, Jane. You are safe and trust me when I say your father is alright… or at least he will be alright." whispered Cerion which calmed her down somewhat.
"General Ross." Agent Hill nodded respectfully as she addressed an older man in military uniform.
One look at General Ross, Jane could tell the man oozed stubbornness. The hard look in his eyes and the rigid posture of the General keyed into the fact that the man was not at all happy to see the three of them.
"Agent Hill, I was promised that I'd get the best doctors to treat the patients," said General Ross gruffly. "Yet, I don't see any doctors."
"You were promised help in healing the patients under your care. Mr Vex is more than capable of accomplishing this if you give him access." said Agent Hill sharply.
Jane watched the female agent eying the General icily for a time until the General broke the staring contest. With that, some tension was lifted, but she kept her silence. She was not supposed to visit the base, but SHIELD had forged a fake ID to let her in.
"Son, do you think you can heal the patients?" asked General Ross, turning to Cerion.
"All I know is that my prospective patients are suffering from radiation poisoning. I need any data you have collected till now to give you an accurate answer." Cerion said calmly.
"I hope you know what you are doing. There are sixty-eight patients in there, including my daughter." said General Ross with a gruff look.
"Then let's not dally any longer. After you, General."
They were on their way to what Jane assumed was the hospital that housed her father and other inhabitants of Culver.
The three of them were sitting inside a military vehicle with escorts riding through the desert. She was looking over the patient files that General Ross handed over to Cerion inside the car.
"I was right. There was no poison gas spill. It is radiation poisoning. My fath…" she cut herself off as Agent Hill made a gesture to shut up as there were military personnel inside the vehicle.
"It is Gamma radiation. Symptoms include rapid hair loss, accelerating cellular damage, nausea, and vomiting. All of them are classic symptoms of ionizing radiation. The amount of radiation and the nature of progression rates shown in these reports suggest Gamma radiation," said Cerion after he flipped through the reports.
"Many patients are also suffering from organ failure, but some others are not. Why is that?" asked Agent Hill as she, too, flipped through copies of the same report.
"It varies. The concentration of radiation is perhaps in one part of the body. Perhaps some parts of the building shielded the people from getting the worst of it. But they will inevitably succumb to dangerous levels soon."
"Can you help them?" asked Jane, eyeing Cerion hopefully.
"I can." Cerion nodded, and that put Jane at ease.
By now, she knew some of Cerion's abilities, not to mention the technology her boyfriend possessed. Restoring ailing humans to peak conditions should be within her boyfriend's capacity, and she desperately hoped that was the case.
"I hope you do. We had to pull a lot of levers to arrange this meeting." whispered Agent Hill.
"And I appreciate the troubles SHIELD went through. Please convey my thanks to Agent Coulson and Director Fury." said Cerion.
Agent Hill just nodded, and the rest of the journey passed by in silence.
When they finally reached the military hospital, they were let through after a slew of searches on their possessions. Soon, they were led to an isolated chamber housing a single patient, and General Ross turned on them.
"So, here is your first patient. What's your method of treatment?" asked General Ross.
"Just sedate the patient and leave the rest to me," said Cerion, sitting in a chair outside the chamber with a briefcase on his lap.
Jane watched the doctors inside the chamber in protective suits administer a sedative to the patient. After which, they stepped out, and everyone was looking at Cerion expectantly. A nurse even offered Cerion a PPE kit, but Cerion declined the offer.
Instead, her boyfriend decided to open his briefcase, and four silver discs floated into the air with a distinctive hum.
She was not the only one startled to find what appeared to be four pieces of metal floating in the air, defying gravity on their own.
"What is this?" General Ross whispered, but all of them heard the general quite clearly.
"This is the peak of rapid health restoration technology, General. I call it Revivers. The way they function is by transmitting Vita rays targeting damaged cells and tissues, thereby helping itself heal." explained Cerion.
"So, it regenerates cells. How long will this take?" asked Agent Hill, and all of them could hear the wonder in her tone.
"In an average healthy human, anything between ten to fifteen minutes." said Cerion.
"That's impossible! That kind of metabolism is… is… is impossible!" said a military doctor in an incredulous tone.
"Just observe." said Cerion.
The discs flew into the room and began bombarding the patient with white and yellow rays of light all over his body.
Twenty minutes later, a preliminary blood test revealed zero levels of Gamma radiation in the patient. The results were so promising the General hurried the treatment of all the other sixty-seven patients. A few hours later, both General Ross and Jane could let out a sigh of relief as Ross's daughter and Jane's father recovered from the deadly grip of ionising radiation.
"I didn't know SHIELD could call in resources like these," said General Ross as he shook hands with Maria Hill. "You have my thanks for saving my daughter's life."
Before any of them could respond, the base shook, and a roar reverberated through the walls. A mild shockwave rattled the floor, followed by lights flickering. The roar came back, followed by sounds of weapons being fired.
"What's happening?" asked Agent Hill in panic.
Jane flinched and moved closer to Cerion as another roar rumbled, followed by screams of men and guns going off in rapid fire.
"Escort them out of the base now." ordered General Ross, and the soldiers rushed to obey.
Jane, Cerion, and Agent Hill were readily escorted out of the hospital despite their protests. Even the patients were being moved out of the hospital quickly. While the evacuation was happening, the base was being racked by tremors, screams, and loud roars of rage.
By some miracle, all sixty-eight patients were prepped and ready to be transported out of the base. With that part of the process going smoothly, the three of them were rushed towards a car to take them to the airstrip along with the patients.
But before they could get inside the vehicle, a metal door flew out with a bang, smashing away their ride.
Jane felt her heart literally stop as she watched a giant green-skinned monster step into the open. It was at this point the soldiers decided to do the stupidest thing. They opened fire on the green rage monster, and it responded with a roar and smashed a military vehicle into a flat metallic plate. The monster then swung the vehicle around at the group of soldiers firing their weapons. The soldiers died in a shower of blood and gore, while few managed to escape the attack.
But those who escaped had zero self-preservation because they eagerly discharged all their ammo on the green monster. The monster shrugged off the bullets with ease and clapped its hands together. It was as if a divine being had wielded a cosmic blade through the earth. The ground split like butter, and the soldiers were blasted away or blown into little pieces of bone and flesh.
It let out another terrifying roar that shook the ground before it jumped away. Each time the monster landed, the ground shook with a tremor, followed by a sound similar to a thunderclap.
"Well, you don't see that every day." said Cerion with total aloofness, standing in a corner with his hands in his pockets. "Anything else you got under these deserts that we should know about Agent Hill?"
It was at this point that Jane's legs gave out, and she sat down on the ground.
"Easy breaths, Jane. Easy breaths." Cerion patted her shoulder and rubbed her back.
"What the hell was that thing?" Agent Hill asked, looking in the general direction of the green monster with an open mouth.
The SHIELD agent was pale white as if she had seen a ghost.
"The Hulk, perhaps?" Cerion suggested, knowing full well the name would undoubtedly stick before he offered his help healing the injured soldiers on the ground.